#Make your own fucking story then?????

[mighty-poop]

listen this might be something that seems obvious to me because I actually like the art of film and storytelling and art in general, but maybe… don’t make movies based off of old movies you very obviously hate. Why should I watch your remake if all you do is shittalk the source material you based it off of? How is that supposed to convince me your “new and improved” version is going to be better if you keep telling me the bar is literally rock bottom?

#Snow white remake #that movie isn’t even out yet and already everyone involved is making me hate it #“Snow white shouldn’t be black” you’re right she should be eastern asian and not white. #“She’s not a helpless princess who needs a prince to save her” then don’t remake snowwhite #A story that’s famous for the sleeping princess awoken by true love’s kiss trope???? #Make your own fucking story then????? #Why do you hate the original animated snowwhite so much #Everyone who’s into films and animated films and disney loves snowwite cus it’s the first feature length animated film EVER #it’s a pioneer whether you think it’s feminist or not #If you keep slamming it for not following the feminist rules of 2023 in the year 1937 you’re alienating your audience before your movie is #Even released #You’re chasing away the audience that you’re supposed to be on the same side on #“Oh you love this movie? So do I! So I tried to do smthn with it that gave it the justice it deserves” #Instead of this whole “actually we’re better than 1937 lol have some uninspired shit that nobody’s gonna enjoy” #I’m so sick of this shit #Every disney remake has to fix past mistakes but it’s not making anything Good in the meantime #And you’re losing the audience you’re trying to reach in the meantime #Doesn’t matter if you like the new barbie movie or not but that one’s actually doing what you’re trying to do RIGHT

[lord-squiggletits]

One of my favorite parts of phase 2 (and indeed one of the few moments I resonated with IDW Prowl) was when the neutrals were coming back to Cybertron and Prowl said that he refused to let Autobots be pushed aside and overruled after they were the ones who fought for freedom for 4 million years (the exact wording escapes me atm).

And I mean, that resentment still holds true even once the colonists come on bc like. As much as it's true that Cybertron's culture is fucked up, and as funny as it can be to paint Cybertronians as a bunch of weirdos who consider trying to kill someone as a common greeting not important enough to hold a grudge over.... The colonists POV kind of pissed me off a lot of times, as did the narrative tone/implications that Cybertronians are forever warlike and doomed to die by their own hands bc it just strikes me as an extremely judgemental and unsympathetic way to deal with a huge group of people with massive war PTSD and political/social tensions that were rampant even before the war?

Like, imagine living in a society rife with bigotry and discrimination where you get locked into certain occupations and social strata based on how you were born. The political tension is so bad there's a string of assassinations of politicians and leaders. The whole planet erupts into an outright war that leads (even unintentionally) to famine and chemical/biological warfare that destroys your planet. Both sides of the war are so entrenched in their pre-war sides and resentment for each other that this war lasts 4 million years and you don't even have a home planet any more. Then your home planet gets restored and a bunch of sheltered fucks come home and go "ewww why are you so violent?? You're a bunch of freaks just go live in the wilderness so that our home can belong to The Pure People Who Weren't Stupid And Evil Enough To Be Trapped In War" and then a bunch of colonists from places that know nothing about your history go "lol you people are so weird?? 🤣🤣 I don't get why y'all are fighting can't you just like, stop??? Oh okay you people are just fucked up and evil and stupid then" ((their planets are based on colonialism where their Primes wiped out the native populations btw whereas the Autobots and OP in particular fought to save organics. But that never gets brought up as a point in their favor)) as if the damage of a lifetime of war and a society that was broken even before the war can just magically go away now that the war is over.

Prowl fucking sucks but he was basically the only person that pointed out the injustice of that.

And then from then on out most of the characters from other colonies like Caminus and wherever else are going "i fucking hate you and your conflicts" w/ people like literal-nobody Slide and various Camiens getting to just sit there lecturing Optimus about how Cybertronians are too violent for their own good and how their conflicts are stupid, with only brief sympathetic moments where the Cybertronians get to be recognized as their own ppl who deserve sympathy before going right back to being lambasted.

Like I literally struggled to enjoy the story at multiple points because there was only so much I could take of the characters I knew and loved being raked over coals constantly while barely getting to defend themselves or be defended by the narrative so like. It was just fucking depressing and a little infuriating to read exRID/OP

#squiggposting #and like dont get me wrong barber wasnt trying to make cybertronians the bad guys or whatever #it's just a problem with his writing where like. he has A Message he wants to send #and so he uses the entire story literally just for The Message even if it involves bullshit plotlines #or familiar characters ppl were reading about for the past decade being shit on by OCs made up to fill a new roster #like barber's writing tends to lean way too much on a sort of lecturing tone #without giving proper care towards including moments where characters get to like. fucking express themselves and share their side #sort of like how barber couldnt be bothered to write pyra magna and optimus actually talking to each other during exrid #and instead during OP ongoing pyra is suddenly screaming about how OP is unteachable #even tho she never even tried to teach him bc she and OP never interacted bc i guess barber couldnt be bothered #he just needed someone to lecture OP so fuck making the story make sense or like letting OP get to say anything in defense #this is the infuriating part of barber's writing bc i think he has incredible IDEAS and was in charge of the lore i was most interested in #but most of the time his execution sucks and he's basically just mid with a few brilliant moments occasionally #or like he has a message about the cycle of violence he wants to convey #but his narrative choices trying to convey that theme made his story come off as super unsympathetic to the ppl who suffered #to the point where barber actively kneecapped some scenes that couldve been super fucking intense and emotional #in favor of the characters lecturing each other or some stupid plot to criticize OP #that time in unicron where windblade screamed about how this is their fault and then arcee replied that her planet is build on coloniation #shouldve happened more often than literally the last series of the ocntinuity. like goddamn stfu about your moral superiority #when your own sins are right fhere lol

[zellk]

Forgot to share here.... old doodles of when I finally came around to finding a design I like for Qalaari's mom !!

#it's so fucking funny to me that i inadvertently gave her a variant of the “mom about to die” haircut because... well... #surprise... she did die when Qalaa was young (12) :'^) #Qalaa (now between 20 and 22) still hasn't gotten over it #her mom had really weak health and really shouldn't have had a child but she made her choice #it turned out to be not the best one for her health LMAO #who wouldve thunk #but hey she wanted it and i'm pretty sure she doesn't regret it #but well... Qalaa does feel like she was a participant in her mom's death #(the other participant being her biological father who ran away before she was born and shattered aamira's heart) #ANYWAYS #i love qalaa's messed up familly #it's like a regular messed up story where actually no one (and everyone) is to blame (except Qalaa lmao she asked for NOTHING) #Aaamira gave so so much love to her child ;;;;;; this built the unbreakable core of Qalaa's kindness #aamira #aamira croquelune #aamira molandine #croquelune #still thinking about making that potentiel small DnD 'lore addon' of Qalaa's village that you can take and plug in your very own campaign #as long as you have 'far from civilization' woods or mountains you can put them in there #a village that welcomes the 'monsters' and the cast out #(like aamira) #look at me rambling in the tags lmao i just love qalaari (& her background) so much #last thing tho : you have to understand that Aamira is small and very slight and Qalaari was a HUGE baby and is a really big girl overall

[beechaotic]

So, I was thinking. Yknow Earth, right? You live on it (presumably) and you know what it’s like. At least, you think you do. But you only know the basics of the planet. Some people don’t even know that! Imagine in space that aliens all know just about everything about their planets, and we show up and are like “It’s blue and has a lot of water”.

#humans are weird #humans are deathworlders #humans are space orcs #writing #why are we like this #someone make this a story or something idk #humans are space capybaras #humans are space australians #but imagine the horror #and the just utter confusion #how tf are you in space and STILL don’t know all about your oWN FUCKING PLANET-

[obihoe]

naruto in that waterfall scene truly was like. the villagers have shunned me all my life and now they love me but its all fake cuz they just love me for what i have done to protect the village i HATE those fuckers, they can shove their autograph requests up their dumb asses and then he is like. well i got the solution. to solve all this hatred. to dissolve it and cure it. i'll just keep trying to become who they want me to be, if i manage to be the person THEY want me to be, they will love me and i'll keep their approval. this is the solution to all my problems ^_^ and then he like, hugs his dark self and it dissolves and the whole thing is done its like sfdfdgdgfs. okay, way to repress ur own feelings and do the exact same thing that youve already Been doing all ur life so far LOL. literally victim-blaming ur own self for what others have put u thru but alright. 👍

#naruto #posts #takes that are news to literally nobody here but yeah .. #its like 'i just have to be strong and be positive ^_^ just like that killer bee guy' #which like yeah cool that killer bee kept his cool all this time and just remained chipper but still. #its not his and neither naruto's fault that he was hated and ostracized all this time. lol #it shouldnt be Their responsibility to just be cool with it. and/or make it better #ANYWAY. this is all obvious but yeah #i also do have to say i kind of like the way killer bee's story of how he grew up was presented. nevertheless #cuz he's just like yo yo yo check out these cool rhymes 😎😎 while everyone throws like tomatoes at him or smth. asfsfdgds #like he just cannot be bothered #even when motoi his friend opens up to him abt hsving tried to murder him (which is like huh?? okay. youre scared #of the eight tails so youre just gonna ATTACK his jinchuuriki? w a silly little kunai as well like okay???) #anyway but his friend tells him he secretly hated him and wanted him gone and he's like whatever man 😎 give me ur fist #we are best bros forever like sfsdsfsfs #its kinda cool i think. like u COULD maybe frame this as 'ppl are going to treat u however they choose but if u just stick to urself #and know who u are. u have worth independent of them. believe in ur own strength cuz youre FUCKING cool and youre YOU #nobody can take that away from u. even if they throw eggs at u' or smth then that would be great!! #but no its framed more as 'well u just have to keep being nice and take it and believe that u can become better #so that they will love u' ... which is :[ like naruto bbygirl fuck those villagers .. u are worthy no matter what they say #ANYWAY. lol #killer bee

[quietwingsinthesky]

no one ever fucking talk to me about the leviathan dlc and its implications. even thinking about it made me mad again. how do you create a story about artificial intelligence that is a direct consequence of its creator’s hubris (thinking that they, unlike more “primitive” species, could create robots to fix their problems that WOULDN’T rebel and kill them. only for the robots to rebel and kill them.) and also a reflection of their beliefs uninterrogated: that there is no possibility for peace between artificial and organic life, that it must all be extinguished for the sake of “peace”. how do you have a story where one of the main (paywalled. dlc.) squad members is the remnants of an empire that conquered and controlled other species in the same way the leviathans did, and met the exact same fate because their imperial power was an illusion created by the reapers to make them weaker, to make them easier to exterminate. how do you make a story about these cycles, about how the council IS repeating these cycles, they just do it in a “kinder” way, a way with a veneer of democracy while still holding the same kind of power the protheans did over their empire, taking the same corrupted seat and continuing to rule their even after they find out, in mass effect 1, that it was a time bomb of extinction. how do you write all of that. how do you write the geth/quarian conflict and give us an ending that proves that peace and reconciliation is not only possible, but the best option. and then. star child. and you can’t even fucking argue with him that his ideology is bullshit.

#HOW DO YOU DO ALL OF THAT- its because of ea i know that but still. how. #not that mass effect isnt a fantastic story on its own but god the implications. theyre right there. you had them in your grasp. #what the fuck happened here. #mass effect #not even a fucking paragon check at the end to go ‘rip to you you shitty child but you were programmed by the guys who thought it was okay #to enslave half the galaxy and they maybeee weren’t right about their views.’ #unbelievable. absolute disgrace. javik is right there and you disrespect him like this. you make a crucial part of understanding all of this #DLC!!!!

[bonefall]

post/734733274896809984/do-you-ever-worry-your-own-writing-might-come-off that makes sense. i was asking because i'm afraid of accidentally writing misogyny myself and i kind of admire what you do

Hmm... I wish I had better advice to give you on this front, but honestly, the only thing I can tell you is to consider the perspective of your female characters.

Women are people. They have thoughts and feelings of their own, so like... just let them have their own arcs. A lot of the worst misogyny in WC comes from the way that the writers just don't care about their girls (or, in the case of tall shadow, actually get undermined and forced to rewrite entire chapters), so they're not curious about their lives, or WHY they feel the way they do or what they want, or any direction for their character arcs.

Turtle Tail as an example. She'll often just end up feeling whatever Gray Wing's plot demands. She's gotta leave when Storm dumps him to make him feel lonely. She shows up again to love him in the next book. Lets her best friend Bumble get dragged back to Tom the Wifebeater, but is sad enough about her death to be "unreasonably angry" with Clear Sky, and then calms down and accept Gray Wing is right all along.

And then she dies, so he can have his very own fridge wife.

In this way, Turtle Tail's just being used to tell Gray Wing's story. They're not interested in why she would turn on Bumble, or god forbid any lingering negative feelings for how she didn't help her, or even resentment towards Clear Sky for killing her or Gray Wing for jumping to his defense. She isn't really going through her own character arc.

She does have personality traits of her own, don't misunderstand my criticism, but as a character she revolves around Gray Wing.

So, zoom out every now and then, and just ask yourself; "Whose story is being told by what I wrote? Do my female characters have goals, wants, and agency, or are they just supporting men? How do their choices impact the narrative?"

But that's already kinda assuming that you already have characters like Turtle Tail who DO have personalities and potential of their own. Here's some super simple and practical advice that helped me;

Tally the genders in your cast. How many are boys, how many are girls, how many are others?

And take stock of how many of those characters are just in the supporting cast, and compare that to the amount you have in the main cast.

If you have a significant imbalance, ESPECIALLY in the main cast, fire the Woman Beam.

It's a really simple trick to just write a male character, and then change its gender while keeping it the same. I promise women are really not fundamentally different from men lmao. You can consider how your in-universe gender roles affect them later, if you'd like, but when you're just starting to wean yourself off a "boy bias" this trick works like a charm.

Also you're not allowed to change the body type of any girl you Woman Beam because I said so. PLEASE allow your girls to have muscles, or be fat, or be old, or have lots of scars. Do NOT do what a cowardly Triple A studio does, where the women all have the same cute or sexy face and curvy body while they're standing next to dwarves, robots, and a gorilla.

Or this shit,

If you do this I will GET you. If you're ever possessed by the dark urge, you will see my face appear in the clouds like Mufasa himself to guide you away from the path of evil.

Anyway, you get better at just making characters girls to begin with as time goes on and you practice it. It's really not as big of a deal as your brain might think it is.

Take a legitimate interest in female characters and try not to disproportionately hit them with parental/romance plots as opposed to the male cast, and you'll be fine. Don't think of them as "SPECIAL WOMEN CHARACTERS" just make a character and then let her be a girl, occasionally checking your tally and doing some critical thinking about their use in the story.

(Also remember I'm not a professional or anything, I'm just trying to give advice)

#I wish I had more succinct and practical advice to give you besides the woman beam trick #Honestly I just kinda feel it out because I like telling stories about girls #I made it fun for myself by clapping and cheering and whooping and hollering whenever a girl does something #because it's not fun to write like a monk in a monastery #With the spectre of Brother Smockbimble looming over your shoulder telling you to Write Perfectly Every Time #Characters aren't real people. You can just fix it if you happen to fuck up or do better next time with what you learned. #Making mistakes is just part of acquiring skill #and writing is an art just like painting or drawing. #So don't make a fun OC project into homework! You should be enjoying making your own art! Express yourself! #Please understand that when I'm ripping into the series I'm being so harsh because it's bestselling corporate media #Read by HUNDREDS of thousands of kids worldwide #Raking in millions of dollars a year. Written by a TEAM of professionals. #So I have higher expectations of it than of a fandom rando on the internet. Or even a self-published author who's just One Guy. #Hence why I'm infinitely more charitable to Ratha than I am to Battle Cats #bones gives advice

[foundfamilynonsense]

Can I just say this really quick? I read the Percy Jackson series as a 12 year old blonde girl.

(A 12 year old blonde girl with dyslexia and ADHD, no less.)

Blonde Annabeth means nothing to me. I have never felt disrespected by some sort of dumb blonde stereotype… i have been blonde (with dyslexia and ADHD) my entire life and never called a dumb blonde. In fact, I think the struggles I’ve had with My learning disabilities have been softened because I was a little blonde girl and people were patient with me. The stereotype just doesn’t exist anymore if it ever did. I do not need Annabeth to be blonde, I do not want Annabeth to be blonde. No one needs Annabeth to be blonde.

Now Black Annabeth. Now that’s the good shit. That enriches her arc. That makes so much sense. What a good idea. I honestly can’t think of a single black character with learning disabilities. If they do it right? I can’t fucking wait.

So anyone saying that Annabeth was important to little blonde girls hurt by the dumb blonde stereotype? Do not believe them. I was the little girl they are trying to use as a scapegoat and I could have cared less, even back then. When I was 11 I did not need a blonde role model. You know what I needed? A black protagonist I could relate to. I needed to be exposed to the racism little black girls face. I was ignorant as fuck back then, probably still am. Black Annabeth would have helped me. And it will help black girls who are still looking for positive, smart representation.

So anyway anyone who’s against Black Annabeth can stay away from me please thank you goodnight.

#now we need BLACK ATHENA #not star wars #percy jackson #not to be the 100th person to talk about this but some of my family is disgruntled about it and it makes me >:( #I could have give two shits about Annabeth’s hair color as a kid #and I was an Annabeth girl through and through #I wish I had black Annabeth back then #I get introduced to a lot of minority problems through fiction and then do my own research into it #as a white person in a white community sometimes that’s the only way honestly otherwise you just live in your happy ignorance #as a kid I was dying to hear stories unlike mine #black annabeth chase #!! fuck yeah!! #I edited this to include the dyslexia and adhd stuff because oh yeah! that’s also a thing!! #I was THE audience for this book. #I needed black Annabeth #and little black girls with disabilities? they deserve black Annabeth

[lale-txt]

i love you OCs who are ridiculously overpowered. i love you OCs who romance every canon character possible. i love you OCs who are related to the main character. i love you OCs who don't have a tragic backstory. i love you OCs who were created for the sole purpose of railing a very specific character. i love you OCs who break the narrative. i love you OCs who have ever been called Mary Sue. i love you OCs who are like you but not you but still you. i love you OCs who make their skill and beauty look effortless. i love you OCs

#original character #in my OC feels tonight #because my girl Renge is almost a year old now and thinking about how she evolved and still does #how she's a ghost of older OCs but also not and like me but also not and #she's a baby she's my meow meow she's the goddess i will never be #all the talks with friends about their OCs #listening to their stories and swooing over arts of them #and i feel many people are still held back by making their own OCs because they fear someone will laugh at them #or call them this Mary Sue bs which i will hold a presentation on why it's the fucking worst #don't worry bby i will fight everyone for you who makes you feel bad about your OCs #pingpong brain going brrrr i could ramble forever #lale.txt

[uncanny-tranny]

It's actually kind of heartbreaking how many people feel their life has ended right after high school or college, and honestly, the heavy romanticization of that period of time is so overwhelmingly predominant that it can be hard to avoid. It's insidious to constantly be told that ages 10-24 are the only worthwhile parts of life, that everything after is essentially meaningless and dull.

It's hard not to look around you and think that your life still is open and full of potential when you're told over and over again that the rose-tinted childhood is the last time you were alive. It's hard to realize that your life isn't over when you walk off the stage of your graduation.

We must realize that we will always be full of potentials. Your life won't be over until you take your final breath, and then? That's simply another chapter in your story, one of many. Let yourself realize that you're alive in the here and now. There will be good and bad, but never a complete loss of potential or hope.

#positivity #it's just... weird when you see somebody your age who says how over their life feels you know? #and i feel for them. i feel their pain and the emptiness of not knowing what's next or what you should do #and that's sometimes the scary part of life. but your story isn't over yet #one day it will be. one day you'll put the pen down and dry the ink on the yellowed pages and close your book of life. but that's not today #you are allowed to be an aimless spirit. you are allowed to breathe in without the crushing weight of productivity #the idea that your only potential happens when you're too young to realize it is wrong #your potential has nothing to do with feeling your youth and how little you know #it is hard to really internalize this and remind yourself to make space for hope and positivity... #...and you might not be ready to internalize this. that's okay. i'll wait with you (in a strictly spiritual sense) #we can wait together and not think about any of it. just to rest and collect our minds and feel the world hold its breath with us #all this to say that your life isn't over yet. you don't have to beat yourself up over not having lived at fucking 18 #allow yourself the compassion to realize that you needed time to grow and mature and explore the world in your own way

[idyllic-affections]

i can't STANDDDD the abyss sibling. in my case, it's lumine. anyway i can't stand her. imagine your sibling chasing after you, pushing themselves to their limits JUST to find you--to find answers about you because they love and miss you more than anyone else--and when you finally decide you will see them again, what the fuck do you say? NOTHING OF VALUE?????? and you just go on your way, acting like you don't give a fuck????? when that's literally your only family, you walk away without reassuring that you do care for them and it's just that you have your hands tied or... fucking SOME explanation for why you won't talk??????? the abyss twin does not care about the other at all i swear. like imagine making your allegedly "beloved" sibling stretch themselves so impossibly thin just to find you instead of using your words and, idk, talking to them???? i would just stop looking for them at that point fuck that. anyway this is just a pet peeve about the genshin storyline. it's so annoying.

(i am not an only child btw. i do have an older sister.)

#aphelion speaks 🌸 #this is why the hsr storyline is my beloved my roman empire my RRAHGHFG #it's not about anyone else (even if it kind of is). it's about the trailblazer. it was always about the trailblazer paving their own way + #+ and choosing to help of their own free will because they're with people who DO THAT. like. that's what they do. yeah + #+ they want answers but they want them from *kafka* and don't really seem to ask anyone else. they know who they're after. + #+ they aren't aimlessly running around. and i fuck with that. i love that. yeah beloved make your own way!!!!! that's so real!!!!!!! #whereas aether's whole story is about lumine and i HATE that omg #i don't hate lumine btw (i quite like her actually!!!). i hate the abyss sibling's role and how shitty it's written #i really should rewrite genshin smh /lh #genshin impact #genshin #genshin rant

[elliart7]

*rabidly converts all of my favorite things into 19th century fairy tale novels*

(click to see book texture 😁)

#part of the delight of our flag means death is that in many aspects it really is the gay fairytale we all wanted growing up #think about it #the focus isn’t what would logically be able to happen in a given moment #but rather what’s needed to drive the story forward emotionally #you’re in a magic coma and all that can break the spell is true loves kiss? #good thing your prince is here right the fuck out of nowhere to wake you up and carry you off! #you finally understands himself and is ready to finally claim his own happiness? #good job! here’s your entire crew that you found with a row boat in the middle of the ocean #does it make sense? #abso-fucking-lutely not but who cares #art #ofmd #our flag means death #edward teach #fanart #stede bonnet #blackbeard #ofmd fanart #blackbonnet #elliartpost #mockup #storybook #old art #gentlebeard

[public-trans-it]

I'm already know for being very opinionated and having some Hot Takes, but I still usually keep it in line and fairly reasonable. Typical "Unpopular (but still somewhat safe to voice) Opinion" territory, where I might get some blocks and some scowls, but like, nothing major.

However I'm... gonna be posting an uncharacteristically rancid take this time.

I cannot fucking STAND vibes based design. Its become a trend lately to explain game systems by vibes, and it feels EXACTLY like the tropification of romance novels. A thing so many other people have complained about far more than I have, where so many works of fiction are now just being advertise as "Its a queer little slow burn, found family story that features enemies to lovers" OKAY, BUT WHATS THE FUCKING BOOK ABOUT?

And I feel like over the past 15-20 years, the TTRPG industry has been having the exact same issue. I can go through dozens of listings on itch.io for indie games and not see a single fucking game mechanic mentioned, and its frustrating. "This game is about gathering your friends to turn your local farm into a sustainable commune!" WHAT KIND OF FUCKING DICE DOES THE GAME USE? DOES THE GAME EVEN HAVE A GM?

And like, this isn't just about the feel good warm and fuzzy games. OSR is JUST as fucking guilty in this. "This game is a black metal death crawl through your worst nightmares." IS IT A RETROCLONE? IS IT A RULES LITE D6 SYSTEM? HOW THE FUCK DO I RESOLVE AN ACTION? DO ENEMIES USE STATBLOCKS?

If a video game showed absolutely no gameplay in any of its advertisements, only showing concept trailers and cutscenes and talking about its plot, you would probably shy away and think the game isn't worth playing if it can't even stand on the merits of its own gameplay. So why the fuck are we accepting that as the norm in TTRPGs?

#special shout out to Avery Alder #Avery I fucking love your games #The Quiet Year is one of my favorite games ever #its pretty much my go-to for any campaign of any kind to give players control over the worldbuilding pre-session 0 #BOB is so well designed and such a rad way to handle diceless/GM-less design #and I ABSOLUTE understand the need for queer designers like us to carve out a space and stand our ground #in a hobby that has historically housed people who want people like us dead in a ditch #but the idea that BOB can only support inherently queer/marginalized stories is ABSURD #and the way every BOB game advertises itself/is listed on your site makes me want to tear my skin off #please #you designed a game #AN INCREDIBLE ONE at that! #please please let it stand on the merits of its own design instead of just the vibe its built for #I was about to post this on my game design blog... #but I really dont have the heart to do that. This isn't actually about game design and the industry its just... personal frustration #and the fact that the thing that makes me autistic about games to the point to where I have spent like 25 years studying them #is just... no longer even the main focus it feels like

[kasumingo]

anyway i feel like artists should start killing harassers for real

#txt #if you want to write stories that explore topics differently just fucking do it yourself? #it takes courage to take your own experience and make something out of it #guess you don't have what it takes #also if after that you still want to go 'but you could portray it better' - artists don't owe you censoring and changing their vision just t #-o fit your tastes

[essektheylyss]

I am obsessed with how narratively convenient Lark's divinatory abilities are. She's the only one of the protagonists who is both pragmatic and has a working sense of self-preservation, so having some internal impulse that is actually the guiding hand of the cosmos pushing her into doing the REALLY stupid shit is both necessary and really useful.

Like, I am the type of writer who kind of scoffs at the idea that characters are beyond the writer's control and will completely screw over your outline, because on one hand, a sensible outline will follow the characters' personalities and tendencies anyway. Obviously in an ensemble cast you will need to do some wrangling, but in theory your characters are responding to varying degrees of stimuli in order to maneuver them into the places you need them to be for things to all come together in the end.

But more importantly, "curse from god" is the funniest and easiest way to push any character to do things beyond the realm of reason when necessary, and frankly, what the fuck is the point of playing god if you don't embrace that?

#midst podcast #midst spoilers #cr meta #anyway at all times I am advocating for taking full responsibility for your characters and overall story #this is also why I laugh at those posts like 'um if you're not going to treat your characters right then you shouldn't get custody of them' #sorry babe there is no CPS in my head. I am the cruel custodian and these are my poor darwinian orphans. #that's a joke but really like. look. yeah sometimes you gotta fabricate scenarios to make characters do what you want #but like... you do that by going 'who is this character and what would it take to push them to x'??? #and especially in an ensemble cast sometimes that thing is 'curse from god' or 'divine insight' #fun fact: I LOATHE that post about 'my writing teacher made a joke that the characters are driving and the writer is locked in the trunk' #absolutely fucking hate it. #because THE WHOLE POINT OF FORMALLY LEARNING WRITING IS LEARNING HOW TO BE INTENTIONAL. #it is perfectly possible to write successfully without ever having a formal teacher but IF YOU HAVE A FORMAL TEACHER. UH. #like yeah yeah 'workshopping' but like. okay go build your own workshop group don't pay somebody jfc #(cuz it's not like most creative writing teachers know how to teach you to workshop. let's be fucking real.) #if you wanna learn how to workshop take a script class for the love of god. #ANYWAY rant over but I'm correct. the highest purpose of a writer is to be a control freak and to play god.

[oldirontender]

can i get a hip hip hooray for old man yaoi?!?!?!?!! (for @bruhstation )

#my art #thomas and friends #2x3x4 #gordon ttte #henry ttte #ttte edward #not to get emotional over an au but. thank u for making casa tidmouth. #it has inspired me so heavily in all my art and ocs and how i create stories #which i know is a little dramatic but. your character designs have REWIRED my brain #its also helped me feel more comfortable with my own interests- #like ''holy shit people in this fandom are so cool. im not cringe!!! this is fucking awesome!!!!" #which has kinda helped me love myself a little more #so uh. thanks for these gay men. theyre awesome