#me blathering on

[ourimpavidheroine]

Just some musing on my part about the nature of fanfic.

I talk a lot about taking characters out of canon, and why that bothers me. If you are going to take an already established character - so not an OC, and especially not a character who has a handful of lines at best - and write them into something wholly out of character the question is: WHY?

Not why are you doing that. I mean, I have a lot of opinions about why people write fanfic and then don't actually connect it to the source material, but that's my hang up and not one that's universally shared. That's a different post.

No, the question I'm getting at is WHY is that established character acting so completely out of character?

So take Wu, for example.

In canon he has very distinctive speech. In fact, he goes on and on in that very slangy sort of 1920's way, far more than any other character introduced in TLOK. He doesn't sound like a member of the royal family of Hou-Ting (like his Great-Grandfather Kuei or his Great-Aunt), either.

For whatever reason he's in Republic City in the beginning of Book 4. Bryke hadn't yet put forth the idea that he was already there as a boarding school/university student when I started writing my fic (and thus I didn't write it that way), but regardless, in canon it is established that he wasn't actually RAISED in Republic City.

Although his schooling is never addressed I think we can reasonably assume that as a very wealthy scion of the Hou-Ting family he would have been well-educated.

He is canonically the last surviving member of the Hou-Ting family/dynasty.

Now how he is related to Queen Hou-Ting is up for grabs - canonically she's his Great-Aunt, but that leaves a lot up to interpretation. Either his grandmother or grandfather was her sibling, but the rest? Up to the fanfic writer. The same goes for his childhood. I've seen some fanfic writers have him actually raised by his parents and then have them killed off during the Red Lotus attack, and while that isn't my particular headcanon, I am 100% down with that. All we know is that by the beginning of Book 4 he is the last surviving member and he's very, very rich.

Is he older than Mako? Younger? Totally up for grabs, it's not established in canon. I've seen it both ways. We're also not told how long Mako has been working for him in that 3 year time skip, so that's another thing up for grabs. (Although it does seem canonically clear that Mako is living with him, seeing as Mako unpacks his own suitcase when Kuvira bumps the two of them into a smaller suite, not to mention Bolin's comment that Mako is Wu's butler.)

These are things that are not set in canon, and the fanfic writer's playground, of course.

What is set in canon, however, is that Wu is wealthy, immature, apt to speak in slang, out of touch, more than a little weird, friendly (he's clearly not a snob) and way too dependent on Mako.

One of the things I knew I wanted to do was pull back on the slang. It's exhausting (or at least to me!) to research and write and I assumed it would get tiresome to read. He needed to mature past it. So I kept the slang while he was still in Republic City but backed off of it as he gets to Ba Sing Se and has to actually start acting like a King. I emphasized MANY TIMES how well-educated Wu actually is, and even added that Huan loathes the slang and nags Wu about it. I set up the slang as an affectation on Wu's part, something he picked up once he got to Republic City due to him glutting himself on popular culture once out of the strict confines of the Palace in Ba Sing Se. I addressed this more than once, and slowly let the slang fade away, until Wu, 10 years after the show ends, sounds mostly upper-class British. He's more than a little snobby with his vocabulary (and I also set up the whole notebook thing and how Mako learns vocabulary from him over the years, and I also gradually added more vocabulary to Mako's language, and have always made an effort to make the baby Hou-Tings sound like a mix of royalty and street kids) but it wasn't something that happened overnight with him.

I also knew that Wu would play up on that dumb, out of touch teenager a bit as a defense mechanism. As long as he seemed non-threatening, he'd be left alone (or that was his hope, anyhow). However, he was also a teenager let loose for the first time from what would have been a very strict, very sheltered background. Listen. I lived in the dorms my first year of American university, I saw what happened when a bunch of teenagers got fake IDs and started drinking and doing stupid shit because their parents weren't around. I infused both of those things into Wu. Yes, he was putting on a bit of a "don't mind me I'm just a foolish boy" but also? He genuinely had no idea whatsoever how regular people lived or how to even treat anyone outside of being his servant. He's friendly! But he has no idea how to be anybody's friend. (There's a big difference there.) In my fanfic he comes to understand the difference.

But in order to make those changes to him, I had to respect the source. I had to respect the canon. I didn't make him a different person in my fic; rather, I let him grow and mature as time and circumstances went on. This not only serves to humanize him - he's the star of the show for me, all of my long fics are from his POV, and if readers hate him then we're done before we've started - but it makes him real. It fleshes him out. He's totally unreliable narrator - one of my favorite things writing Wu is how he just assumes that everyone's buying into his bullshit but it's clear from how others are responding that they are not, in fact, buying into his bullshit at all, but he's still so self-absorbed that he does not pick up whatsoever what anyone else is putting down. But at the same time, he's still our canon Wu, even as he matures into adulthood.

What I did not do, however, was make Wu into a master manipulator, into someone who acts wholly different in public than in private. For one thing, he doesn't do that in canon - we do see him in private with Mako, and he's no different than how he is normally. (One of my favorite canon Wu moments is when Mako is unpacking the bags in the new suite, Wu is whining and then picks up one of the sofa pillows, makes a face at it, and throws it down - how very dare this unsatisfactory smaller suite pillow share this sofa with me! - and it's this tiny little moment, but it's so WU and I find it so wonderful.)

My issue with this isn't choice itself - making him into a master manipulator is a super interesting choice! - but whether or not the choice is justified by canon. And that's the writer's job. If it's done well, then it's great to read. But when it's ignored - when the writer is more interested in shoehorning a character into a particular story/situation that they want to tell rather than letting the character drive the story - then they've lost me.

In other words: are you writing a character, or are you writing a trope?

And I guess that's my thing. When it comes to any fictional writing - be it traditionally published, self-published or fanfic - I want the story to be character-driven. It's why I've never really enjoyed stories that are driven by tropes. The tropes are what's important there, and the characters are just there to get the trope up and running. The characters are wholly interchangeable (and when it comes to fanfic are usually way, way, way out of canon due to it). So much of the second-gen Wuko fic that was written after TLOK was shown on Netflix is trope-driven. I can't get into it. That doesn't mean that I don't enjoy certain tropes more than others - sure I do, just like anyone else. However, I am looking for characterization first.

(This also applies to the vast majority of YA being published right now, which is why I rarely read it. It's trope driven rather than character driven. I don't think it's any surprise that younger readers often don't expect their fanfic to be character-led; that's not what's being traditionally published via YA now. They are looking for tropes. Never mind pretty much the entirety of the Marvel movie franchise, for example, which has evolved from the excellent character work in the first Iron Man and Captain America movies to whatever repetitive, unoriginal, tropey schlock is being crammed down our throats now.)

#me blathering on #my fanfiction #long post

[hoss-bonaventure]

nat and jackie’s relationship drives me NUTS! you’re telling me that nat was the one who buried her bones? the one who wrapped her so delicately in cloth and carried her across feet of snow just to make sure she’s at rest? the one who sat down with her in the wreckage of the plane and give her the most meaningful sendoff she could’ve gotten? nat didn’t NEED jackie the way those girls did. they way they wanted her was carnivorous and clinical, one-sided. they ripped away her sanctity, her autonomy, her literal flesh. they feasted on her and tore her from shred to shred because even in death, jackie gives. nat didn’t NEED to put jackie at rest, but she did because she knows what’s it’s like. after all, isn’t nat also just a pile of bones in the middle of the forest, just giving and giving and giving? nat didn’t NEED to give jackie that good-bye, but she did cause she’s a giver and a lover and she knows that’s going to kill her the way it killed jackie.

#oh jackienat u are so so special to me #i could blather on about them for ages like my chest aches for them #‘goodbye jackie’ oh natalie scatorrccio you are beloved #yellowjackets #natalie scatorccio #jackie taylor #jackienat #yj #text post #thought dump

[skillbattle]

happy third anniversary to animal crossing new horizons 🫶🏽

#yes I know I used one of these in a text post for the muppets before but it’s just funny to me 👍🏽 #animal crossing #animal crossing new horizons #acnh #isabelle animal crossing #tom nook #flick animal crossing #blathers #brewster #kk slider #jolly redd #my edits

[shaydh]

what’s up guys I might be trans

#shaydh blathers #I keep saying it to try it out and I keep feeling like a poser #regardless I’m gonna try and get that top surgery I always wanted #and then figure it out from there #wish me luck

[plusultraetc]

Mic sneaking little inside jokes and references into his show that he knows only Aizawa will understand,,,

#some of them pop up with such frequency that they become a Thing for present mic fans #like you can get knock off redbubble merch of his catchphrases #but they don’t get it get it #erasermic #yamada hizashi #aizawa shouta #liza blather #the incomparable joy of creating something widely enjoyed but especially meaningful to someone you love!!! #super trouper by abba esque post no one LOOK at me

[ineffable-endearments]

From "And furthermore, I don't think it's our place to start suggesting that there should be a suggestion box!"

I'm not even entertaining the idea that anyone else could possibly have ideas more worthwhile than whatever Heaven's upper brass is telling me God wants. The System is perfect.

to "You can't judge the Almighty, Crawley."

OK, so not everything God does makes moral sense, but that's just because it's too ineffable for us to understand.

to "I don't think that's what God wants. And I don't think you want it, either."

I don't always believe Heaven is right. Something in me is incompatible with the System. I'm hoping there's a greater good than the bureaucracy I work for.

to "I'm not consulted on policy decisions, Crawley."

I'm tacitly admitting that I don't like what Heaven is doing here, but I'm powerless within the System.

to "If I were thwarting you, Heaven couldn't object!"

You've helped me believe Armageddon isn't part of the Ineffable Plan after all. Now I believe I CAN do something to stop it.

to "I have no intention of fighting in any war!"

I'm making my own personal decision here, without consideration for what the System wants.

to "I can make a difference!"

I'm certain that I personally have ideas more worthwhile than the rest of Heaven. I can change the System.

The growth is happening. I know it's slow (well, if you're a human, anyway), but it's happening.

I am wondering if this character development is going to work like a huge outward (inward?) spiral. Take steps to add a new perspective, then use that to start working on the next Big Problem, then circle back to the old problems and start dealing with them with the new perspective. Things are kind of circular, but on a different level every time, hence the spiral.

The first three are like: Refuse questioning Heaven's judgment on moral grounds -> Accept that some questioning is natural but God/Heaven are always right -> Accept that maybe my personal judgment is not always compatible with Heaven's. OK, now I've tentatively accepted that I have my own morality outside of Heaven's, but that is SO uncomfortable.

The second three are like: I have my own moral judgments, but I have no way to enforce them because of what is expected of me -> Maybe there is room for my own judgment in Heaven after all -> Actually, my judgment is important enough to refuse to do what is expected of me regardless of anyone else's Plans. OK, now Aziraphale can use his own judgment within the System.

And I don't know for sure, but maybe - hopefully? - the last three will be like: I trust my own judgment -> My judgment never succeeds when I try to force it on others -> Everyone needs to be free from coercion and I'm going to help that happen by doing things to undermine the System.

That last bit is written with an assumption that the Ball and Gabriel and Beelzebub's ultimate decision are a little bit of foreshadowing: Aziraphale seizing control in a way that is sort of scary, having a bunch of Experiences(TM) with other people including Crowley, then realizing that the only reasonable way to handle people "outside the system" is to let them do what they want. If that's NOT foreshadowing, or if it's different foreshadowing than what I think it's going to be, obviously this is completely off.

Also, I feel like if I'm right, this could illuminate the horrible things Aziraphale says in the Final Fifteen a little bit. I believe he has moved up slightly from thinking Good and Evil are absolutely inherent and immutable, and now believes they are literally Sides that can be chosen. Of course you wouldn't choose to work for the side that has explicitly characterized itself as Bad, even though we both know you didn't have a choice to start with! I'm giving you a choice now! He hasn't "gone backwards." It's just that he's embraced the "doing good is a choice" lesson without internalizing the "you can't divide people into Sides and enforce it using a system" lesson.

#good omens #aziraphale #good omens spoilers #good omens 2 spoilers #Me blathering about Aziraphale again! What else is new?

[retroautomaton]

☕️🌻🍮

#my favorite little pigeon man #out of nowhere I thought about his conversations in wild world #where he starts opening up about his history with blathers #it still gets me it’s so sweet #I’m a simple man you give me a stoic character and make him soft and I’m in shambles #anyway it’s five in the morning :) I have not slept yet ah haha #brewster #animal crossing #humanized

[kaibacorpintern]

Kaiba turning a military jet into a dragon airplane IS on one level a repudiation of kaibacorp's military history - turning a weapon of mass death and destruction into a fantasy dragon for children, simply because he can and he likes it - but the fact that it's a fighter jet is STILL, on another level, an embrace of power, of might, of the ability to destroy and dominate. is it a rebuke of the military industrial complex via children's toy OR is it the further fetishization of power and domination? what is it kaiba?? is kaibacorp's raging success and unfathomable corporate power a victory of a child's dreams over violence or are you everything gozaburo ever dreamed of???

#i grab the jet and bite it and shake it like a dog with a chew toy #intern memo #sorry. i dont know what came over me with this one. #i think when it comes to all of gozaburo's blatherings #about how kaiba has to become king and dominate everyone #kaiba doesn't really rebuke that #he simply changed the thing he has to make and sell

[arthurwilde]

GIRLS WHEN THE SPIRALS. THE SPIRALS

#me and jackie are girls. we're the girls #THE NEW TD IS SO GOOD YOU GUYS IT'S GOOD #true detective night country #text post tag #fandom blather

[partlysmith]

Theory: The Amazing Digital Circus is about YouTube/content creation

The characters are human beings reduced to hollow, one note exaggerated versions of themselves, constantly chasing an shifting goal post to survive with no perceivable end in sight. They are trapped in a cartoonish half-reality, forced to participate in inane "challenges" of constant, upbeat, hyperactive energy

They have to live under brutally sanitized standards. They aren't allowed to swear, and even Kaufmo's funeral had to be held in secret. Real human experiences are frowned upon in the circus, you have to perform, remaining "in-character" 24/7 to fit the role forcefully assigned to you

All in the name of hollow, garish entertainment meant to appease a bewildeting, unknowable AI/algorithm who demands they become jangling keys for his own amusement. He literally turned them into toys, something to play with and discard of when they break

#blathering #the amazing digital circus #tadc #this is unfocused rambling at 9am on my phone don't @ me

[ghostradiodylan]

I like cutting Dylan’s hand off for the drama it brings to his character arc, but the alternative has its charms because he gets to have this little moment before the human murder spree that is Laura comes along.

#the quarry #dylan lenivy #ryan erzahler #kaitlyn ka #the way he literally kicks at the dirt when Ryan compliments him on the feedback loop is so fucking sweet #also holy shrimp makes me laugh every time #everyone else’s muted responses make a lot more sense if his hand isn’t fucking gone too #like they really should freak out a little more about that #bunny blathers #✨​him✨ #dylan lenivy brainrot #hyperfixations are hyperfixating

[a2zillustration]

Hello! I just HAD to come on here and say how much I LOVE your art and Croissant, they're my newest obsession!! It's 4 am right now and I still have work in a few hours but I've been binging your Croissant comics and I'm literally IN LOVE 🥹❤️❤️❤️

They're so lovely and chaotic, and I've been a bit stressed lately but I'm SO happy I stumbled upon your magnificent comics and I've literally been trying to stifle my laughter from reading them cuz it's late 😂

And the way you show Croissant's interactions with the companions? Absolutely IMMACULATE!!! I really love Croissant's character design and their personality, they really shine 🥺💕 Plus you capture the companions and their dynamic with Croissant SO well, Croissant has actually become one of my fave Tavs ever and I just wanna give 'em a big hug!! Also, one of my faves in your comic is the one about Lenore where Croissant gets hugged. That was so sweet and I honestly got quite emotional when you drew the close-up for Croissant's teary eyes 😭

Thank you SO much for sharing your wonderful talent and comics 🥰 Also, you're such an amazing person!!!

Thank-

Thank you???? This is so incredibly kind of you to say, I'm glad that you've been enjoying Croissant's adventures so much!

#hang on let me blather on in the tags - seriously I can't get over this #I'm saving it to read any time I'm feeling bummed out or down about my art (and I've already read it a bunch of times) #Thank you so much for sending me such a nice message! #And I know this is from a few days ago but I hope you ended up getting enough sleep - please go to bed and be well-rested!! haha #asks

[matryoshkalex]

OKAY heres day 24!!! managed to finish before falling asleep lol

favorite turtle+villain dynamic,,, i came up with three (maybe four) raph centric ideas that i thought would be fun—cockroach terminator, dracula, and rottmnt krang :)

i ended up choosing cockroach terminator just bc i think that episode is super funny and i can SO relate to raph bc i Also have a bug phobia especially when it comes to cockroaches :')

tmaynt masterpost

#alex arts #tmaynt #tmnt #tmnt 2012 #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt raphael #tmnt raph #tmnt raph 2012 #its actually really frustrating bc i think bugs are so cool but i freak out when they get too close #or ESPECIALLY if theyre inside #theres certain bugs that dont freak me out but most of them eughh #im blathers actually

[guesst]

sometimes i think about sullivan and how his n iruma’s relationship progresses and what made him choose iruma. i mean it was probably something to do with delkira that made him pick iruma up but i also think about that comment he makes early on in the series, that the others in the 3 greats have grandkids and he doesnt and how hed love to have a grandkid. and how he sends iruma to babyls partly because thats what a proper caretaker is meant to do. and how at the beginning maybe hes playacting and thinking yes this is the boy i have brought over for unspecified reasons, My Grandson, and i am the Grandfather (yay!) but its only later on that The Grandson becomes Iruma Suzuki first and then Sullivan’s Grandson second. and then i get happy about it

#i think half of this has been cooked up in my head from that one offhand comment and also some common sense (i mean he still has some #affection or makes sure to show it at least but i dont know that its genuine . at least in the beginning. wouldnt it be strange if you love #a stranger immediately?) #(but then again the idea that he loves iruma immediately is also fun because i imagine itd be him projecting his affection for delkira onto #this kid and then later it becomes something real….) #but anyway the point is to say that i like that even if it wasnt real in the beginning he still tries hard to pretend and he does look out #for iruma #like. excellent behviour good sir you get an a* from me #ahh but i really really want a few chapters just to explore why the adoption happened in the first place like WHY DID HE AGREE #this is a question that bugs me forever WHAT IS IT ABOUT IRUMA #is it the same thing that makes him so charismatic ? is it why he radiates main character energy ? #i suppose we’ll get it when we get more information about delkira because i highkey think they are inextricably linked somehow #but ugghhhh can that chapter come sooner please thanks #m!ik #welcome to demon school iruma kun #yellow is blathering yet again #iruma suzuki #sullivan

[shaydh]

My Halloween costume last year slapped btw

#shaydh blathers #it’s my face #don’t mind me just organizing old photos

[plusultraetc]

I saw a post about this a hot minute ago and I'm so mad I can't find it BUT. While I LOVE Present Mic as a popular radio personality, there isn't really that much concrete evidence to support that idea. (Which, to be fair, there isn't a lot of concrete evidence about the careers/public perception of a lot of pros outside of All Might, Endeavor, sorta Hawks, etc., so you can pry that headcanon out of my grasp with a crowbar and so on.) That being said, I think a really fun angle to explore re: Present Mic as a radio host-pro hero-UA teacher (that I may or may not have the bare bones of a fic about👀) is the idea that Mic debuted as a very successful hero and entertainer, and experienced pretty steady growth in both aspects of his career for a few years before he took a teaching position at UA.

Hero rankings are based on incidents resolved, and can be damaged by taking any amount of time off (such as when the Wild Wild Pussycats took, what? A couple of months off from hero-ing? and their ranking plummeted by several hundred places). Teaching is time consuming; it's the kind of job that often necessitates 'bringing work home' with you in the form of grading, lesson planning, etc. Obviously it would cut into Mic's focus on his hero work and his radio show, and obviously that would affect not only his actual ranking but how much attention his career/persona garnered. After all, there is an influx of new heroes every single year when hero courses across the country graduate. It takes work to stay relevant in this universe.

So now I'm thinking of like. Present Mic but with the level of fame/popularity of a celebrity who was big a handful of years ago, but you don't hear so much about anymore. Like, yeah, they're still active, and still have a (often very dedicated) fanbase, but they've kind of been shuffled out of the spotlight a little bit. This also makes his lackluster reception at the entrance exam so much funnier imo, because those students would have been like 8-9 when he stopped just doing hero/radio stuff and started teaching, but they're teenagers now and Present Mic is sooo not in anymore.

#i think maybe students 3-A's age and older would have clearer memories of present mic in his heyday #so maybe he seems a little more like a celebrity to them #anyway! picking away at this fic set ~4 years pre canon like a magpie picking at shiny things for a nest #featuring a surprise guest in such a literal way you have no idea #yamada hizashi #i have THOUGHTS (i have present mic obsessive disorder) #liza blather #q #i'm going to say something a little out there but. present mic is to 3-A's age bracket #as kelly clarkson was to me specifically in high school #i don't know how to elaborate on that so i won't and it'll be like a little insane secret take for anyone who reads tags #last week kicked my butt here's wonderwall