#ambiguous backstory elements

[whetstonefires]

See I don't necessarily disagree with what seems to be the primary reading that Yue Qingyuan's shifu fucked him over, caring nothing for his needs or preferences and only for whether he was useful. That makes sense, it ties into plenty of the generational and societal themes of the story. It fits.

But iirc we don't actually get enough information to know that's what happened.

And the thing is it would be so in-character and also thematically appropriate if Yue Qingyuan absolutely did not explain his goals or why he was working so hard, because it was private and shameful and he didn't expect any sympathy, and there was a high risk of losing everything if he blabbed.

And also if he engaged with the existing ruleset with which he was presented, i.e. 'can't go off on your own on personal business until you've mastered your sword,' in the most negative and controlling manner possible, as absolute commandments.

He's a different kind of guy but he comes from the same background as Shen Jiu! It fucked him up also!

He is very very very not a guy who trusts the system to make allowances for him--even once he has all the power he 'does what he wants' and 'makes selfish choices' as a conscious transgression; not something he has a right to do, just something he can get away with so he's gonna. (And ofc he spends almost all the latitude he grants himself on sqq.)

And even less is he a guy who opens up easily.

He isn't too proud to ask for help or pity, so much as he just doesn't expect to get any.

So in this interpretation, he understood that rule as a non-negotiable barrier in his path, the target to overcome, and focused all his considerable will and talent on overcoming it through the sphere of action he felt he had control over.

And fucked himself up bad.

Whereupon his teacher, possessing absolutely no context for this dumb shit their star pupil pulled, did the only thing they thought might work to save his life, paying in the process no attention to the raving of someone deep in a psychotic break.

Like, I feel like there should have been a better, kinder medical option, but I don't know for sure that there was, so I can't say with certainty this was the kind of cruelty that derives from not caring enough.

And it really would be kind of elegant and so typical of Yue Qingyuan's fundamental tragedy if the real mistake was 'not confiding in anybody' the whole time.

And he was just so deeply sunk into the understanding that explaining and asking were useless that, even looking back, it never really occurred to him that maybe his mistake wasn't 'fucking it up when trying too hard to solve everything on his own' but 'assuming there was no help to be had, and that he had to do it all on his own.'

Like. What if this really could all have been avoided if he'd just trusted and communicated with the adult in charge of him? But of course, of course his history of trauma (neglect, child abuse, exploitation, being the One Responsible for the younger kids whom he could not keep safe) meant he was absolutely not going to do that.

It was basically impossible. For the person he was, the person the world had made of him. And that's always been the core tragedy the whole novel circles back upon.

People can only ever be themselves, and so very often the elements of self that let them survive until now are that which dooms them, that means they need someone else to intervene if they're ever going to be saved. Because your personal doom is always the thing from which you can't save yourself.

#hoc est meum #JUST LIKE SHEN JIU #yue qingyuan #svsss #scum villain #meta #trauma #ambiguous backstory elements #tragedy #growing into your deathmask #the fact that shen jiu got in #and got promoted #tends to imply the former generation wasn't particularly inflexible #or unwilling to entertain deviance #the fact that yqy got made Sect Leader #despite his disability #suggests his teacher valued him #on a personal level #though not necessarily a level that gave a shit #about his happiness or wellbeing #but we srsly do not know

[catcrumb]

some of your crumbs…are so sad… do you mean them to be sad…or do i need therapy? love your work love the cats in their arrayed emotions love you!

some of them intentionally have a melancholy to them, and some others have an ambiguity that can be read as melancholy to them. melancholy is an experience that can suggest an undefined past/causes/details/etc that easily provoke the viewer to imagine the unspoken backstory/future. i really like to use ambiguity in my art to spark questions and thoughts about the Lore of certain catcrumbs, because i think that element of disconnected storytelling (as opposed to connected storytelling, where im in the room with you telling a story, and you can ask me questions and we have a repartee) is really interesting. i like potentially creating and leaving questions for people to fill in answers and thoughts of interpretations of their own. i don't really ever answer questions about "what's going on" in certain catcrumbs (unless people are making it out to be something genuinely real-world evil) because i think that ambiguity is really cool! and it's a big part of what i like doing with my art. i like implying and insinuating, and people construe what they come up with, and thus i can help them delight themselves in the way that is most delightful to them! i think we all did that as kids with books and stories - i still remember how i visualized my favorite chapter books, the moods i had with picture books, the ones that made me wonder and think about what was going on - and i think it's a good experience to have throughout your entire life

im really inspired by this tove jansson quote:

“Every children’s book should have a path in it where the writer stops and the child goes. A threat or a delight that can never be explained. A face never completely revealed.”

tl;dr yes, often intentionally

#crumblings #sorry if this is slightly incoherence. im back on my concerta after being off it for two weeks and its making me scrambly

[writing-with-sophia]

Can you please make a post on How To Create A Good Main Character (hero/antihero)?

Specifically, how to avoid the instance where a secondary character stands out more/is more lovable?

How to create a good main character

Creating a compelling main character, whether they are a hero or an antihero, is crucial for engaging storytelling and capturing readers' imaginations. The protagonist serves as the driving force behind the narrative, and their journey and development shape the overall story arc. To create a good main character, consider the following elements:

Clear Goals and Motivations: Your main character should have well-defined goals and motivations that propel their actions throughout the story. These goals can be external (e.g., saving the world, solving a mystery) or internal (e.g., self-discovery, personal growth). By establishing strong desires and motivations, you give readers a reason to root for and invest in the character's journey.

Complexity and Flaws: A good main character should be multidimensional and have flaws or internal conflicts. Flaws make characters relatable and human, while internal conflicts add depth and complexity to their personality. These imperfections can drive the character's growth and create opportunities for compelling storytelling. You can give your main character a mix of qualities that seem contradictory at first glance. For example, they could be both confident and insecure, compassionate yet prone to anger, or intelligent but plagued by self-doubt. These contradictions create internal tension and intrigue, making the character more complex and realistic. Or you can also show that your main character has vulnerabilities and insecurities beneath their confident exterior. These vulnerabilities can be related to past traumas, fears, or personal weaknesses. By gradually unveiling these hidden vulnerabilities, you create opportunities for character growth and empathy from the reader.

Backstory and Depth: Providing a well-crafted backstory for your main character enhances their depth and allows readers to understand their past experiences, shaping their present identity. Consider their upbringing, past relationships, or significant life events that have influenced their worldview or shaped their personality. This backstory can influence their actions and decisions in the story.

Authenticity and Relatability: The main character should feel authentic and relatable to readers. Create a main character with whom readers can empathize and connect emotionally. Show their vulnerabilities, fears, and insecurities to make them relatable and human. This can also be achieved through realistic dialogue, relatable emotions, and identifiable struggles. By evoking empathy, readers will become emotionally invested in the character's journey and root for their success.

Growth and Development: A strong main character undergoes growth and transformation throughout the story. Allow your main character to face significant challenges and obstacles that require them to grow and evolve. These challenges can push the character out of their comfort zone, test their abilities, and force them to confront their flaws or fears. Through overcoming these obstacles, the character develops resilience, gains new insights, and undergoes personal growth. This character development also allows readers to witness their evolution and creates a sense of satisfaction or catharsis.

Moral Ambiguity: Avoid creating a main character who is purely good or evil. Instead, introduce moral ambiguity by giving them ethical dilemmas or conflicting values. This complexity can generate internal conflicts and force the character to make difficult choices that challenge their own sense of right and wrong. If you're creating an antihero as the main character, you need to consider exploring moral complexity. Antiheroes often possess morally ambiguous qualities, engaging readers by challenging traditional notions of heroism. Balancing their virtuous and flawed aspects can make them intriguing and thought-provoking.

Relationships and Dynamics: The main character's interactions with other characters can illuminate different facets of their personality. Show how their interactions with other characters influence their beliefs, values, and behaviors. As relationships evolve, the character may reveal different aspects of themselves or experience changes in their motivations and loyalties. Well-developed relationships, whether they are friendships, romantic entanglements, or rivalries, can contribute to the main character's growth and provide opportunities for conflict, resolution, or emotional impact.

Consistency and Growth Potential: It is essential to maintain consistency in their core identity and values. Readers should recognize the character's essential traits and motivations throughout the story. This consistency helps them form a bond with the character and creates a sense of authenticity. However, while a main character should have consistent traits and behaviors, there should also be room for growth and change. A compelling main character often goes through an inner journey or transformation alongside the external plot. They may have to confront their own flaws, learn valuable lessons, or undergo a change in their beliefs or values. This inner transformation adds depth and complexity to the character's development and resonates with the readers' own experiences of personal growth. Striking a balance between consistency and growth potential allows the character to maintain their core identity while adapting to the challenges they face.

Unique and Memorable Attributes: Give your main character distinctive qualities that make them stand out in the reader's mind. This could be a unique physical characteristic, a particular skill or talent, or a memorable personality trait. These attributes contribute to the character's individuality and make them memorable long after the story has ended.

External and Internal Conflicts: Introduce conflicts that challenge your main character both externally and internally. External conflicts can come in the form of obstacles, adversaries, or difficult circumstances that the character must overcome. Internal conflicts, on the other hand, delve into the character's inner struggles, such as their fears, doubts, or conflicting desires. Balancing these conflicts adds depth and tension to the character's journey.

Agency and Proactivity: Give your main character agency and the ability to drive the story forward. They should be active participants in their own fate, making choices and taking actions that shape the narrative. Passive characters who merely react to the events around them can be less engaging. Allow your main character to have a degree of control and influence over their destiny.

Inner Journey and Transformation: A compelling main character often goes through an inner journey or transformation alongside the external plot. They may have to confront their own flaws, learn valuable lessons, or undergo a change in their beliefs or values. This inner transformation adds depth and complexity to the character's development and resonates with the readers' own experiences of personal growth.

Subtle Complexity: Avoid creating one-dimensional characters by incorporating subtle layers of complexity. Consider giving your main character conflicting desires, ambiguous morality, or hidden depths. These nuanced qualities make the character more intriguing and provide opportunities for deeper exploration and reader engagement.

How to avoid the instance where a secondary character stands out more/ is more lovable?

Well, It's not uncommon for secondary characters to capture readers' attention and become beloved. However, if you want to ensure that your main character remains the focal point of the story and maintains reader engagement, consider the strategies I mentioned above. There are also some other strategies to keep in mind:

Clear Focus and Development: Give your main character a clear and compelling storyline that allows them to grow, change, and face significant challenges. Ensure that their journey is central to the plot and that their character arc is well-developed. This way, readers will be invested in the main character's progression and more likely to connect with them on a deeper level.

Unique Role and Purpose: Establish the main character's unique role and purpose within the story. Highlight their specific skills, abilities, or knowledge that set them apart from the secondary characters. Make sure that the main character's actions and decisions have a significant impact on the overall narrative, reinforcing their importance and making them indispensable to the story's progression.

Emotional Depth and Relatability: Develop the main character's emotional depth and relatability to forge a strong connection between readers and the character. Show their vulnerabilities, fears, and internal struggles. Allow readers to understand their motivations and experiences, creating empathy and investment in their journey.

Strong Characterization: Craft your main character with distinct and memorable traits, a unique voice, and a well-defined personality. Make sure they have their own quirks, strengths, flaws, and complexities that set them apart. This will help the main character stand out and make them more engaging to readers.

Balanced Screen Time: Ensure that the main character receives an appropriate amount of focus and screen time throughout the story. While secondary characters may have their moments to shine, make sure the main character's presence remains consistent and prominent. Avoid sidelining the main character for extended periods, as this can diminish their impact and reader engagement.

Unique Perspective: Offer readers a unique perspective through the main character's point of view. By delving into their thoughts, emotions, and perceptions of the world, you provide readers with a lens through which they experience the story. This unique perspective can set the main character apart and make them more engaging.

Here is some examples:

In the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, the main character is Scout Finch. While Scout is the central protagonist, her father, Atticus Finch, serves as a beloved secondary character. Atticus is a wise and compassionate lawyer who takes on the defense of a black man falsely accused of rape. He embodies integrity, moral courage, and a strong sense of justice. Atticus is well-respected within the community and serves as a moral compass for Scout and her brother Jem.

Despite Atticus being a beloved character in his own right, the story maintains its focus on Scout's coming-of-age journey. While readers admire and connect with Atticus, it is Scout's perspective, growth, and experiences that drive the narrative forward. Atticus' presence enriches the story, but he doesn't overshadow Scout's development and the central themes of racism and empathy explored through her eyes.

Or in "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë, the main character, Jane Eyre, is an independent and strong-willed woman navigating societal expectations and personal growth. The secondary character of Mr. Rochester, the brooding and complicated love interest, adds depth and complexity to Jane's journey without overshadowing her development. Their relationship provides opportunities for Jane to assert her own values and principles.

In conclusion, secondary characters can add depth and richness to a story, and their popularity is not necessarily a negative aspect. A well-developed main character can coexist with beloved secondary characters as long as the main character remains the driving force of the narrative and maintains a strong connection with readers through their development, challenges, and unique role in the story.

I think if you create a good enough and impressive enough main character, your character will still be loved as usual, no matter how prominent the other characters are.

If you want to read more posts about writing, please click here and give me a follow!

#creative writing #writing #writeblr #writerscommunity #writer things #writersociety #writers #on writing #writblr #writers on tumblr #writings #writer #words #write #writers and poets #women writers #ao3 writer #amwriting #writing stuff #writing advice #writing prompt #writing community #writing inspiration #writing tips #character profile #original character #character design #own character #archive of our own #writing resources

[ukiyowi]

Mini PAC IV

If you were a character in a fantasy novel, what would your quest or adventure look like?

Piles read 1 -> 4

Note: This is a bit different, more intuitive and wrote this in the train back home, hope you enjoyyy

Book a reading! || Ko-fi

🪽 Pile 1

In your fantasy novel adventure, you are an aspiring mage with a unique ability to communicate with ancient spirits. Your quest is to find a codex, a legendary book said to contain the secrets of controlling the elements. With this power, you hope to prevent a catastrophic war between rival mage factions.

Your journey takes you through enchanted forests, treacherous mountains, and forgotten ruins, where you encounter magical creatures and uncover cryptic clues. Along the way, you must make choices that balance the ethical use of your newfound powers with the greater good of your realm.

As you get closer to your goal, you discover that the Codex is protected by a guardian spirit, and you must undergo a series of trials to prove your worthiness. These trials test your wisdom, empathy, and resolve. Ultimately, you succeed but must decide whether to keep the Codex's power for yourself or use it to broker peace among the warring factions, knowing that doing so may come at a great personal cost. Your adventure is a tale of magic, self-discovery, and the enduring struggle between power and responsibility.

🪽 Pile 2

In your fantasy novel adventure, you are a skilled rogue known for your exceptional agility and wit. Your quest is to track down a notorious group of thieves known as the "Shadowed Serpents" who have stolen a powerful, cursed gemstone that can control minds.

To catch the Shadowed Serpents, you'll navigate a sprawling, ancient city filled with hidden passages, secret societies, and corrupt officials. Alongside your trusty band of misfit companions, each with their unique skills, you'll decode cryptic clues, outsmart traps, and engage in thrilling rooftop chases.

As you close in on the thieves, you'll discover their leader possesses a dark secret connected to the gemstone's curse. Your journey becomes a moral dilemma, as you must decide whether to break the curse, which might endanger the city, or use the gemstone to expose corruption and free the minds of its victims. Your adventure is a thrilling blend of espionage, cunning heists, and the complexities of right and wrong in a shadowy world.

🪽 Pile 3

Your adventure takes a darker turn as you become the leader of a formidable group of supervillains. Your quest is to unleash chaos and establish dominance over a sprawling metropolis known for its vigilant superheroes.

As the cunning mastermind behind the Syndicate, you'll recruit a diverse array of superpowered individuals, each with their own unique abilities and motivations. Together, you'll concoct ingenious schemes to disrupt the city's peace and challenge the superheroes who stand in your way.

Your journey will involve heists on a grand scale, unleashing destructive powers, and psychological manipulation to exploit the heroes' weaknesses. Along the way, you'll delve into your own character's complex backstory, exploring the motivations that drove you to become a villain and your desire for ultimate power.

As your plans escalate, you'll face increasingly powerful heroes, leading to epic showdowns and thrilling battles that could determine the fate of the city. Your adventure is a morally ambiguous tale that delves into the depths of villainy, exploring the complex motivations and personal struggles of those who choose to walk the path of darkness.

🪽 Pile 4

In your story, you are a talented, yet reclusive, artist living in a picturesque coastal village. Your quiet life takes an unexpected turn when a charismatic and mysterious stranger arrives in town. This stranger, exudes an aura of intrigue and possesses a passion for restoring antique books.

Your adventure begins when the stranger discovers a hidden chamber in the village's ancient library, rumored to contain a love letter written centuries ago by a long-lost soul. They enlist your artistic skills to bring the letter's sentiments to life through illustrations.

As you both work together on this project, you unravel the story of a profound, forbidden love between two people from different eras. The more you delve into the past, the closer you grow to the strabger. Sparks fly as the line between the story and reality blurs, and a deep connection forms between you two.

Yet, secrets from their past threaten to tear you apart. The quest for the truth behind their enigmatic identity becomes as important as preserving the love story from the past. Along this romantic journey, you'll confront your own fears, past heartaches, and find the courage to embrace a love that transcends time.

All rights reserved - Ukiyowi©

#pac #pac reading #pick a pile #intuition #tarot daily #pick a card reading #pick a card #tarot readings #daily tarot #tarotblr #tarot #free readings #witchblr #🩵 pac 🩵

[spockandawe]

The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System is a story about being unlovable and self-perception and the tragedy of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

It's about a story that Shang Qinghua writes, about this kind of damage being passed down from one generation to the next, and the man himself reflects these issues directly, yes, but they seep out into the entire universe he creates. At the beginning, this was the story he wrote, cut off and left adrift and quietly rejected by his own family, in an attempt to scrape by. In the original draft, Binghe would have been left alone and immortal, never truly loved, with everyone he tried to grasp and keep slipping through his fingers as he was the only one left, with his surroundings reflecting his inner emptiness. But then, Shang Qinghua lost that first draft, and he's left with a rushed, sexed-up story that's financially successful in a way that he knows the original story he wanted to share never would have been. It's about feeling certain that nobody actually wants who you really are, and watching that inner feeling come true around you.

Because this story is about Shen Jiu too. Nobody embodies this tragedy as viscerally as Shen Jiu does, and it's telling that his backstory is one of the critical elements of that lost story than Shang Qinghua never actually got to write. He starts out as a slave kid on the streets, he has no value as a person and is aware of that, and pours everything he has into his relationship with Qi-ge. By everyone else, his confidence and ambition are treated as punchlines, whether he's a toy/pet to the Qiu family, or a tool to his scam artist master after making his escape. But it's deciding that Qi-ge abandoned him that really locks this damage into place. There's nothing Yue Qingyuan can give him that will convince him that the gift is the result of care, rather than guilt. There's no achievement that makes him feel secure. It becomes a tragic feedback loop where his standoffishness and abrasiveness damage his interpersonal relationships to the point where in an ambiguous situation, he's offered less and less credit, until he's simply handed over to a torturer. And it's a situation that was built, in part, by his own actions, because he passed a lot of his own pain down to Luo Binghe.

Luo Binghe's situation is the most textual, in the story we get. He was set adrift in a river moments after being born, where he would have died if not for a fortunate rescue. Even after being adopted, it was a difficult childhood. His mother loved him, but she was torn away while he was still young. And Shen Jiu was a teacher who chose him, but then was particularly and viciously cruel to him. Even in the novel timeline, when Shen Yuan gets thrown into the picture and starts pampering him as soon as he can get away with it, a lot of damage has already been done. The abyss plot point does more, and Shen Qingqiu's fear of his canon fate does more and more. Binghe has been internalizing these rejections from the start. He's not interested in hearing about his birth parents until he's forced to listen, and the cracks show multiple times, right on the page, when he speaks about how nobody would ever want him, or choose him. Even after Shen Qingqiu has made it very clear how much he cares and is willing to sacrifice on his sake (which is a whole other kettle of worms, binghe's decreasing ability to cope with people (shen qingqiu) being hurt for the sake of protecting him, and his growing certainty that caring about him is something intrinsically harmful to others), even after Shen Qingqiu leaves Cang Qiong with him, Binghe barely manages to propose marriage before scrambling to backtrack, because it's not something he can conceptualize having for himself, and he's terrified that it's too much to ask.

But it's interesting that Shang Qinghua's struggles are drawn out for arguably the longest. He has a rough time of it, in both his lives. Even after making it into Cang Qiong Mountain Sect on his transmigration adventure, as the author of the universe in question, he's still shunted off into the most overworked and underappreciated of the peaks. Him hurling himself into shameless begging to survive dangerous situations like meeting Mobei-jun is a more clever characterization than I think it appears at first. And it's funny, right? But it becomes more and more of a sad kind of funny as we get all the way into the extras, and he's totally clueless that Mobei-jun is placing his entire life in Shang Qinghua's hands until it's already happened and they're both in an incredibly dangerous situation. Now, some of this is definitely on Mobei-jun, who is hilariously bad at communication, even in this cast of clowns, but it's also really sad that Shang Qinghua wrote his ideal man, and is confident that this person wouldn't even give someone like Shang Qinghua the time of day. It does genuinely move me that Mobei-jun still fell hard for him, but in a really sad, upsetting way, if that makes sense? And even after Mobei-jun has (barely-verbally) been like 'I trust you above anyone else to protect me when my uncle comes to kill me, and I'm so confident in your abilities that I don't think I even need to explain myself,' afterwards, when Shang Qinghua runs off, he's shocked when Mobei-jun comes looking for him.

I adore how often cnovels include extras after the end of the story proper, but my relationship with the svsss ones is odd, because most of them just emotionally shred me, and I finish the experience on a more melancholy note than I would have initially expected. We get all of Shang Qinghua's personal context and experiences in this part, it's where we get the marriage proposal, and it's got all of Shen Jiu's pov sections. It's also got Zhuzhi-lang, another character who either disappeared in the lost draft or who Shang Qinghua never wrote, who embodies this lack of self-worth even more bluntly than the others, and it's got the universe crossover with canon!binghe, who's still grasping after the experience of being loved, but is gripping so hard that he squeezes the life out of the relationships he tries to keep. These ideas are important in the story proper, but the extras are what take the idea of 'it's silly to think that i would ever be loved' and go after it like a dog with a squeaky toy. Seeing this crop up for one character would be fun, seeing it come up so many times, including for the author character himself, is intentional.

#the scum villain's self saving system #svsss #shen jiu #luo binghe #shang qinghua

[very-grownup]

We started a new cdrama over Easter weekend and while @gyobaku appears to be watching something quality with a magic chicken, I'm still paying for a iQiyi subscription, so we're watching White Cat Legend: Oops All Doofuses.

I cannot stress enough how much the short summary on mydramalist fails to make two important factors clear:

Cat.

Idiots.

So far everything else comes well after Cat and Idiots.

I said just pick something based on vibes and the vibes were informed entirely by this image:

Accurate, but it's missing an important element.

Cat.

Simple country boy Chen Shi (Zhou Qi) comes to the big city in search of his brother (reason currently to be determined) and in his innocent helpfulness finds himself both responsible for the arrest of human traffickers and being arrested with a cranky, drugged cat. Chen Shi Does Not Understand and passes out when the cat bites him. He wakes up out of prison and in the company of Li Bing (Ding Yu Xi), the son of the assassinated minister of justice who disappeared three years ago (THREE YEARS AGO).

But now he's back and here to check on the pursuit of justice and investigate the events surrounding his father's death and also he's now a cat.

Why is Cat? is also one of the mysteries he has to solve. He was apparently dying of backstory tuberculosis before Cat Happened, so Cat really seems to be all upsides at this point in the series. He doesn't seem to have to Be Cat at certain times or under certain conditions, it's just a thing he can do at will. He can be an attractive young man or a beautifully silky white CGI cat ...

... or a man with an hilariously badly incorporated grumpy CGI cat head. Is it "bobcat in Story of Kunning Palace" bad? Who can say. The nuances of "bad" can be so subjective.

But it's not just about Li Bing investigating the mysteries of his personal tragedy and Cat, it's also about becoming the boss of the four biggest doofus incompetents in the ministry:

Cui Bei (Ding Jia Wen), pessimistic sadsack with an eidetic memory who brings disaster down upon himself and those around him

Wang Qi (Feng Man), the self-appointed leader of the doofuses whose overconfidence in his own skills is matched only by his laziness

Sun Bao (Zhang Yi Cong), the scarred muscle and army vet who is a devotee of fortune tellers and would very much not like to have to fight anything

Ali Baba (Kudusjan Anivar/Wa Er), the Foreign One (you can't say Foreign Idiot because they're all idiots)

Together they ... solve ... crime while Chen Shi just wants to have a pet cat and protect stray children.

It's very silly and charming and I know Ambiguously Foreign character named /Ali Baba/ is some kind of race /something/ but as an outsider in every way I can't even begin to say what. Anivar is Uyghur and I think he's the first non-Han actor we've encountered in the dramas we've watched. Just an interesting bit of something to note in watching a very silly show.

Cat.

#cdrama #white cat legend

[zepumpkineater]

And now my thoughts have fallen onto Hank. So many questions, where to begin? Who is he? Where did he come from? Why does he act so violently? Did he choose this path, or was it chosen for him?

All questions the Madness fandom has asked and, in many different ways, attempted to answer. Sad, angsty backstories of the loss of someone close, a rough upbringing or some kind of traumatic event.

And of course, we have the "canon" interpretation. The cold blooded murderer who has little to no regard for himself or others. No meaningful connections, no friends, loved ones, or goals to aspire to. Just a man who's really good at killing people.

And I will admit more often than not, I find myself using this interpretation for more Hank related or Hank-adjacent things, but that's not to say I haven't found myself exploring the deeper psyche of our dear protagonist, and wondering just what exactly makes him tick, so to speak.

There was a time I had actually subscribed to headcanons that made Hank more of a sympathetic character, someone to relate to and feel bad for, someone who cared for his friends and was simply bad at showing it. And while I do not challenge the validity of such headcanons, I find myself wanting to take a more...Ambiguous approach.

One of the more entertaining aspects of Madness Combat, at least to me, is the inherent ambiguity of many things. Project Nexus more or less confirmed a lot of the fandom's headcanons regarding several major characters, Hank being no exception. There have been a fair share of arguments regarding Hank's feelings to those who would otherwise be considered his friends and allies, namely Sanford and Deimos.

In a way, I enjoy how many people are discussing and debating just what Hank was thinking in the very moment he decided to betray the dynamic duo that we had just finished playing as for 1/3rd of the game, characters that we were able to easily establish an emotional connection to due to their bombastic personalities. Generally, the personalities of these two are largely uncontested across the greater fandom, but Hank's is always the topic of debate.

I enjoy this because well, it's kind of always been like this. Even in the earliest years of the fandom, there were arguments in forums and in newgrounds comments sections about whether or not Hank was the "good guy", and the debate rages on. It's endearing, much like Hank himself and the series he belongs to.

It reminds me of an idea I had, in regards to if I were in charge of a Madness Combat movie. Hank in particular is a character I would be eager to depict on the screen, to have the chance to depict his emotional ambiguity to an audience who had previously never experienced the character and his violent escapades.

I would intentionally create scenes that leave the viewer asking just how much of a consciousness Wimbleton truly has. A scene where he picks up a stuffed bear, battered and worn by years of neglect and exposure to the elements. He stops and stares at it for a moment, as if in some kind of somber reflection - before unceremoniously tearing the toy open to reveal a wad of bills inside, or some other useful item.

Was Wimbleton reflecting on a childhood lost, or perhaps the loss of innocence that now plagues his world? Or was he simply inspecting the toy in order to find the right place to tear it and extract his desired item?

I think if I were to depict the battle between Sanford, Deimos and Hank in the form of a film, I would have Hank fight in a specific way. Defensively, in order to introduce dual ideas. Does he fight defensively because he knows he's outnumbered, or does he not desire to maim and kill the duo as he does his usual victims?

Would he stab Sanford in the shoulder instead of the heart? A lucky miss, or perhaps a deliberate attack in order to avoid lethality? Is he truly fighting to kill, or does some deeper recess of his mind not desire to harm those he has fought alongside through the horrors of Project Nexus?

Would they notice it, would they see it that way, would Sanford and Deimos pick up on Hank's fighting style, or would the heat of the moment only allow them to view it as one thing: A desperate struggle for survival?

#madness combat #txt #ramblings

[writerthreads]

How to write morally grey characters

By WriteAway on Servicescape

Morally ambiguous characters are those that are not simply heroes or villains. They fall somewhere in between, and as such, add a layer of depth and complexity to your story. The truth is that most humans in real life are not pure angels or simply bad people, but rather hold elements of both. Morally ambiguous characters can drive the plot in interesting ways, allow for great character growth, and sometimes end up being some of the most memorable characters in a book.

Morally ambiguous characters can start off with good intentions and then be driven to evil by others or by society, or they can start off evil and come to redeem themselves. Alternatively, they can remain ambiguous and complex throughout the whole narrative, and leave the reader to make up their own mind about them. Either way, these characters certainly make us think about the nature of good and evil and the complexity of the human psyche.

Give them a backstory

Understanding where they came from is important for any character, but it's particularly crucial when your characters are morally ambiguous. Often, the struggles the character went through in the past go some way to explaining their negative character traits now, or at least make us empathise with them a little.

The backstory is important for character development, and it is a great place to explore ideas of personal responsibility vs critiques of society and the results of terrible experiences. Whether your character was bullied as a child, pushed to the margins of society, or something else entirely, give them a rich background that helps us understand why they act the way they do.

Understand their motives

All characters should have needs and desires, and reasons they do the things they do. Often, when it comes to morally ambiguous characters, their motive is exactly what causes them to slip up and do morally questionable, cruel, or destructive things. This can be true whether or not the motive is itself a good one or not.

A morally ambiguous character can be a wonderful opportunity to explore the idea that the ends justify the means, and the corrupting force of power. Whether your character's motives are good but lead them to terrible actions, or whether it is precisely the selfishness of the motives that lead to your character's downfall, give them goals and desires that force them (and the reader) to grapple with choices and dilemmas. And the motives don't have to be as dramatic as the ones mentioned – as with Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby, it can be something as simple as a desire to win back a lover that leads a character into moral ambiguity.

Give them a weakness

Going all the way back to ancient Greek tragedies, the idea of the hero with a fatal flaw has lived on in literature for thousands of years. A morally ambiguous character may be fundamentally good, but marred by a particular weakness, such as cowardice, vanity, shame, or anger. The characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby are full of fatal flaws. For Daisy Buchanan it is her vanity and desire for wealth and admiration. For Jay Gatsby it is his love for Daisy, as well as his shame surrounding his background.

Your character's weakness doesn't have to be the ultimate cause of their downfall or even their central character trait. The main point is that they have certain elements in their nature that challenge them, tempt them, or cause them to struggle. It doesn't matter what they are, but weaknesses make morally ambiguous characters more believable, layered, and human.

Give them redeeming qualities

This goes without saying, but you can't have a morally ambiguous character without giving them some redeeming qualities. Whether they are primarily good but are driven or tempted to wicked acts, or whether they are basically villains with good motives or elements of kindness, there needs to be some level of balance.

Severus Snape is often cruel and sometimes corrupt, but he ultimately makes the right choices where it matters. The Artful Dodger is a thief and ultimately betrays Oliver in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, but he also helps Oliver and displays feelings of sympathy towards him. Moreover, his actions can be understood in light of his circumstances and experiences.

In the end, it doesn't matter where your character falls on the scale of morality. The important thing is that they have a believable and interesting combination of motives, flaws, and redeeming qualities. If you can get these elements right, you will have yourself a really fascinating, morally ambiguous character.

Let them grow and change

Character arcs are essential to good storytelling. No character should be exactly the same at the end of a book as they were at the beginning. The mechanics of plot are important but are ultimately meaningless if they don't cause development on the part of the characters. However, when it comes to morally gray characters, the way they change throughout the narrative is particularly important.

George R. R. Martin is a master of the character arc. Both of the Lannister brothers are not presented as particularly praiseworthy at the beginning of the series. Tyrion, while harmless, is shown to be philandering, selfish, and lazy. Jaime Lannister, on the other hand, is an outright villain, as he pushes a young boy out of a high window just to protect the reputation of him and his sister. Both go through redeeming character arcs, with Tyrion becoming a paragon of thoughtful justice with a commitment to seeing good prevail. Jaime has perhaps the most striking redemptive arc of the series, but his love for his sister is the fatal flaw that spells disaster in the end.

Many supervillains and other characters experience the opposite type of character arc. In the recent Joker movie, we observe the Joker not as a simple villain, but as someone who was pushed to evil from his experiences and the cruelty he suffered at the hands of society. He begins as a sympathetic character, but by the end he is without question a villain. However, it need not be as black and white as this. Jay Gatsby's weaknesses certainly lead to his downfall, but it is up to your interpretation whether he is ultimately a tragic character or someone who has received his comeuppance.

As we can see, a character arc need not be simple or go only in one direction. Your character can struggle continuously with moral questions, leaving the reader unsure up until the finale what side they will end up on. You can end your book and leave it ambiguous whether the character was ultimately good or evil, or perhaps a very human combination of the too. The main point is that the experiences they have and the actions they undertake throughout the novel must affect them in some way, so that they develop as a character.

Keep the readers guessing

The previous point touches on this, but one way you can keep readers fascinated throughout the whole book is to keep them guessing about the true moral nature of the character and what they will do next. Severus Snape is a prime example of this. We as readers are left unsure right up until the end of the series whether his loyalties lie with the Death Eaters or with the Order of the Phoenix and those fighting Voldemort. In fact, people still argue about whether Snape really redeemed himself enough to be the namesake of one of Harry's sons or not. If your character causes arguments, you have done something right!

There are multiple literary devices you could use to keep your readers guessing. You could pepper little hints throughout the narrative that show the possibility of redemption or allude to potential disaster. Instead of revealing what the character is thinking, you could merely show us their actions, leaving us to interpret them. Alternatively, you could be explicit about the mental struggles the character is going through when making moral decisions. Whatever your method is, leaving things uncertain and keeping various possibilities open is what makes the audience want to keep reading.

Give them difficult choices

Choices often drive plot and character development, and difficult decisions are a central way in which authors can allow ambiguous characters to struggle with moral questions and keep readers guessing. The choices that these characters make can redeem them or be the catalyst for their downfall. Snape's decisions to join the Death Eaters and later to leave and join the fight against them, is the cornerstone of his character development and much of the plot of the Harry Potter series. Jay Gatsby's initial decision to lie to Daisy about his background is the key choice that leads to his life of dishonesty and unhappiness.

In many cases, the choices that characters make are key events that determine the shape of a book. They are also great opportunities to explore difficult moral questions and dilemmas. Maybe your character has to choose between the greater good and personal desires. Perhaps they are faced with a decision that hinges on loyalty to loved ones versus making the moral choice. They could be tempted by greed, vanity, cowardice, or anger. There are so many difficult choices you can force upon your characters.

Not only can such decisions drive the narrative of a book, but they can also make readers think about very real dilemmas they face in their own lives, and broader questions about the nature of "right" and "wrong." A really good book doesn't just entertain us, but makes us think and forces us to come to our own conclusions. It makes us consider things we may not have before and leads us to apply ideas to the real world, no matter how magical the setting of the book is.

Focus on relationships

Often, the decisions that a character has to make and the experiences they go through are closely linked to other characters. In the case of Frankenstein, the central relationship is between the monster and the scientist who created him. It's not a relationship that involves much contact, but it is what the narrative revolves around. Relationships can redeem, such as Snape's love for Harry's mother Lily. Alternatively, they can cause a character's downfall, such as Jaime Lannister's incestuous relationship with Cersei or Gatsby's obsession with Daisy Buchanan. Relationships are a great motivating factor for morally ambiguous characters, whether they lead to temptation, redemption, or other moral challenges.

In addition to that, it's important to consider the conflicting motives and forces informing all of your characters. Although not all your characters need to be morally ambiguous, they should all be complex. Even the most heroic character can struggle with temptation and can make the wrong choice from time to time. Even the evilest villains should have elements that we can empathise with or moments of kindness. Otherwise, they are nothing more than a caricature. That does not mean that you cannot have people who are essentially good and those who are essentially evil. However, inserting a little ambiguity into all of your characters makes them more authentic and human. Each character should be well-rounded, believable, and multifaceted. Writing explicitly morally ambiguous characters can help you make better characters all round.

#writers on tumblr #writing #story writing #teen writer #writers #writers block #writing inspiration #writing tips #creative writing #writing advice #writeblr #writersofig #writersofinstagram #writing prompt #characterisation #character development #villain #hero and villain #villains and heroes #heroes and villains #morally ambiguous #morally gray

[youleavethetardisbrakeson]

I can't count the number of times that I've seen posts of people losing their minds over show!Rhaenys not having black hair...

Listen, I get that people want to see characters as they're described in books. Would Eve Best have looked badass with dark hair? Absolutely. But I think that this complaint often misunderstands the nature of adaptations and WHY the show did what it did.

Obviously, Rhaenys' mother being a Baratheon comes into play quite often in the books. You see a whole history of the two families, way more of Boremund being #1 uncle, and understand the weight of him backing Rhaenys' claim as queen.

TV and movie adaptations don't have the luxury of describing pages of backstory and ancestry. You often need to compromise on certain book elements in order to let the audience quickly and easily understand who a person is and how they're related to other characters.

In HotD, the fact that Rhaenys is a Baratheon comes in second to her being a Targaryen. Her Baratheon ancestry literally does not come into play other than Luke trying to persuade Borros to join Team Black, and even then, it DOESN'T MATTER. Borros throws that family connection away like it was nothing. The book argument of her hair color being a possible explanation for Jace, Luke, and Joff's appearance also wouldn't really do much because 1) the show chooses to emphasize that Harwin is the boys' father with zero ambiguity (other than Viserys' weird horse-based logic), and 2) the show!Velaryons are black, and that is a HUGE elephant in the room that's going to trample anything else.

As a side note, GRRM himself couldn't seem to decide on her hair color. In The Princess and the Queen, her hair is Targaryen silver, but F&B changed it to black, with white streaks appearing as she ages. Her children also don't inherit her black hair; both are described in the books as having silver hair, so take that for what you will.

Book readers are usually avid, detail-oriented fans. We love all the small details, family trees, and lore. But book readers are NOT who the show is marketed towards. They have to try and appeal to a larger, more mainstream audience. You need the content to be accessible and easy to understand for a middle-aged mother of 2 in Oklahoma who generally doesn't consume anything fantasy. As I'm sure many of us with boomer parents know, trying to explain elaborate lore to people who aren't in the fandom is HARD.

The #1 thing that the average non-book reader needs to quickly understand is that Rhaenys is a TARGARYEN. She could've, SHOULD'VE, been queen, but she was passed over. You're also combating the fact that she's generally wearing Velaryon blue, and the show doesn't explicitly show that she's a dragonrider until episode 9. Since Emilia Clarke never wore purple contacts for Daenerys in GoT, the ONLY visual representation of a Targaryen that the show has in its arsenal is silver hair. If you need any more convincing, look at what the HotD casting director said in a 2022 interview:

Again, yeah, it would've been cool to see Rhaenys with dark hair. I know Eve looks good with dark hair. But for this show, silver hair = Targaryen, and that takes precedence.

#not to mention the fact that the show completely did away with the wide range of Targaryen hair colors in favor of one very distinct silver #sometimes you have to take shortcuts in the name of comprehension #hotd #house of the dragon #rhaenys targaryen #eve best #caroline rants about film analysis

[thatgirl4815]

Only Friends Series Review/Themes

And so we've finally reached the end. It's been wild ride. I find it difficult to put a number to a review, but I think the series as a whole managed to tackle quite a few conflicts relatively seamlessly, and as a whole I think they delivered on the "messiness" that was promised (even though things could always be messier, such as giving Sand a bat...but I digress). I'll look at each couple independently and discuss their characters within that.

Sand/Ray

Goes without saying that Sand and Ray were the main draw for me, and despite all the fears and discourse throughout, they were a solid endgame. There was no ambiguity, no open-ending--just pure happiness in that car on the rooftop. I ended the episode with a smile on my face. Not to mention that montage of them dancing in the streets and on the stairs. I had a grin on my face the whole time.

As a whole, I think SandRay's relationship meant a lot to both characters, more than they ever meant it too that night they first met in the bar. Considering where each couple started and how negative things were at the onset, I think theirs is the most poignant ending. As Ray says in the finale, Sand gives him a purpose and goal to work towards. Ray is now in a position where he can better himself. As someone who seems to have spent so much of his life feeling unwanted, Sand is the one who shows him that he is more. It's unfortunate that this had to come at a price for Sand at times, but the fact that they were able to work past their issues says the most about their dynamic. As far as communication goes, they say what they mean and own up to their mistakes. SandRay's superpower: "thank you's" and "I'm sorry's." Especially from Ray--yes, he tends to act like an asshole, but he knows it. He's self aware. There's an element of self-fulfilling prophecy guiding his actions a lot of the time I think, because if "I'm such a burden, why try to be anything different?" Ray gives in to fatalistic thinking, but it is Sand who talks him back from the edge time and time again. Sand is a caretaker and Ray is someone in need of caretaking. What blossoms from that starting dynamic is truly beautiful. They're very different people, but that's what makes them best suited for each other. Regardless of everything else, they make each other happy. There was never anything in this series that made me doubt that connection.

If I was to find fault in their storyline, it would be in the final two episodes. Everything up to that point was very well-executed, but Boeing was brought in at the wrong time. Possessive Ray is good, but not at this late stage of the series. Additionally, Sand's reaction to Boeing will never not frustrate me, as even though it may be in character, I never felt the weight of what it is Sand is going through in regards to Boeing. This could've been resolved in a flashback or more discussion of their relationship...something. Instead, Boeing was a throwaway plot device that was there to stir the pot for a few episodes before being conveniently discarded. Unfortunate. What I would've loved to see was more of Ray's rehab and any conflicts stemming from that, especially because this is such an important topic to discuss.

Favorite Scene: Favorite SandRay scene is honestly up in the air--there are too many good ones. I'd say it's between the montage in the last episode, the record store scene in Ep4, the cheek kiss in Ep9, or the therapy scene in Ep10. I know Sand wasn't there for the therapy scene, but that was such an important moment for Ray's character that I feel a special attachment to it.

Top/Mew

Anyone who has seen my comments on TopMew knows that I've never been the most fond of their relationship. I agree with what some others have said in the past that they're much more compelling on their own rather than together. Additionally, Top had the potential to be fleshed out much more than he was, as was hinted at with his traumatic backstory early on. Instead, both he and Mew were left to dwell in mediocrity.

My problem with TopMew is that their relationship never seemed to go anywhere. They had discussions about their feelings and concerns, but the progression always felt very minimal. When the cheating plotline came into effect, it felt like three episodes of the same cycle: Top apologizing, begging for Mew's forgiveness, Mew's resistance, Mew secretly still having feelings for Top that he can't reconcile, Mew lashing out, Top getting upset, and repeat.

Beyond that, I just felt a general lack of chemistry between them. This is not meant to be a ForceBook criticism, because I'm sure they do genuinely have good chemistry together. But the relationship altogether felt tense. If there was any word I would use to describe TopMew, it would be that. Even when Mew gave in to Top, it never felt like he truly gave in. As an audience member, Mew's obstinance and inflexibility made me frustrated more often than not. I find this last point especially interesting because out of all characters, I'm probably most similar to Mew in my real life.

I do have to hand it to the writers though--a cheating plotline is not easy to deal with. While I feel like TopMew were pushed together in the end, whether it truly made sense or not, I do admire that they tried so hard to show us their efforts to work through their issues.

Favorite Scene: I like the scene from Ep11 where Top cries and essentially lays out all his feelings. It felt like one of the most honest things we've seen from him. There were other sweeter scenes that I liked earlier on, like the cafe date where they talk about lasik, but it was harder to enjoy plot points early on with TopBoston's hookup lurking in the back of my mind.

Boston/Nick

The only couple that didn't get a happy ending. Honestly, as per my predictions at the beginning of the series, this didn't come as much of a surprise, though it did feel a bit rushed. Similar to TopMew, I do admire that the writers were not afraid to show how deeply entrenched Boston is in his promiscuous lifestyle that he is unable to break away from it. I also think Boston's character brings up a lot of interesting discussions about morality and how we perceive men, particularly queer men, leading this kind of lifestyle. I touch on this topic as well as pacing in this ask, so I won't get into too much detail here.

There have been many discussions about BostonNick's relationship in the context of ephemerality. I've been thinking lately how Boston's entire character is built on this idea: he doesn't want anything long-term, and he's content drifting from person to person and place to place making rash decisions along the way. This way of thinking has led him to disregard the consequences of his actions.

There are two specific points in this episode where Boston and Nick's flaws are addressed: once when Mew tells Boston that he should look to make a change within himself, and another time when Nick admits that he wants to start caring for himself more.

Boston and Nick can ultimately get more out of their relationship now that its ended more than they ever could while they were together. And though I might have my gripes with the execution (the pacing, more specifically), I do think this takeaway is important in the greater scheme. Nick now knows more about what he wants and deserves, and Boston now knows more about what kind of commitments he's willing to make and the honest communication required for any bond.

What's also interesting to me is that Boston's lesson here isn't confined to his romantic relationships. Boston going to NYC is a convenient escape from the mess he's created, but it really is a new start for him, a chance to start anew and actually contend with what he knows is wrong. That scene on the rooftop between BostonNick in Ep10 means something: Boston knows he's destructive. He knows he's a bad guy. And oddly enough, I think that's the most hopeful sign for him.

The only other gripe I have with this relationship is that it felt like they were secondary to the other two couples, particularly in the way they were treated in the final minutes. I know Boston left for NYC and Nick hasn't been involved in the hostel throughout the series, but I still wish Nick would've gotten to partake...maybe with Dan on his arm? Unfortunately we're left guessing about how Nick is doing.

Favorite Scene: The scene on the rooftop from Ep10 was so sweet. It really felt like a solid coming-back-together for them. I'm sad it didn't work out, but I also feel like this was the most satisfying conclusion.

Drawbacks

Inevitably, there were some issues that I took with the series throughout, many of which I already mentioned above. Some are general and some are rather specific...

Boeing. Pretty much everything about Boeing felt tacked on for dramatic effect. He felt like a shallow villain because his motives weren't fully fleshed out. We can infer that he's egotistical and selfish, chasing after Top and pursuing Sand after when he doesn't get his way. But his relationship with Sand needed more fleshing out and could've benefitted from better placement. If Boeing had entered the conflict when Ray was still in a "relationship" with Mew, that would've escalated the conflict between SandRay more by showing Ray how fragile his situation is.

Atom situation being brushed under the rug. Many others have commented on this, so I won't belabor it. But accusing someone of SA, even if that person is as cruel as Boston, is never okay. Atom apologized for it, yeah, but Cheum's apology did not satisfy me.

Moral superiority. This is not a criticism exactly, but I really wish some characters' moral superiority would've been addressed/called out more (I'm thinking of Mew and Cheum). I also wish this would've come into play in discussions about Ray's addiction problem.

Some scene cuts: tattoo bit being cut out of Ep5. I'm glad they put it back in, but it was frustrating that it was removed in the first place.

I never saw First Kanaphan holding a bat in this series. It's all I wanted, seriously. All criticisms would've been wiped away if they'd only let him hold one. (Points back for that TopSand kiss though. The way Sand pushed him back against the couch...man had been wanting to vent his anger for a long time.)

Mew getting lasik. Glasses for the win.

WE NEED MORE MIX! That last scene with Mix has been on my mind all day. He made such an impact on me with his cameo that I only think what could've been if he'd had more of a role.

Overarching Themes

I won't go into too much depth on these since this post is already getting massive, but some core themes that I think stand out in this finale (and just overall):

Ephemerality: specifically related to BostonNick, but there's been some extensive meta on its application overall.

Boundaries:

Self-respect: I think this tends to go hand-in-hand with boundaries as a theme.

Self-love: @thegalwhorants made a great post about this earlier on in the series here, particularly with Ray's character.

Polyamory/Promiscuity: I wouldn't classify this as a "theme" exactly, but it's worth mentioning how a series like this tackles the idea of promiscuity and sexual relationships and what other series can gain from that kind of discussion.

Okay! I'm sure I'll think of more things to add to this, but my mind has been buzzing since that finale. Overall, I'm satisfied. There are issues, and some plot points towards the ends started to feel sloppy and rushed, but those were not pressing enough to damage my overall opinion of the show. I know this will remain one of my favorites from GMMTV for a long while.

Tagging the ephemerality squad for my discussion of ephemerality in regards to Boston and Nick and the themes mentioned above: @waitmyturtles @ranchthoughts, @chickenstrangers, @twig-tea, @neuroticbookworm, @lurkingshan, @distant-screaming, @clara-maybe-ontheroad

#only friends the series #only friends #ofts #sandray #raysand #topmew #bostonnick #only friends meta #only friends episode 12 #only friends finale #raysan #sanray #firstkhaotung #forcebook #neomark #firstkhao #ephemerality squad

[darkestprompts]

DD2 Shrine Rewrites Part 4: Boudica did nothing wrong

So why is that a bad thing?

If you have seen this post pop up before, worry not, it's just tumblr mobile being an entire garbage can and posting it while it was still a draft. So let me just get to our favorite rabid redhead. Her case of woobification is a lot more transparent than Audrey's, at any rate.

Boudica as we knew her

The comic explains her relationship to outsiders as well. It's no surprise that her barks show a distaste and even contempt for "city-folk". Her cultural values do not allign with the ones of the ruling majority, there's active conflict between them and her people, and she lives among them not by choice, but only because she was rejected by her own.

The original Hellion comic is straightforward yet impactful. An army that looks very familiar to what we are used to in the game crosses a forested area. A group of rugged warriors in furs and blue paint await to ambush them. A single figure stands back in aprehension: we recognize Boudica. She has good reason to do so. Although her fellow warriors have the element of surprise, the army is better equipped, perhaps more numerous and is able to easily regroup and strike back. The attackers are slaughtered. Boudica does nothing, she can do nothing... but hide and live in shame. The aftermath is confirmed by her CC set. She possesses a Mark of the Outcast and her quote mentions a subsequent expulsion from her clan.

It's a curious thing, how Boudica's comic self contrasts with her in-game presentation. In the game she's bloodthirsty, eager to fight, boastful, brave, disdainful of cowardice. In the comic she's fearful from the very start, like she never wanted to be there to begin with. But given how this event must have impacted her, there's no contradiction. Boudica is compensating for her past weakness with brawn and bravado.

On the gameplay side, the Hellion's kit is all about sudden bursts of power. She can dish out massive damage and painful bleeds, but those will debuff her considerably unless you can use Adrenaline Rush to get her back in the fray. She's a berserker unburdened by tactics, relying on the strength of her rage to get her through battle.

She's very concerned about spirits and ancestors, often remarking their role on the changing tides of battle. It's possible that for Boudica's people a Hellion's battle trance is a form of possession ("A primal spirit has overtaken me. I am... MORE."). It would fit well with their apparent penchant for revelry. Though it's interesting to note that while she's religious in her own way, she can also tell the gods to get bent to strengthen her own conviction ("Reject the Gods"). Is this something accepted in her culture, the idea that a warrior may break taboos or even challenge the gods in the heat of battle? Or did Boudica become a bit of a heretic when she was cast out by her people? She's full of ambiguities and I love her for it.

In conclusion, the Hellion is, on one side, a harsh, violent opponent that delights in battle and, on the other, an exile punished for her fear and unwillingness to fight. She's faithful and blasphemous, proud and ashamed, strong and weak. An unsustainable contradiction, a deathseeker afraid to die.

The outcast

Fury and shame

DD2 introduces a crucial change to the original backstory. While in the comic we saw Boudica as she is in the present, the new game shows her as very young at the time of the fatal battle. In fact, she was only allowed to join the war party at her own insistence and by proving her strength repeatedly! Not a drop of hesitation here. She's eventually accepted into the war party, spends a drunken night with her buddies and off to murder generic soldier models she goes.

We know she's doomed to fail, but here the second change hits us: Boudica tries. She joins the fray and, the way the game plays out, we get the impression that she's first in line, advancing, rallying her companions when they begin to falter, doing her best against overwhelming odds. A world of difference from the comic, where she didn't even dare approach a single enemy soldier. A part of me simply files this under DD2 making every character look better, cooler, faster, stronger, buffer; another part wonders if they were afraid of making the warrior chick a coward. Which would be ironic, considering DD1 Boudica gets one of the most badass Come Into Your Maker quotes, while a most of the girls only get to be terrified or ambivalent (and one day I WILL get to that, just you wait). There was nothing to fix there, either way. Yet here we are.

The rest of the shrines are all dedicated to what comes after her "failure", namely, retreating only when odds were overwhelmingly bad and not dying like an idiot. She wakes up alone to the carrion birds preying on her dead kin that she DID try to save but realistically couldn't. She returns to her clan to the jeers and literal mudslinging of widows. She's cast out. And she's still a kid that should never been sent into battle. It's the Boudica conga line of suffering.

Red Hook, look at me. We get it. Things are tragic and sad. You are starved for space to unfold a narrative due to the constraints of gameplay, there's no need to overstate a point as obvious as "she was shamed and exiled after watching her people get slaughtered--And That Is Bad".

Besides, you already carefully stripped Boudica of guilt by making her young and not actually abandoning her fellows, the more you simply show a sequence of tragedies happening to her the more it sounds like you are desperate to make the audience like the character. That we already liked. In DD1.

Now, I will be the first one to tell you that any successful army has the need to enforce cohesion and discipline. The natural human response to a charge is to break and run for your life, but that is also what gets you and your buddies slaughtered. That's why desertion is punished. At the same time, precisely because you are beating down a person's survival instincts, it's easy to sympathize with the deserter, and for that reason many people hold the position that there's absolutely no moral reason or manner to force an individual to stand their ground and fight. Regardless of your position here, it's not hard to understand that there's a tension between the individual and the collective that makes it a complicated issue.

Comic Boudica abandoned her clansmen, she refused to engage in battle from the very beginning. It makes sense that they held her as a traitor and a coward, especially since it's heavily suggested their culture holds notions of honor and bravery as important. You may agree or not, to different degrees. But I don't think even her harshest critic would deny she had strong reasons for what she did, even if we have no access to her thoughts (did she realize the enemy was too powerful? was she pressured to be there to begin with? were there failed skirmishes before this one?).

So it boggles my mind that they felt the need to make her more justified and blameless. She's young and inexperienced. She shouldn't be there to begin with, even by her clan's estimation. She doesn't avoid the battle. She's on the frontlines. She only retreats after it becomes evident that they'll be crushed. The question we are left with isn't "should Boudica have left her people to save herself?", it's "why is the dumbass kid you didn't want to be there rallying older warriors and leading the charge?". Making her less responsible for her actions has the side-effect of making her clan seem stupid and unreasonable. Speaking of which, it's not enough for her to be ritually banished, as implied by the Mark of the Outcast. She has to be publicly humiliated by an army of angry widows.

I'm not saying that culture isn't a powerful thing and their actions couldn't make sense within their own framework, but here's the thing: we know very little about Boudica's culture. The audience is left to judge by its own standards. And by these standards, Boudica's story is much more clear-cut in her own favor. Again I find myself grasping for a motive. Didn't they trust their audience to still love these characters? Yes, DD2 is meant to be more positive, but the thing about redemption is that there needs to be an action to be redeemed. If you hold characters accountable you need to make them responsible for their mistakes first. Otherwise you end up with horrible unintended readings such as "Audrey is to blame for her own abuse". That, or you undermine your own narrative and the tale about rising from your lowest point turns into just another sad backstory.

Prove yourself

Boudica's shrines illustrate how the devil is in the details. The damage done to her character is disproportionate to what was changed. All you'd need, for the most part, is to give her an adult model and make her fight about avoiding damage. There are certainly less knobs to turn than Audrey's. Still, I'm going to provide an alternative version that is closer to my own vision. Besides, I find the pacing a bit awkward as it stands. You have three shrines dealing with the aftermath of the battle, that's a lot of narrative space going over how she was sad and miserable and guilty and yadda yadda.

The game likes different models for the backstories, so let us starts with a young Boudica too, only younger than the one shown to us. She's playing war or sparring with her peers. She revels on thoughts of bravery and glory. The spirits are said to favor her and it's expected that she will be a great warrior one day. The "battle" is laughably easy. The second shrine is much the same as the Eve of Glory in canon, except Boudica is an adult and perhaps already showing some aprehension. These strangers are coming in large numbers, their armor is heavy, they fight with trickery. The previous encounters haven't gone well for her people.

Then, the moment we were waiting for: Boudica discovers war is not a game. Her knees are locked in place as the warband advances to the ambush. In a blink of an eye there are already so many of her clansmen dead. The "battle" is anything but: all you can do is avoid getting slaughtered. You get skills like "hide", "run", "ignore their cries". Boudica escapes alive, but her pride is broken. The next shrine deals with the aftermath. She returns to her clan and confesses to cowardice. The elders judge and shun her quickly, she is handed the dreaded Mark of the Outcast as a reminder of her failure. She's no longer worthy of her heritage, her destiny. The last shrine describes how she becomes a suicidal wanderer shunned by death.

As I hope you can see, giving the character autonomy and flaws doesn't diminish the potential for audience sympathy. For my part, I find myself unable to care as much if I feel that the writer is pushing someone as a poor moeblob victimized by the narrative. Darkest Dungeon, the original, was proof of how terrible people can still elicit love and pity in the audience. Did they forget that? I honestly can't tell.

Up next, we might move to Alhazred or Bonnie. They illustrate different problems, Bonnie is very unique in that we have no basis of comparison for her past, but I will still take a crack at her.

#darkest dungeon #dd2 shrine rewrites #dd boudica #dd hellion #NOW YOU CAN READ IT #fckin tungle

[troutfur]

How do you like Starclan being represented in stories?

Me personally, I always like it when Starclan is something inscrutable, esoteric, almost Eldritch. No one knows exactly what they are trying to say or what they want.

"Oh sorry, you wanted a clear message about who the traitor is and how to avoid a bad event, to bad, we are your godlike ancestors, not the fucking newspaper, you are getting a vision, a prophecy, and you WILL like it."

It is something that the characters can't interact with easily and is ambiguous in their goals. Maybe Starclan is manipulating the living for its own gain, maybe they are simply working within constraints and rules, maybe they barely give a shit because let's be honest, who would after 100 years

In my opinion, given the way the lore is set up, StarClan is most interesting when it is a personification of historical/cultural memory and the fundamentally conservative pressures in society. Conservative here not to be understood in a modern political sense but rather as social inertia and the status quo.

Within any society there is an interplay between a push for change and adaptation and a push for continuation and preservation. The former makes the society more elastic while the latter makes it more rigid. Both are essential for the survival of a society, too much elasticity and the whole thing threatens too snap like a rubber band, too much rigidity and at the slightest external pressure the whole thing could shatter.

As the collective embodiments of societal preservation StarClan is motivated to help the Clans and see them prosper, but only in ways that suit their fundamental tendency towards conservatism. Any young upstart with big ideas will be opposed by them. Of course, were the young upstart to succeed and his ideas become the norm when they ascend to StarClan they will of course oppose the next one trying to follow in their footsteps.

I also like the idea that as beings of pure memory that a StarClan cat is totally at the whims of how they are remembered. Over time any exaggerated trait that is passed down in stories of them will indeed become true in StarClan, such as Yellowfang's flea infestation which are much worse than they ever were in life. Or perhaps their age will become distorted such as with Swiftpaw who because of the name hardly anyone remembers he was pretty much an adult. Or perhaps an element of their backstory is completely erased and not even they remember, such as what I like to do a lot with Firestar, have his kittypet background erased from common memory and replace with some tall tale that makes him a more palatable hero to Clan society.

Fictional cats, cats that were once two but merged, cats who were once one but split, all of these I also like to headcanon as part of the inhabitants of StarClan. Risen demons and fallen angels would also abound. Since they are at the whims of the memory of living cats, any change in the perception of a dead cat has the power to move them from one afterlife to the other. This is a concept I like a lot for Mudclaw, his image distorting the more Onestar's catastrophic leadership spins out of control until he is a folk hero and symbol of resistance with way more noble qualities than the real one.

Funny enough, even though meddies are often a focus of my fics StarClan hardly makes an appearance. But this as a whole is the vibe I want to capture with my worldbuilding and portrayal.

#warrior cats #wc #warrior cats au #starclan #haneossia

[firespirited]

hot take but I think the fantasy Event Horizon director's cut should have less gore and more of the character building moments. Less is more.

The more ambiguity about whether it was a mass hallucination, the more left to the imagination and conveyed by the actors reactions to what they saw off-screen, the better the film.

The set design, the lighting, the incredible acting speak for themselves - I think those things are so strong you could have a PG-13 rated cut with a single f-bomb (Fishburne's "Fuck this ship!" of course) that still leaves you sleepless.

-------------------------------

9/10 film. Would have been 10/10 without the extra gore.

As Anderson himself says, after a certain amount the viewer's imagination is stretched too far and you start to rationalize the rubber props and fake blood. The anatomy is off for PJ's death, the fire's effects are off even for different gravity, the carefully acted distress of the crew isn't present in the shock imagery. That's the one point against it, that and the prevailing belief that it's about a literal hell when that's refuted in the text.

==== I love this film ====

It is breathtakingly beautiful. the sets, the effects, the lighting, the filters, subliminal symbology everywhere. The acting, the way the world is lived in and their relationships are shown to us by the way the actors touch each other and move around their ship.

Within the first five minutes we have everything we need to know: Weir is a self-absorbed "genius" who hesitates over his jugular while shaving, Miller is an efficient and empathetic search and rescue lifeguard captain with full devotion to his crew which is fully returned.

Each member of the crew has their backstory in their mannerisms and design: we have a superstitious pilot with an ankh back tattoo, the sun-starved surgeon has scalpels on a utility vest and encourages you to smoke, the women are "one of the boys" facing the same ol' sexist banter from lovable rogue Cooper, but also respected in their fields. That's show not tell in impeccable detail.

We get a quick meet and greet verbal introduction to the crew at the 10-minute mark. We're introduced to the ship and its gothic, unholy geometries at 25. The design elements invoke a hybrid between the awe of a cathedral and the disgust of an intricate medieval torture device. The technology is robust and, except for an optical drive disk, future-proof.

This ship is a twisted Passion Play in design form with an evil seraphim of eyes within eyes, wheels within wheels as a beating heart engine. You don't have to be told that this thing demands worship and sacrifice, it is in your cultural subconscious.

It is in every jagged tooth and violence invoking shape engraved into the various panels and walls. The designers working on creating future warnings about nuclear waste would be pointing at different elements and yelling "Yes! That's it! Universal, visceral, primal signs of danger! Colours of disease!"

We're in a psychological thriller: the first real violence is a full 50 minutes into a 1h30 runtime and it's a plausible hazard of the job, shown with an unflinching camera with real time tension.

We spend the next ten minutes being gaslit by Weir into believing the ramping violence of the 'haunted house' might just be in our heads until the captain and crew subvert the horror trope and GET OUT. Fantastic story telling, very smart.

We now switch genres. again. to an ultra violent possession and slasher movie with a switch in tone for the ending: rewritten to be just open-ended enough to wonder if it was a shared psychotic frenzy, something supernatural or something natural but beyond humanity's understanding. A nice bookend to that almost campy over the top blood fest of a last half hour where Fishburne is the grounding force to Sam Neill's insane monster.

The CGI is in service to the practical effects and near seamless despite the age, it's mostly composite work on miniature sets and for zero gravity liquids. I honestly don't know how Mortal Kombat guy managed to get this kind of acting and photography talent to work on a space horror.

It feels a lot like the glitch that was Hannibal the TV show, art that wouldn't get made if the money men had known exactly what was involved and art that is bordering on schlocky but toeing a line that makes it brilliant. A kind of art that is achieved with a lot of talent and dedication but also the enforced limitation of The Edit.

I really think that the multiple test screenings and edits made this film better: it's like Robocop vs Showgirls*, Event Horizon vs Resident Evil*: the edits saved us from a movie that went too far and came out silly.

It's a film that feels rare.

*you already know I like both.

#long post #saf #movie reviews #event horizon

[mishyoona]

Since the devs and creative minds behind the FFX -Will- have claimed they wrote the audio drama ambiguous on purpose in order for us to fill in the gaps using our imagination, I'd like to ask what your desire or vision of FFX-3 is! :D

Whether it be in fanfiction or fan art, speculations or whimsical thoughts, I'd love to hear about it!

Hi, Danko Kaji! Brace yourself lol:

I genuinely believe that the future of Spira, unless it's in a distant one, should be left alone. I think X-2 wrapped up the start of the Eternal Calm nicely, and there is no need to push it further. Continuing from where X-2 left off is an example of beating a dead horse.

Also, from what I've seen, going back to Braska's journey is a popular X-3 concept among fans, but that would be the worst, imo. I don't see how it would introduce fresh elements to the story. Essentially, it would be a rehash of X, but with no surprises. I think we should all appreciate how we learned about that time through Auron's recollections (from his personal stories and the memories we witnessed in the ruins), and I fear that a full game focusing on it would diminish that impact. It's an unpopular opinion, but I truly hope that never comes to fruition.

I have two ideas, and one of them is fairly stupid, but I'm sharing. In fact, let's start with that one:

01. Auron in Dream Zanarkand. Tidus once said that fiends were a rarity in DZ, and that it was a big deal when one showed up. It'd be incredible if we got to discover that Auron was the one responsible for keeping them at bay, and was also the one slaying them once they reached the city (a boss, even, which would indeed be a "big deal"). Not necessarily as a hero either, but specifically driven by his promise to ensure Tidus' safety. It's evident that he kept up with his combat skills during his 10 years there, since he wasn't at all rusty when the time for battle came. In fact, he was prepared. The Japanese dialogue hinted that Auron periodically checked in on Tidus. It's interesting to imagine him being away dealing with fiends during those intervals. Perhaps he even had some form of affiliation with a small group of people who learned to fight and are committed to protecting DZ and uncovering some truths. This group could have uncovered something odd that helped them understand there could be more to DZ than meets the eye. They'd be low profile to avoid being dismissed as wacko. Then comes Auron, a sensible man with a strong head on his shoulders, and his arrival in their lives would provide a sense of companionship. Yet he never says he believes them or knows something. Maybe he sees himself in these people who are driven by what they believe, and he knows their worlds would be shattered by the truth.

Since Sin was known to destroy anything/anyone who got too close to DZ, it's plausible that remnants from another world (Spira) would wash up on its shores. Maybr strange technology and trinkets, or unfamiliar clothing. Ideally something more creative than that, lol. Their group backstory would be that their discoveries presented a pattern that each of then began to notice at some point, thus rendering them "touched" by Spira. It would provide an opportunity to see how someone from a fayth's dream or summoning can transform into something more once they've been touched by Spira or Sin. Remember what Bahamut's fayth said:

"Both you and your father have been touched by Sin. Sin, the one whom all Spira—the spiral—revolves. You two are more than just dreams now. Just a little more."

Vague enough to have fun with, if you ask me. Exploring Auron's time in DZ (especially the period between his shattered beliefs and the end of his mortal life) could be awesome. It would allow for insight as to why he aged. Did he manifest it on his own, and if so, was it gradual or immediate? There's a scene in FFX where Tidus (talking to Yuna) revisits a memory that took place while he was still a kid, shortly before his mother's death. Auron was shown to have already aged by then. So, maybe the stress, heartache, fear, and grief (the immense emotional burden) manifested through his appearance, making him look as old and worn as he felt on the inside.

I can't see any of this being translated into a full-fledged game, though. Maybe a smaller game where the "big bad" is actually Auron's inner turmoil and dealing with his new reality—similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 6, lol. But those are my unrefined thoughts on that jumble of dumb.

#inbox #rant jfc #how do you cut on Tumblr now omg #long post warning

[ben-the-hyena]

The more I thought of Chel, her motivations, and the more I read trivia and headcanons about her, the more I came up with my own backstory

She is actually not from El Dorado. Unlike everyone there she wore no gold and was perhaps not allowed to until a "god" gifted her gold earrings, dresses up differently and sexually in fact, she doesn't believe in their religion, she wants out and KNOWS gold is a precious currency outside of the city hence why she tries to steal some, and even her nose is different implying she may be of a different ethnicity. El Dorado people are fictional and the place where they live is ambiguous and for this the creators of the movie gave elements from different people in their aesthetic, Aztec, Ican, Mayan... yet her name is Chel, and in Mayan Culture Ix Chel is the goddess of water and midwifery. So is Chel Mayan and named after a god in protection like a lot of cultures ?

So perhaps she was captured after a war (we do see that the El Dorado people don't stay locked up and can go out of the waterfall and are quite war-like and strong) or held prisonner after a conflict against the Mayans, or was already a slave in Maya and they traded her like an object, and this is why she had many less rights than literally everyone else, resulting in her being a thief with no regards for them not hesitating in stealing from them and scamming them while wanting to get out as soon as she could. Heh, perhaps she hae to become a prostitute too hence her clothes in order to make a living

Also, in earlier concepts, she was meant to be Tzekel-Kan's sacrifice. So maybe she was HIS slave (which is why despite not believing in their religion she greatly knows about it and knew before everyone else he would try to sacrifice that guy) and how she had access to the temple to steal from it. And with HIM as a master who probably considered sacrificing her too at some point and in fact might have planned to (hence why she finally decided herself to steal and try running away when we see her for the first time) until Miguel and Tulio took her in, I too would love to get the fuck out of here as fast as I can

#the road to el dorado #moi #chel #slave #el dorado #maya #native american #Tzekel-Kan #Miguel #tulio #stealing #gold #religions #running away #trade #war #prisonner

[lilac-udon]

I will post sketch, dark themes, gore

So, don’t follow me

AU warning notes (I post progress of my mythical/elderly au here Content Warning

This au contains heavy themes and violence OOC, non-humans, age up (a lot), gore, self-harm, suicide, mental illness, murder, dismemberment, characters’ death, morally ambiguous, blood, blood drinking, animal death, consuming raw animal, starving oneself, firearm, past abuse, cross-dressing, resurrect the dead, fictional land, fictional religion (mostly imply or in backstories, it's not the main focus but use elements Relationship: sunflower-centric, heromari, paper boat, depending on how you see it, no one is officially dating anyone. Might contain Solar system (sunflower, suntan, cactiflower, sunkissed, sunburn, kelbrey, photobomb) platonic/romantic or one side, etc. Characters’ past relationships with original/other characters mention