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mdhwrites · 10 hours

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This is a weirdly...personal thing to ask so feel free to ignore it. But when it comes to scenes involving reconciliation between characters, do you think the word 'sorry' is always neccessary?

I've seen such scenes play out with viewers saying 'X didn't even say sorry!' even if 'X' was demonstrably remorseful for what they did. Personally, if someone who wronged me was trying to make amends, and they couldn't muster a simple, singular word, 'sorry,' I'd come to the conclusion that they're not sorry at all, and that they don't really give a shit. But...do you think I'm being too harsh, thinking that way?

Sometimes, remorse for one's actions can come about in ways besides simply saying sorry. I mean, characters' expressions alone can convey apologies in ways words can't. So again, is the word 'sorry' always necessary for a reconciliation scene in stories to actually work?

Absolutely not. I have criticized characters before for barely remembering to apologize but that's because apologies are complicated. One of the first lessons a child learns after learning the word "Sorry" is not to say it if they don't mean it. This is why going "Sorry, but-" will immediately kill your apology. If you lead off with a huge excuse for why you were a colossal asshole, GUESS WHAT! You're still a colossal asshole because you only care about not feeling guilty, not being at fault, and NOT the other person's feelings. Just because you EVENTUALLY remember to say sorry doesn't fix that first you wanted to make it clear you hadn't done anything wrong.

An exceptional classic example of an apology that doesn't even need an "I'm sorry" is when someone breaks something they don't know the meaning of. The wronged person gets upset, the wrongdoer gets defensive, they both storm out, furious and hurt. Then the wrongdoer is told why the thing was important, understands the deeper meaning of what was done and goes out to replace it. Then when the victim sees it, they don't have to say sorry. In fact, "Sorry, I didn't know what it meant to you," is actually the weaker option here because it still includes an explanation. Now admittedly, that option allows the victim to also apologize for not explaining why they were so upset.

The better option is that when the object is seen, the wrongdoer asks about what made it important. "Someone told me your grandma was a hell of a woman. They made her sound preeeetty boring though."

"Oh yeah, then they didn't know her, just like you don't."

"Well, I'm all ears then. What was she like?"

That shows such a deeper understanding of the wrong done, and is genuinely better for showing that the character has understood why the other was hurt, than a simple, "I'm sorry." Using the default can work but if it just sounds like someone reciting what you're supposed to say when you're in trouble... It doesn't sound genuine, does it? Even if it's technically the right thing to say.

Hell, you want a GREAT breakdown on shitty apologies and how saying sorry can just make you sound like more of a douchebag? Pop music is FILLED with this problem and Todd in the Shadows has a great example of it. Check out the video if you have the time.

youtube

(Oh god, this is from EIGHT YEARS AGO)

To the general complaint though, it's a lot like how people view redemption arcs. "Did the person get forgiven?" "Are their crimes able to be redeemed from?" etc. like that. Claiming that reconciliation and apologies can only work if a character says sorry is trying to quantify these elements. To be able to check a list that then says whether or not an element empirically fails or not. To make it so someone cannot refute your argument.

That's not how writing works though. What works for one book won't work for all of them. It depends on context and skill. You could copy the greatest apology scene in media and if it doesn't work in your setting or with your characters, it will feel as hollow as a character being forced to say sorry because their parents told them to. Writing rules are fluid like this and we shouldn't try to say something has to, or can't, be included in a scene for it to work.

Sorry if you don't agree. evil grin

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I got WAY too much enjoyment out of that last line. XD

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#apology #writing advice #writing analysis #Writing

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mdhwrites · 2 days

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I wanted if you think that the harem and reverse harem gender have untouched potential to make a good story for the sake of a cheap power fantasy

This is like asking if Isekai have untouched potential to make a good story. Both genres are so large, so overstuffed and so desperate for novelty that it's hard to actually talk about anything the genres HAVEN'T touched on. I mean, right now there is a show about 100 girlfriends and is actually about romancing girl after girl after girl and even to some extent showing the girls getting along. Showing the actual reality of polyamory would have been my first statement but some actually do.

You would need an encyclopedic knowledge of the genre to really be able to answer this question meaningfully, at least that's how I feel. As an example: My brain thinks no one has done a harem centered around mental illness and disorders, a concept I want to do, but there may easily be some indie person like me who has done just that. Or an anime producer desperate for an edge over others who has done that and done it well.

Even if we just go off of "Have harem stories EVER told good stories," then that is easily rebuked. Stuff like Tenchi Muyo told such good stories as to popularize the genre after all. The problem is that nowadays you have to cut through a lot of chaff for something actually good because of a crowded market. It's complicated like that.

BUT I will say that I agree with the initial instinct. That a lot of works end up sacrificing their story for cheap power fantasy because they know that's what sells and because it's easy. That is why there is so much chaff. This goes for almost all genres though where people will just churn out something that they think will make people buy their work, regardless of how much effort or inspiration is behind it. Derivatives exist in all markets after all.

So while it's easy to shit on the harem genre, its prominence is much of why it has its reputation, not because it's wholly unique.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#harem anime #harem #writing #writing analysis

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mdhwrites · 3 days

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The Uselessness of Filler

Filler is not useless. Filler is flavor. This is about how useless the term 'Filler' is to modern discussions, especially with non-adaptive works.

First I want to get into what I mean by 'Filler is flavor' though because it gets into what the modern, rhetorical definition of Filler is. See, plot, action and drama are great and when those elements are high, very few people will even consider calling such a piece Filler. After all, it clearly serves a purpose and often has the big payoffs we want out of the thing we're watching... But it's not actually always what is most memorable about the story in general. After all, these moments are big, flashy and they mean a lot but they're the ones that usually paint in the broadest strokes for most pieces because they actually have to have a goal they're accomplishing.

Meanwhile, an episode that lets the characters breathe, flex smaller elements of themselves, etc. like that get listed as filler. After all, no plot or character development happened so it can just be thrown away, like one would useless, bland filler. Except how often are those episodes bland? A LOT of filler does something a lot of more plot driven episodes can't do: Character and world EXPANSION. It can get into their hobbies, the small ways in which a world works, it/the characters' quirkier elements that make them feel more distinct from their archtypes, etc. like that. It's important for making them feel fully fleshed out instead of feeling like they're just the archtype. A story without filler after all has no room to make it so a redeemed character is anything but their redemption, not if every scene and episode is only focused on moving the plot forward.

But this raises an even bigger question: What the fuck does this term mean when there isn't a plot? Or when the main focus of the plot is just interactions? We have after all made a rhetorical term, that a LOT of people seem to think is deeply important, that straight up doesn't apply to certain genres. If a comedy doesn't push the plot of the show forward but is hilarious during that episode, is that Filler? If a slice of life show showcases the characters cooking for an episode and just seeing how those personalities bounce off of each other in that situation, is that Filler? In a romance, if the two leads have a fun day out but don't deepen their relationship by the end of the chapter, is that Filler despite getting to see the two interact?

And a lot of people would go "I mean, those are fun and good so they're not filler" which is actually even true for the traditional definition and use of Filler. It originates originally after all from anime adaptations that will fill time because the manga they're adapting is out of material but they want to keep putting out animated material for it. So they have to come up with a plot that doesn't actually change the status quote to fill time. When done poorly, it's lambasted for being filler. When done well, it's PRAISED for how good its filler is.

That doesn't feel fair. It's almost like it being filler ISN'T the problem. The problem is whether or not it was any good. A LOOOOOT of what is branded as 'Filler' with Western, Non-Adapted media is just what the fandom or person doesn't like. 'I got nothing out of this so it must be filler'. That's just bluntly not true. If that is what the definition is, then the term is just "This is my opinion" while trying to sound like it's an actual, structural critique, especially for someone who cannot actually verbalize why they disliked it besides just not gelling with it. Which it's okay not to like something but you shouldn't try to deepen the reason why if all you have to say is that on a rewatch, you'd skip it because you found it personally boring. Because it didn't cater to your tastes.

And for anyone going "Well, this is just your opinion. Can you back it up with an example?" I can actually.

Hazbin Hotel exists after all.

That is a show that has such a breakneck pace that it'd be almost impossible to call any of it filler... But also it struggles to remember that it needs to actually sell us on the characters, world, etc. before getting into status quote shake ups and major plot beats. That's how you get a show that is spending its first episode simultaneously going "Look at our hotel for redeeming sinners" and "Alright, we are ramping up the conflict with Heaven to set up an eventual war."

I don't know about you but I don't feel like those should be happening at the same time. But... If Filler HAS to move plot and character arcs along, the base premise of Hazbin is literally flawed. Having a random sinner of the week would be Filler. Tackling a failed method of trying to redeem someone would be Filler because technically would be accomplished or moved along. Instead, it HAS to immediately go its big plot because that's how you justify it as a real story in a modern, critical context.

That's just a flawed way of seeing media to me. How many classic works have been rendered almost entirely without merit by this way of thinking? Monster of the Week Sentai like Power Rangers? Come on, can't you cut that down to the couple plot relevant monsters and episodes in each season? Who wants to see them fighting weird, fun concepts after all, there's a big bad to kill! Classic modern shenanigans like Ed, Edd and Eddy? There's no plot so it's an entirely ephemeral product. Literally ANY sitcom from Friends to Frasier to Seinfeld, etc. can be just said as being filler and so not be meaningful and where is the usefulness of that.

And if the term is ONLY for genres with plot like adventure series... What the fuck do you have to say about Journey to the West, one of the most influential books of literally all time... Most of which is spent on obstacles that accomplish literally nothing, except maybe reinforcement on a theme, besides enabling them to take ten steps before the next obstacle slams in front of them? Are you telling me that Journey to the West is fundamentally flawed when so much of its episodic pacing is part of why it has been able to be influential and inspirational?

The more we lean on hard criteria like Filler over whether or not a piece was effective or entertaining or anything like that, the more we narrow what media is allowed to be. What a story can be. Rhetorical tools like these aren't meant to do that. They're meant to help express our discomforts and annoyances with a work. That is why we have terms like 'Repetitive,' 'Pointless' or 'Bland'. These all specifically address a problem within the work, rather than dismissing it outright simply because of its position in a narrative. They all touch on reasons why people call something Filler without being able to be misinterpreted or misused. They require the person to actually state what they don't like about it than using some arbitrary criteria in order to dismiss something.

Filler as a term doesn't even have that flavor, making it more pointless and rote than the media with that label.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#filler episodes #Writing Advice #Analysis

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mdhwrites · 4 days

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SpyxFamily Code White Spoiler Free Review: A Perfectly Balanced Cake

Spoiler free: This film is damn near perfect. If you wanted a showcase for pitching someone on the show, I don't know how much better you could really do. Every character gets tons of chances to shine for their usefulness in comedy, personality and action and in a way that I'd argue beats either of the action arcs of the show so far in giving everyone something to actually do. This even extends to the side characters though. No one gets a lot of time but everyone is utilized super well, leaning on their best elements and never their worst. Like I almost could not have asked for a better use of Yuri for this movie than what we got, that is how well the side characters are used.

If I had any actual complaints with the film, it's that once the action starts, it does struggle to get past a big issue I feel action movies have: Keeping up the emotional stakes and development during the action. This isn't to say there isn't characterization, there is SO MUCH CHARACTERIZATION during the second half still but that it ends up feeling more emotionally simple than the first half of the movie. That also however means that it's never getting in the way or forcing someone to be our true main character which is part of what allows all three members of the family to rock it as hard as they do in the second half.

And as for the new, original villains, I could see someone complaining that they feel one note or too pure evil but it's actually keeping in line with the show as a whole. The show knows that anyone who is actively trying to start a war threw away their humanity in order to get there. As such, the movie takes that mentality and goes "Yep, and so let's lean into just how fun we can make these villains," and I think they hit that mark dead on. Also, giving them more characterization and nuance would have again potentially disrupted the balance of time for the family. I remember plenty of Naruto movies and specials that spent so long on the new characters that there wasn't actually a point to all of Team 7 being there. It could have just been Naruto for how much the others do. That isn't the case here.

All of this makes for an incredibly sweet experience that is exactly what you'd want out of a SpyxFamily while having enough surprise fillings to make it so it's more than you might hope for. Truly, a slice of cake that will leave you Meremere

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#spy x family #spy x family movie #Spoiler Free #Code White #spy x family code white

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mdhwrites · 6 days

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Birfday + A Free Book!

I'm 28 now and I want to stop worrying so much about the past and look at the future. That's why the book I've chosen to make free to keep forever, available from now to the end of the 23rd, is by far the oddest, boldest work I've ever made. I need to learn to be able to breathe in, breathe out and let my creativity take the wheel again, rather than worry about what others may think. So, without further ado, my pulp scifi book written entirely on stream: A Galaxy of Choices Book One: The Living Planet.

Dave is an old man. At almost sixty, he's been a mercenary, a smuggler, a pirate, and so many more that he's lost count of. His body is scarred, his ship creaks, and with each day he adds another night alone in space. It's a lonely, quiet life, and the old man... ...loves it. He's an old man in professions where people die young and he doesn't intend to stop anytime soon. Today he heads for Texton, a planet known for draining the very life from your bones before dragging you into its mud to extract whatever else it can get. Entire ships have sunk below the surface, never to be seen again as the reactors are drained of every speck of fuel. It is a place where those who live there either stay hundreds of feet above the ground in fear, or have allowed the ground to seep into their very genes in order to become something more. Something new. And Dave is going to have to deal with it all just so he can get paid. Contains: Large Breasts, Plant girl, Rough sex, Aphrodisiacs, Stomach Bulge, Large Cock, Impregnation, Lactation, Hot Spring Sex

I do love the 'Contains' on my books for some of my works because for those who are going "Is this really non-stop sex?" Nope. It is all in one chapter but if you're gonna do aliens, why the hell not have some FUN with it?

And for those of you who are confused as to why this is my boldest work when it probably does sound like some good old fashioned pulp scifi isn't because of the content. Honestly, I personally believe my worst works are the ones that are explicitly trying to subvert something. No, this instead is celebratory and also very ME in format.

It was written without planning. Not really at least. The gimmick was that on stream, I would take pauses to write a section of the story and then present a few options to my viewers to choose from. Then I would play some of the game I was playing until I hit another pause point. Then I read what had been chosen and immediately got to work. No long planning sessions just GO. The example I like to highlight is that when given a few flavor choices for getting to the planet, people voted "Loud." When I had presented it, I had planned a dogfight above the planet. When I saw it chosen though, my brain went "What if the planet was screaming?"

And so that was what happened.

It is a method of writing that is very me. My brain works a mile a minute. I have had people present me a concept and returned to them with an entire novel's concept within five minutes. I come up with ideas endlessly. My stories literally swerve in the middle of writing them because my brain will go "Nope. This is how the character would react so we are running this way now."

It's the sort of confidence in my writing I want to get back so it feels like a good statement of intent to make free today. I hope you all like it and see you next tale.

#free book #Galaxy of Choices #science fiction #Science Fantasy #Birthday

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mdhwrites · 7 days

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Why Are Original Books Feeling More Like Fanfiction?

This isn't because only now authors who do fanfic are also original writers. Even Niel Gaiman has admitted to having done fanfiction. LOTS of works have easy ties to other stories that came before to a point where they can be seen as fanfiction inspired. Why is it though that so many people agree that the vibe and excesses of fanfiction, along with its deficiencies, are now coming through in original works that people are asking money for?

Well, a lot of it is going to come down to the fact that with the rise of e-book publishing, it allowed a LOT more independent creators to find success. This is a good thing. It allowed a lot of new voices to be allowed into a very insular medium that always required agents and publishers to get anywhere. Even for traditional publishers, you now have works that don't cost NEARLY as much to publish if they stick to just ebooks instead of having to do huge releases everywhere, especially as in recent years, Amazon has enabled bookstores to order in bulk from Amazon. You don't have to deal with the upfront costs of a print run if it can just break through.

How do you know which horse to bet on though, as a reader or a publisher?

If you are a writer, and don't have an industry job somewhere as a writer, places for you to build a following are not easy to come by. Even as the internet allows for more small time publications to look for short stories, that circling back to you can be hard and that actually requires, you know, being the one to submit the best story. It also means making a story based on their guidelines and prompts which might not even match your strengths or your interests. What is something that gets past all of that as a writer though that allows you to build a following?

Fanfiction.

Worse yet is that anyone will tell you that the best works are not the popular works. That the most popular authors in fandoms are rarely the ones who are actually the most competent but the ones that best sell to their audience what they want. The ones that feed into fandom indulgences the most while being good enough to not make your eyes bleed when you read their work. The most popular works will also often be attached to the boldest, more provocative names in a community because those writers become genuine personalities to their readers, rather than just the works that they create. There are absolutely exceptions to this but these are going to be the sorts of works/authors who are the easiest to find and the most likely to actually chase after the dream of a publishing deal. After all, these people are still going to usually have to be willing to shop around a bit for an agent and what not and an incredibly talented but meek or non-ambitious author isn't going to do that.

We saw all of this very explicitly with 50 Shades of Gray, one of the true break out successes of early ebook publishing that essentially followed the exact sort of thing I'm describing. A work that is trashy fun with an author who is inflammatory enough to cause people to talk about her and a story that updated voraciously not just because it needed so many chapters but because it allowed a constant amount of attention, all helping the fanfic itself to become huge. Then a publisher explicitly geared towards converting fanfic (that I actually don't know if it still exists or not, or is at least still doing what it used to like this) scooped her and the story up and allowed it to stay mostly unchanged because of their popularity. The quality of the work mattered less to the fact that it had an engaged audience and the author could promote the book by themselves. It saves you a TON on marketing and makes you a more 'sure bet' than some rando who submits an amazing manuscript but is otherwise entirely unknown.

My own stories follow this even as someone who is entirely independent. My most successful stories by a LONG shot were when I was at my most popular on Fimfiction and while the site also had its most engaged user base. There were simply more people who might actually check out the works, causing initial interest and buzz to help push the books in their early days, give them a couple reviews and then have them circulate outside of just the fanfiction circles afterwards. It probably also helped that these works had evocative covers, were erotica and usually helped by a push from an erotica fanfic I released at roughly the same time to garner buzz. I don't think those works are bad mind you, just that I do think my writing has gotten better while my audience has diminished GREATLY since I left my old platform and as Fimfiction itself withered. As such, even as the quality has gone up, my numbers have gone down.

And that brings us back to the original question: As a reader and as a publisher, how do you decide who to take a chance with? Who is going to get you to pick up their book? Especially if any of the books aren't priced at the lowest possible on Amazon of 2.99 or even .99 cents (or 0 if you read through Kindle Unlimited, which is 11.99 a month)? After all, no one has money right now, let alone for books.

You go with who has already proven themselves in the market and can be sampled for free: fanfiction. You're gonna end up going by popularity then though, not just quality. Otherwise, it'd be just like taking a blind bet anyways and that's not why these people are seeking these communities for their next book to read/publish.

See you next tale.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#Writing #Book Tumblr #Fanfiction

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mdhwrites · 9 days

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Hey bud, I have a question. When would you say it is acceptable to include "good luck" in a story as a narrative solution.

This is a fascinating one to me because of one big element: EVERY protagonist has good luck powers. Honestly, most fictional characters in one way or another do. If they didn't, we'd often not have a story to tell. Narrative contrivance is a term after all.

But what about when you just straight up admit it?

Well... It's tricky. I've gone on record that I despise characters with 'bad luck' because the luck still serves a narrative purpose and even can often turn into good luck. After all, even if luck in our reality is a cosmic force we cannot control, that's not the case in a story. Every choice is decided by the author unless they literally roll the dice every time they're deciding something and even then, they are the ones who decide what the outcomes can be.

This still applies to good luck too. Just because on a meta level, we understand that characters in stories are often luckier than most, that doesn't suddenly make it narratively satisfying to just go "Guess my luck is holding out!" for every little thing that happens. This is because blaming luck for why a character gets out of a situation can often be an anti-climax where instead of a character having to work to get out of a situation, they just... Do.

This problem also presents the solution though: Make them earn it. Their good luck should balance the scales of karma essentially. A character puts life and limb at risk for a plan that suddenly has a complication and they take a gamble on some improv that works out? Go ahead and blame it working on luck because they have already worked to make this plan function, they are still having to do something to make it work, etc. like that so the audience is still getting payoff after payoff and this bit of tension still feels deserving because the stakes are real. If someone has lost everything and has their life suddenly threatened only to then be let go from dumb luck, that can genuinely feel like the universe giving them a break for once.

Essentially, the question you need to ask yourself for if a scene deserves it is to put yourself as a writer in your audiences shoes. When the moment of luck comes up, is the audience asking "I wonder how they'll get out of this one," or "Please, can't you give him a break already!?" If it's the latter, that is a GREAT moment for luck because it will feel like that break that the audience wants.

For an example of doing this right: Master Chief, weirdly enough. In the books, he is canonically lucky. In fact, compared to every other Spartan he grows up with and who survives the process of becoming a Spartan, it is the ONLY way in which he is exceptional compared to them. Cortana literally chooses him for his luck. And how does the book Fall of Reach portray this? That he's in the right place at the right time to try to do something. Not that he just succeeds but that he is given the opportunities to use his skills to their best effect. If he didn't act though, he wouldn't win. If he didn't put 100% into it, he would still lose. It's only that he is the one that fate has chosen to help tilt the scales that makes him lucky, which also makes his luck not get brought up much and doesn't devalue the fact that he still has to plan, work and adapt in order to win it all.

That is a damn near perfect way to do it. Not that luck supersedes skill, just that it allows them to be, well... The main character. Because all main characters are lucky so what's the harm with leaning into it just a little?

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If 2.1 wasn't still the newest patch, or I thought I could explain how it works for him faster, I absolutely would have used Aventurine as the example instead of Master Chief. His brand of working around his luck is just a little bit more complicated for why it pays off so well and I admittedly still want to do a blog talking about how Aventurine is in 2.1. For those worried: It's a 180 from how I saw him in 2.0. There's a reason I'm pulling for him in two days.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#writing #On Writing #writing analysis #Luck

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mdhwrites · 11 days

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Erotic Conundrums: Tribal

Is it still even okay to do this fetish? Aren't we trying to get away from fetishizing natives? Well the thing is that porn with a plot is still PORN and that does complicate such matters. Complications that are integral to the conundrum for this fetish:

In a story fetishizing tribal stereotypes of one sort or another, how much does that limit your storytelling?

For now, let's put a pin in the controversial elements of this trope and focus a bit more on what exactly it is and what it's about. First off: You don't have to do darker skin, jungle motifs, etc. like that for it. The appeal is just that it is a more primitive culture. Dark skin as a fetish is something different and we'll go over different archtypes for Tribal cultures soon but just because it can be called Tribal doesn't mean you need a tribe of people. It's just that it gets you in the right mindset for the time period, level of technology, etc. like that for what this kink is trying to invoke.

Even that is not so simple though. Tribal stories can span from the prehistoric age to something colder and brutal by taking after fantasy barbarian stylings/what we think of stereotypical vikings. Anything that invokes pre-civilization to most. A simpler, more basic, less advanced culture. The point is just that inherently, their values, culture, etc. like that is almost entirely foreign to what modern day values are and they don't really have any forms of technology besides maybe basic tools.

All of these settings have similar draws to them, just of differing flavors and differing extremes. Some give an emphasis on power, skill, the ability to hunt and dominate, some have more archaic power and belief structures that can be explored and/or abused and all of them have very unique aesthetics that change the look and feel of a story away from either fantasy, sci-fi or modern, though many may take cues from fantasy since fantasy borrows from the past aesthetically already.

That contrast of culture and style is often what is most fetishized though in porn. The ways in which it is different from our modern world, either to glorify those elements or to glorify more modern ways of thinking. If it even bothers to take inspiration from real world history, it will often conflate many elements in order to add to the exoticism or allow some way for the main character to be special amongst the people they are interacting with. That includes even if within the narrative they are a part of those people. This doesn't have to be an isekai or a modern man going to a more primitive place in the world. It could be that ALL members of the cast are a part of this culture and you're still able to cause the same sorts of contrasts. Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon is actually a good example of building a character within a culture who still stands out as unique within it and finds success due to those unique elements, allowing for a contrast and highlighting of different elements of both his own people and himself. Or, you don't need to have the contrast at all and instead indulge in just the fantasy of escaping into another time.

Buuut I do keep using the term culture so I think it's time to bring back the question of if this sort of story is okay at all. After all, we as a society are trying to depict such cultures more accurately and to move away from the negative stereotypes involved with them, including the sexy, native woman that many stories like this can fall into. The thing is that, well... It's porn.

I know that might sound weird to say since the point of these blogs is to talk about adding depth to porn, making erotica, not smut, but it's still porn. If you are using porn as your lens into the world, treating it as a reflection of it... The problem is on you. Not that a good writer can't include honest, human truths in porn but deciding "This is how an entire culture is" from porn is not really something you should do because the number of works trying to do that are fractional amongst even erotica. Unless the work is genuinely trying to be offensive, or being authoritative while being objectively wrong, I don't think it's something you should really attack the work for due to anyone deciding to take their worldview from it instead of trying to treat it as the good fun that most porn is.

HOWEVER

You probably should, unless you are of a certain tribe or culture, try to avoid using living tribes and culutres and the like to base your porn on. I would just make it an amalgamation/aesthetic than anything specific. Treat it more like a fantasy culture than trying to claim it's realistic. You'll honestly be able to have more fun with your made up culture this way, adding to the general enjoyment of indulging in the kink, rather than acting like you're trying to be representative. Unless you plan to be respectful, there's no reason to claim you are using a specific culture, especially since you're probably going to warp their beliefs for your uses anyways. This also adds a layer of abstraction so it's even more on the reader if they go "This book said tribal people were like this!"

Now, this doesn't mean that it should be entirely unrealistic because the best way to make a tribal story go from being smut to erotica is a very simple trick: Treat them as characters. Even if the culture is fake, you can still give the people thoughts, personalities, interests, etc. like that. You can make the culture more than just the one rule you're warping to allow the main character to do whatever they want. Just something to make them a little deeper, even if it's not making them real.

This also will help you just make a story in general. If these are actually people, even seeming like you're divinely blessed isn't going to make everyone jump your bones. So they have to actually talk, or the MC has to start realizing that using these primitive ways of thinking doesn't immediately want his partner to be there and reacting to that. That or if you want to go a more dominant angle, how the MC potentially twists the culture of the people they are with further and further before no one can question their right of conquest and self gratification, even potentially to the point of being a bit stomach churning for how far they go. How completely they corrupt this society for their own gain.

You can also just do what would be a period piece plot in these more primitive times but it includes more sex than normal. You can make it about the people of the MC being attacked and defending themselves and play it for the terror it is, for the cultural triumphs every victory is, the competing ideologies, etc. like that that you'd get from any normal novel trying to use primitive cultures as a frame while just making it that those elements also happen to lead to sex half the time as well.

That's one of the nice things about a kink like this, even if again it can be seen as part of the problem, is that it's more a setting than what has to be the whole of the story. This isn't like someone gaining mind control powers or something explicitly about power dynamics where the kink determines a lot of what your focus storytelling wise might be. So long as you're interacting with, and fucking, a more primitive culture, your options are actually still pretty open. You just have to recognize that them being of this time period, of their culture, cannot be all that you are working with because otherwise you're not telling a story. You just have a bunch of cosplayers who are able to do as they're told, even if they're bad at getting in character.

See you next tale.

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Funny enough, this wasn't chosen because I have another book that has used this, kind of. It was actually because a lot of these conundrums come up in pretty extreme kinks that cause them to be very shallow due to ease of use. This was one that's more tame but had some complicated elements that I thought were important to go over nonetheless. "Treat your characters like characters" might sound like writing 101 but with how often Hollywood can get it wrong, especially when bringing in various cultures, it seemed prudent to talk about it with porn in mind because let's face it: A lot of people think all that matters is the body in porn, not the mind or personality attached.

Like I said though, I have done a book that used this to some extent. I went with the angle of a modern person running into a secret, more primitive society. In this case: Elves because fantasy can very easily slip into this trope with its use of past iconography. It is 99 cents on Amazon so if you're interested, maybe you'd like to check out The Secret Village of the Elves?

We all know how it goes. A guy who spends too much time in the woods stumbles upon an elf, gets brought back to her village, is told they need him to repopulate, and bam! Instant sex! Well, what if one had to work a little harder? What if they had to prove they could actually help these people? What if a chance encounter wasn't all it took? Well, Jacob is about to find out exactly what that in fact entails. Contains: Voyeurism, Small Breasts, Large Breasts, Titfuck, MFF Threesome, Muscular Elf

#Erotica #Erotic Conundrums #Tribal #Fetish #The Secret Village of the Elves

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mdhwrites · 11 days

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*vibrates* It will also always be a tragedy to me that the themed ask blogs aren't much of a thing anymore either. Like I've tried multiple times to do them and struggle to get any asks. The last one I did essentially entirely survived off of Ao3, not here.

bring back tumblr ask culture let me. bother you with questions and statements

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mdhwrites · 11 days

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You said the arcs of certain characters in TOH have an 'Us vs. Them mentality.' I take it that's because, as you say, the narrative pins the bad qualities of certain characters on separate parties (e.g. "Amity's flaws are only because of her mom"), but would you care to elaborate further on said mentality and how it sticks out to you in TOH?

So shockingly, not really. It plays into it but I am actually inherently talking about the same sort of mentality that Belos perpetuates but back onto Luz. After all, if you look at the main cast by even mid season 2 we have a problem forming. Eda: Has lost her criminal edge, has no personal interests, is defined by being nice in a way befitting Luz's worldview. Momma Eda.

Amity: No longer is studious and hard working but instead focuses more on her girlfriend and her nerdy interests. Is also now just nice. Was only shown genuine care by Luz, instead of just trying to fulfill her nerdy desires, once she finds out Amity is into Azura.

Lilith: Has turned into a nerd and given up on any ambitions that had led to her previous actions, becoming a nice cool aunt. Only now has Luz tried to form any relationship with her (admittedly, she didn't get many chances before now).

Hunter: Has only been being given kindness because he has shown a capacity for kindness that Luz only really started showing him, beyond not wanting him to die, once he showed he had a nerdy interest in wild magic.

Gus: Was a nerd from go and always nice, even if he could be slightly selfish.

Willow: By mid S2, is essentially out of the show for the past half season, has never had a strong personality and is just nice. Yes, she'll start her jock stuff soon... And never have a real conversation with Luz again, at least not until S3 maybe? So a full season where Luz and Willow, after Willow might have stopped being nerdy/an outcast, where Luz doesn't have an interest in her anymore.

And uh, just as a reminder to S3, Hunter gains a scifi interest post redemption and Luz explicitly listens to NOTHING her mother says to her during her big speech in For the Future until she reveals herself to be a secret nerd. At that point, suddenly Luz dials in.

For TOH, a show supposedly about the individual and self expression, characters either lose their personality and/or gain the personality that matches LUZ. There is less character variety in interests and personalities than even 90s cartoons much of the time by the end of TOH because these characters all lose so much of themselves fitting in with the good guys, especially the redeemed ones.

This is where your argument for this does come into play. I'll frame it as the fandom likes to with Amity: "She didn't have Luz in her life yet."

Amity is only a bitch while she is hanging out with the wrong crowd. Socialites, those with ambition and jocks. The Luz enters her life and despite the fact that the ONE time Luz ever calls Amity out for being a bitch being when Amity is being a bully to King and clearly trying to get a rise out of Luz, making that moment meaningless, that simple fact starts warping Amity. Starts making her turn back to her good, nerdy side. And because this is such an inherently good thing, there is no difficulty in doing this. She needs no motivation, no calling out, nothing. She just needs to desire to be like Luz/liked by Luz. She can discard her entire friend group and do things that should get her disowned with how evil Odalia is and face zero consequences because... I guess that's the power of becoming a nerd.

You are beyond reproach. You can only do good. Same goes for Hunter. Despite YEARS of potential propaganda and the like, Luz just getting into his life and admittedly jabbing at Belos/him a little, is all it takes for him to embrace the inherent goodness, displayed by his nerdiness about wild magic, and start becoming a better person. For this, he loses his home but that is only seen as a positive because indeed, he got away from those hostile that made him a bad person. He could now be a good person because he no longer had those influences and could embrace Luz's way of life.

With the show's themes, why is this the case? Shouldn't their base personalities be allowed to exist? Shouldn't a wide range of ideologies and the like be allowed since that is a part of self expression? Instead, when people don't like Luz approves, they are disapproved by Luz and either need to get the fuck out or conform.

And this is all without getting into how she becomes Jesus in the last episode...

None of this is intentional but if someone told me that the show felt hostile to them because they didn't consider themselves a nerd or because they tried to get somewhere in life, I wouldn't blame them. The show has a weirdly narrow belief in who is a good person. Who is allowed to exist in the main cast, a problem that cascades issues into a lot of its themes. I mean, this is the first show I've ever had to ask if character arcs are actually hurt the themes of the show because of this, a blog I sadly couldn't refind.

There is admittedly an element of this where I might not have thought about it without the fandom. Most people I know who are multi-fandom still agree that TOH is aggressive against others, even for a fandom. That it lashes out and blames others for its problems. Almost like a *gestures at the thesis*

And that doesn't help make any of this be less uncomfortable unfortunately. See you next tale.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical

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mdhwrites · 12 days

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Zenless Zone Zero's Billy: The Deadpool Worry

This isn't about comedy tastes. That might sound weird since I'm going to talk a lot about comedy but it's important to understand that even the best jokes delivered poorly can end up falling flat on their face. A stand up comedian is not just good because they have good material, it's also because they know how to deliver that material.

So what's the Deadpool problem then? Deadpool, at least when he's recognizably Deadpool, usually does this well, right? Well... Yes. But many have tried to copy him, haven't they? The one I'm most familiar with was the tv show Ultimate Spiderman, where they had Spiderman essentially just be Deadpool and the comedy there worked well enough.

But both Deadpool in the comics, with exaggerated posing, perspective, etc. like that and a cartoon show with its potential for manic energy, quick cuts, stuff like that, helps add to the fun there. The live action Deadpool even relies on good direction and an EXTREMELY good voice actor paired with great material that works for the lack of exaggeration to make the transition work. It's also paired with still a lot of big, silly movements to help sell all of that.

But I have seen a lot of pieces of media have those over the top, zany, fourth wall breaking characters and without the animation, fervor, etc. to back it up they have been VERY sour for me.

And Billy is in a Hoyo game. You know, where most conversations have a half a dozen poses at most, extremely static cameras (if any camera work or poses) and well... Watch these trailers.

youtube

Even just here, with the ability to do more, we see some of the limitations. The first trailer works better because they let him be a lot more wild while the second one is relying ENTIRELY on the voice and dialog and is suffering from that. It's not helped that the dialog and joke they're going for isn't great. Admittedly the jokes for Zenless Zero so far in the trailers have been... Safe. Not bad but safe, to a point where they cause a slight problem on their own, and I could get into it if people are curious. Voice is good though.

But the thing that kills it the most is that there isn't the energy needed for these jokes. That for as hard as the voice actor is trying to go, if the other elements aren't backing them up, it's going to feel flatter than it should. Almost all comedy will suffer from these sorts of things but this eccentric sort of comedy more than most. There's a reason you don't see it a lot in live action. The more subdued medium relies a lot more on snark and interplay because that just fits its energy better much of the time comedy-wise.

Star Rail even suffers from this. Lines that should be funnier just get a slight eye roll or smile from me because when they're flatly delivered on a text box, it has to be GOOD to really get the joke to hit hard or it needs to come out of nowhere where the blunt presentation can help sell it. "Just let me heal you so I never have to see your face again!" isn't technically a joke but it is still such a stand out moment for me of comedy in Star Rail because it comes out of nowhere, the performance is shrill, and while it might cause a chuckle, it also serves a good character purpose.

It's also interplay, not fourth wall breaking. These misgivings could end up being nothing. I'm trying to be kind to the trailers because I recognize a lot of what they're going for and their job is not easy here with these trailers, especially since there's a mandate to sell that this is the comedy Hoyo game, at least comparatively. I'm just worried that Hoyo might be biting off more than they can chew. The need to expand into different genres and styles outpacing what their engines can actually support, at least as strongly as they may need to to not make this feel like any other gacha game.

Penacony has surprised me with its cleverness in how to use its elements for storytelling though and while that's for drama, Zenless may manage the same. That's why it's a worry, not a condemnation. What are your thoughts though? And see you next tale.

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I'm keeping an eye on Zenless (funny story: I got into Star Rail because I thought it was Zenless and I'd thought I'd signed up for news on it) because I'm curious about just Hoyo's style of things but I'd be lying to say I worry about the action gameplay. Genshin's slog of a combat system is a BIG reason why I dropped it as quickly as I did. I'm trying to keep an open mind though.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#Billy Kid #zenless zone zero #Writing analysis #Youtube

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mdhwrites · 12 days

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So, do you think they do a good job connecting redeemed Zuko with the competence and skills he had when he was an antagonist?

So what's kind of funny here, as someone pointed out to me recently, is that Zuko dominates my mind as impressive but... He actually isn't the most competent villain in the world. Many of his schemes fail, he has plenty of losses that would fit right in with Team Rocket, etc. like that. So first we have to ask if he was competent or had skills while as a villain. After all, both General Xiao and Azula beat him in scope, danger, etc.

Yes. Because no one was willing to go as far as him.

Zuko's greatest character flaw is also flipped around to be his greatest strength as a person: Stubbornness and Dedication. A lot of his failures come from being so focused on one goal as to end up tunnel visioned and failing to fully utilize all that was around him, which Aang was far better at. However, that conviction also came from the fact that once he chose a goal, nothing could stop him except killing him.

For it to be fully a strength though, this fervor needed to be tempered. Luckily, a lot of Zuko's growth in Book 2, and what would allow him to give wisdom like Uncle Iroh could by Book 3, is about genuinely being able to read a situation and swap square pegs to round ones when he needed to. One of the best examples is the contrast between Zuko Alone, where in order to win a fight he resorts to firebending to win a fight handedly despite it being an objectively wrong move for his goals, versus when he's found by Jet in Ba Sing Se. By then, he's learned to read the room and so adapts, having to fight WAY harder than he would have had to if he had broken out his bending but winning much more because of it too. A character with less conviction to his ideals and goals would have resorted to the easy victory if they ever thought they were losing.

He never accepts defeat. He struggles to even compromise on how complete his victory can be. It is all or nothing for Zuko at all times and that sort of tenacity allows him to achieve things no one else in the series does. Even back in Book 1, his need to be the one to capture the Avatar leads to him infiltrating and taking down his own people, even working with Aang just so no one else can claim his prize. Then by Book 3, we see stuff like him not allowing Katara to compromise who she is for something as petty as revenge, or the fact that rather than try to compromise with Aang on Ozai or have a soft talk to him, he attacks Aang with enough ferocity to make it clear to everyone just how bad of a position they're in when he tells them what the whole problem is. Heck, one could easily say that it's his dedication that makes him understand that beating Azula by letting her kill Katara, still wouldn't be a victory because his goal at that point isn't to just beat Azula. It is to fight for better, more peaceful future and letting someone die for his victory would be counter to that. So jumping in the way of the lightning bolt was easy for him because no other option even crossed his mind at that point.

As a note: Yes, Azula has similar drive but her breakdown in Book 3 actually is extra satisfying in contrast to Zuko's fall because Zuko could have lost all of his allies and had his one victory turn to ash and gone "Alright. Time to get up and figure out how to fix this." Because that is just who he is. It's part of what makes their final fight against each other so good as we have someone who appeared to be an unstoppable force going against someone who is an actual unstoppable force.

I... Will pull back on this for a second though. If not for Mother's Basement's top Avatar fights, I wouldn't have had the comparison of Zuko's Book 2 fights ready and while I feel confident enough about my knowledge of Avatar to talk about the broad strokes of Zuko's character arc, this sort of analysis, how one's strengths and weaknesses as a villain can transfer over to them as a hero, is something that requires a lot more specificity. I need to remember him better as a villain in order to better judge how those traits transferred over. I'm still confident enough to say that it did happen, especially since Zuko is still recognizably himself as a hero versus as a villain, but it's one I wanted to include a disclaimer for anyways.

What do you all think though? Do I make a good case? Am I maybe overlooking some other strengths he carried forward? Let me know and I'll see you next tale.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#avatar the last airbender #Zuko #Villain to ally

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mdhwrites · 14 days

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Erotic Conundrums: Time Stop

Snap.

And the whole world is your playground. No consequences, no one to stop you, nothing but whatever hedonistic or even mundane pleasures you'd like to do. In it, you are free.

And in it, you are fundamentally about half as boring as many other kinks. Let's talk about the fetish of Time Stop, it's problem as a storytelling mechanism, some of its most common tropes and some of how maybe you can get around some of its faults. After all, sometimes you do actually want some plot with your porn so why not discuss how you can do that with something so extreme?

So first, just to clarify, Time Stop is just what it sounds like. The fetish revolves around the idea that you can freeze the world and do as you please within that frozen space while people are only puppets to you at most. This doesn't have to be sexual, there are kids movies with this power, but we're talking about erotica here so we'll be talking about it mostly in that context. That context including a crucial detail I already mentioned.

Everyone else is puppets... And that's a problem. Even something like Hypnosis or Corruption, that takes over a person's personality, still has the other person as some amount of participant. Even the most extreme version of control for hypnosis where they do nothing without a command still can have a girl give you a titfuck or have a guy slam the MC into the ground with their inhibitions turned off. This is explicitly not a part of time stop because the character literally can't react to it or do anything while within the frozen space.

That's why Time Stop, maybe more than ANY other fetish, is actually grounded mostly in transgression. Doing what is genuinely impossible and inflicting upon others things that normal society wouldn't approve of. Even child friendly versions understand that you have to dump at least one slushy on an asshole's head and leave them soaked for the rest of the day. To leave the person humiliated and uncomfortable in ways that literally nothing else can do.

This also is why Time Stop is one of the most mean spirited fetishes. If its biggest pleasure is in transgression, the contrast between what society would allow someone to do versus what they can do during the fetish is theoretically quite important. Having a handsome fuck an ugly girl he could bag with a winning smile and a couple kind words isn't very exciting. Having the ugly bastard who smells like rotten eggs getting to fuck an idol on stage and leave her undressed, cum dripping out of her pussy and with humiliating words written on her is much more transgressive and appealing to the wish fulfillment inherent to the kink. Even better if it includes a popular staple of what was done to someone catching up to them once time resumes, so she suddenly feels the three times she was fucked and collapses into an oozing puddle, humiliated before millions of people on television. For a sweaty, shut in nerd, it can be seen as trying to invoke that fantasy as powerfully as possible

But that is also exceptionally unpleasant for many people just from the non-consensual nature of it. You can write a Time Stop story where everyone involved knows what's going on but suddenly the transgressive element is mostly gone and you're not likely to go as far with your friends as you would otherwise. You lose a lot of the bite.

Even for people, myself included, who like domination kinks like this, it's still going to suffer from a lot of different elements. The MC doesn't get to keep the girl that they decided to try and destroy, the girl doesn't get to break under the will of the MC, only be humiliated by him, and she will never come crawling back to him for more, all because she is not a character. She is a sex doll. Everyone is besides the MC due to the nature of the kink.

Which presents one last problem before I'll start talking about some of the true strengths of Time Stop outside of the wish fulfillment and transgressive elements: Repetition. While yes, you have unlimited capabilities to do as you please, you actually also have a very limited power in practice. You can start time and you can stop time. So... As far as what you can do to people, you have to get creative with posing, other kinks involved, where it's happening, how many times with one girl are you using the power so as to do a more gradual humiliation or cause her to think she's going insane. Even if you manage all of that though, what about the main character? They have NO ONE to bounce off of. Worse yet, if you are transfixed on just the transgressive elements, how the MC reacts to others get pretty repetitive. Not believing that they're getting to hot the fuckest thing in X place is good for one scene, not five, let alone fifteen. You need SOMETHING else to break any of this up.

So with all of those negatives, why use Time Stop at all? Well... Because it's so drastic a power.

So many things have used isolation or unlimited power to tell powerful stories of people being tested morally, losing that morality, losing their personhood, losing their ability to enjoy things, etc. like that and you have BOTH AT THE SAME TIME. It is actually pretty ripe for thematic explorations, especially of the corruption of the self and their humanity. If someone is willing to use the power for small conveniences like stealing some donuts for breakfast or letting him move someone who's annoying him away on day one... What do they do on day one hundred? Or, go more existential and ask: if you don't age during stopped time... What happens to you as you fall out sync, even as you enjoy hedonistic pleasure? Or worse yet, if you do age, is it worth losing years to have fun in a space with no other actual people but just puppets?

If you don't want to get that existential, there's also just the option of questioning what the limits of pranks can go to and teaching a lesson about the abuse of power when given unlimited power. This admittedly comes with some CAREFUL tone control. You need to frame this as a fun time, or at worst a bit unpleasant, for everyone involved. To make it so that a girl having her clothes suddenly vanish doesn't make her collapse and cry but instead shriek, cover herself, and run for her cover as she screams at everyone else for being perverts for looking at all. Luckily, this features one of the best parts about how extreme Time Stop is: Suspension of Disbelief.

To buy in, you have to allow some random person to get the power to stop time. There's almost no way unless you take this fact very seriously for that not to lead to a feeling of at least fantastic realism. So your audience is already primed to let you maybe fudge some elements and for you to go a bit wild with it. Sure, you put a bully girl in bondage but used slip knots so when she comes back to reality tied up, she isn't in a horror scene but instead pulls at her restraints and gets to roar at everyone in the room as she asks who did this and the audience chuckles along. And because they're still pranks, you are still being transgressive even as you frame it as good fun. At least until they go to too far of an extreme. Undressing an idol, or even just messing up her performance, would actually cause some more severe problems NO MATTER WHAT and be the moment the story has been building up to where the main character learns their lesson or even potentially uses their power for good and fixes the mistake using the power of unlimited time. Maybe even to the benefit of finally getting someone more permanently as he seeks to comfort someone he's hurt and better sees the humanity in another person.

Because that's not entirely something other domination/power dynamic kinks can entirely go for without going really dark. A mind controlled girl will never complain your treatment of her. A slave will only complain if they're allowed to. A corrupted girl LOVES this new lifestyle. Because the other person is not a participant though and you're being transgressive with them, they are actually allowed MORE human responses to what is done to them. They are allowed to be entirely hurt because staying is not the goal. In theory, taking advantage of the world itself is. They are just a casualty.

This either corruption or enlightenment of the main character also allows for a narrative arc with them that helps keep things a bit different and having different feels. If they're losing their humanity, an author can easily highlight how they might feel bad for small things at first but then dismiss it as small problems that are outweighed by a few bucks saved or a chance to actually be productive. Then they slowly add to those justifications and lose their nervousness about doing things as they continuously escalate until they either are entirely hedonistic or realize they don't really have more to do and become potentially desensitized to the frozen world because again: This can get very repetitive. For someone meant to learn a lesson, you kind of do the opposite. Start with them justifying some pretty questionable things as they poke at the boundaries and try to add excitement to a potentially boring life, having to escalate their excuses even as they became uncomfortable looking to one up themselves. Then they go too far and they have to come to grips with all they allowed and potentially try to set things right.

In both cases though, you have to go against the first instinct with the genre: Ease. You have unlimited power, why hold back? You can do whatever you want. No one can stop you. Well... Because no challenge and no escalation is pretty boring. SOMETHING has to limit the character in order for there to be a story and you only have two options. You can either make it about the powers or the person because for the majority of the story, those are your two only active elements. So sure, you could make it about mastering about the powers, have them evolve to add more stakes, flavor, etc. but you'd still need to be doing something with the only active agent in your world.

Otherwise, you main character is as good as a puppet who just happens to be fucking other puppets and mashing together Barbie and Ken dolls does not a compelling story make. If you want to do erotica, not just pure smut, that extra effort has to be there to some extent.

If not... Well, your story will be as stagnant as time itself. See you next tale.

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Before I get into the why for this I thought I'd ask if people are intrigued by this, don't like it, etc. like that. I know I don't usually talk about my erotica work like this much but I'm kind of trying to not worry so much about censoring the fact that even to this day, I overthink this genre a LOT and maybe if I can become comfortable with that side of myself again, I might breathe a little easier again.

Funny enough though, this wasn't inspired by me working on a time stop thing or the like. It's not even meant to sell the time stop story I have. It was actually just inspired by talking to a friend and talking about similar concepts to it. My friend admitted to normally not liking these sorts of stories, where the girls are practically puppets, for being lifeless and mean but that I had helped show them the potential for it. So I thought I'd talk about it.

Also, if people want to send asks for what I should do next, just from this one some easy other blogs I could do that stem from Time Stop are: Free Use, Hypnosis/Mind Control, Corruption and Somnophilia. All of these are branches that follow the same concept where the sexual partner is theoretically overwritten in some way and each present their own problems because of it.

I will also admittedly take this as an opportunity to say that I do have a time stop story for 2.99 on Amazon called Pausing the Game.

Brandon had always been a gamer. Strategy, shooter, puzzle, it didn't matter to him. He always liked trying to find the seams of things and test what he could do to have fun with the tools he was given. Of course, the games where he had to earn such things were always better. So, with a few bruises and the sympathy of an old acquaintance, he'll gain a watch with the unique ability to stop time. With it, he'll finally get a chance to win at the one game he was always bad at playing: Life. Contains: Time Stop, Public, Humiliation, Bondage

#Pausing the Game #Time stop #Kink Analysis #Erotic Conundrums #Erotica

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mdhwrites · 15 days

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A Heads Up

I want to talk about my erotic works and also erotica in general. If you're not interested, block the term erotica/Erotica Conundrums and it should get covered up for you. I recognize that people don't exactly expect this sort of thing here and I have joked recently about potentially surprising people with having been an erotica writer because while I don't hide it, it's not like I'm shoving it in your face. I understand, I don't mind and I want to be respectful.

Now for those interested, the whys.

The first thing is honestly just me trying to be more comfortable with my erotica side publicly again. The fact that I'm making this blog is a sign that I do feel uncomfortable to some extent acknowledging it. Not because I dislike the genre or the like but because I've just had so many intensely negative responses to such things in recent years. Fun fact: The last time I had a free book out, I didn't advertise it because it was one of my erotic works and my brain harassed me about that so much I kept my mouth shut.

It's also to talk about essentially the potential of erotica though. Sex brings with it an intensity that not a lot of things allow, not without a more severe tone at least. I mean, I have a story about the desire to abuse power and what can be seen as shaking up people's lives and 'harmless' fun versus what is going too far and making yourself into a monster. Didn't realize that? I don't blame you because it's in my time stop story, Pausing the Game, but if you think about the kink, abuse of power is both the draw of it and a REALLY easy direction to go thematically with it that is potentially more digestible than if someone has to have control over a wider group of people, actually physically abusing people, etc. like that. Not that there isn't a lot to dislike about time stop being used but that's kind of why I want to talk about some of these more extreme kinks and the problems they present for storytelling if you want to use them.

And I suppose I should clarify: I use the term erotica for a reason. It's not just to sound fancy. My understanding, or at least my definition, is that what makes erotica and smut different is that when you ask "Do you read porn for the plot?" answering yes is erotica, no is smut. Smut is a lot more about just getting to the good stuff while erotica is trying to potentially tell a story or at least have a theme besides "Isn't this stuff hot?"

I don't really consider myself to have published a book I would call out and out smut. My one offs come closer and I think my closest would be The Secret Village of the Elves but even that is shrug. My tendency to overthink, and probably the fact that I'm demiromantic, make it hard for me to just want to write sex. If there is nothing more than "Hurr hurr," I kind of end up checking out while writing it because what's the point? You'd get better smut faster by just looking up a good porn artist. It's a book, I should tell a story and that's far more engaging for me anyways.

And for a final note, there's just a fact that I was an erotica original writer for as long as I've been a SFW original writer. If we go by volume, I actually might have more SFW material out there due to the Vella stuff but if we go by amount of books, I've done a lot more erotic novellas. As someone who overthinks everything and also tries to do right by various demographics, I've also put in a LOOOOT of thought on how I use various kinks, not helped by the fact that I like kinks relating to corruption, power dynamics and dominance which is also a lot of kinks that can seem pretty terrible to use to a lay person. Again, I already mentioned a TIME STOP story. And not one that takes a lot of bite out of the kink by making it so everyone it's used on knows what's going on ahead of time. I get if that makes people uncomfortable but I still want to be able to talk about how it's made me feel personally publishing such works, the subtleties of how to make something like it potentially less gross, or not feel as bad if consumed like popcorn, etc. like that. Actually talk about these thoughts I've had.

And if you're still here, and willing to let me know in some way, my birthday is coming up on the 19th and I've commonly put a book up for grabs for free when that day passes so let me know which one you might want to see that be. You can find all my works here and the only ones I can't make free for a couple days are Ruff Secrets and Crises Girlfriends because leaving their fanfic versions up mean I can't do that, sadly enough.

Have a wonderful day everyone and see you next tale.

#Erotica #Erotic Conundrums

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mdhwrites · 15 days

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Do you have any specific opinion or thought about the multiple queer (specifically trans) HCs the fandom has created for the amphibia trio? I'll admit this is the first time I see these HCs be so predominant in a fandom, and I find it fascinating and also neat how multiple different people can look at these characters and find traits they can connect to

I know this is a boring answer but not really. I'm kind of boring in that I don't care about such headcanons. Admittedly, part of that is that I'm a straight, white dude. I don't need to HC in representation so I don't really think about it but there's a much more important reason potentially:

So long as it doesn't erase canonical representation, I think fandom should be allowed to fandom. Let people have fun and I'm glad it sounds like you have a similar opinion. This also just means that I don't have much of an opinion on the matter.

Really, I just want them to have fun with it. If you're boring with your headcanon, you're boring regardless and that's not the point of fandom. It's to celebrate and have fun. XD

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mdhwrites · 16 days

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Honestly I personally believe Sasha Waybright character arc was better written and engaging than Hunter and Amity’s arcs combined mostly because there was more agency in her arc and while the other two characters who go from enemies to allies to friends just didn’t engage me as much as Sasha’s.

I’m especially dissatisfied with Hunter and how his story while interesting wasn’t as cool as it could’ve been

So I've talked a lot about this in the past but the angle I'll take this time is simple: Sasha is more compelling as a villain to ally arc because the show let her be a villain.

That might sound simple but it's clearly something TOH itself struggled with. One could argue that ALL of the redemptions in TOH follow a pattern of one bad action followed by them being tenuously on the same side and then on the same side. Amity is out of character for her first episode and then Luz is actually at fault for Covention, even if Amity takes it too far. Then Amity is weirdly antagonistic during Hooty's Moving Hassle and then NEVER AGAIN. Three episodes into knowing her and she is now the person we are supposed to sympathize and want around and her biggest crime feels entirely out of character for the rest of her portrayal.

Hunter is similar. His first appearance is not Hunter. It's the Golden Guard who is WAY more fun a character than Hunter ever was and kind of a bastard. Then the mask is removed in his second real appearance (not counting the stinger in Escaping Expulsion) and he is someone to start sympathizing and working with. He is the sad but mad boy by his third major appearance and his second appearance makes him somewhat sympathetic, just like Covention did for Amity... Or For the Future does for The Collector despite lines like "I can't wait to play amongst the bones!" in Hollow Mind that feel, drumroll please, OUT OF CHARACTER TO THE REST OF HIS WRITING!

Lilith is the only to subvert this... Kind of. No, they actually go out of order but still the same essentially with her. Her first appearance makes her sympathetic and not properly a threat because she's still willing to play ball with Eda for a one on one competition, then she spends the second half of S1 just palling around in shenanigans she should not be allowing but is because... Fuck you. Then we get her one truly evil action in kidnapping Luz, coupled also with having been the one to curse Eda but that's also used to show she's a good person now so the kidnapping is the bigger deal here. Then... She's just a good guy afterwards.

This all makes for the most shallow, bullshit uses of this trope I think you can do while being allowed to claim you did it. After all, a key point to all of these redemptions aren't "Then they sided with the good guys," it's just "Then they're a good person." They don't bring who they were as a villain with them. The strengths that led to their villainy are just gone and they're hard to say what they were in the first place, what they add to the narrative in their redemption and joining of the main party because who were they before they joined. What are they actually fighting against as a person instead of just deciding not to be evil anymore or wanting the cookies that the light side offers?

It'd be like if after Sasha was redeemed, she was as bad as Anne at being able to lead and use people. If the show went "To better erase all the crimes she's done, not only will we say Sasha only is a bad person because her father is Ultra Satan but also she now is entirely incompetent in what she was good at before." Amity loses her intelligence. Her plans are always the most straightforward after she starts getting a crush on Luz and she canonically started having her grades slip. Hunter is the most pathetic character in the main cast with I think zero wins in his belt besides his first appearance despite being the only one with combat training. Lilith is just... Sad in how much they reduce all she was for over forty years of her life to go "Now she's a silly nerd girl. Fuck ambition."

And, of course, their bad sides being blamed on mother, uncle, mother kind of for Lilith actually, just that the exposition for that comes after her redemption, and the Archivists and Belos for the Collector. They aren't bad people, they just were forced to spend time with the wrong people. Now that they're nerds and led by nerd Jesus, everything is okay.

There is a VEEERY real problem in TOH of Us vs. Them mentality that comes from these arcs that's really gross. Swap Luz to a white, male jock and suddenly the show becomes WAY MORE UNCOMFORTABLE!

Sasha dodges all of this because no one tries to excuse Sasha. Sasha never tries to pretend she's anyone other than who she is except for when she's explicitly putting on an act. This means everything compelling and good about her as a villain can cleanly transition to when she is a hero, even if it's hard to believe that which the show even calls out.

There is no Sasha's Angels in TOH. That might be a weird one to reference to you because it doesn't include much Sasha but it nails on the head what makes this trope so exciting. To Anne, Sasha letting others do the work while she gets to theoretically kick back looks like the same old Sasha that she now is suspicious of. Someone who is self serving and so Anne lashes out. However, it's not the case. Sasha's ability to manipulate always came from being able to read a person's weaknesses and strengths. She's a MUCH better manipulator than Belos in this way because she doesn't leverage on you or for you to already be siding with her. She can read you like a book and tear apart your pages until she plays with your spine. And as a hero, that's going to mean she's a great delegator. She's the sort who would go "Nah, we don't need to save them from what you see as certain doom. I know he can deal with it." And she's right. Not because of blind faith but because of the same skills that made her villainous.

Something that wouldn't hit nearly as hard, or feel reasonable on Anne's part, if we didn't get so many examples of this being who Sasha is. Of the fact that Sasha uses other people for her own means. And even now, you can claim the same... Except it's not for her means. It's for their needs.

It actually is part of what makes her becoming a therapist so pitch perfect. A good therapist can call you out when you're trying to hide behind something to not get to the core of your problems. They can catch what is at the root of your issues even as you don't see it yourself. They also can see your value and use your strengths to help combat those problems after helping you identify them. It's actually pretty close to how she tried to get out of Toad Tower in her first appearance. Bring in someone, earn their trust, use their passions against their weaknesses and make them better. The only difference is that now she cares about making them better.

Amity, Hunter and Lilith could never have such a satisfying future because again: What are their strengths? Hell, post redemption, that statement stands true. You can call Amity good at magic I guess but Hunter and Lilith are pathetic people who kind of luck out in being useful at times and that's really it. These aren't people who have anything going for them. They're as good as goons with one of them being an elite in a one off episode as far as villain forces go and that's not very compelling for a redemption of this sort. Not unless you're really going to get into that and A: Lilith was one of the strongest mages on the Isles and studied her ass off so you'd think she'd mocked less for sucking at her job and being a fucking moron and B: they didn't even try for half a second with Hunter who I don't really know if they intended to make look as pathetic as he did skill wise.

So their futures are just random factoids introduced during the story. Does Amity being an inventor say anything about her redemption? No. In fact, it really sucks because Odalia would have LOVED her daughter to follow in her father's footsteps because that's the most profitable option for their company. Good job show. Hunter just takes up the job that connects him with the only thing we know is explicitly Caleb related, no conjecture needed, which sucks for a character who was supposed to be his own person. Then Lilith is... A historian. Because she likes that I guess. Does that have anything to do with her time as the coven head? No. Her ambitions? GOD NO. It's just a random choice that puts her in line with the inoffensively nerdy cast.

And before ANYONE says anything about the shortening, I want to say I've done a blog comparing the fact that Amity, in S2A (so before the shortening) has as many appearances as Sasha does in Sasha's entire redemption arc. You didn't need more time to do this better, the show needed to actually commit to its concepts. Actually needed to be willing to do its tropes rather than slapping it on for marketability and to make lazy analysts happy.

Because enemies to allies is not one of those tropes you can half ass. Not unless you want none of its power and boy, these are some weak character arcs. At least we've got Sasha.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#amphibia #sasha waybright #the owl house criticism #toh critical #amity #Hunter #Lilith

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mdhwrites · 17 days

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What do you think about the four most popular ships in Amphibia (Sashanne, Sasharcy, Marcanne, and Sashannarcy)? Even if shipping and romance aren’t that important and only used to teach a lesson or for a comedy episode, it’s pretty obvious that the relationship between the girls can be seen either as platonic or romantic.

So I'm going to first give my one sentence thoughts on each by concept and then canon before going in deep on this:

Sashanne: A unique dynamic that is actually very context specific so hard to actually recreate and I'd argue most people don't even try or get close in fan works (myself included)/I do like them but I 100% think they needed a couple years to figure out their lives away from each other or else post Amphibia they would have likely become toxic in a new way.

Sasharcy: Classic nerd and popular pairing/FUCKING NONEXISTENT.

Marcanne: A bit more nuanced since it's much more the slacker and the passionate one as far as a dynamic goes but not in the way you expect./Held back by a lot more tell don't show, especially in the first couple episodes that Marcy is introduced but it's cute and you can EASILY see how this whole trip will have made Anne be able to appreciate her oldest friend more.

Sashannarcy: In concept these are actually a GREAT polyamory trio and I love that it has such mainstream appeal with a fandom/I don't think it works from the show's perspective because of how well defined Sasha and Anne's relationship is while Marcy struggles to have a presence.

In case you didn't notice a running theme, these ships have essentially the same problem as my greatest problem with the show: Marcy. Her weaker writing compared to the rest of the cast and the fact that she serves a narrative role more than she acts as her own character makes it hard for me to be compelled by her canon self in ships. It's akin to why Willow and Hunter don't appeal to me from a shipping perspective. I like characters, not plot devices. Yes, Marcy is better than both of those characters as she actually has a firmer character than either but that doesn't fix that her narrative utility comes before who she is most of the time.

The other big element that maybe has always held me back from shipping them in canon once I watched the show is actually the fact that I agree with the show: As teenagers, they were AWFUL for each other. Marcy needs her own, personal strength that she found some of in Amphibia but needs to actually put to use in the real world. Sasha brutally changed so much of herself and was clearly struggling with that, over correcting or still wanting to run even to the end. She asks if it's okay for her to abandon Marcy after all, even after she's gone so far to make up to Anne as to give up ALL power in her life which isn't healthy either. Anne is the closest to being ready for a relationship after Amphibia but Sprig's Birthday/Give a Frog a Cookie showed that her self sacrificing tendency for her friends and her desperation for approval still. She may do it for better people than for Sasha but she is still struggling.

They all just need time to figure themselves out as people because your relationships SHOULD NOT DEFINE YOU. That's kind of part of the point of the ending. Take the good and grow as a person, whether you lose someone by choice or by circumstance. That includes for the trio as friends or romantically.

Okay, but I did mention something potentially quite controversial which is my Sashanne take. See... Their dynamic in most fandom works is the overzealous, brash one versus the patient, more responsible one with Sasha and Anne respectively. That is accurate post Amphibia but it also carries NONE of their baggage and usually leans a lot more on Sasha's tomboy nature instead of the fact that Sasha is a girl who can both kick your ass and then worry about having chipped a nail. The complexities of Sashanne that make it so compelling in the show just don't show up as much except as an obstacle to get over to get together. That works for shipping but it's not why their friendship is as complicated and interesting as it is in the show. It doesn't have the punch it should and it's damn near impossible to replicate because that level of history is hard to depict. It only functions in the show as being well depicted because of how much time is spent essentially breaking Anne out of Sasha's control, which is part of it. Anne is someone who pretty much left a cult and Sashanne is her having to decide to now be with her cult leader but not slip back into the mentality the cult taught her. That's... not easy to put it mildly.

But then again, a lot of people just take Sasha and Anne working together for a greater cause to mean they have literally no issues anymore despite Sasha's Angels existing. I guess that happens when somehow the entire fandom doesn't give a fuck about Amphibia but only the trio. sigh

Let's end this on a positive note though which is that if I am so rough on essentially all the Sasha relationships for needing time for Sasha to genuinely internalize her lessons, Marcy is the opposite. While I complained about her above, the strength to the fact that she's a pretty well defined, nice character who can be used mostly to support others arcs is that she more neatly fits into a position for shipping. Her awkwardness and nerdiness is PRIME romance fodder (there's a reason a shocking amount of romantic protagonists are clumsy but that's for a different blog) and her passion makes it easy to understand why someone would want to be with her.

And I do want to say some thoughts on Marcanne. Even if they start on a rough place with more tell instead of show, it actually does kind of work in this context. A complaint I've had about other relationships is not actually knowing what the other is interested in their partner for besides "That's the hot one." There is ZERO ambiguity here. Marcy likes Anne because of her compassion, something she probably has worried about wearing out herself. Anne has always appreciated Marcy's intelligence but Amphibia has made her understand Marcy's passion far better than she did before and Anne clearly actually is into that now that she better cares about others properly. This also clearly shows their chemistry as we know the strengths and weaknesses each of them cover for the other, though not perfectly as they're both still human and the same things they admire in the other can cause anxiety and worry in themselves from comparing themselves to their partner. Marcy in Wartwood and Scavenger Hunt are all it takes for all of this to come out and it leads to more romantic chemistry, and a genuinely dynamic look at what they could be, than a lot of romance movies manage in their entire runtime.

In conclusion, I like all of them in general. In practice, I find most of them deeply compelling within the show. It's just... It doesn't drive me to want to write them during the show romantically because I agree with the show. They're complicated, both as a trio and as themselves, and they probably could use a more solid ground for themselves before they really start working on each other.

And that is honestly even better to me because it just makes them all the more interesting.

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For anyone curious why I didn't talk about Sashannarcy at all despite literally being a polyamory writer, it's because I kind of wanted to keep it to the ships that I think are properly represented in the show and Marcy and Sasha get essentially zero time together to try and form a relationship beyond "Marcy thinks Sasha is really fucking cool while Sasha barely gives Marcy the time of day if she's not also giving attention to Anne." The theoretical would be fun to talk about but it's pretty much only the theoretical and I decided to keep the blog more focused on the practical.

Also had a moment after this of going "Huh. I wonder how much of me being demiromantic is playing a part in how I see these.?

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#amphibia #Marcanne #Sashanne #Sasharcy #Sashannarcy

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