#i think it's so unexplored in canon but it should be. that shared connection between new troopers and clone troopers

[findafight]

I think there's something deeply interesting about the Clone troopers learning Mando'a from the trainers, and passing that on to each other. It's probably not a full language, not at first. They only got the basics from the trainers, but they take loan words from Basic, and then from other worlds they're stationed on. It gets passed down to the shinies, evolving and changing quickly. It's a living language, and it has different accents, different words taken from different languages depending on where the troopers speaking it have been for the longest. It's not hidden, not really. The Jedi actively encourage it, though Kaminoans have never wanted it to spread. But it's a remarkable thing, how quickly it changes and how precious it is, for clones to have something that is It morphs into something unique and theirs.

And then, order 66 happens, and clone troopers are phased out and replaced by recruited, but some sources have them training together/training new recruits, and so they pick up on the language as a kind of military slang or code. But it's still a language, still taught and spoken, though more covertly, more carefully even as the clones are slowly decommissioned, but their language is passed on through imperial stormtroopers.

Even when the New Republic seems to have defeated the Empire, there's still Grand Moffs, there's still Stormtroopers, and the First Order rises. And yet somehow, stormtroopers keep this language alive, even though no one who speaks it now knows where it came from, or why only troopers speak it.

Eventually, all those kidnapped children grew up not knowing anything but the first order, and fear, and whispered words under bedcovers that the higherups can't understand. Sometimes they call them natborns and they don't know why. Sometimes they call each other vod'e and don't know why. They know what it means, (it means brother, means sister, means sibling, it means something deeper than that) but not why, not the how. They just know it's a secret. Some of them know songs, and some of them don't get a chance to learn them before they're heard by higherups and whoever knew it was reconditioned and it was lost.

When the First Order falls, troopers who escaped try to find their vod'e, find their family, and along the way they also find decedents of Clones, who speak a language similar to theirs. Who know the words that First Order troopers have only whispered to each other and speak them in the open with their families without fear. Who know all those songs that were so precious and dangerous and more. And they discovered their shared heritage, shared history, through the language the clones built for themselves.

#star wars #star wars the clone wars #clone troopers #the clones #tcw #swcw #idk how else to tag this #star wars fanfiction #kinda? it's more of a speculative ficlet #i think it's so unexplored in canon but it should be. that shared connection between new troopers and clone troopers #and how a language or military slang derived from it could be a tangible representation of that connection #sw #finda writes stuff #finda's rambles #star wars prequel trilogy #star wars sequel trilogy #swtfa

[sonnburn]

If I wrote it — Vice Versa⏳

This tag is literally the whole reason I made this side-blog, so I’m starting it off right ^_^

Opinions on this BL are surprisingly divisive. It seems like everyone who watches it either loves it or hates it with no in-between. I fall into the former camp, I think the premise was really intriguing and it’s beautifully shot. I also really like Sea and Jimmy, I think they did a great job as the leads and have really good chemistry. Praises aside, I’ve got some criticisms too.

So, I can’t express enough how much I really do love the premise of the show— Two guys die and get body-swapped into a parallel universe, both need to try to live someone else’s life while also trying to find a way home, all while slowly falling in love with their sole companion from their original world? Adorable, sign me up lads. That being said, I don’t think past the first two episodes the show really capitalized on it’s potential— while it could have been more focused on the sci-fi fantasy setting, what it really wanted to be was just a romance set in an alternate dimension. And it accomplished that goal, but I can’t help but wonder what if?

So as the title says, If I wrote it, I would have gone a lot further with both the premise itself and the emotional impact it would’ve had on the characters.

First of all, I think it’s a pretty unanimous opinion, but the real Tess and Tun should’ve been the B-couple. I’m honestly shocked that they weren’t and that we only got the Alternate-Universe point of view with Puen/Talay while never checking into the OG-Universe and how Tess/Tun were dealing with their lives! So much potential just unexplored U_U

PLOT WISE: the portkey. I would have made the portkey, as a concept, a total mystery. Like, we are told that the characters need to find it in order to go home, but that none of the refugees from the OG-universe actually know what it is. Because everyone who finds it goes back home before they get the chance to tell the rest of the universal travellers. And the Alt-Universe travellers only recall having a dream about it but that once they got home they completely forgot it. The mystery of the portkey should have been the driving force of the plot instead of the Friend Credits movie-making pursuits.

More flashbacks to Talay’s old life. The goal of going home would have had a lot more impact if the audience could see why Talay loved his life so much. Show him missing his friends and family. Have him struggle with his relationships in the Alt-Universe because he’s technically lying to the people in Tess’s life, passing himself off as him because the truth makes him sound crazy. But the longer they’re stuck there, the more guilty he feels for replacing Tess and having Tess’s friends and family replace his real ones.

I would have had Talay and Puen learn more about Tess and Tun’s lives, like what kind of people they were, and what they were struggling with. Talay— king that he is, made a real effort to turn Tess’ life around, which is great! But I would have appreciated just a little more detective work about why Tess’ life was like that in the first place before Talay went about fixing it. Puen could have learned the reason that Tun was in love with Tess despite Tess being kind of an asshole. All four of them are sharing each others bodies, I think it would have been a cool way to connect them to each other by having them learn more about each other, since they can never meet face to face.

The decision whether or not to go back to the OG-universe. For as much as Talay wanted his life back, Puen should have made the point that they have no idea what lives they’d be going back to. Puen’s life was empty and lonely which is why he didn’t mind not going back, but he never brings up the possibility that the real Tess may have completely destroyed Talay’s life (which he kinda did in canon). He might have done so much damage that Talay might never be able to achieve his dream, he may have ruined all his relationships, Talay’s life as he knew it might be over. So why not stay there, in the Alt-universe where he has friends and family who love and support him, where his dream is his for the taking, where he and Puen can be together and in love? I was surprised that the fear of the unknown, the risk, wasn’t a part of the conflict and that Talay was so sure he’d be going back to a life unchanged by his absence.

Tess messing up Talay’s life should have had actual consequences that couldn’t be fixed in less than a few days.

More interaction between Tun/Talay and Tess/Puen when the switch happened. I really wanted to see them catch each other up on what they’d missed in their lives, their reactions would’ve been amazing!

Like, again I can’t believe this didn’t happen in the show but, someone in their lives should have figured out that Tun and Tess had been replaced! Up and Aou are the obvious choices. It would have made Talay/Puen’s friendships with them even more meaningful because as much as they would want to help them get home and get their original friends back, the members of Friend Credits would be forever separated. It would’ve been even more sad for all of them to say goodbye.

I would’ve had Tess/Tun’s actors pop in briefly in every episode, just to remind the audience what Talay/Puen look like to everyone else. It was easy to forget that part of the premise with JimmySea always playing the roles

And those are all the changes I would’ve made to the story if I wrote it! The set-up for Vice Versa was so intriguing, but I guess it was too ambitious of an idea for the showrunners to really capitalize on. Oh well, what we got out of JimmySea was still worth watching in my book. It may not have lived up to its potential, but it was a fun ride all the same!

#if i wrote it #vice verse the series #vice versa #puentalay #tesstun #i understand why a lot of people fell off the series #episodes 5-7 are kind of a slog #but I maintain that episodes 1-2 are great #episodes 3-4 are decent #and episode 8 and onwards are absolutely worth getting through the slow middle for #writing #writing stuff

[violent-optimism]

Rey as a Palpatine and Why it’s Grown on Me

Hello my lovelies!

I think it’s been quite a while since I posted any kind of essay on here. Between work and other things I honestly haven’t had much time for it. However in recent days I’ve felt very motivated to work on a very particular kind of essay; a subject that I’ve been stewing over since December of last year.

Obviously from the title you already know what I’m going to be talking about. I’m not going to deny that this is a rather heated subject for some Star Wars fans, particularly those who disliked this plot choice and The Rise of Skywalker in general. As per usual in my essays, my goal is not to change anyone’s mind or argue over who’s opinion is “more right”. Plain and simple, this is just going to be me talking about MY thoughts and MY observations about Rey’s journey and lineage in The Rise of Skywalker. I hope this doesn’t need to be said but if you read something in this essay that you disagree with, I politely ask that you keep it to yourself and move on. At the end of the day, we are just talking about a movie, and this is all just for fun.

Now, with that being said, let’s get started! This essay is definitely going to be a bit more structured than my usual efforts and I hope this will result in a much more straightforward and clear-cut essay. Enjoy!

 1.      My Initial Reaction

 While I don’t want this to be a major part of the essay, I do think it makes sense to start this off with a little story about the time I first saw TROS in the theatre. I can remember it pretty well. My whole body was tense, my eyes glued to the screen for what I knew was about to be some kind of major reveal in the story (even if it felt very late in the film for such a scene). Then came those shocking and irreversible words from Kylo Ren: “You’re his Granddaughter. You are a Palpatine.”

Wait…what?

My mind recoiled at this statement. My heart sank into my stomach with complete rejection. This can’t be right. He must be lying. I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit. A man behind me just snorted with laughter and I can totally see why. Rey being related to Palpatine sounds more like a crazy Youtube fan theory than something that could actually be canon in the Star Wars universe. We had always thought she might be related to Luke or even Obi-Wan, but…Emperor Palpatine? Darth Sidious? No, just no.

So yeah, suffice to say that my first reaction towards this plot twist was not very positive. I admit that even once the movie was over, I still didn’t like this reveal. I don’t even think I began to warm up to it until my 3rd or 4th viewing of TROS. I had become so used to the idea that Rey had no special lineage and she was just a very force-sensitive girl from nowhere that it was extremely hard to let go of that. And honestly, if JJ and everyone else involved had chosen to keep it that way, I would have been perfectly content. So why…you might ask, has Rey’s true lineage grown on me in the last several months?

Now, don’t get me wrong…there’s still a part of me that thinks it was a very odd choice to introduce a reveal like this considering what happened in the previous installment. However…this fact has already been discussed to death and this essay is intended to be more of a story exploration rather than a critical film review. So let’s talk more about Rey being Palpatine’s Granddaughter and how I have actually grown to love the idea.

 2.      Rey’s Journey

 Throughout the trilogy, Rey has had to overcome quite a few challenges in her path to becoming a Jedi. Her journey has been one of mostly self-discovery and personal growth. In The Force Awakens, Rey discovers that she is strong in the force and can do things she never imagined. In The Last Jedi, Rey’s strength in the force grows stronger and she learns to accept that her parents were nobodies and that some things do not turn out the way we expect.

And so, thematically, it would almost seem like Rey has reached the end of her character arc. This is Rey at her most powerful. There’s nothing left to learn, and there are no more secrets to be revealed…right? Well, we know that this is not the case. Even from the first scene with Rey we know that something is wrong. She knows that something is wrong. There is a darkness inside of her; she fears for her destiny and who she is meant to become. It’s not until later that we understand why these feelings have come to the surface.

Up until TROS, we didn’t truly know who Rey was or where she came from. However, by this point in the story anyone should be able to describe her as a character. Kind. Brave. Resourceful. Curious. Compassionate. Strong. Rey has proven time and time again that she is an incredibly kind and capable individual who wants to do the right thing. Although both TLJ and TROS strongly hint towards Rey possibly turning to the dark side, we know that our protagonist never actually would because we know who Rey is.

And this a huge reason as to why the Rey Palpatine reveal works so well for me. There is an incredible juxtaposition with Rey being the most heroic, kind-hearted person imaginable, and yet she is related to the most evil man in the galaxy. There is something deeply profound about the last living Jedi having Sith blood in her veins. Part of the reason why this reveal is so shocking is because the two characters are complete polar opposites in terms of good and evil. Rey is absolutely nothing like Palpatine and so the familial connection seems impossible. It doesn’t just seem like an unlikely truth, it feels entirely incorrect. And yet, that is also what makes it (again, in my opinion) so interesting and bold.

 3.      Meaning and Impact

 Apart from giving Rey one last emotional challenge in the final installment, I think this choice was made for other reasons as well (3 to be precise).

1.      It made Rey even more similar to Kylo as he too is grappling with the dark influence from his Grandfather

2.      This decision subverts a long-existing trope in fantasy stories

3.      Used to further tie the 9 films together as a story about the Skywalker and Palpatine bloodlines

Since The Force Awakens, it was made very clear early on that Rey and Kylo were connected in some way; their destinies were intertwined. Although this was further explored in TLJ, we would not truly understand just how similar their journeys would become until the final installment. The dynamic between Rey and Kylo is infinitely interesting because at first glance they seem like completely opposite people, when in reality they share a very similar struggle, especially in The Rise of Skywalker.

Both Rey and Kylo experience the overwhelming darkness of their respective families. Kylo even says it quite bluntly before the lightsaber duel on the ruined Death Star: “The dark side is in our nature, surrender to it.” He is quite obviously trying to use Rey’s lineage against her in an attempt to turn her over to his side. What makes this so interesting is that we know Kylo himself is not yet completely taken over by the dark side. Despite his evil deeds, he has always been conflicted during this story.

When Rey finds out that she is related to Emperor Palpatine, she becomes withdrawn, angry, afraid and unstable. This is the closest to the dark side that we have ever seen Rey at. Indeed there are some moments where she almost seems to be channeling behaviour that would be more suited for Kylo (snapping at her friends, using anger as power). Although Rey eventually comes to her senses and realizes what is happening to her, she was clearly affected by her Grandfather’s dark influence, just as Kylo was.

 Despite the fact that both Rey and Kylo come from families with a history of the dark side, the film makes it very clear that one character’s lineage is far “worse” than the other. This is where the subversion of a common fantasy trope takes place. Now, to be clear, this is only my interpretation and I don’t claim this to be exactly what the filmmakers were going for; however this subversion is yet another reason why I enjoy the Rey Palpatine reveal.

How many times have you watched a movie or a TV show where a character’s lineage was a significant part of the story? It’s probably more times than you can count on one hand, right? My point is that the idea of a character’s lineage/family history becoming a main plot element in a story is nothing new, we’ve seen this before a million times. For example, in Disney’s “Tangled” (2010) Rapunzel learns that she is the long lost princess who was taken away from her family when she was an infant. Disney influence aside, does this sound somewhat similar to Rey’s story? Yes, it absolutely does…but not in the traditional or conventional sense.

This is where Rey Palpatine (for me at least), becomes extremely appealing. This reveal is like the evil, twisted version of a heroine discovering that she is the secret heir to a royal family. And instead of the protagonist being overjoyed and enlightened by this information, the reveal comes with great personal shock and emotional turmoil. In this case, Rey is the Granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine, which essentially makes her Sith royalty if we’re being really comparable. Am I the only one who (for lack of better words) thinks this is insanely cool? Not only is it a direct subversion of a very common story trope, it directly ties into Kylo’s arc and it also parallels Luke’s family revelation in “The Empire Strikes Back.” Coincidentally, this also makes Rey’s journey similar to Luke’s in that regard, but I’ll get back to that later.

Now as you’ve probably heard before, as we look back on all 9 films in the Star Wars saga we can see that this is clearly a story about the Skywalker and Palpatine families. Granted, the Palpatine bloodline is largely unexplored in comparison to the former. We know that Rey’s Father was the son of the Emperor, but we still don’t know his name or who he really was. Ultimately this information is not relevant to the story as a whole, but it’s clear that Emperor Palpatine has been pulling the strings throughout basically the entire saga.

More specifically, Palpatine himself has always been tied to the Skywalkers. He seduced Anakin Skywalker to the dark side and later tried to do the same to Luke. Via Snoke he was also able to turn Ben Solo, who shares a dyad with Rey, Palpatine’s Granddaughter. It kind of comes full circle and it’s really quite clever in my opinion. The Villain of the ST is related to the Heroes of the OT, and the Hero of the ST is related to the Villain of the OT (Did I just blow your mind?).

Put simply, Rey being a Palpatine makes a lot more sense thematically when you examine the story that came before her. Families are complicated and messy, especially in Star Wars. Rey’s experience echoes this, but in a much darker and harsher way. Her journey is meant to resemble Luke Skywalker’s in many ways, but their stories do have differences. In Luke’s case, he actually got to see and interact with Anakin, the real face of who his Father was. Anakin Skywalker was certainly not a perfect person, but in his last moments he turned to the light and saved his son’s life.

Rey, of course, did not get to experience a moment even close to this. Palpatine is about as evil as evil gets. There is no hope or chance of redemption. She was forced to look upon her own flesh and blood and see nothing but a monster. It would be unfair to turn this into a competition of “who had the most devastating family reveal”, but the point I’m trying to make is that Rey and Luke’s journeys are undeniably similar, which serves to further strengthen the connection of Skywalker and Palpatine in these 9 films.

 4.      Conclusion: The Power of Choice

 I feel I must end on the note of choice, because this is how The Rise of Skywalker chooses to end. Despite everything I have mentioned and how much I have grown to love the idea of Rey Palpatine, there is something that I love much more than this: Rey Skywalker. Even just reading it or saying it out loud fills with me an indescribable amount of joy.

To put it bluntly, Rey did not have an easy life. In fact, she probably had one of the most challenging upbringings of any Star Wars protagonist. Yes, Anakin was a slave at a very young age, but he also had friends and a mother who supported him. Luke was even better off with a relatively normal childhood, friends and parental figures who loved him as if he was their own son.

Rey had nothing and no one.

She was forced into a life of struggle and hardship, not by choice, and certainly not by her parents’ choice. Although they loved and cared for her, she would never feel this or know it to be true until much later in life. Rey did not choose where she came from, nor could she choose who she was related to. This is perhaps the most powerful and meaningful message that one could take away from the Sequel Trilogy: You cannot choose the circumstances of your childhood, nor can you choose who you are related to by blood. However, you can choose your destiny, you can choose who you want to be, and you can choose who you consider to be your family.

Rey had all the makings of a villain, but she chose to be a hero. A Sith that chose to be a Jedi. A Palpatine that chose to be a Skywalker. It doesn’t matter where you come from, only where you’re going. At the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide who you want to be. That is a beautiful thing.

Well folks, it took me a long time to get here but we’re finally at the end. I hope this essay was able to make some kind of a comprehensible point. Even if you didn’t agree with anything I said, I hope it was still something that made you think. It was quite a lot of fun to really delve into this topic and explore every microscopic detail. I sure hope it made sense, and if not, I’ll try to do better next time.

Thank you so much for reading! Bye for now.

#star wars #rey #rey palpatine #rey skywalker #TROS #please don't hate me!

[ryqoshay]

Putting on Hairs: Monster Manual

Summary: Short descriptions of the monster types of each girl and the role they play in the theater or in association with it. Warning: This Manual may contain ***SPOILERS*** for characters not yet mentioned or explored or for scenes that have not yet been written, though I will try to keep things limited to what has been revealed.

This chapter also may end up being edited. A lot. This whole thing is a work in progress, so unrevealed or unexplored characters may have their monster types or roles, or both, changed if a better idea presents itself.

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Name: Yazawa Nico Race: Weredog Werewolf Role: Star of Putting on Hairs Background: Inspired to be an actress by her father, who wanted her to share her smile with the world. She has been acting pretty much as long as she has been able to talk. She had many lead roles back in high school and college, but was unable to land one upon becoming a professional, despite her popularity with both critics and general audiences. She earned enough to hire an old high school friend, Nozomi, to be her agent. It was Nozomi that found a newly opened theater willing to give Nico her first shot at stardom on the professional stage.

Name: Nishikino Maki Race: Salamander Role: Costar of Putting on Hairs Background: Maki was born into a family of famous and wealthy movie stars. However, she grew up falling in love with live theater, instead of the silver screen. Still, she obeyed her parents' wishes and became a child star in a television series and appeared in many commercials afterward. After college, she manged to persuade her parents to let her try performing in live theater and they made the connections that landed her costar role alongside the rising star, Nico.

Name: SakurauchiRiko Race: Demon, formerly of Amdusias' legion Role: Pianist in the orchestra Background: Fearing facing an eternity of playing the cacophonous music of Hell, Riko fled to Earth in an attempt to find something else. She was quickly drawn to the piano and was able to earn a meager living playing in bars and other small venues. She applied many other places and was eventually accepted at a newly opened theater.

Name: Tsushima Yoshiko Yohane Race: Angel, Fallen Role: Assistant in the costume department Background: Cast out of heaven and cursed, Yoshiko has spent years trying to find her place in the mortal realm. Somehow, she found herself in Tokyo and stumbled into a kind woman, Kotori, who offered to teach her how to weave her own feathers into garments that could be sold at a premium. When Kotori accepted a position at a theater being opened by her childhood friend, Umi, Yoshiko decided to follow and continue her apprenticeship. Name: Toujou Nozomi Race: ??? Role: Nico's agent Background: Nico's closest friend since high school where they were in the same drama club. They moved in together in college and have lived together since. Nozomi majored in business and began her own talent agency with Nico as her first client.

Name: Minami Kotori Race: Crane Role: Head of costume department Background: Childhood friend of Umi and Honoka. Has always had an affinity toward clothing and design. When Umi started working with Dia to open a theater, Kotori jumped at the chance to make outfits for the cast. She is quite skilled at using her own feathers to imbue exceptional qualities in the clothing she creates and is happy to pass this knowledge to Yoshiko, her assistant. She is also capable of using other materials derived from other beings, e.g. Phobetor's fur or Riko's wings. Favors are her preferred currency, particularly those that will benefit the theater.

Name: Sonoda Umi Race: ??? Role: Co-founder and Co-owner of the Sonoda Kurosawa Theater Background: Childhood friend of Kotori and Honoka. Daughter of the renowned Sonoda family who already have a theater in Tokyo. However, as her elder brother stands to inherit the family theater, she has decided to open one of her own in a different district.

Name: Kousaka Honoka Race: ??? Role: Owner of Kousaka Catering Background: Childhood friend of Kotori and Umi. Took over the family catering business when her parents retired. Happily contracts with Umi's theater as often as possible.

Name: Hoshizora Rin Race: ??? (cat something) Role: Delivery girl at Kousaka Catering Background: Childhood friend, now girlfriend of Hanayo. Happily supports her girlfriend's theater obsession, even if she doesn't share it.

Name: Koizumi Hanayo Race: ??? Role: Cast member Background: Childhood friend, now girlfriend of Rin. Obsessed with theater from a young age, Hanayo has always dreamed of becoming an actress. However, she lacks courage. Rin's encouragement and support were the driving force behind her joining the theater club in high school and eventually earning a degree in acting. It was also Rin's connection with Umi through Honoka that led her to be brought on at the new theater.

Name: Ohara Mari Race: ??? Role: Heiress to the Ohara chain of hotels and patron of the theater Background: Childhood friend of Kanan and Dia. Lost track of her best friends when she moved to the United States to finish high school and then Italy for college. Returned to Japan but was only successful in reuniting with Kanan. Both moved to Tokyo when they heard Dia was opening a theater there. She owns a sizable penthouse apartment near the theater where she lives with Kanan. She leaves a room open for Dia, should she ever wish to accept the offer.

Name: Matsuura Kanan Race: Kraken Role: Owner of a dive shop and driver for Mari Background: Childhood friend of Mari and Dia. Lost track of Mari when she moved to the United States to finish high school and Dia when she moved to Tokyo for college. Reunited with Mari upon her return to Japan and agreed to move to Tokyo with her when they heard Dia was opening a theater there. She lives with Mari in a sizable penthouse apartment. As Mari refuses to charge her rent, she contributes to the household in other ways, like driving for Mari.

Name: Kurosawa Dia Race: ??? Role: Co-founder and Co-owner of the Sonoda Kurosawa Theater Background: Childhood friend of Mari and Kanan. Lost track of Mari when she moved to the United States to finish high school. Then she moved to Tokyo for college and lost track of Kanan. She is not entirely sure how Mari and Kanan learned she was opening a theater, but she is grateful for the generous donations made by Mari. She is also grateful Mari has not attempted to use the donations as leverage in her repeated efforts to get Dia to move in with her and Kanan. As for the theater, she has not openly discussed her reasons for moving to Tokyo instead of staying in Numazu where her family was already established in the industry. Upon opening, she extended an offer of employment to her younger sister, Ruby.

Name: Kurosawa Ruby Race: ??? Role: General staff at the theater Background: Younger sister of Dia. Grew up obsessed with acting, though has never had the courage to try becoming an actress herself. She moved to Tokyo when Dia offered her employment at the theater she was opening. Her best friend, Hanamaru, has suggested trying for a few minor roles, but time will tell if she does so.

Name:Kunikida Hanamaru Race: ??? Role: Theater crew Background: Best friend of Ruby who she met in middle school. Raised in a temple with few modern amenities, she has limited experience with technology. However, the temple did host many events over the years, most of which included some sort of theatrical performace. As such, Hanamaru decided to join Ruby in moving to Tokyo and applied for a position in the crew for Dia's theater.

Name: Emma Verde Race: ??? Role: ??? Background: Born and raised in Switzerland, she moved to Japan to learn more about the country's culture by way of its theater production. At least that is what she would say if asked in a public interview. In private, among those she trusts, she would admit she wanted to learn more about the differences of public perception and acceptance of monsters in Japan compared to the rest of the world.

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Notes: So, that's what I have at the moment. I'll keep adding details as they come to me.

As mentioned above, I will attempt to keep this chapter spoiler-free. However, as spoilers personally do not bother me, if the interest is there with my readers, I will put everything I have here, not just the details revealed in the story, up to wherever I have managed to write. This probably will result in more edit notifications, as I will undoubtedly change things, right up to the point of it being used in the story. And I'm not opposed to possible retcons if better ideas come later.

Also, many of the ??? entries are due to me not having assigned that monster type or role to that girl, though some I have assigned, but have not yet revealed. I am still working on filling my spreadsheet and bouncing ideas off several fellow authors.

However, I am more than happy to accept suggestions from my readers as well. Feel free to comment over on AO3 or send a suggestion anonymously here, or message me directly here, on twitter or Discord. If I like the idea or your reasoning, I may end up using it, and as always I will do my best to credit the sources of my inspiration.

Also, the idea doesn't necessarily need to be a perfect fit. Koto's is probably the best fit out of all of them; I really don't think I will end up doing better. WoofNic is shamelessly stolen from daily-nicotine. Krakanan was too funny not to use, though I knew she had to be some sort of sea critter. Maki started as an Ifrit and was changed to salamander because I love the idea of her being smaller than Nico. Riko is a demon to be an opposite to Yohane's angel, but I'm also amused by the contrast between Riko's canon traits and those stereotypically assigned to demons.

#Putting on Hairs

[yetanotheremptypage]

Happy Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day!

It’s another fic rec list! Here’s last years, which includes a link to my 2016 recommendations. They are all amazing, so you should definitely check them out, but in the mean time, here’s some more. I tried to tag most of the ships and/or fandoms, so if you ship any of those or are in the fandom, check out the recs below the cut. Of course, there are plenty more amazing fanfictions/writers out there, and to them, I give a huge THANK YOU! Finally, for the shameless plug, if you have any interest in any of my stories, links can be found here.

Arms Extended (Gen, Bandstand) AO3 [Complete]

a remix of “welcome home (finale)”

(or: the moments that inspired the lines of julia's poem)

Bandstand on the whole deserves more love, attention, and fanfiction, especially because the relationship these people build is so beautiful and there’s so much to be explored. This fic does it BEAUTIFULLY, and I can’t stress it enough. TW: I mean it’s Bandstand so anything that applies there applies here

Cut, Print, Moving On (Gen, Smash) AO3 || FF [In progress]

An imagined third season, starting approximately two years after the Tony Awards.

This fic is perfectly written and explores all of Smash’s complicated, messy, great relationships, romantic and otherwise, beautifully.

Epic Love (Han x Leia, Star Wars) AO3 || FF [Complete]

Here is what is believed: that Leia Organa has been abandoned by her husband and her brother, the two men who loved her best, in her time of greatest need. But things are not always as they seem. A TFA fix-it fic about family, the Force, and the love that could save the galaxy. Again. Also features Luke, Chewbacca, Rey, Finn, and mentions or cameos by several others.

I love the new Star Wars movies, I do. But this fic treats Han, Leia, and Luke so much better than TFA does. Please go read this pure perfection of a work and give it all the love it deserves. While you’re at it, check out... Everything else @lajulie24 has written; it’s all golden.

Everything I Never Knew (Emmett x Rosalie, Twilight) AO3 || FF [Complete]

Because sometimes a split second decision changes a life… One night, Rosalie Hale walked a different way home. Because of this, she didn’t meet Royce on the road and the worst night of Rosalie’s life happened to someone else. So what happened when Rosalie was never hurt, never turned vampire, and got everything she had always thought she wanted?

I love a good AU, and Rosalie and Emmett seem the best suited for one. Their connection is amazing and well-written and honestly, everything makes sense to me. I lowkey wish things could have played out this way for them, but alas, they didn’t, so let’s read fic instead. TW: Spousal abuse, bear attack so like blood and stuff

hey baby (i think i wanna marry you) (Donna x Josh, The West Wing) FF [Complete]

Josh goes to dinner with his old law school study group. He ends up defending the institution of marriage, before going home to Donna. Set in the Santos administration.

It’s just such a cute, fluffy little piece. How could I not, you know?

in a storm in my best dress (Percy x Annabeth, Percy Jackson and the Olympians) AO3 || FF [Complete]

"Point is, Percy's not used to being swamped in friends. So you can bloody well imagine his shock when he wakes up one morning and looks impulsively at his arm and there’s one, two, three, four, five, six, seven Marks on his line and holy crap the seventh is a soulmate mark."

or, Percy finds it difficult to make friends and Annabeth is the popular girl with a heart of steel. Soulmate AU.

Not gonna lie, this is a behemoth-- two chapters that come out at like 70k which like, damn, most of my one-shots aren’t even 1500 words, you get props for that alone. However, every word is perfect. There’s lot of pining, and hey, Percy Jackson with anxiety? Works. I saw my own anxiety reflected all over the place which... Was not the main reason I fell in love with this fic, but it’s nice to be recognized, you know? No, I fell in love with this fic because it’s about falling in love and making friends and growing up. And it’s beautiful, so go read it. TW: Anxiety attacks (Is that a tw? Oh well)

Miracles, etc. (Wanda Maximoff x Vision, Marvel Cinematic Universe) AO3 [In progress]

Wanda Maximoff’s life has been a set of frightening miracles: living in a war torn country as an orphan, escaping her anarchistic biological father, and surviving the American foster system with seven older foster siblings. Now 26 and working as a hotel waitress, Wanda has very distant plans for love and for a child. Unfortunately, her complicated life is about to get more complicated when a medical mix-up leaves her artificially inseminated with a stranger’s sperm. That stranger? Her boss, with an equally dark past.

Now pregnant- and possibly falling in love- Wanda finds herself with only nine months to rethink her entire future. Because the only thing more frightening than a miracle… is parenthood.

Did you know that a Jane The Virgin AU is EXACTLY everything you ever needed for this fandom, and specifically this pairing? My depression is cured, my skin is clear, and my crops are thriving, especially now that there’s new chapters again. Read this fic, please. It will not disappoint, especially if you enjoy JTV’s tongue-in-cheek style humor. Also dad!Clint.

My Beauty, My Baby (Gen, Downton Abbey) FF [Complete]

Cora and Sybil share a moment on the eve of the birth of Sybil and Tom's child. This story takes place in Season 3, sometime between Episodes 4 and 5. This is a bit of a departure for me, but the title words were an inspiration.

This is just so lovely. Sybil and Cora’s relationship is, I feel, kind of unexplored, so this was such a lovely treat.

people can surprise you (or not) (Anya x Dmitry, Anastasia) AO3 [Complete]

He's a poor joke of a journalist, she has something to prove to her family, and they're in here for a hell of a ride.

(“You’re asking me to be an asshole to some random woman just to prove a very sexist and offensive point like I’m some guy on Reddit who has no idea women are actually people?”)

(“Next Wednesday. I bet you can’t find a guy tonight, in this bar, and keep him until next Wednesday. Prove me wrong and introduce him to Nana during the gala. As your boyfriend.”)

OR, the reversed How to lose a guy in 10 days AU nobody asked, but everybody gets.

Angst, fluff, pining, misunderstandings, this has got it ALL. And it’s written flawlessly to boot.

Take Me Back To Me (Mary x Matthew, Downton Abbey) AO3 || FF [Complete]

When heiress Mary Crawley finds herself in the headlines for her third scandal of the year, Cora decides that it is time for Mary to turn her public image around. The solution? Hire humanitarian lawyer Matthew Crawley, whose new charity just happens to need a new donation, to play Mary’s boyfriend. (Modern Mary/Matthew!Fake Dating AU)

Were you aware you needed a modern fake dating AU for these two? No. But you do. It cleanses the soul with its perfectness. Go read it. TW: Descriptions of past not quite rape but I think it’s still classified as sexual assault

The Only Crime Is To Lose (Gen, Game of Thrones) AO3 [I think in-progress?]

The series doesn’t have a description, so here’s my attempt at one: The major houses of Westeros are crime families at war. This author expertly adapts the plotting and relationships into this scenario, which takes place after the Red Wedding-- which, in this world, involved Robb getting arrested and put away for life-- and most of the action surrounds the kidnapping of Jaime Lannister, though no one knows who did it. I’m not actually certain if this series is finished or not, but it leaves me reeling from unanswered questions and its overall beauty every time I finish the last story, so you should check it out so we can all share the pain. TW: I mean it’s Game of Thrones so like a lot of that stuff still applies

Treading Water (Annie x Finnick, The Hunger Games) AO3 || FF [Complete]

They don't tell you when you go into the arena that the lucky ones are those who die.

I don’t think I can state enough how amazing this fic is. The beautiful relationship between Finnick and Annie, the breathtaking way Catching Fire is woven into the story, and seeing the Games from the mentor’s perspective is fascinating. Go read this fic! TW: It’s the Hunger Games so anything from the books applies

we got the world (Jesse x Beca, Pitch Perfect) AO3 || FF [Complete]

"They say you're a freak when we're having fun, say you must be high when we're spreading love, but we're just living life and we never stop, we've got the world." Beca/Jesse, post-Kennedy Center flop. A series of missing Jeca moments from Pitch Perfect 2. COMPLETE.

Did you wish there had been more Jeca in Pitch Perfect 2? Then read this fic. It’s perfect in every way. (Written before PP3 though, so not canon compliant for that).

Willow (Anya x Dmitry, Anastasia) AO3 [In progress]

In a city by the sea, Anya and Dmitry find their footing.

Beautiful, happy Dimya, plus dashes of you know, revolution and angst and history. It’s gorgeous and perfect and go read it.

#game of thrones #percy jackson #MCU #star wars #hunger games #smash #bandstand musical #anastasia #downton abbey #west wing #twilight #pitch perfect #percabeth #scarlet vision #wanda x vision #han x leia #odesta #derek x ivy #karen x jimmy #donny x julia #dimya #mary x matthew #donna x josh #emmett x rosalie #jeca

[makingmediameta]

Keyword Definition: Motivational Posters

Motivational Poster: an image with accompanying text intended to influence a viewer’s attitude or behavior, particularly to motivate a viewer to reach a particular level of performance or display a particular characteristic through the use of emotional appeal.

“Hang in there, baby!” 

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” 

“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”

Motivational posters can be seen everywhere from the classroom to the work place to your very own phone. These posters can be physical or digital, but they all display a quote (like the ones above) set against a photograph or illustration. The purpose of these posters is to influence their audience’s attitude or behavior, often to achieve a particular level of performance. Motivational posters are so ingrained into American society that certain motivational designs and quotes have undergone thousands of remakes and parodies—take for example the image of the “Hang in there, baby!” cat above which was remade in a Simpson’s episode! Yet even though motivational posters may seem cliché, they have not always been the norm, especially in regards to motivating employees in the workplace.

Seiders, Motivational Aesthetics, and Mathers & Company

Prior to the twentieth century, advertising and propaganda depended largely on text and written rationale, following a Victorian tradition that largely distrusted images as a form of persuasion. Magazines rarely featured pictures, except those that elucidated complex technical issues explained in the articles. At the turn of the century, image began to take on a more important role in American society, especially the use of posters. Posters had previously been considered an irrelevant, feminine medium, but in 1915, the U.S. National Safety Council began a nationwide poster campaign, followed by the U.S. government’s propaganda campaign during WWI (Gray, 77). These campaigns began to legitimize the use of posters as a professional medium.

Following the war, the business community adopted the same illustrative practices to promote efficient work environments that the national government had use to promote “national service and patriotic sentiment” (Gray, 78). Seth Seiders’ Mather and Company was the first private company to create a nationwide poster business in 1923, capitalizing on the dawn of the humanist approach and industrial psychology, which were both being implemented by managers in the workplace. “New literature proposed that management should take into account the worker's emotional needs, aspirations, and desire for ‘fellow feeling’— meaningful relationships with workmates—in its effort to win over the worker's allegiances, mitigate industrial conflict, and increase efficiency” (Gray, 79).  Seider saw this new movement as an opportunity to market posters and pamphlets that appealed to worker’s emotions in a way that created a positive environment, motivated workers to improve efficiency, and “advertise(d)” the behaviors which managers expected from their employees (Gray, 80). Seiders’ business contributed to a new culture of visual education in which image began to supercede text as the main form of advertising and public information dissemination in the twentieth century (Gray, 80),

“At the height of its success in the late 1920s, Seider claimed that (Mathers) was supplying over 40,000 firms… (whose) customer base stretched from coast to coast in the insurance, commerce, transportation, cannery, communications, banking, sales, coal, and rubber industries,” according to an article about Seider’s business practices by David A. Gray (Gray, 77). The posters themselves embodied artistic movements of the turn of the century, and incorporated bold colors and images accompanied by instructive text (see example below). This developed the start of what Seider called motivational aesthetics, the combining of motivational texts or quotes with appealing images.

Mosby’s Great Performance Company

The next significant evolution in motivational posters was in the 1980s and 1990s with the introduction of Mosby’s Great Performance Company. This company had its start in the health care industry, but eventually developed motivational posters whose main purpose was worker incentive. These posters are recognizable by their photography images framed by a black border with a motivational quote or word written in the bottom center. These posters were a result of trends in “foreign competition, corporate downsizing, new emphasis on quality, and racial and gender tensions,” but were targeted towards manager performance rather than hourly workers like posters in the past, introducing a new definition (Smithsonian Libraries). Today these posters are some of the most recognizable in the motivational aesthetic canon.

Motivational Posters Outside of the Workplace

Motivational posters are also frequently used in classrooms and educational settings for the same purpose as when they are used in work environments; to influence behaviors and attitudes. The behaviors that increase efficiency, collaboration, and productivity in a company are the same ones that create a harmonious educational environment. A differentiation must be made, however, between motivational posters used in educational settings and educational posters. Educational posters’ purpose is to educate by presenting new or complicated information in an easily accessible and visually appealing way--similar to an infographic-- whereas a motivational poster is focused on behavior and attitudes. Both educational and motivational posters fall under the larger category of visual education and are similar mediums, but they differ in the messages that they deliver.

Motivational posters have been proven to encourage healthy decisions like taking the stairs or buying healthier beverages when placed in strategic locations, operating in a manner similar to propaganda by encouraging public consciousness (Tay). Additional evidence of motivational posters’ relationship to health will be discussed in more detail later in the article.  

Online Motivational Posters

With the dawn of the internet, and especially social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest, motivational posters have taken on new form as digital images. These images may not be physical “posters” per say, but they do fall under the same categories of motivational aesthetics.. Images from the Internet have the ability to be downloaded, printed, shared, viewed, commented on, liked, and displayed on desk tops, lock screens, or any other digital platform that you can think of, changing the way in which motivational posters are viewed and interacted with.

The format of motivational posters online varies greatly, but the majority still adheres to the traditional motivational text/image format. Dennis Tay analyzes what he considers the previously unexplored area of online motivational posters in his article “Metaphor construction in online motivational posters.” In his sample of 900 online motivational posters selected at random from the three top-searched online results for “motivational posters,” only 4.8% relied on visuals alone (Tay, 110). This statistic reinforces the importance of text/image combinations when distinguishing motivational posters from other online images. Tay also brings up the topic of demotivational posters, a subset of online images produced in a style that parodies traditional motivational poster formats but that include negative text. (Tay, 110).

Newer forms of media circulating on the internet are memes, humorous images, videos, or pieces of text that are copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users. Often memes take the forms of images with text written over them, in a similar aesthetic approach as a motivational poster. However the differences between the two forms of media lie in their messages and purposes; memes are intended to connect audience members to one another by allowing them to share in a joke, feeling, or emotion while a motivational poster is intended to influence attitudes or behavior. Some memes are intended to influence attitudes and behavior, but because they extend beyond this purpose and have their roots in humor, they cannot be categorized with motivational posters.

“Do They Really Work?” Societal Effects of Motivational Posters

It is difficult to determine whether or not motivational posters achieve their attended effect of improving the workplace environment. Studies of motivational posters focus on their history or content, but not specifically on their overarching societal effect. Yet since motivational posters have continued to be used in the workplace for close to one hundred years and have evolved to such a degree, they must be making some sort of impact.

In the author’s opinion, the power of motivational posters lies predominantly in their appeals to emotion. Pathos is one of the strongest rhetorical devices, and since motivational posters typically invoke idealized images and text, they play into this rhetorical strategy. They can also satisfy the emotions of the manager or person who puts them into place by allowing the person to feel as though they have done something to improve the lives of their employees or audience, resulting in positive reinforcement for the action.  Motivational posters powers also have a basis in psychology. In the book Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation : The Search for Optimal Motivation and Performance, authors Sansone and Harackiewicz discuss how it takes a balance of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to optimize both performance and experience (Sansone & Harackiewicz, 3). Too much extrinsic motivation can dissuade or eliminate intrinsic motivation (Sansone & Harackiewicz, 3). Motivational posters are classified as extrinsic motivation because they are displaying a message that is external to the viewer. However because of the text’s motivational nature, posters can also inspire intrinsic motivation by empowering the audience into feeling that their life is in their own hands, they have an internal locus of control.

Despite their name, motivational posters do not always motivate viewers in a beneficial fashion. Online motivational posters are frequently used by health and fitness bloggers in a recent trend called “fitspiration,” a combination between “fitness” and “motivation.” Images with tags like #fitspiration or #fitspo, a.k.a. fitspiration content, is defined by researchers Lea Boepple, B.A. and J. Kevin Thompson, PhD as “content promoting fit/healthy lifestyles…includes objectifying images of thin/muscular women and messafes encouraging dieting and exercise for appearance rather than health, motivated reasons (Boepple & Thompson). Oftentimes this content takes the form of traditional motivational posters, with text overlaid against an image of a lithe, young woman. In a content analysis of fitspiration websites by the same authors plus Ata and Rum, the authors analyzed the images and text found on these websites shared many of the same qualities as pro-anorexia or “thinspiration” websites which have been linked to poorer body image and higher likelihood of disordered eating (Boepple et. al.). In a similar study published in Cogent Social Sciences in 2016, Hefner et. al. found that fitspiration images on microblogs like Instagram and Twitter were related to disordered eating symptomology because of their encouragement of dieting and restrictive eating (Hefner, et. al.) From studies such as these, we can the particular way in which motivational posters combine image and text to influence our attitudes, behaviors, and even our health.

Motivational posters have evolved in style and persuasiveness since their introduction to the American workplace in the 1920s, but their messages and purpose remain largely the same. With the rise of new technologies, motivational posters have transcended physical forms and found new relevance as digital images shared throughout the Internet. Whether they are used seriously or parodied, motivational posters affect the social world in a manner that is unique to its particular medium by combining text and image to influence attitudes and behavior.

 Works Cited

“American Enterprise Exhibit: Posters.” The National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Libraries, americanhistory.si.edu/american-enterprise-exhibition/new-perspectives/work-incentives/posters.

Boepple, Leah, et. al. “Strong is the new skinny: A content analysis of fitspiration websites.” Body Image, vol. 17, 2 Apr. 2016, pp. 132–135. Social Sciences Citation Index, eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=3dc002a5-79ba-46e2-9393-9632c60eb20f%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=000377728500016&db=edswss.

Boepple, Leah, and J. Kevin Thompson. “A Content Analystic Comparison of Fistpiration and Thinspiration Websites.” International Journal of Eating Disorders, vol. 49, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 98–101. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=9f0fe3ef-5043-48fa-861a-18cb1a6804a5%40sessionmgr120&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=112198047&db=pbh.

Gray, David A. “Managing Motivation: The Seth Seiders Syndicate and the Motivational Publicity Business in the 1920s.” Winterthur Portfolio, vol. 44, no. 1, 2010, pp. 77–121. Art and Architecture Source, eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=3&sid=1f6f3a9c-5d78-478e-9a9c-292c71c23366%40sessionmgr102&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=505319260&db=asu.

Harackiewicz, Judith M., and Carol Sansone. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation : the search for optimal motivation and performance. Academic Press, 2000. UF data base, eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=fbd0552f-7ccc-4ba4-9ba5-3c89933557b1%40sessionmgr103&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#AN=ufl.020328511&db=cat04364a. (ebook)

Hefner, Veronica , et al. “Mobile exercising and tweeting the pounds away: The use of digital applications and microblogging and their association with disordered eating and compulsive exercise.” Cogent Social Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, 2016. Directory of Open Access Journals, doaj.org/article/e70a44e9c39043e9921f92aa6e50bf62 .

Tay, Dennis. “Metaphor construction in online motivational posters.” Journal of Pragmatics, vol. 112, Apr. 2017, pp. 97–112. Science Direct, www-sciencedirect-com.lp.hscl.ufl.edu/science/article/pii/S0378216616305665.

-RE

#keyworddefinition