#why not go for someone ultimately useless to the plot

[prettyboysmlm]

wait nO QUINCY-

[cinnabeat]

re:mind costs 30 fucking dollars............

[wisellamawerewolf]

Charlie is an indicator of greater problems with Hazbin's writing.

*rant under the cut, as always*

I've read a couple of posts detailing how Charlie really comes off as a terrible person because she enables people who do terrible things (Alastor, Lucifer) and is completely useless when it comes to providing support and protection for the people she's supposedly cares about (Vaggie, Angel Dust), and while they are absolutely correct in their observations, I feel like Charlie is an embodiment of a bigger issue: the series' identity crisis.

The series constantly flip-flops between being the raunchy adult comedy that is supposed to get into very serious topics, and being a wholesome Broadway-esque musical about how anyone can change for the better. And accordingly, Charlie is flip-flops between being either a nice innocent girl who has almost child-like view of the world and has to be protected from terrible reality of life in hell by others, or someone who's hyper aware of a genocide and a awful state of the hell. She's supposed to be a combination of those two things, or at least grew up as a character from the former to the latter, but instead she feels like two similar, but ultimately very different characters.

Let's take episodes 1 and 4 for example.

In episode one although Charlie is quite hopeful about things, she's aware how horrible the hell is and how genocide affects her people. At one point she even looked like she was about to try and kick the leader of angels' ass for implying all souls in hell deserved death.

She also tried and direct Adam to the important topic, albeit pretty softly, but still she made an impression that she could at least be somewhat assertive and hold her ground.

In episode four she behaved like a completely incompetent child.

She was afraid of coming off too "mean" (she didn't even have to be that to be assertive?), she acted childish through out the meeting with Valentino and messed up so bad she left the studio in tears.

Also she decided to write an apology letter to everyone INCLUDING Valentino??? Excuse me, but literally what the fuck. No wonder even Angel fucking Dust of all people felt like he should shield Charlie from the reality of his job- the same guy who pretty much only talks about sex 24/7.

There's a couple more examples of her character going through the same roller coaster, when she seems to be oblivious that Alastor says she's like a daughter to him only to get back at Lucifer, or when she's horrified by implications of Vaggie being an ex-exterminator, etc.

Why do these drastic changes are constantly happening? Simple: the plot demands so. Charlie is afraid of being mean when the plot needs her to step away from the Angel Dust's situation so writers could milk tHe dRaMa, but suddenly this fear disappears when she tells an old lady to shut the fuck up.

The same way how plot demands to have a Broadway style song that feels like it belongs in a cartoon for a school age children, right before the episode discussing sexual abuse, where violence is used as a source of jokes.

The show wants the conflict that could be resolved in a single episode to discuss a serious issue that realistically would take years to fix, be it the self-esteem and self worth issues or the redemption. This also creates a problem where the characters don't feel three dimensional, they feel like two different characters who are equally flat replacing each other when the story demands it.

Charlie is just a glaring example of the show's overarching writing flaws.

[writeforfandoms]

Waking Lions 6

Find the series masterlist

Not much Price in this chapter, sorry. But! This is an important set up chapter that will get us to more John. Also it’s plot relevant. I swear this story is going somewhere, and I even know where it’s going! 

Warnings: Swearing, spy shit, canon-typical villains

Word count: 1.2k

Jacob Keyes had a nice house in Montana on some property with a wife and two kids. Disgustingly American, really. 

Jacob Keyes also had information on the whereabouts of General Shepherd. Financial records showed deposits and transfers that didn’t link up with his normal pay. 

So you just had to decide how to get to him. Which was not your strong suit. You liked other people doing the legwork and you just… compiled it all. 

But sometimes, needs must.

So you flew out to Montana. You weren’t planning anything nefarious, or even really illegal. You just pretended to be someone’s cousin visiting from out of state, and sat in the local diner long enough to hear all the gossip. Most of it you filtered out, uncaring about who had been caught in someone else’s bed, and who hadn’t made it to church last Sunday, and did you hear about that child? Shameful, really. All of that, you filtered out, ignored, shoved down.

The gold was in the tidbits of information about the Keyes family. How they’d suddenly had more money, were able to make repairs to the house that had gone ignored for years. How the husband had a fancier car, but spent stretches of time away from home. And did you hear about that houseguest? He’d only stayed a few days, but really, the manners on him! Proper gentleman, he was. (This had been accompanied by no small amount of tittering, which you found irritating and useless.) 

But further digging into his finances (after you greased some wheels) was… confusing. 

There were two sets of deposits. 

This was beginning to feel above your paygrade. 

One of the two sets of deposits was traceable back to an associate of Shepherd, rather than the general himself. Which didn’t surprise you. But it was good evidence for Laswell, and you dutifully compiled it with the rest. 

But the other. The other was confusing. 

That trail led you on a bit of a goose chase. The initial transfer was from a dummy corporation, but that was a front for an off-shore account that was linked back to another dummy company that linked back to a Russian company. 

Because you were capable of running two investigations at once, you continued to track Keyes and investigate the Russian company. 

Keyes was boring. That was your ultimate decision on him. Boring, but also potentially valuable for Laswell. You dropped by her house to leave her the USB with the information you’d gathered (and a bouquet of flowers) before you continued on over to France. 

Why France? Why not France? The countryside was beautiful, the food was good, and as long as you avoided Paris it didn’t smell bad. 

Plus you got to buy some pretty things for Sergio’s girls. You had a feeling you’d be calling him up for information. 

The Russian company bled into another Russian operation, although this one was military-oriented. And scary. You backed off from them quickly, but kept track of what information you already had.

Including a name. Normally you wouldn’t do this, but… You had a feeling that this was going to be important. 

A call to Sergio got you a dinner appointment in a few days, as he promised to look into some things on his side. You were prepared for him to try to hold the information over your head, try to use it to get you to stay with him again.

You were not expecting him to show up twenty minutes late to dinner, grim-faced. 

“You should not be looking into this,” he said as he sat down, so unlike his normal self that you just blinked dumbly at him. 

“I’m sorry?”

“This company. You should ignore it.” Sergio set his jaw stubbornly. “Forget you ever saw it.”

You blinked rapidly, and then attempted a smile. “Surely it can’t be that bad…?” 

His lip curled in a little sneer. “It is worse,” he answered, flat and short. “I will not help you with this.”

“Well.” You leaned back in your chair slowly, mind racing. “If it’s that bad, I won’t look into it any further.” 

His shoulders relaxed a little. “Good. I like you alive.” A hint of his normal humor showed through.

But you were a little distracted the rest of dinner, playing your part but begging off going home with him, simply passing your gifts along for the girls. 

Because if Sergio wasn’t going to give you the information, you needed someone else to do it. And for him to be that scared, that harsh about refusing you? It was bad, whatever it was. 

Which meant you needed to know. Immediately. 

After you got back to your hotel room, you called up a couple of your darker contacts. The ones you tended not to use unless you were looking to burn a bridge and pay for it. 

One of them got back to you twelve hours later, giving you a name and a warning and nothing else. 

Ultranationalist. Stay the fuck away. 

You paid them well for their information, and removed them from your list. Bridge burned, but… you had your information. 

You did not stay the fuck away.

Instead you started very carefully sniffing around, because this? This was the kind of thing that could potentially blow the world to hell in a handbasket.  

Honestly, you were debating just shoving whatever information you had at Laswell and letting her handle it. 

But nobody had started shooting at you yet. So. 

Further down the rabbit hole you went. 

It took you a long time to track down people to help. Some of your normal contacts would help, but not many of them. A few in munitions and weapons, two in shipping and warehousing. That was it. The rest stayed well away from terrorist groups. (Which you probably should have done too, but, well. You were a bit stubborn.) 

But you were making progress, the little spiral notebook you were keeping notes in slowly filling up. No names, still, at least not if it could be helped. But locations. Movements. Purchases. 

You finally found out why Sergio had advised you to run when you discovered the link between the Russians and Al-Qatala.

This was absolutely now above your level of expertise. You should just dump this all on Laswell and walk away. You should. You needed to.

…After you got one last piece of information for her. You’d found someone who knew someone who knew someone in the group, and you wanted to pick his brain. He was willing, and had already named a price. The both of you had agreed on a meeting spot via independent intermediary. 

You had a flight to Ireland in a few hours, but you couldn’t settle. There was an itching under your skin that you couldn’t shake, some long-instilled paranoia reminding you how unprotected you were. 

So you got to the airport early, taking your time finding your gate and getting a coffee to soothe your nerves. 

If Laswell knew you were doing this, she’d probably tell you to stop, to back off. She had people to handle this stuff, the more dangerous stuff. 

Fortunately she wasn’t the boss of you, and you hadn’t been dependent on her in a long time. 

Your boarding group was called over the intercom, and you picked up your carry on. Time to go.

[sadiestarrs]

It Always Resurfaces

Warnings: just a bit of swearing, use of y/n like twice, mentions of drinking, mentions of sex, hurt no comfort

A/N: tried to redeem myself after that other ellie fix because i absolutely hate it anyways this is probably gonna be a series

Plot: you found ellie cheating at a party and a month later you see her again

Word count: 1,700

Part one??

be with whoever you want

i don’t care, i don’t care

The blaring lights of the party you were at made your head start to hurt. Not to mention all the people crowding around, the heat from the dozens of bodies moving across the room.

Ellie had said she was going to get a drink, 15 minutes ago. She must have gotten lost because it couldn’t have taken that long.

You awkwardly stumble in between all the people, making your way to the kitchen. It was less busy but there were still groups of friends standing around. A bad feeling already settled down in your stomach, almost as if your gut was telling you to turn around and leave immediately.

Just as you step in, you see Ellie standing with a girl, a smile plastered on her face. Their conversation is muffled but you make out most of it.

“I mean, I was just looking for a drink but I think I found something better.”

She places a hand on the girl’s waist, pulling her closer. They stare at each other for a while, everything pausing.

She wouldn’t.

The girl reaches upwards, wrapping her arms around Ellie’s neck and kissing her, you nearly fall backwards, the weight of the world seeming to crush you.

You have to stop yourself from letting out a gut-wrenching sob, deep in your soul. How could she? What the fuck happened in fifteen minutes to make her forget about you so quickly?

Before you realise what you’re doing, you find yourself walking out of the party, trying to get away from everything. It was the middle of August but somehow you were so cold, desperately trying to calm yourself down.

You called an Uber, not bothering to leave a message about why you were leaving. Out of all of the things Ellie could do, cheating on you was the last thing you could’ve thought.

She couldn’t even be bothered to hide it, blatantly kissing someone in the middle of a party you were at. It all seemed fake. You just willed yourself to wake up and find out that this was just some sick joke.

No matter what you did, the scene played through in your mind, a never-ending loop.

I think I found something better.

~

It had been four weeks since the party. The first few days went quickly, you didn’t think of her much, mainly at night when it was colder and lonely. But like many things, you had to push through it. You couldn’t let her dictate everything in your life.

After a week you started to think more. How long would it be until you talked again? No, you couldn’t fail so easily. You had to show restraint.

Evenings had become the worst time, being alone with just your thoughts and a very depressing music taste with only songs about being heartbroken and left behind. Not even your favourite shows could distract you. Everything reminded you of her, every shade of green like her eyes, sarcastic jokes making you remember the same ones she made.

Ellie wasn’t holding up well either, going to any and every party she was invited to in hopes of seeing you but ultimately being disappointed when you didn’t show up and ending the night with a temporary fling, trying to fill the hole you left. Nothing worked. It was only until her friends reminded her that you had left that she realised.

They explained to her that you had seen them and that you needed a break.

It became useless to leave her apartment anymore. She didn’t eat, didn’t sleep. Not that she wanted to. She was just—there.

Dina had noticed Ellie’s lack of enthusiasm and started dragging her outside whenever she could, making sure that she was taking care of herself and being healthy. Other than you, Dina was the only person who took an interest in Ellie and eventually they saw eye-to-eye. It was gradual but the feelings were mutual, both of them having similar interests.

You started seeing other people too, none of them making you feel the same way, however. It was enough to rely on but you weren’t committed. Maybe some of Ellie’s traits were rubbing off of you.

“You okay?”

You’re caught off guard by the person accompanying you. She was a sufficient person, kind, and caring, but she cared a little too much.

It really didn’t make sense how you were annoyed at her checking up on you but cried when Ellie would leave for days at a time. Hell, you had even forgotten her name.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, I’m fine.” You pick up a pack of grapes instinctively without realising that Ellie was the one who ate them when you bought them.

“Are you sure? You’ve been acting weird all day.” She comes up to you, placing a hand on your shoulder.

“I’m fine,” you snap, leaving the basket and walking to another aisle.

Did she deserve that? No, not at all but a month had been the longest you’ve gone without seeing Ellie. Before that, it was 3 days, mainly because the urge to fuck someone became too annoying to ignore.

You angrily walk up and down the dairy aisle, thinking about everything. Did she not want you anymore? Surely a month was enough time to heal and forget everything? If you guys were going to get back together it would have happened a while ago. Maybe this was it?

As if she knew you were thinking about her, she turns down the aisle, stopping when she sees you. You can see her contemplate whether or not turning around would be a good idea but she takes a deep breath, inching closer.

She looked the same, her shoulders slightly slumped when she came towards you. What did she have to say now?

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

That was it. After a month of not seeing each other that’s all you had to say.

“How are you?” She asks, breaking the silence and sticking her hands in the pockets of her hoodie.

“I’m good, you?”

She just nods, “I’m fine as well.”

You both stand awkwardly, the freezing temperature of the fridges finally hitting you. Another person walks behind El.

“I was thinking about making pasta tonight. How does that sound?”

Ellie looks up at you before turning back, “That sounds great, um, this is y/n, Dina.”

Dina? Did she find someone else so quickly? How could she do that? It wasn’t even the girl at the party.

“Oh cool, how’d you know Ellie?”

“We were friends a while ago,” you say, holding your arms to your chest, withholding the truth. It was clearly not a good idea to spill all the messy details of your semi-relationship.

You say goodbye and walk away as fast as you could, tears trying to force out of your eyes. God, you were so stupid. Of course, she found someone else. Did you expect her to wait years? It was over now.

You wanted to feel relieved, happy that you could move on now but all you felt was pain, deep down in your soul, past your heart.

“I’m outside.”

You walk past your “partner”, telling her that you would wait in the parking lot, away from anyone. It was all too much. How could everything change in a matter of seconds like that?

Sitting on the edge of the pavement, you think about the first time you met Ellie. It was a party, one of your friend’s birthdays or something. She spotted you by yourself, standing in a corner after you caught your girlfriend cheating, again. It didn’t take much for you to go back to her apartment and spend the night and eventually, it became regular.

It was almost funny how you got cheated on twice, like history repeating itself. When it happened the first time you promised yourself that it wouldn't happen again but you got played.

Ellie didn’t make it feel meaningless, she cared. But she never showed it, the most affection she displayed was kissing your neck or hand and that was it.

When she walks out of the grocery store you see her place a hand on Dina’s face, bringing her lips close and actually kissing her. Properly. It nearly made you sob. The way she closed her eyes and helped with bags. Why couldn’t she do that with you?

They walk up to their car before El looks back at you and tells Dina to wait. Walking considerably slowly, she stands in front of you.

“So, what are you doing now?”

“It’s only been a month, El, nothing has changed.”

She sits down, still keeping a few inches between the two of you. “You don’t look okay.”

“How can you tell? You were never around to care about me.”

Humming in agreement, she sighs, going silent for a while. The silence isn’t comforting or uneasy, it was just silence. No one said anything. After about three minutes, she stands up again, not looking at you.

“I hope you know that I didn’t mean for it to end like that.”

You nod, trying to get her to make eye contact but it doesn’t happen. She didn’t mean for it to end like that. It? So she was aware of the way things ended but chose to say nothing.

You couldn’t stand even if you wanted to, it hurt too much. From their car you see Dina point towards you and Ellie shakes her head. She then responds by basically making out with her, basically having a front-row view, seeing everything through the windshield.

“Hey, I was looking for you, are you sure you’re okay?” The girl you were with comes out, holding a few bags.

“It’s over, I can’t even remember your fucking name let alone why I even agreed to be with you.”

You walk off before you can see her reaction. It felt bad, of course, but it was true.

Ellie remembered drinking herself to sleep when you weren’t there. The drowning in her chest, the look on your face when you closed the door after getting your stuff from her apartment, tattooed on her eyelids, a constant reminder of the hurt she caused.

[vethbrenatto]

TLOVM S2E7 Thoughts

WOW, I was like “i wonder if they’re going to keep in the ‘vex calls scanlan useless’ bits” a day ago and they literally. just started it I’m insane my intuition

I hadn’t even considered grog and the gnomes might not be in the episode but now I’m thinking that e7 might be team half elf plus Percy and e8 will be grog and gnomes

Lmao nerd boy is nerding

You couldn’t just pretend to be happy Vax

Nope totally wrong grog and the gnomes are here

WHAT IF I PUT MY HAND OF YOURS WHILE YOU HEALED YOURSELF WHAT THEN

literally this whole scene he’s holding her how am I supposed to focus

SKINNY GROG CANT HURT YOU

why do i have three peni.

how could you say that about his books vax

COUNTRY TRAVELING SONG WHAT THR FUCKCK

I’m really of two minds about the Pikelan direction they’re going in: I think it aids Scanlan in that it emphasizes his need to deflect sincerity with comedy. However, I think it really detracts from Pike in that campaign-Pike thinks Scanlan is funny. She likes his jokes. A lot of pike’s s1 arc in TLOVM feels inconsistent with her dislike of Scanlan’s crass side- like it’s very in her nature to find this stuff funny. Not that she can’t also like the sincere side, which she does, but just that I think her side of this narrative is making her character seem flatter than it should, especially when you group it with the fact she’s been given a lot of Kiki’s campaign personality traits

the drug trip scene is funny but was it necessary. there’s 8 minutes left where is saundor. or syldor. Where is the Vex focus. Maybe,, they’ll stay in the feywild for e8 while grog and gnomes head to Westruun?

Garmelie was merely the TRAVELER

okay so syngorn next episode.

Best Characterization: Percy. Love u nerd boy

TLOVM S2E8 Thoughts

ohhhh this episode is the Echo Tree, I had the order in my mind wrong no wonder I was so confused about the pacing

Syldor your bitchass can die

WILHAND TRICKFOOT YOU WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS I LOVE YOU SIR

ngl I think the titling hit less animated but fun nonetheless (it’s about the reactions, the live audience, the Matt’s face)

I love saundors voice literally slay sendhil

I adore this Vex in the Echo tree scene, I’ll touch more on it at the end

“My heart is someone else’s” NOW THERES A PUNCH THAT HITS

arty my boyyyy

Best Characterization: Vex

TLOVM S2E9 Thoughts

Boulder parchment shears!!

OKAY THERES THE PIKELAN I WANTED. she flirts back! it’s stupid!! he takes it too seriously!! they joke!!

KAYLIEEE SHES HERE SHES HERE

I don’t have much comment I just love the grog backstory

black hair pike 🥹💚

wait so scanlan wasn’t part of dranzel’s troupe :( that’s such a weird detail to remove

zanror does have a cutie nose

“What if I need you” mirroring s1 buddies ahhhh

Best Characterization: Grog/Pike

Overall Best Characterization: I’ll say Grog.

Okay so I liked this batch a lot, but I’ve got to come back to the question: Split the party- yay or nay?

And I’m still wavering between yay and nay.

Yay: I think the character beats particularly that came from the Grog + Gnomes side of the story hit harder with them sequestered on their own. This new “Grog finds his strength” taken literally storyline is a huge boon to Grog’s character even though I found it a bit superfluous at first. They were able to emphasize the Pikelan and to a lesser extent Scanlan/Grog dynamic that they haven’t been able to touch on as much before.

Nay: I felt like the episodes had some wasted time. Episode 7 I felt like we didn’t need the Feywild side of the story (the most important part is meeting Garmelie- the fight in that episode is essentially to drive further home that Vax is on a diverging path, something I think 4-6 already firmly established). Episode 8 I felt we didn’t need the Grog/Gnomes side of the story (meeting Wilhand was great, but the B plot of “giving grog an enema” was weak)

Ultimately, I think I come down on the side that I would’ve preferred the party to stick together. The weaker plot lines I outlined above I think could’ve been axed and the whole party could’ve gone to the Feywild, we’re still given significant Grog + Gnomes content, and then we’re given just a bit more time to stew in the concept of Syngorn. The punches, specifically with Perc’ahlia in Syngorn, fell flat to me because I don’t think they were given enough time. Had they cut the original E7 fight to make more context for Syngorn, I think it would’ve gone well in expanding context. Then, E9 could’ve remained totally the same just with the rest of VM along for the ride.

That said, maybe the split was worth it just for the country traveling Pikelan bop.

[dekusheroacademia]

Who is the deuteragonist of MHA (spoilers: Bakugou)

I have to be honest, I find most of these debates quite useless, so I wanted to explain why. I do think all three main answers (Bakugou, Shigaraki, All Might) are valid based on how much each reader weights different sides of the definition of deuteragonist.

I am going to explain here why I think the majority of people believe Bakugou to be the deuteragonist, and in general I do believe it too. I added the manga spoilers tag so that people can freely talk about recent plot points.

Now, it is been a while since I studied any literature, so I will cite definitions from different websites.

Deuteragonist, from the merriam webster dictionary, is the actor taking the part of second importance in a classical Greek drama or who serves as a foil to another. The word does come from the Greek theater world. Protagonist is the main character involved in the struggle given by the plot. https://literarydevices.net/deuteragonist/ defines it as:

So it CAN be an antagonist (someone can have both roles of antagonist and deuteragonist, by this definition), and the important part is "being the second main character". Wikipedia gives this definition (these are what they cite, in second pic):

Here are some examples from my personal favourite literature texts.

In Romeo and Juliet, Benvolio or Mercutio might be considered the deuteragonist. If you are not too familiar with the play, Benvolio is one of the Montagues, and Romeo's confidant, but also a friend of both Mercution and Romeo. Mercutio is the "neutral, non neutral" party, and definitely one of the protagonists, but his story is cut short when he is killed. I have seen Benvolio mainly chosen the the deuteragonist because he acts as a close companion to Romeo, but Mercutio is the one who emotionally changes the path of Romeo's story (his death leads to the whole revenge thing). Important note: you can have more than one deuteragonist. It is not a "only one prize for one character only". Furthermore, notice how Tybalt is not seen as the deuteragonist even if he is the one changing the course of the story (he acts as an antagonist, and ends up killing Mercutio, and then being killed by Romeo).

Another example is Watson in Sherlock Holmes. Watson is Holmes' companion and the deuteragonist for basically all the books. Here the deuteragonist is such because he acts as a companion, confidant and friend of Holmes, but also contrasts to Holmes (they sometimes disagree on stuff), not to mention the fact that he simply is the most present character after Holmes.

Another deuteragonist is Marius from Les Miserables, where he falls into the "second protagonist" role. I wanted to cite this in particular because Les Mis is a quite long narrative, and Marius only appears in the last part. The two only interacts briefly, and here the term deuteragonist is mainly used as second protagonist given that the story follows Marius too, after his appearance. Marius also partecipates in Valjean's character development (by getting him out of his shell, so to say). Notice how Javert (my favourite) appears multiple times in the story, is in conflict to Valjean, is the opposite and complementary to Valjean and the antagonist, but because he does not partecipate in Valjean's character arc (the opposite is true tho), and because he is not as present as Marius, he is not defined as the deuteragonist. (By the way, when I say that Valjean and Javert are complementary and in contrast I mean.... literally. Hugo created both of their characters by dividing the characteristics of a real existing person named Eugène François Vidocq). Yes, Valjean/Javert is my ultimate otp, but this is a discourse for another time.

Let's look now at more definitions. From: https://masterclass.com/articles/what-is-a-deuteragonist-in-literature… The deuteragonist can SOMETIMES assume different roles (ex. sidekick, lover, antagonist), so Shigaraki could be one ONLY if present in a story and playing a particular major role:

From the same source: an important part of being the deuteragonist is being a foil for the protagonist and the role they have in the protagonist's character development:

In the case of MHA, I think All Might and Bakugou could be deuteragonist, but I see a lot of people suggesting Shigaraki. Let's see all that is needed by pulling together these definitions:

Second main character (who struggle and overcomes)

Second main character (presence)

Confidant, companion, someone who helps the protagonist (but might switch to antagonist)

Act as a foil to the protagonist, embody similar qualities

Embody opposite qualities to contrast the protagonist

Has a role in the character development of the protagonist.

As I said up above, before we go point by point, keep in mind that everything has a certain level of subjectivity. There is only 1 point that has an objective measurement, and that is point 2. Let's start with point 1:

Now point (2): Second main character (presence). I determined this by counting number of panels of each character. Bakugou here is the one with the most presence after Deku, following we have Todoroki, very similar number to All Might. Shigaraki here is lower (almost half of Bkg presence):

Now, points 3 to 5:

And the final point, point (6), is about the role in the character development of the protagonist (Deku). This is particular important. For a more comprehensive descritption of Bakugou's role as a step ladder for Deku's character development, please read this before continuing:

Summarizing:

And here is a summary of all 6 points. The only character who not only fits all three but also fits the only point (2) that has objectivity in it, is Bakugou:

Keep in mind that there is always a level of subjectivity in interpreting this point. The only objective one is the panel count (which Bakugou has, given he is the most present character in the story). But I do think Bakugou is the only one who best fit the multi-faceted idea of the deuteragonist. I also added Shigaraki a yes to point 6, but I do think his role in aiding Deku's character development is much smaller, and much more secondary, than Bakugou and All Might's.

[randomnameless]

If I can be the devil's advocate, the victim blaming helps illustrate how misguided Supreme Leader is and is one of the few aspects that support her status as the villain/antagonist. (And if anyone defends victim blaming especially wrt imperialism, yikes).

You're not playing devil's advocate anon, rather IS/KT's lol

If the devs didn't bail out at the last moment - CF and Supreme Leader could have been fascinating bonuses for the FE series, play as the red emperor - see how the red emperor recruits/their tactics to keep the population ignorant at large and demonise the people they're attacking, etc, etc...

But no, instead Supreme Leader wondering why people are not happy when she's Aymr'ing them is played seriously, and we're left puzzled with the character we see, are we supposed to follow Flamey - who lies and manipulates people, ultimately ditching them when they're useless - on her quest to conquer the world, seeing how this manipulation works, the "must have good PR" tactics unfold etc etc?

Because that's part of what we see in Tru Piss - the lie about Rhea using Nukes, the lie about "unlike u i let people go when i stormed Garreg Mach" and the Aeneid approved "what is a pincer attack?" where Supreme Leader apparently marvels at how the "pincing" army supposedly waited until the first army was already ko to intervene, limiting their losses - when it's just a pincer attack with added plot rain -

And then we have the brainfart moments "why are people resisting?" that completely retcon the entire "uwu blood at my feet" because, hey, you knew blood would rain since you uwu'd about it, so why now you're wondering why people are dying? - that is also played seriously, are we following Flamey and a red Emperor, or someone who thought she was playing with dolls and forgot her own words?

Everything falls flat when the games give the victim blaming lines to other factions, aka the victims themselves!

Like in

(SS's worst support)

Nopes.

I get victim blaming when you're siding/following the red emperor's mindset, because PR, or maybe because they're delured enough to think they're doing this for the "great-err good" - but the invaded parties?

Where the fuck in FE Tellius are people telling Ike started Ashnard's war because he sheltered Elincia? Sigurd pretty much says "fuck off" to people telling him Granvalle might hate him for, hm, sheltering the Prince of an enemy nation instead of dicing him in cubes, because said prince is only a kid in hiding and Siggy will protect him (which will of course be used as an argument leading to his downfall) - When Reptor and Langobalt (and Andrei don't forget him!!!) attack Sigurd and deem him a traitor, Sigurd doesn't think they're right and it's his fault if he and his men are branded traitors because they rescued a child, no, he wants to cleanse his (and his father's !) name by rekting the aforementioned dudes.

Unless we're supposed to understand Supreme Leader's information campaign reached far and wide, why the world blames the Central Church, you know, the Elincia who was kicked out of her home, for the start of the War? What were they supposed to do? Die ?

I still have to check with friends about the accurate translation, but Supreme Leader's battle lines even in Nopes, lampshade this victim blaming, telling the Nabateans or Church peeps she's only fighting because they do like -

you want them gone and they want to survive, it suspiciously looks like some "it's your fault I have to smack you/you made me do this" - but hey, from the Red Emperor, it's normal, they deflect and redirect the blame because they are the Red Emperor, and they manipulate, it's their MO (even if Supreme Leader's quite weak compared to people like Ashnard or Arvis who legit framed Siggy!).

And that's where the Hresvelg Grey pours like an endless fountain - the victims will never be allowed a voice to the chapter - the plot ignores them and so it's their fault, and nothing says the contrary. It's because Rhea is so BaD and sekritly controls the World that Supreme Leader has to invade the Alliance who pretty much doesn't give a fuck about what Rhea says or does.

And no one will ever point that out.

In a nutshell, I love Tru Piss as a concept, the unreliable words you're told vs the world you see - the contradictions between your side's story and the rest of Fodlan, how the dissonance is too strong and culminates with "Rhea BaD she razed Arianrhod" and yet... nothing comes from this. The plot warps at the 11h59 hour to fit with the "world as you're told" and Tru Piss shines on Fodlan.

Sothis forgots you've terminated her daughter (and maybe son+granddaugther?) because Supreme Leader doesn't believe in... Sothis, or how she fulfills her fated enemies agenda to have brainsex with Billy and shares with them some of her power to make sure they still live as she poofs in oblivion if she wasn't S-supported - completely retconning what we knew of Sothis (the supposed loving mother) and what we will later learn about her (the vengeful being who's pretty pissed at people who slaughter her kin).

TLDR : Fodlan's victim blaming could have been better implemented in the Red Emperor "information campaign" to depict how warped information is, in times of war, or in general, the dangers of misinformation coupled with a charismatic person's spouting utter shit to justify... something that is not justifiable. But Tea must be sold, and so everyone buys the "information campaign" even if the world screams against it.

Victim blaming becomes unsufferable in Nopes and in the worst support ever, Rhea's straight out asking Billy if the war - eating nukes, being tortured in Enbarr for 5 years, a continental war, disparition of civilians, Baldos and Waldis being manufactured, etc etc - is her fault and Billy never saying "of fucking course no".

When Ninian blames herself for Elbert's death, Eliwood tells her it's not her fault, Elbert died trying to do what he thought was just, and Nergal was the one who killed him.

Oh well.

[bedlamsbard]

Ah, now I remember, the last time I sent you the ask about the Hydra Cap AU you said the same thing about Thor, haha. If you posted more about potential routes you could take I’d be super interested.

@ Tony I didn’t want to come off as someone, like, Angry at how you’ve portrayed him previously; I’ve liked it, and I’d be SUPER interested in swing the Hydra Cap version of him. I didn’t actually make the connection that the Chessmen suits were the divergence point, that’s interesting as hell to me. The way that other characters’ portrayals depend super heavily on point of view is a big chunk of why I keep coming back to your writing, tbh, and it does make sense that Tony in particular gets the short end of the stick a lot for that, haha.

I just read the marvel fandom wiki page about the Chessmen and this is fucking hilarious, oh my god.

With Thor I think it really just comes down to what the hell Hydra does when it rolls up to Mjolnir in Thor. The thing I definitely don't want to do is get Thor captured by Hydra and still being held by Hydra when Steve gets defrosted; that's certainly a potentially interesting plot and I know that there are a couple of fics that have done something similar with Loki getting captured by SHIELD/Hydra, but I personally don't want to go there. I think ultimately it has to get to a point where either the Chitauri don't attack in 2012 or Loki doesn't attack in 2012 (with Thanos's involvement, these two aren't mutually exclusive; there could be an offworld attempt at the Tesseract even without an Asgardian involved, but it's way less likely). And in this context that has to be related to what SHIELD (a.k.a. Hydra) is doing in Puente Antiguo, which doesn't offer a whole lot of options to affect what Loki is doing in Asgard.

Thor is kind of interesting because SHIELD is portrayed antagonistically for the first time in Phase 1, since we're seeing them being very high-handed from Jane's POV. Hydra would be even more high-handed and aggressive -- instead of just confiscating Jane's equipment and research, maybe they also take Jane and Selvig into custody, leaving Darcy behind because she's "useless" for those purposes, meaning Darcy is the one who takes Thor out to the Mjolnir site. Say at this point Coulson is still undercover with Hydra, rather than already having been outed as one of Fury's SHIELD loyalists; after Thor is captured too, Coulson makes the decision to break his cover and break Thor, Jane, and Selvig out, where they meet up with Darcy and he spirits them off to one of the realSHIELD black sites. In retaliation, Hydra trumps up accusations of academic dishonesty/treason/etc. for Jane, Selvig, and Darcy, meaning they can't go back to their real lives; that puts all of Team Thor with realSHIELD. This also gives us an "unworthy" Thor who doesn't have Mjolnir and who thinks he doesn't have his powers, meaning that he probably goes through his Ragnarok "what were you the god of?" arc four movies early, with Mjolnir at the site of what later gets built up as a permanent Hydra base. (This also means that, depending on whether realSHIELD or Hydra kept the Tesseract, that Selvig isn't there to fuck around with the Tesseract, thus gaining Thanos's attention and bringing the Chitauri down on them, which also solves that problem.)

Except that still leaves us back with Asgard. If Thor is thrown immediately into a cell or a more secure holding place than in the film, maybe Loki doesn't come to visit, because to him this appears like a more likely way to keep Thor out of the way than in canon, especially because it now looks like Thor is never going to get access to Mjolnir again. Maybe it means that he panics less than he does in canon and looks generally less suspicious -- the problem here is that, being a Loki fan, I am also turning cartwheels to keep Loki from immediately leaping to genocide as his best option. (Normally I am all in favor of letting Loki keep culpability for all the horrible shit he does, but the goal here is NOT to set up interplanetary warfare.) It looks from the film like Loki visits Thor on Earth and Laufey in Jotunheim on the same trip, or at least that it can be interpreted that way; if he doesn't do the one, then maybe he also doesn't do the other, and thus doesn't immediately arouse Heimdall's suspicion to the same extent as in canon, meaning Heimdall is not going to send Sif and the Warriors Three to Earth, meaning Loki isn't going to send the Destroyer after them because he's panicking. This gives him more space to figure out a less fucked up way of dealing with the Jotunheim problem, which could even be "wait until Odin wakes up," which was always the goal even in canon. If Loki's not on a panicked bad decisions spiral, things on Asgard don't go as badly as they do in canon; the political situation is probably still very tense, but assuming Odin wakes up fairly soon anyway, to his point of view Thor is going on his intended character arc the long way round and he won't give Heimdall, Sif, and the W3 the opportunity to try and expedite that the way it does in canon. They can deal with the Jotunheim problem with politics, the Bifrost is still intact, Asgard is keeping a more watchful eye on Earth to see what Thor's doing but is under strict orders NOT to interfere.

...okay, that actually solves the Thor problem with this AU. (and gives everyone a good idea of how my AU development train of thought works.)

The Chessmen suits aren't the divergence point, but the outcome of Stane keeping hold of the Iron Monger armor and mass-producing similar suits, which he says he wants to do in IM1. I've just borrowed the Chessmen name from the comics, rather than going 1:1 to transfer the comics characters over. The divergence point is the Tony-Stane fight on the roof of Stark Industries at the end of IM1.

I get a little tetchy about Tony because Steve is my favorite character and as a result I get accused of not being a Tony fan -- it really is just the time period and POVs I mostly tend to write in! He's obviously fine and not negatively portrayed in Yonder! (Though if I'd known later that I'd be rolling around in that universe for a while, I'd have started Yonder a chapter earlier to actually introduce Tony as a potential "willing to work with this particular team" -- I might still do this as a one-shot prequel at some point, but I'm really wary about working in the Yonderverse right now because Horizon was not popular.) (I cut multiple scenes from Horizon where he appeared in order to keep the impact of that last sequence.) I do think Tony is consistently making spectacularly bad decisions from AoU onwards; that doesn't mean I don't like the character, it just means it's interesting to interpret why and how he goes there. Blame the Russos and the rest of the MCU PTB for those decisions, not me for having fun with the consequences. (Generally meant, not aimed at you.) I try really hard not to dislike characters, because getting to that point never ends well as a fic writer or even as a fan in general. (When I got there in Star Wars, it was probably the end of the line for the fandom.)

[shotbyafool]

hi anna! did you ever listen to preludes/what were your thoughts on it? i never got into it but there’s a production playing not far from me and i’m sure i’ll go because dave malloy still controls part of my brain but it sounds like A Lot so i’m trying to figure out how accessible it is and if i bring someone that’s not like super into theater will they still be able to understand and enjoy it

hi anon! sorry for the late reply; I had to relisten to Preludes and then stew on it for a few days, as one does.

I will begin by stating my annoying, pretentious opinion: that I think Dave Malloy is one of those artists that you should always see when you get the chance, even if you think you will not like it. to me, he is in the same league as, like, Sondheim or Stoppard or Pinter, and if given the chance, you should always jump upon it. it seems like you already intend to go anyway, but I am emphasizing this, and if you conclude you should not bring anyone to it, then you should go alone; theater alone is a treasured art form I think.

anyhow, I think Preludes is Malloy’s most… unsettling piece? perhaps his most abstract, not in terms of plot per se, but in terms of development. I find it deeply beautiful and deeply upsetting. maybe this is just the recording’s sound design (which may vary for the production you see), but dear God! it gets painful at points. hair-raising.

on the other hand, it is a little more accessible than his other pieces (Ghost Quartet is quite literally confusing; Great Comet is not actually confusing, but its premise is daunting) and the real-life story is like, deeply interesting. and he is an actual guy, and you may know his music, and you can read about Rach beforehand. and while Malloy writes a lot of the music, so much of it is based in Rachmaninoff’s actual music, which to me also makes it less alienating perhaps and less musical theater specific, meaning it’s open to a greater audience. it feels a little colder from Malloy than his other works, I think – a little less loving, the world a little more unkind – but this is not necessarily bad. but does perhaps articulate why it’s hard to get into.

all this to say, if a person you might be bringing likes the abstract or maybe likes classical musical or maybe is intrigued by the anachronistic, then it seems like a great idea. but I don’t think it’s going to be all that daunting, not really. hard to tell. this advice is ultimately useless. musical recommendations are hard and I must tailor who I invite to things carefully; it takes me days, if not weeks, to decide who I want to bring to what show. apologies for the lack of conclusion!

[nokingsonlyfooles]

The Writers' Strike and Dystopia News Today!

Just finished listening to the most recent Trash Future (it's great, find it wherever you listen to podcasts, because you don't live under a rock and of course you listen to podcasts). It's about the writers' strike.

Their guest (a Hollywood writer) recounted an interview with the Russo brothers (the team behind The Avengers films, among other things) where someone asked them what they were hoping AI would do for movies. The Russos thought it would be super fun to come home some day, tell your smart speaker you want to watch a 90 minute romcom starring your photorealistic avatar, and Marilyn Monroe's photorealistic avatar, and sit back and let it be instantly generated and served. And what's wrong with that?

A lot. There is a lot wrong with that. Just for starters, the uncanny valley lives and you'd relate better to a simplified cartoon cat than a photorealistic Marilyn (who is dead, and whose acting career should not continue without her consent). Also, if AI actually could generate decent movies like that, everyone involved in the entertainment industry would be out of a job, including directors like the Russos!

But the Trash Future crew didn't say this, so I'm gonna: You know what this is? This is capitalism trying like hell to control the means of production. The means of production for a story is the human imagination, and, although it has tried, capitalism has failed to monopolize and control that. It can control the resources you need to publish, and copyright will prevent you from publishing certain things, but that's only controlling the expression, not the thing itself. It can also try to control what you see, but if you really want something, you can always make a version of it yourself and self-publish, even if it doesn't get as much traction as a corporate-approved project.

You know what a creatively sterile corporate executive would really like for Christmas? An imagination that can be built from scratch, altered at will, and owned. And if AI can do that for 'em, they can finally kick all those useless, expensive, delicate human creatives to the curb.

I'm working on my art manifesto. It's slow going because I have a lot of other things to do, and I keep backing away and telling myself, Art doesn't need you to save it. This really isn't necessary. Check your ego, the most you can accomplish is like a wet fart in a hurricane, and that's okay. But stuff like this... These corporate interests that want to kill Art (and not like Dada, I mean REALLY. FUCKING. KILL IT.) have already defined the battle they want to fight and they're making moves.

They want you to stop being a producer. They want you to stop competing with the media they buy and curate that you have to pay them for. Ultimately, they'd rather not even buy these things before selling them to you, they want an AI slave to tell stories that they can own outright. And they want you to come home and plop down on your couch and not even consider writing a self-insert fic to entertain yourself, or finding a Reader/SugarKane (see, that's a character Marilyn played, rather than a reanimated corpse) story somewhere. They want you to pay money to CorpseFucker Monthly (or whatever they'd call it), put in your order and consume it. And when you're done with that, you can slam some more money on the counter and have another one.

We are tired, and we are delicate, and we need support. Telling stories is hard. I've often wished I could just read what I'm writing, instead of doing all that work, because that's really all I want. I want my story to exist so I can read it and enjoy it and connect with other people who read it and enjoy it. I don't want to stare into a white void until my eyes bleed, trying to think of a way to express what X character is thinking and why they're going to do a thing that makes the plot go. I don't want to rip into my trauma looking for Milo's motivation, I just want to feel better seeing him learn and grow.

But although that is what I want, there is not a magic box that can do that for me, and if there were, the people in charge of the box would not ask it to generate my story. I'd have to pay them for the privilege. And if I wanted to share it and build a community around it, I'd have to pay for that too. I didn't make it. It's not mine. All I did was dash off a prompt - that's not special, no one cares, go away and let someone else have a turn with the box. You are disposable, and your story is disposable, all that matters is that rich people got a little richer.

This is not new. The owners have been pushing for this since the advent of the printing press, if not longer. But they finally have a way to do it for real. They just need to frontload as many human imaginations as possible to train the box, after which any further input will not be required.

They already have all our work that they bought, and paid for, and have the rights to. And they have everything that fell into the public domain too. And, of course, they have everything stored on their various servers that they may leaf through and steal.

We do know this, and we're fighting back, but we're fragmented and disorganized and it's hard to pull back and see the whole picture. Yes, we are having a writers' strike, and thank God, but it's for reasonable paycheques and job security. Writers should have those things! But there is no fair compensation for the total commodification of Art. That's like... buying carbon offsets while the planet burns. (I know, I know, we're doing that too.)

Every word, every image we put out there is fodder for the magic box. Copyright is not going to save you from this, that's not what it's for. If they want the rights to your thing, they'll just buy them - probably not even from you. (And I'm giving my thing away, so I'm just as screwed.) They are going to do this, and we're not going to stop them.

The only question is, are we going to be able to build some kind of corporate-independent structure to tell and share our stories, and support each other... or when they yank the rug out from under us, are we gonna fall?

[panlight]

It's illogical that Edward tries to claim that he doesn't love Bella in NM when he leaves. While Bella's self-esteem issues might make her believe him, isn't she supposed to be clever and intelligent and put things together easily? Wouldn't she pick up that he's trying to ease her pain and/or solidify his leaving? Why even include that aspect of his leaving when it doesn't affect the plot except to give Bella EVEN MORE angsting about Edward not loving her? Why not have him be honest?

That was my ultimate problem with New Moon. 

I know for so many people the heartbreak really resonated and was wrenching and beautiful and you know, I love that for you. 

But for me it was just like . . . so incredibly clear and obvious what the real reason that Edward left was that I could never fully get on board with Bella’s “oh of course he left me I’m human I’m nothing.” And I get that it’s about her self-esteem, and I get that her hallucinations of Edward was her subconscious realizing that yes, he still loved her and cared about her. Like, I understand what SM was trying to do here. I fully get it. But it was so frustrating to read when I as the reader was like “HE LEFT YOU BECAUSE HE LOVES YOU!” the whole time.

Bella, my friend, he left you after his brother tried to eat you. It’s just . . . it’s so obvious he left to protect you from death and/or vampirism and not because he got sick of you. The timing alone makes it perfectly clear. 

“But he said--” girl, he lied. It was obvious he was lying. I mean . . . people talk about Bella needing therapy but that it would be useless because she can’t really tell them what’s going on but maybe at least therapy would help her with her self-esteem issues and she could be like “That son of a bitch lied and left me to protect me, I’m gonna run him over with my truck.” 

And even at the end, when he’s back, and cuddling her, and telling her everything it takes like a whole chapter for her to be like “oh, you love me?” Again, I get what SM was going for but I found it really frustrating to read. Perhaps it would have worked better from a third person narrator? IDK but it was just so clear to me why Edward did what he did even on my first reading that it was frustrating that Bella didn’t see it. 

The lying is my only real problem with him breaking up with her. I’ve seen people get mad at him because he didn’t give her a choice but that’s how break-ups work? They often aren’t mutual; there is usually one person who wants to end it for whatever reason and someone else who wants to keep trying. If Edward wants to break up with her because he thinks he’s bad for her that’s a choice he’s allow to make. You can’t like, force him to keep dating someone?? But he at least could have been honest about it. “Bella, I can’t stay with you. Look what happened with Jasper, you’re going to end up dead or worse, a vampire, and I can’t condemn you to that. I love you too much.” The whole lying and clean break stuff just doesn’t make a whole ton of sense, especially since Alice could foresee how it would go. 

And also just like, the whole noble sacrifice of him leaving so she wouldn’t be doomed to a sad shadowy life as a vampire is completely invalidated by the vampiric fairy tale of Breaking Dawn, but that’s my other Big Problem with New Moon. 

[quietly-by-myself]

Worldbuilding Tips from Harper

This was requested b @susiequaz12 who wanted to know more about my worldbuilding process.

I’ll admit it’s rather hard to identify because I’m so used to worldbuilding, but I’m giving this my best shot.

First, there’s two types of worldbuilding: soft and hard. Hard has hard-and-fast rules that are clearly defined. It’s more concrete. The goal of hard worldbuilding is immersion through rules, consistency, and logic. It feeds into the logical, “understanding” parts of our brains. Soft worldbuilding lacks clear rules. In fact, it rejects the idea that fantasy needs rules at all and offers flexibility and whimsy. The goal of soft worldbuilding is immersion through mystery, whimsy, and fantasy. It feeds into our imagination and curiosity. 

Neither is superior in general, but unless you’re willing to have a lot of exposition, soft worldbuilding is better for shorter pieces. Generally, I prefer a happy medium between the two for longer-form pieces, because I like leaving a lot of things open-ended, like what the “ultimate” form of magic is for each compass direction, but also believe that some rules help with engagement. I still lean towards soft worldbuilding in longer-form pieces. This is a stylistic choice, though.

When I start worldbuilding, I don’t start with my world, I start with my characters. Your fantasy world spans more than just where your characters are, but where are your characters? What types of creatures/people inhabit that area? What do they look like? What kind of magic do the people use, if that’s relevant?

For example, in Fearless, I knew I was going for a Slavic-inspired island nation that was close to an area inhabited by Central-Asian-inspired countries. The island used to be inhabited by dragons, but only one dragon remains: the Dragon King. Other creatures include but are not limited to reptilian shapeshifters and vampires. One of my characters would be a dhampir (Kaloyan) and the other is a biracial human - Central Asian and White (Nikolay).

I also determined that most magic used would be manipulation, curses, and destruction. It’s a dark world ruled by dark magic. There are alchemists, too.

Then I think about what the main forces are that cause conflict in my character’s story. Where does my character stand in them? Who are their parents? Are their parents important? Why do these forces cause conflict for my main characters?

Using Fearless as an example, I knew the island was war-torn. Fearless was inspired by a Bulgarian chant in a Thomas Bergersen song of the same name:

“A partisan is getting ready for a fight

Placing his rifle on the shoulder;

One morning a letter is received

In 2-3 rows the letter says:

- Goodbye mother, father

Goodbye, loving sister;

I'm going to a fierce fight

To perish, to die!”

I knew my characters were involved in the war: Nikolay’s mother was someone involved in foreign relief who left when Nikolay was 3 because of the escalation of the war. His father went to fight in the war when Nikolay was 8. 

Kaloyan’s father was an unmarried, powerful lord who had him with one of his mages. He was left to a nanny because he was deemed “useless” as a child. His nanny taught him to be kind, but she was punished for this when she was found out. By this time Kaloyan was 13 and began to wander into the human villages. That’s where he met Nikolay. However, he has deep self-loathing and a will to please his (abusive) parents. 

Thus, the main forces in my world are as follows: the Dragon King’s forces and the humans. The characters are involved in the conflict because of Kaloyan’s parentage (Nikolay is bonded to him and gets involved through that). 

That’s about where my worldbuilding pre-writing process ends. From there, I construct a plot and start writing.

The most important rule of worldbuilding is to do it through the character’s eyes. What does your character know? What do other characters around them know? Will your character learn from them?

Work through that lens. You know everything, yes, but your characters don’t. Especially in a short story, your time is limited. You have to figure out what’s important to share and what isn’t. 

In Cursed, I had the following schematic:

Characters:

Ben - alchemist scholar

Zoe - alchemist

Jake - alchemist reject

Vaughn - leader alchemist

Volkov - curse magic mage

Andrei - restoration magic mage

Setting: Alchemist’s citadel

From there, I filled in the details. Ben is knowledgeable about the world because he’s a scholar. I don’t love “show don’t tell” as a rule, but it is important. Figure out the details that your character would recognize that tell the story that you want to, then add them in. Alchemist’s robes, for example. Or right away putting fae magic against alchemy. We have signs that tell us information about our world: what are those for the important details of your world? It can be as simple as snow telling us it’s cold outside.

I might add more later, but this is what I have for now.

[prowerprojects]

Heh, welcome to why I've always been so selective of Tails content in this fandom. I remember the early 2000s days of the fandom where he was either killed off to either enrage Sonic to hype up some new villain or replace him with a "better" partner. {Be it someone's OC or other popular characters like Shadow or Blaze} Or, due to accusations of being useless/not cool, he rarely used in anything meaningful. He's just cute and that's it. (With Tailsmo for flavor.)

Then Colors-Forces happened; I don't think I need to explain to this one, but no doubt this caused a shift in how he was viewed. (And the dynamic with Sonic.)

Stuff has somewhat chilled since then, but it feels like a 180 was done. (Like, fans are quick to bring out the knifes if you speak ill of their bond, and due to recent media like the movies and Prime, this probably the most Tails' character has been deeply and widely discussed, but now we're in this weird limbo were people want a more independent and active Tails, but won't let Sonic "let go of his hand" and protect him at all cost. People understand they're partners, but won't grasp they're equals. They cover the other's flaws, they take care of each other. That's since the day they met.) I like a "blue hedgehog takes care of a [smart] baby fox" story as much as the next person, but do you think that said baby fox never tried to pull his own weight? Never tried to return the favor to this blue hedgehog; who respects his skills [and his tails] and comes to him when he can't figure something out or the best and quickest solution? That they don't think twice on throwing themselves in danger for one another? That's what's so fun about this dynamic. It evolves, but it's ultimately the same premise.

TL:DR Depending on how fanon Tails is written more or often not gives away what kind of Sonic to expect and the dynamic that comes with it. Am I seeing two individuals with their own thoughts and beliefs bounce off each other? Or is one being heavily guided by a figurative leash by the other? ( I'm scared depending on how Nine's story ends, if it's going to cause yet another shift of how Tails gets looked and portrayed and his relationship with Sonic. Cause I'm still seeing some miss the point on why Nine is the way he is and is not a more "complete/developed" Tails. Latching on to him for stuff Tails has done before in games and other adaptions. {And I'm speaking as a Nine fan. Yeah, he's more independent and self-sufficient, but not a healthy way.})

Sigh

I don't even have anything to add, but I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this weird two-way thing with Tails. Fans want him to get character development and be independent, because it's good for his character arc, and this is what makes sense, but in their hearts what they really want is for Tails to be the little baby brother that Sonic tucks in every night and gives him funny kisses and checks for monsters under his bed; who exists solely to show how great of a big brother Sonic is, sacrificing so much of his freedom and taking on so much responsibility to raise a child, can you believe this? (Not saying you can't be independent and still get affection and help from your family, note the word "solely") (And if Sonic doesn't need to keep an eye on Tails because Tails is such a helpless baby, then it's because if he's left without supervision for 5 seconds, he starts killing people and destroying cities and Sonic needs to keep him in check)

And yeah, I get it, fandom, we're all having fun, I also think jokes about Tails being a little unhinged are funny, and I enjoy the brotherly fluff between Sonic and Tails, but I wish it wasn't all that he got reduced to (Especially in fics where the focus is one Sonic + some other character who isn't Tails. If it's a shipping fic there's often a plot where Sonic's partner would have to babysit Tails (never mind he lives by himself in canon) and bond with him, to kind of "get approval from Sonic's family".) But it's hard to talk about these kinds of things. Like when you criticize the way people portray characters in a ship, you could say "don't reduce them to just a generic love interest, remember that they're a character with a full personality also", and people understand what you mean, but how could you say "don't reduce this character to just a little brother type"? They are brothers after all, we just want to make them act like real brothers do/s

Yep, I've seen way to many people being like "Nine is what I always wanted Tails to be". And it's like. Ok. So you just hate Tails then. Let me guess, is Shadow your favourite character? I also like Nine, he's a great character, probably the best written one in the show, but he's not "cool", he doesn't represent "Tails reaching his full potential" or anything like that. He's deeply hurt and kind of pitiful honestly. Tails becoming more like him would be a regression if anything because he'd already overcome a similar (maybe just not as... prolonged) situation before. But I don't think this is what the show is building up to, Tails (in the show) is portrayed to be a pretty competent person already, just the one who is willing to put aside his issues because he doesn't want to risk creating any kind of conflict in his relationship with Sonic (in contrast to Nine who doesn't have as much history with Sonic and is willing to tell him exactly when and how he fucks up), and it's Sonic who needs to change his attitude. But we'll see how it goes. (I wouldn't want their relationship to turn into "long-suffering Tails holds his dumbass older brother on a child leash otherwise he'll run off and do something stupid" in popular conciousness either)

[coll2mitts]

#30 Funny Girl (1968)

Funny Girl: How Feminism Killed My Marriage!

It was only coincidence I decided to watch Funny Girl after completing my review of A Star is Born, as it hits several of the same plot points.  I honestly thought the only reason they were strikingly similar to me was because I viewed them back-to-back, but then two videos I watched about the Broadway production noted this as well, so I didn't feel entirely unjustified.  Man with lots of money discovers woman before she becomes a star.  They start a obviously doomed relationship and get married right as the wife's career starts to take off.  The husband struggles with his own vices to the detriment of his wife's career, and ultimately their relationship ends because the husband is too proud and can't handle the fact their spouse makes more money than them.  The end.

Although I don't think the plot is necessarily the reason to watch this movie (the reason is to watch Barbra Streisand be the most Barbra Streisand she can be), it is a fictionalized retelling of the rise of real-life burlesque star Fanny Brice and her relationship with her first husband Nick Arnstein.  From all accounts this leans pretty heavy on the fictionalized, as Nicky was married when he and Fanny began their affair, it took him 6 years to get divorced from his previous wife to marry Fanny, and Fanny eventually divorced him because she was sick of him fucking around on her.  Even though her love life was tumultuous, Fanny's career is what made her special, which is why it's a bit annoying that in the majority of this movie it takes a backseat to her fascination with a useless pretty boy.  Although real-life Fanny's character was a Jewish characture, she helped in revising the criteria of what kinds of women could be famous performers.  Beyond a good body and a pretty face, personality and talent were enough to gain notoriety.  Although let's be real, it's not like Fanny was hideous or anything.

Barbra originated this role on Broadway, and it was tailor made to her talents.  Check out the videos linked from Staged Right for a great summary of how the show was created, how Barbra was cast against the wishes of Fanny's non-fictional daughter, and what a seemingly contentious run the Broadway musical had.  When Columbia bought the rights to the show, it was with the understanding Barbra would reprise the role on film. And oh boy, guys, this is probably one of the best love letters to a leading actress I've ever seen committed to celluloid.

Picture it: New York, 1920s. Fanny Brice, with her name in lights on the Ziegfeld Follies marquis, soberly enters backstage and greets herself in a sound clip I used as a log-in alert on AIM for like 6 years. Giving off "I'm going to retire" energy, Fanny wanders the stage and loiters in the empty theater until her assistant Emma finds her and cryptically asks "This is the day, isn't it?". Fanny confirms, and free of context I have no idea if this woman is making a comeback, or leaving showbusiness, or running away to join the circus. When Emma mentions that Ziegfeld is waiting for her, Fanny disassociates and we're treated to a flashback a few years earlier...

Picture it: New York, 1910s. A young Fanny Brice's neighbors are reading her for filth on her appearance and mocking her for having dreams of singing stardom.

I think this is the only ensemble number that doesn't take place on stage.  Any solo or duet numbers with any character that aren't Fanny, like Eddie, Mrs. Brice, and Nick, have been cut so Barbra is on screen almost 100% of the time.  I was genuinely shocked later on when Omar Sharif started singing because I forgot this was something someone other than Barbra was allowed to do.

Fanny heads to her new gig as a beautiful Arabian lady and is immediately fired for not knowing the routine and hamming it up the entire fucking time. The theater owner Mr. Keeney scolds the director Eddie Ryan for even casting such a goof while Fanny refuses to be dismissed and sings and dances her way around until they're forced to physically escort her out of the theater.

Mid-rant, and after accosting a few children, she breaks back in only to find everyone gone except Eddie, who after hearing her pipes asks why she even considered auditioning for a chorus girl when clearly she's a belter. I giggled uncontrollably when Fanny answered, "If you were looking for a juggler, I'd have been a juggler", cause girl, same. When I was a kid I legitimately auditioned for a part in Harlequin that required juggling skills full-well knowing I couldn't, and when asked to prove I could after the singing portion was acceptable, the ensuing display of athletic prowess cemented the fact I would absolutely not be chosen.

I tried googling this musical and I can't find evidence it ever existed. Maybe it was some public school choir teacher's passion project they only got to see kids perform once a year after a 3 week summer camp? Or maybe I had a fever dream when I was 10 and hallucinated being in it? IDK, help me out here.

Eddie decides to give Fanny a second chance at the chorus after she assures him she can roller skate, even though it was a bold-faced lie. After falling on her ass 20 times, which froths the audience into a frenzy, Eddie allows Fanny to sing a solo. Her unique blend of comedy, talent, and the sudden ability to skate once she's getting sole attention from everyone, wins over Mr. Kenney and Fanny is tentatively offered a permanent position.

"Honey hurry up, hurry up, hurry up..." is Barbra's signature slurry phrasing at its peak.

Fanny's shenanigans also catch the eye of a ridiculously attractive gambler Nicky Arnstein, who successfully hustles Mr. Kenney to hire Fanny for $50 a week, but is unsuccessful in asking Fanny out. She shrugs off his advances after surmising she is well out of his league, but oh my god, how the hell would anyone turn down Omar Sharif? I am not that strong willed.

According to Wikipedia, this is the fourth movie on this list that almost cast Frank Sinatra (previous ones including A Star is Born, The Music Man, and Easter Parade). For as much as y'all know I love Frankie, whoever suggested him over Omar should be well and truly slapped.

Several months later, there's a commotion on Henry street when the Brice's receive a telegram, and once the shock that someone hadn't died worn off, they're left in the wake of Ziegfeld's request for Fanny to come by his theater and audition. She reacts in a completely reasonable way.

Unsurprisingly, she aces the audition, and after fighting with Ziegfeld over how beautiful he thinks she is verses how she thinks she's not, she turns his new finale number from a bizarre ode to seasonal brides into a comedy act about a shotgun wedding in order to deflect anticipated criticism away from her face.

Peek a small cameo from Anne Francis, whose part was cut down so much she tried to get herself removed from the credits altogether. It's fine, instead she'll forever be known as the woman who pranked Dorothy Zbornak by pretending to die while beating her at tennis.

Fanny averts termination even though she deliberately ignored the directions of the director, again, because she's too much of a hit. She rides the high of bossing around Ziegfeld right into the arms of Nicky, who just so happens to be there on her opening night. This time she takes him back to her mother's saloon and he politely allows her friends and family to clean out his pockets at poker even though he's a bit of a professional gambler.

After charming the entire block, Nicky convinces Fanny to follow him to a second location out into the alley so they can be alone, and like, sure, this is a colossally bad idea, but how do you say no to that smile? After establishing both of them are single, Nicky adds more red flags to the parade of them by saying he's been with thousands of women because he likes to feel free and never has definite plans. Fanny reacts to this information by babbling incoherently about how some people kinda like being in relationships and Nicky kisses her to shut her up before riding off into the night.

I would die. Just drop dead right there, thank you and good night, it's been a good life.

Flash forward AN ENTIRE FUCKING YEAR and Fanny randomly runs into Nick again at a train station in Baltimore while the Follies are on their national tour. He invites her to dinner in a private dining room at their hotel, and while she momentarily pretends to be aloof, once inside she does exactly what I would do immediately if left alone in a room with Omar Sharif in 1967.

Fanny asks why Nicky never called on her a year and two weeks ago and he explicitly says he could smell the virgin all over her and didn't think she could hang. When asked what has changed now, he replies, "If you don't, it's time you learned."

So... they bone, and continue to bone the entire week the Follies are in town. Unfortunately after 7 days Nicky's racehorse turned into a pumpkin and he has to leave Fanny behind to board a boat to Europe to scam a bunch of bored dudes out of money since he doesn't have any anymore. Of course Nicky confesses to Fanny he's suddenly in love, so instead of going their separate ways after a brief sexcapade, Fanny abandons the show and makes a big romantic gesture by taking a tugboat to Nicky's waterborne casino to surprise him. Her coworkers try to convince Fanny this is a colossally bad idea and you could anger a million bulls with all the red flags Nicky's waving, but she simply. cannot say no. to that smile. I would make a joke that his dick must be legendary but she wouldn't know any better if it wasn't.

Oh look, another helicopter shot from the 1960s that's a million times better than the one in A Hard Day's Night.

Sidenote: Every time I hear "the sun's a ball of butter" I first cringe because I hate that line, and secondly think of this skit.

This was Barbra's first film role, by the way.  Not that she wasn't well-known at this point - her voice was already acknowledged as one of the greats before she even turned 30.  But she steals the camera in every freaking scene, especially this one when Fanny's clearly making the dumbest mistake ever.  You root for Fanny; you want her to succeed in both life and love because Barbra is so charming.  She won a Best Actress Oscar for this performance, and it's incredibly easy to see why.

To the surprise of everyone (even Fanny), Nick is ecstatic to see her - so ecstatic he only giggles when the porter calls him "Mr. Brice" instead of going on a several-day bender that ends with him crashing Fanny's Oscar acceptance speech.  Of course Fanny plays the "please pick me, I'll never tie you down" card, only to THIRTY SECONDS LATER suggest to Nick that usually when two people love each other, they get married.  Instead of jumping off of the boat and swimming toward the shore, Nick informs Fanny if he can win his huge payday, she'll get a husband.  After much distress on Fanny's part, Nick later returns to the room with a big wad of cash, and they immediately return home to play house for a while.

Fanny went from on the road living like a mouse to being blissfully happy with a husband, a mansion, servants and a baby.  But the other shoe finally starts to drop when Nicky's hot streak turns cold.  While he's losing the house on oil fields that produce no oil, Fanny is headlining in a show, putting Nicky's ego in check.  With a famous wife, his more-frequent losses are being broadcast around both his gambling community and society at large.  When Fanny realizes Nick is drowning after he skips her show's opening night for a poker game, she sets up a scheme where his buddy Tom would approach Nick with a legit job offer running a local casino.  After Tom informs Nick he wouldn't have to pony up start-up cash to make him a partner because his experience conning wealthy gentlemen was valuable enough, Nick smells the deception from a mile away and refuses the position because apparently it's incredibly embarrassing for your wife to network for you.

In an effort to get back on top, Nick decides to participate in an scammy bond scheme, gets caught, and pleads guilty to the crime so it doesn't look like he's stupid enough to agree to something without knowing how fucking illegal it is.  Fanny goes to court to see Nick before they ship him off to prison for a few years, and when he tries to end the relationship by telling Fanny he will never be able to support her, Fanny asks him to reconsider. If Nick feels the same way when he gets out, she won't fight him on the divorce.

The absolute paranoia of a world where women could make more money than their husbands is fucking ridiculous to me.  In both A Star is Born and Funny Girl, the moment the universe takes away the man's ability to monetarily provide for his family he suddenly feels as if he has nothing to contribute.  His masculinity and his ego get in the way of being truly proud of his wife.  The women are both willing to entirely give up their careers to take care of their deadbeat husbands (even asserting in public they should be referred to by their husband's last name), which is baffling on its own, but they've already made the irreversibly irredeemable crime of perusing success, even when their husbands initially encouraged it.  All I learn from these stories is that men want strong women, strong enough where he can brag about them, but not strong enough to overshadow them.  If that starts to happen, the wife needs to intuitively shrink in order to give their husband the chance to catch up.

One thing you can't fault Nicky for is hiding his true nature. He told Fanny exactly who he was when they first met.  He never had a set schedule because he wanted to feel free.  She was Woman and he was Man, and she should be smaller so he can be taller.  He might have cosplayed as a dependable dude for a few years, but ultimately he reverted back to his default.

Flash forward to the beginning of the movie, where we finally discover that Nick had been released from prison and Fanny would find out the state of their relationship before she went on stage.  She warns Ziegfeld that if Nick wants to give it another shot she's going to quit the show, because being a housewife will be the only thing to placate Nick's fragile masculinity.  Thankfully she doesn't need to keep that promise, because when the pair are finally reunited she can tell by his behavior that this dude is about to drop the hammer.  Fanny preemptively ends things, and then goes on stage to sing about her heartbreak.

The end of the movie differs from the musical in a pretty significant way as Fanny belts a lament for the end of her marriage.  Barbra insisted singing the vocals at the end of the song live, and had Omar Sharif recite the line "You are beautiful" to her before each take to make her more emotional. It worked - I cry every time I watch the end of this movie.

"My Man" was a song the real-life Fanny Brice popularized in the Ziegfeld Follies Broadway show, which is the only reason it appears here, ending this depressing story on a weak downbeat that legitimately shocked me when the credits rolled.  In the Funny Girl musical, Fanny goes through a variety of emotions that reprise the songs in the show - bitter and sad, but ultimately victorious with a powerful rendition of "Don't Rain on My Parade."  I can only attribute this change as the beginning of the 1970s bummer parade of weird musicals that make you want to slit your wrists on the way out.

And if this wasn't enough, several years later they filmed a sequel to this, Funny Lady, about Fanny Brice's relationship with her second husband Billy Rose, who was just as shitty of a partner as Nick Arnstein was. Their marriage also ends in divorce, so if you want to watch the same movie as Funny Girl but with a clunkier script just to get 10 minutes of Omar Sharif reprising his role as Nicky being as sleezebaggy as ever, don't bother. It's not worth it.

Funny Girl is a show that will forever be associated with Barbra, to the point where its protagonist Fanny is more of a fictionalized character than a real-life previously-breathing human being. This movie is fairly entertaining, although it clearly reflects the ideals of its time. If you like Barbra, it's a must-see. If not, avoid it at all costs, cause there's nothing else here other than her.

Except a hunky Omar Sharif being stupidly charming. There is also that.

Thanks for reading!  If you’ve enjoyed this post, please consider helping me fund this project by donating to my ko-fi :)

[technodromes]

THE ANGRY BLOB

56. If they’re scared, who do they want comfort from? Does this answer change depending on the type of fear?

25. What subject / topic do they know a lot about that’s completely useless to the direct plot? (HARD MODE: no soap operas!)

SHREDHEAD

17. What do they notice first in the mirror versus what most people first notice looking at them?

46. Are they a listener or a talker? If they’re a listener, what makes them talk? If they’re a talker, what makes them listen?

SBUBBY

47. Who have they forgotten about that remembers them very well?

57. What’s a simple daily activity / motion that they mess up often?

meme

56: Normally, Shredder is the one Krang seeks out for comfort because he greatly admires his strength and courage, and he's his best friend / (ex) husband / (ex) boyfriend... you get the gist. He always wanted comfort from Subprime before meeting Shredder, which was constantly unrequited. That didn't stop him from further trying to grovel for his cousin's acknowledgment though, until being ultimately betrayed for a third time. The story behind that will vary depending on the verse/muses. Depending on the relationship with the muse he's hanging around with, he might seek comfort from them as well when he's panicking about something. But he does need a considerable level of trust to show them that he's genuinely scared and in need of comfort tho. For example, he trusts Clarissa and will seek her out in the dead of the night when his thoughts are circling and he grows anxious about the Hive, which is something he didn't experience before. He defied the Hive and is nervous about approaching Shredder over that because of his wavering devotion. What would Shredder, someone highly devoted to his case, possibly think about it? 25: Pets. Because he watches animal videos during the weekends when he's bored, he has unintentionally accumulated vast knowledge about earthly pets that's usually rather useless to him. Not that it stops him from being a smartass know-it-all about it when people talk about animals.

17: His eyebrows, and them being a mess that he needs to take care of first before he can start his day. Everyone else just always only mentions his armory. Sheesh, why is that? 46: He's more of a talker, but can be a good listener too. He can vent endlessly about things that annoy him or talk passionately about his interests when he's comfy. Being in agreement with him over something is always a free 'okay I let you vent about that as well' pass. He will shut up and listen without any actions needed when he likes tolerates someone around. Otherwise a firm 'shut up' is one way to silence him. His comeback is going to be loud and angry once he's over the initial shock and he didn't like what he just heard, though.

47: The thing is, Utrom don't forget so easily unless their memory gets tampered with. The closest to forgetting about something or someone is suppressing these memories. Subprime does that especially when it comes to Bishop or his family. His brother is a topic he will actively avoid talking about. Bishop on the other hand is furious over Subprime's betrayal. He has a much harder time just moving on when his brother is brought up in a conversation. There's not much to piss Bishop really off, but bringing up Subprime is a safe way to tilt that nice guy's mood. 57: He's a disaster at cleaning honestly. He always uses too much cleanser and creates a foamy mess everywhere while leaving smearings on the surfaces. He just can't get it right, and whatever he tries to clean looks usually worse afterward. He's much better at commanding others to clean up for him than doing it himself.