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sapphire-weapon · 6 months

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Okay so I love reading your opinions on all things RE. Your take and the way you write it is so refreshing, I really love it. Your observations and analysis is great and often makes me rethink a lot of things.

So here's what I've been trying to figure out. Since you said nobody but Chris looks past Leon being likable and respected. And that man needs some loving for real. Someone actually committed to the mess he is.

Would you say he is too unstable to be in an actual deeper and meaningful relationship? Is he to broken/ otherwise concencerned/ distrusting or is he just the kind of guy to not wanting to pursue deeper connections other than flings and friendships at arm's length?

Like this guy is lonely. This guy needs a hug and smack on the back of his head sometimes fr.

thank u anon. my goal here is to get ppl to think about the actual text/scripting of the story without the noise of the fandom coloring their perceptions, because this is an old fandom with a lot of pre-conceived notions and biases that poison the #Discourse almost to a cultish degree, which causes the actual story itself to get lost.

but

there are a lot of words I'd use to describe Leon. "unstable" isn't one of them. he's just... Busy. and has a hero complex that honestly makes him a little selfish.

Leon has a really abnormal life, and he knows it. he also knows just how much of a fucking nightmare it is, and he doesn't want to drag anyone else into the world of bioterrorism who otherwise would have no reason to be there or even know about it. he doesn't have the time to dedicate to a relationship, and even if he did, he wouldn't.

this is why we see him hitting on other operatives and not the civilians involved on any given mission (for reference, see: hitting on Hunnigan in OG while turning down Ashley's explicit offer of sex). there are still ways in which his lifestyle can make a civilian's life worse, even if they've already been exposed to bioterrorism. but an operative is pretty much just as fucked as he is, so they're fair game.

because, like. there's never any point where he rejects Chris's love for him. he might push back on the method with which Chris chooses to express it sometimes, and he might have other moments where he'd rather just be self-indulgent with his misery (Vendetta), but there's never a moment where it's like... "don't waste your time caring about me/I'm not worth it."

even with Ada, like... I'm not going to rehash my whole "guide to OG Aeon" post, but Leon never expresses that he feels unworthy of her help/affection/attention. he accepts it with as much grace as he can muster, in fact.

a romantic relationship just isn't his priority. relationships are work, and there are other things that he feels that he needs to give his emotional energy to -- and, because of his depression, the amount of energy he has emotionally is just much lower than that of other people. so he uses what little he has to focus on his job, because that's what's most important to him.

and I know that this probably sounds like it's running counter to my thesis statement re: Leon's character of "Leon is lonely and he fucking hates himself" but like. deprioritizing human interaction and relationships and the opportunity to be truly loved is, in and of itself, a form of self-harm. he'd rather cut himself off than put in the effort required to be vulnerable -- and that's the part that goes back to the idea of "I'm not worth it."

Leon sees what he's doing as being infinitely more important than who he is. he doesn't see who he is as a person as being worth giving up his work and/or exposing someone else to The Horrors.

and this is true for both OG and Remake Leon -- especially after the conclusion of Remake Leon's positive change arc in RE4make. prior to RE4make, you could maybe make the case that he was too broken and distrusting to pursue a deeper relationship with someone, but post-RE4make, that's not the case. post-RE4make Leon would love nothing more than to pursue a HEA with Ashley, but he knows that he has to prioritize Sherry, and his depression prevents his brain from considering the very simple question of: "Why not both?"

#resident evil #leon kennedy #meta analysis

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so-i-grudgingly-joined-this-site · 8 months

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I love Dream but he can be dark, he can be cruel and he's done some very unforgiveable and monstrous things. He is not your average good guy or heroic character. Yes sometimes he can be the most kindest, empathic and wonderful conceptual being but he can be the opposite and it makes sense since Dream is made up of every wonderful, fantastical, magical thought, imagination and dreams but he's also made up of the disturbing, the vile and the monstrous.

Yes, exactly! Honestly, even without delving deeper into potential motivations or biases that he might have been written to have, his basic, on-the-page actions are pretty extreme! Banishing your girlfriend to 10,000 years of torture in hell for saying "no" is incredibly dark! The fact that Desire is able to casually toss the insult "Killed any girlfriends lately?" might also be a hint that Nada isn't the only one. Also his best human friend started the transatlantic slave trade, and the woman who, per Lucien, broke his heart like no other is a brutal murder-loving witch who is also probably transphobic. Something about "you reflect the company you keep" there...

Really, it's weird to see people get all defensive of Morpheus when he makes other notorious "problematic fandom boyfriends" like Anakin Skywalker, Kylo Ren, or pre-character-development MCU Loki seem like tame, sane options! Sure, those guys could kill you, but none of them seem able or keen on ruining your after-life as well!

And as for what you say about how he embodies the collective thought... I suspect that The Sandman Companion's darker and less charitable claims about Morpheus having racist and sexist tendencies were *intended* as a reflection of that. After all, if general culture nowadays has a racism and misogyny problem, then a being made of the collective subconscious thoughts of a culture might also have a racism and misogyny problem. I haven't read the excerpts from the Companion in full context yet (haven't yet reached that chapter in my own copy) BUT the Companion's analysis does appear to fumble in that it flips the script: rather than Morpheus reflecting society's biases, instead society's biases are the result of Morpheus' anger towards Nada warping all of reality to permanently curse all people "like Nada" to have terrible fates. So rather than him reflecting reality's issues, he CAUSED them to exist! That makes him WAY worse!

I'm hoping to examine the evidence for this further once I get to that part of The Sandman Companion, because yeah, that's some "yikes" writing if it's supported by the actual text.

So yes, Morpheus is canonically an incredibly dark character, and the intent of his writing may paint an even worse picture still. He can be good and caring and loving when he wants to be, but to ignore that he's just straight up evil sometimes would be to ignore canon.

EDIT: Also, I feel the need to point out that a lot of this is about BOOK Dream! The show already appears to be attempting to stop any "Dream is racist" issues by having his sister, niece, and nephew all now be black, and changing his trusted confidant Lucien from being a white man to being Lucienne, a black woman. While the show isn't free of its own possible moments of accidental anti-black writing, it definitely seems to be making a concentrated effort to avoid interpretation of Dream himself as prejudiced in the same way that the books might suggest.

#the sandman meta #the sandman #dream of the endless #character analysis #asks answered #anon #original post

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dire-kumori · 1 year

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I love all the recent pixel art you've been posting. They're so charming and it makes me want to play a fangame in your style. I wanna pick up all the little pixel Afton kids and give them a boop. (Also I noticed in your tags you said you weren't sure how you felt about Lizzie's hair and ribbon bounce but it's soooo cute!!!)

Danke schoen! I'm glad you like how they look, since I'm still a little new to pixel art. You're right that they were heavily inspired by Undertale and Deltarune, since I looked to those games' art style for reference. The simplistic style seemed fitting for the FNAF minigames and easy enough for me to pick up as someone new to pixel art, while also still being nice to look at. Even so, I still wasn't 100% sure things came out well, so I'm glad to hear you think they're cute! Also, super relieved that you like Lizzie's hair bounce. She was probably the most dynamic character so I really wanted to do a good job on her sprite.

Also, I noticed your question in the tags of a reblog and sadly, I have to say no, I'm not planning on making a full on game (honestly I'm not even sure where to start). I'm actually working on this for my fic, for the upcoming 'Minigame' chapter. My original idea was to write it in script format, but I'd actually already done the some sprites for a couple of FNAF characters a long time ago for no real reason other than to see if I could, so I thought it might be fun to make use of those instead.

If you're interested, these are some of the other sprites I made when I was doing it just for funsies. Gregory and the ghost Evan didn't get their own sprite sheets, but I have a whole wall of Michael (yes I'm biased). Whence upon a time, I did have a vague idea for a game that involved a ghost Michael helping Gregory in the Pizzaplex, but there were never any plans to actually make the game, just the sprites.

#ask #honey-bunnysaurus #ps I really love your URL #I really appreciate the kind words #fnaf #michael afton #evan afton #gregory (security breach)#pixel art #my art

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goodluckclove · 19 days

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I’m kinda new to your blog and don’t know if you give writing tips for asks but, any advice on how to keep characters with very similar speaking styles separate without making them sound the exact same?

I'll probably message you personally in a bit asking for more details since I think a lot of writing advice is best suited when given specific to the writer and their project. I think it should be a conversation rather than me just rambling about my General Vibes, you know?

I will say here that this is one of the most common problems that I see a lot of writers grapple with. We get intimidated by dialogue at times, and I think it's because there's this slight pressure to make it exactly mimic the realism of the world we live in. My Cool Hot Take is that I think in stories we have a little more freedom.

If you're a writer that's drawn to a distinct manner of speaking across your characters, that could just be what makes your writing distinct. Consider Aaron Sorkin, writer of the West Wing and other shows I have not seen more than clips of. You look up his stuff and you see that everyone kind of has the same quick-fire, long-winded thing going on. It's a common thing in most movies that showcase the transatlantic accent - you know, the thing that made all actors sound the same and wasn't how they actually spoke. Why did they feel the need to do that? I think it's probably because they thought it was cool but I could be wrong.

I don't watch a lot of Sorkin properties because I'm not into political stuff (I'm one of those people), but I enjoy his dialogue. Some don't, but enough do that it became a massive cultural influence and won a lot of awards.

So yeah, if you don't think your dialogue is strong that's one thing. I'd say watch/read a variety of movies and plays (especially plays but I'm also a theater kid so I may be biased), scripts and recordings of which you can find online. I can give suggestions based on your premise if it helps. But if you like the way you write dialogue and are just worried that it isn't distinct enough, that probably isn't the problem you think it is. I'm on my 13th novel and I probably have like three styles of dialogue, tops. But people seem to like it. I've written a lot of plays that have made people cry.

Structurally though it helps not to write scenes where a bunch of people talk at once. That might be your problem. Like I can hold a conversation between maybe three people at a time. More can be in the scene but they gotta wait their turn.

Also if people are into this I can totally answer more asks like this. As long as your prepared for me to message you for more info haha.

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #writing community #writing #on writing #writing asks #writing tips #writing tip

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purrincess-chat · 2 years

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Ladrien ask anon here. The problem isn't with the potential here. Fanon Marichat has been the same for sooo long, it has barely gotten better. Again the people who consider it boring forget that they're the same two people. Dynamic is gonna be the same regardless of what ship it is. There's a lot you can do with each ship. People don't want to try anything with Ladrien which is where the fanon assumption comes from.

I think it also boils down to peoples' unconscious biases. As discussed prior, MC reinforces gender roles/stereotypes (women are weak and need to be protected by big strong men) while Ladrien actively goes against them. Suddenly the girl is stronger and the boy needs saving, and people just don't know what to do with that. It's not so much the dynamics themselves (friends to lovers vs mutual pining/requited love). If MC had been the requited side since s1, it would still be the fan favorite. Ladrien would still be the least favorite even if they didn't have feelings for each other. At that point Ladrien would be boring because they don't even like each other, so what's the point?

For a subset of the MC standom, it's not even about the potential of friends to lovers because most MC balcony visit fics are a friends to lovers speed run. Chat says one funny thing, and Marinette is suddenly like wow, I never noticed how much I want to jump his bones before now. Crazy. Suddenly all of those arguments of MC having the most potential for them to grow closer without the pressure of being in love lose their power because most of them are not even writing that dynamic. They just want big strong kinky leather cat boy to come over and ravish the innocent, defenseless civilian girl. Because that is a stereotype that has been in hero fiction for decades. The guy saves the girl and they fall in love, and I think even if people don't realize or admit it, Ladrien makes them uncomfy because it's the opposite of that and society just doesn't know what to do with powerful women. Or men who need saving.

But that's the other thing though. ML at its core challenges that. ML is about the girl saving the boy. Adrien is the one kept behind walls by an overbearing guardian that he has no power over, and the girl is the one desperately trying to climb the walls and slay the dragon so he can be free. They explicitly stated that in the Gabriel Agreste episode with the comic. Marinette is Adrien's knight, not the other way around. There is a reason Marinette rolls her eyes and laughs at Chat Noir in Evillustrator when he tries to flip the script. There's a reason she was being over dramatic and pretending to need his help. Because she doesnt. In actuality, Marinette doesn't need to be saved, but Adrien does. Marinette might need a hug and a nap and a few less responsibilities, but she isn't the one that's being trapped and abused. Adrien is. Which is why it's interesting to me that three of the sides reinforce the idea that the girl doesn't need saving, and yet, the one side that could reinforce that (even if it's still untrue) is the most popular and "interesting" side to the fandom at large.

And no, I'm not saying all MC stans are sexist pieces of shit. There are plenty that are perfectly fine and just like the wacky hijinks aspect of MC, and that's fine. But I have seen far to many bad takes from MC stans in this fandom, so the good ones are certainly not the norm, or at the very least, they're not doing much to shut down the louder minority of their corner.

#cat replies #asks #ml fandom salt #cat rants #whatever i accepted a long time ago that this fandom will always clown ladrien #because they have bad taste #stan ladrien for clear skin

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revui · 2 years

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question! i didn't finish listening to the entirety of your foreverlands playlist (it's huge and i have little to no context for most of the songs. bc i know like. 4 characters and a half, not counting the memes. so it mostly feels like trying to decrypt what's written in ancient scripts or something. which is fun!) but i was wondering. what's your favorite song on the playlist and why? (favorite as in. relevant to plot i guess. like one that gives you a very vivid image of something you want to write into the story. or that describes a character so well they might as well have written the song themselves). Or like, maybe you have multiple songs that tie for first place, so feel free to give more if one is not enough. there's no limit. i mean honestly. if you manage to choose only one song. that's incredible. i have character playlists with like 10 songs and i still can't choose less than 3 songs to call my favorites (for the reasons listed above).

FOLKS

FISH IN A BIRDCAGE

First, I am very biased because it's also just my favorite song in general. I found it over the summer and I think it altered my brain chemistry. I added it to the playlist immediately without even waiting for the FL thoughts to kick in.

Second, it's just a crystallized version of the entire story. Every character. No matter who I'm writing, if I put this song on, it immediately becomes their song. Because it's the whole point of the story. Everyone is weird, everyone is "wrong," everyone is stuck. Even if they don't know it.

For example, Perseus Finch, a character I don't believe I've mentioned before. There are eight schools of magic in the Foreverlands, each with a head, considered the very best at that school. Percy is the head of Illusion magic. And he's 12.

That position comes with a lot of responsibilities, so putting a complete child there was beyond controversial, especially since he was 11 when he first got the title, ESPECIALLY since the woman who was the last head of Illusion had died not even a few hours beforehand, ESPECIALLY because that woman was PERCY'S DEAD MOM.

So. Y'know. Objectionable.

And he's already got to worry about, like, puberty. He doesn't have time to teach Illusion or serve the Seraph. And he at least vaguely understands how much this fucking sucks, but he also doesn't have enough time to stew in that since he's too busy being responsible for an entire division of sorcerery. I put this song on while I'm writing Percy, and it's Percy's song.

For a briefer example, Hyacinth. She showed up for a bit as Quin's friend in his chapter. She's a deeply independent person and has all kinds of different ideas for what she could do and who she could be, but she's tied down by her massive family, being the only one consistently able to look after all the younger kids, while also handling a lot of responsibilities at school, and needing to help run her family's casino, the Vermillion Garden. She has barely a second for herself but would feel guilty abandoning any of her duties for her own interests even though her soul is furiously ablaze and screaming of all the things Hyacinth wants to do. I put this song on while I'm writing Hyacinth, and it's Hyacinth's song.

I could keep going through all 14 other examples but for the sake of both our time, I'll leave it at two. You get the point. Song good.

#blorboposting

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night-unfurls-its-splendour · 3 years

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Every Emma Woodhouse Ranked and Rated

With all my reviews of all the period-set adaptations now finished, I'm beginning my series in which I rate and rank each interpretation of all the principle characters, starting with our girl Emma!

Now I wanna be clear--I am not rating the actresses that played Emma. I am rating how the character was handled in general in each adaptation. The actresses are a factor, but they're not the sole factor, since the writer and director have as much, if not more, to do with how the character ends up in the finished product. So without futher ado, let's rank...

“Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her….

“The real evils indeed of Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much of her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself; these were the disadvantages that threatened alloy to her many enjoyments.”

NUMBER 5: 1972

Portrayed by: Doran Godwin

Age at time of filming: 28

Clocking in as the oldest actress to play Austen’s famously TWENTY-ONE year old heroine (at the ripe age of 28), Doran Godwin also snags the coveted position as inhabiting the worst portrayal of the character (in my personal estimation) to date.

Just about everything about this interpretation of Emma Woodhouse is bad, from her seemingly automated recital of her lines to her all-too-intense, wide-eyed, hypnotic stare. The 1972 portrayal of Emma highlights all the character’s worst qualities while also failing to convincingly communicate her good qualities, such as her caring nature. The script is equally to blame for the awfulness of this interpretation, adding unnecessarily cruel and condescending lines, including one where she negs Harriet for being sad after Elton’s marriage, and then forces Harriet to come with her to meet the new Mrs. Elton, when Emma in the book did her best to shield Harriet from exactly that kind of situation.

Godwin couldn’t pass for 21 if her life had depended on it, and the worst part is that the script actually states Emma’s age, so she seems like a bit of a crazy spinster, preying on the naïve Harriet. Whether it’s her intent to bathe in Harriet’s blood to keep herself young, or to bake her into a pie is up for debate.

Rating: 1/5 Half-finished portraits

NUMBER 4: 2020

Portrayed by: Anya Taylor Joy

Age at time of filming: 23

I thought long and hard about this. This movie is a modern period drama phenomenon. It’s gotten so many people into Jane Austen and satisfied long-time Austen fans by giving them an interpretation they never dared hope to see. It’s a gorgeous film.

But I don’t like this interpretation of Emma Woodhouse. Though Anya Taylor Joy is one of the youngest actresses to play Emma (only two years older than the character) she’s played with a careful stiffness that perhaps shows us a glimpse of the Lady Catherine she might turn into without swift intervention. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and this isn’t a commentary on Anya Taylor Joy either—her appearance or her acting ability—but I just don’t like her as Emma. And she’s not the sole problem, she turns in a solid performance, she’s a good actress, but something about this characterization is just off-color to me. Anya Taylor Joy plays a great mean-girl; but I think that’s one of the reasons why they thought she’d be a good choice for this role, and it’s one of the prime reasons I don’t think she wasright for it. Emma is a deeply flawed character and, of course, the biggest turning point in her story comes as a result of a thoughtlessly mean remark to someone who has only ever shown her deference, hospitality and gratitude.

All that said, Emma is not, at her core, a cruel person. Emma has gone all her life thinking condescending things about Miss Bates but it’s only when Frank comes along and validates her less kind commentaries that she actually starts to voice them in search of validation from a peer.

The problem with this in the context of 2020’s Emma Woodhouse is that Frank hardly gets a look-in in this adaptation. Emma’s relationship with him is severely underdeveloped and the actors don’t have enough chemistry to pull it off in the limited time they’re given. The result is that Emma appears to cross a line just to cross it, and it pushes Emma’s character from thoughtless to out-and-out frigid.

Still better than Doran Godwin, since she's identifiably human.

Rating: 2 1/2 / 5 Half-finished portraits

NUMBER 3: 1996 (MIRAMAX)

Portrayed by: Gwyneth Paltrow

Age at time of filming: 24

Despite the fact that Gwyneth Paltrow was an appalling casing choice for Emma Woodhouse (I will be forever salty that they passed over Joely Richardson), and I know there are some who will think me, at best, crazy (sacrilegious, at worst) for ranking 1996’s interpretation of Emma higher than 2020, I actually feel that solidly in the middle is right where this version of the character belongs.

There’s so much wrong with this Emma: she swings from mature to bizarrely infantile at the drop of a hat, much of her script is genuinely tragic, Gwyneth can’t convincingly portray Emma's social naiveté, her accent is overwhelmingly nasal and impossible to listen to, just for starters.

And yet… I don’t hate her. I don’t like her particularly either, but even though much of the dialogue re-working butchered Austen’s prose, there are a lot of things McGrath seems to have gotten right about Emma’s character. Her relationship with Knightley feels comfortable and playful, and, while Emma of the book probably doesn’t really care for Harriet Smith in the spirit of true bosom friendship, I believe she does care about her and wishes to spare her (further) pain. She shows exasperation with Harriet while still being patient with her, which is very much in the spirit of the book. Her concern for Harriet at the ball feels real, and her contrition at Box Hill following Knightley’s rebuke, while not profound, at least feels like contrition and not self-pity.

Perhaps, given the soft-take that the Miramax version is, it shouldn’t be surprising that the biggest faults in characterization rest on awkward writing and the biggest triumphs highlight Emma’s better side. It’s not a very in-depth take on the character, but it at least, is an adequate one.

Rating: 3/5 Half-finished portraits

NUMBER 2: 1996/97 (ITV)

Portrayed by: Kate Beckinsale

Age at time of filming: 23

Those who’ve read my reviews of each adaptation of Emma might be surprised to see ITV’s portrayal of the title character sitting so high on my list. To be frank, it’s a distant second, and she may have stolen the number two spot only because she’s played by Kate Beckinsale and not Gwyneth Paltrow.

In truth, I see a lot of parallels between 1997’s Emma and 2020’s. Both actresses were 23 (or thereabouts) when they played the role, both have extremely childish moments, and both crumple down and burst into tears that don’t feel entirely genuine after Box Hill.

So why is 1997 on the good side of the number 3 spot and 2020 isn’t? I’m not precisely sure. I think it may be because Andrew Davies (and/or Diarmuid Lawrence) at least understood the scale of Emma Woodhouse’s wealth and status. This Emma feels sufficiently self-important, a bit haughty, sure—but she’s also believably naïve. You feel her isolation, you understand her caring relationship with her father, and she’s not as patently rude to Robert Martin compared to the 2020 version (she at least acknowledges his presence when he meets Emma and Harriet in the lane).

Grudging though this favorable placement may be, I can at least acknowledge that Emma herself is the least of my problems with this version, and even though Beckinsale’s acting is a bit sketchy at certain points, she also has some truly great moments, especially her interaction with Robert Martin at the end of the film. This portrayal is consistent, and Emma’s better qualities aren’t overpowered by her negative ones.

Rating: 4/5 Half-finished portraits

Number 1: 2009

Portrayed by: Romola Garai

Age at time of filming: 26

And in a shocking twist—I’m kidding this is neither shocking nor unexpected to anyone who knows me or has read my blog/reviews of the Emma adaptations. Am I totally biased? Probably. I don’t care, this is a completely subjective list. Here, finally—my first and true love as Emma Woodhouse—is Romola Garai. I suppose it’s also not surprising that the first actress I ever saw in the role would still be my favorite a decade on. I just love everything about this interpretation of the character. She rides the very difficult line of being bright, caring and intelligent, while also being completely naïve and lacking in social savvy (in her own age-group at least), coddled, and painfully sure of her own self-importance.

Even though Garai was 25 or 26 at the time (far too old for the character—almost as old as Doran Godwin) her energy and charisma are enough that she’s able to carry it off convincingly. Everything about this Emma screams youth, and when Emma’s child-like social ignorance is her most prominent characteristic, it feels authentic and natural. Equally authentic are her emotions—her love for her family, her dynamic with Knightley, he exasperation, patience, and concern with Harriet. Most of all though, this Emma seems to experience the most maturation in the last quarter of the story. Box Hill really feels like a turning point—not just a chastened young woman, but a true coming-of-age moment. Emma faces a reckoning here that begins a chain reaction culminating in her realization of her feelings for Knightley, and everything from the writing to Garai’s performance conveys the magnitude of this shift in Emma’s life.

This version of the character seems the most… complete to me. Somehow, between Romola Garai’s vibrancy, Sandy Welch’s screenplay and Jim O’Hanlon’s direction, this interpretation takes an extremely divisive character and helps the viewer understand just why everyone in Highbury loves Emma Woodhouse.

Rating: 5/5 Half-finished portraits

~~~~

If you liked this, check out my rankings of Mr. and Mrs. Weston

#emma woodhouse #jane austen emma #jane austen #period drama #emma 2020 #emma 2009 #emma 1996 #emma 1972 #romola garai #kate beckinsale #anya taylor joy #gwyneth paltrow

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marshmallowgoop · 2 years

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Hey Goop! Do you have any favorite Detective Conan episodes? I'd love to hear your recommendations.

You know, I've actually just been thinking about editing some GIFsets of my recommended/favorite episodes for each season! It's information I wanted to include in a series of seasonal write-ups for the show, but since I was feeling like I'd never complete those, I thought the GIFs might be a nice alternative.

Not sure if either the write-ups or the GIFs will ever really happen, but I'd love to share a few standouts now, thank you! I'll just note that there's a lot I haven't seen yet; I'm only on Season 14 right now and have watched very little beyond that point. So, most anything I can recommend will be pretty limited to the earlier half of the show.

Also, I wouldn't particularly consider myself a mystery fan! If you're looking for cases with especially clever tricks or phenomenal detective writing, I wouldn't be able to tell you. This list is more about charming character interactions, main plot development, and emotional resonance.

All that said, here are some of my favorites, in chronological order:

🔎 The first 12 or so episodes. I think these are generally all pretty solid, even the ones that aren't at all relevant to the overarching story (like Episode 8, "The Murder of the Art Museum Owner") and the literal anime-only filler that is Episode 6, "The Valentine Murder Case." In many ways, Detective Conan isn't my type of show in the slightest, but every one of these stories exemplifies why I like it so much anyway. The interactions between characters are fun, the scenarios can get so ridiculous that they make me laugh, but I also genuinely feel an emotional connection to the events that are occurring, too. I don't know if I'd single out any one of these episodes as an absolute fave per se, but they are all classics that I like to revisit.

🔎 Episode 36, "The Monday, 7:30 P.M. Murder Case." I feel obligated to list this one because, well, I wrote a 4,000-word essay about it. Yes, my longest essay for this show is really about an anime-only filler. But I like the central conflict here and the questions it raises. It's an episode I've clearly thought about a lot.

🔎 Episodes 48-49, "The Diplomat Murder Case." Heiji Hattori's first appearance, as well as the first case Shinichi solves as himself since Episode 1. Need I say more?

🔎 Episode 54, "The Game Company Murder Case." Just a solid story dealing with the main plot. I admittedly get a little (or maybe a lot) lost in the actual case, but I love the sense of tension here, and the ending scene is one of the most affecting moments of the series for me.

🔎 Episodes 57-58, "The Holmes Freak Murder Case." Heiji's second appearance. I love his dynamic and interactions with Conan (even, and perhaps especially, before he realizes that Conan is Shinichi), and the case itself does well in keeping my interest, particularly with FUNimation's English dub. While the script or performances regretfully don't do anything to localize Heiji's Kansai accent (which is maybe odd, given that there is an effort to localize Tequila's Kansai accent in the aforementioned Episode 54, making it into a Boston/New York accent), I get a real kick out of the fortuneteller's lines being riddled with references to "sensing" things and premonitions:

[Image descriptions: Screenshots from Episode 57 of Detective Conan/Case Closed. Several characters, including the fortuneteller Maria Toda and Ran and Kogoro Mori, look towards an offscreen window. Maria says, in FUNimation's English dub, "I'm sensing that this rain will go on for some time," and Kogoro adds, "I'm sensing that I'm tired. And hungry, too." End image descriptions.]

This is definitely one of my most rewatched cases. Silly, fun, and I love to see Heiji and Shinichi vibing.

🔎 Episode 118, "The Naniwa Serial Murder Case." Probably my favorite episode so far. Yes, I am definitely biased towards Heiji. But I again love his dynamic and interactions with Conan here—he's so unabashed in how much he cares for his friend, and Conan also clearly cherishes having Heiji as a friend, too. You can't tell me that there isn't something genuine behind his fit when they're separated.

I'm a sap. It gets to me.

But beyond that, I also feel invested in this case, and I like how it calls back to past episodes.

🔎 Episodes 138-139, "The Final Screening Murder Case." Admittedly, this one might be on here simply for the mirror scene. Which I adore. But also, while you could totally skip this case and not miss much, I do really like the character interactions here with Conan and Ai and the Detective Boys. Just super cute and charming. I'd definitely recommend not skipping it, even if it's not on Xerblade's important episode list.

🔎 Episode 174, "The Twenty-Year-Old Murderous Intent: The Symphony Serial Murder Case." My biases are showing, I know, but I got a lot of love for this Heiji case. How much Shinichi values his detective friend is depicted in heartbreaking clarity, the actual case is one of the more emotionally affecting, and there's just some stunning and memorable shots. Would really love to see this one remastered one day.

🔎 Episodes 176-178, "Reunion with the Black Organization." It's probably an unpopular opinion, but I think I would actually rank these episodes above "The Desperate Revival." I love the exploration into Conan and Ai's thought processes—into the contrast of her jaded worldview and hopelessness and his childish impulsivity and recklessness. There's a great sense of tension, tons of heartwarming scenes, and unlike in "The Desperate Revival," I find Shinichi's immaturity here to be charming rather than irritating. Just stellar episodes all around.

🔎 Episodes 188-193, "The Desperate Revival." But, of course, I'm not leaving "The Desperate Revival" off of this list! It's definitely still a favorite, though it's probably also an unpopular opinion that I'm most fond of the first two episodes, 188 and 189. I'm a sucker for the drama and love to see the Detective Boys taking on a more active, productive role. But there are great emotional moments across all the episodes, lots of fun twists, and a heartwrenching conclusion. Absolute classic Conan. No recommended list would be complete without these.

🔎 Episode 196, "The Invisible Weapon, Ran's First Investigation." An anime-only filler, but I feel it's worth mentioning because I was so... let down? by the first canon case in which Ran gets to be the detective (Episodes 343-344, "The Convenience Store Trap"). She's a lot more proactive here, there's so much less repetition, and it even references "The Desperate Revival," so it has a sense of continuity!

Season 8 was kind of a huge slog for me, with tons of dull, subpar fillers, but I like this one a lot. If nothing else, I think it's at least nice to look at, with some great shots:

[Image descriptions: Screenshots from Episode 196 of Detective Conan. In the first image, Ran and Sonoko sit on opposite ends of a table as the sun sets. They both have glasses filled with a dark liquid and a straw in front of them, but neither is drinking; they are instead looking intently at each other. The second image depicts Kogoro's office. Ran stands at one end of Kogoro's desk with her head bowed, while Kogoro sits in a chair on the other side. It's mostly dark, with a small bit of light coming in through the window behind Kogoro. End image descriptions.]

🔎 Episode 225, "The Secret of the High Sales." An absolutely hilarious anime-only filler. I can understand having problems with it because Shinichi's character development arguably goes backwards here, but personally, it's just so dang funny that I can't find it in me to be bothered. DetCo is such a formulaic series, so episodes that break the formula like this one are a breath of fresh air.

Plus, "Koi wa Thrill, Shock, Suspense" is such a bop of an OP.

[Image description: A GIF from the eighth Detective Conan opening animation. Conan dances against a green rectangle, a serious expression on his face. Behind him, a shadowed figure mirrors his movements against a yellow rectangle. End image description.]

🔎 Episodes 277-278, "English Teacher vs. Great Western Detective." Probably no surprise that I'm recommending another Heiji case! But it's a rare case with him that's very main plot relevant, with so many great moments. I think I summed it up all right in the tags for a GIFset I made from 277:

#anyway anyway just felt a great need to gif this after posting about it the other day! this two parter is one of my faves #doesn't quite top 118 for me (not nearly as interested in the case here) but it has so many gems #like heiji and conan going into jodie's bathroom together to steal her gamergirl bathwater lol #(no that's not what really happens but okay it totally kind of looks like that omg) #and it's also got plot!! #great eps would recommend

🔎 Episode 304, "The Trembling Police Headquarters: 12 Million Hostages." Okay, I'm a sap, and lots of things make me cry, and, yes, of the handful of DetCo episodes that have brought me to tears, this is one of them. This is an incredibly emotional special, full of fantastic character interactions and edge-of-your-seat action. I laughed, I cried, it's good classic Cone.

Just wish there was some closure for Jam-chan.

🔎 Episodes 309-311, "Contact with the Black Organization." I'm a big fan of the main plot, and I love the intensity of these episodes. The ending bit of 311 is the most anxious and edge-of-my-seat I might have ever gotten from this series thus far.

It's a shame that my OCR'd softsubs are a total mess, though...

[Image description: A screenshot from Episode 309 of Detective Conan. Conan sits by the computer, a shocked expression on his face as he stares at Ai, whose hair is still wet from the shower and who looks entirely unamused. Dr. Agasa smiles nervously as he talks to her. The English subtitles, riddled with errors, read, "of weste :n novels: you see I Mm hooked eon this internet series." End image description.]

I started editing a nicer softsub file made for the remastered version to fit with my DVD (as the remastered version of the case cuts out a significant amount of content), but it's a long process. Still, I'm so fond of these episodes that I really want to get some proper subs on them! But maybe Crunchyroll could start adding some more episodes and save me the trouble...?

🔎 Episode 345, "Head-to-Head Match with the Black Organization: A Dual Mystery on a Full Moon Night." I feel like this one is often cited as absolute peak Cone, so it's probably no surprise to see it on my list. I do think the first half is a little weak myself, so I wouldn't personally put this at the very top of my recommended episodes, but this is most definitely a fun ride. The way that things introduced literally over a hundred episodes before finally get paid off in the most outlandish and ridiculous ways is incredible and addicting and exactly the kind of nonsense that I love this show for. You get intensity and hilarity and the wildest reveals here, and it is such a treat. I absolutely adore the ending bits of this one.

🔎 Episode 356, "Kaitou Kid's Miraculous Midair Walk." Probably my favorite Kid episode so far. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out his trick, and there's a really fantastic interaction between him and Conan at the end. This is just a good time.

🔎 Episodes 521-523-ish, "Murderer, Shinichi Kudo." I've obviously just skipped to this one, so I'm definitely missing a lot of the build up, but I'm still really fond of it. I do have to say I'm disappointed that it teases a plotline that it ultimately doesn't go through with, but there are so many good moments with Ran, Heiji, Kazuha, and Shinichi. Plus, it's one of the rare times that Heiji and Ai actually interact, so that's fun. The case is cheesy and dramatic (and I say this affectionately), and the displays of love and friendship get me so good. I'm excited to go through it again when I have watched everything leading up to it.

🔎 Episodes 853-854, "Memories From Sakura Class." A flashback case about how Shinichi and Ran first met that's unbelievably cute. I was smiling like the whole dang time because they're so adorable.

Also... I've never related to Shinichi more than when he tries to impress Ran and get her to like him but only insults her instead. Big mood.

🔎 Episodes 927-928, "The Scarlet School Trip." Just... cute. I don't think I really have much more to say about it than that.

And I think I'll leave it there! There are a lot more episodes and cases that I'm fond of, but these are probably the ones that stand out the most to me now. Thank you for asking!!

#detective conan #case closed #anonymous #replies #long post #really long post...#gifs i made #i probably went overboard here but i hope this is helpful ^^;

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destinyc1020 · 3 years

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Real talk though, he needs new agents. It’s almost heartbreaking to see his talent go to waste like that. That man is natural at what he do. I personally think that he might be the best among his generation. But no one is seeing that because he doesn’t know how to pick projects and the ones that he picks end up good/ok but nothing outstanding.

I mean, I agree with you that Tom is a natural, and I think he'll def continue to go far in the future, but I'm not really understanding the worry?? 🥴

Most of Tom's films have been indie, serious films. He's already pretty well-known due to Marvel fame, and he's been in pretty good films over the years ever since "The Impossible".

I understand that Uncharted isn't really everyone's cup of tea, but I actually don't think the movie will be as horrible as ppl are making it out to be. The BEST thing an actor can do (imo) is be versatile. Most of the best actors are versatile. Robert DeNiro can do Taxi Driver AND Meet the Fockers lol. 😂

Johnny Depp can do Public Enemies AND Pirates of the Caribbean. Viola Davis can do both Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, AND a series like How to Get Away With Murder.

I think Tom's filmography is just fine right now. I'm not understanding the fear and worry from fans right now honestly. Even Tom himself has said that he's putting less pressure on trying to be a certain type of actor, and is just working on projects that he personally feels interested in.

Tom is in one of the biggest blockbuster franchises out right now. He's received GREAT reviews for TDATT working with an all-star cast. Even with Cherry, he got some slight Oscar buzz and his performance was appreciated even if some didn't really care for the directing/script writing. He was also in Onward, which was is a Disney movie that did very well with audiences and even garnered award nominations. CW was a bust, but it quietly came out during the pandemic anyway, so it's not like ppl were looking at blockbuster numbers. Tom didn't even do any press or promo for the film, so some might not have even known he was in it of they didn't watch it lol 😆

The Current War was another film (idk if you've seen it) that was pretty well done, and had an excellent cast as well.

In the Heart of the Sea is another great film. 👍🏾

Just because a film doesn't get the same buzz as Spider-man, it doesn't mean the film was awful. Maybe I'm slightly biased and partial, but I have yet to watch a film with Tom in it that I just absolutely hated. I've actually appreciated all of his films! And I've seen just about his entire filmography lol. 😂 The only one that I wasn't too keen on was Pilgrimage, but that wasn't because of Tom's acting. Tom's acting was great!

Right now I'm not worried about Tom's career. It's not like he's a joke in Hollywood or anything. He's pretty respected! And every single time ppl see Tom in a movie outside of Spider-man, they are shocked and usually say: "Oh wow! This guy can really act!" That's better than ppl saying: "Yikes.... he cannot act at all.... better stick with those Spider-man movies..." 👀

Tom is a decent actor, so he will be fine. 😊 I'm sure he'll get even more ppl looking good way when his new project TCR comes out. Ppl in HW recognize his talent. I'm just waiting for the day when they cast him in smthg with some A-list, OG greats.... But until then, I'm not going to consider his career awful.

Sorry to vent, but I've seen a lot of fans complaining about his career lately, and I'm not sure why. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Yea I would love for him to do certain roles, but he still has a LOT of time to grow and develop as an actor imo. 😊 I think too that a lot of ppl associate him with playing a teenager/super hero, and he looks young, so he will have to slowly ease into more adult roles (which he's doing!) and allow ppl to see that he's not just a guy in Tights.

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beldaroot · 3 years

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Do you have any unpopular opinions about IT? Or about the fandom

anon are you trying to set me up for hate?! lol jk, everyone knows i don't mind saying my thoughts lksdjflk i feel like i've been pretty vocal already with my many, many unpopular opinions... so here's like 2k words of them because i don't know how to shut up. again these are opinions and i’m answering an ask sent to me, so don't attack me if you don't agree with them lol if you want further explanation i’m happy to do so too!

we don't need a supercut. i also don't think we're getting a supercut (maybe if the pandemic didn't happen we might have). all the supercut would give us is solid proof that wb is homophobic and also more scenes of bad characterization.

i liked the actors they chose for both movies and i wouldn’t change them. i just think these actors were given bad scripts. i don’t blame the actors themselves for portraying the characters inaccurately, it really is all muschietti&co’s fault. like james ransone and bill hader didn’t reread the book while isaiah mustafa read it multiple times and all three of their characters were done horribly. the actors were just doing their job and it was under muschietti’s directions that we have these bad characterizations. (also this isn't me supporting the actors personally, some of them are shitty people, i'm just talking about their performances).

it movies were not scary at all. it's just a bunch of jumpscares with some decent cgi. and it really sucks that they played more with pennywise being fucking weird than actually showcasing the psychological fears and trauma.

the miniseries is good! yes it’s corny and definitely had a production budget of like $8, but it still kept pretty close to the story! it did such a better job showing the losers friendship: we got to see them hangout and be silly and not angry at each other or separated for dumb reasons.

i don’t think you need to read the book to enjoy the movies or the franchise in general. the book is long as hell and shitty and i wouldn’t want someone to succumb to reading it if they don’t want to. however, it��s frustrating when people who have read the book call out specific discrepancies between the book and the movies and others will ignore it or greatly defend the movies. it chapter two was objectively bad, i’m sorry! when people say the movies should have stayed closer to the source material, it’s not like we’re trying to push the book in your face. we’ve come to cherish the book characterizations and it just hurts to see beloved characters ruined over some shitty portrayals and bad directing and writing.

all the losers are shippable with each other (except bev and eddie), but there are just some ships that are more compatible with each other due to canon elements and interactions.

on that note, it isn't reddie's fault if your non-reddie ship isn't as popular. i know i'm biased but there is reason why people gravitate towards reddie in the first place, and if your non-reddie ship doesn't have that much content, there is no need to bash reddie for it. (though you can definitely bash reddie shippers for picking reddie over another ship if they’re not shipping a non-reddie ship due to racism or some other form of bigotry)

like eddie, i do not care about myra. lol, i don’t understand the discourse around her since she is just a 2d character that was meant to show how eddie is trapped in the toxic cycle his mother created. she is just a surrogate sonia, but she isn’t as a big of a threat to eddie as his mom was. the fact that eddie was able to leave her so easily, knowing that it might be the last time he sees her, is so telling that she was never really an obstacle for him. his biggest fear has always been his mother, myra played a small role in it but not enough for there to be all these thinkpieces about it lskdjfksf also, the fact that we don’t see eddie’s intro chapter in her POV but we saw stan’s and bev’s through their partners, just shows that myra's thoughts are not that important lol

i don’t hate benverly. i think they’re cute and as much as i didn’t really like the underwater kiss, it was shot amazingly looool. i will say i find it weird that people will call benverly “boring” especially given how many parallels they have with reddie. that being said, it is frustrating to see these similar stories between these two ships, but of course, the straight couple will get the happy ending while the gays are suffering. also, i wish that people would give more depth to benverly as a ship - they would definitely have a lot of issues to overcome, bev with her abuse and trauma, ben with his loneliness and inability to open up about his true feelings. and i think because they're a m/f couple, people just don't care about them or want to explore them. also, ben is a great character and some of the hate towards him is wildly unnecessary and at times very hypocritical.

sandy was not a beard for richie. i'm assuming this got popular since chapter two made richie gay so now people read richie’s vasectomy story with sandy as a type of “performance” or a “bit” he’s practiced to appear straight. however, the way i perceived it is richie finally being open and taking a sad story of his love life and turning it into a grand retelling so the losers will still think of him as a jokester. it’s very apparent from how he talks about sandy that she was very important to him and that even though they separated mutually, the hurt he has is still present. also, i just don’t think you need to villainize a woman character who only appears for like 3 pages total lol.

bill is the best written character in the movies and that's because he's always the self-insert. in order from best to worst characterization i would say bill > ben > bev > richie > stan > eddie > mike.

ok all the losers are queer in some fashion, but i think the loser who gives off the most straight energy is not ben, but stan. stan just never held any idolization or romantic interactions with the boy losers. he really only shows deep care and gentleness to bev and then later to patty. and he was just so in love with patty! like those two love birds can be bi, but if they’re straight, i don’t have any complaints either because they’re that cute!

richie is bisexual and straight passing. eddie is gay and not straight passing. really can’t believe these are unpopular opinions, but i’ve seen more than enough people say the opposite, so i have to say my piece! richie’s whole thing is about putting on a façade, there is always two sides of him. he wants to appear straight because he doesn’t want people to know his true self. eddie has always appeared “gay,” this is literally why people bullied him and called him slurs and “sissy,” but he doesn’t know/try to change his appearance into something more masculine.

people who feminize eddie and people who make him hypermasc are both evil and will not be seeing heaven! i genuinely hate both so much but if i had to choose i think "uwu softboy" eddie is more in character than mean aggressive asshole eddie who hates his friends. and it's just so funny because i think out of all the losers, eddie definitely blurs the lines of gender the most, he doesn’t conform to gender stereotypes and for that reason, he’s targeted for his appearance. anyway, some of y’all need to understand that gay men can be complex and have range!

chapter two eddie sucked and should absolutely be removed from existence. that’s is not my eddie kaspbrak. idon’tknowher.gif.

muschietti&co gave richie eddie’s storyline. this shouldn’t be unpopular or even controversial, like the dude literally said “eddie had a lot going on” while richie didn’t, so he “gave” richie more. and it’s weird that people try to defend andy on this, because richie does have a lot going on too!! he already had his own queer storyline that they could have explored!! it was an injustice to both richie and eddie that andy tried to switch their storylines/personalities. there can and should be more than one queer character in a media at a time, but andy was like “no, and i don't know what bisexuality is.” it’s just sad because out of the two, eddie’s queer subtext in the book is much more blatant than richie’s, and yet people came out of the movie saying eddie wasn’t gay or that his feelings weren’t mutual. the reason a lot of people sympathize with richie’s storyline in the movie is because it has elements of book eddie’s story in it!! both of them deserved to have their stories told properly and also independently – they are intertwined but they’re also separate. they aren’t interchangeable. richie was scared that people would see him as predatory; that’s what the werewolf symbolized to him. he felt he was a monster, that bisexuality made him dangerous. he's not some sad repressed gay. also!! eddie deserved to kill bowers and it makes me seethe with rage that he wasn’t given that.

hated that richie didn’t write his own material in the movie. i understand that richie likes to keep facades, but book richie is very ambitious and wants to see himself prosper. the part in the book where he’s talking about reining in the “crazy man” with the line “but he had understood his potential not to be just good at the job but great at it, and just that knowledge had been enough to put him over the moon on a cloud of euphoria.” like richie is smart!! he wants to be in control and be accoladed for his talents! he wouldn't want someone else to make him funny. richie can be self-destructive but he wants recognition too.

hated the arcade scene. was totally unnecessary to have this random bully (who everyone started to sympathize with and ship richie with????) confront richie like that. i didn't mind that richie's token wasn't related to eddie because again, i do think that they are separate, but i wish richie had some sort of confrontation with pennywise via eddie because that would have made r+e make actual sense.

the whole token storyline was dumb. trying to make the ritual of chud work with tokens instead of what it was intended to be - a game of wits and humor - was stupid. especially since the ritual was known to fail and mike lied to them to get them to find these useless tokens. it was also bad because we never got to see the flashback for mike and ben always had his token with him (which was also weird… like why would he keep that in his wallet for 27 years….??)

that quarry scene in the movie where bev strips and then all the boys ogle at her was unnecessary and creepy and i hope andy muschietti goes to jail for it!

bev and eddie are the only two losers with abusive parents. the other losers have varying degrees of toxicity with their parents (the hanlons being zero), but not enough to be labeled as abusive.

stan was badly written in both movies. i can and have written an essay about this, but he was given scraps and it sucks that people will look at the second movie and say he was written well especially since andy romanticized his suicide by writing those letters like stan was a martyr sacrificing himself for the good of the group instead of being deeply traumatized and killing himself because he was so scared. also, that bar mitzvah scene does not make any sense chronologically and it felt more like a storyline for richie than for stan and i wish it remained a deleted scene. i like the idea of him rebelling and pointing out the illogic of things, but stan never had an issues with grownups… he liked his parents! anyway, stan was not a coward for killing himself and in general he deserves so much fucking better.

eddie is funnier than richie. i'm sorry, but i laughed so many times in the book while reading eddie's parts while i had to skim over richie's parts because i didn't even know what he was saying with those voices and half the time they were racist so....

mike was badly characterized in the movies and the reason for that is muschietti&co are racist. no ifs ands or buts about it! you can't just completely destroy someone's character that much if you don't have some sort of subconscious anti-blackness in you. mike literally has the most content in the book and you're going to portray his character in horrible racist stereotypes AND give him no screentime?! like stan, i have written a whole essay about this topic, so if you actually want me to share all the details, i can. it's just.... a lot, and this post is already so long.

in regards to race, i don't think it's harmful to headcanon the other losers as a different race or ethnicity. especially if you're poc (like i used to headcanon harry potter as a brown desi man as a desi myself because it gave me comfort). however!! i think it can be harmful if you start sidelining mike and his blackness because of these racial/ethnic headcanons. mike's story directly revolves around being black in a white town, his story is about the racism he faced and how he was accepted by the losers regardless of his race. i mean the reason he's qualified as a “loser” in the first place is because he's black lol. so just don't minimize his story for your own headcanons.

as for the fandom..... oof A LOT of y'all are racist, fatphobic, sexist, antisemitic, homophobic, and also biphobic. sometimes it does not feel like a safe place for marginalized communities, especially when they are discussing “controversial” yet important issues.

y'all also recycle the same discourse every few months and it's really annoying (though there hasn't been much discourse recently thank god)

some of y’all need to understand that platonic relationships are just as, if not, better than some romantic relationships. ship wars are overrated.

y'all truly suck at engaging with content. you will say this fandom is dying is dead but i can go into the reddie tag or the it ao3 tag and find countless new content every day. yes, that content might not fit what you want, but if you do find something and enjoy it, you need to comment/leave a tag and let creators know that so they feel appreciated. don’t know who needs to tell you this, but when content creators receive positive feedback, they’re more motivated to create content! woah!

i will say that even if this fandom has its bad moments, there are still a lot of great people here. i've made a lot of friends and the it fandom is probably one of the best fandom in regards to unique, rich, and wonderful content. it's 2021 and i'm still glad i'm here! <3

#obviously this is not a complete list of my unpopular thoughts #and it's not organized in any particular way #so sorry if this is hard or confusing to read #again don't attack me if you disagree #i'm always willing to elaborate on things!#it #Anonymous

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sometimesrosy · 6 years

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Hi new to this fandom I've binge read your blog and I'm in love with bellarke and am confident it will happen in s5 but in interviews like at comic con Eliza and Bob seem to really hate the idea? But I don't get why, is it because of the fanbase or they just don't want a romance? Now I'm unsure if the writers will actually write it if both the actors dislike it...

Oh. oh.

There’s been so much so much drama in fandom. SO. MUCH.

The ship wars went to extreme lengths with bullying and harassment not only with other fans but also with actors and writers and producers.

I just.

There was SO much.

When the show first came out, everyone was just fine with Bellarke shipping. Actors, writers, everyone. But then they decided to go in a different direction with season 2 and 3 and didn’t want to interfere with the CL story. THAT was the story they were telling.

Bellarke conversations went on lock down. Pretty sure JR made it so they weren’t allowed to talk about Bellarke at all. And yet the fandom kept asking them about Bellarke. From season 2 to season 3 was the worst as they followed the CL storyline and refused to admit that there was anything at all romantic about Bellarke and it wasn’t in the plan for the show at ALL and they refused to admit that the Bellarke we saw in the narrative was actuallly there.

But we’re not fools here and we have about 20 dissertations worth of Meta in the bellarke fandom about the evidence pointing towards the development of a romantic relationship between Bellarke.

It might seem to you that the writers and actors are anti Bellarke now, during this hiatus, but I can assure you, they are practically screaming Bellarke compared to season 2-3. We’ve been given at least a dozen signs from the writers and show itself that Bellarke is coming, not the least of which is the finale cliff hanger and the SCDC sizzle reel. We’ve gotten scripts of seasons that clearly indicate that Bellarke was written to be romantic. We’ve gotten marketing putting Bellarke at the front and center. They are slowly getting the fanbase used to the fact that there will be Bellarke. And that includes the fans who hate Bellarke. And there are a LOT of them, although many of them abandoned the show when L died.

At this point, they’re not giving us any Bellarke hints because Bellarke is a spoiler. The actors don’t dislike Bellarke. They dislike having to talk about it because of all the constraints they have and the minefield they have to negotiate with the fandom and with the spoiler police. Spoiler police is an actual thing with The 100 cast and crew. I think they have things in their contracts.

I’m convinced that the season is going to feature romantic bellarke as a main plotline, or at least secondary plotline, but no longer under the surface and subtextual.

But you know, I’ve been saying Bellarke was in the narrative since 3.05 at this point, when nobody believed me at all. So. I’m biased.

#the 100 #social media #spoiler police #bellarke #believe in bellarke #also welcome to the fandom and thanks for reading! sorry i just got into the drama of the fandom

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threewaysdivided · 3 years

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Hello! I'm currently fighting with writing, myself. My protags have a habit of getting away from me. Have any tales of your YJDW where the characters just... decide to take a narrative swing to the left when your outline clearly heads right?

Hi there!

So this particular problem isn't one I've had much of when it comes to the actual writing side, which I think is mostly down to my particular writing preferences.

On the scale of planning to pantsing I tend to fall very heavily on the planner side (I've joked about it before but I do actually have most of YJ:DW planned in a fair amount of detail right up to the ending). Partly because my brain just goes a lot faster than my hands can write/type out complete sentences, partly because I like to have a fairly complete idea of the final product before I start work, and partly because the way I naturally engage with things leans more towards analysis than storytelling (I mean, I have a whole dedicated tag for essays on my blog). There's also that, at least when it comes to fanfic I'd actually publish, yes I know that's just one right now I tend to want to have an idea/concept/emotion to explore and also an idea of how to bring it to a satisfying conclusion.

The long and the short of it is that, because I tend to do most of my story-crafting before I actually get to the prose, and because I often end up reverse-engineering/ puzzle-solving chunks of the story around an idea/scene/character moment I want to include, those kinds of characters-derail-the-story or story-takes-a-hard-left-turn moments tend to happen at the planning phase. I'll be looking back over a planned scene/plot and decide that something doesn't feel right or that I'm not sold that my version of the character would believably act like that in those circumstances, or some other part of my brain will pop up from below the desk and slap down a thought like "hey, have you considered that you could get to your goal in a completely different way by adding this idea?"

(Not to claim that any approach to writing is better than another - I have a lot of respect for the confidence, vision and sheer productivity it takes to set out on a long-fic with only a loose idea of where it's heading and the belief that the journey itself is worth it - but one thing I will say for planning is that is does lower the associated "costs" of making big story changes since it's a lot simpler/faster to change or shuffle dot points than to cut, add and rewrite huge swarths of prose not that I don't also do that in the writing phase for some chapters. It's a difference in preference; planner-style leans towards space for analysis during "preproduction" while pantser-style puts it in more at the edit.)

Usually by the time I get to actually writing things in story form I'm pretty comfortable that I've created a plotline/scenario where the characters will follow at least central thread of what's happening. More often what I get in terms of "going off script" is less derailing the scene and more like an actor deciding to ad-lib, improvise or play with a conversation during a take - they'll add a quip or get distracted by a related topic or decide to do something on the side or they might suddenly say something more insightful than originally planned.

Generally I'm okay with keeping this kind of stuff in so long as what they're saying/doing doesn't contradict, change or accidentally accelerate the story/their arc to a later stage that it's supposed to be at - it helps things feel a bit more naturalistic and if they're really going off-track I can always have other characters pull them back on topic, the same way it might happen in a real conversation.

So yeah, I won't say it doesn't happen but just the way I prefer to write means that it tends to happen less often and in smaller ways than for other people.

But that probably isn't super useful for helping with your writing-fighting so, without knowing the specifics, here are some things that could be useful.

Maybe consider stopping to do a little bit of analysis of your story:

Is there a idea(s)/concept(s) that your story is really about/ interested in exploring? Don't worry if what you come up with isn't super neat or precise, I still don't think I could give a fully comprehensive description of what YJ:DW is about in terms of "theme" or "message".

Who are you characters: what do they want, what do they need, what do they think they need, what is their take on the situation they're in, how do they see the world, how accurate/ biased is that worldview, what sort of things interest them and why, what insecurities/ phobias/ dislikes do they have and why, why do they act the way that they do?

What is the main purpose of this scene/plot point and what essential thing(s), piece(s) of information, interaction(s) need to be covered to serve that purpose?

If you stepped back from the needs of the story and just looked at these characters in the situation you've created, how do you feel they would act? Does it line up?

It also might be worth looking at what your protagonists/ characters end up doing in the moments when they try to derail your story, and seeing if you can figure out any potential reasons for why it might be feeling more natural/ the momentum might be stronger in that direction. They might be going "off script" but are they also going off point or are they heading towards the same/ a similar point in a different way than what you originally planned?

It could be that there's a conflict between what you want to have happen and what you've set up to have happen, and that reworking the scene or preceding scene(s) to better direct the characters based on how they've been established to react to things might get them to behave.

It also might be that some unconscious part of your brain has worked out a different route to the same goal and is trying to send you down that path. Or your brain could potentially have identified (or even misidentified) a pattern in the story/character(s) and is trying to communicate that to you through them. It could be that there's some contradiction between what you've established/have planned for the character(s)/story overall, and what's happening in the details of the specific scene that's causing them to break ranks. Sidenote: I just want to point out that this doesn't necessarily mean that what you had originally planned is somehow inherently "worse" or "wrong". Sometimes your brain might be defaulting toward what feels familiar from common tropes in the media you consume because "this is just what happens in these stories", or it might be trying to move a scene that is in some way challenging more towards your existing comfort zones as a writer. On a deeper level, asking "why does this feel correct to me" can also be useful.

Generally though, I think that your plan and your characters/story being out of step with each other is a bit like an indicator light on a car. As much as we like to enjoy the fantasy that these characters and worlds are real and separate from us and not fully under our control, and as much as stepping away from that can sometimes "kill the magic", it's worth stopping to pop the hood or stick our heads behind the curtain sometimes to make sure everything is working in sync and going in the direction it's meant to. Plus, you might learn some new things about your story/world/characters in the the process that end up being useful later.

Hope this helps!

#young justice: deathly weapons #characters #character misbehaviour #writing #story-crafting #writing advice #anonymous #3WD Answers #I have a pet theory that a lot of this kind of thing comes down to us as a species being geared towards pattern recognition #the phrase 'you might not have noticed it but your brain did' exists for a reason #I do wonder if sometimes this is our brains coming up with creative ways to flag a pattern or a devation from a patter #Or suddenly making an extrapolation/interpolation to fill in a gap based on the existing 'facts' of the world/story #In my case though usually it involves the characters getting a lot more quippy/snarky/silly than is needed by the plan #which is nice - it makes them feel more like actual people #I'm working on Chapter 18 and Wally & Sphere decided to have a quippy bit of back and forward in the middle of a tense scene #and it's funny so I'm probably going to keep it #I wish my writing stories were more fun to share but a lot of it is just me being a ~ neeeeerrrrrrd ~

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