#individual characters and their dynamics? fun!

[lesbianambermoon]

im so excited for artfight because my cat OC world (that i haven't talked about here yet because it's not much atm) is on there now so i hope there will be an explosion of my dearest meows this july

#maybe one day i'll talk more about them when they. actually have a story 😭 unfortunately story is where i fall short in creative endeavors #character design? HELL YEAH! #individual characters and their dynamics? fun! #story and greater worldbuilding? .......ehh youre losing me... #i hope one day i can come up with something because i love these characters a lot

[turtleblogatlast]

Small but significant character moments that I actually really adore are from both the times we see the boys as tots. There is a reoccurrence that happens in both of them that I find so incredibly interesting.

For the turtle tot short, Splinter leaves the boys with weapons. In the short, Raph is the one who suggests they do “what Lou Jitsu would do” and Leo is the one who takes point when Splinter comes back to reprimand them. Leo, in taking point, is the one to defend them and get Splinter off their tails.

And then, in the flashback regarding the Kuroi Yōroi helmet, Raph is the one who grabs and throws “Skully” as a way to replace their missing ball which breaks it into pieces, but Leo is the one who speaks for the group and rushes into action to fix the teapot.

I love this for multiple reasons, but the biggest are how it shows that Raph has always been inclined toward the bold and fun and making the plans to include his brothers in what he loves and believes they’d love, whereas Leo has always been inclined to be the “Face” of the group and shoulder the attention even if it’s potentially negative all while coming up with on the spot attempts to fix the situation.

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt raph #rottmnt leo #rise Raph #rise leo #I really do love this bit of character writing a ton #again it’s so small but like this is consistent! #little Raph just wanted to have fun with his bros 😭 #Leo immediately coming in with the save both times (and more - remember Bug Busters?) #I really love too how none of them pointed fingers like #it was Understood that Leo would speak for them #listen there’s a reason Leo is the Face Man and it’s NOT just because he’s got a pretty face #he can talk both himself and his fam out of situations and I wish we saw it even more because it’s amazing to witness #circling back to Raph his bold nature is something I ADORE about him but I don’t see it brought up a lot which makes me so sad #like this boy is a RAPHAEL he is bold!! #and it’s cute too how the other bros immediately go along with it too #imo the Raph in these tot flashback is the same Raph that glues them all together as a bonding exercise #side note but damn…Leo saves them from punishment in the tot short and immediately gets jumped 😔 #but yeah man I think a Lot about the little dynamics between the bros and how those dynamics could have first came into being #Leo being the face of the team and having been it since childhood- #-makes all the moments of immediately choosing to sacrifice himself when HE royally messes up all the more notable #if it’s one bro or the whole group individually he’s more chill about it but often still lets himself be the talker to get them out of it #he will do his damndest to get his brothers and himself out of trouble but once they’re in it he’s in the front with a smile #his own safety be damned #Raph is actually the same in that respect - he’ll jump into danger fists first but all bets are off when a brother is in danger #and like how Leo’s been the face - as the eldest Raph has been the de facto leader of sorts #he’s the one who is shown to make up their games! and I think that’s very cute #anyway their clashing in the movie is so interesting for a lot of reasons but one of them is that it shows how- #-even a longstanding dynamic like Raph and Leo’s that’s WORKED for so long is still susceptible to flaws…and to time

[fat-fem-and-asian]

something about gregory and janine is just so fun? the way they're both absolute nerds? that their more overbearing traits are where they overlap and even enjoy each other? how greg is a realist and janine is a dreamer and they're both learning to be people outside of how they were raised, to see the world as bigger than just themselves? and for better or worse, platonic or romantic, the new lives they are building include each other? girl c'mon

#abbott elementary #their relationship specifically is something new that i just...haven't seen before #especially in a black relationship??? like when do characters get that kinda coverage??? that DEPTH #their dynamic is so fun and cute and somehow still allows them to be individuals #i KNOW most of the energy in their room goes to making sure their bond is finely tuned #i love them and i want them to kiss more but i also just want them to be around each other #that it is so easy together....that janine somehow reads his cues so well and he does his best to bolster her up #gonna think about them for the next WEEK at least #Teddie

[yioh]

why are like 95% of genshin mlm ships so boring and cliche😭

#idk they feel so dull lol #the only mlm ships i like are the scara ships (kazuscara and chiscara) i feel like that’s because scara has such a fun personality and #character design also his colour palette looks so nice with any character #i like kaebedo ofc but they don’t count because they’re not rly popular and have like 0.5 in game material lol #but everything else is so dull #like zhongli/childe kaveh/al haitham ayato/thoma the fontaine guys idk their names #SOOOOO BORING … #wait but i did have a ayato/itto phase they are actually super cute 😭😭😭 i love their dynamic it’s so adorable i would love for more ayaitto #i love how ayaitto compliment eachother it makes so much sense and thoma rly does just feel like a sweet friend honestly i love him for tha #lowkey miss inazuma now lol #WHEREAS most of the wlw ships are soooo fun #idk man like beiguang eimiko while not my favourite ever they are still super fun and cute and i like seeing them #they don’t feel boring lol #i think it’s because i already like their characters individually #plus shenjin and guiping #they’re all so cute #the women of genshin impact are so nicely written now that i think abt it #there’s also lumine/heat and ayalumi #*JEHT NOT HEAT WTF #KOKOSARA beloveds #dehya and dunyazard #not rly a fan of the fontaine girls tho they look kinda basic lol #don’t take this post too seriously i’m just rambling lol

[haliaiii]

fav percy jackson character and WHY‼️ also a character u didn’t like/were iffy abt as a child but relate to now

Ok imma be real I never had a proper proper fav? But if I had to choose (this is gonna be really basic I know) I’d say Percy 😭

Not just bc he’s the main character but I really liked him a lot as a kid and even now I still fuck w him. He’s just great and holds a lot of emotional connection cause when I started reading pjo, we were almost the same age and now that I’m rereading pjo, we’re literally both seniors in high school 💀, although when I was a kid I think I also liked Leo a lot too, pretty much any character that had a funny pov

As for a character I relate to now it’s 100 percent jason

So when I was a kid and started getting into the Percy Jackson universe, I didn’t really know where to start (cause it was like my first proper series), but the ppl at school were reading heroes of Olympus so I assumed that was where it started. I knew who Percy bc I read the Greek Gods book prior so I was very confused to open The Lost Hero and there was this guy named Jason instead 😭. I didn’t really like or dislike him, but I was surprised to find out many didn’t like him. I think if there was another series that had focused on Jason like how there was one with Percy then it would’ve made public opinion of him way better tbh, bc I feel like people didn’t like him cause they were comparing him to Percy. Anyway I didn’t really think much of him, he was just kinda ok ig? Like he didn’t really feel like he had that much character to him (at first) and I kinda thought his relationship with piper was boring 😔

But revisiting it today, (and also post what happened in the burning maze), he has a lot of really cool hidden lore that I wished was more talked about 😭. Like his whole life was a straight up tragedy, abandoned by his mother at 2, raised by wolves and then had to join the Roman military and lead at a young age. Then when he thinks he’s finally settling down, Hera fucking wipes his memories and drops him in the middle of the US and he has to spend the next years of his life fighting a war. AND THEN right when he finally settles down again, piper breaks up with him but he still goes on that quest knowing he or piper will die bc of the prophecy but sacrifices himself anyway bc he cares about her and dies at the age of 16. It’s literally so sad, he never got a chance to experience what he wanted to do and spent his entire life accommodating for others. Anyway peak eldest sister energy even if he’s the younger brother 😭

Also another character I warmed up to a lot was Piper!! I originally didn’t like her “not like other girls” personality, but looking back on it I was kinda the same way 💀. Like I feel like she’s a really cool complex character and that gets overlooked, I think her negative feelings towards femininity kinda also stems from the weird brainwashing thing Hera did and her developing her sexuality. I actually started liking her more when she broke up with Jason and started dating her girlfriend, ( on a side note, I lament the fact that we’ll never get to see Jason and Piper develop their friendship cause I really think they were platonic soulmates and never meant to be in a romantic relationship).

I just think they’re both really neat by themselves! There’s so many other characters I could spend paragraphs talking about but we could be here all day 😭

Ty for the ask tho I had sm fun info dumping-

#haliai ask #pjo #another underrated character imo is hazel she slays #she’s also so fun to draw I should drop my hazel sketches soon #also it’s kinda funny I haven’t drawn Nico yet considering he’s definitely a fan favorite lol #I never really felt that much for him imma be honest 😭 #I enjoy his dynamics with other characters but ig he never really stood out to me as an individual? #maybe it’s cause I never really related to him as a kid idk #it’s funny cause with my track record he should 100 percent be my fav 💀

[prismatoxic]

congrats on writing the fic that made a man text his (sort of estranged) dad. fr your portrayal of every single dynamic is so flawless and considerate. nobel prize.

THAT ACTUALLY DOES FEEL LIKE AN ACCOMPLISHMENT... i hope it goes well anon!!!

there's a lot to be said about people who did the wrong things but feel genuine remorse and want to get better, i think. i've been there (though not in a parent sense), and it's also what happened with my mom after i moved out, so i guess i kind of know how it is from both angles. on top of, you know, just writing what i know of who chilchuck is as a person (and assuming a lot of things about meijack and the others, lmao...)

#tox answers #tox.txt #fic: promises to keep #i've never known my biological father and atp my step-dad can eat lead paint for all i care #but dynamics aren't as gender-locked as people think they are anyway so my experience works fine for what i need #i think chilchuck is a very good and very flawed person (ryoko kui is super good at writing nuanced characters) #he wants to improve not only for himself but for those he cares about... but the way that manifests in canon is something of a winding road #in promises i tweaked a bunch of story elements and then asked myself how i thought that'd change his responses #if he knew from the outset why his wife left him would he then have a better understanding of what he needed to change about himself? #in a world with cellphones it was easy for him to reach out in the moment #in canon i think even if he knew where she went immediately... by the time he went looking the anger would have set in #so even if he wanted answers i'm not sure he'd have been willing to listen at that point #this is what's fun about AUs to me--putting characters in situations they've never been in canonically (or altering the ones they were in) #and then asking “how does this affect their response? how does my understanding of them piece together with this new situation” #every individual choice in the setting and to the lore of the world affects how these known dynamics will play out #whoops wrote an essay in the tags. GOMENASAI

[smilesrobotlover]

Rewatching Clone Wars and Rebels and I just gotta say it. Star Wars peaked with those shows. I love them so much

#the clone wars was so unique cuz it was focused on main characters #but it also had 4 episode arcs with different characters #like you weren’t always with the same characters #and the character arcs were SO good man #and it wasn’t scared to touch on the horrors of war and the complications of politics #and it individualized the clones in such a wonderful ways #and traumatized me so much with the amount of on screen deaths #10/10 show I love it so much #and then Rebels only really focuses on the small group of characters #but my gosh the dynamics are just so fun #idk what happened but the soul got sucked out of Star Wars #I will forever be a Disney Star Wars hater #idk if rebels is Disney Star Wars #but I suppose it was at a time when Disney was making actual good stuff #regardless the modern Star Wars is awful #I watched the first two episodes of Ahsoka and I’m not impressed #I’m going in with high standards cuz the low standards are giving people too much credit #but yeah #that show def should’ve been animated man #these live action actors can’t show an ounce of emotion #like ever #what is wrong with these people #sorry I need to calm down I’m so salty about what happened to Star Wars lol #anyways clone wars and rebels are amazing #they have their flaws but they’re so good in their own ways with delightful characters #smiles rambles

[johanthefriskiestofbits]

oooooo please tell me (who knows nothing on the subject) about orv swap au

hehehe. hehehehehehe. hehehehehehehhehehehhheheheh <- guy who is so normal

the premise of orv swap au (name has yet to be finalized) is this: what if kdj and yjh swapped narrative positions (reader <-> character) but very little else? what if a video game player enters a time loop to save his favorite character from dying over and over again and also to end the apocalypse?

admittedly it's not super fleshed out yet (a lot of the changes this premise would introduce are still not hammered out yet) but here are some points under the cut (novel spoilers ahead!)

orv swap au starts with pro gamer yjh who feels :/ abt his job, but hey, it pays the bills. despite (or maybe because of) his relative popularity as a pro gamer and networking with the agency/sponsors/people to impress, he's kind of isolated in a way that's detrimental, a facade of someone he's not whenever he's on camera

something to play around with is the idea of agency? maybe this yjh doesn't feel like he has any and has his hands tied between the lifestyle and being under public scrutiny and not having enough of a support system to leave everything behind. maybe he doesn't know what else he would even do. maybe he's aimless and drifting with nothing to hold on to.

his favorite video game is what i've been thinking of as World's Hardest To Play Indie Game (not based on difficulty but just on the experience of consuming it) a boring, exposition heavy, player-hostile, poorly designed, slightly buggy mess of a barely-playable game: twsa, a game that was not finished upon release and experiences with sporadic updates every now and then.

the ending tree to this game is so convoluted its insane. also theres no save states so if you die (very likely) u restart babeyyy.

twsa (video game) does have multiple endings, all of which happen when kdj, your main character, dies. some are farther into the apocolypse than others, some paths require meta knowledge of future events or character actions or items or whatever. the "true ending" is either analogous to the original 1863: kdj makes it to the end at the cost of everyone he loves, or hsy's modified 1863: kdj makes himself enemy of the scenario to secure a way out for the kimcom remnants.

there's branches on the choices tree where everyone dies and everything sucks and is bad forever and theres choices to make where kdj gets to make a family and they don't really get to settle down but they can get pretty close to it among the ruins of the apocalypse. through all his testing, yjh finds that these endings are nice but peter out - to get to the end of the apocalypse yjh has to claw his way there inch by painful inch, through betrayal and sacrifice, and he still cant fully get past it

i originally wanted to finagle a yoohankim 3 way swap but i couldn't figure it out. swap aus are a lot easier to work with when they're even numbers, at least to me, so this au features a ysa who is a video game company employee by day and by night she really has become god this time (and also a terrible indie dev). and this is how jungdoksang can still win !!!!

also yjh's coworker from Real Life hsy :) i haven't decided if she's like an employee for the same agency, or if she's someone else in the gaming circles that yjh interacts with sometimes (in my heart theyre in like some sort of discord server together), or something like that but she's around. whatever she does she is twitter cancelled for something. to me.

the only other character swaps are lsk and yma. yma is yjh's estranged sister (in broad strokes there's a vague bad parent situation going on here) (they used to be close until they drifted apart and slowly started hating each other [there is an abyss between them that neither of them can bridge]) (he feels that she betrayed him and threw him under the bus so he left [maybe he gets kicked out]) (she feels that he abandoned her to whatever situation they have going on [he didn't even try to take her with him]) and he has to find her when the apocalypse starts. yjh older sibling to yma gives us a whole different little dynamic to explore from kdj ysk (there's different levels of responsibility and guilt and blame when you're talking siblings that are soooooo interesting to me. sorry that i see any set of siblings and immediately try to figure out how to make them worse)

lsk is kdj's mom who appeared into existence at some point with kdj and they were both just adults. that's weird isn't it. oh well. i guess she can become a transcendent later too for funsies

everyone else stays in the same configuration of Real Person vs Character to me this is a very important aspect

this point has no precedent with the swap, nothing particular that would change to cause this, but it would be so funny if lgy was a little gamer boy who is an avid yjh hater. hates that guy. shows up to competitions to boo him. tunes into yjh's silent no-mic speedrunning streams to mald in chat but yjh +mods don't ban him bc its kinda funny.

anyways the apocalypse starts when yjh and his coworker/fellow gamer hsy are on a train to twitchcon and lgy is also there (also headed to twitchcon) and he brings bugs because he likes them but also to sabotage yjh specifically. its just funny if this happened. you understand

instead of having reader-related skills and abilities, yjh's skills are video game player based! he gets flavor text insight on people, location, and items, things like that. notably, he has the ability to reset, to bring himself back to the beginning of the apocalypse

orv swap proper follows yjh as the Player of the Game (Consumer of the Narrative) who lives hundred of lifetimes in this ruined-world-become-reality "replaying" [read: time looping through] the game to reshape it to save his fave character from self implosion (kdj with no dissociation is very prone to dying. all the time.). to revisit the idea of playing with yjh and the idea of agency, of creation, the only way to get past the apocalypse is to go off the beaten path, to choose options that weren't even there in the game. when in space, at his darkest point, yjh becomes a writer. in this story, at his darkest point, he has to become a creator too

please do not ask me how the epilogues go i dont know how the epilogues go (i don't want to throw yjh back into a train for milennia after he Just went through a thousand resets so i'm sending kdj for that but i havent fully planned how or why)

anyways, hope that helps!!! :)

#orv au #orvswap #i think i will main tag this. just the one tag tho. poorly planned au be upon ye. #orv #orv spoilers #<- for blacklists! #i only realized after creating this au that this is just how p//mmm goes except its videogame themed and hater lgy is there lol #anyways wheres that post that says time loops are about tragedy and theyre about saying i will make this right #and secret third thing time loops are about love #also each individual dynamic for the creater-player-character triangle in this is so interesting to me to explore like #you have the new kdj-yjh one (mostly similar tbh. was the crux of the au after all) which is a fun space to play in #but then you have a brand new kdj-ysa one to work with which is !!!! a writer and her character. a creator and her creation #and then you have ysa-yjh as the creator and her audience of 1!!!!!!! where is yjh that he needs to be saved? how does ysa answer that call #to love to the point of creation.... to tear the world asunder..... to create the worlds most unplayable rpg....... #lets meet again in another life. ysa reaches out toward yjh but cant reach him before she wakes up. cant quite tell him its not his fault #and Dont Even get me Started on yoo sister dynamics ill go insane #because theyre siblings but for a while (and def at the beginning of the story) it hurts to be around each other (its a betrayal #its a pang in your chest its a you were supposed to protect me and you were supposed to love me and i dont even know you anymore) #but also the swap means the 4th wall eats yma and leaves yjh begging for her back ('dont you hate her?' 'shes my little sister' #which is neither agreement nor denial but also both at once) #its ya boi #tango mango #anyways thanks for the ask im very normal about the ask

[rollingaroundin-bread]

The Ducktales kids as Owl House characters for Halloween!!!! :)

#I made a bunch of possible character & costume ideas and here’s the first one I finished!! idk if it will be the only one we’ll see!! :) #had fun assigning characters as always which I had extisice reasons for each of course! #it mostly boils down to dynamics rather than individuals: ex. Lena and Webby as Lumity because obviously etc etc. #for the record Lena’s halloween bag is magical & they’re all sharing it NOT that I forgot to draw halloween bags…. yeah.. #lena sabrewing #webby vanderquack #dewey duck #louie duck #he’s mattholomule btw and I’m very correct about it so take THAT masob (that’s my brother) #boyd gearloose #huey duck #violet sabrewing #ye ye ask me about my thought process if you’re curious but I’m gonna go draw some more!! :) #my art stuff #woah it’s not on a sticky note!!

[wgc-productions]

Broke: Writing a relationship with characters you love together.

Woke: Writing a relationship with characters you hate together

Bespoke: Writing a relationship with characters you hate together but as you write them you slowly fall in love with their bond and that tenderness and appreciation bleeds through in the writing making their love more vibrant and real.

#This is me with Nina and Marisol #i liked them both so much individually so i obviously hated them together #i just felt like they both deserved better #but then the more i was writing in season 2 i sorta caught a vibe #i understood why they were cute together #(which is sort of a crazy thing to say considering some of the stuff that goes down in Season 2) #but I did! #I learned to like them and now I'm writing this little draft scenes of them that are super cute #fun fact I write draft scenes of a lot of character interactions that will never make it into the show #it's like sketching in a way. it gives me an idea about the dynamic even if the situation itself is non-canon #small victories #small victories podcast #audio fiction #fiction podcast

[joshuaalbert]

tf do they really never bring back grilka again #justiceforgrilka

#she and quark were fun and I feel like he actually progressed in that dynamic and then regressed with the dax shit but also #I just genuinely liked her! #we got an actual full-klingon woman with an individual personality and desires who was a likeable character! #it was a nice deviation I thought it was neat and I think. bring her back. #ds9 liveblog #ish

[jinjeriffic]

DPxDC and OOC

I've had a couple of posts cross my dash recently where people lament that a lot of the dpxdc fandom writes characters very OOC and how we're proliferating these characterizations among each other. I figured I'd add my own two cents.

I think the fundamental discrepancy comes from trying to reconcile two canons with vastly different tones.

Danny Phantom is a comedy superhero show operating on cartoon logic. Why do ghost experts Jack and Maddie never realize their own kid is a ghost? Why is the status quo restored at the end of every episode? Why does Danny shoot an ectoblast out of his butt that one time? Because it's funny. It's cartoony action fun where the plot is resolved in 22 minutes, there's never any lasting consequences and it's aimed at kids.

DC meanwhile wants to be taken Seriously. Heroes get beaten within an inch of their life, traumatized, killed and even the good guys do messed up things (often to each other). Yes there's action and puns, but also horrific violence, actions have consequences and it's (mostly) aimed at adults. When a main character dies the comics show their family and friends mourning and things are very dramatic. Even though at this point we, the audience can pretty much expect every death to be undone within 2-5 years of publishing, but I digress.

So how do we, the fanfic/fanart creators reconcile these differences when we make our crossovers? We either make DP more serious and somber, or we make DC more comedic.

Suddenly we have a DP verse where the Fentons' bumbling obliviousness is elevated to serious neglect or outright abuse. The GiW are no longer a minor annoyance, they are a serious threat with genocidal plans and a desire to vivisect the protagonist. When actions have consequences, we imagine Danny as dealing with serious PTSD from having to be a solo superhero and witnessing his family's death that one time (and maybe also getting vivisected). Danny is not just a teen superhero, he's now the Ghost King with serious responsibility on his shoulders.

On the flipside, if we make DC more comedic we tend to exaggerate character traits for comedic effect, focus more on the interpersonal dynamics (especially the Batfam) and have the characters act more casual and silly. Suddenly the Batfam goes from a group of seriously messed up individuals who have trouble communicating with each other and fight all the time to Batdad "Kids if you don't stop killing criminals you won't get dessert ffs" Bruce. Violence is played for laughs instead of taken seriously. Yeah they fight, but they still Love Each Other.

And THIS IS PERFECTLY FINE. It's transformative work! And trying to reconcile these disparate fandoms is hard! Fandom is a labor of love. We do it for free. We do it for our own entertainment. And no one is forcing you to read fics you don't like. DLDR and all that.

#dpxdc #dcxdp #dp x dc #dc x dp #meta #danny phantom #dc comics

[thebibliosphere]

One of the really fun and interesting things about writing a polyamorous romance as someone who is ambiamorous/polyamorous is finding new ways to make sure the narrative hits the expected genre beats without just sort of... mushing it into a pre-existing monogamous romance mold, which is what I'm afraid happens a lot of the time.

Trust me, it was my job in the publishing house to make them fit that mold. I hated it.

Reading other poly-centric romances, I can always somewhat tell when someone is writing polyamory from a sexual fantasy aspect (zero shade; I'm here for all the group sex) without actually considering how it functions as a relationship dynamic, which can often come off as... well.

It's lacking for me as a romance.

Erotica-wise, it's fine. But it misses the romantic beats for me that I want as a polyamorous-leaning person.

There's so much emphasis on the polycule and never the individual dyads within the larger relationship.

For example, in a triad, there are actually four relationships to handle.

The dyad between A + B. The dyad between A + C. The dyad between B + C. And the overarching relationship between A + B + C.

With monogamous-leaning authors or authors that've been pressed into conforming to the pre-existing genre beats, there's a tendency to treat the relationship as a homogenous mass where everything is fair and equal, and you treat all your partners the exact same way.

And I get it. It's easier to write everything as peachy-keen and to have external conflict be resolved with either acceptance or a brave confrontation.

But it doesn't always land for me as someone who wants to see my style of love represented in the genre.

In healthy polyamory, either closed or open, each relationship is unique in its own way. Taking the example of a triad again, the way A acts with C likely differs from how A acts with B.

And that's a good thing!

Because C might not want the same things as B, so trying to treat them both the exact same is a surefire way to make sure someone isn't getting their needs met, and that will lead to conflict.

Polyamory isn't striving for equality between partners but rather equity.

What are your individual needs, and how do I meet them, as well as meet the needs of my other partner(s)? What do you want from the larger relationship as a whole? How do we accommodate everyone without making someone feel neglected or uncomfortable? How do we show this in the narrative? How do we make sure character A isn't just treating B the same as C in every interaction? Do they ever fall into that pitfall? How do they remedy it?

It seems like common sense when you write it out like that, but it's a major pitfall I see time and time again. The characters never alternate their approach between partners, if there's any focus on the individuals at all.

The other major telltale thing I've noticed is that taking time to be with one partner is seen as a step down from the "goal" of the greater polycule.

The narrative is framed in such a way that they might start out with individual dates, but the end goal of the romance is to eventually be together 100% of the time all the time, and wanting individual time alone with any one partner is somehow "lesser."

Which is the goal of romance in monogamy, but it's not the goal of romance in polyamory.

Granted, you do need to end on a Happy Ever After or Happy For Now for it to fit the genre requirement. And a nice way of tying that up is to have everyone together at the end as a happy polycule all together all at once. I'm not disputing that as a narrative tool. I'm just pointing out that there's a tendency to present those moments as the sum total of the relationship when in actuality, there are multiple relationships that need to end happily ever after.

The joy of polyamorous love is the joy of multitudes. It's the joy of experiencing new things, both as individuals and as a polycule. If you're not taking care of the individual dyads, however, your polycule is going to crash and burn. You cannot avoid that. So why, then, is there such avoidance of it in stories meant to appeal to us?

Is it simply inexperience on behalf of the author? Or is it that they're not actually being written for us? Is it continued pressure to meet certain genre beats in a largely monogamous-centric genre? All of the above?

Either way, I'm having fun playing around with it and doing all the things we were warned against in the publishing house.

I'm having fun with Nathan and Vlad enjoying their own private dynamic that is theirs and theirs alone. I'm having fun with Ursula and Nathan being so careful and vulnerable around each other. I'm absolutely 100% here for the chaos of Vlad and Ursula without a chaperone. And I'm here for the chaos of Vlad and Ursula together and Nathan's fond, loving eye roll as he trails after them, too enamored to tell either of them no because where would the fun in that be...

Anyway. Don't mind me. Just getting my thoughts out while everyone else is in bed.

#long post #rambling with joy #I see so many interesting stories just sort of... neglect the dyads in the end #and it makes me sad #I wish it happened less

[deception-united]

Let's talk about killing off characters.

Killing off characters is a dramatic device often used to advance the plot, create tension, or evoke emotional responses from readers or viewers. We love doing it. The initial shock, the mourning after. The effects of it on the other characters. It's fun.

Nevertheless, you can still achieve the desired impact on your plot and characters without necessarily resorting to fictional murder.

Here are some alternatives to drive the plot forward:

Character Transformation: Instead of killing off a character, you can have them undergo significant personal growth or change. This could involve overcoming challenges, facing moral dilemmas, or undergoing a shift in beliefs or values. Their transformation can still drive the plot forward and impact other characters. (I especially love it when the transformation is negative—like when a traumatic experience of some sort completely strips a character of their soul. But that's a sentiment for another day.)

Betrayal or Conflict: Introduce betrayal or conflict between characters that challenges relationships and creates tension. This can lead to significant plot developments and character arcs without resorting to death. And it can be cause for quite a lot of angst.

Separation or Estrangement: Have characters physically or emotionally separated from each other, causing tension and driving the plot forward as they strive to reconnect or deal with the consequences of their estrangement.

Sacrifice without Death: Characters can make significant sacrifices that don't necessarily involve their death. This could be sacrificing personal goals, relationships, or values for the greater good or to achieve a specific objective.

Injury or Disability: Instead of killing off a character, you can incapacitate them through injury or disability. This will create challenges for the character and those around them, leading to character development and plot progression as they're forced to adapt to their new circumstances.

Redemption Arcs: Characters who have committed wrongdoings can undergo redemption arcs where they seek forgiveness, make amends, or strive to become better individuals. This can drive the plot forward while also adding depth to the character. Keep in mind that this may not be a suitable alternative to death for some characters—for instance, the protagonist forgiving their abusive parent despite all they were forced to go through may evoke a sense of indignation rather than admiration for their supposed selflessness.

Revelations or Secrets: Introduce revelations or uncover secrets that have significant impacts on characters and their relationships. This can lead to conflict, tension, and plot twists without the need for death.

Forced Alliances or Unexpected Partnerships: Characters can be forced into alliances or partnerships with unlikely allies, leading to interesting dynamics and plot developments as they navigate these new relationships.

Loss of Power or Status: Characters can experience a loss of power, status, or reputation, which can drive the plot forward as they strive to regain what they've lost, seek revenge on those responsible, or adapt to their new circumstances.

Time Constraints or Pressure: Introduce time constraints or pressure situations that force characters to act quickly and make difficult, split-second decisions that may end up being quite regrettable later on. This can raise conflicts of who's to blame, or what should have been done.

I feel like I strayed off a little, but there you have it. Hope this was helpful! ❤

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#writeblr #writing #writing tips #writing advice #writing help #writing resources #creative writing #plot development #plot device #torturing my characters #deception-united

[hnrye]

ok finally writing nene/seiryuin fic.... listen they are just. theyre girlfriends to me.

#shut up henry #god. ive never rlly shipped rarepairs but something abt prsk brought it out in me.... #like. this one. nene and the character who is literally just the background character/antagonist for one event story 😭 #and also nene/shizuku/tsukasa. bc i liked their ships individually so i was like fuck it ill just put all three of them together. #all my shipping opinions are soo right and correct btw. #i do have a lot of fun w rarepairs. no other content of them means i get to decide what the dynamic is ^-^ #idk if theres other ones though besides those 2.. theres like emu/mafuyu akito/kohane and honami/kanade #but those are still fairly popular. #i need to do more rarepairing tbh. its fun for me. enrichment (forcing me to actually write fic because nobody else is going to)

[ohnoitstbskyen]

I know it would probably bring a lot of hate comments but I am begging you to roast the hazbin character designs because I'd love to have someone properly articulate why they don't work so I could send it to people who won't believe me when I tell them. 🫠 Understandable if you don't want to get into it though.

I don't think there's that much there to roast, honestly?

Those designs are clearly an extremely specific stylistic choice, and because that style is consistent throughout the show, it ultimately feels coherent with itself.

There are trade-offs being made. Because Hazbin's design style is SO stylized and so heavy on decoration and detailing, because it puts a lot of emphasis on costuming, it isn't as good at communicating specific character storytelling as a more grounded style could be (it's kind of the same tradeoff that stuff like Genshin Impact makes).

Like, why does Sir Pentious' hat have an eye and a mouth on it that makes its own expressions? Apparently not for very much reason at all, except that Pentious has a bit of an eyes-motif going on in his design and it was one more place to put an extra eye. And that's a valid criticism of his design, but also the entire show is designed like that, so frankly it would be weirder and more out of place if his design alone didn't have that kind of overelaborate decoration going on.

It does create a situation where I have a hard time "reading" the character designs sometimes. For example, Vox, Alastor and Pentious all wear a similar style of suit with upwards-turned shoulders, butterflies and pinstripes. Now, am I meant to read that as Vox imitating Alastor due to his crippling need to replace and outdo him, and Pentious imitating the style of powerful Overlords because he thinks that possessing their level of power will finally give him relief from his paranoia and self-loathing?

Or is it just a design fixation of the creator who keeps putting their characters in suits because that's just what they like? I can't really be sure, because sometimes design elements are used to intentionally tell stories about how characters relate to themselves, their world and one another, but plenty of other times designs look the way they do Because Of Vibes.

But again, that lack of clarity is clearly an intentional trade-off - and the benefit of that trade-off is a design style that is extremely varied, wild, expressive and memorable. Hazbin Hotel seems like a very easy show to draw fanart of, and a very fun show to draw fanart of. Those designs (especially the hyper-expressive faces) are begging to be the subjects of traumatic headcanons, unbearably cotton-candy soft fluff fantasies and weird, taboo, homoerotic power dynamics. Slaps roof of character design, this bad boy can express so much vicarious emotional intensity.

It's very exuberant, very excited about itself and very self-indulgent, it's a style that prioritizes visual impact and visual interest over readability (something which the animators of the show navigate with real skill, props to them) and individual aesthetics over worldbuilding.

And I don't blame anyone for being turned off by that (I certainly was the first time I started seeing those designs going around), but I would struggle to call the show's designs "bad" when they are clearly achieving exactly what they want to achieve.

I have some criticisms, especially re: how the show treats skinny bodies as an unquestioned, desirable default, and employs fatness as a means of alienating and abjecting the audience. That sucks very badly, and is a serious disappointment, and one of the few places where the show feels like it is being cowardly in its design philosophy. But I don't have it in me to do some kind of Hazbin Hotel Sucks And Here's Why takedown, its problems are not unique or extreme enough to warrant it, at least not as I currently understand them.

#tb answers #hazbin hotel #character design