#and part of that is bc so much of it is based on fanon instead of what is actually in the books

[dragonseeds]

what are your thoughts on rhaegar and lyanna?

oh i love them! there’s all this talk of them haunting the narrative and they do, but i’d take it further and say they are the black hole at the center of the story. the choices that they made, starting with lyanna’s decision to defend howland reed and what that meant to both him and rhaegar, who was very likely at his lowest point at harrenhal after the ruination of his careful plans, touched or changed the lives of every character and plot line in the series. the story itself is such a fun mashup of tristan and iseult, lancelot and guinevere, helen and paris, the fall of camelot and all of arthuriana really, the classic trope of the princess in the tower and the dragon and the knight: all of that in one couple and we don’t get to experience any of it with them. we can guess and speculate, but we can never truly know them. we experience their story only through the memories the people who survived the war they ostensibly kicked off, and those memories are all heavily colored by trauma, guilt, nostalgia—alternately faded and sharpened by time. it’s this incredibly fun and brilliant reconstruction of some of the most enduring tragedies in folklore and mythology and i adore it.

hate beyond articulation the way asoiaf.tumblr.edu approaches their relationship and the individual characterizations of both of them, though. just absolutely some of the most insufferably sanctimonious disingenuous decontextualized analysis i’ve ever experienced—much of that coming from people viewing this through a historical lense instead of a thematic one. like, imagine approaching the battle of the trident as “rhaegar is a bad person for fighting for his father who was evil! he lost the moral high ground with that one” as opposed to “rhaegar as a character exists to fail and die; he was the last dragon, carrying the unbearable weight of his family’s legacy and the burden of the prophecy for which they conquered westeros: the end of his life is the end of the targaryen dynasty. he must fail and he must die, so that dany and jon can grow up free of that weight and that power. daenerys gets to redefine what it means to be targaryen on her own terms. she and jon separately and unknowingly do the things that he thought he had to do—the things he was conceived and born to do—but never knew how: they do it because of their circumstances, because of the people that they have grown into, because they believe it is their duty, because they have the power to do it.” also, like, re: interpretations of battle of the trident, is there maybe another battle that occurs later in the series that is exactly the same thematically and contextually? where perhaps a character who was missing for a while shows up on the eve of battle, knowing that the opposition is right and their cause is just but that his family will die if he doesn’t fight with them? anything that adds an extra layer of meaning to what happens, aside from dany’s own connection—which is not as thematically similar but is still incredibly meaningful. like i certainly don’t think there’s any one interpretation of a character or story, but the worst ones are consistently applied to rhaegar.

and then with lyanna in particular, it’s like people cannot stomach her or find her sympathetic as a character unless they’re wallowing in her eternal victimhood. the constant dismissal of the importance of lyanna’s actions and what they meant to rhaegar is pure misogyny, by the way. her choices and her agency, the inherent meaningfulness of the struggle for both of those things in a system that seeks to reduce her to her body and the use men can make of it—all of that is important. the person she was and what that meant to people was important, but from the way i most often see her discussed, it’s like her gendered death is the only thing that matters. it’s okay to lament her because she got crushed by the wheel. if she hadn’t, if she wasn’t a victim to write flagellatory meta about, she would be a hypocrite, someone who needed to learn a lesson—as difficult for some of these people to relate to as dany or rhaenyra apparently are.

like, it’s just wild to me because her kindness to howland reed and her choice to defend him, to disguise herself as the knight of the laughing tree and risk her life and reputation to fight for him—is the answer to and the embodiment of one of the most thematically significant questions in the series. we see it most prominently in dany’s chapters because she asks it directly: why do the gods make kings and queens if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves? that’s what lyanna did, when no one else was doing it: she had more honor than any knight at that tourney or any man sitting on the small council, and it meant something to rhaegar. like what about this is hard to understand? i think he must have idealized her immediately: she must have seemed like something out of a song or a story to him, and rhaegar was a singer, a songwriter, a bard: he knows how stories are supposed to go—how to finish a song, or at least he thought he did.

bran, who also loves stories, says it himself: “and the mystery knight should win the tourney, defeating every challenger, and name the wolf maid the queen of love and beauty.” like obviously bran has some critiques i cut out, but he has the ending right—only the wolf maid was the knight, and she couldn’t have won. in the feudal gender prison, women are rewarded for being beautiful and their worth is derived from that and from what their bodies provide. she should’ve won the whole thing, but the system doesn’t allow that, so rhaegar—in a fit of single-minded capital r romantic hero idiocy—dedicates himself to winning the tourney to honor her in the only way he can: the only way the system allows him to recognize her. it was the worst possible move he could make at that time because of the romantic connotations, but i love him for doing it, as stupid as it was and even though there is no way it didn’t hurt and humiliate elia, or make him look terrible when he desperately needed to make a good impression on the lords of the realm—it’s just such a Moment. being reminded that there’s good in the world—feeling hope in the face of endless abject overwhelming despair—how do you express gratitude for that? the idea that he could only doing it by hurting someone who didn’t deserve it and making himself look like an ass is fucking awesome. i’m genuinely so sorry for people are incapable of enjoying that. could not be me!

but that’s just my interpretation of what happened at harrenhal. like i said, part of why i like them so much is that we truly don’t know. while i love darker relationships in general, the idea that he crowned her at harrenhal because he wanted to impregnate her then does not work for me. it’s a popular theory, but it renders some of the very few contextual clues we are given about what happened meaningless. for one, he didn’t know that elia wouldn’t be able to have more children at that time. this was discovered after she gave birth to aegon, and that is the point at which the question of the third child appears to have become a motivating factor for him. i personally think he left for the riverlands to consult with the ghost of high heart—the one whose prophecy is the reason he was born, the reason is parents were forced to marry, the reason his family burned alive the night he came into the world—and ran into lyanna somewhere near harrenhal. it’s possible he had been in contact with her prior to this (how? without her family knowing? what are the logistics of that?) but i think it’s just as likely it was pure chance. i really like the idea that his crowning her queen of love and beauty caused lyanna’s father to set a date for her wedding to robert or talk of moving it up, maybe even suggest a double wedding at riverrun, which would have almost certainly caused her to balk. either way, high heart is located between harrenhal and riverrun. arya also stops there while she’s kidnapped by the brotherhood without banners on the way to ransom her to her family at riverrun, and they trade songs to the ghost for her dreams and prophecies. i think it’s worth noting because arya’s journey in the riverlands mirrors lyanna’s right down to her “death” as arya stark when she leaves for braavos, paying the ferryman’s fee with the coin jaqen h’ghar gave her—just as jon’s journey at the wall mirrors rhaegar’s in many ways right up until his own death.

i also don’t think rhaegar and lyanna eloped because they were in love—this is implied by lyanna’s famous quote—but that they did come to love each other deeply, which is suggested by the way they died: her roses and him saying her name. notably, rhaegar did not leave the tower of his own volition—someone had to come and get him with news of war, which is hilarious because i think the tower of joy is right in the middle of like three major battles of the rebellion? like quite frankly, if he didn’t love her or care for anything beyond the prophecy and if she didn’t love him despite how badly things went wrong, then where in their story is the heart in conflict with itself?

i do want to clarify that i love the tower entrapment and the power imbalance aspects of their relationship as much as i love (what i interpret as) the genuine respect for each other that grew into love: it’s really the tension of those disparate elements that interests me. a dragon can love the maiden, but he’s only ever a dragon—still liable to hoard her like treasure or burn her up and rip her open trying to be gentle, to protect. that FUCKS, sorry! love is sweet and hopeful, but it’s also at exactly the same time horror, consumption, destruction.

idk it’s myopic to act like the beginning or the ending of their relationship—of their lives—is the summation of it. i think people want their story to be easy when it’s not: a clear case of a villain and his victims where everyone knows who to root for and no one has to think too much about things that are difficult or uncomfortable, questions where there probably isn’t an answer that doesn’t hurt someone. what a sad, tedious way to approach any text, but specifically this one. i’ve sometimes seen it suggested that if their story is romantic then it’s an endorsement or justification of all the “bad” things that happened because of it, and that’s also stupid. grrm as an author is never going to be someone who tells us how to feel about anything: he presents these characters and situations, often as a means of exploring certain facets of the human condition, and each of us has to come up with our own answers and find our own meaning. i don’t think he always knows what he means, or what those answers are, you know? but for me rhaegar and lyanna are one of the most fascinating parts of story, and whatever the truth is—if we ever find out—i can’t imagine a scenario where i don’t love them or find them really interesting and wonderfully sad.

#lyanna stark #rhaegar targaryen #rhaelya #i’d apologize for this being so long but u have got to all be used to me by now #like i couldn’t be succinct at gunpoint #or coherent apparently #and especially not about this like i’m not normal about either of them #also just to clarify because this kind of turned into a rant: none of this applies to people i follow #but like. i sincerely think that 90% of the meta about them (individually + their relationship) is bad lol #and part of that is bc so much of it is based on fanon instead of what is actually in the books #and that frustration really comes through in this post and i regret that but it’s out there now lol #asoiaf

[starlooove]

Ok but the Duke in my mind having the feeling that those who choose vigilantism have a responsibility to uphold the SECOND they curate a space where others are reliant on them + Cass solely wanting to fight at first and putting the mission above all else due to not caring about herself being Bruces (who also puts the mission above all else and feels a responsibility to Gotham that he knows will kill him one day) favorite kids

#is it rlly that they’re his faves bc of being the ‘good ones’ #or do they reflect parts of himself that he’s constantly told are detrimental in a way that allows him to take pride in said parts #taking HEAVY liberties with canon btw this is basically a hc to me do not take it seriously this is NOT srs character analysis thx #I mean it’s kinda serious in MY mind but it’s purely based in being tired of fandom and not actually comics 💀 #this is my version of the ‘Everyone treats tim badly so he is sad till they’re sorry’ thing #anyways #BONUS #Bruce is so mean to damian bc he reflects him in ways he doesn’t like #and he’s projecting his failures onto him instead of seeing him as a fucking child #thinking of that one panel #yknow the one #anyways everytime damian does smth he doesn’t like he sees it as the Batman failing on a moral standpoint #not his kid having his own personality or needing some guidance #whatever tho #I’m deleting this tomorrow but if I ever learn how to write #imma make my own sad tim fic where it’s just tim wallowing over nothing and everyone ignoring him <3 #for my piece of mind #I promise I like Tim guys this is abt fanon Tim #but yknow what writers are riding tim too much atm tbh so this is current tim hate as well #Tim was cooler when he was well adjusted and bitchy and everyone knew it #instead of pretending he’s right all the time and every1 just went “ofc Tim! #ALSO I’m a big fan of great dad Bruce I just know him kinda sucking is also canon and fun for angst

[utilitycaster]

Whoaaaa holy shit something just snapped into place reading you mention the concept of creating a shape of negative space bc i've been thinking so long abt the "unspoken things/quiet part" of characters. I've often had this feeling that fandom will go a million and nine yards to red string board an ocean of depth for their favorite blorbo over.... what comes down to what's technically extrapolating based off of xyz canon, but said canon will be like "this character fidgets once, half his dialogue is quoting an in-universe play he tries to recreate (by ruining ppl's lives), and he doesn't understand why someone wouldn't want to be called a monster, therefore he is AUTISTIC and that drives his logic," or "this character has xyz vague background and is TRAUMATIZED because of WAR" inventing an entire character and it's like. Oh boy. This might be a matter of not being invested enough in these characters to TRY and delve so "deep" but I keep thinking that none of this is actually. written or feels purposeful in the context of How Storytelling Works/the Narrative to MAKE me invest or think that it's worth doing so. I always wonder how many people are trying so hard to project a better story onto something without understanding that the story actually needs to BE THERE and ADDRESSED, even subtly, and token moments aren't enough. But then that gets me thinking about how Thereness needs to exist for something to be subtle but written as opposed to Conspiracy off loose projection.

I was kinda thinking abt Laudna and how to use her as an example, because she's one of those characters for whom like, yeah I as a person totally understand the cycle of being upbeat and normal and everything and then having a random spiral of Bad Upstairs before being normal again, but narratively how do you portray that and why does everyone do it so much better than her. With equal screentime, everyone feels like they have so much more meat to their motivations and psychology despite some being significantly less fraught backstory wise. What's happening here because things just feel like they come out of nowhere with her with "oh so that matters all of a sudden?"

Hi anon,

Yes to all of this! With regards to your first paragraph - I feel that a lot too. It's a tricky situation because I think it's completely valid to project things onto characters and imagine them to have specific qualities that either you have or simply that you wish to see in fiction. It only becomes difficult in a fandom sphere when people insist that this is a fully evidence-based endeavor and not a personal interpretation (especially because a lot of that evidence is, as you say, either very much open to interpretation, or else totally spurious. The number of times I've had to shoo people off my posts for talking extensively about how an immensely self-absorbed character who never thinks about others unless forced to clearly has ADHD...but I digress). And as for the conspiracy element, especially when works aren't as good - absolutely. If you haven't read this, which I reblogged a few weeks ago (has Good Omens 2 spoilers) I highly recommend you do because what you're saying resonates a lot with OP's post, both in terms of our need as fans to project or find similarities with characters, and the fact that when people are disappointed by a work sometimes they try to create a better one, but instead of just writing fanfiction and calling it fanfiction they go full conspiracy theorist and assume there's some secret twist, and fall so hard into that all-crumbs-no-schnitzel (to borrow a metaphor from that post) fanon echo chamber they forget it is, in fact, only fanon.

Which brings us to Laudna. Before I go deeper I want to cover three things. First: for me at least, this criticism comes because I know Marisha is capable of doing this negative space work. It didn't come up much with Keyleth since we kind of knew her whole deal very early (which, to be clear, is valid; not every character needs this), but it's present with both Beau (her relationship to her father is masterfully done; the hallmark of good negative space work is that when the reveal comes you say oh of course) and to a lesser extent Patia, who, like all the Calamity characters, conveys a story much greater than the one that unfolds over a single night. Second: I think part of why a number of us in the fandom are so frustrated is that we have been doing that work of generously interpreting Laudna since the beginning, but nothing ever sticks, so it's becoming less and less worth the effort.

I'd have to go back through my archives pretty extensively, but early on, the going expectation for Laudna was that she would explore the idea of being one of the bystanders in a larger story as someone killed simply because of a passing resemblance to someone the Briarwoods wished to send a message to; that we'd get insight into Whitestone during the occupation from someone who wasn't freed by Vox Machina but rather killed, indirectly, because of them. However, not only have we not gotten that, but she also was chosen for being special: Delilah chose her as a vessel because of her inherent sorcery. So then it was perhaps about that tension between finding power in her sorcery vs. warlock levels - Pâté seemed like a clear setup for Pact of the Chain, after all - but then Marisha admitted she had no intention of taking that third warlock level, and always just planned to play Laudna as exclusively leveling in sorcerer, until FCG attacked. And meanwhile, there's no exploration of those sorcery powers, either.

Speaking only for myself, I've been interrogating "hey, why is her backstory that she was chased out of everywhere but for the most part everyone is mostly fine with her?" and "in 30 years she did nothing about Delilah? Really?" for quite some time. There's a number of questions that are not just unanswered, but lack the hints that this negative space work would provide. And to be clear there are ways to explain those things! This meta does a good job of talking through why she may have been chased out, and I've floated, in the past, that even Delilah's unwelcome presence was better than the absolute silence of being truly alone. But the work to support these fandom theories, again, is not really being done at the table, and moreover, even if it starts being done...it's episode 70. It should have come up in some capacity.

Marisha said (to be clear, somewhat jokingly) in the 2022 ComicCon panel that "Yeah. I don't want to think anymore. I'm tired," re: Laudna but the thing is...honestly, in my opinion? A character with Laudna's premise requires far more work than Beau or Keyleth to do well. Not only is she tied into one of the most famous events and entwined with one of the most famous villains of Campaign 1, but she's got 50 years of backstory! Beau and Keyleth are in their early 20s! (I could make a whole other post about this but character intelligence does not equal how hard they are to play; Imogen is an immensely tough concept that Laura's doing a good job with and she's lower INT than Laudna. I'd rather play a wizard than a character like Grog any day of the week because I genuinely believe that the acting burden for making a character like Grog sympathetic and believable without going into cheap mockery and parody is immense).

Going back to that statement, it really does feel as though every 4-Sided Dive episode or panel, when Marisha talks about Laudna, it's always just that she was envisioned as being over her trauma, and the premise was always just "make that creepy girl from her nightmare". And even then: it's fine if she'd done that - simply made a creepy character who was here to be creepy and cheerfully macabre - but through gameplay it's become clear that Laudna is not over that trauma (her arrested development being one of many options), and has acquired new traumas to boot, and for that matter never was really over it given that she displays intensely but they come up so inconsistently that there's never any follow-through. I agree with you completely that the idea of her often seeming fine and happy and then having spirals is believable and true to life, but one does need to actually follow through on the spirals - I think a lot of us finally threw up our hands when Laudna's believable, well-played, and justifiable anger and resentment after being thrown across the world away from half the party, essentially pushed into a fight that isn't her own, being betrayed by Bor'Dor, and feeling Delilah's return melted away without resolution. If you want to make a character who's over their trauma and go-with-the-flow, I feel as though step 1 is to not have an eternal reminder of one's trauma permanently stuck in one's head. "Warlock who dislikes their patron" is actually a premise that requires quite a lot of thinking and effort, and we are consistently not seeing it.

I think what's most telling is that the defense of Laudna for the weird freakout this past episode is both vehement, and in conflict with itself. Is Marisha just making a joke (that didn't really land with anyone at the table nor much of the fandom, and was taken at least semi-seriously by both)? Or is it actually great and good that Laudna is incredibly traumatized and clingy and we should all hope she becomes even more clingy and codependent? When even the people who are shielding Laudna from even a whisper of criticism can't agree what Marisha's doing, it's pretty dire, especially when that criticism is "this character feels directionless and incoherent."

So getting back to negative space: It's my hunch that there just...wasn't a lot of clarity to Laudna's motivations, and the questions in her backstory weren't answered. She's creepy and she's kooky, Sun Tree corpse, Delilah in her head, met Imogen two years ago, was friends with a little girl at some point (which we only know from 4-Sided Dive, which is, to be clear, bad that it's never come up in-game). We don't know how she feels about her sorcery powers other than a vague enjoyment of their creepiness...but she also sees them as a way out from Delilah...but she also barely engages with Delilah and hasn't done anything to get rid of her. We have no sense of how she got to "the worst thing that's happened to me already happened" because while it's completely fair to play her as feeling that way 30 years later, I highly doubt she felt that way as she cut herself down from the Sun Tree. So as a result, it's hard to pick a direction because that foundation is lacking.

The thing about that negative space is that to do it well, you really need to know what you're trying to convey. Which is also why, as you say, characters with much simpler backstories are fine; Fearne was basically hanging out at her grandmother's place until EXU and her parents left when she was very young; she is curious about her parents and loves her grandmother and is a chaotic fey entity who was sent into the Material Plane with the Weave Lens, and mostly she just wants to explore and have fun and hang out with her friends. Ashley just needs to...play Fearne like that, which she does with aplomb. The complex setup for Laudna demands a huge number of answers in the backstory, and my guess is that Marisha does not have them. I think the problem isn't with the acting (in fact, I'm fairly confident it isn't, because, again, I know from past characters Marisha can do this); it's that Laudna's concept prioritized the aesthetic, mechanics, and facts of the backstory, and didn't adequately fill in her beliefs and motivations, so she's just flailing. I also suspect from the most recent 4-Sided Dive and the most recent SDCC panel that Marisha is specifically looking for interparty conflict, and to be clear that's valid...but again, to do that believably and well, Laudna's philosophy and motivations and characterization need to be much more clearly established than they are.

#answered #Anonymous #cr tag #long post #critical role spoilers

[alister312]

alister… i’ve come to sow trouble…i ask for your spitting hot takes for the character ask game: gregory for 3, 8, 16, 22!! and 25 for funsies <3 (when i first watched the movie i hated him bc i thought he was an asshole. then i discovered gregstophe and he changed my life)

CHAOS INDEED….. but sometimes you gotta keep things real with Hot Takes™!!

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

i have studied Gregory's canon character extensively and it's a huge reason why i love him so much (and why i so despise a certain fanon version that has eclipsed canon) so this is really hard. HOWEVER….. i do hate his canonical reaction to learning Stan failed his mission. i know it's just to make Wendy start to dislike him so she'll get back together with Stan at the end of the movie, but this was such an important mission that Gregory put so much effort into planning! it implies the death of one of his only friends, Christophe! there's no way Gregory in that moment is the same as the Gregory in the rest of the film to me. or i have to believe that's he's just SO upset that he's lashing out and his tone poorly conveys the true depth of his emotions.

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

can i say the entirety of Hell//park lmao. lowkey serious. i've spoken often about how HP was a blight on Gregory's characterization, interpreting him as a generic snobbish evil twink. this (or one of the many HP spinoffs that copy-pasted this personality instead of his canon one) was unfortunately a lot of people's introduction to him as a character, which means that i see many Gregory fans taking him one of two directions: 1) they take him the sexy sadist manipulater route, cold and dismissive, hungry only for power 2) they infantalize this version, making him more like a random xD feral wild card silly guy if you were ever in the Gravity Falls fandom, they do to him what people did to Bill Cipher basically. and don't get me wrong, i'm not saying i dislike people doing that! i love how insane the GF fandom goes with Bill but it makes sense for him bc he's a chaos demon. Gregory is a revolutionary freedom fighter with occasionally poor people skills. i feel like barely any active fans remember that.

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

i have one beloved mutual who likes this ship so i hope she understands but….. probably greg/stella. most bc every art i see for it ever is HP-based (designs and personalities) which i am clearly not a fan of lol. also, all the love to the Estella fans out there, but she's just not for me. which makes it hard to care about ships that have her.

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to ths character? Something you don't like?

ok this is a little hard to describe but i love when fics show that Gregory actually cares?? whether it be for Christophe (as most of the fics i read are gregstophe lol) or about his job or a cause or whatever. i find a lot of fics are able to show him as a caregiver, but don't always show him caring. to me, that's such a core part of who he is. he fights bc he cares, he helps bc he cares, he gets angry and sometimes flippant about others bc he cares so much about what he believes in that he puts on blinders to others' (and tbh his own) emotions. something i don't like is when people do the exact opposite of this lol.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

i do not fully remember what i thought of Gregory specifically, but i have such a vivid memory, right after i watched BLU for the first time, going onto [social media platform redacted bc my account there is cringe af] and saying how i totally shipped Gregory and Christophe and wanted to RP them with someone lmao now... well, i still ship him with Christophe so not much has changed there i guess. but now i like to think about him much more in depth than i did back then. back when i was younger, i don't think the fic i wrote really explored the actual characters so much as it put two guys through a bunch of tropes. nowadays, i want myself and the reader to really understand the depth of those two guys and why exactly i am putting them through certain tropes.

character ask here for reference!

#thank u for the character ask keno!! :3 i hope these takes aren't TOO scalding #south park #gregory of yardale #sp gregory

[vivi-scera]

ohhhh i have so many questions to ask now that i apologize beforehand for throwing you questions instead of actually giving a response-reply to your ask 😭

1) “i like thinking about jason-robin's relationship with bruce the most but i like tim as robin best” plss if u could pls elaborate on this? this is so interesting bcs for a second i thought it would be jason robin or even dick robin since hes the first one!

2) ”i think i was mostly thinking bruce/jason since i was talking about johndean” this is interesting too bcs i was hyperfocused on comparing dean’s devotion to dick’s, hence my ask & why i bring dick robin specifically, and now im curious abt your comparison :D

3) “i'm going to be actively problematic and say that bruce sees dick as something less than his partner and something more than his son” is it like what i think it is is it more in line with smth smth owning smth smth *eyes emoji*

4) your tags!! thats interesting too that you prefer jaytim as batcest, instead of like timdick whos more like brothers or jaydick with jason’s “envy” (to simplify it) at dick’s golden boy ness (also to simplify it) which could be a source of conflict between jason & bruce

haha no worries, i did totally set you up.

1.yeah so tim is my favorite robin <3 relatively unpopular opinion to have in my immediate circle apparently. though probably not as unpopular as saying damian is your favorite. but like, tim's the underdog! the odd one out!! he understands the meta-narrative role that robin plays in batman's life and tries to fulfill it. he's such a deeply interesting character not only in how he views himself as the weakest robin/the robin batman didn't choose, but also in how the other robins, canonically, view tim as the best out of them (because he's the most like daddy). i don't mind as much when fanon obfuscates his characterization because he really can be such a blank slate, more or less. as in, meta-narratively, tim decides to be whatever/whoever is best for batman, erasing the part of himself that is tim drake in favor of coalescing with "robin". he's the only robin who really is robin. which is really very tragic if you think about it. but also makes for fantastic bruce/tim fodder :) i would expand more on my love for tim but this ask would get WAY too long. read Liminal Space by Calamityjim on ao3 if you've watched young justice and have read the red robin 2009 run (an EXCELLENT read btw) if you want the gist of the angst.

as for the others, i think jason has had the best character evolution —not just in the batman storyline but as a comic character in general. i really think his death, and to a much lesser extent his rebirth, is the best/most impactful development in all of superhero comic history. superheroes as we know them today would largely not exist without his character. dick is fine, i like him third best. just because he was the first doesn't make him special to me lmao. the fact that others came after him is what makes him interesting to me, in addition to his relationship with batman— which is currently the most interesting batman-robin romantic relationship to me rn. i've seen some insane meta about him around but mostly based on somewhat outdated runs, which really doesn't mean anything when it comes to comics i guess. i don't think he's been in anything interesting/good in over a decade. i also wish i could mail tom taylor anthrax <3 damian is... my least favorite (skipping steph, sorryy i do love her but there's not enough canon for me to have an actual opinion). i think damian's interesting but only as a source of conflict (and ofc his dynamic with dick-batman). he doesn't really stand on his own and he's annoying.

2. i don't necessarily think that bruce/jason is closer to johndean than bruce/dick is (i actually think bruce/tim is closer relatively, but there's not a comparable pairing imo. i also just don't think dick is necessarily "devoted" to batman as much as tim is. his goals, like mentioned, align more with being able to call himself bruce's equal, which could be conflated with desire i.e. in bruce/dick). but there are a lot of functional aspects of the jason-robin & batman dynamic that is parallel to the relationship between dean and john as hunters imo— mostly having to do with consensual practices. is dean/jason-robin in control of his narrative purpose as a hunter/sidekick or are they doing what is necessary to survive? what does it mean for either of them when duty and pleasure are conflated? etc. i really love the headcanon that jason was a child-prostitute, which would be a functional role that carried over in being robin for another older man, so that was mostly where i was coming from. child soldiers... can't get enough of em.

3. haha i don't really know what the "something" is that i was referring to, just some vague middle ground that's gonna go undefined because where's the fun in defining the relationship that a man shares with the preteen ward in his possession who he may or may not want to be his son but who he treats like a spouse because mentally & emotionally he hasn't moved on from the day he was 9 years old and his parents died. maybe dick grows up but bruce never will :'). well, maybe he grows up a little when each robin leaves him

4. and yaaaa jaytim, favorite pairing of all time. they can be enemies to lovers. the ghost and the haunted. rebecca and the narrator. brother-rivals trying to become their father but who are held back by the lack of a quality that the other possesses (see nearmello death note). i'm gonna go the fanon route and say jason was tim's robin (even though, timeline wise, it could totally have been dick). so there is that adoration-envy (that tim would have for jason) that jason would have for dick in jaydick (which is a pairing i also like, don't get me wrong! i just maybe like it as a one-sided thing. or we could have the worst love triangle in the world with damian->tim->jason->dick->bruce all unrequited lmao). but in jaytim there's the addition of the danger element— jason at one point or another did want to kill tim. and not only was jason tim's robin, he was also his ghost story! an example of what would happen to tim if something went wrong. so adoration-envy-fear which transmutes to sexual interest. very sadomasochistic route we could take there. and for jason, tim is the kid who replaced him! who's evidently better at being daddy's favorite! he can die psychosexually mad about it. neither timdick or jaydick have that enemies/lovers edge that i really like (see kurokura hunter x hunter). they also just have some interesting canon history that writers never get into— like batman-jason trying to conscript tim as his robin during battle for the cowl. i am TRYING to write a jaytim fic but i keep getting distracted by other pairings. i thought i was gonna get to it after finishing the one i'm working on but i might just do brudick next so we'll see. send more questions/responses if you have them <3

#batman #jason todd #dick grayson #jaytim #tim drake #brudick #i think jaytim was the 1st batcest pairing that i got into years ago bc i could rationalize it and say jaytim has the least brotherly bond #but now i'm older and wiser and actively problematic #pet wife tag #since you were mad that i didn't tag you last time 🙄 #i wouldn't have tagged you this time either had i not mentioned child-prostitute jason #which is more your jurisdiction #how many other nonrelated pairings can i reference to hint that i want to be asked about them... #vivi.asks

[fandoomrants]

welcome back to ur fully hp obsession <3

it's just...i really respect ur opinion but as someone who ship Wolfstar for so many yrs I think i have to say sth

This story (harry potter) has so so SO many ships, like everyday we get a new pairing ...you can't tell me the only reason why wolfstar has been so popular for nearly 20 yrs is bc we didn't get interaction between marauders... otherwise what? prongsfoot would be the most popular one or Wolfstar would not be this popular? because we always knew that Sirius and James were extremely close. it's literally there..in the books...we know that.

I never understand the "Sirius was closer to James" argument...yes they were so close but that didn't stop James from falling in love with lily (shocking right? these days ppl tend to forget that this man was in love with someone that is not reggie and they got maried and had a child who this whole series is about)

And yes Sirius was taller than Remus ...ty for mentioning , love u <33

Hi, yeah, soo first of all, thanks for this ask, actually! I mean, I share my thoughts and I appreciate it when someone actually takes the time to read it and especially when they have something to say about it! I'm afraid that's gonna be one very long answer coming at you.

Second, I feel the need to start with this here cause likee, these things I wrote are just a bunch of random canon facts (plus one I just think makes sense) that I realised after going through some stuff and they sent me into a near depression episode because I have totally forgotten most of these things thanks to fanon and I think I'm not the only one. I actually lost a bit of sleep that night.

Third, I knew my wording in that part of the post was weird and was going to create the wrong ideas. So don't get me wrong, I absolutely love Wolfstar. Likee, to me they make sense and I hate what happened in the end. I just meant they're a popular ship because we really get to see lots of interactions between them. And the reasoning is that we got to see these interactions between them as adults, with one of their best friends already dead and one of them (and later the other) aware that it's another one that killed him. We basically get to see only their dynamic and that's what started the ship.

But about what I said that maybe they wouldn't have been that popular if we had seen more interactions between all four of them was based on if we had seen the whole story in chronological order. Without the knowledge that James is going to die or that Peter would betray them.

And I don't think if that was the case, people would have shipped James and Sirius much more. I'm a firm believer that there is this level of platonic friendship that is so strong that there is absolutely no way it can be seen as something else, and this is exactly the type of friendship between Sirius and James. Why I mentioned the closeness between them was just because a lot of people somehow seem to forget that they were the closest ones and instead seem to believe that Sirius and Remus were the closest ones because we first saw them interact as adults when the others weren't around. Not to also mention the Prank or some other things that might have made people a bit wary of the ship. So I think that if we had seen the story in that order, maybe they would have still become a popular ship but not as fast or maybe there would have been people shipping the two of them with other people too, maybe even Peter. Or maybe we would have seen evidence of them being closer to canon than we thought!

I also want to say that in any case, I have things which I love and ship but I also don't mind other people's ships and I don't judge, even if I don't see the appeal myself and I might even read things that have such ships in the background, as long as what I ship is not in any way harmed (e.g. read a fic where one of the people in a ship I have is with someone else). Like, I might dislike a ship only if it is abusive or there is something that's really not okay with it. As I shared a post earlier, there are some ships I don't entirely understand but this doesn't mean I hate them. In that trail of thoughts, I also understand most of people's hcs and somewhat fanon facts that everyone accepts and I don't mind these at all.

Finally, again thanks for this post! I plan a second part where I'll also mention that in addition to Sirius being taller, he also had short hair.

Feel free to ask again or, yk, just send a DM.

#hp #harry potter #marauders #marauders era #wolfstar #sirius black #remus lupin

[wakeupthemembersofbylernation]

When I say Bylers are misinterpreting what is happening in the narrative and overstating stuff on the show, and making stuff up in the process... I mean that they go by fanon and ignore the canon narrative. I do think Byler is endgame. I myself am a Byler shipper. However, I also think most Bylers' takes are all wrong or heavily misinterpreted. And honestly? They are consistently being disproven by canon on the show. People's takes regarding El were all wrong. She still has feelings for Mike and wasn't angry with him, she was thinking about Max at the cabin scene. The expectation for her to just break up with Mike and for Mlvn to end quickly in the next season is baseless and sounds very hilarious if we go by canon instead of fanon.

I don't think this situation is as complicated as ppl are making out to be. The most likely scenario is that El will potentially break up with Mike in EP4 or later on, and they will realize that they are incompatible in their relationship, and over the time we will see Mike and Will getting closer and then entering a relationship by the end of the show in the last episode. And while I would want Mike to have an explored and explicit sexuality and coming of age storyline, I feel like that is more envisioned and will happen in Will's narrative specifically as the Duffers also talked about. While Mike's is more about realizing his self worth and choosing to be with Will bc he realizes he loves Will and they're more compatible to be together, and the painting is also used as a plot device for Mike to realize that because Will later on decides to admit the truth to Mike and Mike accepts Will's feelings and realizes he also feels the same and they're fit for each other.

I feel like the fandom is really overstating/misinterpretating what is happening with Byler/Mlvn and that's the reason why their theories are either falling apart by the canon narrative, or getting disproven by the show.

Misinterpretation is always a possibility, but I disagree that Bylers are “making stuff up.” For the most part, Byler theories, even the arguably “out there” ones come from careful analysis and a genuine response to what is shown on screen. I wouldn’t say Bylers are ignoring the canon narrative because I think most Byler analysts are trying to genuinely engage with the canon narrative. With regards to the popular theory that El was mad with Mike, this wasn’t pulled out of thin air but by watching the show. I mean, she genuinely doesn’t look happy with Mike, and her being done with him or no longer having feelings for him would have been consistent with her previous actions as well. So it wasn’t crazy.

But yes, it’s an interpretation. And I agree that The Piggyback script threw a monkey wrench into that interpretation. The thing about interpretations is that they can be wrong. Based on the script, you’re right that it does seem like El still has feelings for Mike and wasn’t mad with Mike about the monologue but about losing. I do still find this concerning, not in terms of Mike’s character necessarily, but in terms of El’s character. I’ve already shared my thoughts on this matter. I’m concerned about character regression. (However, it’s important to note that things in Stranger Things do often change from script to how things are portrayed on screen. I’m still of the belief that in terms of the monologue scene and its aftermath, some things still aren’t adding up. But we’ll see in Season 5).

A lot of Bylers were of the opinion that El and Mike were gonna completely break up in the first episode and that maybe they already broke up secretly off screen during the missing time. I think this is largely due to our desire to see our boys 😉 get together as quickly as possible. But that was never really my position. I think they wanna drag out the love triangle as much as possible for angst/drama, and there still are a lot of shoes to drop such as the painting lie.

You mention that you don’t think this situation is as complicated as people are making it out to be, and that is certainly possible. Your thoughts on what will happen with Byler/Mlleven are a possibility for sure. But I actually think this approach would be more complicated. Most of the general audience is still convinced that Mike is exclusively straight and could never ever be gay or bi or queer in any way. Many of them also don’t like Mike’s character anymore due to his confusing actions in Season 3 and 4. We know better, but the easiest way to explain both of these things is to get inside his head. I really really hope Mike gets Vecnaed, and while it’s not a certainty, I still think there’s lots of evidence for it within the text of the show. If we don’t get into his head, if the problem with Migration Pattern is just incompatibility and nothing more, it raises so many questions and doesn’t really explain anything about Season 3 and 4. And coupled with the love confession monologue, if we operate under the assumption that Mike wasn’t lying at all, it also comes dangerously close to Will being basically a second option. And I don’t think that’s the message we really want the show to convey.

#byler #mike wheeler #will byers #el hopper #stranger things 5

[cartoonrival]

Nrto/Brto for 3 10 & 17?

bro literally the wider naruto fandom sucks so bad idek where to begin

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

i dont have a specific example so instead im gonna give a general gripe about a trend that ive seen in many takes over time

the black and white thinking and refusal to think for half a second about characters other than ur faves Reminds Me Of Something!real ones know. the way people talk about any character with any sort of greyness to their morality kinda makes me crazy and i lowkey think ppl bring up kishimoto TOO MUCH in their discussion of the storys themes bc while obviously like its important to talk abt WHY he wrote it the way he did esp wrt nationalism and all, i think also it sort of dulls ur ability to think anything complex about it if u blame everything u dont like or think was "sloppily done" on kishimoto. judging every character based on kishimoto's morals instead of their own if that makes sense? its not like "the wrong way to do things" i just personally find it really boring when thats the only way youll look at a text. like no wonder you guys are constantly making jokes about how naruto sucks and you'd never recommend it, you wont even allow yourselves to think about the story as its own piece of art beyond just "kishimoto wrote it this way because he sucks" like do you ever think maybe youre killing some of the fun of media analysis... i think its why so many people hate sakura or kakashi or itachi or anyone else. and this always comes out in the way ppl characterize bc theyre like Um I've Fixed Them :) and then its the blandest shit ever because you absolutely refuse to work even slightly WITH the story you claim to love, only fighting tooth and nail against it.

some examples of what i mean w this: basically any conversation about itachi that tries to categorize him as either good or bad. basically any conversation about sakura that tries to do literally anything or nothing with her. people making sns blandly romantic as if the insane and inventive ways they talk about their feelings for each other in canon isnt genuinely part of what makes it so maddeningly fascinating and awesome. anyone who thinks kakashi is a bad teacher. its just this refusal to meet the characters where they are and think of anything in terms of the text itself rather than exclusively in a meta way, ie "this is how it would be if it was good." no its not. you just made it how it would be if it was bland and obvious. dont you literally think the fact that the guy writing it was accidentally writing his characters to be struggling against the same shit that he was struggling against irl and struggling to keep Out of his writing is like. wildly fascinating and part of waht makes the story intersting to pick apart. but ok. this also applies to aspects of boruto primarily sasusaku and naruhina marriages. no one gets it like i doooooo

10. worst part of fanon

everybodys always shipping kakashi with someone and its never even guy. if youre gonna ship kakashi it had better fucking be with guy bc theres gen srs no one else he would be caught dead romancing with and i cant even see how you could read any of his other relationships as romantic. he doesnt even HAVE a relationship with iruka. i get that not every ship has to have canon support but its all either 1) literally not even interesting to think about or 2) what they have actually going on is way more interesting but see my response to question 3. its the same with gaara honestly the more i think about it the more annoyed i get about the ignorance surrounding just-short-of-canon aroace gaara ToT like if u didnt know then ok... but you should learn because its awesome. i just thinking the shipping culture in the fandom is annoying like everyone has to be shipped with someone and that seems to come before their genuinely interesting relationships. and those genuinely interesting relationships are sanded down into something normal. idk this is a gripe that goes w Many Many fandoms but i feel like w naruto its particularly bad largely on account of See Previous Answer. ppl are like "its written this way bc kishimoto is homophobic i will fix this" then they make it suck because shockingly ik kishi actually wrote a good as fuck story if deeply flawed

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

ill be fr i dont gen seek out fics or art independently to be 100% sure that stuff i'd be looking for isn't out there somewhere. but i think ppl really really should just. think about sakura more. i literally love her sm but ppl won't think abt her beyond either 1) she sucks and i hate her (but this is because of kishimoto's writing and has nothing to do with me! if i rewrote naruto then she wouldn't be there 😌 this is a kindness to her and not because i cant be assed to think about a woman for 5 seconds) or 2) girlboss!!!! like.... is that scene in the land of iron not BIBLICAL to anyone else....??? is her devotion to someone she's lost faith in out of loyalty to someone she loves and is losing her ability to understand not FASCINATING???? TO ANYONE ELSE???? IS THE WAY SHE PICKS UP THE TRAITS OF HER TEACHER THAT HE SPECIFICALLY IS NOT MEANING TO PASS ON TO HER NOT HEARTWRENCHING???????? you people suck. instead you write ooc sns over and over and draw kakashi without his mask kissing fucking obito

#asks157 #nrto

[bvnga-aprikot]

HC designs from when i read the novel

sorry for the lack of color in the dresses, i got lazy halfway. and yes i mispelled chokers my bad for that ;-;

So i mentioned in a reblog of a post by @lithi that i wanted to show my fanon designs of Athy and Jetty after seeing her talk about how people who only read the wmmap novel must have different interpretations of the characters designs. I must admit, i’m a little biased in that aspect because i read the manhwa first so at first when reading the novel (specifically fan translations bc this was before i found out about ridibooks) for the first time i always imagine Spoon’s designs when i read them. But now having a new perspective on this i decided i wanted to make a sketch based on how i imagined these two while reading the novel a second time.

For Athanasia, i think the most obvious has to be the fact that i imagine her with darker skin due to Sioddona being inspired by the Ottoman Empire visually from the manhwa. I know, a bit weird since this is about the novel but personally that’s how i always imagined what Siodonna looked like. Another thing i like to imagine and, this is a personal headcanon for me, is that she always likes to wear a necklace that reminds her of Diana, because she never knew her and wanted some semblance of her mother to be with her every step of the way. I always wanted to know more about Diana so think of this as part of that need lol. As for Athy’s outfits, i always imagine the dresses @alicehattera03 would post about that suit Athy to be her fashion sense in the novel. Don’t get me wrong i love the dresses Spoon puts her in, but at the same time i always imagine her in more regal clothes befitting of a crown princess, and Alice always has the best imagination whenever it’s Athy related so i mostly think of her posts whenever i think of Athy aha. Also, more on that note on chokers, i think it’s safe to say that Athy has every right feeling uncomfortable around those things due to the whole hanged thing from the original novel, so while she isn’t exactly the same Athy she’d probably still find chokers a bit triggering since they remind her of her doom.

For Jennette, the biggest difference for me is that i wanted her to look a bit intimidating to the eyes without the effects of her black magic. I think to illustrate the seeping black magic from her body, she uses things like chokers and longer dresses to cover the markings. It’s a bit gross describing it now but hey, LP!Jetty did a lot of questionable things so i suppose having some symbolism about her sins isn’t too far reaching. I don’t know why, but whenever i like to imagine ladies in historical dressing, i always seem to imagine the dresses Shuli von Neuschwanstein wears, probably because i think they’re the best designed dresses in manhwa yet but that’s personal. This applied to imagining Jetty too, so i used one of Shuli’s dresses as reference. Something i like to imagine is that Jetty also has a darker color palette compared to Athy to illustrate how completely opposite they are, so in the novel i always think of her having much darker hair than she has in the manhwa, plus longer hair for the fun of it (another thing inspired by my beloved Shuli lmao). I don’t think there was any mention of Jetty having bangs, but i gave them to her in this design since they’ve become what i associate with her.

Another thing, i’m not sure if this would be accurate but imagine them being much taller in the novel than they are in the manhwa 😅. I don’t know what is with me and my thing for tall female characters, but i think because there isn’t too much descriptors for height the last time i read, i think it’s safe to assume i could go wild with that aspect in terms of the novel designs i have. Instead of being around 150-160s in centimeters, i always thought of them being more around 170ish till about 180 roughly, and the reason for that is because i like to imagine the very dramatic and foreboding scenes they’re in to be accentuated with how tall they are lmao. Probably makes sense for Athy’s case since she’s princess and all.

That’s about it for how i imagine them in the novel, i’m sure others have their own interpretations and ideas of how they’d look in the novel but so far these are mine, thanks for reading ;p

#rosie's txt #my art #who made me a princess #wmmap #wmmap athanasia #wmmap jennette #athanasia de alger obelia #jennette margarita #fanon design

[a-student-out-of-time]

Tbh, aall of those drdt people that goes "Arei is 100% dead and Teruko shouldn't trust anyone else in the class bc they don't deserve her after almost throwing her to the wolves in Chapter 1" have the same vibes that the canonronpa people that are always like "Makoto shouldn't be trusting class 78 anymore, they not only blamed him of Sayaka's death, but also almost killed him in Chapter 5. They're just abusive bastards and Makoto would be better with class 77-B"

//Fandom as a whole has this collective problem with simplifying characters down to the elements that either make it work for them or don't make it work for them, and it usually comes from a place of personal taste rather than anything based on what the characters would really say or do.

//There's a reason why "canon version vs. fanon version" is a meme, after all.

//Danganronpa is a series that's all about exploring the concept of what people do and how they act under duress, which doesn't automatically equate to who they are as people. These stories are much more than just funny antics and occasional shipping fodder broken up by the occasional murder trial.

//The moralistic aspect of this view is easily the worst part. Chapter 1 is so iconic because, right from the beginning, the game isn't telling you whether or not you should view Sayaka's actions as entirely selfish or a last-minute change of heart to protect someone she really cared about. It's left largely ambiguous as to why certain things happened and Makoto still chooses to see value in his relationships with Sayaka and Leon anyway.

//But no, a lot of the fandom depicts Sayaka as an evil conniving snake who was only ever manipulating Makoto...even though she didn't have any reason to do so until she saw her bandmates. And if she really felt that way, she could've easily just gotten Makoto alone and killed him, but instead she chose Leon.

//And Leon, despite having every opportunity to go back to his room and tell everyone what happened the next day, since Sayaka would have a broken wrist as proof, instead chose to break into the bathroom and kill her. The fact that he did that is proof he's not innocent of any blame, but it's the nature of the first execution that really cemented the reality of the game for everyone, and so I see why sympathy would be more on his side.

//Yet everyone seems to forget he also spent that trial trying his hardest to blame Makoto, deflected blame just by screaming "stupid" over and over instead of providing any counter-arguments, and also said anyone else would've done what he did in his position. Really? Because I think most of us wouldn't have deliberately gone back and broken into the bathroom just to kill her.

//In the end, the entire point is that it's a morally grey situation, yet Makoto also makes the correct decision to shift his anger onto the person who put everyone into this situation in the first place. He's also clearly left with a lot of guilt and complicated feelings on the matter, even if he chooses to see value in knowing them both.

//On the other end of things, Teruko is not Makoto. She's had a long history of being betrayed, getting hurt and losing the people she cares about. She has much more of a solid character motivation to stop trusting others the first time this happens, but refusing to trust anyone is very dangerous in a game where everyone's life hangs in the balance.

//Not to mention, despite her protestations, Teruko does care about other people, but feels like there's nothing she can do to help others or be a good person.

//There's so much more to discuss with these characters beyond "murder bad, no murder good," and simplifying things down to these elements really does a disservice to the writing and characterization of canon and fangans as a whole.

#mod talks #a student out of time

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

2, 18, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30 and 35 for the fanfic asks

2. Where do you get your fic ideas?

Almost always from either prompts, being particularly mad about something in canon, or being particularly mad about an aspect of fanon lol

18. Do you enjoy research?  Which fic of yours required the most research?

I do! But I try to avoid it for fanfic. My original fiction is usually historical or historically inspired fantasy so I try to not get bogged down in too much research for fanfic purposes lol. But that being said, my Grishaverse time loop fic has required the most research, both in just constantly referencing the books, but also I’ve had to look up appropriate food and specifically wedding customs when I ran out of worldbuilding/wanted to change it up a little bit.

22. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process?  How do you come up with titles?

Sometimes during, most often after! I usually either use a quote from the story or try to string together something random lol. When I’m really stumped or on a time crunch that’s when I go digging through classics and steal a line. For instance “Drop by drop upon the heart” is from Aeschylus. “Leave them and walk with dust” is from Cain by Lord Byron. and “And I said to the star: consume me” is from a Virginia Wolfe poem iirc? But I think that’s about it, I otherwise try to come up with my own titles.

23. Is writing the beginning, middle, or end of the story easiest? Hardest?

Hmm probably the ending! I often just struggle a little with how to end fanfic. Because while I do loosely outline, it’s usually not structured— which is how I would plan original fiction. So sometimes I do struggle with not knowing the ending or feeling like the story kind of just stopped instead of ending. With shorter stuff it’s easy because it’s a single scene, so ending the scene is enough. But I have the most trouble with ending fics that have multiple scenes.

24. How do you choose whose POV to write in?

Most of my fic ideas tend to center on something emotionally. Like a character learns of something difficult, is confronted with something, is trying to move past x thing, etc. So that tends to pretty intuitively lead to a POV choice. If I am doing multi POV however or otherwise undecided then I just try to pick based on whichever character has the most interesting internal thought process going on and/or whose emotional situation is least translatable via external markers.

Like if I’m writing a scene with and it boils down to on the one side, “Alina is sad” and on the other “Zoya is in love with her but she’s trying to hide it” then the latter is both more interesting and harder to get across from the alternative POV. So if I was weighing the two options, I’d write from Zoya’s perspective. (Which makes me a liar bc that was the last scene I just wrote in a fic and since it’s all Alina POV… I did not write from Zoya’s perspective)

25. What’s your favorite part of the writing process (worldbuilding, brainstorming/outlining, writing, editing, etc)?

Brainstorming/outlining hands down. Everything else sucks and I hate it 💖

26. What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

Drafting for sure. Also the last like 10% of editing really gets me. When something is close to done but not enough to post it. I just get frustrated and impatient lol.

27. What area of writing do you feel strongest in?

Probably matching character voices and keeping things ic, at least to how I perceive the character?

30. How much do you edit your fics?  Do you edit as you write or wait until you finish the first draft?

I try to keep editing at a prose level minimal tbh just bc I’m already really slow as a writer and my biggest challenge is just getting things written and finished. So I try to avoid any obstacles that’ll cause me to drag my feet. But also if I end up fucking hating a character choice I’m not averse to scrapping a scene and starting over. And again I will rearrange dialogue etc endlessly if I feel like it’s not working on a character level.

35. Do you use a beta reader/editor?

No but I would love one 😭😭 Fanfic Ask Game

#thank you for the ask! #fanfic ask game #ask games #i ramble sometimes #all the bendy punctuations #*writer's cap*

[adrianicsea]

(sorry i was late idk if youre still doing these) lynnmanda for the ship thing?

i will make an exception for you and for lynnmanda!!

do i ship it: yes!! my favorite amanda ship for sure

why i ship it: i think that the chemistry and relationship they have in the movie is so interesting and compelling and like.... i promise i will NOT talk at length about chainshipping bc this isn't about them but lynn as a character literally IS a sort of mirror of lawrence, which in turn makes amanda her adam. the parallels between the two pairs of characters, along WITH the unique challenges/dynamics present specifically between amanda and lynn... that's the good shit.

canon potential: i mean the way things go in canon doesn't leave much room for their relationship to grow LMAO... that said throughout the movie you can sense the mutual fascination that each of them has about the other, and there are moments where lynn seems like she wants to be compassionate/understanding with amanda. and poor amanda is just so traumatized and prickly (and being manipulated by john the whole time of course) that she's being her worst self!! but in a world where any ONE of those things was different.... god. it's SO nice to imagine amanda shooting john instead of lynn, or amanda leaving disarming the shotgun collar, or the collar never being functional in the first place. obviously the two of them would have WAY more baggage to work out after their game than adam and lawrence do, and realistically i don't think the two of them would end up being FRIENDS much less anything more until at least a couple years had gone by.... but i think lynn provides the quiet, compassionate and yet uncompromising strength that amanda needs to start on her recovery process, while amanda represents a life lived authentically and without pretense or artifice, warts and all, which i think would really appeal to lynn, based on the state of her marriage and her life in general when we first meet her.

thoughts on fanon: for starters everybody ships lynnmanda but there's just not NEARLY as much art/fic of them as there is for chainshipping. like I Know Why and i'm guilty of it too (i prommy i have lynnmanda fic ideas, i'm just reticent to do much of ANYTHING until sleeping with ghosts is finished or closer to it), but like. i would like to see and read those freaks. i also think that there can be a tendency to forget that lynn ISN'T just a hapless victim! she's a doctor! she does brain surgery with shit from home depot and doesn't really bat an eye at it! while i think lynn WOULD oftentimes be like "damn bitch you live like this?" about amanda's actions, i don't think she would be as shocked or thrown off by it as some people assume. ALSO. and this is admittedly more of a gripe. but i think it is absolutely a crime that the name SHOTGUNSHIPPING exists for them and yet has fallen nearly to the wayside. it's really not a big deal but when the fandom has other ships called chainshipping and spiralshipping, and there IS a -shipping prefix for these two... why not use it? this is why i tag every post i make about them with both tags. i'm doing MY part to revive the shotgunshipping name, are YOU?

#asks #Anonymous #lynnmanda #shotgunshipping

[aclosetfan]

Oh no idm when the r*ds are the only color code pairing in a mixed pairing story or anything I just hate when they’re front and center and then everyone else is mixed cause to me it feels like a sort of “well I wanna write this again but how do I make mine different”. Idm people shipping whatever they want truly everyone have the time of your lives it’s just something that sometimes makes me roll my eyes before scrolling lol. Bubs and Brick are definitely a pairing I’m begging to be explored like I feel people go for B*tch and B*bs for the ‘grumpy x sunshine’ trope but if there was ever a face for that trope here it’d be Brick and Bubs, ESPECIALLY their fanon versions (also i enjoy greens a or b or c plot idc i just like them being well written lol). Also those clips you shared are the cutest thing?? And I’m obsessed with the idea of adorable/fanon boomer!Butch. I think I’m gonna spend part of my summer reading these comics a bit to get more insight onto their characterizations because from what’s been shared a lot of it has been shuffled around for the sake of the show. Idk i love these characters man and I want to jump back and love all of them bc honestly sometimes reading so much or so little about them in certain lights just kind of makes liking them harder.

((I added your second ask for convenience!!))

OHHH, i see what you mean about the mix pairings! yes! I hate that too! Especially because mixed pairings don't get a lot of the limelight, I'd love for the reds to be pushed to the side to explore the other pairings more! My big thing is, if it's a reds story, just say it is, like sure, inform people of secondary couples, but don't make it sound like they'll be big to your plot when they're not lmao.

I'm glad you're going to look into the comics! They give a lot of easter eggs that round out a few characters. They're definitely not complex reads lol, but the show never was either. I like them when I'm feeling down and want to find new fun facts to pepper in my fics! I read most of mine through the wiki, but you can find all of them one way or another through a google search.

Specifically addressing this part of your comment ("bc honestly sometimes reading so much or so little about them in certain lights just kind of makes liking them harder"), I sympathize with that. You've really got to curate your experience here. I mean, it's so many years after the show ended, and it is a cartoon. Not many people are really interested in the source material, so a lot of the fandom is based on fanon! I couldn't find anything that I felt was characterized correctly (to my liking), so I started writing. Actually creating stuff has really helped me stay in love with these characters. I know it's probably a weird hobby considering how silly the og show is, but it's fun (and comforting)!

((pro-tip, writing fucking sucks. if you don't hate yourself learn to draw instead 😔😔😔))

And to your second ask, yes! I know what you're saying. I always think those stories where the girls (and sometimes the boys) are bullied to the point they're just...broken are 1) incredibly sad and I genuinely worry about the author (I know coping-fics when I see them), and 2) ooc. The girls were often bullied or picked on in the show for their powers, but the episode always concluded with them besting the problem. As they grow up, I can't see them falling victim to petty jabs. like they face HIM on a day-to-day basis, what's one petty chick from gym class?

#anon asks #now i feel like ive talked a big game so I've got to write a mix pairing fic #hahaha nah...unless?

[sleepymrshmllow]

I like the idea that will doodles little things on her pants, very cute! I guess I just get apprehensive about this au sometimes -personally- because people already want to make canon will so masculine that it's like a free way to do that to will just as a girl and doll mike up instead. basically I've noticed over time they don't appreciate the potential of gnc will when it's his canon self, but suddenly it's a major factor when it's girl will? :/ it's not so much not letting people do what they want, but it feels obvious the appreciation for the canon characters is lower :( like will is the creative expressive one of the duo, we gotta embrace that more! (this is me rambling now sorry!) but I'm seeing that less lately which is nice, it feels more genuine, like your au I like the thought put into it already 🩵

oh I completely understand that frustration/worry, anon! admittedly I've been a bit guilty of this as well (but I want to improve on how I portray them! I just tend to draw their clothes based on canon outfits and I sometimes project onto mike when it comes to gender/expression (i sometimes hc/draw him as genderfluid bc im genderfluid!) bc I relate to him a lot but I def want to draw will in more gnc clothing in the future, especially for modern day AUs ♡)

I haven't drawn them in months so I've definitely changed my perceptions for the most part after reading a lot of conversations/criticisms about fanon portrayals of mike & will so I hope I do them better justice in the future ^^ !

I think a balance of willow having both gnc and fem outfits would be nice! I think she would rock pastel pinks & yellows and overall dresses and I imagine them covered in little paint splotches and patches for when they get holes in them and joyce fixes it for her ♡

also it's SO HARD not to see michelle as a tomboy even though she'd probably be fem maybe? idk it's hard to imagine how these characters would be if they were canonically girls instead I just see them being exactly as they are in canon (in terms of personality and interests). also being queer I just have a hard time with conformity shdhdjks

#also dw about rambling anon i love hearing your thoughts! #anon #ask #sapphic byler #also i didnt grow up in the 80s so its likeee some of my reads will be inaccurate/not very good oops #but this is all for fun ! #long post

[todomitoukei]

hey im kinda confused abt the hpsc and i feel like you could explain it pretty well. is the theory that they’re corrupt and the real villains based in canon or is it just fanon? bc from what i remember they were only mentioned pretty vaguely, so i feel like i might have missed a chapter or something...if it’s based in canon, could you tell me where? (if it’s not too much trouble ofc)

It’s not canon per se, but it’s a theory based on what we know about the HPSC thus far along with some other factors.

As for the HPSC, their job is basically to manage the interactions between heroes and society. In a way, they are the PR team for heroes as a whole. They are also responsible for coordinating the heroes teams with the police, high-profile cases, as well as the provisional hero license exams. We don’t know exactly how one obtains their license to be a Pro Hero but considering the HPSC hands out the provisional licenses, they most likely also take care of the real thing.

With that, they have a lot of control over everything, almost like someone playing chess, with the heroes, police, villains, and civilians being their pawns.

We got a better look at the HPSC once Hawks was introduced, specifically when we got the flashback of him being given his undercover job. There are two noteworthy points from that scene.

The first one being that the HPSC is okay with casualties, giving Hawks the permission to ignore the victims, while he befriends the villains. The HPSC places its importance on the greater good, rather than trying to save everyone.

The second part is about Hawks and his overall role for the HPSC. Though they call it a proposal, Hawks points out that he isn’t given a choice here.

Similar to Eri’s current appearance, people have different opinions on whether using children for the hero side is right or wrong, considering that Eri agreed to use her quirk on Mirio, and Hawks wanted to become a hero.

We don’t have the full picture of what this “special program” that Hawks was a part of entailed, and whether or not he was the only one in it. Although, concerning the last part, we don’t really see any heroes his age so it feels like Hawks was the only one part of this “program” and was always anticipated to be used as the HPSC’s secret weapon. Officially, he’s a hero, but in reality, the HPSC has a lot more control over him than any other hero. Part of that is also shown through his hero outfit, which features the HPSC logo on his shirt.

Keep in mind, Hawks was a kid when he got taken in by the commission. They saw a vulnerable child that happened to have a strong quirk that could be useful to them, so they took said child and turned it into the hero he is now for their own advantages.

Aside from Hawks and Eri, we also have U.A. and any other hero school. While this hasn’t really been addressed by society in the story aside from when Bakugou got kidnapped, this is a high school, which means the students are 15-18 years old. Although the story does tell us that hero students encountering actual villains is a new occurrence, they are still children who get put through very intense training. In the most recent arc, they are being put on the front lines, even though their role was just to evacuate the civilians, it’s obvious from their mindsets and their sense of duty that they are not going to leave it as just that. As mentioned at the start, the HPSC is responsible for coordinating these types of situations so it was their decision to put these kids there. Even if you don’t see an issue with hero high schools like U.A. existing, I think we can all agree that there is something very wrong about putting teenagers on the front lines against the biggest terrorist organization in the country. Funnily enough, the one person to address this is a villain, Dabi:

It makes sense for someone like Dabi, who was created and raised as a mere pawn himself instead of being allowed a normal childhood, to be able to point out that sending kids to a fight like this is not okay.

Speaking of villains, since the USJ arc, the League of Villains has been presented to us as the main antagonists of the series, specifically Shigaraki as the successor to All For One, since Deku, the protagonist, is the successor of One For All. But over time, the members of the League of Villains have been shown to us as being very layered, sympathetic people. Shigaraki has found his own reasons for doing what he does, but that doesn’t change the fact that he has always been and continues to be nothing but a vessel for All For One.

Despite the fact that All For One in his current state technically can’t do much, especially not without Shigaraki, him still being around and still saying that Shigaraki isn’t complete yet shows us that All For One is still the bigger threat and we haven’t seen the last of him. When it comes to the question of how can Shigaraki redeem himself, he would first need to realize that he is just being used by All For One. Because the main difference between him and Dabi is that the latter has recognized that he was only used and is now fighting back, whereas Shigaraki hasn’t become aware of that yet. To redeem himself, he not only has to realize this but also figure out how to break away from All For One. Unlike Dabi, he can’t just leave, since All For One can possess him from the comfort of his highly secured cell.

Speaking of Dabi, some people are also theorizing that the HPSC knew about Touya and helped cover up his death, but that this is unconfirmed so while I’m not ruling it out (according to Endeavor he did search for Touya instead of immediately accepting his death so they most likely do know about it but whether they knew the circumstances that have led to this is unknown), I wouldn’t count it as evidence for the time being.

Circling back to the students of U.A., after the USJ arc the rumors of a possible traitor came up, and after Bakugou got kidnapped, we got this meeting between the HPSC and the police, where they first mention that they will need to make some changes.

Later on, Principal Nezu tells us that, though officially the dorm system is for the students’ safety, it’s also so that they (the HPSC and police) can investigate in secret, with both the teachers and the students being possible suspects.

The story hasn’t exactly mentioned this since or explained how exactly they investigate in secret. We do know that there are robots with motion detectors/cameras on campus that report any kind of movement to the teachers, like when Bakugou and Deku had their fight outside. But what about in the dorms? Are there hidden cameras? Maybe even in the rooms? We don’t know that yet, part it’s still a fact that the HPSC even suspects the kids and puts them in dorms under false pretense when in reality it’s easier for surveillance/control reasons.

So to sum it up, the HPSC has a lot of control and they make sure to keep it that way and get even more control. Of course, considering that it is their job to keep the country safe, it is more or less expected of them. But they more often than not show that they have no issue with using child soldiers, and they are also okay with casualties. Overall, they are a corrupt organization in many ways. With the current arc, especially Dabi calling out Endeavor and thus possibly (hopefully) making society question heroes a little more, it would then also make sense for the HPSC to be questioned, though probably at a later point in the story and not quite yet. However, in order for that to happen, people on the hero side first have to start recognizing these flaws and start questioning the current system that is in place.

#also thank you for thinking i can explain this well?! #hope this helped!! #bnha #ask #also reminds me of psycho pass #meta #i think before the story focuses on that it's going to focus on criticizing the heroes first though #and then eventually realizing how the hpsc plays into that #me-meta #Anonymous

[darkfinch]

Do u like redemption and are just grumpy right now bc of the the parts you didn’t like as much or do you not like it and just think some parts were good?

Did redemption ruin leverage for you? Should I not watch?

!!! these are very good questions. i'm uhhhh a little conflicted about the whole thing, here's too many words about it (under a readmore for folks who are avoiding redemption talk):

honestly i think the main reason i was initially so negatively affected by redemption is that i watched it all in one day, and a lot of the things that bothered me were in the last couple of episodes. so it all felt REALLY condensed, and the disappointing things were the most fresh in my mind when i was finished. oof. if i could do it over, i would take my time with it instead.

overall, i actually really loved 1b of redemption!! i had a ton of fun with it and it felt a lot more like og leverage vibes-wise than 1a. I love harry and i LOVE breanna and i really really enjoyed a lot of the episode premises in this half (there were a few where i was like...this is exactly the kind of thing i've been wishing there was a leverage ep about and i am Experiencing Catharsis)

the season as a whole was really enjoyable for me, and there are a few episodes that i think might be as rewatchable as original leverage, which is cool. it was more big picture character arc/characterization stuff that genuinely bothered me, and due to the nature of what redemption was really focusing on this season (introducing new characters, finding their footing again, etc) those parts were really not a huge part of the actual viewing experience, percentage-of-content-wise.

deep sigh. that being said.

i don't think it Ruined Leverage for me...but for a few days afterwards i definitely did have a bit of a spiral about it. just lyin on the floor like...does this ruin these characters for me. does this lessen my enjoyment of the original series. do i still want my nanowrimo project to be leverage-based. do i want to keep writing fic for this television show at all

the parts i'm grumpy about were small, but they were important to Me. leverage has been such a joy and a comfort since i stumbled upon it, and has been getting me through quarantine, and got me to try writing fic for the first time because it gave me Big Thoughts And Feelings the first time i watched it

and while i really tried to keep my expectations very low for redemption, there was a vague feeling of like...oh. i feel kind of? stupid? for having put energy into this? and for expecting more than this? because what they're making is not going to be like what fandom has built together out of love. the cautious first season of an amazon prime reboot is not necessarily going to have the same depth and feeling and love behind it as an old show that has—in part due to being Over and available for Endless Nostalgic Analysis And Interpretation—been very stable ground to build upon for years, or as the fanon that's come from that.

(this feeling is not 100% gone, and i don't think i'm alone in struggling with redemption; i'd never seen a fix-it-fic for leverage Until This Week, and i'm sure there are going to be more to follow.)

anyway. i've been conflicted about it!!!!

what i've settled on is that it very much does not Ruin Leverage for me, because original leverage is always going to be there, and so is the decade of fan content that's come after it, and so is the fandom. i've gone the comics fandom route of Seeing the Separation. it's not More Original Leverage; it's one creative team's well-meaning (if clumsy) take on post-canon content that got put into production. it can't ruin leverage any more than a really popular ooc fanfic can ruin leverage.

there are genuinely a lot of really Good, solid, touching moments in redemption, and even if some parts are...bewilderingly executed and irritating and just Unfortunately Done, i would still say that if there's any part of you that wants to watch it, 4 fun and enjoyment, you should watch it. it's fun, it's a good show, it's still enjoyable, and fandom's already picking it apart for Useful Scraps as we speak.

if u actually read all of that...you're very cool and i wish you luck. i would just say go into it with realistic expectations; it's not 100% old leverage, it's not fanon, it's coming to the table with the buckwild takes of a creative team that had these ideas for season 6 character arcs 8 years ago and thinks they're still 1) relevant 2) necessary and 3) fitting with the trajectory of the original series despite this.

@ leverage team i am on your lawn i am explaining eliot spencer through a megaphone please do not call the cops <3

#i don't like redemption As A Whole nearly as much as original leverage #but i think it has a Heart in there and i saw what it was going for overall and like. even if it was executed poorly. i still liked it :) #train job jackal job my BELOVEDS................. #finchtalks #redemption struggles