#a great character exploration

[strangertheories]

I really despise the Marvelification of Stranger Things, because all the interviews nowadays are constantly referencing how fast paced and epic and big the finale will be but the reason people fell in love with the show wasn't special effects or long episodes; it was the plot, it was the characters, it was the mystery. Stranger Things 1 may have been a story about a government conspiracy and a monster, but that's not why we stuck around. The show can throw amazing CGI, Russians, a battle within the American army and an apocalypse at the audience with the biggest budget known to man but if they forget to ground it and keep it central, it'll just get lost amongst a plethora of other "epic" blockbusters. We want Steven King, not Avengers.

#i think s5 has a TON of potential to be great don't get me wrong #but they need to drive home the characters #make the final fight rooted in emotion not throwing hands at each other and screaming #s4 i think was getting there by exploring max's arc and the hawkins plotline was perfect #so don't take this as me saying s5 will be bad #but s1 and 2 are my favourites for a reason #im just getting nervous based on them constantly banging on about how big the finale will be #ALSO they need to put emphasis on the mystery around will and the ud being frozen #if they keep it central and focus on will and eleven i think they can pull it off #but i hope this makes sense #stranger things #byler #will byers #stranger things five #st5 #stranger things one #stranger things two

[felassan]

ouugh i just cant wait to return to thedas

#dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #gpoy #feels #video games #i think thedas is my favorite setting #and in da the world of thedas itself is my favorite character #to properly return! like us- in a game as opposed to a comic or book etc #which r great but isnt the same as playing and exploring #its been so long and i need to go back fr #i am so excited for the summer #thedas dragonage i love u #thedas dragonage wanna run to u 🥺🥺 #meet me halfway right at the borderline its where im gonna wait #for u #ill be lookin out #night and day

[martyrbat]

seriously though i know im mostly a comics blog so complaining is expected and is second nature and there is a LOT to complain on (from disgusting writers to character developments being nuked) thats justified but also i love comics so so much.... i love this medium and how unique it is and the story opportunities it gives. i love seeing so many different art styles and writers and how comics can be dialogue or visual heavy (or a balance of both) and how theyre equally important or emotionally moving. i love how many stories and arcs these characters can have. i love when you can tell something is a passion project and when you can tell someone truly loves these characters. i love how long theyve been around and seeing the development of them and the way they been empowering or something to look forward to and bring hope or laughter or excitement since the 1930s. i love that i can not like something in a specific story but still enjoy the character or medium because theres so many different factors in that one story alone but also because theres so many different writers and stories and spin offs and solos and everything to still read and enjoy if that particular one isn't for me. i love how their timelines can be complete bullshit and how sometimes an event is important and sometimes theres no consequences and the only way to find out is to keep reading. i love the melodramas, i love the cheesiness, i love the camp, i love the passion projects, i love the dark themes, i love the slow and developing timelines and arcs, i love the tragedy and humor and horror and action and how many different genres it can have while still in this one medium and still about this one character. i love how any character, no matter how minor, can have a person that loves them and gets excited to see them. i love the community aspect of them (sometimes) and i love how so many different people can enjoy the same comic for different reasons and have their own community of mutuals that enjoy it the way they do. i just love comics so so much.

#im sorry im not a hater there is so much room in my big gushy mushy heart #like theyre such a unique and fun medium. how writers and artists can be the same or different. how many people can be involved or it can b #just one/two people doing it all. how it allows them to explore visual heavy stories and dialogue ones and both have their place and are #adored and are equally important. #like its easy to talk shit on them but thats only because im so enamoured with comics entirely. even characters i don't personally like #i just love that they exist in some way or form. art is beautiful and comics are great (until theyre not <3) #ransom note

[cobbssecondbelt]

The differences between Din and Paz's relation with their foundling are quite interesting to observe.

Paz explicitly refers to Ragnar as his son, and Ragnar calls him ''dad'' without hesitation. We don't know how long they have been together, but they are family, there's no doubt about it for anyone.

Meanwhile, Din has had Grogu under his wing for 3 years, and despite their obvious bond and everybody else saying otherwise, he still refuses to acknowledge himself a parental figure. Even without the threat of having to hand Grogu away, Din can't quite yet let himself embrace the role of a father fully. Probably because he knows the pain of losing parents and knows Grogu will eventually lose him before he's even out of childhood, and therefore can't bring himself to this level of emotional vulnerability (even though his love for his foundling is evident), as other people have already mentioned.

Paz and Ragnar don't have that. Obviously nobody is safe from an early death, especially not Mandalorian warriors, but for them it is a risk, not a certainty. Din knows Grogu will outlive him by centuries. He knows he will only be a blip in his lifetime. And maybe he wants to protect Grogu from the great pain that inevitably comes with great love. Even if it's too late for that.

Din still has a long way to go and a lot of things to learn about loving. And think Paz can teach him plenty, without even realizing it.

#Fatherhood and attachement are definitely not themes I expected to see explored between these two characters but I sure am not complaining #Paz and his foundling literally melted my heart today and I think it can be a great way for him and Din to find a common ground again #I also strongly believe Paz never truly acted out of evil intentions towards Din #He acts in extremes but actually always has fair points #or acts according to tradition #din djarin #grogu djarin #paz vizsla #ragnar vizsla #the mandalorian

[velvetjune]

I want control 2 to have even more documents and more reading

#nothing beats the sheer joy of finding a document hidden somewhere in the first game #I’m trying to 100% the game currently and i love collecting all the weird records and correspondence #it makes the world incredibly rich and immersive #control 2019 #control remedy #something i really love about all the records is starting to recognize the characters who wrote them #learning more about dr darling or pope or kiran by seeing their voice in the docs #unbelievably excited for control 2 bc they can build off of established characters #control 1 barely explored their cast (fair enough with such a great original world) #but now they can build on that AND have a great enviornment

[trlvsn]

also sorry for being aro on main but friendly reminder to view characters as individual beings if you want to fully understand them and analyze them properly. while relationships can be a way to push a character to a certain point of development and explore them better you gotta snap out of the fanon ship-enduced mindset every once in a while you just gotta

#like. edgeworth is a good example of this #a LOT of his character is connected to phoenix #and phoenix does provide development #nrmt can help us explore both characters with their interactions #BUT i barely see takes on edgeworth that aren't connected to phoenix somehow #despite him going through most of things decidedly on his own #he spent sm time soul searching in europe #so yeah. just. consider this yk #narumitsu is great though it's good i love it from multiple points of view #but relationships are not everything about a person

[lesbianwithchainsaws]

Annie Edison is already one of the characters of all time and, if the writers hadn't kept trying to give her a romance with Jeff, she'd be even more the character of all time

#i love annie so much and every day i am mentally fighting the writers for the jeffannie-isms #i feel like there could have been so much to explore with her outside her romance w jeff #shes smart. she wants to be taken more seriously. the study group is her found family. she chloroformed a guy twice #and was ready to do it again #she's absolutely insane and i love her and she's such a great character #and i feel like there could've been more of those moments if there was less jeff and annie stuff #nbc community #annie edison #community

[blaiddraws]

a few weeks ago someone said something about ingo dying and coming back as a new kinda ghost pokemon, and then mentioned ghost/steel (as in trains) as one possibility and my mind latched onto the train part and Did Not Let Go

so!

new au i guess.

ingo somehow gets revived as a ghost train Pokemon. (divine intervention? autism swag? who knows) spends the next however long it is from the past haunting various railroads around the world (he's having The Time Of His. un-Life(??)) waiting for time to catch up to when he disappeared from his original time, until eventually a couple years after he originally disappeared, emmet starts hearing rumors of a strange new pokemon stalking the subway tunnels

bonus. way back when immediately after ingo. uh. kicked the bucket. he ended up hiding in wayward cave for a while for several reasons

melli ended up coming across him and befriended him. (he's much better with Pokemon than people. pokemon don't judge you, and all that)

then ingo figured out how to write

#he has the ability to shift into a Train Sized size and 'ride' on the tracks like an actual train #because it's what he deserves. #submas #character death #technically. he got better tho #ingo #warden ingo #subway boss ingo #pokemon #pokemon legends arceus #would this count as angst?? he's honestly having a great time running around and exploring various railroads around the world #passing time until he can meet emmet again #ghost worm ingo #fakemon #ghost worm au

[amphibianaday]

day 1181

#amphibian #axolotl #salamander #amphibiuary2023 #described in alt text #heeheehoo wizord time #seeing everyone elses drawings has been so inspiring honestly i am having so much fun drawing #no idea what the status of my queue is now i had to change it so i could reblog everyones art #if this posts the wrong day o well #this is inspired by a game i wanted to make many many years ago #youd play as a witch exploring a dark cave in search of potion ingredients #i designed the character and prototyped the basic mechanics and then stopped having time to work on it :( #honestly i wanna return to it i just have a hundred other projects i wanna work on #heh maybe i still have the unity project it wouldd eb fun to look #or maybe it was lost in the great harddrive crash of 2021 </3 #big nostalgia moment this wizard clearly cast some kind of memory spell on me

[deadlydodos]

I know everyone is reading into the characterisation brought by the masks in Glass Onion, but I love how these clues rely entirely on the audiences shared experiences and connotations made from living during covid. It makes the film so personal, I think.

#the fact that a few years ago or several years in the future no one will get the same experience as those watching it now #everyone knew a Claire or a duke during the pandemic which helps form our ideas about the characters #and that extra layer of understanding will be lost on someone who has never experienced covid #I don’t know I just thought it was neat #and a cool exploration into how covid has collectively shaped us and changed the way we experience the world and cinema #Great encorporation of a global pandemic as a storytelling device that would be incomprehensible to me a few years ago #I saw Blancs funky little dotted mask and I knew he was both dapper and fruity #character development at its finest #also props to the costume team honestly #glass onion #knives out #benoit blanc #mystery #film #movie

[thaliagrayce]

y'know what we don't talk about enough? Hazel died. We talk about how she grew up in the 30's and 40's and we talk about how out of place she feels in the modern world, but! She died! She was dead! She has spent more time dead than alive, and not by a close margin!

How does that effect a person??? We got some of it in the flashbacks, but once those caught up with her present timeline and she shared them, they just kind of... disappeared. And she was a regular girl with some weird past experiences. That's one way of doing it, sure!

I think it would have been a lot cooler if she was just a touch creepier. If she felt a little bit Wrong. Yeah, in general she's more approachable than her brother, she's more sociable and less closed off, but. If you actually spend any time with her, it can be difficult to tell which child of the underworld is actually more unsettling.

Hazel is bright of personality and has a dazzling smile, but sometimes she'll just... shut down. She'll go completely blank for like half an hour and nobody knows what to do with it. Sometimes she forgets she's alive. Sometimes she'll spout the grimmest shit you've ever heard like it's nothing, she won't even notice it's weird until the room goes quiet. She spent decades in Asphodel, which is designed to make people forget about themselves and wander around for eternity, only she didn't have the luxury of forgetting! Wild! After she comes back to life, sometimes she forgets that she's allowed to Do Stuff now. She can spend so long sitting and staring at nothing. Sometimes she'll start crying on cloudless days because it hits her again that she can actually feel the warmth of the sun on her skin and she can hear birdsong. Every little mundane experience is a blessing and she will make you remember that in the most foreboding way possible.

#hazel levesque #hoo #mj talks #like. i am fascinated with characters who die and come back different and it JUST hit me that there was so much potential for hazel there #the idea of how death lingers was not explored At All in heroes of olympus #of course there's the obvious part in that there were what. 3 named character deaths total? 4 if you count leo #which i very much don't because it didn't stick! there were no consequences to this gigantic war! #the first series did well with that because we had plenty of named characters who died #even though some of them were introduced only to die like six chapters later. we still knew them on some level #and more importantly percy knew them. he felt their loss in a way that made consequences seem real #heroes of olympus didn't have any of that. hazel could have been a great way to talk about it a little more! #also i just love characters who have obviously gone through death. that has to change a person! tell me how it changed you! #anyway. i think i'll make hazel creepier from now on in my writing #she deserves it <3 #nico is creepy in an obvious way. he's got power over death and that clings to him like a second skin. he can't hide it #and he's learned that he doesn't have to. there is power in being othered #hazel seems lovely when you first meet her! none of the death power all of the glitter and gold and riches #and then she'll look you dead in the eye and say 'you really don't know how lucky you are to be able to breathe until you can't anymore' #and move on like it's nothing! what! #underworld siblings

[sysig]

Some Betty highlights from her way-too-long comic roughs (Patreon)

#Doodles #Adventure Time #Betty Grof #Simon Petrikov #Can you tell I like her intense expressions #Betty's so cool I really like her character #I like how she's set up in AT and how she's further explored in Fionna and Cake :) #Right from the get-go she's just so ready to take everything in stride and I like her! She's cute and charming and funny and interesting #She's just a really well-rounded character for how little screentime she gets :D #And she's quite fun to draw so that's just a bonus haha #Obviously a mix between Adventure Time and my own style - sharp hair swoops aren't really on-model but I just like them lol #But I really like AT's eyes - they're so simple but they can be so communicative! #And Betty gets two eye styles which is Very cool >:3c #It really makes her stand out :D #I dunno if you can in her blank/wide-eyed style but she's meant to be wearing her Magic Woman getup I just forgot her hair kerchief #She's not As fun to draw with it on but I want her to be accurate as well! #It was fun to draw her interacting with Simon as well <3 Them flirting just makes me so 💕💖❤️💞💝 #I'm /still/ not over his little lovehearts from Broke His Crown like fjdslafdshfdf it's so cute #Them being silly and gentle with each other gets me so bad ♥ #I imagine just from these even removed from context you can tell this doesn't go particularly great for them tho haha #Also lol @ myself - I wrote this caption before finishing Part 3 which uhhhh #Part 3 ended up being well over 150% as long as this so- #They're just too fun and interesting!

[ciderjacks]

i was thinking about it, and i think that the reason Eddie works so well as a character despite (in the beginning especially) having the potential to be a VERY unlikeable, grating character, is that she’s pretty quickly shown to be genuinely smart and competent. Like I’m someone who generally hates characters that fill the tropes she does, but when I was watching the show for the first time I remember that while I was frustrated by her I still cared about her. Like during the shack scene I was legit on edge bc I was scared she’d get hurt.

Like it would’ve been so easy to just make her an idiot, but they didn’t and by establishing that she’s smart within her first few minutes on screen (specifically her talk with James) completely saves her character from becoming unlikable imo, even when she’s acting like a dick.

#deadloch #eddie redcliffe #i think I talk a lot about how well Dulcie is written and acted but Eddie is just as great like #Idk i wanna talk more about her #I have less to say bc shes much more open and her issues are more explored in the show #Whereas Dulcie is repressed and confusing #But like Eddie is such a well done character and Madeline Sami plays her perfectly

[ride-a-dromedary]

the darkest of nights, in truth, still dazzles.

a halsin fanmix  [listen]

01. Heart of Spring - david arkenstone | 02. Cé Hé Mise Le Ulaingt? / The Two Trees - loreena mckennit | 03. Pussywillows, Cat-tails - gordon lightfoot | 04. Maybe Tomorrow - f&m | 05. Don't Stop Me Now - queen | 06. I Was Born Under a Wand'rin' Star  - bryn terfel  | 07. A Tenuous Bond - derek duke | 08. Closer - nine inch nails | 09.  Into the Darkness - jeremy soule  | 10.  Colorblind - counting crows | 11. Natural Light - ludovico einaudi | 12. Under the Greenwood Tree - royal shakespeare company | 13. The Grove - bear mccreary | 14. Blood Upon the Snow - hozier & bear mccreary | 15. A Quiet Darkness - houses | 16. Spellplague - alderfall | 17. Empty Chairs at Empty Tables - jonathan antoine | 18. Only Everyone Can Judge Me - crywank | 19. Blue Skies - kathryn calder | 20. The Buzzard - old blind dogs | 21. Constant Craving - k.d. lang | 22. The Cave - mumford and sons | 23. Jim Cain - bill callahan | 24. I Won't Back Down - johnny cash | 25. The Ash Grove - laura wright | 26. The Wind - yusuf/cat stevens | 27. To Someone From A Warm Climate (Uiscefhuarithe) - hozier | 28. The Logical Song - supertramp | 29. Tapestry - don mclean | 30. Big Yellow Taxi - joni mitchell | 31. Eat Your Young (Bekon's Choral Version) - hozier | 32. The Flock - david maxxim micic | 33. Changes - david bowie | 34. Ri Na Cruinne - clanaad | 35. The Moments of Happiness - ken page | 36. My Back Pages - the byrds | 37. If This Journey - tom hanford

#BG3 Musing #BG3 Fanmix #Halsin BG3 #Halsin #Halsin Posting #my fanmix #i give up this is about as done as it will ever be - i've been talking about this enough i need to get it away from me #i could have made at least one or two other playlists with the number of songs i cut from this #there were some things that hurt me to cut but i figured others had them in their playlists so they're out there #(the impossible dream you will always be famous i am so sorry :(() #i had three goals with this 1. make it more of a timeline in that it follows a narrative order (which hopefully is easy enough to follow) #(it makes sense to me about as much as it is ever going to lol) #2. try to avoid using songs that other individuals have used in their playlists (with a handful of exceptions - i highly encourage you also #take a listen to the others around! lots of good stuff and i figured if you were missing it from this one you can find another with it) #(and if i did use one the context might be different #'closer here is being used in a different way than i usually see it - it's putting more emphasis on the 'you can have my isolation' bit use #in context of the matron and patron for example) #and 3. focus as much as possible on non-romance path elements of halsin's character - i.e. again that's a topic that is highly explored #in other fanmixes to great success - this one is about the childhood he references and the adventures and the capture in the underdark #and the shadow curse and the burying of people he loved and the uptaking of the archdruid position and the healing he did #and possibly did not do #and the radicalization he comes into when his goals are met and he's faced with injustices #and the struggle he has of redefining himself and figuring out who he is after all of it #hopefully the 'eras' are clearly defined but hey it's all gravy from here #honestly if there is one song to listen to that encapsulates halsin for me it's tapestry - highly recommend that #anyway i am blabbing - let the lyrics and such talk for themselves jemi please #but if fanmixes aren't your speed have a kinda nice edit i guess

[rentonotnerd]

I very much like the fact that Jeritza is not really an important character in the game. It seems to me that his own conflict has already been resolved when he killed Baron Bartels (that makes a classic gothic story) and then he’s left with no life purpose and a dissociative identity disorder. Yet the game still needs a secondary boss so he gets hired for his strength. It wouldn’t interest me this much if he was the main villain trying to take a part in shaping Fodlán because, I admit it, he has such a non-original and old-fashioned design that would only make it boring. But he’s got practically nothing to do with the main story and doesn’t care a bit about how it goes, just getting his work done half paying attention to his orders, and having fun on his own, “hey nice sword” “can I play with you” “that was fun see you next time” etc., in his over-the-top outfit looking like a mascot, it’s so weirdly cute.

#also it leaves me great liberty to imagine and explore his relationship with byleth #both of their characters so indeterminate so flexible #there are so many possibilities

[panncakes]

from a novel reader before show, i hope that the show does a better job at explaining sun's backstory and limitations than the book did. while we did get sun's perspective, it was a lot more to do with her direct relationship with ongsa/earth (which like duh its the point of the book) but the only flaws that we learned that sun does is that she is irrational and jealous but its sorta played off in a cute way instead. hell we didn't even know that sun had a brother until the last chapter - i mean he was completely erased from the show that's how insignificant he is. we get this line in the book along the lines of "i also have my flaws" but like we never learn about them. so i'm hoping the show does a better job at emphasizing that cuz now sun is shown as this perfect character which makes sense becuase we are getting ongsa's POV and in her eyes sun is perfect but i just want a deeper dive into her character. comes back to the point that some people were making that sun doesn't feel like a main character in her own show, we don't even know which of her friends is which tbh.

i honestly don't really think sun is a main character on the same level of ongsa tbh (or she hasn't been; pov shift could still happen). she is the main love interest for sure but this is very obviously ongsa's story and i think that's been pretty obvious and i also think that's absolutely fine. often gmmtv is a little better at having one main character and one love interest than balancing two main characters in my opinion (or at least in romcoms).

that being said i do hope very loudly alongside of you we get a bit more of sun's personality once all the pretense drops and as ongsa gets to know sun more and more. we know she is feisty and naive and a little bit stuck in her popular girl bubble so there's some foundation to explore flaws and i really hope we get to.

i think there's a real opportunity to shift into sun's pov once she finds out ongsa is earth and focus on how sun deals with it rather than focus on ongsa (perhaps get a little more insight on why she's so willing to trust a faceless stranger on the internet) so i hope they go down that road! i also hope we get to see her feisty and reckless a little more; focus on the aspects of her character that aren't just sweet and nice

#anon #asks #23.5 the series #23.5 degrees #finding out a character has a brother in the last chapter of a big when it isnt used as a big gotcha reveal #is very funny tho lmao #but yess i adore sun as the popular girl being sunny and happy and nice but now that that has been established i hope we go a little deeper #love is a great actress who can deal with more depth than they've given her so far #so i do have hope we'll get more exploration of suns character