#again. google exists. you can google things. about fictional characters. i do that sometimes when a new ship coasts across my dashboard

[gophergal]

Look. If you come onto my awful little blog and say "subzero and scorpion are brothers" as a way to deter me from shipping SubScorp, I'm just going to laugh at you.

That's like saying "shipping superbat is wrong because Clark Kent and Dick Grayson have an age gap"

Like. Dude. Bro. The ship you're arguing me on is not the ship I'm talking about. I get it, code names and titles shared between characters make shit REALLY FUCKING ANNOYING. But the Internet exists. You can Google things. I believe in you dude.

#gopher rambles #mortal kombat #subscorp #for anyone who doesnt understand what im saying about the superbat thing: dick was batman for a while #its not the exact same but it just reminds me of how hanzo was scorpion for 30 years #and now SOMEHOW folks dont realize that the scorpion in m1k is a different person #again. google exists. you can google things. about fictional characters. i do that sometimes when a new ship coasts across my dashboard #i get curious and want to know who these new gay bitches are #you should try it sometime its fun #gopher bitches

[netherworldpost]

From 2016 through 2018, Evil Supply Co. (hi, it me, we are rebranding) published 21 monster newspapers detailing the lives and tomfooleries of ghosts, witches, mermaids, monsters, dragons, gorgons, wizards, rock creatures, goblins, orcs... etc.

The Complete Evil Supply Co. collection is available for free via PDF by clicking this link here.

Please feel free to share. Please feel free to link to it on your own blog or media or whatevers.

The link will take you to a Google Drive page, so when I say "there is no obligation or sign ups" I mean it. I won't even know that you downloaded it.

You can of course tell me. But you don't have to.

The entire point of making this public is to give you something without asking for something in return.

Every issue. Every in-universe ad. A few extra rambles at the beginning and end discussing the future. It's just over 100 pages and something like 40- 50,000 words. I counted once and it took forever.

I've been making it free for years and have given away several copies because the community of folks who love monsters and Halloween and mermaids has provided me an audience to build an unimaginably fun life.

A company can exist for many reasons. Making the world a better place via a utopian paradise is one of mine.

When I say this project is my life's work, I mean it.

I'm getting far too sappy.

Let's talk about the future a moment.

I have been exploring various printed versions of the book for months. I'm hoping to narrow down a company to work with sometime before the store launches (Autumn 2023). Did you know that books are absurdly heavy?

The printed version will not be free. The link above (and here, we love utility in this crypt) is formatted to print fine on 8.5" x 11" paper. It is again though 100+ pages, so do be aware. The PDF will always be free, even after said printed version launches.

Onwards to next, non-secret things

Remember this? I've signed a contract today to build a microsite on the blog that will house the Dispatch in web format. This is third in priority --

blog (April 2023)

shop (Autumn 2023)

Dispatch microsite (...?)

-- for obvious reasons. The PDF will be available for free for as long as I run this company, this is not a limited time offer. I mentioned that above but I like mentioning things, including "I like mentioning things."

The existence of non-secret things implies... secret... things?

Kinda.

One of the features of the blog that I'm really excited to offer is advice columns and in-character pen pal exchanges. "Hey Strawberry, how does magic work underwater?" and then you'll get a reply if your ask is chosen.

And by reply I mean a published thing online + an actual physical letter in the mail as this company is a non-governmental postal facility after all. A post office, if you will. A Netherworld Post Office, even!

The stories from Evil Supply Co.'s dispatch are serving as a near-final draft of new stories.

Or maybe a solid starter. Anyway, the point being:

All of the plot points and characters (etc) are sticking around (with the exception of Atticus, as a fictional character in the newspaper, I've decided to just be a semi-fictional character in actual real life).

The direction of new stories is "more of everything" and "cleaning up minor plot point holes" and/or "using plot point holes for comedic purposes and strategic hilarity."

There will be a brand new character replacing the Atticus character.

I really liked running the Dispatch. It was one of the things I'm most proud of -- a monster newspaper?! all original content!! I drew it all, I wrote it all!

I want to explore bringing it back in some form.

And.

I recognize I have a lot on my plate at the moment. So the best path forward is, as above, giving away the base + building the microsite.

One of the beautiful things, I have come to realize after surviving my 2020 traffic accident + ensuing as well as not related legal battles to get people to pay me what they owe:

I have a lot of time.

I don't need to rush things.

Whoops!

Wrong link.

Try this one instead.

(That terrible joke was as immensely satisfying to write as you think it was. Doubly so if you get that the link is from Ocarina of Time and I was just talking about time okay I'll see myself to the door this post has gone on way too long.)

Let's wrap this up!

NetherworldPost.com has the email signup.

If you've signed up before, the auto- duplication- resolution- witchcraft- tech- things will take care of it. You won't get a ton of emails.

First email will go out saying "blog is launched" when said blog launches and then rambles thereafter.

(Bugs Bunny and others gifs used in this post do not appear but are included as helping legibility of said this post.)

#peyroux dispatch #monster stories #monster fiction #ghost fiction #halloween stories #monster newspaper #evil supply co #evilsupplyco

[jedi-enthusiast]

For the fanfic ask game: 💖 👀 🥺 🤲 🥰 (sorry I know that's a lot LOL feel free to pick and choose!)

The ask game <3

Oh no don’t apologize! I love people asking a bunch of questions because I love rambling about my fics!

💖- What made you start writing?

I have two answers for this question, since I actually stopped writing a while ago and then got back into it.

I first started writing in general because I was primarily a Wattpad user (I had no idea Ao3 existed, but give me a break I was like 13) and I was reading fan fiction for a manga/anime series called Kuroshitsuji or Black Butler and I just wanted a heroine reader like me.

Most of the "readers" or "ocs" in those fics didn't really stand up for themselves and often let the guy characters walk all over them--or they would be referred to as "badass" but were never really given a chance to be badass. And, at the time, they were also mostly blonde haired/blue eyed.

So I started writing because I wanted a heroine reader that stood up for herself and didn't take anyone's shit and was actually badass on paper--and who had brown hair and eyes like me. I actually still have the full outline of the fic I was working on, and a draft of the prologue, and here are two commissions I bought for my oc:

I did eventually stop writing for a while, though, because I was just tired of writing and rewriting and rewriting (the outline and draft I have currently is my 3rd rewrite of the entire thing, 4th if you count the other completely different version of it--I get very nitpicky with my fics sometimes).

What got me back into writing was actually you. I started reading "Shoulder the Sky" and I saw how much work you had put in and how passionate you were about your fic and I just...got inspired. I already had an outline for The Great War sitting in my Google Docs (from back when I first got into Star Wars) and I basically decided "fuck it, if they can do then so can I, I'm gonna start writing again" and I did, and now I have two fics ongoing and several in the works that I can't wait to get to.

👀- Tell me about an up and coming WIP!

Ok, one of my WIPs that I'm working on (that I hope to start writing soon, once I finish the outline) is a Modern!AU called "Deeper Roots."

Basically Cody and Obi-Wan are high school sweethearts who have had a long-distance relationship for over a decade now, since Obi-Wan had to move away from their town when he got custody of his siblings (Anakin, Ahsoka, and Reva) from their father (Qui-Gon) due to family issues.

Well, Obi-Wan and Cody decide that he should move back to town since Anakin will be starting college soon (he's 21, but took a gap year and then waited since he had an accident that took his arm) and the college of his choice is nearby + Ahsoka wants to go to that same college + they all miss Cody a lot and want to see him more.

Only one problem. Cody hasn't come out to his family and they have no idea he's dating someone, let alone that he has a boyfriend and that he's--for all intents and purposes--technically a father of three. They all try to keep things a secret from his family still, but things obviously get a whole lot more complicated once the two sides of Cody's life start to intermingle.

(also, I think Reva should be incorporated into their family in Modern!AU fics more often, I think she'd make a great youngest child)

🥺- Is there a certain moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

Ok, slight spoilers for BCC, but one interaction that always makes me emotional when I start to think about it is this one line that I have planned for the end of BCC.

Basically Obi-Wan and Cody are hiding away in a storage room after a hard battle and Obi-Wan says something about "not wanting to be High General Kenobi."

So Cody says that they don't have to be Commander and General. That, when it's just them, "they can just be Obi-Wan and Cody."

👐- Would you please share a snippet of a WIP?

Nothing else is really written yet, so here's a snippet of the next chapter of Bloodshed, Crimson Clover:

The Force sparked restlessly under Obi-Wan’s skin as he stared at the empty holomap in front of him, eyes searching it for the readouts of a battle that hadn’t happened yet—or, rather, was happening, but just out of reach. He could look away. Attempt to meditate, or finish last mission’s report, or do something more productive with his time, but the near-blinding blue light of the blank screen had already seared itself into his mind and he knew that, even if he walked away, it would follow him. 

So he stayed. 

Staring. 

He hesitantly reached out along his and Anakin’s Force Bond, gently pushing forward the memory of Crys announcing they were only fifteen minutes out and an impression of– you? Them? Safe? 

Part of him didn’t expect Anakin to respond, and another part of him dreaded that very fact, but—as always—Anakin was full of surprises. He was quickly hit with a twin pair of waves, harsh impressions of impatience and frustration that burned the back of his throat, and their corresponding memories—one of the 501st’s Star Cruisers disappearing in a flash of fire and smoke, a supply ship they were escorting quickly succumbing to the same fate, Anakin’s admiral informing him that they couldn’t hold out much longer. 

The taste of ash felt thick and heavy on his tongue, and it took him a moment to recover from the sheer intensity of it all—although he was careful to keep his expression devoid of any emotion. Anakin was strong in the Force, but that meant he often forgot to take into consideration how his power might affect those around him. Obi-Wan was used to it, however, so he was able to disperse the effects quickly enough, and the emotions that followed were all his own. 

🥰- How do you feel about reader interaction? Are you open to receiving questions about your fics?

I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!

*cough* ahem.

I love getting questions about my fic and I love getting comments and people talking about it--all of it just makes me so happy! I love my fic and I love to see people loving it too!

#thank you so much for the questions! #sending you all my love <3 #ask game #star wars #ao3 fanfic #codywan fanfic #codywan #fanfic #obi wan kenobi #commander cody

[redleavesinthewind]

7, 22 & 26!

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

oh it is that feeling when everything flows well and i’m just in the moment writing whatever comes to mind and it doesn’t have to be good but i’m not doubting myself and it is so fun, i wish those moments would happen more often

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

okay so that depends on the story/fic i’m working on! for shorter fics i just open a doc and start writing. if they get longer, i write an outline first, but how detailed it is ALSO depends on the story. here’s it’s not about the length of the fic; i have an incredibly detailed outline for one that’s projected to be 30-35k words, whereas a fic that’s potentially gonna be 80k+ only has a skeleton of an outline and the rest is filled in as i go. the outline is usually in a seperate doc (which i tend to call masterdoc) and the specific scenes are copied over to the drafting doc as i write them. which, both the masterdoc and the drafting doc are in microsoft word, then the finished chapter is copied to a google doc for my beta and for me to edit it (because i find that editing works better on gdoc than word) and then the finalised version is copied back into a final draft word doc, so that i can look over it one last time (changing the ways i view the doc back and forth helps me catch things i otherwise wouldn’t). if we’re going back to origins, as soon as i have an idea, it gets a notesheet on my phone, though it doesn’t stay there for long until i create a masterdoc and copy everything over. for the writing itself, i tend to sprint. doing that in a private discord server with a sprint bot, because it gets me more focused, and also makes me take regular breaks. for my original fiction, i usually also create spreadsheets for character organisation, timelines, etc. i do have a bunch of physical notebooks and carry one with me at all times in case i get an idea in the moment and can’t write it down otherwise, though i think that’s a remnant from when i went to secondary school and couldn’t just take my phone out at any time of the day

26. How do you get into your character's head? How do you get out? Do you ever regret going in there in the first place?

i genuinely don’t know. it just happens. i did rewatch a few spn episodes with jody and donna in them before writing hunting contact, but that was more because i just hadn’t seen them in a while and needed to check some details (and also just wanted to watch those eps again tbh) but otherwise i think i just have a good understanding of the characters i write about because i rewatch those shows over and over again (i am normal). and considering original characters, they’ve come from my head, so i just intrinsically understand them. about the regretting going there in the first place, i don’t, but i’ve learned that i have to be careful sometimes. back in december, while plotting for my young royals fic (brothers) i based some of wille’s mental health issues around mine (because i do feel like we’re similar in that regard), and the plotting alone was a bit much (though tbh i wasn’t in a great mental space in december) so i know i’m gonna have to be careful when i actually write those scenes

#hi doe! #thank you so much for your ask <3 #elliot answers #elliot writes

[simsyfandomcave]

How to Write a Fully Developed Character

There are many aspects of character development, and your character could be nearly as deep and complete as anyone you might know in real life. However, there are basic keys to fleshing out a character that can help break through blocks and get you and your creation on their way to a great story.

Being Realistic

I can’t emphasize enough the importance of being realistic, even/especially in fiction. A writer can never be too informed. Remember, Knowledge is Power.

You’ve probably also heard the saying “write what you know”. Now, to the science fiction or fantasy writer this phrase may seem worthless. Write what I know? How can I possibly learn all about or experience things that don’t exist? Even fantasy can be built upon a realistic foundation, and there are endless resources to build that foundation with.

Reading what other people have written to get a feel for a genre is always helpful, and discussing things with friends never hurts either. Is your character a master of disguise? Pick up a book, learn how it works. Are they a thief? What are some tricks thieves use? How does one pick a lock? What’s involved? Are they a knight in shining armor? Just how easy is it to move around in a suit of armor? How about lifting those huge swords? Can they get on a horse without help? PBS has some great programs just full of information, as does the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. Your local library is invaluable, and of course endless information is just a Google away.

Pay close attention to animal anatomy for more fantastic creatures. Naturally you have to fudge things to some extent sometimes for creatures that really don’t exist, but it’s educated fudging. This makes it more realistic, even though it isn’t real. For example, one of my RP characters was a winged centaur (or rather a relative being half elk instead of horse). While he turned out to be an absolutely beautiful and amusing fellow, he was also over 8’ tall at his head and weighed over 500 lb. Pretty as those feathered wings were, there was no way he was lifting himself off the ground, they weren’t big enough. He could leap and glide a short distance, but if the party had to climb a rope or cliff he was utterly useless - which was great fun to play out. Limiting characters makes them more of a challenge, the more they struggle the more they grow and the more fun they are, but I’m getting ahead of myself here.

Physiology, psychology, weaponry, philosophy… The world is at your fingertips. All you have to do is look and/or ask. Having easily accessible reference is important for any writer and/or artist, and having books on hand is the most convenient method for any creative person. It’s much easier to have information on hand than to remember it. I personally hate having to return Library books, because as soon as I do I need it again. I have shelves of reference that I am eternally thankful for and keep returning to again and again. Especially since, while the internet is a valueable tool when it works, a useful website may be there one day and gone the next.

Ask questions and look into all the available sources to find the answers. Sometimes, you’ll find answers to things you hadn’t even thought of, and often your research will end up inspiring you! There’s many writer’s guides available, based on research other authors have done to help folks out. The more you know, the more realistic your story and more involved your audience will feel.

Sometimes you won’t be able to find the answer you’re looking for. Make a decision based off of what you do know. Go with your gut and what feels right to you. It is *your* character, and in the end only you and they will know what’s best.

Point of View and Background

One of the key elements of character development is the ability to see through your character’s eyes. Get a good look at how they see the world, what they perceive as good or bad and WHYthey perceive it as good or bad.

You need to think about where that person came from. What their childhood was like, their parents, peers, interests… if your character is an evil wizard, why did he choose to become an evil wizard? Did he choose it? What was he like as a child? What was life like growing up? What kind of environment is he used to? Asking yourself questions like these is imperative to the development of your character, even if the readers never see that part of it. The important thing is that you know.

The “why” of things is very important. Motive is for more than just detective stories. It is a vital part of ALL storytelling. There must be a motive, and it needs to makes sense. A good character is one that feels as real as a personal friend or enemy. Realism, no matter what genre you’re writing, helps bring that person to life.

We want to make our creations leap off the page and into the third dimension. To do that, we need to make clear WHY they do what they do and feel how they feel. To just say, “Well, he’s just nuts, that’s why,” is a cop out. He might be insane, sure, but how so? How long has he been insane? Was he born that way? If your character has a mental illness do research and define it. Be specific. Even if you don’t reveal to the readers just what exactly is wrong with them, the fact that you know will make it that much more believable. Readers/fellow roleplayers can sense when there’s something going on they aren’t privy to and it keeps them coming back for more.

Here are some ideas of basic questions to ask your character to get a feel for his/her/its history.

Here are some ideas of basic questions to ask your character to get a feel for his/her/its history.

What was your childhood like? Who were your parents? Did you know them? How do you feel about them? How do your parents feel about you? If your parents didn’t raise you who did and why? Did you have a lot of friends growing up? What memories stand out? What impact did your childhood have on who you are now? Do you have siblings? How big is your family? How close are they? Do they keep in touch?

Where are you from? What culture did you grow up with? What culture do you feel closest to? What traditions do you believe in? What weather are you used to? How are you used to interacting with people? Are you used to people who are different from yourself? What kinds of foods are you used to? What are you willing to try? Do you believe in gender roles or certain types of moral behavior? How do you feel about Politics? Religion? What do you base this on? How many places have you lived? How has this impacted you? Is there somewhere that stands out as home?

How do you earn a living? Is this the career you always wanted? Did you dream of something else when you were young? Did you do something else before? How long have you had this job/career/trade? What do you like about it? What do you hate about it? What exactly does it involve? Ideally, what do you want? Is money or the job more important? Have you had to sacrifice money for job satisfaction or vice versa? Did you have to work hard to get to your skill level, or did you go with her natural strengths or both?

Who was your first love? Did you even have a first love? What is your perception of romance? Is that what you want? Why did or didn’t it work out? What happened? Have you fallen in love since? Have you tried to avoid it? Are you searching for a soul mate? Do you care? Why? Do you have children? That you know of?

If you have a culture in mind already that has a basis in reality or an established fantasy world, look into those cultures, read as much as you can about them and see what strikes you as true to that character or different about that character from the norm. The same goes for worlds and cultures of your own creation. Figure out as much as you can about the world, then how your character fits (or doesn’t fit) in.

Challenge yourself. Work with creations that are very different from yourself. They need to be their own person. A story full of characters that are just like you loses it’s credibility. Each character should be their own unique person with personalities all their own.

Especially with characters you strongly disagree with or have a very different perception of reality than, you need to be able to argue their side of it to be able to write for them in a believable way. When you can understand how they feel and what they think, they will become more realistic when they interact with other characters. This doesn’t mean you have to change your mind and agree with them. All it means is that you are able to see where they are coming from and how this influences their behavior.

Learning these skills can even be useful in your real everyday life. The practice of using a combination of imagination and knowledge to better understand the “why” of what people do is a huge step towards compassion. When you understand things from the point of view of someone you don’t even like, never mind agree with, it makes it harder to foster hate. Putting oneself in the shoes of someone they’ve long thought to hate, and seeing them as another rounded human being, can do wonders for the spirit and for a person’s happiness.

Flaws

Notice I put flaws first here. Both in writing and roleplaying, a common mistake is having the merits outweigh the flaws. Everyone has good things about them, talents and skills, and this is an important part of any character, but what makes readers relate to them are the flaws and weaknesses.

People can’t relate to perfection. In fact, “perfect” characters tend to irritate most people. So unless that’s what you’re going for, it’s best to take balance into consideration. For example, which X-Man is more popular? Cyclops “Mr. Perfect” or Wolverine with the attitude problem? Most people are more fond of Wolverine because his temperment make him more interesting and easier to relate to.

Skills, abilities, high statistics, can all be overdone. You can overdo it with flaws as well, but instead of being more distant the character usually becomes comic relief instead. Exaggerated flaws also move the character away from realism. Balance is the key and though your story/character may be on the more fantastical side of things, *knowing* the balance will help keep you on track for the direction you want to take your character in.

Take, for example, a vampire. Vampires come with a list of typical merits (strength, immortality, shapeshifting, ect.) and flaws (fear of crosses, inability to stand sunlight, no reflection, ect.) depending on what traditions you’re going by. Personality flaws can spice things up. Say the vampire is also scared of the dark, or gets ill at the sight of blood. Maybe they’re picky about the type of blood they consume, or they’re not very good at covering up the undead identity around mortals. Maybe they need glasses, or have a pet peeve about vampire stereotypes. The more difficult things are for your character one way or another, the more interested people will be.

I’ll also use a couple of my own roleplaying characters as examples as well. I played a young Zephyr (which is rather like a petite elf with wings) druidess in one of the first online RPGs I got involved with. She was very cute and frail, also very shy and with a massive distaste for violence, due to an abusive upbringing, with a stutter to her speech. The distaste for violence was a huge flaw as just about every adventure involved battles you need to level up. However, because she was a healer and used various non-violent spells to defend herself, she functioned just fine as well as standing out as someone unusual in the party. While she didn’t level very fast, she was well-liked and looked after as a little sister by many adventurers in the Inn.

Flaws give us challenges that force us to be creative and get around them in order to progress.

Another character of mine is a Gorgon (aka Medusa, D&D style) that was a bit controversial at first because a character who can turn people into stone by looking at them is a little too powerful for a player character in a roleplaying game. To make her playable, I gave Nyssa a past in which she accidentally turned her love to stone, and the guilt drove her to wear a mask with no eyes and hide her identity whenever she goes about people. She deliberately lives as if she’s blind and searches for a way to rid herself of the stone “curse”. Another flaw is being cold-blooded, so when it gets very cold out or if she’s out of the sun too long she gets very lethargic.

I have a blast with this character. Extremely powerful, but refuses to live up to that potential as well as giving other players an opportunity to pay more attention to sound descriptions. Challenging, unusual, and oddly likeable. I got to play the monster race I wanted, but made her someone the others could associate with. In her eyes, her very nature is a flaw.

Flaws provide much needed conflict, and along with merits are a natural part of what makes your character special and unique. Don’t be afraid to look for trouble. Trouble is what keeps things interesting.

Details

Knowing your character is key, and I don’t just mean the facts that directly effect the story line. The role-players especially should think about the little details. These give your creation life and make it easier to react to any given situation without missing a beat.

We’re not talking about flaws this time, but rather your character’s quirks. Everyone has odd little habits, pet peeves, favorite foods, colors, music, perhaps phobias, things that embarrass them, things they are proud of, style as far as clothing…. there is so many little things to consider. I can’t cover everything, but we can go over some basics to get you started.

The idea is to develop a complete, rounded, complex and believable person. Think of it as acting as their historian, observing them and recording what you see as no other historian can. Unless you’re deliberately writing a Mary Sue (self insertion) character, your creation should be a distinctly separate unique personality.

Here are some questions to give you an idea of things which are helpful to consider:

What kinds of foods does she like?

What does he do to unwind?

Does she have any hobbies?

How does he decorate his home?

Any religious or spiritual beliefs?If so, what?

Optimist, pessimist or realist?

Does she dress for style or comfort?

What just irritates the hell out of him?

What kind of art catches her attention?Is he allergic to anything?

Easy or hard to embarrass?

Any habits for idle hands? Nail biting, fidgeting, etc?

Like to dance, or wild horses couldn’t drag em on the dance floor?

Any addictions?

What kinds of things would they take offense to?

Any phobias?

Are they sensitive to changes in weather?

Who do they trust? Why?

What are they like when they get sick? Tough? Whiny?

What kind of music do they love? hate?

What makes them laugh?

Ticklish?

What kinds of movies/shows/books/entertainment do they like?

Do they like kids/animals?

What do they take pride in?

What do they notice about the opposite sex/same sex?

What’s their astrological sign?

What’s their sleep schedule/habits like?

Do they have a favorite color/item?

Anything you can think of will be helpful. Let the character speak to you. Let them comment on anything that they may find interesting or distasteful that you come across in research and everyday life. Anything that they can relate to. Every little bit helps, even if it never actually comes up in the storyline. Even though it’s important and helpful for you to know all this, remember that the audience doesn’t need to know all these details. Trying to include everything could ruin the flow of the story, but the fact that you know will make a difference.

#writing resources #saved from archive.org

[rayshippouuchiha]

Hi Ray! So, this is a long ask, sorry. But I was riffling through my google docs and I found a concept for like, a time-travel dimension hopping etc Naruto AU, but I'm not gonna make anything with it so I wanted to put it out there in case someone finds it funny to play with.

The idea is that there's a clan hanging around whose kekkei genkai is time travel, reincarnation, dimension hopping (people from the real world and other fictional ones). Basically, all the people who have clear recollections of a different existence, either from the past in the same world, the future in the same world and/or another world entirely. Basically, a clan that harbors every time travel fix-it, self-insert and cross-over character that was ever born into the naruto world.

Not all people of the clan are “travelers” but it happens often enough that they’ve been recording everything they can about it from very long ago (since before the villages). The ones who travel back in time not always can change what they want (sometimes they’re not even in the right time to do so), but everything they remember is still carefully recorded in hopes that it can serve the future generations, if they went way before the point of change. And they're very thorough about teaching history, in case any of them ever get boothed back in time.

They also have notes on weird technological inventions that are nowhere near posible in the current state of affairs but that can give interesting thoughts to the scientists of the clan (the travelers don’t always know how things from their world work but they know that they existed. Do they know how to make an athomic bomb? No, but they know that no-one should, either). Also, notes on weird abilities and skills (magic, bending, force, flames, haki, reiatsu, whatever) for the same reasons: they might not be possible in this world (Yet. Maybe) but they can give interesting ideas and perspectives.

They have a philosophy of “we all benefit the most when the world is calm and everyone is happy”. There’s an undercurrent of team effort to the thing, “the greatest changes can come about if we all work together”. Even the ambitious ones are aware that you can’t do much on your own, and that people are way more likely to help you do your thing if you help them do theirs (and if they're in a position to afford caring about others. That’s why systemic wellbeing is important!). Also an understanding of “diversity is fine and good. The more perspectives we have, the more perspective we have”. Which also translates into a great axceptance of exentric personalities.

The elders job is to keep an eye on the bigger picture, trying to keep eachother from prejudice and preconceptions. They’ve studied the scripts as much as possible (the scripts are open to anyone who wants them. They know from many accounts that keeping things secret is detrimental. “You never know who has the missing piece to a puzzle or who might finally connect the dots in the right order”).

Kids are encouraged to keep dream journals from as soon as they learn to write and to talk about any dreams or feelings or instincts that they think are worth talking about. And temporal names would be a thing. you give your kid a name and one day your orange haired son who can see ghosts tells you that actually, he likes Ichigo better.

And he might even befriend the other orange haired kid, who's been saying since he was two that he has to get back to Ame soon to befriend his small-again siblings. Maybe Nagato can even relate to another pseudo-god who's been lied to since birth.

Just, something I thought would be cool to explore the logistics and culture for, and could bring hella lot of hijinks, but I have no clue nor real motivation to insert into a proper plot

Oh yeah this could be really fun for someone to play with!

#RayRambles #Naruto #prompt

[thevalleyisjolly]

Hi there! If you feel up to it, would you be willing to expand a bit more on the idea of white creators creating poc characters who are ‘internally white’, especially in a post-racialized or racism-free setting & how to avoid it? It’s something I’m very concerned about but I haven’t encountered a lot of info about it outside of stories set in real world settings. Thanks & have a good day!

Hey, thanks for asking, anon!  It’s a pretty nuanced topic, and different people will have different takes on it.  I’ll share my thoughts on it, but do keep in mind that other people of colour may have different thoughts on the matter, and this is by no means definitive!  These are things I’ve observed through research, trial and error, my own experiences, or just learning from other writers.

The first thing I guess I want to clarify is that I personally am not opposed to a society without racism in fiction.  It’s exhausting and frankly boring when the only stories that characters of colour get are about racism!  So it’s a relief sometimes to just get to see characters of colour exist in a story without dealing with racism.  That being said, I feel like a lot of the time when creators establish their settings as “post-racial,” they avoid racism but they also avoid race altogether.  Not aesthetically -they may have a few or even many characters with dark skin- but the way the characters act and talk and relate to the world are “race-less” (which tends to end up as default white American/British or whatever place the creator comes from).  Which I have complicated thoughts on, but the most obvious thing that springs to mind is how such an approach implies (deliberately or not) that racism is all there is to the way POC navigate the world.  It’s definitely a significant factor, particularly for POC in Western countries, but it’s not the only thing!  There’s so much more to our experiences than just racial discrimination, and it’s a shame that a lot of “post-racial” or “racism-free” settings seem to overlook that in their eagerness to not have racism (or race) in their stories.

A quick go-to question I ask when I look at characters of colour written/played by white creators is: if this was a story or transcript I was reading, with no art or actors or what have you, would I be able to tell that this character is a character of colour?  How does the creator signal to the audience that this is a character of colour?  A lot of the time, this signal stops after the physical description - “X has dark skin” and then that’s all!  (We will not discuss the issue of racial stereotypes in depth, but it should be clear that those are absolutely the wrong way to indicate a character of colour).

This expands to a wider issue of using dark skin as a be-all-end-all indication of diversity, which is what I mean by “aesthetic” characters of colour (I used the term “internally white” originally but upon further reflection, it has some very loaded implications, many of which I’m personally familiar with, so I apologize for the usage).  Yes, the character may not “look” white, but how do they interact with the world?  Where do they come from?  What is their background, their family?  A note: this can be challenging with diaspora stories in the real world and people being disconnected (forcibly or otherwise) from their heritage (in which case, those are definitely stories that outsiders should not tell).  So let’s look at fantasy.  Even the most original writer in the world bases their world building off existing things in the real world.  So what cultures are you basing your races off of?  If you have a dark skinned character in your fantasy story, what are the real world inspirations and equivalents that you drew from, and how do you acknowledge that in a respectful, non-stereotyped way?

(Gonna quickly digress here and say that there are already so many stories about characters of colour disconnected from their heritage because ‘They didn’t grow up around other people from that culture’ or ‘They moved somewhere else and grew up in that dominant culture’ or ‘It just wasn’t important to them growing up’ and so on.  These are valid stories, and important to many people!  But when told by (usually) white creators, they’re also used, intentionally or not, as a sort of cop-out to avoid having to research or think about the character’s ethnicity and how that influences who they are.  So another point of advice: avoid always situating characters outside of their heritage.  Once or twice explored with enough nuance and it can be an interesting narrative, all the time and it starts being a problem)

Another thing I want to clarify at this point is that it’s a contentious issue about whether creators should tell stories that aren’t theirs, and different people will have different opinions.  For me personally, I definitely don’t think it’s inherently bad for creators to have diverse characters in their work, and no creator can live every experience there is.  That being said, there are caveats for how such characters are handled.  For me personally, I follow a few rules of thumb which are:

Is this story one that is appropriate for this creator to tell?  Some experiences are unique and lived with a meaningful or complex history and context behind them and the people to whom those experiences belong do not want outsiders to tell those stories.

To what extent is the creator telling this story?  Is it something mentioned as part of the narrative but not significantly explored or developed upon?  Does it form a core part of the story or character?  There are some stories that translate across cultures and it’s (tentatively) ok to explore more in depth, like immigration or intergenerational differences.  There are some stories that don’t, and shouldn’t be explored in detail (or even at all) by people outside those cultures.

How is the creator approaching this story and the people who live it?  To what extent have they done their research?  What discussions have they had with sensitivity consultants/readers?  What kind of respect are they bringing to their work?  Do they default to stereotypes and folk knowledge when they reach the limits of their research?  How do they respond to feedback or criticism when audiences point things that they will inevitably get wrong?

Going back to the “race-less” point, I think that creators need to be careful that they’re (respectfully) portraying characters of colour as obvious persons of colour.  With a very definite ‘no’ on stereotyping, of course, so that’s where the research comes in (which should comprise of more than a ten minute Google search).  If your setting is in the real world, what is the background your character comes from and how might that influence the way they act or talk or see the world?  If your setting is in a fantasy world, same question!  Obviously, avoid depicting things which are closed/exclusive to that culture (such as religious beliefs, practices, etc) and again, avoid stereotyping (which I cannot stress enough), but think about how characters might live their lives and experience the world differently based on the culture or the background they come from.

As an example of a POC character written/played well by a white person, I personally like Jackson Wei and Cindy Wong from Dimension 20’s The Unsleeping City, an urban fantasy D&D campaign.  Jackson and Cindy are NPCs played by the DM, Brennan Lee Mulligan, who did a good job acknowledging their ethnicity without resorting to stereotypes and while giving them their own unique characters and personalities.  The first time he acted as Cindy, I leapt up from my chair because she was exactly like so many old Chinese aunties and grandmothers I’ve met.  The way Jackson and Cindy speak and act and think is very Chinese (without being stereotyped), but at the same time, there’s more to their characters than being Chinese, they have unique and important roles in the story that have nothing to do with their ethnicity.  So it’s obvious that they’re people of colour, that they’re Chinese, but at the same time, the DM isn’t overstepping and trying to tell stories that aren’t his to tell.  All while not having the characters face any racism, as so many “post-racialized” settings aim for, because there are quite enough stories about that!

There a couple factors that contribute to the positive example I gave above.  The DM is particularly conscientious about representation and doing his research (not to say that he never messes up, but he puts in a lot more effort than the average creator), and the show also works with a lot of sensitivity consultants.  Which takes me to the next point - the best way to portray characters of colour in your story is to interact with people from that community.  Make some new friends, reach out to people!  Consume media by creators of colour!  In my experience so far, the most authentic Chinese characters have almost universally been created/written/played by Chinese creators.  Read books, listen to podcasts, watch shows created by people of colour.  Apart from supporting marginalized creators, you also start to pick up how people from that culture or heritage see themselves and the world, what kind of stories they have to tell, and just as importantly, what kind of stories they want being told or shared.  In other words, the best way to portray an authentic character of colour that is more than just the colour of their skin is to learn from actual people of colour (without, of course, treating them just as a resource and, of course, with proper credit and acknowledgement).

Most importantly, this isn’t easy, and you will absolutely make mistakes.  I think the most important thing to keep in mind is that you will mess up.  No matter how well researched you are, how much respect you have for other cultures, how earnestly you want to do this right, you will at some point do something that makes your POC audience uncomfortable or even offends them.  Then, your responsibility comes with your response.  Yes, you’ve done something wrong.  How do you respond to the people who are hurt or disappointed?  Do you ignore them, or double down on your words, or try to defend yourself?  Just as importantly, what are you planning to do about it in the future?  If you have a second chance, what are you going to do differently?  You will make mistakes at some point.  So what are you going to do about them?  That, I think, is an even more important question than “How can I do this right?”  You may or may not portray something accurately, but when you get something wrong, how are you going to respond?

Essentially, it all comes down to your responsibility as a creator.  As a creator, you have a responsibility to do your due diligence in research, to remain respectful to your work and to your audience, and to be careful and conscientious about how you choose to create things.  It’s not about getting things absolutely perfect or being the most socially conscious creator out there, it’s about recognizing your responsibilities as a creator with a platform, no matter how big or small, and taking responsibility for your work. 

In summary:

Research, research, research

Avoid the obvious no-no’s (stereotypes, tokenization, fetishization, straight up stealing from other cultures, etc) and think critically about what creative choices you’re making and why

Do what you’re doing now, and reach out to people (who have put themselves out there as a resource).  There are tons of resources out there by people of colour, reach out when you’re not sure about something or would like some advice!

Responsibility, responsibility, responsibility

Thank you for reaching out!  Good luck with your work!

#the valley is posting #thanks anon! #writing advice #hope this helps! if another POC has something to add - please go ahead!

[evanescentjasmine]

Writing Egypt and Egyptian Characters: Rusty Quill Gaming Edition

I’ve finally caught up with the Cairo arc of Rusty Quill Gaming, which I was anticipating and dreading both. Fiction set in my country usually reduces it to a caricature of itself, especially when it takes place in the Victorian era, but considering everything they’ve said in their metacasts I was hoping Rusty Quill Gaming was the exception.

It wasn’t. 

I’m aware the game world plays fast and loose with history and setting, but the problems in this case are more than just inaccuracies. However, because I want to help fic writers and artists be able to portray Hamid and his family well, this resource will be split into two parts. The first part will tackle details I’ve been asked about with regard to the setting; it may touch on things RQG went wrong, but I’m writing it primarily as a resource for artists and writers. The second part will be my criticism of RQG, and why I found the Cairo arc actively harmful. This includes discussions of Orientalism and some racist text.

I should also preface this by saying I’m not a historian. Everything I say in this resource is a combination of what I grew up with and what I remember from school, supplemented by Google and guesswork. I’ll be explaining my thought process throughout, which can help you see what’s actual history and what’s my extrapolation.

Part One: On Egypt

Historical Context:

Figuring out the history of Egypt in RQG terms is a bit complicated, so bear with me because this will take a while. 

In real-world history, Egypt was a Roman then Byzantine province from 30 BC to around the mid 600s AD, at which point the Arab conquest swept through and Egypt became Muslim. 

What this means is that when the Meritocrats took down Rome and took over the world, Egypt was still a Roman province. That gives us a several hundred year gap before the Arabs that may have maintained the same culture? Or morphed a little back to some pre-Ptolemaic Ancient Egyptian, given their Meritocrat, Apophis, is named after a great Pharaonic serpent?

Either way, given Hamid’s name and the fact they live in Cairo, the city built by the Arabs, we can assume the Arab conquest still happened somehow, despite having a Meritocrat in Egypt. Maybe a Meritocrat out there is Arab and settled in Egypt for a bit with or before Apophis? Maybe it took a couple-hundred years for the Meritocrats to get all the previous Roman areas under control? Maybe there was a whole war and the Arabs won and settled and eventually they got to a truce or got absorbed into Meritocratic lands?

Many Muslim dynasties ruled throughout the period from the mid 600s to the 1500s. Given the lack of Islam in this world, probably the Arabs were unified by some Pre-Islamic deity/deities and brought them over as well, because I refuse to just sweep everything under the broad Greek God rug. 

In the 1500s, another Muslim dynasty took over--this time, from outside of the country, which is why it’s considered separate from all the rest. At this point, Egypt became part of the Ottoman Empire until the 1800s, which is when the Mohammed Ali dynasty started to try and secede and rule independently. And there was a brief blip of the French occupation for two years around then as well.

And, of course, we can’t forget about British colonisation, which started in the late 1800s with a veiled protectorate.

Presumably, since France and Britain are also Meritocratic and it seems like Apophis is currently ruling, we can disregard everything from the Ottomans onward. This changes, or should change, a ton, because Ottoman rule informed a lot of things from fashion to slang to nobility and so on. 

What we’re left with is most likely a Cairo that is still Arab but with much more Pharaonic influence, as Apophis is in charge, as well as continuing Greek influence due to the Gods. I am not a Coptic Christian, so I cannot speak to how these changes in history and religions would affect the Coptic language and culture, but no doubt it would still be around.

There would also be a bigger, more long-standing connection to other Meritocratic countries. This explains why Hamid was British-educated and so many people speak such good English without a British occupation to create the power disparity that would make that necessary to rise in Egypt and such a mark of status. 

However, this presents several confusing and contradictory aspects of the world building:

Why doesn’t this go both ways? Why aren’t there people in England and France who know Arabic or are influenced by Egypt? All we get is that the Tahan family are big. That’s it. If these countries are equals, it sure doesn’t look like it.

If Apophis is pharaonic and Ancient Egyptian culture and knowledge are so ubiquitous...why would they hollow out a pyramid to put a bank inside? It’s a tomb. It’s made to bury dead kings in a way that follows possibly still-existing cultural and religious beliefs. It’s the equivalent of someone building a bank inside a mausoleum. It’s bizarre.

Relatedly, if Ancient Egyptian culture and knowledge are so ubiquitous, why is Carter mentioning the Rosetta Stone? Why would the knowledge necessary to translate hieroglyphics have been lost? 

I mention these questions so fic writers can keep them in mind while writing and, of course, it’s entirely possible to create a workaround. For example, maybe the Rosetta Stone is supposed to be translating something else, like an ancient hidden magic?

Describing Cairo:

I want to make one thing very clear: Cairo is not, despite Alex’s description, like Vegas. While we do certainly have hotels and casinos, to reduce the city to only that is very harmful for reasons I’ll go into at the end of this resource.

Cairo is a very old city with a mix of architectural styles and is very heavily Muslim in real life. In Arabic, its tagline is often “city of a thousand minarets,” so clearly RQG Cairo will be fairly different. Given Apophis’ influence, Ancient Egyptian styles might be more prevalent in Cairo, but very likely not in the form of pyramids unless those pyramids were for the dead. In real life, some buildings do incorporate Ancient Egyptian flavour, usually just in the form of lotus columns or hieroglyphs. These would only be found in public institutions, however,  or, frankly, tourist-bait. 

Residential buildings tend to be clustered very close together and, since it’s an old city, streets are crowded and winding as the city keeps building on itself and spilling out of its previous bounds. Estates do, of course, exist, but I’d suggest against using Bryn’s example of Alhambra as a setting for the Tahan home. Alhambra is a palace fortress in Spain and, although it’s Andalusian and therefore influenced by Muslim architecture, it’s very different than anything in Egypt. It’s as absurd as saying a posh British character lives in a house that’s basically Versailles and leaving it there. I’ve included images of some Egyptian residential estates below, all from the 1800s to early 1900s.

And here are some photos of Cairo in the 1800s:

As you can see, not quite Vegas.

A fic set in Cairo can certainly still have the Cairo strip with all the casinos, since that’s an aspect of canon, but a place like that would probably be geared more to tourists and foreigners than locals. So long you’re aware of this while writing, and that Cairo would exist beyond it, you should be fine. It might also be worth having characters explore the actual city.

Weather:

The stereotype is that Egypt is just hot and sand year-round. It isn’t. The further south you go, the hotter it will get, so that Upper Egypt (which is in the south, yeah), is hotter than Lower Egypt, which is where Cairo and Alexandria are. Alexandria, by virtue of being on the Mediterranean, has fairly cold (for us) and rainy winters and mild, humid summers. Cairo gets very occasional rain and has harsher summers but is also dryer.

And, of course, a thing to remember is that even in the depths of the desert, the morning might be quite warm but the night will be quite cold as well.

Sandstorm season (called khamaseen) takes place from April - May but in the middle of Cairo it’s more of an annoyance than anything else.

Language:

Since they speak Arabic, it’s important to note that spoken Egyptian Arabic is very different from written Classical Arabic. Egyptian is a mishmash of Arabic, Coptic, a bit of Greek, and a bit of French (and, in the real world, some Turkish too) all smashed together. Accents differ from city to city, and Cairene Arabic is best known for the fact we pronounce the letter jeem as geem (so all soft Gs are turned into hard Gs) and tend to replace the letter qaf with a glottal stop.

This means that a Cairene wouldn’t be called Jamal, they’d be Gamal. A Cairene would pronounce burqa as bur’a.

Since religion plays a big part in language, RQG Egyptian Arabic may be a bit different. For instance, the greeting most people associate with Arabic is “Assalam alaykum” but that’s very specifically Muslim or at least associated with Islam, and might not have been as wide-spread given...y’know, that Islam doesn’t exist. I’m not saying it’s incorrect to use, just explaining the context.

Alternatives could include “Sabah/masa’ el-kheir” which means “Good morning/evening,” and “Naharak/Naharik saeed” which is, “May you have a good day.”

Fashion:

Although this didn’t really feature in RQG, I’ve received a lot of questions about the period’s fashion and honestly it’s my favourite thing ever so I probably would have touched on it anyway. I’ll only go into broad strokes, as there are plenty of regional variations and, again, I’m no expert 

Women

Egyptian women covered their heads and sometimes their faces not out of religiosity but out of a cultural expectation of modesty. This may well have come about as a result of the Arab/Muslim cultural majority, as to my knowledge this wasn’t the case in the Greek and Roman periods, but women of all religions covered their heads so that would likely still be the case in RQG’s Arab Egypt.

This isn’t with the hijab we know today. It may have been a cloth or kerchief tied over their heads and then the melaya laf (which is larger cloth, almost a sheet) that they wrap around themselves and over their head, as follows: 

The black face-covering was called a burqa or bur’a (not the same as a Muslim burqa, which serves similar modesty functions but is a separate thing) or a yashmak and may have been opaque black, white, or netted, such as in this picture:

Underneath the melaya they would be wearing a long, loose, patterned dress:

Upper class Egyptian women tended to wear Western dresses with a white yashmak that covered their faces and heads. A yashmak is Turkish, however, and without Ottoman influence this style and name might not have caught on in Egypt.

Men

While the melaya laf and yashmak have disappeared from Egypt, the traditional men’s gallabeya and ammama, or turban, are still seen widely today. The gallabeya (or jellabiya, outside of Cairene Arabic) is a long, loose garment with wide sleeves and no collar. It’s in muted, neutral colours, usually lighter ones like white or beige in the summer and navy blue or grey in the winter. You’ll have seen examples of it in the pictures of Cairo above, and here’s another one: 

Middle to upper class men and civil servants, however, tended to wear English suits with a tarboosh, or fez. Since fezzes were also a result of Ottoman rule, RQG Egyptians might not wear them.

And yes, impressive moustaches were also very much the fashion.

Names:

The running joke is that Hamid’s name is unnecessarily long, but my name is longer, and I don’t think that’s particularly unusual. We don’t usually go around introducing ourselves with all of them, admittedly, and I’m not sure whether Hamid does this as a way to indicate he’s overly fancy or because Bryn doesn’t realise it, but four names is not long. My ID boasts five, and I know of at least one more.

Arabic naming conventions use patronymics for all children, regardless of gender. What this means is that my name and my brother’s name is identical except for our first. 

Mine is Jasmine + Dad’s name + his dad’s name + his dad’s name + his dad’s name

And my brother is also First name + Dad’s name + his dad’s name + his dad’s name + his dad’s name.

Egyptians do not typically have last names, but an important family may all choose to identify under a name and use that as their last, such as the Tahans. In my case, I use my fifth name as my last name and introduce myself in everyday life as Jasmine Fifth Name. Notably, my brother does not, and goes by First name + Dad’s name instead. This isn’t unusual. On paperwork, however, we still have the same name.

Additionally, Egyptian women do not take their husbands’ last names in marriage, nor do children take any of her names. 

I’m not sure why, according to the wiki, Hamid’s sisters seem to have taken their mother’s name. Following Arabic naming conventions, they would all be First Name Saleh Haroun al Tahan, and their father would be Saleh Haroun al Tahan. A possible workaround might be that halflings have their own naming conventions that mean daughters have matronymics and sons patronymics. 

A note to podficcers: please google name pronunciations beforehand because Alex and Bryn’s are actually often wrong. Ishak, for instance, is not pronounced Ee-shak. It’s Iss-haaq or Iss-haa’, because of quirks of the Egyptian accent I mentioned earlier.

Part Two: Criticism

I understand it can be difficult to portray a country different from yours with accuracy. I understand the RQG crew will not have had the perspective on Egypt and Cairo that I do by virtue of living here. I do also acknowledge that I’m sure none of this was actively malicious or on purpose.

But it doesn’t have to be on purpose to hurt, frankly, and given how often the RQG crew have talked about their responsibility with a game that’s intended for an audience, I expected better. Bryn has spoken about not wanting to fall into stereotypes for Hamid and, to be fair, by being a non-religious fancyboy Hamid does neatly avoid the religious zealot and the noble (or ignoble) savage routes. Unfortunately, he falls into another, which was hammered home by the portrayal of Cairo and the Tahans as a whole.

Our first glimpse of Cairo, after the sandstorm clears, describes it as “basically Vegas,” with hotels and garish casinos catering to the rich all along the “Cairo strip.” From then on, our only other images of Cairo are vast estates and a pyramid in the desert. 

The only named Egyptians we meet are the Tahan family, who are introduced through an absurdly lavish estate compared to the palace fortress of Alhambra, a gambling problem that apparently runs in the family, murder, and corruption, as the head of the family who has already covered up a crime for one son then turns himself in to protect the other.

Then, to top it all off, Hamid is apparently utterly incapable of understanding why letting his brother get away with murder is an issue until the paladins point it out.

Do you see the pattern, here?

I understand this was aiming to be a criticism of the rich and powerful, but the fact remains that the Tahans are the only representation of Egyptians we get. While this may not be harems and hand-chopping levels of Orientalism, the image presented is of Cairo as a den of excessive wealth and vice, and Egyptians as corrupt and immoral.

This isn’t new.

The Middle East and North Africa (as well as India and China and everywhere else considered “the Orient”) has often been tied to images of wealth and overt splendour, usually hand-in-hand with the Oriental despot and corruption. This view went beyond just fiction and influenced the policies with which we were ruled. 

Cromer, Consul-General of Egypt, wrote books called Modern Egypt. He had this to say about us:

“The mind of the Oriental, on the other hand, like his picturesque streets, is eminently wanting in symmetry. His reasoning is of the most slipshod description. . . . They are often incapable of drawing the most obvious conclusions from any simple premises of which they may admit the truth.”

In his opinion, our inability to follow logical reason led to us being inherently untruthful and, therefore, immoral. Similarly, British statesman Balfour was of the belief that:

 “Lord Cromer’s services during the past quarter of a century have raised Egypt from the lowest pitch of social and economic degradation until it now stands among Oriental nations, I believe, absolutely alone in its prosperity, financial and moral.”

Egypt was under British colonial rule from 1882 - 1952.

You can see, I hope, why a storyline focused on an Egyptian family’s corruption in an Egypt characterised almost entirely by its casinos and one lavish mansion was very uncomfortable. The fact Azu was one of the people trying to explain morality to Hamid keeps it from sliding into a clear East vs West dichotomy, but the fact remains this is a British show featuring British players and this is the story they chose to tell. 

The rest was just salt in the wound, really. 

I expect mispronounced names and pyramids and jokes about camels in most media, but rarely do the makers of said media then go on to pat themselves on the back for doing their “due diligence” on a metacast about sensitivity.

I see weird naming conventions and mispronounced names and “basically Vegas” and “crocodile steak” and “camel’s milk froyo” and I do not see due diligence.  

I see a setting that barely looked past Cleopatra and I do not see due diligence.

I see a storyline that shows only excess and immorality and corruption and I do not see due diligence.

I see a disregard for me and mine, and I do not appreciate it. 

Literature I’ve referred to in writing this criticism:

Orientalism (1978), by Edward W. Said

Orientalism in the Victorian Era (2017), a paper by Valerie Kennedy

Orientalism in American Cinema: Providing an Historical and Geographical Context for PostColonial Theory (2010), a thesis by Samuel Scurry 

Popular Culture, Orientalism, and Edward Said (2012), an article by Robert Irwin

#rusty quill gaming #rqg #hamid saleh haroun al tahan #resource #criticism #orientalism #representation #long post

[usergreenpixel]

JACOBIN FICTION CONVENTION MEETING 4: IN THE REIGN OF TERROR: THE ADVENTURES OF A WESTMINSTER BOY(1888)

1. The Introduction

Well hello there again, dearest readers! I’m back at it again and this time I brought you something more obscure.

Honestly, I would’ve never found out about this book had I not seen the category for books set in the French Revolution era on Wikipedia after a deliberate google search.

“In the Reign of Terror” is an adventure novel aimed at young boys that was published in 1888 by one G. A. Henty, an English novelist who has other adventure novels to his name too, but today we’ll only take a look at this one.

It’s available on Project Gutenberg in the ebook format and is in public domain so it’s free to download, which is how I obtained the book.

2. The Summary

The book takes place in the French Revolution era, specifically from 1790 to about 1792. It tells the story of Harry Sandwith, a boy whose physician father sends him from London to Burgundy to live with Marquis de St. Caux and his family.

As the brother of the Marquis had been cured by Harry’s father during his stay in London, the entire arrangement was his idea. The Marquis himself also believes that by having an English companion, his sons can learn a lot about English customs while Harry learns the language and the traditions of France.

But as the Revolution is drawing nearer than ever, clouds gather above the heads of Harry’s host family and Harry himself...

This is the basic premise of the story, but how did the finished product turn out? Let’s find that out for ourselves, Citizens!

3. The Story

Now, at first the story itself seems a bit implausible on the level of the premise. The Marquis believes that his sons should learn a thing or two about masculinity and sports from Harry, as English boys are supposedly more manly than their “feminine” French peers.

I find it hard to believe that a French nobleman would think this way but I was still willing to suspend my disbelief somewhat because Anglophiles do exist and despite the rivalry between France and the UK, the two countries did borrow bits and pieces of culture from each other.

Here’s the part that gave me pause and kind of ruined the experience for me. The entire book reeks of a sense of English superiority. Harry, the main character, is English and is portrayed as the bravest, strongest and most masculine member of the cast, while his French companions, Ernest and Jules, the sons of the Marquis, are basically treated like feminine “sissies”.

(Spoiler alert!)

For example, in the beginning of Harry’s adventures, the daughters of the Marquis are attacked by a rabid dog and who saves them? Harry, of course. This is one of the instances where the author demonstrates how strong English boys are and this is the moment after which Harry is finally seen as an equal by the noble siblings.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for patriotism and taking pride in your country. I’m Russian and proud of it. However, too much pride and you get this obnoxious sense of superiority. If you need a prime example of how that usually plays out, look at the Axis during WW2.

What Henty chooses to portray is specifically a sense of superiority. Characters like Harry’s father take pride in the fact that England has less strict class divisions, that apparently English commoners have already obtained more liberties while the French peasants are merely a mob of bloodthirsty savages, etc.

Don’t know about you, Citizens, but I really don’t like such narratives shoved in my face and considering how often this nationalism shows up, I had a lot of trouble getting through the story.

I’m all for healthy patriotism that acknowledges the good and the bad in one’s country but this is just too much nationalism for me and I believe that the book would’ve been more enjoyable without this narrative showing up every couple of pages or so like jumpscares in a bad horror movie.

4. The Characters

I know this was the 19th century so the audiences were probably not pampered with complex stories and characters as much yet, but honestly I didn’t find Harry a truly likable and relatable protagonist.

(Spoiler alert!)

He starts out as a pretty average school student but while in France he proves to be heroic - killing a rabid dog, slaying a man eating wolf (not completely by himself) and generally always proving himself to be the manly hero that Ernest and Jules can never be. Basically it was easy to predict that he will emerge from any trouble victorious so I didn’t have many reasons to be worried about him.

The sons and the daughters of the Marquis all end up liking him. Too much may I add.

In short, I personally got a bit of Harry Stu vibe. 😉

He does have one glaring flaw that unfortunately doesn’t do him any favors in my eyes. The English superiority complex that the author expresses in the story shines in Harry brighter than the Sun. He doesn’t express much empathy either.

(Spoiler alert!)

When Harry saves a man from getting attacked by an assassin and sees that the man is scared out of his mind, the first thing Harry feels towards him is disdain for apparently being a “pussy”. Um, hello, Harry?! How would you react if you got attacked out of the blue! Not everyone is as “strong and manly” as you are!

Then Harry also regrets saving the man when it turns out to be Robespierre. Our protagonist, dear Citizens!

Speaking of Robespierre, here (and this goes for most French characters) he is portrayed as a weak feeble “sissy”, thirsty for blood but neat and frugal in outfit and lifestyle, someone who won’t hesitate to have half of France slaughtered. Of course. 🙄

The female characters are bland helpless ingénues. Also typical of the literature of the time period.

By the way, Robespierre is the only revolutionary who is actually featured in the story. Marat and Danton are mentioned but it’s all negative in their department too, especially when it comes to Marat.

The Parisian crowd is little more than a bloodthirsty mob of savage uneducated peasants ready to slaughter all nobles just because they’re well, nobles.

Honestly, nothing new here.

5. The Setting

Honestly, I feel like there weren’t that many descriptions and those that were present simply weren’t vivid enough to immerse myself into the story. Too many descriptions are bad too, of course, but here the opposite happens - too little descriptions so sometimes the surroundings feel like vacuum and there’s not enough world building to imagine yourself in that era, beside the characters.

It’s all just bland caricatured setting one would expect from an amateur puppet show at daycare.

Remember, dear Citizens. Even if you write about your own era and country, world building is extremely important so please don’t underestimate the power of good and vivid descriptions, just use them in moderation.

Anyway, onto the final point.

6. The Conclusion

Despite all the drawbacks, I didn’t quite hate the book. I simply think it could’ve been written a lot better, without shoving the supposed superiority of England in our faces, without bland characters, without the unlikeable protagonist, without cardboard settings and definitely without machismo and layers upon layers of Thermidorian propaganda.

I wouldn’t recommend this story unless you really want to kill time and have nothing else to do.

With that in mind, allow me to conclude the fourth meeting of our Convention. Stay tuned for the announcement of the topic of the next meeting and have a good day, Citizens.

Love,

- Citizen Green Pixel

#in the reign of terror: the adventures of a westminster boy #french revolution #frev #history #maximilien robespierre #robespierre #jacobin fiction convention #jean paul marat #georges danton #french history #obscure frev media #frev media #novels #review

[berlynn-wohl]

It’s been years since I’ve done a little Look Behind The Scenes with my fanfic writing process. But this past week and a half, after not having completed anything for nearly a year, I cranked out an 18k first draft, then expanded it by 3600 words (I call this “putting ten pounds of porn in a five pound bag”), so here’s a little bit about that, for those interested:

1. This is my typed and printed-out first draft. I do not edit on the computer, because all the other things that are on that computer might be distracting. If I have a question that requires Googling, I put a mark on the page and go back to it later. You can see here, I’ve written a substantial amount of new content on the page. This is because I believe that “every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.” That means sometimes I grind out one sentence of something tough, knowing that later I can go back and turn it into four sentences that are more pleasant to read. The fic actually gets written during the second draft.

2. Red pen for editing on the actual draft, blue pen for writing out longer paragraphs that are too much to cram onto the printed draft, and a white-out tape dispenser to minimize messy cross-outs.

3. Scratch paper for writing out the longer paragraphs mentioned above. I use asterisks to mark where these paragraphs get placed in the draft.

4. Dictionaries and Thesauri. These things you can access online, but again, I don’t want to be distracted by the internet. When I’m writing my first draft, I don’t worry about using the word “realize” 500 times -- I just need to get the words on the paper, and I can go back and find other ways to communicate this concept later, and Chuck Palahniuk is never going to see it so he won’t have a stroke about my using “thought words.” The second draft is when I find the perfect alternate words for what’s going on. Roget’s International Thesaurus (the one that’s open) is amazing, and I must have used it one hundred times for this draft -- synonyms are indexed two ways, and it’s comprehensive: 1200 pages! And I really do use the dictionary, because sometimes I worry that my understanding of a word like “insouciant” or “abnegation” has drifted from the actual meaning. (I was traumatized once because I used the word “trounce” incorrectly in 2003 and some troll emailed me to give me shit about it, which I’ve never forgotten.)

5. Writing slash fiction, you’re using a lot of emotion words, character expression words, sexy words. These pages are all printouts of lists that I’ve come across on Tumblr: different ways to say “angry,” “anxious,” “sad,” etc., but also words like “passionate,” “ecstasy,” “caress,” and so on, so that I’m not using the same words over and over. Different words work better for different characters, different moods, and different dynamics, and as a reader, I know what it’s like to read a LOT of smutty fan fiction and see what feels like the same scenes over and over, just with different names. I try to make every sex scene, every pining scene, every courtship scene unique, and these lists help me do that.

6. These are pages and pages of notes I’ve taken over the years (I started in probably 2006) of good words and phrases to use for smut. Some I came up with 100% out of my own head, lines of dialogue or descriptions of sexy activities, but just didn’t have a good place to put them at the time; others I found reading other people’s smut. Not plagiarism -- it’ll just be a word, like “ravenous,” that will make me go, “Oh, that’s a good one, I haven’t used ‘ravenous’ in a while.” Or “alluring,” or “fluttered,” whatever. Just as with tropes, if you think it’s good and not (yet) overused, other people probably will too. Honestly my best habit as a writer is jotting down everything I think of right when I think of it, so that I never have to say “Oh man, I had a great idea for a fic, or for some dialogue, but I forgot it.” I have not forgotten anything in twenty years.

So I hope this was helpful, or at least entertaining -- I feel like my first and second drafts are more like sculpting in three dimensions than linear writing. I’m just slapping things on, carving things out.

See more posts like this one here.

#fan fiction #slash #behind the scenes

[igonecrazy]

I wanted to say this to someone: the thing about the narcissistic thing in the Loki episode that bothered me, was that you can have narcissistic tendencies but not be a narcissist. So while Loki has probably had narcissistic tendencies, many of us have though, I don't think he's a narcissist, not really. So I think narcissistic tendencies is the better wording for it.

And I feel that word is thrown around too much.

Idk, I know I could say this to you. And I get frustrated when people see a character showing narcissistic tendencies but call them a flat out narcissist.

Hi babie!(っ˘з( ･ั﹏･ั) yes, you can come here and tell me..and I hear ya..

And yes! I too have major problem with Loki being enforced the title of narcissist by people who probably don't understand it or probably are throwing the word around lightly, which I think was a thing of the past given that we're in 2021 now..but of course it's not🤦🏻

I've done a little bit of googling around which I think the creators didn't bother to do..imma try to break this down..

Mostly Narcissists are said to have a "grandiose ideas about their own abilities and importance. Such persons think that they're exceptional and react with rage or humiliation if others don't recognise this fact." This one is psychological def..but here's the thing....in a human exhibiting these traits yes they would be a narcissist, but Loki isn't human, he's a Jötun, who grew up as a prince on Asgard, both of which are factually in this fictional context superior races compared to humans. So when Loki says "I'm a god you dull creature" he means it.. factually, given he's going to live 1000s of years, is naturally born powerful and durable and resistant to strain and damage in his own small body..weighs a lot more than a human of the same size.. because he is.. infact not a human ..so while a human would be narcissist saying that..Loki was just having a terrible day and just wanted it to end and be done with whoever had control over him..when he fights with Thor and says I'm better than you..he's again saying it factually because the only thing Thor is better than him at is brute strength and you need more than that to be a King.. if you compare Loki to humans..sure he might seem like a narcissist to you, but he's not a human..he's a fucking God..which is to say he is a being of a superior species..but when you put him in Asgard and look at him, he's just the smarter wiser little prince who never fucking got his due in Asgard because he was a sorcerer and Asgard values brawn over brains.. in Asgardian context Thor is a fucking narcissist but he's never labeled as such even tho two seconds before Loki fights Hulk, Thor is fighting the Hulk for the same damn reason!

Another important marker of Narcissism is lack of empathy...............WHERE IN THE FUCKING HELL DID LOKI LACK EMPATHY!! BOY HAS TOO MUCH OF IT! HE TEARS UP EVERYTIME SOMEONE GETS HURT! His own line of "I don't enjoy hurting people. I..uh..I don't enjoy it. I do it because I have to, because I've had to." This little soul teared up when he read about the destruction of his..what had been his home for so long and who had been his people for so long even though we know he wasn't afforded the same courtesy in return, especially by his own brother and so called friends and his jackass dad..

They think..by they I mean the show creators and the writer, they think they understand Loki and what his story has been but good gawd never has his story been about a grandiose idol who gets his feathers ruffled when he's not acknowledged. They were writing for the MCU Loki, for the tortured soul who had just escaped the clutches of Thanos after being captured after a failed su**ide attempt..There's no consistency in what they've written..

Loki is the scapegoat..like @latent-thoughts said..he's not the one asking for undue attention, he's a fucking neglected kid who just wants someone to honestly acknowledge what he can do and not in a backhanded way like Thor or his friends did sometimes..Odin never fucking acknowledged him, but he looked up to that man who was his "father"..he just wanted to prove himself to his father that he may be the adopted frost giant but he was just as fucking good if not better than Thor..and Thor 2 just kinda proves that he was better, he sacrificed himself for Thor not knowing he'd live and not believing Thor would do the same for him....the beginning of Ragnarok proves he was the better king..Asgard was less colonial and more into the arts and people were happy under his reign..he gets all up excited around Mobius because for once someone is listening to him and paying attention to him and what he says without him having to prove himself..

And good gawd! Let's reiterate that this being..who is of a superior species grew up as the Prince of another superior species, excells in combat and sorcery and is way more intelligent than humans can comprehend, has seen the universe, been around different places on the Yggdrasil without an infinity stone, has read more in more languages than humans can comprehend..if he calls himself smart..THEN YOU SHOULDN'T GO oooohh look at this narcissist (눈‸눈)

Another thing that pops up under narcissism is someone who loves or desires their own body sexually............imma stop y'all right here he hasn't actually said he did.. Mobius bless that lil ahole soul I like him even tho he's a bit of a dick just assumed he did.....and also....like again..this is a shape shifting sorcerer......if he hasn't had a threesome with his own clone and someone else..then I'm calling that a waste of power (⌐■-■)

Anyway..the whole point of it is, Loki is made the narcissist for the same things Thor is appreciated for..yet again..This was supposed to be about listening to Loki's side of the story and not enforce the pre-existing ideas about him on the people who actually care about him..this series was, as I'm starting to feel, made for your everyday ma*vel fan and not particularly Loki fans, who have been picking up crumbs about this character since the first time he showed up and tried to talk down Thor from starting an unnecessary war with an opposing kingdom in an effort to show their dad that Thor's not ready and accidentally found out he was adopted..(ب_ب)

#loki #loki series #loki series spoilers #loki spoilers #narcissism #loki is not a fking narcissist #i will kill whoever says that

[saintxly]

September (03-21)

[ Favorites and fixations for the third week of September ‘21. ]

This week was marked by indignation, violence, detachment, and the growing pains of youth. The beginning of ends and the end of beginnings.

(stills from All About Lily Chou-Chou, 2001)

BOOK/s:

The White Album by Joan Didion

My number one criticism of Didion’s work has always been the clinical detachment in her writing. Yes, she’s funny and undeniably cool. Didion has always had a way of unmasking the ironic qualities of both the most unusual and mundane events and then turning them on their heads. But I can’t help but wonder: what does she really think? How does she actually feel about this? Does she feel anything at all? Didion has this manner of stringing words together without injecting any sort of attachment to them. Is that considered good writing? Who knows. She’s intelligent, no doubt about that. What makes The White Album in particular such an interesting read is Didion’s ability to capture the mysticism and absurdity of these events during the 60s and 70s without offering any actual insights about them. In true Didion fashion, she somehow makes it work. Now that I think about it maybe that was the point. If anything, her real talent is in revealing the ambiguity of what we believe to be a rich and intricate social life. This book definitely succeeded in doing that.

MUSIC:

呼吸  (Kokyū) by Lily Chou-Chou

If Lily Chou-Chou was real I’d definitely be a fan. You’d catch me raving about the Ether on my Lily stan account on Twitter, though I probably wouldn’t go as far as accusing someone of being a fake fan at a concert. This is honestly one of the best film soundtracks I’ve ever listened to. I’m incredibly hesitant to look up any more details over who sang and composed the whole thing in fear of destroying the little bubble it’s created in my head. Is this exactly how Yuichi felt? What I do know is that she’s based on Faye Wong and that nothing has made more sense. My favorite is the 7th track, 飛べない翼 (Tobenai Tsubasa). It’s also the one I hate the most since it was playing in the background during that scene in the movie. Do I cry whenever I hear it? Absolutely. I think what hurts even more is that it translates into “Wings That Can’t Fly.”

SERIES:

Serial Experiments Lain (1998)

Hard to believe this was made before social media or even Google was a thing. I’m going to be completely honest: you actually have to pay attention while watching this. The questions raised by the series are often presented through allegorical or just downright bewildering scenarios. I admit having to rewind a couple of times just to make sense of what the fuck just happened. This is mainly because the distinction between The Wired and the real world is almost non-existent here. It’s hard to distinguish whether what you’re watching is actually happening or is merely a literal representation of The Wired. Sometimes we end up inside Lain’s Ego and that’s just a whole other thing altogether. We’re literally caught between the characters’ attempts to mediate reality and the online world. Insanely trippy. While the show doesn’t offer any actual answers, it’s a disturbing examination of our interactions with technology and the internet, as well as how it complicates how we associate with identity. Again, this series was created way before we had all this more sophisticated crap. It makes me wonder whether we knew exactly what was going to happen way before we got to this point.

MOVIE/s:

All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001)

This movie fucking hurts. It’s almost nauseating how the dreamlike sequences were made to depict cruelty instead of the moments where the kids were actually happy. Debussy’s Clair de Lune plays softly alongside scenes of outright rape, bullying, and complete anguish. Nothing that horrifying should look so beautiful. Unlike other coming-of-age stories, there isn’t much of a happy ending in All About Lily Chou-Chou. Catharsis is achieved still through violent means and it leaves a bitter aftertaste even when it attempts to paint a romantic image. The entire movie almost appears satirical. Here’s a coming-of-age story with all the right aesthetic elements justapoxed against the pure brutality of teenage adolescence. I think what saddens me more is knowing that these experiences do not entirely remain within the imagination of fictional worlds. Nonetheless, it’s a feat worthy of praise. However, I honestly don’t think I can willingly go through it again. I personally don’t recommend watching this. Save yourself the mental and emotional distress.

Cleaners (2019)

The transition from childhood to adolescence is certainly an awkward period, one often rife with embarrassment, conflict, and debilitating social pressure. However, unlike All About Lily Chou-Chou, the characters in Cleaners find solidarity in their shared humiliation, disillusionment, and boundless optimism. I tend to look back at my teenage years with apprehension but this movie has welcomed a feeling of nostalgic fondness that has enabled me to laugh at the absolute ridiculousness of it all. The stories in this film might be difficult to connect with if you haven’t experienced the highs and lows of Philippine Catholic high school. But, man, if you didn’t choke up during the final scene then you probably sucked when you were a teenager. Either way, Cleaners is definitely still worth watching just for its inventive storytelling method.

#writers #writing #books & libraries #books #essay #joan didion #the white album #japanese music #japanese cinema #cinema #movies #film #coming of age #filipino #philippine cinema #coming of age movies #anime #serial experiments lain #technology #internet #social media #currently reading #currently watching

[qqueenofhades]

Hi! I need fic etiquette advice. I've written fic for a long time but only recently started putting it on AO3. I am a scholar, and I write fic to relax, and I often write for corny fandoms, so I don't do research because it's supposed to be fun, and I don't need more stress in my sad life. But is it bad to not research? I love the research that is visible in your fics, but I think I would stop writing if I had to look up, for example, UK dialects for all my fics set in the UK, and it triggers my intense anxiety about fucking it up. I just don't want to be rude, so I put a disclaimer at the beginning about how I'm American. Is that good enough? This is very clearly an anxiety ask lol help

Aha, high five for "scholar/academic who writes fic to relax," since I'm also in that camp. Likewise (sad) high five for "intense anxiety about fucking up by somehow not researching enough," because that's basically our whole life, isn't it? So yes. I feel you. I feel you hard.

As for fic research: I sometimes get lovely comments on my fics about how I must have researched for hours or even weeks/months, and I always feel somewhat bad about being like "well, lol, yes, I did Wikipedia and Google a few things, but it's probably not as nearly much as you think." There are cases where I did do a shit-ton of specific and extensive research, such as my Swan and Crossbones series, which is an OUAT/Black Sails duology set in the historical 18th century/Golden Age of Piracy/Age of Sail. Then I really did spend hours on extremely obscure websites/online historical archives, and likewise for my Timeless All Souls AU trilogy, I did some extra reading on the Elizabethan period. But that's just because I am the kind of person who desperately needs authentic trivia and for my facts/scene-setting/world-building details to be correct (see: intense anxiety about fucking up). And when I am interested enough to write a fic using a particular place/time/scenario as a setting, I usually already know enough about it that it doesn't take long to plug in said details.

Once again, however, I stress that this is just how my personal writing process/brain works, and if it would ruin your enjoyment and escapism to stop for long periods to look these things up, and/or break your writing flow: you're still not obliged to do that. Fanfic is written by amateurs working for free -- and not "amateur" in the disparaging connotation of being "bad," since a lot of fanfic writers blow professional TV writers out of the water, but meaning someone who does it simply for passion, rather than for pay. The modern English word "amateur" comes pretty directly from the Latin "amator," or "lover." When you're an amateur, you're doing something because you love it and not because you expect to get any kind of money or compensation out of it. You are voluntarily spending your own free time to write stories and post them, and you honestly do not owe your readers anything, aside from what you choose to give them. If you're putting a disclaimer at the start of your fics that you're American, and then making at least a decent effort, that's perfectly fine.

Obviously, if you're writing about certain characters or storylines, you have a basic duty to be respectful and produce the kind of fan content you want to see in the world, but -- although it may not feel like it in this hypercritical online environment -- it's better to make a genuine effort, even if you get some minor things wrong, than to be so obsessed with every tiny little detail that you never post at all for fear of being dogpiled by the purity police. Those people do exist, they will target you from time to time, and it absolutely sucks. But as I have said before in answers to other asks, most fanfic writers/readers know that they shouldn't leave the kind of comment they wouldn't want to get themselves, and that unless the author has explicitly asked for constructive criticism, it's a dick move to offer it under the guise of being "helpful." This isn't an MFA writing seminar or other place where you expect to receive technical feedback by the dictates of the structure. We're just writing self-indulgent stories about wanting some fictional idiots to kiss (or whatever we want to do to them, lmao). This is not the forum where you should roll up with your red pen and lists of nitpicks. If you don't like a fic, the back button exists. Use it.

To summarise, since this is getting long: you are under absolutely no obligation to put any more effort into your own fics than you want to, and if you want to write them as escapism from your stressful real life and without having to get bogged down in minutiae: valid! Really valid! Entirely valid! If you won't like your own work without doing at least some research, then do as much as you would like so that you can feel unambiguously proud of the result. (That is, as much as any of us feel proud of our own work, lol.) If you know that you should probably at least skim Wikipedia on a particular topic, that's pretty easy to do, and it can be enjoyable to go down a rabbit hole that is purely from fun and not for academic work. That's easy to do without breaking your flow, and you can pick up new details that can influence your plot or characters in both fun and realistic ways, so hey, bonus!

Anyway. Writing is hard. Real life sucks. Just have fun and do your best. Find the balance that works for you, which absolutely does not have to be like mine or anyone else's, and see how it goes. <3

#anonymous #ask #writing advice

[annetteblog]

I got a very long ask and wrote even longer reply, and now Tumblr for some reason doesn't want to publish it through asks. So I'm making a separate post, because what else can I do? 😀 I hope Anon wouldn't mind

Hi!

Thank you for such a long ask! I really enjoy replying those, although it may take some time to actually write whatever I have on my mind 🙂 However, I feel like for every question that you posed, it's possible to write its own big reply or even an essay, so this piece of mine probably won’t give them justice (but I’ll try my best.)

As usual, one big IMO.

1) Ethics, “gueer coding” and discussions

I believe I’ve already partly touched this subject here. Shortly, I think that everything the boys did (and still do) had its own purpose. They decided to put these "undertones" (or whatever one may call them) in their art. They made some statements with a very small room for interpretation. And it didn't happen once or twice. More like, it's been a consistent behaviour throughout years.

I don't buy this excuse some fans write - "oh, he just didn't know about this/didn't understand how it looked like/didn't..." So apparently, JK wasn't able to figure out shit about Troye, didn't give a damn about his GCF, didn't think how his tattoo looked like; JM didn't realize to what conclusions could lead his quite bold words about 4am or waking up and seeing JK; both of them didn't have second thoughts about the Black Swan dance; Bang PD is just a CEO who pays zero attention to BTS in general and KM actions in particular (which sometimes actually backlash, e.g. that stop gay fanservice thing after the Seoul concerts), because he clearly just doesn't care AT ALL; whatever PR service they have in BH is just asleep all the time... Etc etc etc, you got the idea

Well, if one wants to perceive JM, JK and BigHit as a group of complete morons with no brains, this "oh, they just didn't know" explanation may work. But if all of them were idiots, how would BTS become the biggest group on a planet? They are smart enough, deal with this.

And YET. KM still do what they do. It's their choice, so apparently they have their motives. You wrote it yourself too - "Jikook and BH put out all that stuff for a reason."

Keeping this in mind, I truly think it's fair to discuss queer undertones or KM's bond. It's meant to be discussed and speculated. They made it public, and they continue to make it public (and quite obvious, to be honest). Why? Well, I guess they want us to speculate.

From here comes the second point

2) Art and its interpretations

In general, I believe that any good art should allow various interpretations. That's what a good piece of art is supposed to do - provoke a thought. As well as it's quite customary to analyze and (sometimes) overanalyze art. Thousands of universities worldwide have programs which are focused on fine art, literature, theater, music, film, etc.

And why is it okay to write about Avengers or Madonna or whatever weird art you're able to find in the closest Contemporary museum (like a banana taped to a wall), but not okay to interpret BTS' songs and/or performances? Again, I strongly believe that art is meant to be discussed. Especially as cool as theirs 🙂

Actually, some popular fandom theories turned out to be true here. Since Spring Day release on Feb 2017, fans speculated about its connection to the Sewol ferry tragedy based on the song's lyrics, MV and choreo. We got this confirmation like when, December 2020? But before it was also just an interpretation.

Coming back to KM. Combining these with the idea that JM/JK/BH clearly know what they're doing and how it may look like, I don't see a problem in having various interpretation of their art. Including queer ones.

3) Escapism

Isn't all art targeted to escaping in a sense? We want to take a break from reality and/or mundane life or just gain some new experience. In this sense what's the radical difference between staring at pictures or sculptures in a museum, watching a movie, reading a book or scrolling through Tumblr reading BTS/KM centric posts? All of these are means to escape and entertain ourselves.

As for this "if they are a queer couple, is it okay to derive pleasure and 'what a beautiful love story' feelings from two members of systematically oppressed minority?" - and you would prefer doing what - ignoring them? pretending that they don't exist? 🙃 In case if they are a queer couple, I guess showing support and benevolence is even more important. Exactly because, as you mentioned, they are a part of the oppressed minority. And the hatred is/would be definitely in place.

4) Fanfiction

Oh my, what a controversial theme these days.

Firstly, some forget it was not invented in the 21st century. Even slash fanfiction (cough Star cough Trek). As for incorporating real people, it's been a part of literature for like what.. always? There are millions of different writings about emperors, nobles, military figures, lives of saints, etc. And it's not like personal opinion of people in question bothered those, who write or wrote about them. I clearly remember a scene in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, where Alexander I [Russian emperor 1801-25] after losing a battle against Napoleon, hits a birch tree with his sword while crying hard and just being kinda hysterical. Would real Alexander be satisfied with such image if he read the book? Idk 😄

About having "the right to comment on such [different from your own] experience". I suppose, if authors wrote only about what they had experienced, our literature would be 95% poorer than it is. How can one write books in historic settings if they didn't live there? How do books about future and space travel exist, if we live in 2021? Is it needed to be a part of mafia to write about mafia? What about other cultures? Should an American author write only about American people and American lifestyle or it's fine to have characters from other countries?

Writing is not about experiencing something and then making a fanfic or a book, it's more about research and compassion. If you have reliable info on your theme and are able to look at the world using different lenses, why not?

I don't perceive fanfiction as a worldwide evil. Sure, there are creepy examples as well as authors, who write fetishizing weird shit. But it doesn't mean that all fanfiction=bad and all slash fanfiction=objectification of male homosexuality. Fanfiction is just one form of fiction, it can be good or bad based on how it's written. But the label itself doesn't define anything, as well as reading it should not be a reason to accusations.

5) Jikook, shipping and politics

I'm among those, who perceive pretty much everything as a part of politics. We all exist within some political conventions and have certain political laws over our heads. And yes, it includes art. Even if an artist says something like "oh, I decided to stay away from politics, my work is beyond it". The decision to stay away from politics is also political, because apparently there was something within the political structure what made this artist say that and forced them to make this distinction between them and some institutional conventions.

And that makes me believe that shipping/supporting KM is also political. But I don't think it's necessarily bad? Basically, you decided to support potentially queer people from a country, which doesn't really approve LGBTQ+. It puts you in the opposition towards a particular government. You made a choice. You could google some SK stuff, read all that you mentioned in the beginning of your ask, and say something like "oh, that's not okay there? well, fair enough, I guess their government knows better"🤠 and forget that this KM thing even exists. But apparently you didn't

Imo, is it politics? Yes

Is it bad that it's politics? Well, no? 🙃

|

P.S. I hope I was clear enough with my ideas. Thank you again for the thought provoking ask, and I hope I'll hear from you again 🙂

And honestly, I don't think that you're problematic in any way :)

#annetteasks #jikook #kookmin #long post #jeon jungkook #park jimin #jimin #jungkook

[ais-n]

hi!!! firstly i just want to say i LOVE ICOS with my whole being. i read it for the first time in high school abt 5 years ago and read it again over quarantine last summer and it drew me in and wrapped me up wholly, i couldn’t put it down. i love the story and characters so much.

i also love writing very much and have always written small stories, fan fiction etc., the past couple weeks i’ve felt inspired to write fiction of my own, a novel of sorts with my own original plot and characters, and i wanted to ask you for some advice/ words of wisdom.

how did you plan out the characters you wrote? or did you more just let them write themselves? and did you plan out chapter by chapter how the plot would unfold before writing, or again let it happen as you wrote it? i’ve found it easier for me personally to let things happen as i write, and that the characters do things and say things i never planned for, was wondering if you felt the same or if you were more organized lol.

also what platform did you use to write on?

sorry for the long post, i hope you’re doing well.

Aww thank you, that's so sweet! I'm glad you like it :)

Side note, before I forget to mention - I just made a subreddit for my writing/stuff which will include ICoS things... I'll be adding more info on there this weekend hopefully, and I'm sure I'll do another post over here too but the link if you want it is https://www.reddit.com/r/aisylum/ It may be a place to find some other stuff in the future if you think of anything. I was thinking of doing an AMA or Q&A type thing over there too. Obviously, always feel free to ask here too <3 I love either place. Just wanted to mention while I'm thinking of it :)

I'm so happy you've been inspired to write - good luck and great job! I think that sounds absolutely awesome and I bet your story will be fantastic :)

We kind of did a bit of a hybrid.... I really wish I had the original bulletpoint list for what the book was originally going to be, but "Sonny" and I had opposite ways of looking at things. "He" would delete things as we went, and I would squirrel it all away until later lol So "he" deleted a bunch of bulletpoints/early info as we went because neither of us actually expected anything to come of any of it, so I also wasn't super anal about keeping track of things way early on. I might still have some documents buried somewhere with info but offhand I don't know where.

Anyway so I kind of am more like you in the way you write, but I will sometimes make the effort to try to plan a bit, especially if there's a cowriter. For ICoS for example, we had a rough outline planned of what was going to be the story, we started writing, we let the characters/plot/etc go where it needed to go, that meant things we hadn't planned from the start came in. The original story was basically mostly Evenfall, then skip Afterimage and Interludes for the most part but not entirely, and then we didn't really have a hugely detailed end initially from what I recall but we knew generally what was going to happen, so some of the stuff from later Fade would probably have been in the bullets. But when we got to the end of Evenfall, whatever was our next bulletpoint just did not feel right; we knew all the other stuff that starts Afterimage would happen instead.

For my long ongoing LGBTQ+ fantasy series I'm working on, the first book is finished but I'm editing it to change/add some significant stuff. I have a whole bunch of info on that which I've compiled over the years, so to an extent I have a general idea of plot things that will go down in the rewrite and also in the future into the other books, but a lot of details and even bigger points are left untouched. I prefer to let the characters/story/world/plot go where it wants to go, and I just have general points that I know make sense or have to happen eventually, and I look for how to fit them in as organically as possible to the way the story is going. If that makes sense. I will occasionally try to really work out exact storyline bullets but I get so bored so quickly that I never finish.

Because I like world-building and character development, I actually find it more fun and more useful for my organizational skills (any that exist, anyway, lol) to be aimed more toward that. Rather than focusing on the story and what the plot will be and what character will say what in which chapter, I prefer to dig into the past of the characters, dig into the world, the magic system or whatever is relevant, and have that info all squirreled away somewhere if needed. That way, as I'm going forward with writing the characters/story more organically, if things are going around what I initially thought the plot would be, this gives me something to then pull from for inspiration on how to incorporate this new plot/etc into the world more seamlessly, and make it feel more at home. And if you have all that info on characters, it also makes it easier to throw in things that flesh the character out more, and that can all lead toward character development in the future.

Boyd, for example - when we first had the valentine thing come up, it was just going to be a thing that happened that showed their miscommunication and how fucked the Agency was. But then it didn't make sense to me for it to just be a thing mentioned once and never again. So then that added to Boyd's story; now he was a valentine, so if it made sense or it was relevant, that was a thing that could or should come up. As the story progressed and the world grew, and with that the Agency and other factors were more fleshed out, it became more and more relevant. Then, by the time Fade came around, it was fully integrated into Boyd's story because by that point it would be weirder if it weren't - and because it made total sense in the characters' perspectives and the different organizations' perspectives and the story as a whole for the things to happen the way they did. But all of that, of course, then informs Boyd's mental health, physical health, and overall stability. Which then affects how he interacts with the world and other characters, which then affects the plot to an extent because of the choices he would make that may be different now, in the context of these life experiences, compared to prior to those life experiences. If the valentine thing never happened in Evenfall, a lot of Fade would be different. When we had that coming up in Evenfall, we didn't know another book was coming at all, let alone 3, let alone that it would end up having such a significant impact on the story and character development. But that's just kind of an example of building on things as you go, which is what I tend to do, personally.

As for the program - in the beginning we just used Word I think, and talked on AIM or something. It's been so long I don't totally remember. But for most of it we used Google Docs because that made it easy to share and write/edit at the same time.

Also, haha never be sorry for long posts - as you can see, I will almost always go longer ^_~

Hope you're doing well too! Thanks for your interest :)

#ask ais #icos #in the company of shadows #icosbooks

[ordinaryschmuck]

Why I (Want To) Love Amphibia

Salutations random people on the internet who probably won't read this. I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons. If you've been paying attention to my posts, you would have known that I made a top twenty list of the best-animated series of the 2010s. And if you read my Honorable Mentions list, you would have known that I consider Amphibia one of those shows that, while I like it, I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's one of the best. Don't get me wrong. It's good. But there are issues that I have with Amphibia, and I can't recommend it without being hesitant. I still like it fine, but I doubt some people will be as forgiving as me. So I'm going to explain the quality and faults that the show has, while still being considerate to those who do love it. Because unlike some people who would make a two-hour-long video essay about how much they hate something, I can at least acknowledge that while something doesn't entirely work for me, that doesn't mean it won't work for everyone else. Because there is a reason why this show has such a following...I don't think it's earned, but I won't knock people down when they love something I find passable. And I hope that respect goes both ways as I explain why I (want to) love Amphibia.

Also, this review is going to contain spoilers for the entire series. So if you haven't checked it out yet, I recommend you do it to form your own opinion. Season one is on Disney+, and you're on your own for season two. And I suggest you find a legal way to watch it if you can, because I'm not going to leave a link to a pirating website filled with every animated series and movie you can find. And I'm definitely not going to insert that link into a random letter in this review with the thought that if you have to pirate something, then you might as well work for it. Because that would be crazy.

...

Stop being crazy.

....

Anywho, let's start with:

WHAT I LIKE

The Comedy: Let it be known that this show is funny. Like, really funny. I wouldn't go so far as to say that it's funnier than Gravity Falls, which got me chuckling with every episode, but Amphibia definitely hits more than it misses. There are occasions when the jokes aren't really character-oriented and could be said by anybody in the Plantar Family, but if they're still funny, then who am I to complain. Although there is one issue that I have with the comedy. But I'll save that for when I talk about what I don't like. For now, I can assure you that if you're hoping for some laughs, Amphibia has plenty to offer.

Warnings Against Toxic Relationships: But even the best comedies know when to offer some substance. Because I won't lie, when Anne described what is clearly a toxic friendship in the second episode, I was hooked. I love it when kids shows breach topics that can be important for children down the line. And for the most part, I think Amphibia does it well. There are so many instances that the writers' point out the several red flags that a person should avoid when it comes to a friendship and when it's time to either cut that person from your life and stand up for yourself. One of my favorite episodes is "Prison Break," where Sasha explains how she manipulates people and shows zero remorse for it. Then there's the episode "The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers" that shows how a person's influence can affect others and how much it changes perception as Anne and Marcy still believe they need someone like Sasha in their lives...At least I hope that's what the intention is. Because if the writers are trying to say that Anne and Marcy really need someone like Sasha...Well, I'll save that for my dislikes. Because even though it could use a little polishing, warning kids about toxic relationships is what keeps me hooked into seeing what happens next in this series.

It’s Not Afraid to go Dark: On top of breaking borders with morals intended for kids, I just gotta respect a show for playing around with what's considered "too dark." Especially if that show is on the Disney Channel!

The writers are not afraid to imply that death happens in the world of Amphibia, primarily because it is like a swamp ecosystem filled with predators and food chains. And I feel like because the characters are mostly amphibians, the writers can get away with an entire cave filled with the bones of victims as long as they're not humans. But frogs? No one gives a crap about them. There's a reason they're the ones who get dissected in schools.

Plus, a good majority of the monsters that Anne and the Plantars face are pretty horrifying at times. The crew who work on the show do a great job balancing the line of making these creatures look scary, but never go too far that they'll scar kids for life. Except in the Halloween special...How the f**k did they get away with the monsters in the Halloween special? And while they don't ever show what these monsters do, the implications honestly make things much worse, which again, I kind of respect. It's good to have shows like Amphibia that can scare kids a little bit. Getting through something fictitiously dark helps make kids feel braver and prepare them for the real horrors in the world. Especially since most of these creatures are just exaggerated versions of real-life predators...google them.

The Season One Finale: It was "Reunion" that made me realize that Amphibia has the potential to be amazing...it's also the last episode of season one, so let that sink in.

Joking aside, I honestly do love this episode. It's funny, it brings in elements from other episodes, nearly everybody does something useful, and it all ends with a satisfying and equally gut-wrenching climax. A climax, by the way, that is so perfect that I'm going to do a scene breakdown for why it's so good...so, you know, add that to the to-do list (I have so much s**t to make -_-). "Reunion" has so many elements about what makes a season finale so good that I feel like future writers should take notes for their own series that they plan to make. While I wish every episode of Amphibia had this level of quality, the writers know that the last impression is one of the most important. Because I will defend this show if this is the episode people use to trash it.

Marcy: I will also defend this show if someone trashes Marcy. Trust me, the best way to tell that someone is just hating on Amphibia for little to no reason is if they utter the word, "Marcy is a bad character." That is not true. Marcy is a great character, and I'd go so far as to say she's the best character in the series. She's sweet, adorable, and has a story ten times more interesting than Anne's. Anne learns what a sincere relationship is like through the Plantars, where Marcy falls victim to another manipulative relationship through King Andreas. It's her co-dependency that has the chance to get fleshed out more, and I can't wait to see if she has a moment to break out and form her own path.

Also, in the mass expanse of the multiverse, there exists a world where Amphibia is about the adventures that Marcy had in Newtopia as she uses Dungeons and Dragons logic to get by. And I want to see that universe! Because this clumsy nerd is already a blast to watch with the briefest of cameos. Imagine how much fun she would be if she had her own series!

Sprig: I don't know how much love Sprig gets within the fandom, but I got a feeling that it's not enough. He's funny without being annoying (most of the time), there's a whole lot of heart and sincerity to his actions, and above all else, he's the best friend that Anne needed. When Anne explained her very flawed views about friendship in "Best Fronds," it is clear how essential someone like Sprig is as he teaches Anne what friendship really means. It means caring for each other, supporting each other, making equal sacrifices for one another, and just being on the same page as each other. It is genuinely sweet seeing their friendship bloom, and I honestly hope the Amphibia fandom gives Sprig the amount of appreciation he deserves. Sure, he can be annoying sometimes, but for the most part, he's easily up there as one of my favorite characters.

Wally: Same with Wally! Who would have guessed that a character who appears as an dumb source of comic relief has a level of depth and lovability to him? "Wally and Anne" shows that while he is a nonsensical goofball, he doesn't really care what the frogs of Wartwood think of him. What matters is what he thinks of him. And that is just an incredible lesson to teach kids that just makes me love Wally more. 

(It also helps that he's probably the funniest character in the show. I know I said that he's dumb, but when he works, he works.)

Kermit the Frog Cameo: ...It's Kermit the Frog, y'all. I physically can't hate him. Especially since this is the perfect show for him to make a cameo in!

WHAT I DON’T LIKE

Anne’s Character: I don't have a problem with Anne. I think she's a serviceable protagonist, and I love the fact that she's Thai, offering a form of Asian representation other than Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. But here's the problem with Anne: After a season and a half, I still don't know what her character is. If you were to ask me to describe a Disney show protagonist within one sentence, I could do it effortlessly. Watch:

Star Butterfly: An adrenaline junky of a warrior princess who slowly learns to be responsible with each passing season.

Luz Noceda: A generous nerd that obsesses about fantasy and fiction, who still understands when to take a step in reality when the moment calls for it.

Scrooge McDuck: An old Scottish miser who has the heart of adventure and is a duck that almost loves his family as he loves his money.

For Anne, I don't know where to start because her personality is so inconsistent. Sometimes she makes friends with others without even trying, and other times, she gets on others' nerves easily. Sometimes she's a thrillseeker with the heart of adventure, and other times, she's a person who prefers to hang back and avoid doing work. And sometimes she's the only sane character with logical advice, and other times she's the most insane character who needs advice. Now, you could argue that these are all character traits that make Anne multidimensional. But if you ask me, it seems like her personality is dependent on what the writers want her to be for the episode. Someone like Luz going back and forth between two traits only works if there is a dominant personality trait that takes over the other. If Luz spends an entire episode being angry and serious, it proves that there's more to her than just a character that's nerdy and optimistic. But it's clear she is still that lovable nerd by having her say a corny line like, "Talk to the glyphs, Witch!" But because Anne has so many personality traits, it's hard to tell which is the norm and what is out of character. Case in point: Having Anne obsess over hang-gliding in one episode and doing a puzzle in the next is off as neither correlates with each other. Nor do they tell me who Anne is, other than the fact that she's clearly a character lacking a singular identity. And seeing how she's the main character, the one audiences are supposed to root for and identify with, it's probably not a good thing.

The Story: For the record, I have no problems with the story itself...the way it's written, however...

First off, there's too much filler. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as filler episodes have the potential to be fun when written well. The problem is that relying on filler instead of telling your story can leave some people (me) uninterested and angry. And the thing is, there is a perfect way to avoid filler that doesn't involve telling the overarching narrative: Introduce personal plotlines. Look at The Owl House, for example. There are several character-oriented narrative threads that get introduced within the first few episodes. Such as Luz learning magic, Eda's curse, her relationship with Lilith, and Amity's redemption. Therefore, The Owl House avoids any filler episodes just as long as it focuses on any of these plotlines and even introduces new ones. Amphibia has the plotlines, but it rarely focuses on them. Especially since the story takes way too long to develop. 

Every time I think the show is finally going to start moving forward and we can continue the story, there are like ten more filler episodes where everything comes to a screeching halt. Now, to be fair, there is an explanation why we're forced to wait for the story to move forward, and it's because the characters are forced to wait as well. But, even then, there could have been better ways to pad out that waiting than just adding filler. For example, I may not have been forced into an alternate universe where nearly everything wants to kill me, but if I was, I WOULD SPEND EVERY WAKING MINUTE I HAVE TRYING TO FIGURE OUT A WAY BACK! In the first season, how many episodes does Anne spend trying to figure out the mystery of how she got there and how to go home? Two. There are two whole episodes, out of thirty-nine, where Anne tries to figure things out...That is insane to me. But to be fair, season two is doing a much better job at moving things along...but it doesn't change the fact that the writers are kind of bad at telling their own story.

There are two episodes, "Anne Vs. Wild" and "Lost in Newtopia," where the story continues, but it's only in the last few minutes. The problem is that if you take those endings out, the episodes themselves do not change a bit. BUT because those are significant and essential moments for the plot, you can't take them out. Resulting in scenes that, while intriguing, come across as awkward in the long run. So now, my question is why. Why is the story handled so poorly? And I have one theory.

It Feels Like the Writers Can’t Decide What they Want the Show to be: Sometimes it seems like Amphibia is written as a pure slice of life series like Big City Greens. However, there are times when the show seems like it's intended to mix slice of life with fantasy like Gravity Falls. Now here's the problem: Big City Greens and Gravity Falls are two very different shows in terms of storytelling, tone, and character work. Big City Greens is an episodic comedy series where character development is unimportant, and the adventures rarely go beyond just being wacky. As for Gravity Falls, it is a show that is semi-serialized where the character development is constant, and the fantasy-adventures are always prevalent in every episode. And there are several episodes of Amphibia that could be a part of either show. Episodes like "Stakeout," "Lily Pad Thai," and "Little Frog Town" have plots that I can see being in Big City Greens. Then there are episodes like "The Domino Effect," "Toad Tax," and "Marcy at the Gates" that I could see being in Gravity Falls. These two groups of episodes are vastly different from one another that it causes Amphibia to feel disjointed in the process. Usually, I'm a fan when a series mixes different genres together, but do you want to know why something like Gravity Falls does such a great job at mixing slice of life with fantasy-adventure? Because, as I said, fantasy-adventures are always present in every episode. "Dipper vs. Manliness," "Boss Mabel," and "Roadside Attraction" each have the most basic slice of life plots of the show, but there is always a fantasy element or a monster to fight. There are entire episodes of Amphibia where there is no monster, and even when there is, it doesn't have the same amount of tension and weight that the creatures in Gravity Falls have weekly. A show like Big City Greens doesn't have to worry about monsters or evil villains every week because it doesn't need to. It's a show about the wacky adventures of a family of farmers adjusting to city life. Why would they have to worry about a monster every week when they just have to worry about each other. If Amphibia was the same way then there would be no issue. But because if it wants to be a mix of slice of life with fantasy, then it does need to worry about a monster every week. I usually try to defend shows that try to play both sides, but this show has to be the one occasion where I have to say pick one or the other. Because the writers tried hard to be both, and personally, I don't think they did a good job.

Characters Don’t. Stop. SCREAMING!: It's here we move on from what's objectively wrong with Amphibia to the things that just bother me personally...and this is one of those things. I get it. An over-the-top reaction to something minimal can be funny on occasion...but it's never "on occasion" with this show. Nearly every episode has characters screaming to get a laugh, and most of the time, it's more annoying than it is funny. It's Hop Pop who does this the most, and I just feel so bad for Bill Farmer. That voice already seems like it's hard to do, so being forced to scream and yell with it for the sake of comedy can't do him any favors. Other shows, especially ones on the Disney Channel, have characters overreact for the sake of humor, but it's Amphibia that I feel like it relies on this the most. I'm sure some people aren't bothered by this, but I am, and this is my review, so I'm mentioning it.

Poly: Speaking of things that probably don't bother other people...I feel like I'm making some enemies with this one. Because, boy, do I not like Polly. Her voice is annoying, she mostly causes problems for the family, and to me, her entire character seems pointless. No, really. Think about it. Anne is the main character, Sprigs acts as her emotional support, and Hop Pop acts as the voice of reason. What's Polly's purpose? Because all she adds are unnecessary jokes, character traits that could have gone to anybody, and acting more as a plot device than an actual character. The only justification for her that I can think of is that she adds gender balance to the main cast. Which would be more than acceptable if there was a point to her existence. But I think it's pretty evident with her exclusion from the original pilot pitch for the program that Polly's personality is practically pointless...that is most likely the only alliteration I'll ever do for a review, so you have better appreciated it.

If you like Polly, then more power to you. For me, I just don't enjoy her.

Sasha: Oh, nelly. I can already see the hateful messages I'm gonna get from this.

Now, as a character, I actually do like Sasha. I think her personality is interesting enough to dissect, and I think she acts as a perfect antagonist to Anne, the Plantars, and even Marcy if you want to get into it. My problem relies on how much the fanbase is already jumping on the "Forgive Sasha" train. Because, "Aw, she's just like Catra and Amity! So sweet, tortured, shippable with the main character, and--" STOP IT! Stop it right now...and think. With Catra and Amity, you see the environment they grew up in, you feel the abuse they deal with, you understand the reasoning of their actions, and you come to forgive them for who they are...At least for Amity, you can. For Catra, it requires more of an argument. But Sasha? Did we see the same cruel mistreatment to her friends? Did we hear the same coldness in her voice as she describes how to manipulate people? Did we witness the same damage she's done to Anne and Marcy in how they perceive healthy relationships? Apparently not! Because while everyone else is already on the same page that Sasha deserves redemption, I'm sitting here thinking that maybe it's for the best to be a little more hesitant. So far, we have yet to see any way to understand her reasoning and have yet to see how she deserves forgiveness. Sure, Sasha was willing to sacrifice herself for Anne, but did Sasha really earn that? It works as a sudden realization that Anne deserves better, but Sasha has yet to do anything that proves she can be better. Especially since the next time we see her, she's trying to help a fascist ruler get back up on his feet...THINK ABOUT THAT!

But, sure, she's meant to be forgiven. That can work. Because while Sasha shows kids the type of people they should avoid, she can also work as a warning for what kids should avoid becoming. That is a great thing to teach...but it can also be potentially dangerous. Because if incorrectly interpreted, Sasha can show kids that every person who seems toxic just needs a chance to change. And that is the last thing you want to teach, given how very few toxic people actually change. You want to know why The Owl House gets away with an equally dangerous lesson about how not every bully is awful? It's because it shows two sides of the spectrum by proving why someone like Amity did the things she's done while also saying that characters like Boscha and Mattholomule are just a-holes for the sake of being a-holes. Sasha has no one to compare to. Sure, there's King Andreas, but he's a government figure. They're built to be manipulative. Sasha needs someone that's on her level of cruelty to prove that while some people can change and have reason to do so, others don't. And seeing how I don't think she deserves to change, at least not yet, that is an issue. It's the biggest issue out of all the issues I have with this show.

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

So, yeah, I think it's pretty evident how I feel about Amphibia when I can write paragraphs about the stuff I don't like while barely being able to talk about the things I do like. Because I do enjoy this show. It's funny, most of the characters are enjoyable, and its discussion on toxic relationships still has me hooked to see what happens next. My issue lies with inconsistency. The main protagonist, storytelling, genre, and thematic purposes are all inconsistent. I'm interested enough to watch more, and who knows, maybe I'll make a final verdict review once the series comes to an end. For now, if you had to ask me what I’m excited to make a return, I don't know if I'll be willing to hop to it by saying Amphibia.

(Also, if you're still looking for that link for that pirating website I mentioned, now would probably be a good time to tell you that I really never did put one in. I told you, that would be crazy...That should teach you to try to break the law.)

#amphibia #what i thought about #why i want to love #anne boonchuy #sasha waybright #marcy wu #sprig plantar #polly plantar