#…interesting set of things

[anna-scribbles]

emma dupain cheng on the brain😽🎀

more:

[spoopdeedoop]

king and harbinger, old and young

[divorceblogger]

this show rules sorry

[bottlecap-joe-spooky]

Fellas is it gay to play chess (with a chess peice based after your "rival")?

[aphelea]

I posted 2,551 times in 2022

That's 2,332 more posts than 2021!

898 posts created (35%)

1,653 posts reblogged (65%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@gay-otlc

@aphelea

@camelspit

@when-wax-wings-melt

@gaslight-gaetkeep-gayboss

I tagged 1,827 of my posts in 2022

Only 28% of my posts had no tags

#august rambles - 235 posts

#asks behind masks - 188 posts

#kotlc - 125 posts

#top hat gerald - 100 posts

#toh spoilers - 34 posts

#stellarlune spoilers - 32 posts

#lord of lesbians - 28 posts

#august's writing! - 21 posts

#the superhero au - 18 posts

#tma spoilers - 17 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#like. there's this rock and there's this guy—oh why's he a rock? uhhh he eats this powder—no not that kind of powder—anyway he's a rebel—

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

you heard it here first folks they/them users are nameless faceless entities out to get people

256 notes - Posted June 3, 2022

#4

actually i think more talentless elves should just pretend to be empaths. since the council has no way of verifying it, really. i just think it would be funny

268 notes - Posted August 12, 2022

#3

i would once again like to bring this passage to the attention of the kotlc fandom:

i don't want to say that quinlin describes alden like a wattpad love interest but i'm going to say it anyway

269 notes - Posted January 7, 2022

#2

what do y'all think of my canva skills. am i good enough for current ya authors yet

336 notes - Posted September 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

can't wait until the tumblrinas discover that "i like your shoelaces" "thanks, i stole them from the president" is actually a quote from goncharov (1973) and not their own creation

1,399 notes - Posted November 21, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[rookflower]

whichever one of us is a person first

[stealingyourbones]

Out of all of the people The Ghost King Phantom expected to relate to, it definitely wasn’t the scrawny red headed photographer of the Daily Planet. Jimmy Olsen has gotten so many temporary superpowers over his time being Superman’s friend. Hell, he once gained a 4th dimensional being’s reality warping abilities when he was given said dimensional being’s powers during a fight. Sure there’s a dozen or so heroes with the same amount of powers he has, but none as suddenly granted to them as a all powerful god that can relate to a teenager.

[elodieunderglass]

I haven’t watched Dungeon Meshi, but I always enjoy the dashboard osmosis experience and have a peculiar visual memory. Here is what I believe Dungeon Meshi to be mostly about. No complicating experiences with the text, or indeed character references, fed into this extremely clear vision, which I believe I torrented directly from the astral plane at the same time as the creator was logged on

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Gaslighter? I hardly know her!

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[zemfruit]

look at its tits

[demigods-posts]

that moment in tlh when annabeth has an exact timestamp down to the second for just how long she'd been looking for percy makes me wonder if she always has an internal clock for everything. and like. this is further reinforced when she's timed percy's morning routine with a minute to spare in cotg. or in tlt!book when she used physics to calculate the best time to jump off the boat in the thrill ride of love. call it "scheduling" and "time management" if you wanna. all i'm saying is owls have an internal biological clock and it isn't improbable to assume annabeth inherited that trait from her mother, the patron of owls herself.

[heartorbit]

🩷💛💚💜

[roomba-mangga]

Curry pt. i // Curry pt. ii

yeah alright okay. fine. cool. alright. yeah

[ruporas]

Mini Wolfwood Plush has a preorder date! Preorders will open in 3 days on 9/22 @ 4PM EST until Oct 6th @ 4PM EST.

Those who input their email on the mailing list should've received one today and if you want to join the mailing list for a reminder on the day of, it's not too late to fill out the google form here!

Original Mini WW Post

[bonefall]

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

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

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

So, why?

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

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

Bumble, on the other hand...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ask yourself; what about them does the cast miss?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[turtleblogatlast]

Something I love about Leo is that, canonically, he IS capable of cooking, he’s just completely incapable of using a toaster. He’s banned from the kitchen not out of an inability to make edible food, but because being within six feet of a toaster causes the poor appliance to spontaneously combust.