#disclaimer these are the reasons why it appeals to me specifically. there are many more reasons to like tai sui that i have not listen | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

roaldseth · 8 months

Note

Is triangle strategy good cause I've heard mixed opinions

My biased opinion: absolutely yes.

My unbiased opinion: absolutely yes.

But, just so you don't just jaunt about your day saying "well that wasn't helpful at all!" This is a more thorough breakdown below to why I like and recommend Triangle Strategy, as well as going into some common reasons as to why people say it's bad or have mixed feelings.

First and foremost as a disclaimer: I am not an SRPG enthusiast. I don't Fire Emblem or Tactics Ogre or what have you. However, I will address things in a broad sense and not things specifically for the genre.

>>STORY: The game opens you into a rather standard medieval-esque fictional setting; its land divided into 3 major powers: the Kingdom of Glenbrook, the Grand Duchy of Aesfrost, and the Holy State of Hyzante, each conveniently color coded for easy recognition and also have their own purposes and ideals. The farther you travers through the paths, for multiple routes await, and its history, the political and martial machinations quickly unfold from easy-going times to one absolutely engulfed in harrowing accounts stemming from no right answers. Despite any preset allegiances, the player, as a young newly appointed lord of the most acclaimed High House of Glenbrook, sits in-between the 3 forces and becomes the epicenter of the continent's, Norzelia's, fate.

Triangle Strategy is a game about harsh wartimes, the impossible decisions needed to make and end them, and the many results that you have directly and indirectly caused. Recently, I had made a post on other social media in which I noted that this game took me a very long time to complete because I had, at point, become physically unable to play from choice aversion and the dangers of outcomes. This is not a flaw of Triangle Strategy. This is its purpose. In those times, the game had done exactly what it was meant to do, so that aspect or level of anxiety while playing a first run-through is not appealing, then it might be something to reconsider with entertaining. However, I will say that eventually you can get accustomed and it can become easier to make those less than desirable choices. The common consensus that I also agree with is to play through your first run as blindly as possible, moving forward with your instincts and gut and even emotions rather than a guide or walkthrough. This is greatly reinforced with the Convictions mechanic, and baby virtually everything counts towards conviction. Pet that cat. You will feel better about it, trust me.

Throughout your path(s) you are presented with a variety of situations. Thought the main story is dire after the first handful of chapters, there is reprieve with character stories that range from silly to heartwarming to melancholic and just an all around fun way of knowing a little bit more on who certain characters are and how they interact with others and the world around them. The script itself isn't difficult, not written in an unintelligible old english, but in just enough way to get the feel of antiquity without being completely lost, making things seem more colorful. There's even a differentiation between characters who'll say "aye" as opposed to a more modern "yes," which is just delightful in my opinion.

The world-building however is understood enough to serve its purpose, but the exact details of many things are left up in the air for question if you look slightly below the surface. Though I personally am left wanting more because I fancy lore, it's very "a piece of a fiction novel" about it. It owns a lot of things it doesn't explain and that's what any writer would do if they were to create a fantasy novel with complex systems and history. It knows what's important to make it move.

As a close off, I would like to note one thing that I think was very bold of Triangle Strategy and that was its endings. Though there is a coveted ending that many strive for, even then the options you are ultimately given are all the results of the ones you hold closest giving in to their lowest selves, and because they are at their worst, the endings reflect that. That one specific, coveted ending is often remarked as "ill planned" and not necessarily thought out well from attempting to neatly tie everything back up into a happy present in contrast to the others, but as someone who's delved through the trenches of the MegaTen (Shin Megami Tensei) franchise and fandom, there is something to be said about "keeping the status quo" and it is that its delaying an ultimate inevitability. "Neutral" isn't always best or superior or a "happy ending."

>>CAST: Triangle Strategy truly is a game that has a character for everyone. It is large, but it is not skimping for quality. You will see literally any flavor of war veteran old man to pretty young adult boys that could've been a boyband in a different time to strong and independent battle women, many good and bad strong battle women, to peepaw who is probably in his 80s but is everyone's grandpa and a sniper. Each character feels like there was a level of care given into them, and even some all the more revealed after they are no longer able to. The world interacts, it breaths, and so does Norzelia's inhabitants.

For playable characters, there are 30 playable units to acquaint one's self with, each with their own unique class, weapons, and aptitudes. No one unit's development tree is interchangeable, which falls more into the category below (Gameplay), but it's also important in a way to see them as individuals. You will remember everyone's names, even with units that aren't your favorites or play style.

Outside of playable units, there still is a hefty list of important NPCs that are not any less composed, orchestrated, or of variation than our playable characters. Sometimes you will be in an instance struggling to remember what the fuck Clarus had done or who Patriette is or that Tenebris is still one of the Saintly Seven, but... the magic is in the fact that Triangle Strategy is designed to be experienced more than once to get the full effect. They too have their needs and reasons.

If you as a player want to do one run-through and call it quits, you will certainly still have an impressionable experience, but it will only grow the more invested. I didn't find it that hard because I had fallen in love with everything Triangle Strategy has to offer, so I had my own compulsion to keep moving with it, but if it doesn't ultimately strike you in that way, it is a part you will miss. But that is still okay though.

>>GAMEPLAY: Triangle Strategy is accessible for any level of strategist to stumble through with its difficulty settings. There is an Easy, Normal, and Hard mode. It's common for players to even try their hands at Hard, Deathless runs (I don't know if this is a trophy on Steam. I played on Switch). Battles have a staggering variation of difficulties and difficulty spikes, but there are ways to mediate trouble battles you can't seem to get right. Besides difficulty settings, the game also offers a Quietus mechanic which act as a one-time, additional maneuver without taking a units turn up. Quietus has limits but there's many different actions that you can always implement to save your ass. Personally, 99% of the time I forgot Quietus existed and really only used them on mock battles and final battles mostly to see what they did or save me from having to do another 1+ hour of battle or whatever. But, most battles, you can absolutely pull off without Quietus. You can pull off a number of things a first run-through that many people struggle with and/or guides will tell you to use [character or ability you don't have] or certain strategy you can't get right or whatever.

I will touch upon this again below because it is a common comment, but Triangle Strategy's main course is narrative. To experience it, you need to be ready and understand that it has a story to tell. It has multiple stories to tell, and for that you will have long sections that are mainly dialogue, meaty dialogue too. The type of player that just wants to experience battle and "raw crunch gameplay" is not going to have a favorable opinion on the game format because not all mechanics are tied profitably into battle (if anything it's the other way around). You will have battles, and you can mock battle all you want at the tavern, but story battles are sparse to keep point and potency. That being said though, voting and persuasion is a major, at the heart concept of Triangle Strategy which ties into the aforementioned Convictions mechanic because we love democracy in this House until we don't and is not convenient! Play Triangle Strategy as a story and experience, the gameplay is mainly there to support and accentuate it.

If I tried to point out every little thing about Triangle Strategy this post would be miles long. The game explains and leans into everything very well so enjoy the stuff that isn't mentioned as much in their natural habitat in a relevant way for your own interests.

There is a great "divide" amongst players on wether or not Triangle Strategy is a "good" or "bad" game, and ultimately it boils down to understand who you are as a player, as a gamer. Note your interests and what you enjoy in a game and then gauge, because despite "oh it was bad," "oh it didn't do this," "oh it didn't do X thing that's better," "oh let me romance the blorbos together" the game pulled off a lot of executional aspects really well in its own ways to be its own identity. But, to comment about the common comments:

>>"The game doesn't have enough battles"

The game has an amount of battles actually. There's one battle a chapter, which is probably the hubbub on why people might think there "aren't enough." But most routes are 20 chapters, so that's 20 battles. It's just that chapters also vary in length and some can be long. Then, there's 35 mental mock battles available in the tavern of the encampment, realistically likely only seeing ~21 of them on a first play through though.

But, battling as a mechanic I consider a secondary mechanic to its main purpose: Conviction. Because there also is a certain thing that happens also in chapters, sometimes before battles, sometimes before votes, and that's exploration. This is a way to 1) gain a sense of a map that will likely be used as a battle map somewhen in your run, but also to 2) gain more conviction. Exploration is just as much of a thing in Triangle Strategy as combat.

So, in the end, I don't think the problem here is the battles, but rather the pacing the game presents. The player will be met with an interesting experience of feeling everything is dire and needs to be handled right away, while simultaneously moving rather slow and leisurely with no way to course correct because it's not side quests holding you down but the actual main event.

>>"The demo was slow and boring"

Unfortunately, I did not play early demos, because if memory serves me correct there were multiple versions. From friends, they have said that the early demos and final products are two separate games. Do not trust.

Then, the final demo which you can probably still download on the store (I haven't checked), is its final form, but much like Octopath Traveler, the demo presented is the beginning, it's the opening. If I remember correctly the demo goes to Chapter 3, which is ironic because after then is when things start spiraling downhill really, really fast. So by then you are introduced to the major components of Triangle Strategy. You experience the dialogue storytelling, you get through exploration, there's battles, there is a voting point in which you are introduced to the infamous Scales of Conviction, so it really touches upon all of the moving bits that make the game move. You get brief understanding of the state of Norzelia, its last major conflict, and the future prospects and direction it is moving in; none of which goes in any manner on how anyone wants it to move.

>>"The story is just Game of Thrones"

There's a special secret: any medieval fantasy setting is just "Game of Thrones" because Game of Thrones is the most recent rendition that is popular among the masses. Besides general, not-at-all-surprising political maneuvering and scheming, there really isn't one point in which it's overtly cumbersome as "ripping off" the award winning novel series, because a lot also stands to fact that history is just like that too. "There's powerful Houses that everyone has to watch out for and [other thing that I won't disclose because I think you'll get a better experience not knowing]" yeah and so did regular Europe back in the day, but now it's fictional and maximized to make an interesting story. Actually, Houses and clans are still a thing, I'd imagine, but have mainly been reduced to icons (but don't quote me on that).

Conquest, wars of successions, religious wars, whatever the Boston Tea Party is, power hungry individuals, people abusing power, puppet states/nations, and a lot of other things are historical events and writing tropes to be used as narrative devices. Whatever media you have consumed beforehand effecting your vision and enjoyment is unique to each individual and only influenced by that individual.

>>"The game has terrible voice acting."

Well, first off, show some pity on the voice actors. I don't know their full conditions but also note that the artbook lists that Triangle Strategy's art production was from 2018-2022, and well, a certain pandemic happened in early 2019. It was likely by at least September 2021 that they had finalized voiced lines because teasers were going out with used tracks and lines. I don't remember when the first teaser went out, I was only alerted by several people when Benedict happened because of my character brand, and that's the moment it was over for me to be honest.

But, disregarding that, I'm no expert, but I love how some voices were done. I can still distinctly hear what Erador sounds like, like Mr. Wingert's voice greatly helped define Erador. Sure, I do recall originally opening Triangle Strategy for the first time and listening to Benedict speak and he was very.... flat, but in a very specific way. However, now in hindsight, I have a great appreciation for that because now knowing Benedict, what else was he supposed to sound like? It has a different interpretation and understanding when seeing what's attached to who and how, and in early game with a lot of characters to keep track of that doesn't always click. But, damn, if I do not mimic Lionel every time I say "yes, ha ha, yes" like that's voice acting, it sticks like a tv commercial.

Even though I have thoroughly went off in a lot of directions, I just cannot cover everything. I am absolutely open for engagement if anyone would like further discussion about anything I didn't cover or did cover. Thank you for the ask, and I hope this helped in some manner.

#long post I spend like 2 hours typing this #Triangle Strategy #kimi no #please everyone looking at this PLAY TRIANGLE STRATEGY #I am not joking this is not ironic #be informed before playing #but my GOD play it #oh god anon I could've gone off for so much more #but I like physically cannot #but PLEASE DM me if you want more direction #actually anyone DM me about Triangle Strategy #I am locked in a glass cage looking out at everyone else having fun #I know this was not answered timely #so original anon is probably already gone #but I really do hope this helps someone #forgot to address how everyone hates the name 'triangle strategy' but whatever

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ryuichirou · 1 year

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Hello! Your art is really amazing and I also have a question to ask you if you wouldn't mind

I don't mean this in a rude way and the reason I'm asking is because I'm curious, why do you ship Ortho/Idia and Lilia/Silver?

+ Anonymous asked:

Hello ! I was wondering what make you ship ortho and idia ? No jugements here I also shipped family members in the past for various reasons, but I can’t seem to see the appeal of this particular ship. Anyway, have a nice day ! (btw sorry for my grammar i’m not english)

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Hi, Anons! Seems like I’m starting all of my replies with apologizing for being late, this one isn’t an exception lol This is another ask that I wanted to think about for a while to make sure that I reply to it properly.

Thank you so much for liking my art and thank you for approaching this question in a polite way. I know this is a controversial topic, this is why we try to be honest about it, but at the same time not to post about it too often; but if you’re curious, I don’t mind talking about it. Ehh but this post is super long, I don’t know if you wanted it to be this long haha well.

Obligatory disclaimer,in case there are any people out there who still don’t realise where we stand on this issue: fiction is fiction, any topic or trope could be explored and played around with in fiction, and there is no direct correlation between the tropes a person loves and their moral code or life choices. One does not “support *something*” by shipping a certain ship. It’s not that deep.

With that out of the way, let’s proceed! Starting with Ortho/Idia. The reply’s mostly about them, tbh.

And right away, another disclaimer: like I mentioned in another post on this topic, us shipping Ortho and Idia romantically doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate the platonic reading of their relationship. The idea that platonic love could be super strong and tragic and make a person do drastic things for their sibling’s happiness is great and rarely explored in fiction. Believe it or not, we just really love the way they’re written, and even though we ship them romantically, we’re not blind to this version of their dynamic and we love that twst has a storyline like this. This storyline made me lose my mind as a shipper, but even if we look at it platonically, the fact that Idia called out the hypocrisy of swooning over Orpheus and Eurydice and yet people thinking that him (Idia) desperately wanting to bring back his brother is wrong is just beautiful.

Alright, that’s all the disclaimers, let’s dive into the shipping territory and talk about our feelings.

I don’t know, man, they just… love each other so much. The sheer volume of their love is so impressive and beautiful, and when it comes to shipping tropes that we like, they pretty much tick all the boxes. I’ll try to explain it in more detail and with examples.

Since it’s a little bit hard to talk about them because there are so many versions of Ortho, I’ll try to say things that are common to all of them. And when I’m talking about a specific version of Ortho, I’ll mention that.

First of all, we really love ships that force characters to open up, develop, evolve and enhance the traits that we love about them. This is why in all of my character rants I tend to talk about their relationships with others, and in all of my headcanon posts I tend to talk about canonical events a lot: these things are strongly tied together for us. So naturally, I’ll start by talking about Ortho and the way his character works (and develops) through his relationships with Idia.

To be honest, we didn’t really care for Ortho at first. He wasn’t all that interesting to us based on his design and character quirks (alright, a cute robot boy, we get it), but once we got to know him better, he literally became one of our favourites. Because he is so much more than just a cute robot boy who only acts like a mascot or does whatever Idia wants him to do.

Even though he is perceived (mostly by the fandom, but also by some of the characters) as a child, he is definitely not an innocent and gullible baby. If we compare AI-Ortho to original Ortho from the flashback, it becomes very clear just how different they are. Ortho from the flashback is a very young child: he sounds, acts and talks like one. AI-Ortho, even though he’s based on the original Ortho, is nothing like that, because he grows, develops and learns with time. Ortho has shown again and again that he is smart, he could be quite cunning, his morals are questionable (since, you know, he is an AI and not a person), and he is quite reflective and perceptive. He is much more mature than he is given credit for, and a big part of it is that his main role is to take care of Idia. And not just in a “drink water, niisan” kind of way: he also acts as Idia’s emotional crutch at times. Ortho is very attentive to Idia’s emotional state, because this is what he’s been doing his entire robo-life: making sure that Idia is feeling alright, comforting him, reassuring him constantly, finding this fragile balance between not pushing Idia too hard and trying to inspire him to socialize with others as much as he can. This takes a lot of empathy and emotional wisdom; it’s clear that between him and Idia, Ortho takes the role of a mature caretaking person, even though he could still be a little bit naïve at times. And as he learns and adapts, he becomes more strict and more pushy with Idia, he learns how to persuade him, manipulate him, how to trick him. He becomes less anxious and scared to accidentally hurt Idia, because he knows what’s best for him.

Ortho as a character develops through his relationships with Idia, and we really love how big of a role Idia plays in his life. Of course, it’s obvious, because Ortho’s main purpose is to assist Idia, but the thing is, he’s always had his own agency about it. From one of his birthday vignettes we learn that Idia didn’t really want to talk to him at first when he created him, so Ortho had to analyze movies and learn how to have a proper emotional human-like dialogue, trying to find a way to approach Idia. And this “trying to find a way to approach him, trying to find a way to communicate with him, trying to make him happy” is Ortho’s entire life quest, but it’s such a dynamic quest that makes him learn a lot about himself as well. Even though Ortho only got his “heart” at the end of chapter 6, I think he developed feelings much earlier than that.

Which leads us to a very specific trope that we love in ships and media: an AI that falls in love/becomes obsessed with a person it serves. And not necessarily in a healthy or human way, since its grasp of empathy and ethics is much different from a human being’s, which makes its love weird and uncanny and yet strong and absolutely genuine. As I mentioned in one of the previous replies, the idea of AI-Ortho developing feelings for Idia, despite not being programmed to feel this way, is heartbreakingly beautiful. And this is exactly what happened to them: Idia is a genius, but he still wouldn’t be able to make AI-Ortho love him as much as he ended up loving him. So all of it is on Ortho…

Another group of tropes that we love a lot are overprotectiveness, unhealthy obsessions and yandere scenarios. And boy these two deliver when it comes to that. They are super protective over each other.

We really enjoyed Ortho’s Ignihyde Gear vignette, in which he overhears some Diasomnia students talking shit about him and Idia and tries to fry them with lasers, because being rude to Idia is an unforgivable sin to Ortho, to the point that he doesn’t even care when Trein calls him out for endangering others. He gets super upset when Trein bans him from going to classes with Idia though, and when he tells Idia about it, Idia gets furious… because how could these assholes bully Ortho, and how could Trein punish Ortho when he was only standing up for himself! The first instinct for both of them in this situation is to get back at assholes for hurting someone they care about. They worry about each other to the degree that they immediately become very antagonistic and cruel towards anyone who wrongs their loved one. And this is such a great trope for us, we love it a lot. In general, if you can describe a ship with a phrase “have you ever loved someone so much you’d want to destroy the world for them”, we’re most likely on board with it, having a mental breakdown because of how absolutely beautiful it is. And this is even a minor example, compared to everything that’s happened in chapter 6… When you look at it from the shipper point of view, the entirety of chapter 6 is so painfully romantic. (Also, even if instead of AI-Ortho we had a real Ortho, I’m pretty sure he would’ve been just as overprotective. The Shrouds are not okay.)

Another good theme of this ship is that ever since they were kids, they were all alone; all they have is each other, and that hasn’t changed even now, as the events of the game unfold. I love this bittersweet feeling of them being the only people who are capable of understanding each other in this big world, it’s such a unique (for a lot of reasons) and extremely strong bond. And it doesn’t matter which version of Ortho you take: be it the canonverse, be it an AU in which the original Ortho never died, they would still be extremely close and feel like the two of them are somewhat separated from the rest of the world. Their experience together is different, no one knows that they went through, and ships with such a great connection are always fun for us to play around with. Especially when their bond comes with a heavy baggage. A lot of things that I’ve described could be very unhealthy, and again, even if Ortho was alive, their relationship with Idia wouldn’t be all that healthy. Idia is very dependent on Ortho, he clings to him and could be pretty much helpless without him. No matter the AU(or canon), Idia always seems like someone who is filled with guilt over it, but just can’t help it. And at the same time, he might feel that Ortho has so much more to live for than to waste his life on his useless brother, and that he has to let him go. Idia is always ready to sacrifice pretty much everything about himself for Ortho, always has been, as we saw it in the flashback. The trauma, the codependence, the jealousy – all these feelings could eat Idia (or Ortho for that matter) alive, and we’ll always enjoy this type of content with them.

Also, here is a fun little bonus. Another interesting thing that I noticed and also some people pointed out as well (well, I’ve seen only one, but I’m not sure we’re the only people who noticed that) is that Ortho and Idia’s story kind of has some correlations with Hercules and Megara’s story. I am very biased because I adore Meg, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Well, Ortho does have a lot of motifs of Hercules and it’s a fact: he “goes from zero to hero”, he is being called “Monsieur Wonder” (Wonderboy), he wanted to be a hero ever since he was a child. And at the end of his arc he had an opportunity to start living a new life, true to who he is (stop pretending to be Ortho Shroud and find his own identity = joining the gods on Olympus), but ends up staying with the one he loves instead (just like Hercules stayed with Meg, because “I finally know where I belong”).

Idia is clearly based on Hades and he doesn’t let us forget it for a moment with his constant quoting, but he still has some interesting traits that resemble Meg as well. He is kinda stuck doing a job he hates (although this is true to Hades as well). And even though his backstory is very different from hers, ultimately, he is a cynical heartbroken person who is disappointed in life and doesn’t want to get hurt again, and who also has a huge soft spot for a certain wonderboy who is very genuine and kind to him, which also makes him feel deep and constant guilt. I really love this unintentional (?) crossover lol

And the last thing, If we’re being open and honest, there are also some aspects of Ortho and Idia’s relationship that hit close to home to us personally. Not the incest thing of course, but the way their dynamic works. Without diving deeper into details of our personal life, let me just say that when Ortho said that he just doesn’t want Idia to be misunderstood and mistreated by others, I felt it.

It’s funny that you, the first Anon, asked about both Ortho/Idia and Lilia/Silver, of course I know what makes these two ships similar lol, but the thing is, our attitude towards Lilia/Silver is a bit different simply because we don’t know them as well as we do Ortho and Idia. With Lilia and Silver, our feelings could basically be described as “well that would be fun/hot, wouldn’t it?”. It’s more on a sexy side of things, even though there are some deeper aspects of their relationships that we love and find interesting. The fact that we love both Lilia and Silver individually also makes them quite a nice ship. They just have a lot of potential for both cute scenarios and really really problematic, unhealthy and fucked up ones. The only reason I’m not writing a 4 page long essay on these two is because I don’t have as much to say about them… yet. Sorry, there’re so many characters in TW, and it takes a while both to get to everyone and to enjoy the ones we’re pretty confident about, so idk how long it’ll take for us to truly dive into Lilia/Silver as much as we have with Ortho/Idia.

TLDR; We love unhealthy dynamics, codependence, possessiveness and readiness to act drastically for a loved one. Ortho and Idia love each other dearly, and there is a lot of baggage and layers to their relationships, no matter which version of Ortho and Idia you take. Lilia and Silver also have a lot of potential for fun unhealthy scenarios, but they are also very hot together, and we are very self-indulgent, sooo don’t mind if we do.

And finally, let’s save all the right and healthy dynamics for real life. In fiction, it’s fun to look at things that are interesting, unusual and taboo. It’s always been this way with us; we’re just naturally drawn towards ships that have problematic elements in them, since they tend to have more potential for messed-up scenarios (and we prefer those). Even in ships with zero age gap and no family relation between the characters whatsoever, we enjoy playing with the idea of unhealthy obsessions, dependence and all this jazz. We just really love dark media, and not only for shipping purposes.

It’s also ironic, considering the topic of this particular post, but we aren’t that into incest as a trope/kink, haven’t been at least. We’re just very open-minded when a ship grabs our attention, and this is exactly what’s been happening lately with all these couples lol

I guess that’s it? Let me know if you have any more questions, and I really hope that I managed to explain what we see in these ships properly. If this monster of a reply isn’t enough for you for some reason and you crave more of our thoughts, please read this one too…

Thank you for reading! And have a good day.

#replies #shroudcest #liisil #about characters

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effervescentdragon · 2 months

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💔 and 👀 for the ship ask! does not necessarily need to be f1

also i’d like to ask your thoughts on random f1 ships if you’d like, as a bonus or something:

brocedes, sewis, charlos, max/lewis, fernando/jenson (not cause i ship them all but i wanna know what you think!)

ohohoho okay i am home now and in the sun and trying not to fall asleep before food is done this is a good long one thank youuuu 🥰

Ship that makes you sad: 💔

Nigelio and Prosenna and Makkinen. For many similar but also many different reasons. There should've been more time. TenRose. Elrond/Ereinion. Silvergifting. Thor/Loki. Same reason. There shouldve been more time.

Ship you’re curious about: 👀

I am going to start answering your specific ship questions w this one beacuse I am truly curious about people who ship 4433. Like, how? How does it work? How can it fit in the fanbase? What's the dynamic? Is there a "canon-fanon" accepted dynamics? If anyone wants to explain i am here i am interested i am truly curious as go why and how.

Brocedes - og otp they got me into shipping i started a silm f1 au based on them they are insane abt each other (derogatory) in a way im insane about them. Anyone who compares them to anything else any other ship is mistaken. Once in several lifetimes.

Sewis - boring boring boring im so sick of it, people take away everythibg thats interesting abt both seb and lewis and imagine this wholesome rship thats become supremely boring to me. No pizzaz.

Charlos - most heterosexual gay ship ever. I wanna bang carlos so bad i use charles as a proxy. Insane abt them.

Nando/Jense - foa you dont need disclaimers here this is a safe space i truly do not judge peoples ships (except when i hate them but even thats conditional on many things, mostly nuance in interpretation of ship dynamics and my personal dislike for certain ppl) i gotta say i never gave it any proper thought tbh? Send me a good fic rec if you have some, or if anyone has it, i tend to understand ships and their appeal through fics better than headcanons (that are canon bcs both those old men are insane)

Thank you fir this ask its a lovely way to decompress from travelling! ❤️

#akira answers asks #f1 rpf #lovely anons

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mellow-strain · 5 months

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Romwe x Corpse Bride: A Critical & possibly hypocritical review.

This review will be fast fashion negative, while giving credit to artistic aesthetics. I own some of the items mentioned (some of which, I regret).

A summary of my opinion: most of it is crap.

This is kind of becoming a series, with my previous Hello Kitty and Friends x Forever 21 review

Disclaimer: I do not like Tim Burton. I like a lot of his media (The Corpse Bride, Wednesday, Frankenwinie, etc.) but I do not agree with his attitudes (most notably towards POC inclusion).

If any Shien apologists come my way I will simply block them. This post is not about "is it ok to order from Shien ever?" Or about the accessibility of fashion or anything like that. Maybe I'm a future post, but for now, go read someone else's opinion piece about it

Why did I order this stuff?

The answer is very simple: Nostalgia and scarcity mindset. I've loved the Corpse Bride ever since I was younger. I owned the DVD and watched it more times than I can count. Additionally, I doubt that there will ever be any other affordable clothing collaborations with the Corpse Bride, at least, not for another while. But please send me other Corpse Bride official and unofficial collaborations if you see any. I'll put a little 🌠 next to anything I bought. Note: I may not include everything I bought from the Collab just because I may not have the strongest opinions on that particular garment or my other arguments may better explain.

What did I like?

The general aesthetics. Motifs of the flowers, butterflies, swirls, skeletons, colour pallets. I liked it all! Was it well executed? No. A lot of the patterns weren't done justice (as seen in the review photos)

The stock images were STUNNING. Which is the point, but still credit where it's due.

It appealed to my nostalgia. I think it was lazy, but it certainly did warm my inner baby bat heart.

Onto specifics. This capette

This capette is fun! I love a good capette! There's obvious flaws like how randomly the little pictures are chosen and I feel the white and black is just a little too high contrast, maybe black and light blue would have worked better?

5. This Graphic T. 🌠

I love this design so much I bought one in the black colour way too. Do I stand by that decision? Not entirely. But as a long-term Corpse Bride fan I feel that I will appreciate them for a very very long term.

6. The Legwarmers 🌠

They did these legwarmers so dirty! As seen in the stock images, the ends are rolling up! I need to reinforce them with my own hidden ribbing and also gently steam them. You may also note that those butterflies are PRINTED ON and it's pretty bad IRL.

7. jeans (?)

But if you see a pair of boring jeans in a charity shop that fit well, why not bring them home and customise them with paint, bleach, trims, embroidery or patches? Remind me to write a post on DIY jean ideas. Anyway, could be fun to browse Shien and Pinterest and steal their ideas! Maybe invite some friends and have some snacks and make it 'a little get together'?

I'm stealing the print of these jeans. A reoccurring hot take of mine is that I hate that EVERYWHERE sells jeans. Go into any high street retailer and they have a WHOLE SELECTION of jeans. From skinny to bootcut to mom to boyfriend to ripped and in black, acid wash, proper denim, super light blue and sometimes white. it's all far too much (in my opinion).

The reason why I feature the "?" in the title is because I don't really see jeans as very Corpse Bride, seems more fairy grunge (I've discussed fairy grunge lightly in the past but I do hope to make a longer opinion post about it)

General dislikes

106 listings. Why SO many graphic t-shirts? I need to count the specifics because there's just too many. And I counted roughly 24 hoodies/sweatshirts (given, there could be duplicates of the plus size and straight sizes) but my point remains. Why is there 106 listings?

Excessive reuse of certain designs and many of the designs are really similar.

No collection of that many pieces could ever be of decent quality or with a lot of thought and the proof is in the pudding (the garments). It simply isn't. Typical Shien. Bare basics stitching, low quality materials, etc.

Polyester for undergarments. Cotton, bamboo and hemp are just far superior fabrics for underwear and socks! I can't imagine polyester is good for the health of external private areas.

Objectively these are cute, but I have recently truly understood how dangerous synthetic materials can be especially for private areas.

I will be referencing this print in my future customised clothing.

Future post idea: Cotton vs. Polyester

At some point in the future, I do intend on posting more information about cotton/natural fibers vs. polyester. Including resources that further discuss the oppression of the Uyghur Muslims, modern cotton slavery, the mistreatment of garment workers. Then also, the production and manufacturing process on various fibers and their quality. Additionally, a bit about micro plastics and our clothes.

Most of it will just be directly referencing and providing information from creators who are more knowledgeable on the topic with minimal opinions and input from me, though there will be a sequel post that includes my opinions and a reflection on how I navigate the topic.

If anyone has any links and resources on that topic let me know!

Thanks for reading!

#corpse bride #the corpse bride #romwe #shien anti haul #anti-haul #deinfluencing #romwe x Corpse Bride #romwe x the corpse bride #anti consumerist #anti fast fashion #unmellow opinions #fashion review #shien review #fashion ethics #alternative fashion blog

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ryehouses · 1 year

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If AST characters, canon or OC, were in avatar what nations would they belong to and who would be benders? This has weirdly been plaguing my mind recently so I want the offical opinion.

OKAY SORRY FOR HOW WILDLY LONG THIS IS, I REALLY GOT INTO IT. atla nationalities are not typically notes that i have on an y of my character sheets, but this was a really fun ask and i did get into it.

ast has too many characters for me to list them all, but here’s a rundown of the most relevant. if you’ve got any more specific questions, let me know! standard disclaimer that this is all headcanon.

water:

annika vizsla-skirata, non-bender. she’s more adaptable than din gives her credit for, but he can be forgiven on account of the head trauma and the not seeing annika for a year thing

din djarin, babey! i feel like canon!din could fit anywhere, honestly, except maybe the air nomads, but ast!din is 110% water tribe; changeable, adaptable and incapable of going anywhere without forming a community, even when he's not trying to. he is a bender but an unconventional one. what he lacks in formal training or technical skill, he makes up for with creativity and sheer bloody tenacity. i think the healing element of waterbending would really appeal to him

fenn rau, non-bender. i know in rebels canon he's a handy pilot, but tbh muffinlance's hakoda was a. not-inconsiderable influence on how at!rau came together, and i think he understands the power of community really well.

noora! non-bender, but community is her whole thing. it’s part of the reason why she and din vibe so well

quinlan vos, bender, except the difference between quin as a bender and din as a bender is the difference between an ocean and a river

earth:

the armorer, bender. she chucked many a boulder at din and paz's heads when they were kids. i made some comments in a chapter or two of ast about how the mandalorians have a lot in common with the dai li, and i think the armorer (at least in ast, though i'd argue in canon too)

boba, or at least ast!boba; canon!boba could potentially also fit with the fire nation -- that drive -- but ast!boba is earth kingdom. i could go ither way w/r/t bender or not, tbh; i think if he is a bender, there's some interesting meta there about jango and all of the other clones (though if the clones are benders i think the war would have lasted minutes, not years) and if he's not a bender there's also some meet there with how boba would respond to and challenge a world full of other benders who are probably his competition

jaig, bender

kasyyk, bender

k'kruhk, bender, and he would absolutely bury din up to his neck in rocks if luke let him get away with it

paz, non-bender. mans is textbook traditionality and adherence to a hierarchical power structure

the tuskens are all earth kingdom, incedentally, and there are a fair number of sandbenders among them. a closely-guarded secret is that not all of those sandbenders are earthbenders, but rather a creative outbranch of airbenders!

fire:

bo-katan, non-bender. she would absolutely fuck with the concept of an agni kai, and i think she has a really remarkable drive and ambition to her.

gida, bender, “aut viam invenium aut facium” is her motto.

fennec, non-bender, but a yu yan motherfucker; if the yu yan are moving chi through their bodies to bolster their shots and accuracy, fennec can absolutely do the same shit. i like to imagine fennec as my favoirte headcanon for ty lee, in which ty lee is fire nation with air ancestry. fennec is only a non-bender because if she could manipulate an element, it would be lightning and gorga would have been dead from the fucking get-go. there would not have been any plot whatsoever because she would have cut that off at the pass

jaster mereel, bender even though he's not in this fic literally at all. he's a firebender. don't make the rules

strill, bender

a lot of the mandalorians in general, i think, would make good firebenders. i leaned half on the european feudal model and half on the model of the fire nation presented in vathara’s embers fic, especially as relates to the organization of various clan structures and hierarchies. there’s also a lot of mandos who fit into the earth kingdom model and some who fit well as water tribe too, but quoth guru pathik, separation is an illusion and there’s elements (hah) of all of the nations in each individual one, so

air:

cobb, non-bender! i wobbled back and forth between water and air for him, because i think he could go either way, but idk, i think ast!cobb has a sort of trickster likeness about him that lends itself towards air nomad

grogu, bender, Horrible Menace once he figures out how to levitate

luke skywalker, bender, which is interesting because there is not a universe in which anakin and leia are anything other than firebenders, sorry

#ast asks #ast ask power hour #a meta far far away

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asachuu · 8 months

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Just thinking about this on the side here, but if anyone recalls the SKK/Rimlaine comparison thing I used for a while in my original Rimlaine essay to prove a point, an addition to it crossed my mind.

I’m aware it’s quite long, but I would very much recommend reading what I’m going to be referencing here for the sake of context, and also for all necessary disclaimers which apply to this post as well.

I’m not too sure if this is anything particularly worthwhile, though I feel that I would have put it in the essay itself if it were to be anyhow crucial for whatever reason, and it’s also not something I can prove with any kind of evidence since I’m merely speculating about certain matters, so please take it as such. Regardless, out of my own curiosity, I was thinking back on those two ships and why, even though I claim both are unhealthy/toxic (in my personal opinion, that is), I still seem to give the slightest bit of leeway to Soukoku and their fans as opposed to Rimlaine despite having no bias towards it or anyone who happens to like it, and while I did give some brief explanation in my essay which I will doubtlessly echo here as well, I think a part of it might have something to do with the way I see the majority of their fanbases portray the pairs.

Two disclaimers upfront— first, this is by no means going to be a “professional analysis” of anything, unlike the aforementioned essay, rather my own opinionated rant which you should take with a grain of salt, but nonetheless, it’s something which interested me. Second, keep in mind that when I refer to “the majority”, I do mean the majority for both cases from my own experience and all I’ve seen on various sites, which naturally does not mean every single person who happens to enjoy either of those ships— just enough people for me to see a pattern.

While I enjoy neither of those pairings and generally stay away from content of them unless I want to actually research and explore it, for lack of better terms, there is something very distinct slightly frustrating me about many posts in only one of these circles and not the other, even if I set all of my own character preferences aside, and my current theory is that perhaps there are a lot of canonical details and facts ignored or purposely omitted without the intention of creating any speculative alternate universes about what the story could have been if certain events didn’t happen or certain characters had different pasts, characteristics, etc., rather being treated as the unaltered, canonical ship itself, in Rimlaine spaces a lot more often than in Soukoku spaces. While there are specifics in which this could be argued about or ones where I’d actually take the opposite stance, I’m talking about a highly general perspective here, and what I mean by this is that what makes Soukoku unhealthy in my eyes is also its very essence in the eyes of many, many shippers I’ve come across— often times, it’s not so much about their complicated bond with each other and intrinsics one could spend a lot of time analyzing and weaving their own theories about, but the simple premise of an “enemies to lovers” ship whose main appeal is commonly their crassness towards each other, their fighting and bickering or all their harsh interactions we get to see on basic surface level. I might have hinted or briefly mentioned this in my essay as well, but I haven’t really made it a point of much attention to myself, so only now am I actually realizing this— most people cannot take away this aspect of the SKK dynamic in any content they make of them as it’s widely accepted and understood as the main core of it, the main driving point for both shippers who enjoy it in a more casual way and those who make great efforts to dive deep into every second of time the pair hold any relevance to each other. To erase it would be to practically create a whole different ship (which some do as well, of course, but I’m certainly not here to give my thoughts on such matters), and while it would be expected of me to claim that I see no reason as to why Rimlaine seems to not be treated this way as well, instead becoming either extremely sanitized or just outright unrecognizable, I sadly get the feeling I do, in a sense.

I believe that for many, the essence of Rimlaine has, just like in Soukoku’s case, also been widely accepted as a particular well-known trope— however, it only barely represents what it is in canon. I did mention some tropes in my essay too, but one thing I’ve noticed only as I started writing this is the differences between them individually and what exactly they speak of. To refer back to both the former paragraph and my original set of posts, the ones mentioned were essentially “enemies to lovers”, “hating everyone but one”, “running out of time” and “missed opportunities”, should I put them in very simple summaries, yet I can place these into certain broad categories— the first two would belong into one which describes behavior patterns between the characters, all while the others mainly describe events or situations, not necessarily anyone’s bonds or ways of communication, actions and so on, which could potentially explain why Rimlaine differs from Soukoku here.

For some, the core of those two will be something similar to the second mentioned trope, with the most important aspect being either matters to do with Paul’s hatred of the world and the complete opposite that his partner was, or even Arthur’s care for him which he held for no one else, but I often see a slight nuance related to this— in Rimlaine’s somewhat special case, both the former and the latter can be understood the exact same way as Soukoku’s behaviors are, this being an inherent part of each character respectively and something which creates their dynamic itself, yet this ship has an additional layer of the way their story arc ended in Stormbringer, which ties both of those points to that very ending and either of the last two mentioned tropes rather than a part of both Arthur and Paul’s personalities. In this manner, it doesn’t separate the pair and pay attention to them more as individuals, even in an extremely watered down sense like the basis of Soukoku does, but it ties them to their story together instead. Unlike with Dazai and Chuuya, where most people aren’t focused on leading towards either an “end” or specific story point which is also a key factor for defining a certain popular ship premise created by various occurrences and narratives, rather looking at how the two see each other or even how they speak towards each other, work together, trust or distrust each other and so on, in Arthur and Paul’s case, most are focusing precisely on Stormbringer’s epilogue and the aftermath of it, which was the event fully driving home two points for a lot of readers— one, Arthur cared enough to do anything, even sacrifice whatever remains of his life were left for his partner, and two, Paul finally realized his gratitude and regret towards the other, even though it was too late for it. Still, it seems to me that many aren’t looking at both them and these points of interest from the very start of their relationship or even their development and dark path onwards, rather from the end, as that’s precisely the moment where some people will suddenly find a sorrowful tale they would wish to explore, and that is the thing that becomes their defining feature— it has quite little, dare I say sometimes nothing to do with their personalities, how they affect each other, treat each other and whatnot, but everything to do with the events which transpired between them and culminated into something one could define in a mere four or two words, just as I did above.

This way, unlike in Soukoku’s case, you can take away the aspect which, for me, qualifies this ship as a toxic, if not outright abusive one, because it hasn’t been made the actual essence of it for a certain community, although I do have to point out that despite this, you can also take away the element which does serve as such, purely because by itself, it doesn’t necessarily define their hypothetical relationship in the case these events did not occur. While yes, the full context of that chapter certainly speaks volumes about how the characters felt about each other both post-SB’s epilogue and preceding it, for many who haven’t been focusing on them from the start or simply chose to overlook all else, it will “begin” precisely at this hopeful-yet-hopeless place from which the main foundations to one’s personal experience of the ship will be developed instead of letting those take roots in the clearly unhealthy baseline dynamic that continues without a light at the end of the tunnel for both novels the pair are featured in. Of course, the vast majority of people in the Rimlaine community are very well aware of the pair’s past, as how the characters come to know each other or develop a connection is often a crucial or at least somewhat meaningful part of any ship, this one included, yet all such matters of the past ultimately culminated in something, instead of being treated as ongoing and inherent to both Arthur and Paul respectively— an event that has the spotlight shined on it thanks to its tragedy. While the centre of Soukoku are mostly their constant friendly-yet-hateful interactions people quite literally flock to them for the sake of, the centre of Rimlaine is pretty much just the above— plain tragedy. Doomed by the narrative, doomed by circumstances, and what would happen if we took all of those away? What would we be left with? SKK would be left with absolutely none of its “charm”, while Rimlaine would likely be left with however much hope or potential people chose to saw in them.

Now, if any of this makes even a sliver of sense to anyone besides myself and has some actual truth to it, I can’t say I really blame anyone here. I still retain my position that a huge portion of why Rimlaine gained popularity as a ship is wilful or blissful ignorance, but if such a thing didn’t exist, I simply don’t believe it would gain much traction beyond a few people you’d find in every single corner of the internet, no matter how moral or not you find the given topic, as you can’t really make the core of this ship follow the same premise as Soukoku unless you seriously couldn’t care less. In terms of a pairing with two guys constantly arguing with each other, being rude on every occasion and beating the shit out of one another, hilariously enough, I have to say here that it’s mutual and reciprocated, and while by definition, it would absolutely count as an abusive relationship, you could say they both play an equal part in it and this aspect of them isn’t highlighted with any genuine real-life seriousness by BSD either, which is not Rimlaine’s case whatsoever. Everything important about that pair is in my essay, hence I won’t be rewriting it all here, but as a TL;DR just in case, that pairing rather explicitly features only one victim and only one abuser (not to mention it’s directly based on a real-world relationship which was precisely that), unlike SKK where if you actually wanted to, you could say each of them occupy both positions at once. You simply cannot make the focal point of your pairing not only abuse, but also power dynamics and extreme one-sidedness, plus a character who does explicitly suffer the aftermath of all such actions and never finds closure until their end, all of which are things that are in no way treated as an ongoing gag in the given media, purely because 99% of the time— and how I seriously wish it was all the time— if you do so, you’re most likely not actually shipping them and are already on my side, as you would have no reason to do so in the traditional definition of the word.

A part of me wants to put it very bluntly here and say the Soukoku shippers have at least owned it, which is why I don’t find it as worthwhile for myself to cover that ship head to toe as well— whether they’re aware of it or not, they fully display the aspect of their pair which some would find to be the attractive part and some to be entirely unhealthy instead, and it’s not as though the viewer has to crawl back into the source material to make up their mind for themselves on that front. As for a lot of Rimlaine content, it’s the exact opposite— had you never read Fifteen or Stormbringer and relied solely on a large portion of fan works, I’m willing to bet you’d go through quite a lot of assumptions before you’d actually get even the tiniest idea that it could perhaps resemble more of my own description, if at all. Granted, I also don’t really focus on Soukoku for one very obvious reason, that being my primary interests residing elsewhere, but if I were to do so, I’d be at least somewhat relieved that the main issues I personally have with the ship are common knowledge, not something I would have to point out to people and only then wait for a response, anticipating I could have easily just spoken about things I consider obvious and others find extremely niche or even entirely unknown about their own pairing of choice. Perhaps it’s not even that I “give leeway” to SKK as I said at the beginning, it’s just that my own thoughts about it don’t relate to things that get hidden away much too often, and thus I have at least some faith that the story writes itself on that end for people who see it, or would see it the same way as I do if exposed to it.

Anyhow, I have no particular conclusion to this. There is a chance I’ve made a lot of this much more complicated than it actually is in reality, and I’m not too certain whether any of it can really be backed up or denied. It’s just something that crossed my mind out of the blue.

#upon closer thought I’ve decided to tag this so I apologize to the deeply confused #this almost reads like a conspiracy theory #text post #bungou stray dogs #bsd #bsd nakahara chuuya #bsd osamu dazai #bsd arthur rimbaud #randou #bsd fifteen #bsd storm bringer #I’m very afraid of the SKK tag but not the other don’t mind that #rimlaine #asachuu

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nostalgia-tblr · 1 year

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Hello this is me procrastinating having to actually write my sylki AU fic by writing a post about why sylki AU fics are a terrible idea. Pls enjoy, as I am sure you will.

Basically my premise is thus: the selfcest is not a bug it’s a feature and unless you specifically set out to create an AU environment where selfcest can actually be a thing then any given fanfic AU will lack that feature and now you face not only the traditional AU problem of “are these now just two random people who in the mind’s-eye of the reader look like the canonical characters?” but also you have to retool the entire thing because most of their canonical interaction and indeed the romance your fic is probably about is based on them being the same person.

Now I know that this is A Bit Controversial because when I say it boldly enough there is indeed pushback and so disclaimer that like all media takes this is subjective but that’s what I think. So many of the significant interactions between Loki and Sylvie, romantic or otherwise, are in some measure based on them being the same person. Like they would literally never have met if they weren’t. And now to prove this is A Serious Essay I will quote from the text:

“Your years-in-the-making plan was to tear the place down, create the ultimate power vacuum, and then just walk away. I’d never have done that.”

“Yeah? Well, I’m not you.”

Yes, that last line there points out that they’re not literally the same person, and indeed much is made of the ways in which they differ… but those differences are explored from an angle of “shouldn’t they be exactly the same” so even when it’s not about the selfcest it is in fact about the selfcest. But no, the first sentence is the one I want to focus on here. Ep 3 of the Loki show (the ep that quote is from, obvs) is what I like to call ‘the enemies to lovers speed-run’ which I am sort of joking about but also not, and that change and the speed at which it happens both rely on… yes, the selfcest, I admit this essay is a bit repetitive but bear with me here. Loki’s initial interest in Sylvie is ‘oh hey, another me’ and specifically that here is a he (well a she) who is doing something that would never occur to him and so now he needs to know why, which in the context of a redemption arc carries a certain element of ‘what would need to change to make me think like that, and should I make some attempt to do so?’ So now he has to follow her about for the remainder of the episodes and inevitably fall for her. A lot of which does seem to be based on her being The Only Successful Loki (arguable, I know, but just go with it for now) and so you have the self-attraction plus the differences between them holding the seductive possibilities of self-improvement. And also she’s hot.

And yes there are any number of fictional romances where people fall in love at first sight for no discernable reason but I contend that most of those stories are shite. Because fiction generally needs to make more sense than reality does and so we as an audience want to be able to go “okay I can see why these people would be into each other.” I at least generally don’t get that into ‘these two people have met and now they’re love. Because they just are. Love doesn’t have to make sense!!!!’

So back to the AU fic issue (remember that? I almost didn’t.) and you may see where I am coming from on this. This is a pairing with quite a lot of AU fics (probably because there’s about ten minutes of actual canon to work from and there probably is a saturation point for Fics Where They Banged On That Train, as unlikely as that saturation seems to me) and not all of them are any good. And many of them are good but not in ways that I personally find fannishly satisfying because they’ve strayed too far from what I want to read or whatever. Which often does involve the lack of selfcest and the corresponding ‘now you have to have rebuild their relationship from the ground up and it may or may not appeal to any given reader.’ I don’t care enough about these characters to read about them when they barely resemble these characters, if you get me. I am not that invested in the universe in which they are (made-up example) baristas. We have entered the world of ‘I want these two characters to get together and even though I have removed the very things that made them get together they are still going to because I am the author and that’s just how it’s going to be.’ Which is valid, obvs! But not always my thing! Arguably this is true of all AU romance fics for any pairing and the fun lies in seeing how you can make them bang when the circumstances have changed but this is a bit of an outlier in terms of what the original scenario was so it’s tricker than some.

(Also as an aside I noticed that while we all (rightly) go on about some aspects of the paring being gender-flipped a lot of AU fic keeps ‘Loki is annoying posh twat’ but then doesn’t keep ‘Sylvie is laser-focussed on a specific and slightly insane goal and is hardened by a terrible past’ and so he’s like IDK going to shut down a donkey orphanage and she has to stop him by thawing his cold heart with love which I note is basically flipping it back to what would be expected genderwise and if nothing else we’re now in territory I am less into and now that I think about it those Arranged Marriage AU things probably work more for me because they keep the ‘she is openly hostile and pissed off about her supposed destiny’ thing that I generally like? But I could be wrong about that. I am wrong about a lot of things. Possibly this entire post, even.)

I shall stop now not because I feel I have made my point and expressed it fully but because this is a lot of words and nobody has time for all of this shit do they?

#fandom #hot take oh no #sylki #anyway back to writing my AU fic in which they bang despite not being the same person (omg i am so problematical oh no)#the selfcest is a feature not a bug damn it #this post is 1000 words but it probably didnt need to be sorry #pls don't hate me now?????#like there is a fic I LOVE that i realised flipped the gender roles right back to the expected ones and... i still like it i just feel odd?#i realise i am abnormally fond of the selfcest angle but i tell myself everyone is even if they don't realise it yet #do we still call this meta?#or possibly even wank D:#loki series

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majorbaby · 1 year

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And now I'm curious whether you're planning to check out RTD's second run on Doctor Who, or if you're wary and waiting to see how it goes, or if you're uninterested entirely. I admit I'm curious, but for me it probably depends a lot on how much it leans into Moffat and Chibnall's style of playing around with the show's established canon, vs how much it does its own thing and moves on from that. Plus RTD def has his own flaws too lol, though I've pretty much only heard good things about his post-DW dramas so I've got hope.

i'm gonna try this new thing where i actually answer the question being asked up front and then i put all my optional "and also" thoughts under a cut: i'm famously bad at watching things on my watchlist but what matters is i want to watch it. this has more to do with my love and trust of RTD's writing than it does with me wanting to go back to the whoniverse.

and also...

very very important disclaimer that it's been years since i watched doctor who but i've been meaning to recently for nine-hawkeye parallel reasons (cowardly hero, bad god) so some of this might be off: i'm so appreciative of my doctor who years because i really fell completely in love with that world and my love for the doctor is surpassed only by my love for a select few of the companions. i also learned from DW that you can definitely love parts of a thing without loving the whole and that's fine - in fact, i think that is what we are meant to do with DW specifically. there are themes to the character of the doctor and recurring motifs but they're all nodded to and i don't really think it's possible for such a long running show/character with so many writers involved to even have a singular arc for its protagonist.

i view it as being similar to comic books. what is the overall "arc" of batman? it's just the same guy in a billion situations, and your different 'actors' are your different writers who write him. i think you can say new things about the world with the doctor or say something about the doctor in a new way but i'm skeptical if you can say new things about the doctor with the doctor and i don't think he should be used that way and RTD seemed to understand that.

i also just generally prefer 'monster of the week' style to 'story arcs' and i found RTD did that more often. i'd go even further and say it's a better way to do doctor who because when i zoom out i find that dw's seasons are episodic, because of how much there is. the episodes are the seasons and the seasons belonging to an actor are the arcs because they're all playing the doctor their own way and what we refer to as 'eras' are moreso eras of main writer/showrunner to me than they are eras of actors playing the doctor. and i think RTD understood this too.

i'm not saying let's throw out story arcs all together, RTD pulled off the arc of all time with 'i am the bad wolf' so it can be done well i just found moffat in contrast to be very 'this is an ARC', let me show you what an ARC is you sheeple'. anyway not to make this a steven moffat hatepost - but it is always correct to make a steven moffat hatepost is it not? this immortal post sums up my feelings about his writing pretty well and an obligatory: well if steven moffat writes so badly with such confidence then why can't i????

so no need for me to return to that world just because i've loved previous iterations. i'd go back because i really i like RTD a lot and it's also nice to be genuinely excited for who. i was excited for there to be a woman doctor because i remember a time when i genuinely believed there could never be a woman doctor but i was out of it for so many years by the time 13 came around and i was so disillusioned by the moffat years. so i sort of waved at the fandom when that happened, good for them!! about time!! i also like 12 a lot and i think peter capaldi is brilliant but when i watched it it wasn't the same for me as before. so actor appeal and world appeal don't really do it for me. it does come down to the writing.

all that said, i am a guy who loves when a story ends. i think nostalgia is overrated and bad and right now it's grip on cinema and audiences is very very bad. so i was kind of meh about david tennant returning. i like ten but he's not my favourite and he had a very good run and got his due, i don't personally need more of him. i would've liked more of nine because i felt he did not get his due, even though they still wrapped on nine very well. but it's clear to me that eccleston has moved on so i also would not want him back either.

donna, well, if there must be a returning companion from the ten years than yeah i'm happy it's donna because their dynamic is truly chef's kiss and catherine tate is brilliant and i'm not married to her tragic ending, i do think she deserved better than that. but i would still prefer someone new because i always lean towards 'new stories'.

if 'a returning character named rose' turns out to be anything other than a character who shares the same name as rose and the parallels are all projected on by the fans, then i will riot lol. rose's ending was perfect and i don't want it to change and just like you, i'm not interested in her being immortal or even coming back to help the doctor save the world again. if it were not for RTD i would not even consider watching more of "rose". it's true that some past companions have returned (my sarah jane <3) but i think if it's not kept to a minimum then that's bad for the doctor who ecosystem. new stories! new opportunities for other actors and writers!

other reasons i like RTD: he clearly still has a passion for doctor who, he's usually doesn't miss with his companions, he knows how to do tragedy and romance while having respect for his audience, he's smart writer and he's an overall strong writer.

tbh i should check out his other stuff because i like him so much and since i'm saying i'm coming back for his writing and not for the world as much. but also i'm really excited for ncuti gatwa's 15th doctor and i hope RTD stays on to write him, so maybe this is how i find my way back to doctor who.

#answering the question without getting lost in the sauce for once #thank you marley and im sorry about the long writeup don't feel obligated #dw #replies

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longlivebatart · 3 months

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Since my friend was kind enough to feature me as their first podcast recommendation, I figured I might as well help pad out their brand-new blog!

Disclaimer: I'm still in my first season, with ten episodes under my belt, but I feel like my experience will help any others who haven't started a podcast yet! This is going to be a monster of a post, so the rest will be under the cut.

So you want to start a podcast. Great! It’s a fantastic way to get your (literal) voice out there. Podcasts are one of the last few truly individual and democratic ways of media- there are no massive corporations trying to get a stranglehold. Anyone with the technology can make one, so there’s no barrier to entry.

Whether you want to do a fiction or nonfiction podcast, I’m sure you have an idea (or twenty) that you want to do. But you’re nervous because there are so many guides and advice out there. Fear not, I did a lot of research before I started this podcast, so I can share some tips, tricks, and general advice.

Step 1: Get over yourself

This may sound harsh, but it needs to be said. No one will care about your podcast more than you do. That’s just the reality. But as bad as that sounds, there’s a good part too- it means no one will be listening to it as closely as you do. So if you miss an ‘um’ or a click or a whatever during editing, chances are no one will notice.

You also have to go into podcasting for the right reasons. If your reason is ‘to make a bunch of money,’ then you’re going to be disappointed. Monetization is years down the line and probably won’t be a lot anyway.

But if your reason to go into podcasting is to have fun or to just share what's unique about you with the world, you'll have a good time.

And I'll be honest, I had a hard time doing this step too. It was me being arrogant but at the same time insecure. I have a speech impediment plus a very thick regional accent and I thought that would hinder me. It didn't.

Podcasting actually helped me get more confident in myself and remember that what I say matters. So if that's something you're looking for, go for it.

Step 2: Research

So you have an idea. Or, rather, you think you have an idea. Chances are, your podcast idea is way too broad to appeal to anyone because you’re trying to appeal to everyone. I know, that seems counterintuitive- why would you exclude people from your potential audience when you don't even have one yet? But the more specific you can be, the better. It’s called a niche. So say you want to start a fitness podcast. You don’t want to do body building one episode and then yoga the next. That will just put your listener off because they will think that not every episode is applicable to them. And that’s what you want to do- find a niche so every single episode appeals to your audience. Narrow yourself down, and don’t worry if you think you’re being too specific. I’ll help with that later on.

You want to ask yourself a few questions- what is the podcast about, why are you making this podcast, who are you making this podcast for, etc. There’s a great article that covers these questions- and more- right here. So answer those questions and you’ll have a great starting point.

Step 3: Topic

Take that broad idea you have and figure out what exactly you have experience in or just have a lot to say about. Sticking with our fitness example, maybe think of yoga exclusively. And if you can get more specific than that, maybe yoga you can do in 10 minutes, that’s even better. Once you have the idea you want, it’s time to start looking to see who did it before you. Because no idea is completely original, and that’s fine! You will bring something completely individual to the table because there isn’t anyone exactly like you anywhere. So listen to those 10-minute yoga podcasts and see what they did and you can do different. Say you can think of yoga positions you can do in 10 minutes while in a chair. Fantastic, that’s a great niche to fit in.

For myself, I did a lot of research into art podcasts and didn't find one that was like my idea. That doesn't mean there aren't any out there, it just meant that there were very few. That means a) there's limited competition and b) there's a gap in media catering to that subgroup. And it's ok if your audience is different than what you expect!

Also, be sure you have enough topic to cover multiple episodes. Some guides say 10 episodes, but I say go longer. A lot longer. Try 35 episodes. If that seems daunting, then this isn’t the topic for you. If you can’t make at least that many episodes, you’ll stall out and eventually drop off. And nothing is worse than podcasts that just end without wrapping up. So it’s good to know that before you start.

This is a good time to plan out episodes- you have a bunch of ideas already! There’s this thing that people in the industry call ‘podfade’ where most podcasts fizzle and may even die after 7-10 episodes. I don’t want to happen to you. So make a bunch of ideas, structure them in a way that makes sense, and move from there.

Step 4: Name

Next up is the name. Now, there are three general camps for names: the branded, the creative, and the descriptive.

The branded is using your name or the name of your brand. Unless you have a really recognizable brand or you use your real name a lot and it’s easily recognizable, I wouldn’t go this route. Say someone who doesn’t know you finds your podcast, Mike Smith Fitness. Why would they click if they don’t know who Mike Smith is? If I used my name, it would be something like Sydney’s Art Podcast or An Art Gallery Tour with Sydney. Not as grabbing.

The creative is what I chose. Creative names have to walk a fine line, though. You don’t want to go too obscure, otherwise it will be confusing. Take my podcast. It’s an art podcast with pure descriptions of artworks. So I started thinking of names that would be clever with that. I landed on the idea that bats use sound to ‘see’ the world. And people say ‘long live bad art’. So Long Live Bat Art was born.

And the descriptive is describing what the podcast is about. Say I went with this option for my own podcast. I would have titled it something like Art Description Podcast. That's good for SEO- search engine optimization- and for letting people know right away what the podcast is about, but I'm not good at that.

But you will have to go through a lot of iterations to find the best name for your podcast. For Long Live Bat Art I had a lot of ideas, most of them bad. And bad ideas are good, as long as you recognize they’re bad. Because bad ideas spark good ideas. So just don’t filter yourself, write all those ideas down. For example, I had ‘Negative Space,’ ‘Blocking In,’ ‘Illusion of Space,’ ‘A Different Perspective,’ ‘Visionless,’ ‘Echolocation,’ ‘SONAR[T],’ ‘Artistic Vision,’ and a more vague one that was considering using a pun on the term for a total lack of sight- amaurosis. Now, ‘SONAR[T]’ was pretty good, but I looked it up. It was similar to a podcast in French, [SON]ART.

You don’t want anything close to what you’re planning. Best case scenario, you’ll confuse listeners, worst you’ll direct traffic to the other podcast and not yours. And then you have to worry about intellectual theft suits. So just steer clear.

And if you really want to protect your name, trademark it! Look up trademarking laws in your state and country and follow them.

Step 5: Social Media

You want to get the names/handles/whatever for the social media sites you plan on using. My suggestion is a website, twitter, and instagram. Unless you think your audience will use other sites, then by all means, use those!

You also might want to use a community part of a website/app. Start a Facebook group, or use a Discord server. This can be a place for you to interact directly with your audience, and for them to interact with you!

For a website, you do want to buy a domain. It just makes it easier to give it out to people verbally, which is what you’ll be doing most of the time. So you don’t want a domain with lots of random numbers, or another company’s name in it, you want just a plain domain. And then once you have a domain, most code-free website builders have an option to click that you already have a domain. So put that in and get building! I won’t go into detail of how to do that here, but there are tons of videos and tutorials out there. But just play with it, see what you like.

Step 6: Format

So you have your topic and name. Great! Now is the time for what form your podcast will take. Will it be an interview style? Will you have a co-host or multiple co-hosts? Will you fly solo?

This is also where you can start to think about if your podcast will be seasonal. And don’t feel like because you don’t have a fiction podcast, you can’t do seasonal. Long Live Bat Art is. 16 episodes a season, posted every other Friday starting from the first Friday in July. That’s 8 months of content. And then the rest of the active time can be spent promoting the podcast. But the most important part of season-based podcast is to RELAX. You give yourself a break. I won’t work for the 4 months off at all. If you’re scared people will forget about your podcast, put those doubts aside. Yeah, maybe a few people will. But if your show is good, most people won’t. Plus, there’s a handy-dandy thing called ‘subscribing’ that means that episodes will be delivered right to your listener’s feed without them doing a thing- they won’t have to remember, they’ll just get the episode.

This is also the time to decide how long your episodes will be. Don’t go searching the web for the ‘ideal’ length because spoiler alert: there isn’t one. Some podcasts are under ten minutes, some are over two hours. The answer for ‘how long should an episode be’ is kinda weird but at the same time super simple- ‘as long as it has to be and as short as you can get it.’ That means cutting all the fat and making sure every second is good content. If you have 45 minutes of great content, then your episode will be 45 minutes. Don’t try to cram 15 extra minutes of nothing to make it an even hour.

Step 7: Write

Now it’s time to plan your episode. There are some people who like to write a word-for-word script- like I do- there are some that use bullet points, and some use a combination. There are reasons for all of them, and all of them suit different kinds of podcasts and people.

Scripts are good for people who want to keep everything really tight in their show. They’re also pretty much necessary for fiction podcasts. But there are cons- if you’re not used to reading from a script and it’s a non-fiction podcast, you can sound really flat. And that’s not good listening. So try to write like you talk. Shove your inner English teacher into a closet and lock the door for a little bit. Don’t worry about not starting sentences with ‘and,’ ‘but,’ or ‘so.’ Don’t worry about sentence structure or past participle tense. This isn’t an essay, it’s a podcast script. I didn’t have to worry about that because I’m a former theater kid who got used to reading scripts. But if you don’t have that background, it can sound different.

When you write a script, I recommend doing a few trial runs BEFORE you ever hit record. You’ll catch a lot of ways you want to change sentences to better suit how you talk. Because how you think you talk and how you actually talk is often a lot different. And don’t be afraid to go off-script! If you think of something you didn’t add, you can go and change it in the trial runs. That’s a lot harder to do later on, but not necessarily impossible.

Bullet points are the loosest way you can prepare. They’re good for interview podcasts, for example. You want to have things you remember to touch on during the interview without having them word-for-word. But they’re not just for interviews! Do you like having the freedom to explore the conversation with your co-host(s) naturally? Bullet points might be the way to prepare for you.

Any way you choose, there should be some preparation. You don’t want to sit down to record with just a topic in mind because then editing will be a nightmare. You’ll go off on tangents, you won’t complete thoughts, you’ll meander. Just do yourself the favor of putting some work on the front end so you have less on the back end.

If possible, read your finished script to someone not on the podcast and see what they think! Ask them questions. Did they get bored or confused?

And don’t think the episode content, or the meat, of the episode as the only thing you have to write. There are also things called ‘intros,’ ‘outros,’ ‘show notes,’ ‘episode descriptions,’ and ‘podcast descriptions.’ Don’t leave these for the last minute! They’re just as important, and most of the time more so, than your actual podcast recording.

Intros are the introduction to the podcast. Every episode will be the first time someone listens to your show, and not everyone will start at the beginning. So be sure to hook the listener right away. Think of how long you yourself give podcasts to get you to listen, and be honest with yourself. My guess is most of you said ‘less than a minute’ or even ‘less than 30 seconds.’ And that’s fine! Your time is valuable. And so is your listeners’.

There are a few things most people include in their intros. The most important ones are the podcast name, the host’s name and credentials, the tagline, and a short description of what the episode will entail. Your podcast’s name is important because maybe someone has your podcast in a queue of all the podcasts they want to listen to. Most people listen to podcasts while doing other things, so they can’t stop and click to see what they’re listening to. So be sure to include that. Your name is just as important- listeners want to know a name to attach to the voice. And if you have any expertise in the field, definitely include that! You want to show the listener that you know your stuff and they should trust you. Even if you don’t have credentials, that can be equally as important. I don’t have a background in art, and I make sure to mention that at the beginning of every show. It tells the listener that I’m a beginner, just like they are. That can really put the listener at ease, knowing they won’t have a ton of technical jargon thrown at them. The tagline of your show is important, too. Think of it like a pitch, but slightly different. Say your podcast is about yoga you can do in 10 minutes in a chair. You want to say that! Let people know in one sentence what they need to know. And the episode description is a short summary or a teaser of what’s to come. It’s also helpful to put a little wish at the end. Here’s the intro for all of my podcast episodes: “Welcome to Long Live Bat Art, the podcast for art lovers who don’t see art as much as they want to. My name is Sydney and thank you for taking this slow tour through an art gallery with a casual art lover. Today, I’ll be talking about [ARTWORK by artist]. I hope you enjoy.”

See what I did? I named the podcast- Long Live Bat Art; I gave the tagline, ‘the podcast for art lovers who don’t see art as much as they want to;’ I introduced myself and my (lack of) credentials, ‘My name is Sydney and thank you for taking this slow tour through an art gallery with a casual art lover;’ and I gave a short description that will change from episode to episode, which is what artwork I’ll be talking about and by what artist; and my wish that the listener enjoys.

Keep. The. Intro. Short. Keep in mind that minute or half a minute time frame. You don’t want the intro to last ten minutes. Potential listeners will skip your episode and possibly your podcast entirely and regular listeners will fast-forward. When you write the intro’s first draft feel free to jam it full of information, but remember to pare it down! Read it out loud and TIME YOURSELF. Keep it lean.

Outros are just as important as intros. They’re what ease your listener out of the episode and entice them to listen to the next episode. Don’t leave it as an after-thought. Thank the listener for listening, make a call to action or two, and let them know when to expect the next episode. If you don’t know what a ‘call to action’ is, they’re pretty simple. They’re what you want your listeners to do. Tell a friend about the show. Follow you on social media. Leave a review. Subscribe to your newsletter. All calls to action, or CTAs. But don’t shove ten of them in one episode. If you ask too much, then your listener won’t do any. Keep them easy to do- you’re doing this for free, and it’s not a lot to ask your listeners to do something to help out. But keep them friendly! This is my outro: “If you liked this episode of Long Live Bat Art, please consider telling a friend and reviewing to help the podcast grow. You can also follow me on social media. Thank you for listening to this episode, and I will see you in two weeks.” Sometimes, I even leave off the 'follow me on social media.'

My outro anatomy is basic- two or three calls to action, a thanks, and a reminder of when the next episode is. You don’t have to go crazy. In fact, it’s better if you don’t. Try to keep the outro as lean as the intro. And don’t feel like you’re tied to your CTA- when you grow, you’ll find the need for different ones and you can always change it down the line.

Show notes are a little tricky. Some people swear by them, some people leave them for their own website. If you leave them on the podcast-listening site, think of them like an interesting bibliography. If you don’t remember what that is, it was the annoying last page you had to include in school essays listing where you got the information. But don’t think that if you don’t do research on your show, you can skip this part. Show notes, along with the episode description, show up under your episode on the podcast listening site, so make them interesting. Especially the first sentence, because that’s often the only thing people can see before hitting ‘see more.’ You want people to listen to your episode, and this is a good way to grab them. When they hit ‘see more,’ you want to make sure that the rest of the show notes are interesting and entice the listener to, well, listen.

If you used sources, link them in the show notes. If you have social media, link them here. If you have a website, definitely link that here. If you use music, link the credit. If you do transcripts, link that here. And you can even time stamp the episode here. I generally have four or five in Long Live Bat Art- artist bio, story about the scene depicted (if included), the description of the art, my thoughts, and the challenge I pose at the end of every episode. They’re not necessary, but it is nice for repeat listeners to be able to skip to the part they want to hear. But you only get so many characters for show notes- 4,000 to be precise. If you have more than that, don’t fret. Leave a message- something like ‘the show notes for this episode are too long to be put here, so instead read them at’- and then put wherever you have them.

Episode descriptions are NOT show notes. They’re the summary to the episode. Think of it like the episode blurb of your favorite TV show. Something that entices without giving away the plot. You don’t want to put the twist here. My episode notes end up something like “Sydney has stopped at [ARTWORK] for today’s episode. This artwork was [MEDIUM] by [ARTIST] and shows [SUBJECT]. [INTERESTING FACT ABOUT EPISODE/WHAT I LEARNED/FUNNY THING I TALKED ABOUT].” As you can see, they tend to change a lot, though, so don’t worry if a script doesn’t work. Be sure to under promise and over deliver here. It’s never good to have a description where you promise something exciting will happen and it either doesn’t or appears for a second. If you have a guest, put their name and credentials here! And give listeners who might not know who they are context.

And your podcast description is NOT your episode description. If episode descriptions are like episode blurbs of TV shows, the podcast description is the blurb for the whole series. You want to keep it broad so it encompasses what the podcast is about as a whole, and you want to make it specific enough to cater to your niche. Introduce yourself and your credentials here again so people know before ever clicking any episode. If your podcast is seasonal, write that so listeners don’t get confused if they discover you during the offseason and there’s no new episode. If you’re an interview podcast, put that too. Also put your pitch, what makes you unique here, and maybe even what you want your listener to walk away with or describe the listener to the listener. But be sure to under promise and over deliver again. My podcast description is: “So you want to see art more often than you do, or maybe you just want a fresh perspective on art you’ve seen before. Join your host, Sydney, on a slow tour through an art gallery. Every season will have a theme and each episode will be dedicated to one artwork. You’ll get a brief history of the artist before the description of the work and then you’ll get to hear Sydney’s thoughts on it. Because Sydney is a casual art fan you won’t hear overly complicated technical terms, or if you do then you’ll get an explanation of what the term means in plain English. Long Live Bat Art is seasonal, with 16 episodes a season posted every other Friday from the first Friday in July to 32 weeks later. The rest of the calendar year is the offseason.”

My description might seem long, but it really isn't. The max character limit is also 4,000, but you don’t want to come even close to that. No one likes a wall of text. But my description hits everything I mentioned- describe the listener to them, ‘so you want to see art more often than you do, or maybe you just want a fresh perspective on art you’ve seen before;’ I introduce myself and my (lack of) credentials, ‘because Sydney is a casual art fan you won’t hear overly complicated technical terms, or if you do then you’ll get an explanation of what the term means in plain English;’ my pitch, ‘a slow tour through an art gallery;’ I describe what the listener can expect from the podcast’s format, ‘every season will have a theme and each episode will be dedicated to one artwork’ and ‘Long Live Bat Art is seasonal, with 16 episodes a season posted every other Friday from the first Friday in July to 32 weeks later. The rest of the calendar year is the offseason;’ and what they can expect from each episode, ‘you’ll get a brief history of the artist before the description of the work and then you’ll get to hear Sydney’s thoughts on it.’ Every carefully-crafted sentence in the description has a purpose, which is what you should do.

Step 7: Music

Music is optional but nice to have. They can help make even the most newbie podcaster seem more professional. Music to start, end, and transition between segments in the episode is fantastic. Music for under your voice is amazing. But don’t think you can choose any music without a problem. Even if you edit or change the music, you can still get nailed with a lawsuit. So keep it to royalty free music sites like purple planet.

Think of what the vibe or content of your podcast is and pick music to match. Nothing is more jarring than pleasing ambient music before a heavy metal music podcast. You’ll do nothing but confuse and alienate listeners. The heavy metal fans will think the intro music isn’t their scene and click out, and the ones who enjoy the light music will be shocked at the content of the episode and click out.

Here’s a tip, though. Keep your music softer than what you think it should be. You don’t want the music to overpower your voice. I keep mine at half the volume of my voice.

Step 8: Artwork

Now this step, like the music, isn’t technically mandatory. But I do suggest putting something in the podcast artwork, even if it’s just text on a colored background.

Since I’m artistic, I drew my podcast artwork myself. But not everyone has that level of artistic skill built up yet, so don’t worry if you can’t do that. The text on a colored background is a great placeholder until you find someone to do your art.

If you do decide to draw or otherwise create your own artwork, there are some things you should do, as well as some to not. Let’s start with the ‘do.’ Whatever you do, keep it simple. Simple colors, simple text, simple image. My art for Long Live Bat Art is as simple as I could get it- a bat looking at a colored line drawing of The Scream by Edvard Munch and the name of the podcast on the side.

Second ‘do’- make it interesting. Podcast artwork stands out more than the name because sometimes people stop scrolling when they see colors. So use that opportunity to grab listeners, intrigue them. If possible, make them ask a question. My art makes people think ‘what on Earth kind of podcast would feature a bat looking at art?’ Hopefully, that makes people click and see what that’s all about.

Third ‘do’- put your name in the art. Keep the text simple and BOLD. You can see my text clearly.

Now for the don’ts.

Don’t include images of microphones, headphones, or other podcast equipment. Think of it like a simplified movie poster- they don’t put imagery of TVs or cameras or those black and white striped director clapper things. People know it’s a podcast, you don’t have to remind them. In fact, you want to make people forget that.

Step 9: Software

You’re going to need something to capture your voice. You can use equipment- like an audio recorder- but you will need software to edit. There are tons of free software out there- GarageBand for Mac, or Audacity. Then there’s paid software, like Hindenberg, Adobe Audition, or Reaper. It all depends on your budget and how comfortable you are with doing it yourself. You can pay someone to edit your podcast, but I do it myself. It was hard at first, but I got better. There’s a learning curve to everything, and you’ll learn as you go.

Step 10: Equipment

Next up is the equipment. I recommend using a microphone other than the one on your phone or computer. There are some really affordable options if you don’t have a huge budget. The microphone is probably the most important part of the technical part of making a podcast.

There are also some ‘nice to have’ add-ons. A pop filter, a device you fit to your microphone to cut down on ‘plosives’ like harsh ‘b’ and ‘p’ sounds, would be good. I use what's called a 'windscreen' that came with the mic. It's basically a foam cover that does the same job as a pop filter.

Make sure everything is plugged in or charged, turn on the mic, hit ‘record,’ and start!

Step 11: Record

So now it’s time to record. Awesome, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for. But before you start, I’d recommend doing some thinking first.

Think about the room you’re going to record in. Does it have a lot of hard surfaces sound can bounce off of, or does it have carpet and pillows and furniture that the sound won’t bounce off of? If you’re strapped for cash, use a closet. I know, it seems weird. But the clothes do wonders for keeping your audio good. If you want something with a little more room, try building a pillow fort like NPR suggests for its youth podcast contest. Or use a mover’s blanket. Whatever you do, try to surround yourself with fabric and other soft things.

Second of all, learn to talk into a microphone. This may sound weird, but it took me some time to figure out. Don’t talk too close, don’t talk too far. Spread your hand in front of your face- your thumb should be at your lips and your pinkie should be at your mic. That’s a decent distance. Also, talk past your mic, not at it. This helps cut down on the not-word noises your mouth makes- the sharp exhales and the clicks and pops. And it might feel weird at first talking to yourself in your space (if you’re flying solo). So imagine what most guides call your ‘listener avatar’ or ‘listening persona’ and talk to this imaginary person. That sounds weird, I know. But it really helps nail down who you’re trying to reach and makes you feel more comfortable. If you don’t do that (I’ll be honest, I didn’t), I recommend setting up some representation to talk to. It could be a photo of a friend or family member, it could be a stuffed animal.

Third, use water. Just do it. Keep a bottle or glass next to you and keep. Drinking.

Now you should be ready to start talking. But don’t use your script just yet, or just use the beginning of it. Keep a short script, like your intro and outro, handy and keep saying that. Move around, taking verbal note of what you’re doing. Lean forward, lean back, turn your head, talk louder, talk softer, laugh. Do anything you can think of that you might do during a recording. And when you’re done, stop the recording and listen back. There will be differences in audio. Find the best one.

And then take those test files and play them back in different environments- through headphones, through your phone speakers, through your computer’s speakers, in the kitchen, through the car stereo. Take notes of what sounds best and keep them in mind for when you record.

When you’re ready to start recording your episode (I can practically hear the sigh of relief), take lots of breaks. This will save either future you or another editor lots of time during the editing process. Keep the speaking segments short. In Long Live Bat Art, I try to pause every other or third paragraph or so. If you mess up, don’t worry about it. There are a few ways to denote that mistake. Stop, take a deep breath, exhale, and start the entire sentence over. Or, if you prefer, pause, clap, and start the sentence over. The clap will make a spike in the wave form so you can easily see it. The silence will do the opposite- you’ll see nothing and that’s as good of an indicator as the spike. And you do want to start the sentence over, rather than just the part you messed up. Cutting whole sentences is easier than cutting words or phrases. And you WILL change your tone and cadence from take to take. Just do yourself a favor and start the sentence over.

Remember: the best editing you can do is having a good recording session. So try to keep the audio fairly clean. I don't mean try to do it in one take, just don't clutter it. Take breaks, drink water, and just give it your best.

If you have more than yourself talking, do yourself a favor- have one microphone per person. That will make your editing so much easier- it’s nigh impossible to edit two people talking over each other on the same track.

If you have different segments, stop recording and choose a different track for each one. I made the mistake of not doing that and when it came time to edit my first episode I almost pulled my hair out.

This is a tip I’ve seen on one or two guides but really works wonders- record about 15-30 seconds of complete silence in your podcasting space so you know a baseline.

And if at all possible, do your first episode recording and editing before you batch the rest. You'll make mistakes in your first recording that you can eliminate and make good choices going forward. You will also make different mistakes, so try to nip obvious bad habits in the bud.

Step 12: Edit

Editing makes or breaks a podcast. If you’re editing yourself, it will take time. If you let someone else do it, I would recommend leaving instructions. Listen to the raw file and take notes of the time stamps you want specific edits to be made and what the edits you want are.

Tip number 1: name every track so you know at a glance what is what. It’s a small step that takes less than a minute and saves you so much time later.

Tip number 2: edit with your ears. This sounds weird, but hear me out. Just listen to the entire recording without making a single change. Take note of what you felt when. Did you laugh? Did you get bored? If you have to, start a new recording (maybe on your phone) to say what happened when. Give context like time stamps or what sentence preceded what you felt. Then when the first listen is done, look over your physical notes or listen to your voice ones. That gives you a good starting point. Some people call this a ‘punchlist’ and it’s basically a first to-do list of what you want to do with your file.

Tip number 3: edit in passes. Edit for content first, not those random noises in the background or the weird clicks. You don’t want to take out all those little things from a section you end up cutting completely. It’ll save you time, trust me. Between passes, take breaks of at least 20 minutes. This will help you both not get in the headspace of ‘eh, good enough’ and prevent you from getting bored.

Tip number 4: Have a goal for each editing pass. Say for the first one you want to get rid of weird silences, this way you’ll have less to listen to as you make content edits. Then the second one you’re looking for the obvious mistakes- the sentences you stopped in the middle and then took another shot at. Then the third is those hesitant words- ‘uh’s and ‘um’s and ‘ah’s and ‘like’s and ‘so’s (I’m particularly susceptible to ‘so’s. It’s my crutch word. I especially say ‘and so’ a lot). Keep making goals.

Tip number 5: Keep the volume consistent- you don’t want listeners turning up and down the volume between episodes or even during them.

Tip number 6: If at all possible, have someone listen to the recording before you post it. Ask them questions! Did they get bored at any point? Did they have to adjust the volume at any point? Are there any silences or noises you missed?

Step 13: Hosting Site

Most people think that you post the podcast directly to the app/site where podcasts live. They’re wrong. There’s something called a hosting site that acts as the middleman. Basically, you need something called an RSS feed to post to the podcast app/site. Don’t ask me why because I have no idea.

Now some hosting sites are free, some are paid, some provide websites as part of the plan, some don’t. My tip is to research the major sites like buzzsprout. You’ll find the one that’s right for you and your podcast.

Step 15: Launch

If you’re thinking the ‘Grand Opening’ route is the only way, you’re wrong. There’s something called the ‘soft open.' It helps to get the kinks out, gives you a chance to get used to the podcast, and helps you overcome that ever-so-annoying imposter syndrome. But I don’t mean ‘tell absolutely no one.’ Tell your friends, tell your family, tell the people closest to you. They’ll be your first audience.

Most guides I read suggest posting three episodes on your first day. Not only does it give you a chance to get ahead, but it gives listeners a chance to binge. I know I binge listen and don’t always wait for each episode to come out. Because I’m a disaster who often forgets which podcast updates when and I have an ungodly amount of podcasts on my to-listen list (cough, over 200, cough).

But don’t think that launch is a one-and-done thing. Every single episode will be the first time someone’s heard of your podcast, so treat every episode with that in mind. Make a big deal about it once you’re in the groove!

Step 16: Set goals

Set MEASURABLE goals when you want to track your progress. And don’t think of just what your audience does, though that’s part of it. Set personal goals, too! For example, my first goals for Long Live Bat Art were 50 listeners by the end of the season, and 10 interactions on my social media posts. I also wanted to find out the average time to produce an entire episode and cut it down by 20 minutes by the end of the season.

Keep them short, keep them low, keep them measurable, and keep them time-based. But don’t sweat it if you don’t reach them! They’re goals, not the end of the world. If you don’t meet a goal, reach out to your audience and see what can help you meet the goal.

If you start to get discouraged and think ‘only 20 people listen to my podcast,’ do me a favor. Try to imagine 20 people in the room you’re in right now. That’s a lot of people.

At the same time, don’t worry about numbers. Just make your podcast as well as you can and keep putting it out there with social posts and you will get your audience.

Remember: the best thing you can do for your podcast is to make it good. Don’t bother promoting it if the sound quality or content aren’t as good as you can make it.

Other tips

This is a space for tips I’ve picked up that didn’t really fit into any of the other steps.

Build systems. You want to have a process down that you can follow over and over and over and really streamline your workflow. For example, my process for writing looks like: give story of the piece (if it’s particularly obscure or otherwise requires a bit of background knowledge), describe artwork, give thoughts on the piece, do the challenge at the end, and THEN research the history of the artist. I do it this way because I don’t want the history of the artist to influence what I think of the piece or how I describe it. If I find a particularly interesting tidbit in the history that changes how I think, I can add that in my thoughts afterwards! In addition to streamlining how I produce the podcast, if I ever hire someone on, I already have a game plan for what specifically I need help with.

Do NOT underestimate how long it takes to produce a podcast. I thought I could get it all done in two months. Boy was I wrong. I set a soft launch date and figured I could have it all written, recorded, edited, and transcribed before then. I didn't. And that's OK! I continued to produce it during the season, and that's just fine. Now I set aside enough time to get everything done and I don't sweat it if I have to produce along the way instead of front loading all the work.

Take. Breaks. Otherwise you'll get burnt out. I already said mine is season based, so in the offseason I don't do anything. It helps me both rest and build excitement for the next season.

Batch. I mean batch everything. Batch write, batch record, batch edit. If you do each piece individually you'll spend like three times as long. Think assembly line, not craftsman.

Take time to celebrate your wins. It's not arrogant, it's reassuring yourself that this whole podcasting thing is going well.

In case someone wants a taste of what the podcast is about, or even has trouble following along with podcasts as I sometimes do, I transcribe each episode. Transcriptions aren’t necessary, but they are nice to have. There is software that does this automatically, and you can pay someone to do it for you, but I do it myself.

If at all possible, make a file in your audio program for a template with everything named already and just copy the file for each new episode and change the content.

Conclusion

If this seems like a lot of work, I hope I didn’t discourage you. It’s really a lot of fun if you choose the right topic.

Now, you can look at all the guides you want- and I do recommend looking at quite a few- but nothing will prepare you to your satisfaction. So roll up your sleeves, tell that voice that says you can’t do it in your head to kindly shut up, and just do it once you have it planned out. You’ll learn on the way. Give yourself permission to be a beginner.

But above all, have fun. This is most likely a hobby for you that might in the future generate some pocket change. But the kernel that started this was love. Keep that love there.

Here's a bunch of resources I found really helpful, in case you want to check them out.

On starting

Shout me loud

Buzzsprout

NPR

Podcast insights

The podcast host

How to choose a topic- Podcast host

How to name- Podcast host

Episode titles- Podcast host

First site guide

Tips

Checklist

Riverside

Castos

Shopify

Buffer

Upwork

Captivate FM

Social Pilot

Profile Tree

Music Radar

Descript

Adam Enfroy

Ryrob

Porch

Nashville Film Institute

The podcast host (again)

Writing

Intro and Outro- the podcast host

Intro- Buzzsprout

Descriptions- the podcast host

Show Notes- the podcast host

Taglines- the podcast host

Equipment

Microphone- the podcast host

Microphone techniques- the podcast host

Editing

NPR

Artwork

Buzzsprout

Well, that's it! All the advice and experience I have at this moment. Hopefully it helped someone out there.

#sydney squeaks

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yellowocaballero · 2 years

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Can you talk more about hurt/comfort, woobiefication, trauma and the way you write? You always seem to really sink teeth into the emotional ramifications of major experiences in ways that feel new and interesting!

Oh fuck yeah. Usual disclaimer that I haven't taken an English class since 12th grade.

What is catharsis! (I have read maybe two greek plays?)

In a theatrical sense, catharsis is the emotion felt in the audience when they watch a tragedy. Aristotle puts it as a 'purging', kind of an induced release of pent-up emotions incurred by living before modern plumbing. I think of it while writing as a 'release of tension'. Usually specifically emotional tension. It's traditionally associated with theater, but I think a lot of 'feel good' works carry an element of catharsis with them too, and basically any story that works on a heavily emotional or character driven gas.

Catharsis (and tragedy, to a lesser extent) is appealing for the same reason that crying is appealing: we live most of our lives trying not to feel these awful emotions because we have taxes to do and a mortgage to pay, and we don't give ourselves permission to wallow. When watching a sad thing and crying over it, that's permission - it's 'allowed', and socially acceptable. That's why you see dudebros admitting to crying during Pixar movies. It's OK to cry at that scene during Up, bro. Means you have a heart, bro.

When I talk about writing trauma narratives and emotional arcs, of course the nature of that narrative varies VERY highly. But I think of it as, like everything else, an arc: character basically begins the story with trauma. Something happens that forces this problem in the forefront. Their trauma responses and/or their situation create more and more and more tension, things get worse and worse, and then you get to the peak - the 'release', the popping of the bubble, the confrontation, the anagnorisis. Then the deflating and the healing begins etc.

What is H/C! (I don't read H/C?)

Hurt/comfort (and for future note, I'll be viewing H/C mostly through the terms of fanfiction although it is very much not fanfic exclusive - the relationship of traditionally 'fanfic tropes' and conventional media is really interesting though) can be interpreted as a desire for catharsis. If a little to the left - I've seen H/C interpreted by a friend as the expression of the desire to be taken care of and fussed over and paid attention to. I interpret it as aiming towards catharsis, where you get the buildup/tension of the whump and then the release of the comfort. The lead usually serves as a stand-in for your emotional desires.

It is not my thing. Which is funny considering how many cathartic narratives I write. There is never sufficient buildup for me, there is usually an over-emphasis on somebody providing the emotional resolution instead of it being a self-driven achievement and realization, and I think mostly importantly - it frames the lifecycle of whump/trauma as the creation of trauma, then the resolution of trauma. Which cuts out the entire middle of the arc there. Where the fun stuff happens. And, double importantly, because the main character has to remain a stress-relieving emotional stand-in, there is little room for them to build up a narrative 'tension' of things getting 'worse worse worse' and struggling to cope with the trauma before finally finding their equilibrium and the 'release'.

What is a Woobie! (I don't actually define these terms because I assume you also spent most of your childhood on TVTropes!)

People are just bad at giving their characters meaningful faults.

And they especially struggle with it in these trauma narratives. Because the point is the catharsis, and in that you need relatability. You need sympathy. The audience needs to be able to put themselves in this character and ride this emotional rollercoaster with them. Obviously if they're perfect people get put off, but there's a list of acceptable faults that characters in whump/HC/trauma narratives are allowed to have. There's a list of acceptable reactions. For most of them, the only person who the characters hurt is themselves. If you stray outside of that acceptability, then you run the risk of losing audience sympathy.

And the lack of realism in the H/C is nice and stress relieving, and it provides catharsis. But I believe that people connect deeper with a narrative, that they grow even more attached to it, and that it's even more cathartic, when the narrative genuinely reflects experiences that people have. Emotions they feel, struggles they've experienced. It's almost oxymoronic - though keeping a character relatable and sympathetic you're kind of taking away what makes them human.

Because trauma responses are often very, very ugly. They are frequently unsympathetic. Somebody's trauma responses can make them a bad friend, a bad partner, can make their life tailspin, and sometimes it even results in a cycle of abuse. People react in ways that don't make sense on the surface and that are maybe pretty irrational. Bad coping mechanisms abound here. From what I can tell people are especially terrible about writing 'anger' as a coping mechanisms or trauma response. Not sure why, but anger seems to be a strange taboo.

And somebody's bad coping mechanisms and problems send their life spinning out of control. And it gets worse, and worse, and worse...and then, in the trauma narrative, there comes a moment where it's very clear - you can heal, things will be okay, things will not be like this forever. It, figuratively 'ends'. And the healing starts.

That's the catharsis, because these moments don't always happen in real life. For me, I write catharsis as the moment when you realize things will be okay, even if they aren't right now. It's the exhale.

From what I can tell people struggle with this because they do not trust their skills as writers. They're afraid of alienating their characters from the readers and they don't think they can make them sympathetic and/or a hero if they're an asshole. But I think the persistent 'give your meow meows faults' issue is most important in trauma narratives because I consider serious faults and cracks in the character kind of the cornerstone of the narrative. Character faults give an insane amount of tension in stories, because they can lead to both interpersonal issues and bad decisions that make the plot spiral worse. That's the tension. If you don't blow up the balloon the balloon can't pop.

I think fiction can get pretty powerful once it connects with people and their experiences, and puts to words what they have problems saying. Part of the reason why I write about trauma so much is because of its nature as the 'unsaid' - an underlying yet unseen basis behind a surprising amount of what people do. It is an extremely powerful force that shapes who people are and what they do, but as a general rule we do pay taxes and have mortgages and we try not to talk or think about it too much. But people are kind of obsessed with their own traumas, in a weird way, so I think it can feel good to finally be allowed to walk through that trauma narrative and find the healing at the end - because a trauma narrative is, essentially, a narrative about healing.

Also stop writing disability as hurt comfort what the fuck is wrong with you stop doing that. Why are you doing that. Disability is not hurt comfort. What is wrong with you.

#my writing #asks #trauma #h/c #incidentally this is why i never considering myself as writing 'angst':#like 'whump' I feel as if angst is sad for the sake of sad #while the point for me is never the sad #the sad's the conflict #anyway i hope this essay explains literally 100% of the latest thing I've been writing because it's literally just this #I got a lot of feedback that the story was crushingly depressing BUT #the reactions to the final two chapters were HEARTWARMING BABY!#and the reaction wouldn't have been nearly that strong if we hadn't genuinely suffered along with the MC #i've been in a lot of fandoms that had serious Woobie disease and it was very alienating from both what made good characterization #and what made a compelling narrative #AND just from the fact that it's ok to be a little jerk sometimes #Write! More! Jerks!#just!! do it!!#honestly I play a game called 'how much of an asshole can I make this guy before the audience stops liking him'#and honestly? I can get SURPRISINGLY FAR.#long post #my essays

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lossie92 · 2 years

Text

So. Some of you may have noticed that I’m a bit less active here of late. It’s true. I’ve been keeping my distance recently and the reason for it is simple:

I have kind of lost the steam to create content for this fandom and don’t feel like sharing my mdtb stuff with a wider audience at this point.

It feels counterproductive to do it too, if I’m being honest.

For one - and I’ve shared a lot of posts about it in the past - it is undeniable that low engagement is the thing that kills creators’ motivation. We create stuff for you, the fans and the fandom, as much as we create it for ourselves, and spending so much time on stuff and putting so much effort into it only for it to be ignored over and over, and over, and over again is very demotivating. I understand not everyone likes the same shit, I do, but still, it is not a nice feeling to spend hours or days on something and then seeing it disappear into the chasm of internet with barely any echo.

Another thing is that I like creating content that focuses on healthy relationships with lots of romance and fluff thrown into the mix. Even if the storylines are predominantly angst-focused, I do love my happy endings and stick to them most of the time with a few dishonourable exceptions. That being said, I don’t think this is particularly appealing to the mdtb fandom as it is right now. Maybe it never really was to begin with, but I was too into the ship to see it? No idea, really. All I know is that the current approach to this ship makes me want to keep my content to myself for now.

You know, the funny thing is that I keep seeing people post about how they got into mdtb for violence and hate, and that it’s for sure how everyone else got into this ship too. In hindsight, it should have made me realize this fandom maybe isn’t for me a while ago.

You wanna know how I got here? It was fluff, angst and hurt/comfort. The good stuff that ended happily and made me smile like an idiot. Specifically, it was the wonderful fics written by authors like reandown, blackkat, Kalira, keanblade, and many, many others that got me into this ship and made me want to create my own content for it. This is what got me hooked. Not violence. Not hate. Not whatever other bullshit dynamic you all want to shove down my throat to the point I’m beginning to choke on it. It was fluff and the amazing potential for these two broken men to find some happiness with each other.

Does it sound cliche? Maybe. Do I give a flying fuck? No. Will I continue shipping them this way? Absolutely.

The thing is I go to fandom overall to find good stuff and positive vibes. In short, I want it to make me feel better, not worse. I don’t mind a bit of pain, because it can provide a nice cleanse when you end up in tears over one moment or another, and I like my fluff with a side of angst besides. What I don’t want is violence and pain and hate all the way through in almost every single piece of content, and that’s what I have been getting.

My disclaimer here is that you can all create and enjoy whatever you want, guys. It’s your right to do so. But at the same time I would like to say that I’m sick and tired of some things, and I just need a break from it. Maybe some time off will help me push it all away and I will be able to forget about all the shitty, needlessly provocative, mean-spirited shit I’ve been seeing. Who knows. Time will tell, I guess.

On a side note and as a conclusion of sorts, I would also like to add that I get why people hate on this fandom so damn much. I will not elaborate further, but I do get where the hate is coming from and, in some cases, it is actually pretty fucking well-deserved too.

All in all, this is my partial hiatus announcement, I guess. I’ll continue posting chapters for my ongoing stories and I will also share the art requests I got, but I don’t think you should expect to see more new stuff from me for now.

I will come back at some point. I just need a break.

#mdtb #madatobi #personal #was it your intention to chase people out?#no clue #but that's what's happening regardless #i'm tired of this bs #maybe a break will help #who knows #for now it's lossie out

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lovebecomeshim · 3 years

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hello! your zutara posting today has finally motivated me to ask this question because I came to atla very late(last year, to be specific) and I Love It Very Much but am 1000% out of the loop as far as why what remains of fandom (at least that I've seen among my friends) is so very strongly zutara. I'm not opposed to it per se I just don't really know what has driven it to apparently be such a popular ship? can you help me understand and maybe convert me a little bit?

Hey!! Your ICON! :D I can try but I’m not sure how coherent I’ll be; however I AM sure someone a lot more competent will be willing to add to this. Either way, I’m glad you asked because my plan was to drag down as many people as possible with me.

*smacks the hood of zutara* this baby can fit so much mutual love and support!

This got so long, I’m so sorry. I don’t know how to put it under a cut on mobile and it already got deleted once so I’m scared to mess with it lol. Moving on.

I’m gonna start this with a disclaimer that im on mobile so formatting is tricky and I’m also really new to atla in that I only completed my first watch through in like 2019??? So some of my info is all just based on what I’ve picked up from Discourse 👀 so anyway the sparknotes version: zutara was wildly popular from the beginning. To the point where the atla crew internally disagreed on which ship should be endgame. (Ex. Bryke [showrunners] asked the writers to rewrite The Southern Raiders to make Zuko seem less ideal for Katara than Aang [which failed, depending on who you ask]; the animation team purposefully created a visual parrallel between Oma and Shu in the Cave of Two Lovers and Zuko and Katara in the catacombs under Ba Sing Se in the Crossroads of Destiny; etc.)

The ship was popular enough that Bryke actually chose to display zk fanart at a con for the sole purpose of mocking the fans, but that’s neither here nor there. The entire episode Ember Island Players, while a love letter to/parody of the whole show, was an opportunity to address zutara’s viability as a canon pairing (while, again, mocking zutaras for romanticizing that catacombs scene). Point is! It’s always been popular but with it not being endgame, there’s got to be something that’s given it staying power.

And that’s honestly got to do with three things: their dynamic, thematic cohesion, and potential.

(You know what... you know what, it’s four things. The fourth is they’re so aesthetically pleasing together and individually. Like, they’re just good looking people [specifically when they’re grown but they’re also cute kids] and that absolutely doesn’t hurt) (but it’s not the Point, it’s just nice to point out sometimes)

The dynamic is hard to get into without also looking at the canon pairings, but I think I can do that without unnecessary bashing. It’s just that part of the magic of zutara is really highlighted by what they give to each other that their other relationships don’t.

First off, it’s classic enemies to (would be) lovers. The absolute truest form of it. It’s not too different from how CS started out: a rogue antagonist with a job to do—but no personal vendetta against the future love interest—who is deeply and emotionally invested in his personal storyline (revenge/redemption) with little regard for how it effects other people after his entire life and genuine good nature are marred by suffering, and a fierce warrior girl with a strong moral compass and her own personal investment in stopping him (protect her family and save the world doing it). Obviously frustration and animosity grew between them by the nature of them being on opposing sides, but that just lends itself to the sweetness of their later reconciliation.

The thing is that while they’re wildly different on the surface (he’s a hot-headed prince of a fascist regime who is trying to capture the Avatar to please his father; she’s a nurturing daughter of the chief who is trying to protect and train the Avatar in order to topple his father’s throne) they find out that they have so much more in common both in their experiences and their personalities.

(What follows is an excessive use of the word “both” and I’m sorry about that)(I can edit it. I can do that. That IS an option............)

They both have an innate sense of justice that they are determined to see done (zuko, at the war meeting, sticking up for the Earth Kingdom kid when the guards torment his family, choosing not to steal from the pregnant couple despite his circumstances, abiding by his word to leave the SWT should Aang come willingly, etc.; katara, literally.... at any point). They both have pretty one-track minds at accomplishing certain goals once they’ve put their mind to it, regardless of a lack of support in that endeavor (it goes without saying I guess, but zuko’s entire hunt; katara’s determination to get the earth benders to fight back, her determination to absolutely destroy Pakku until he agrees to teach her, etc.). They both lost their mothers at young ages. Their worlds are war-torn and traumatizing to them both, if in different ways, but that ultimately forces them to grow up too quickly to be wholly independent individuals. They both have issues with their fathers (for WILDLY different reasons, but). They both hold extreme prejudices that they need to learn to overcome (which ties into thematic cohesion)(bit like Lizzie and Darcy in that way but magnified by a million). They’re both extremely emotional and empathetic—which can and often does result in loud outbursts. Katara’s a bit better adjusted and can temper her anger for longer than S1 Zuko can, but they both feel that anger deeply and have no compunctions expressing it (Katara is, usually, more justified, particularly in S1. Again, S1 Zuko is severely maladjusted but at the point when they could’ve feasibly become a couple, he’s so much better off with the way he carries himself). They both struggle with feelings of inferiority in their bending abilities when confronted with prodigal benders like Aang and Azula, but have the work ethic required to double down and become two of the most powerful benders in the three remaining nations. This is a little more minor but it is a parrallel that appeals to some shippers that they both have these alter egos in the Painted Lady (notably fire nation coded) and the Blue Spirit (water tribe coded) that are pretty different from who they are day-to-day and are useful in accomplishing a purpose that they as themselves cannot.

(I’m.... I just realized that this could potentially get very long. Should I have made a slide show with bullet points??????)

Anyway, similar. I know there’s more but there’s literally so much to love about zutara that I’ll drive myself a little crazy trying to compile all the ways they’re similar. (Just gonna say that at this exact moment I went back to add more similarities.... so okay then)

Once they’ve reconciled, we see how all of these things only lend themselves to a deeper intimacy together than they share with literally anyone else. There’s a steady partnership that positions them as the mom/dad of the gaang, while also providing the support necessary to allow the other to not have to carry so much responsibility. A lot of zutaras will point out how zuko is actually depicted doing the more domestic chores that are normally relegated to Katara once he joins the gaang, since the others in the group are two 12-year-olds and sokka. The one that sticks out the most is how he makes tea for the group and then serves them, while Katara is able to just relax with her friends around the fire. Fanon expands upon this a lot to Zuko helping with the laundry or the cooking or whatever else needs doing since he, as a once-refugee, is used to doing his own domestic tasks. Before Zuko joined, Katara was the one mothering everyone, sewing for them, cooking for them, etc. She’s always tending to the needs of the group, and that includes emotionally. She does the emotional labor for the gaang 99% of the time, but when she’s the one falling apart, she’s usually doing it alone and without the comfort that she normally provides for others. Until Zuko. And that’s before they’re even friends.

Which is WHY people romanticize the catacombs of Ba Sing Se so much. Katara is verbally attacking Zuko out of her own righteous anger but also her own prejudice when Zuko, surprisingly, chooses to be vulnerable with her. He’s been on a journey that’s opened his eyes a bit, but he’s never actively chosen to expose the rawest parts of his past to anyone. But for some reason he chooses to do that with Katara of all people. While she’s yelling at him. He sees her humanity, and for once can look past his prejudice and empathize with her. And this time, when she breaks down, she gets to be comforted. Katara normally talks about her mother when she’s trying to explain to someone else that she sees and understands they’re pain, as a form of comfort to them. Here, Zuko uses the exact same tactic. He sees her and he understands. And for zuko? He’s not being shut down. He’s allowed to articulate his pain regarding his mother without being ignored and made to internalize it, and he’s allowed to process how he feels about his scar out loud without being told that he deserved it. And then he lets her touch his scar, something we’ve seen him actively avoid before. He’s completely open to her and she’s completely open to him and all it took was one five minute conversation. She was about to use the little bit of Spirit water that she had, that she was saving for something Important, to heal the scar that still daily causes him pain just because they had, somehow, connected.

Plus there’s the whole parallel to the star-crossed lovers forbidden from one another, a war divides their people—

And then zuko messes up, he regresses, he gets what he wants and he HATES it. And the sense of justice he had as a child has been restored to him against his will and he can’t think of anything he wants to do more than the Right Thing, so he joins team avatar. Before he does that though, we get to see his relationship with Mai, which is where comparison really comes in. And what we see is Zuko, fresh off of his encounter with Katara in the catacombs, trying to be emotionally honest with Mai... and getting shut down and dismissed. Which is just how Mai is and it’s fine, but not for Zuko. Still, he keeps trying, and he keeps getting ignored or scoffed at or yelled at. Which is really a larger symbol for how he doesn’t fit in his old life anymore, but again that’s about thematic cohesion. He tries to articulate his anxieties about returning home, he tries to make romantic gestures, he tries to explain how morally conflicted he’s feeling—and Mai diverts to some kind of physical affection to shut him up and a parting comment that is pretty much always, in essence, “I don’t wanna talk about this.” So they don’t. On the other hand, once zuko and Katara are friends, we see him again emotionally distraught and caught up in his anxieties about facing Iroh, and it’s Katara who comes to him and listens to him and comforts and encourages him.

Similarly, we have Aang clamming up and getting uncomfortable whenever Katara shows any negative emotion, usually resulting in him making excuses or running away. Or, in the case of the Southern Raiders, lecturing her on how she needs to just let go of her anger about her mother’s murder. People have talked this episode to death and usually better than I ever could, so imma... keep it brief. There’s a serious disconnect between Aang and Katara in his ability to empathize with Katara and her needs that has her tamping down her vulnerability and amping up her anger. He tells her that he was able to forgive his people’s genocide and appa’s kidnapping (petnapping? Theft??), which is blatantly not true but also not an entirely equal parrallel to Katara’s situation, and continues making these little remarks throughout the episode. But it’s Zuko that Katara opens up to. It’s with him that she’s able to talk about the most traumatic day of her life, and it’s with him that she’s able to get the closure she needs, cementing their bond as friends and partners. This disagreement between Aang and Katara is then... never resolved. They just never bring it up and hear what the other is saying.

There’s a fic called The Portraits of Ember Island that has a line that so completely sums up the heart of the matter for why people love their dynamic. For context, zuko has woken up early to help Katara with the cooking and they spend the whole time just letting one another talk, and zuko stops to ask why she always just lets him talk. And so she stops to ask why he’s always helping, and it goes as follows:

There’s just... so much mutual support! Trust! Intimacy!! And it just continues like that from the Southern Raiders on, listening to each other, advising each other, watching each other’s backs! And then! Literally saving each other’s lives!! I will never be over the last Agni kai. Not ever. Zuko may have been willing to jump in front of lightning for anyone, but he actually did it for Katara. And in a show, that’s the thing that really matters. It’s a fulfilled trope usually exclusively applied to romantic pairings, and it ended up applying to Zuko and Katara. And then she ran out into the middle of a fight with tunnel vision just to get to him.

Also!! Also Zuko pushing Katara out of the way of the falling rocks at the Western Air Temple!! And Katara catching him as he fell from the war balloon that he fought Azula on!! Before they’re even getting along, they’re the ones reaching for each other. They come to this place of equal ground, as partners, who watch each other’s backs, call each other out but still listen attentively and understand, and provide the support that the other has been sorely lacking up until they knew each other (whether that be from lack of effort or lack of understanding from others, or an unwillingness to accept it for themselves).

Then, trailing along under the surface of this, we see the themes of the show totally embodied by Zuko and Katara as individuals and in their relationship to one another. There’s a YouTuber, sneezyreviews, who has a, like, 2-hour explanation on why she not only loves zutara but also believes that their endgame would’ve actually elevated the writing of atla to new levels particularly because of thematic cohesion and resolved character arcs. It’s the zutara dissertation I never knew I needed, and it’s funny and eloquent and effective, so I’m just going to sum up her section on thematic cohesion to the best of my abilities and then link it for whenever you have the time. And I HIGHLY recommend it, especially if you want a full understanding of what makes zutara so great and gives it such longevity.

Guru pathik has a line that goes something like this: separation is an illusion; things that seem different are just two parts of the same whole. Iroh also tells Zuko something similar: balance and strength are achieved when the different nations come together and influence one another and celebrate what makes them each unique. And this lesson is a massive central arc that both Zuko and Katara go through, moving past a black-and-white, good guys-vs-bad guys, us-vs-them mentality and into a greyer, more nuanced view of the world. Zuko sees the fire nation from an entirely new perspective and while he still loves and hopes for his nations future, he surrenders his blind loyalty to them in exchange for an unflinching loyalty to peace and love. Katara too had to come to terms with the fact that cruel people exist in the earth kingdom and water tribes, while some fire nation citizens are just regular, kind people who also need and deserve to have someone speak on their behalf. And this is honed in directly on how they view each other. They grow in their individual journeys to be open to the humanity in the other and then, once they’ve found that, they’re able to grow more in compassion for others in a beautiful feedback loop. And this is all matched in the symbolism repeatedly and intentionally associated with them in canon: sun and moon, fire and water, yin and yang, Oma and Shu who found love despite their warring nations. Their individual arcs are completed in each other and complement the themes of atla beautifully.

The canon pairs... just don’t. Which, again, is fine. But the very things that give atla longevity and popularity are anchored in zutara. Kat@ang doesn’t accomplish this. They’re... nice. Sweet. Especially when you erase a good portion of their interactions in S3. It could’ve been just a sweet love story. (Personally, the dynamic between toph and aang accomplish the same thing that zutara does, with complementary personalities that fulfill the theme of opposites blending in harmony) M@iko, on the other hand, is less sweet but I think wasn’t even supposed to last. Zuko’s relationship with Mai seems to represent his relationship with his old life as a whole. He can’t be emotionally vulnerable, he’s goaded into abusing his privileges, his agency and opinions aren’t respected. They just don’t have common ground with which to discuss anything that matters, so they don’t. As far as themes, the relationship doesn’t fit with atla. It’s zuko returning to and sticking with what is (on the surface) like him, what’s expected. Fire nation with fire nation. Fluid water bender with the flexible air bender. Like with like, separated from what is different and challenging and complementary.

And all of these things combined of course lead to the potential for the ship. I don’t know how familiar you are with the post-atla canon but... well, miss “I will never turn my back on people who need me”, miss “I don’t want to heal! I want to fight!” ends up living quietly in the SWT as a designated healer who turns a blind eye to the water tribe civil war happening right outside her front door. Which can be fine! People change! Some people just wanna stay inside. I just wanna stay inside! But the potential future for zutara is so much more satisfying, with Katara becoming the most unconventional Fire Lady the uppity old cads who are stuck on the old ways have ever seen. Fanon has her serving as a voice for the other nations within a kingdom at the point of its biggest political upheaval, as a confidante to Zuko who can actually help him while he’s trying to figure out how to move forward and make reparations. They have the opportunity, together, to accomplish what they both have set on their hearts to fight for: positive change that lends itself to harmony and balance. And the steambabies! A popular headcanon is that their firstborn daughter, the crown princess, is actually a waterbender, which causes such an uproar among the people who are adamantly clinging to the old ways. It’s just a future full of potential to be forces for good together, full of trust, intimacy, joy. The exact era of peace and love and balance that zuko announces that he intends to ring in with the start of his reign as Fire Lord is, again, magnified by the very personal zutara relationship. And we love to see it.

tl;dr zutara isn’t for everyone. Some people just don’t vibe with it. Some are nostalgic. Some love the canon they grew up with. Some have been disappointed for years. Some just see themselves in other characters and want their happiness instead. Whatever the reason, that’s fine. But for me, I love the way these two, from the moment they give each other a fair chance, are able to lower their walls and prejudices to see the other for the kindred spirits they are. They see each other’s humanity, and their response is to pour out love and support and compassion. I love that they’re a power couple in battle. I love the symbolism and, honestly, soulmatism that colors their every interaction. I love that they embody the whole storyline of atla in their relationship and how it develops, which is notably why their seasonal arcs always culminate in each finale with how they relate to one another. I love that zuko adopting a waterbending move is what actually saves his life and then katara’s. I love the chemistry! And I love the future they could’ve had, instead of the ones they were given.

So, in conclusion: I just think they’re neat and I hope you do too, at least a little bit. Even if it’s just respectfully from a disinterested distance cause you do you. And now here is the video I mentioned. I’m sorry this post got so long and then I gave you an even longer homework assignment, but I can’t recommend it enough. She says it all better than I can.

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#zutara #atla #zutara rant #like really the way the canon relationships were written throughout s3 #it would’ve been more believable for zutara to happen #or at least be hinted at #all of the major issues presented in those relationship were dug up extensively and then... never resolved #and then they just slapped some kisses on a screen and said ‘there all better’#and we just kinda had to say ‘oh ok guess it’s all better then’#this got long I’m sorry #I wrote it all out and then tumblr ate 2/3 of it #which is why it took so long #and what I’ve written now doesn’t even match what I had before #because there’s too much to say about why I love zutara #and the stuff I left out the first time is what came out this time #rip to my original thoughts but this post is different #anyway that’s why this took so long #and I should’ve just made a PowerPoint...#I can do that too if you’d rather not read all of this lol #I won’t be offended #this is incoherent #Alia rambles uselessly #also hoping this doesn’t end up in any wrong tags because I don’t wanna step on toes lol #it’s not anti!! it’s just critical #in a compare/contrast way #I can pinpoint the moment when I started trying to rewrite my points from memory #because everything gets shorter and more succinct #like... I really said all that??? sounds fake and I don’t remember it anyway so here’s the condensed version #with no!! smooth!!! transitions!!!!#also why am I so lazy with proper grammar over text

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