#also to the anon who said i’m not aromantic and that I’m insecure: sounds like you’re projecting lmao

[borderlandscast]

sorry!! I was the one who sent the anon about the development, and yeah, I meant how their character changed as the story went on. but also, what were some things that changed from the initial starting point in the story?

okay, not a problem! let’s do this. my random three picks: zoeya, lalna, and parvis. i’ll think about maybe doing posts for the others but shoves that onto future self. thank you for clarifyingthis ask! it was a pleasure to answer, and apologies for how long this got.

zoeya

her role is basically a xenobiologist traveling to pandora to research fauna and flora. unfortunately, her assistants continued to ditch her given the dangerous nature of the work.

working solo, zoeya continued after many setbacks and was close to giving up after rythian left (for different reasons than what she’d assume though). and then teep showed up.

zoeya’s bubbly, sunny and talkative personality unnerves a lot of people since you’d think all that would be ground out of her at the end of the first day but nope. zoeya’s greatest strength is in her persistence. she never needed coddling, which almost everyone made the mistake of doing since they also assume she’s naive. she proves them wrong later since death (and to a lesser extent, suffering and pain) is a part of life, which is showcased often in her field.

that said, her greatest weakness is her self doubt and insecurities, whether it’s about herself, her job or her relationships. she has a lot of unspoken anxieties on a daily basis, which hinders her ability to function. she shows signs of adhd too; this is especially evident in the scene where teep shows up and her life is a big Mess, from the way she organises her paperwork, her constant clutter and chaotic workflow.

she has a positive impact on teep and vice versa. for the longest time, she couldn’t open up, and now she has this extraordinary assistant who can actually read her handwriting, is not a wimp about foreign bodily fluids, can handle threats without a blinking an eye, can follow instructions after being told only once; yeah, teep’s her dream assistant. problem: they’re stone cold and unreceptive to her ramblings...or so it appears.

zoeya brings the best out in people; she has a grounding effect. whenever i wrote her into a scene, i had to take a different mindset than say, one i’d have for rythian, rythian is cautious, and usually doesn’t do anything without a plan. zoeya, on the other hand, is free of these restrictions. she’s a very emotional person, which plays off nicely against a bigger backdrop of stoic, reserved and colder cast.

she was never intended as a ‘oh, i’m here for you, always!’ sidelines character which is a cliche role; she takes direct actions throughout borderlandscast, such as being the first outsider to see rythian’s mutilated back. she reacts with a little bit of horror, but ultimately reaches out with a compassionate hand. she also ran inside a burning building to get teep. she also is a frontliner in the bandit battle, at the cost of her hand.

losing her hand wasn’t intended until i browsed the old blackrock vids and hit upon the arc where rythian and co end up in the desert and she needs chocolate milk to survive, and uh, things clicked.

zoeya suffers a permanent consequence for her heroic actions in saving sanctuary hole. does she regret it? no! she does her best to move on, with the support of her loved ones. she may have been an anxious wreck throughout the whole event but she never let it stop her from doing the right thing.

lalna

lalna’s role was mysterious from the start to his companions; his concussion impeded his thoughts and rationality. slowly peeling back the real reasons how he ended up on pandora was part of the story.

he was always going to be rythian’s companion, and unfortunately, was going to betray him later. playing up to that was difficult, since i was starting from scratch in an au compared to blackrock where tensions preexisted.

lalna and rythian are both lonely people, and lonely people tend to gravitate towards each other even if their personalities are at odds. i didn’t detail lalna and rythian’s initial journey together but you can tell that they’ve gotten used to each other by the time nanosounds shows up.

i intentionally wrote lalna to be a scaredy cat but differently to nilesy, parvis and zoeya. normal people don’t cope well with being thrown onto a murderous, lawless place, let alone being stranded. lalna handles it reasonably well at first but then there’s the icing on the cake: killing other people.

thus begins lalna’s spiral into the sad mess that he becomes just before tlvh c12 happens. that ended all civilities between him and the main vault hunters.

negative character development where someone truly regrets their actions should be explored more often! lalna didn’t exactly redeem himself in the final battle but he definitely showed that he’s taking his first steps.

sometimes people try to justify doing terrible things because that’s a very human thing to do. lalnable’s own rigid moral compass was foil to lalna’s own weak, wavering one. it also provided another reason for the conflict where lalna nearly throttles him to death but chooses not to, since that’d violate his whole motive for backstabbing rythian.

lalna is driven by selfishness disguised as protective love for his twin. he’s one of the more selfish people in this au.

his loneliness likely drove him to build larry robert, a friend who’d never abandon him.

i don’t think lalna is an idiot; he’s secretly crafty and actually quick thinking, especially when it comes to his specialties. he’s impulsive though, and he doesn’t like to think about the consequences until the dust clears. this gets better closer to the end since he chooses to go back and help the vault hunters, after he provokes arsenal into beating the shit out of him. that uh, takes some serious guts.

he’ll heal his relationship with rythian eventually. where rythian would once have cut ties with lalna, rythian’s open to trying again, something that lalna is deeply grateful for.

parvis

parvis is interesting as a character since he’s so multi-faceted while still being recognisable as himself. i wrote him to be a bandit, but not a bandit, as paradoxical as that sounds.

he was designed to have every bit of confidence as possible or projecting as much; backstage, he dials back on the loudness and is a little awkward but cares deeply with all the finesse of a brick in a sock. he rivals ravs in terms of social awareness, which is how he easily picked up on will’s need for a friend.

his sewing hobby was added much later, it provides him a valuable skill since bandits probably tear up their own clothes often. plus, plenty of civilians and vault hunters could do with repairs every once in a while. being one of the friendlier bandits around, parvis has a secret reputation as a tailor. he only tries a little to deny it.

parvis intensely dislikes conflict but pretends he does, if only to keep the masses happy (his own lieutenants are bloodthirstier than he is, a rarity on pandora). okay, he might enjoy it a little but the consequences of getting hurt far outweigh the adrenaline rushes. he gets over this ridiculously fast when he’s out for blood in the name of a friend (as in the case of one will strife during the jailbreak), or if something he likes is threatened (like his precious stronghold).

as sparkles pointed out, parvis’ leadership capabilities and knack for keeping a whole bandit gang united under one flag (with a love of music, of all things) is pretty much peerless. parvis has a goddamned gift. it’s why he’s so well-liked by each of his ‘fans’, and why he’s so popular on the echonet. he gets to know all of them equally, and rarely plays favourites. he doesn’t let the attention go to his head, much.

the illliteracy part is common amongst bandits but reading sheet music doesn’t take much; parvis is very insecure and touchy about his inability to read and write, but lalnable helps him with that. he also helps parvis get over his fear of blood and pain in the most direct way possible. it’s voluntary on parvis’ part since parvis rocks up to the clinic on a daily basis since hanging out with lalnable is greater than getting nausea over drawing blood.

parvis really steps up to the plate in ‘the battle of sanctuary hole’. he has major self doubts abouts his ability to succeed in battles despite the bloody bandits’ amazing track record of occupying the dam stronghold against multiple attacks. his big, gay ‘crush’ on daltos may have factored into his decision to pick up his gun and finally jump into the fray.

the ‘crush’ part is parvis working through a complex series of feelings. as sparkles noted, parvis develops and abandons crushes very quickly (about as fast as he loses guitar picks; his one on ravs is one of his longer standing ones). it stems from wanting to get to know people; being famous fucks a lot with parvis’ ability to make genuine friends. he goes back and forth on relationships when his doubts surface.

parvis is aromantic and asexual but is grey on both counts. he doesn’t know what both orientations are called, and unless he has a ‘i like people but not in that way’ session with daltos (aro, bi), teep (aro, ace) or hybridpanda (aro, ace), he’s not in a big rush to find out.

he just wants to be friends with everybody, except for when he or they’re crossed; parvis has a big vindicative streak to him that’s a big bandit trait. fortunately, parvis is as revenge driven as panda or sjin is.

some things that changed as the story went on (off the top of my head):

length of the story and word count; did not anticipate on it spanning across six plus side stories and a main one, or over three years.

arsenal’s role in ‘the battle of sanctuary hole’; he fucked up almost as badly as daltos did, which accelerated the blitzkreig blighter’s quest for destruction and revenge. whoops. but he fixed that by diving in to save his bestue, and failed at that. nobody’s perfect! except boner.

minty! minty wasn’t envisioned until i needed someone to run concordia. martyn and turps weren’t available since they’re both land locked, but then along came minty.

elsa being a major catalyst for the complete destruction of pandora and the universe. it was a joke, but then it happened.

rythian’s relationship with the queen; he nurtured a close bond with her, which she broke when she tried to escape her vault once she got too jealous of freedom. if things had turned out differently, they could have been friends and the universe would have doomed another way.

nanosounds losing her left arm; i think i talked about this in a post a long, long time ago but the consequences of a siren losing her tattooed arm? hasn’t been seen yet, wanted to explore it.

the legendary that was dropped in the vault of the queen; its name is ‘enderbane’, and is currently in rythian’s possession after honeydew gave it to him, thus breaking the curse of ‘no vault hunter shall own a legendary’. he has no idea what it does since he hasn’t tested it out yet, and is a little afraid to do so considering it’s an eridian weapon. didn’t plan on including it as a drop but usually loot is good on a final boss, so there.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF BORDERLANDS 3!!!!!!! since borderlandscast is almost wrapped up, nothing will change content wise but since there’s a giant time gap that exists, we’ll see how i fit the epilogue in since that’s a big playground.

#borderlandscast: ask #long post

[mermaidsirennikita]

Hello. This is the anon that asked if Albert was manipulative towards Victoria. I meant to thank you for your response as soon as I saw it, but I got caught up in life. I don't know if I'm once again seeing people only react to the show's history or actual history, but I just read with my own two eyes that Victoria "stopped" being the queen only because Albert "turned" her into "money-giver" and "baby-automat." Are people just determined to make Albert look like the bad guy no matter what?

I mean, I get that Victoria and Albert had a power struggle, literally, when it came to their relationship, but Victoria never stopped being the queen. Didn’t she give him the key to her dispatch or “red” box as a Christmas present after Vicky was born? And wasn’t Victoria well aware that if she didn’t want any more children, all she had to do was stop having sex with Albert? People make it sound like she was being forced against her will to become pregnant or give Albert any money and power.

I’m glad you liked my first response, and I’m glad you’re back with more because honestly, the ITV Victoria “fandom” is kinda ridiculous and I don’t like to wade thru it when people try and act like they’re interested in history when half the time they’re interested in furthering a fictionalized agenda.  I can tell you that when it comes to the ~history fandom~ on here, the biggest work of fiction in relation to V&A prior to Victoria was The Young Victoria, and everyone was obsessed with V&A together and nobody really questioned it… until there was a ship to be put up against it.  Lol, I guess poor Paul Bettany didn’t get people’s hearts going like Sewell, even tho the latter really isn’t my thing either.

The thing that people have a problem with, fundamentally, is Victoria being a woman of her time–I would say this more than Albert being a man of his time.  If Victoria had wanted to say no to sex with Albert, she could have; in fact, all evidence points to the fact that she was far more sexual than he, especially after they grew into the marriage.  If she’d put her foot down after, say, baby number four, she would have had two sons and two daughters and not only would Albert not have objected, but her people couldn’t really say much about it either.  But she didn’t, because Victoria loved sex and she loved Albert and she loved having sex with Albert.  I’m not saying that Albert didn’t love sex/Victoria–no doubt he loved Victoria, but his thoughts on sex are a bit murkier.  Sidenote: he did comment on her cleavage in his notes right after they were married and clearly found her physically attractive, but his feelings on sex in general were often prudish and maybe even complicated by the disaster that was his parents’ marriage, imo.  Some have even speculated that Albert was asexual, though not aromantic, and had sex with Victoria to make her happy–I don’t think so based off of what I read, but he certainly was not keeping Victoria pregnant in order to keep her under his thumb.  In fact, as soon as Victoria had so many babies that it became physically hazardous for her to keep getting pregnant, she stopped getting pregnant–and as Victoria’s response to being told that babies = death was “but what about my fun in bed” (allegedly) I have a feeling that Albert, who was already apparently at his wit’s end with worry over her and baby Beatrice prior to the birth, put his foot down.  Albert wasn’t unaware of the dangers of pregnancy for a woman back then, so I find it especially bizarre that people are insinuating that he purposefully kept Victoria pregnant in order to exert his power over her.  Certainly, a byproduct of Victoria’s pregnancies were that Albert took the reins more often, but he also was notably pretty involved with the births for a man of the day, and seemed to be worried about her physical and mental health during the pregnancies (again, for a man of his day–he wasn’t fretting over postpartum depression, but he did make note of Victoria not being super happy about being pregnant, about how he wished she’d be able to enjoy motherhood more–it’s not like he wanted this chick miserable in bed waiting for a baby to come).  She would have likely been expected to have at least three children no matter what–ideally four, I think.  No matter who she married, she would have needed at least two healthy sons for people to feel comfortable, and a daughter would also be ideal for marital alliances.  Her love of sex with Albert and a lack of good contraception back in the day (as well as I’m sure a lack of belief in the propriety of contraception on his part, and hers as well most likely) equaled more babies.

As for Albert’s control over finances, I’m not 100% sure on that anecdote, but honestly, like you said, Victoria could have taken away much of what she gave.  Maybe not easily all the time, but she remained the queen, Albert a prince consort.  She gave him power, she gave him money, because she wanted him to be happy, she loved him, and at the end of the day, she was (as I keep saying) a woman of her time who lacked a strong male figure for much of her life and clearly sought one.  She wanted him to be big and strong–I mean, not to speculate, but it sounds like it kind of turned her on when he took control.  With any other historical figure I’d say that’s going too far to ponder, but we have Victoria’s diary entries, and while they are edited, she clearly thought a lot of this guy.  Now, you don’t have to think the world of him–but let’s say you have a friend.  She’s a vibrant girl and she’s dating a guy who’s a nerd, who’s quiet, you don’t get the appeal, he seems uptight.  But if she ADORES him, if she sees something through him, if she starts doing more of the things he likes to do to please him–would you say that he was forcing his will on her?  No.  You’d say that you don’t get her taste, you don’t see why she’s doing it, but it’s HER choice.  I really don’t see Victoria’s choice to give Albert more power as a bad thing, at least not in the short term–he was by no means a perfect would-be monarch, and of course he was alive when the monarchy was transferring from being a ruling power to a reigning power.  But he did care about the less fortunate in a way that Victoria and many English nobles (Lord Melbourne included) didn’t.  He did see a responsibility in the royals to set a good example, and for that matter to “give back” even if that meant simply raising awareness for important causes like the abolition of slavery.  He was very well-educated, and while Victoria absolutely inflated his intelligence in her mind as a young, naive, lovestruck girl, he was impressive in many ways.  She saw things that she liked, and frankly–Victoria wanted to be the queen, but she was never all that into the serious job of it.  She seemed more about socializing that social reform, you know?  And that’s okay.  Albert could handle that, and Victoria could handle the more public side of things.

The thing about Albert is that he’s fallen prey to an unfortunate part of historical research in this day and age…  Wherein people (largely people who write pop history, or crossover history) have written and written about “controversial” people to the point that it becomes overdone (Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn, Marie Antoinette, Cleopatra) so they look at things that are VERY obvious and make a complicated issue out of it.  Henry VIII was probably a dick with some natural mental illness(es), but we wanna make something new and exciting–so we start going, oh, can this all be traced back to his mom dying when he was young and his father favoring Arthur?  Oh, is this all due to a traumatic brain injury that probably didn’t happen?  Prince Albert was probably a man of his time–he wanted to be the head of the household and got insecure about that, but overall he had a happy marriage and loved his family.  But we want it to be MORE, so we look at this marriage through the lenses of 21st century standards, and we find flaws that only exist to a certain extent.  Albert and Victoria did not have a perfect marriage, and they clashed over dominance at times.  But ultimately, Victoria certainly wanted Albert to be the head of their personal family, and that gradually led to him becoming more powerful.

Also, people tend to take a lot of the less flattering perspectives on Albert from Englishpeople of the time who were xenophobic towards Germans sooooooo not super reliable imo.  People said he was money-grubbing because compared to Victoria he didn’t have a lot of personal funds; but to be frank, differing factions would have been critical of anyone she married.  She was a sovereign queen, people assumed that her husband would have control on some level–and on some level, he eventually did.  

At the end of the day, people are essentially angry that Victoria doesn’t live up to their feminist expectations of what a sovereign queen should be, when she… lived… in… the…. nineteenth… century……..

And for God’s sake people are dramatic, she never stopped being queen, she just handled fewer administrative duties and took on a more ceremonial role.  Which was inevitable, to be quite honest, due in part to her sex and in part to the fact that the monarchy was, as previously mentioned, becoming less of a real ruling entity.  Much of what Albert did was contained to running the literal household and handling marital alliances, nothing compared to what, say, Elizabeth I did.

#Anonymous #victoria #itv victoria #victoria itv