#ok i probably should add more context to these characters

[rallazart]

Tfw you accidentally become a father in the apocalypse

Here's the individual drawings of the lads too👆

#ok i probably should add more context to these characters #especially given the pretty pastels in the apocalypse #for now I'll just keep it simple UNLESS someone wanted me to loredump :B #my art blog #my oc #my oc art #my ocs #oc stuff #doodles #lil doodles #pencil sketch #dulce oc #this is really just simple lil sketches nothing super serious #also the lil boy character design might change later #i haven't finalized it at all this is just a first draft #my art stuff

[fancyfade]

2009 era Damian reading

As I've been doing my 2009 era Damian reading, I'm trying to condense the good stuff and bad stuff, and things I believe are relevant for his character. These are in addition to what I assume is obvious (Batman and Robin 2009, the comic where he has a starring role).

Battle for the Cowl: this has how Damian becomes Robin. It's not necessarily good. Daniels really does not understand Damian, especially this early in his writing, but it does have some important context for things going down b/c Damian helps Squire save Tim's life, and we can see Dick viewing training Damian as something he is responsible for.

Secret Origins (2014) #4: This is a much more in character Damian becoming Robin, though fit for a condensed new 52 timeline that leaves some stuff out (like Damian's rocky intro with Bruce).

Batman #688 (Long Shadows part 1): Winick seems one of the early writers who does a Damian as he lines up with later characterization (views himself more as a professional assassin), so I think this one's good.

Batman: streets of Gotham #1-6: damian makes some minor appearances here.

Batgirl #5-7: Always take Damian's guest-starring stuff with a grain of salt, as often times writers just go with "how would an obnoxious 10 year old boy act here" without understanding he's a specific kind of obnoxious 10 year old boy... that said I do like some of his interactions with Steph, and I think it's incredibly important that we see Damian defends his competence based on his training, not on his blood.

Like he'll sometimes justify why he belongs based on his blood (which like... no one acts like they want him around), but he isn't going around saying "I'm better than you b/c I'm batman's son". he was trained intensely since birth (and that's why he should say he's better than you :P)

Batman #692-697: not a ton of Damian in this, and it is Daniel's writing, but he's a little better than he was in Battle for the Cowl. We see Dick training Damian some.

Batman: Streets of Gotham #7, #10-#11: love this plotline for him. Good show of competence and characterization.

Blackest night: batman: More focused on Tim and Dick, and Tomasi sucks at writing Babs, but at there is some Damian content that I remember enjoying.

Red Robin #11-15: as long as you read this one with your brain turned on, it's good for explaining some Tim and Damian stuff. Sadly some fans are like "woooo arrogant 10 year old gets beat up". Nicieza makes some missteps (frames Tim's thinking around Damian as coldly logical, when it is anything but and he is reacting from a place of emotion), but one can ignore those.

Batman #703: shows Damian's character pretty well in a default Batman and Robin adventure, and his relationship (or lackthereof) with Bruce and his dynamic with Dick and Alfred

Teen Titans #88-92 (including Red Robin #20 in a crossover plot): surprised by how well I liked this one. I think it portrays Damian pretty fairly, and we can see that he is trying hard, but hasn't been given a lot of support up until now (or even now, Dick kind of just drops him off with a bunch of older kids who all also have issues and are predisposed to disliking him XD). His dynamic with rose is fun and I think it is notable how quickly he does acquiesce to following Cassie's orders when she's like (at first) the only Teen Titan who is OK with him being there and assures him its not personal when she makes a comment he doesn't like.

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Batman and Robin: Has some nice Dick and Damian banter, showcases how they've worked together well

Batgirl #17: more damian and steph interactions.

I will probably add more (either editing this post or in a reblog) as I keep reading.

#dc comics #fade reads dc comics #damian wayne #robin #reading list #sort of #2009 era batfam stuff

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

Obituary for Dee (Scoob and Shag)

I am crying and screaming and thrashinging and maybe throwing up a little. My girl LOST! AND TO A COP! I DEMAND ALL OF YOU GET REVENGE ON HER BY LEARNING ABOUT BRAVE POLICE J-DECKER!

Now that that's out of the way let me try to convince you all that Dee is so good and special and you should read the source material.

I'll actually start by selling you on said souce, for context. Dee is from a webcomic called "Scoob and Shag" (you can read it here on webtoon or here on their site). The general premise is that it starts as a silly goofy nonsense comic, with simplistic art but evolves over time. For a bit it's a horror comic, but it's final form that it maintains for most of it's current run is an action, shonen style comic. And a REALLY GOOD ONE.

Not only does it just have some really good writing and art* but it is also hands down the best derivative work I have ever seen. As you may have guessed by the title, the main duo are based off Scooby Doo and Shaggy, and most of the rest of the cast is also based off recognizable cartoons, such as Bugs Bunny, Popeye the Sailor, and Mickey Mouse. Part of this is to add wackness, but the writing also actively uses your expectations of each character to it's advantage. For example the story doesn't need to spend as much time doing the heavy lifting of establishing a bond between it's leads, cause they're Scooby and Shaggy. You already know they're friends. So the writing can build off that out the gate.

But the best part that that its doesn't just turn into "what if cartoon character's were edgy?" But it stays just the right amount of stupid, where it knows when to take itself seriously, and it knows when to have a character tell Garfield to not kill the president.

Oh and that * above next to word art? That's cause the art is really freakin good! Here's a taste:

Ok now onto Dee herself. DEE! She is based on Dee Dee from Dexter's lab, and she is actually one of the best examples of the comic using your expectations of the characters well, cause in Dexter's lab Dexter is a genius, and in this comic the equivalent, Dex, is also a genius. And they build off this to have it to where Dex is the far more successful and powerful of the two, and more importantly he can help out his allies. And this gives Dee an inferiority complex since she thinks she can't be of help to anyone, and her whole character arc so far is about growing past that and finding strength in her own abilities.

Now one last thing: look at Dee. She is great. You love her. You want to read Scoob and Shag in order to meet her.

Thank you for reading all this. I am SO MAD she lost. She is probably top 3 favorite characters out of all the ones on this bracket.

(Also spoilers: she is gifted powers by the god of girlboss)

#not blorbo poll #propaganda? #ultimate obscure blorbo

[ichijokaoru]

omg do you have the 2 other ichijo songs to share??? i have only ever heard the live performance vids of him singing

[also small edit: just turning reblogs off cus I'd like to make a proper post abt these another time and this is rambly and a mess 👍]

aah I will post at some point, and I WILL message you when I do! I wanna make it a nice post and not do it in a rush you know, but I will remember to do this I promise 👍 (we also have a non kuuga related bricks album, if you want even more ~shingo singing~... he has a very beautiful voice! uwu)

I just will need to sort through some things as my partner is the one who ripped them off the disks and I'd like to just add other stuff to the post (such as original lyrics in japanese) and the ~approximate~ english lyrics which we will come with the full disclosure that they're machine translated, and we may wanna upload them to youtube since I don't know if they're actually findable up there?

that being said, it is a machine translation but are you seeing this shit though:

(from carry on:)

OKAY!! you're in love with godai we get it..

(from 勇気をくれた人へ, which, edit: is probably a Godai song, just sung by katsurayama actually?)

It's interesting cus we kind of had to wade through the pains of machine translation of shingo katsurayama's japanese wiki page to learn that the carry on release, which is 'carry on' and '勇気をくれた人へ' (which here is machine translating as 'to those who gave me courage' but is translated from our scan of the booklet, as 'to the person who gave me courage'- idk which is more accurate) is a kamen rider kuuga thing!

this isn't on the kuuga soundtrack properly (which we should probably also upload, we have both discs!), like 'it comes rain' (song I just reblogged) is but was just released separately by bricks, which is a personal musical unit??? (edit for clarification: they are kuuga songs in an official capacity just not on the soundtrack) but hey, I shouldn't be surprised that yes, world's strongest goichi warrior, shingo katsurayama went off and?? released the extra songs?? for his personal band?? ik I read somewhere him saying ichijou is one of his fave characters he ever played so this tracks, I guess. one time I found an image of him holdign up a little picture of godai and ichijou and a tiny little box with roses in? it was obviously sent by a fan and I don't know the context but.. hm. he seemed pretty happy to hold it up all smiley so ok shingo!!

[all these text screenshots had image descriptions if they're hard to read]

#ask #iridescentspacewhale #kuugaposting #kr kuuga #kamen rider #is this also a funny time to say i obsessively machine translate shingo's blog every day. #he posts a lot about his cat

[galactic-glamour-girl-posts]

And now, an essay about Dot Warner because I have nothing better to do

In the series bible for Animaniacs, Dot is described as:

"everything that all animated female characters have never been"

Was that true at the time?

I think so, and Here's Why

Before I begin, I'd like to mention this is mostly gonna revolve around western animation...and by "western" I mean "not anime". Okay? OK.

Part 1 : Her design

I'll start by comparing Dot's design to the design of many other female animal cartoon characters that came before her, because a lot of them are...not great. For context, Animaniacs (and therefore Dot herself) debuted in 1993. At the time (and after) when it came to animal cartoon characters, guys would often be designed as "the default" or "the norm", and girls would be given extra visual signifiers to make it clear that they are, in fact, girls. Stuff like human-like hair, and/or really long eyelashes, and/or human-like body parts such as hips and breasts so they needed to be fully clothed, and/or smaller noses and mouths than the guys to make them look "cuter", and/or permanent makeup, etc.

Let's take The Chipettes for example:

They barely look like chipmunks! They're basically human girls with chipmunk noses! Their-I guess it's probably fur-looks pale enough to pass as white skin, they have human lips, even human hair. Their hair doesn't even match their "fur" colour, which makes it look like skin even more. I know it's a cartoon, I don't expect them to resemble real chipmunks completely, but I should still be able to recognise them as chipmunks, shouldn't I? Just look at them compared to the boys, it's jarring:

Although at least in their case, both the guys and girls are in full outfits rather than just the girls.

Gadget's probably another one of the best examples (pre-1993) of what I'm talking about (she has human hair and a more human-like body and hence needs a full outfit, meanwhile Chip and Dale do not), but Toodles is also a pretty good example (she has smaller, more human hands than Tom's, permanent makeup, really long eyelashes, and her figure even more human than Tom's). Even if they weren't in full outfits they usually were made to look more human:

Female animals were constantly given more human attributes than the guys, usually just to make them look "prettier". Honestly a lot of female animal characters are still designed this way.

Meanwhile guys can look as cartoony as possible and go around in half-complete outfits no problem, because they were drawn to be funny talking animals, not conventionally attractive human/animal hybrids:

Then in some cases they'd just take one of the pre-existing male characters, add a bow or skirt or eyelashes or something, and BOOM! A "new" character:

Yeah they have no human hair and have cartoony proportions, just like the guys...but they didn't have to make them look just like the guys to do that. I prefer these over the previous examples but...actually creative designs would be nice.

Now let's look at Dot:

See this? This is nice.

She has no human hair (the hair on her head is just more of her fur), no permanent makeup, no eyelashes needed to signify "she's the girl" (she's only drawn with eyelashes for comedic effect or when she's trying to look extra cute), no curves or hips, and isn't fully clothed and goes around with no shirt like Yakko, because she's a funny talking animal and should look like one, not a human girl.

Now let's compare her to her brothers:

She's a different height, has no whiskers, a slightly different head shape, and has longer but not human-like hair. She looks similar enough to look related to them, but she's not just Yakko or Wakko in a skirt.

For this section I'm mostly just talking about animated animal characters, but I also want to mention that even with human characters male leads often were allowed to look round or blocky or basically any body type, and didn't have to look conventionally attractive; but female leads were almost never designed to look as cartoony, and were often drawn to look as conventionally attractive or cute as possible by being given more (even if just slightly) realistic proportions, and were usually of the same body type.

Now, the three human examples I showed aren't actually bad designs. Honestly, on their own, they're good designs! But they're once again showing that there was a clear difference regarding how guys were drawn vs how girls were drawn.

Dot's cute but they don't draw her anymore realistically than they do her brothers nor is her cuteness over-exaggerated by giving her more human attributes than necessary to make her as conventionally pretty as possible. She's anthropomorphic, but no more so than her brothers.

Part 2 : Her personality

Now, there were of female leads before Dot where the tropes I mentioned don't apply and whose designs are unique, like for example Olive Oyl, who's allowed to look wacky (stick thin and not curvy, lanky with noodle arms, circular head, large hands and feet) and Penelope Pussycat, who's allowed to look like an anthropomorphic, but still cartoony cat and not too human. So what I talked about before wasn't the case every time.

But then you have to consider their personalities (or sometimes, lack thereof).

Many animated female leads were flat characters compared to the male leads, often because they fell under cliché tropes.

Some of the most prominent being: the token love interest, the eye candy, the damsel in distress, or the sensible one because "girl", who would often mostly just exist to set up punchlines the male characters would deliver.

Of course this didn't apply to every animated female lead, especially not by the early 90's, but it was still the norm.

Even Babs Bunny, who predates and is similar to Dot whilst being a good character in her own right, falls under the token love interest trope (also her design is basically a pink Buster in bows, although in her case that was intentional given that their "No relation" catchphrase was meant to poke fun at the "male and female love interests look and are even named suspiciously similarly" trope, so for her it works). Basically in some cases they'd just staple these tropes onto decent characters who didn't really need them.

However, Dot doesn't fall under any of these categories. She's the younger sister so obviously she couldn't be a love interest, I just went over the fact that she wasn't designed to be eye candy, just cute but not in an over-exaggerated way, and she wasn't just cute to look appealing. Her cuteness benefited her character; either by the shock value of seeing a cute little girl swear or scare Satan or something like that, or by Dot using her cuteness fool foes (or at least make them look bad). She could hold her own in any situation and although both her and her brothers were captured a few times on the show, they escaped pretty easily each time. The one time she alone got kidnapped she basically saved herself, so I wouldn't count her as a damsel in distress because it never really feels like she's in real danger; the audience knows she's got this.

Most of all, she was definitely not the sensible one of the group. Sure she'd get annoyed when Yakko and Wakko did the Hello Nurse bit, but she was just as bad, and would react the same way whenever she came across a cute guy. She was of course written this way on purpose, she is very bit as wacky and silly and chaotic as her brothers. It didn't matter that she was the "cute one", she would go off-model if it meant she could make a funnier face. She'd gladly join in on tormenting their "special friends", without worrying about if their feelings got hurt or preaching that they should all try to get along. She'd gladly indulge in excessive violence. She'd gladly mess about and wreak havoc just as much as her brothers. I'm all for smart female characters (Dot is smart after all), but in a main group of guys and at least one girl, a girl doesn't have to be the sensible one every time.

It's no secret that Dot was written to be feminine. At the time, characters that were written to be very feminine often were written to fit within gender norms, meaning many were: passive, demure, soft-spoken, gentle, wide-eyed and innocent, and/or sensitive, etc; or at the very least more so than the masculine characters.

But Dot just wasn't any of those things. She was assertive, confident and acerbic, loud and outspoken, often acted more violent and angry then her brothers, witty, is as lustful and dirty-minded as her brothers, and doesn't get her feelings hurt easily and will instead pretend to be extremely upset/hurt for sympathy or for dramatic effect.

Before and around about the time of Dot's debut, if animated female leads were given personalities that broke many gender norms (and that already wasn't too common), they'd usually be tomboys. Now let me be clear, there is nothing wrong with tomboys. They're just as valid as girly girls and deserve to be and should be depicted in a positive light in animation, but this perpetuated the idea that to be tough and/or wacky, you had to be masculine, which just isn't true.

Dot was wacky and tough but still feminine and was by no means a tomboy, and I think that's important! She liked to look pretty, she liked pink and dresses and flowers, but she also made silly faces, liked to play rough and was more than willing to beat the living daylights out of someone who was asking for it.

Female characters in cartoons often either had decent personalities but their designs were lacklustre, or vice versa. Sometimes both their designs and personalities were lacklustre. Sometimes neither was a problem but their character was held back by having some trope forced onto them because "girl". Dot was a (at the time) rare case of none being the case whilst not having to sacrifice her femininity to be wild and strong.

Part 3 : Her role

By 1993, even if a female character had a good and unique design that didn't come with double standards and had a well-written personality that didn't submit to too many gender stereotypes, they were often:

A - An antagonist

I'm not saying these characters aren't bad people, but a lot of the time when we did get a fun female character, she was a villain.

Also (for this next point I'm not really talking about the three examples above), sometimes they were the only female characters in their show/movie/etc to go against gender stereotypes, which just perpetuates the idea that female characters breaking gender norms is wrong.

B - Essentially a clone of a male character

They'd act exactly like one of the male leads with minimal personality differences (those differences usually being more gender stereotypes) between the two, if there were any; again perpetuating the idea you had to be masculine to be wacky and/or tough.

Basically a distaff counterpart, or a half-identical twin, stuff like that.

C - Less important

Even when we did get a well-written, well designed female animated character who didn't fall under tropes associated with gender stereotypes, chances were she'd be a side character, or at the very least perceived as less important than the male leads.

I'll just use one example for this section since it's a lot more broad in terms of scope; Granny from Looney Tunes. She's one of the most well known female Looney Tunes characters, but even she was never really the "star" of the cartoons she was in. They're not called "Sylvester, Tweety, and Granny" cartoons, they're called "Sylvester and Tweety" cartoons. Even the show that was about Granny solving mysteries, what was it called?

But Dot doesn't fall under any of these categories. She's not a side character, she's not even a tritagonist, she's a protagonist. Yakko may have been the leader, but all the Warners acted as a unit and were presented as just important as each other. We call them "Yakko, Wakko and Dot", "The Warner Brothers, and the Warner Sister", etc.

I've already mentioned that's she's not designed as a clone of Yakko or Wakko, but she also had a distinct personality. She was more anger-prone than Yakko, she was wittier than Wakko, and she had a way bigger ego than both of them combined!

Dot's definitely not an antagonist, she wasn't a saint and she may have been chaotic, but you're meant to root for her. The people she and her brothers would go up against in their cartoons were often jerks, bullies, pompous, etc. Meanwhile the Warners had a strong sense of justice and morality. They weren't malicious (to people who didn't bother them at least), they just liked acting silly. When viewers saw Dot unapologetically being herself without conforming completely to how society thinks a cute little girl should act like, they weren't meant to hate her or love to hate her or anything like that, they were just meant to like her and laugh.

Part 4 : Today

There will probably always be room for improvement when it comes to female representation in cartoons, I mean, a lot of the tropes I mentioned are still commonly used (although I must stress that not all of them are inherently bad). However, it's better today than it was back then. We've gotten tons of well designed female leads over the past 30 years with three-dimensional personalities, ones who are gender non-conforming but still heroic, or who are strong but still feminine, or who are allowed to look and act as wacky as the guys on their show (if not more so), you get the idea.

I'm not saying Dot is the first good animated female character (or that her character was handled perfectly in the original Animaniacs-it wasn't), we all know that's not true, but she defied many tropes that so many animated female characters before her fell under, through her design, personality AND role. Notice that a lot of other animated female leads that also do that (both the examples I gave and any extra ones that you can think of) most likely debuted after Dot did.

To be 100% honest, you could argue that, even as of 1993 (or I guess 1991 considering that's when the series bible was written), describing Dot as "everything that all animated female characters have never been" is debatable, but I do think there was some truth to that statement at the time. I can't say for sure that she was a trend setter when it came to how girls in cartoons were handled, but I'll always appreciate the fact that her character turned out the way it did in spite of when she was created.

#animaniacs #dot warner #the warner sister #animation #cartoon #warner bros #wb #retro #classic cartoons #90's cartoons #90's tv #character design #essay #edit #princess angelina contessa louisa francesca banana fanna bo besca iii #no but seriously I unironically think Dot might be one of the most important female cartoon characters from the 90's #maybe even in general...or maybe I need to consume more media #I dunno I just wanted to gush about Dot 😅

[aira-bu]

hi!! i saw you in the genshin x reader tag and i read through ur writing and love it so much,, i was wondering if you’d be down to maybe write voicelines the hydro or pyro boys would have about you (+ maybe tighnari if that’s ok because i love him sm …) except in the context that you are childhood friends (with crushes on each other) !! male reader might be nice if you’re ok with that but i’d also be ok with gn reader! and it’s totally ok if you don’t do this request! i hope you have a wonderful day/night and i hope you write more things because i’ve loved reading what you’ve written so far!

hi anon!! im rly happy that u like my writing! this might be posted just a little late bc im a little busy but nonetheless here you go! <3

and i'm gonna write pyro boys + xingqiu voicelines about you bc i've already written tighnari's and the other hydro boys in my last post! the reader will be gender neutral bc since it's a voiceline i don't think it would make much difference if it were to be a female or a male, but feel free to replace the they/thems with any pronouns in your head! i hope this isn't too bad ⬇️

☘︎ their voicelines about you ! 𖧷

☁︎ written as of version 3.3

characters: xingqiu, diluc, thoma, bennett

disclaimers/warnings: gn! reader, use of (y/n) (your name), thoma breaking the 4th wall

☁︎

xingqiu

"*ahem*, maybe we can perhaps move on to a different topic? ...no? fine. yes, i know (y/n). i've known them since we were young, and believe me when i say that they are one of a kind! not everybody can stand me rambling about ancient literature, but i know they can. though, i'm still unsure if they actually like the topic or they're just being nice. speaking of which, i have never took them to a library, maybe i should- ah... apologies, i was rambling. ...a date? to a book store? hey, that may not be such a bad idea! i could- wait.. just why did you suggest a date?!"

can i add that he's flustered

diluc

"there is never a dull time with (y/n)... they're always so... giddy. one thing's for sure is that if they were to ever join the knights of favonius, it would be beneficial to the latter, no doubt. (y/n) is efficient and swift, something the 'knights of favonius' could never have a grasp on. i've known them since... a very long time ago. i'd actually prefer it if they were the one to have been my sworn sibling instead of that alcoholic jerk. but, that would also have been a great inconvenience for me. ..hm? you ask why? you'll see."

thoma

"hm? (y/n)? ah! (y/n)! yes, of course i'm familiar with them! i've known them a long, long time ago, long before i became housekeeper of the kamisato clan. nowadays, they would assist me whenever they come visit, and to be honest, their help means a lot. i'm not complaining about the workload, it's just them being... here, helps soothe the atmosphere a lot. ...i'm going to admit that i might just be a little too excited to see them, but i'm sure they are too considering the fact that they're probably reading this ! hm? oh no i didn't say anything, don't worry!"

bennett

"(y/n)? hehe, of course! i like to think of them as my good luck charm, but of course they mean a lot to me too! ever since i was little, whenever i was with them my bad luck seems to disappear a little. it's still there, but it's better! i don't get struck by lightning one time after the other, treasure chests actuallly have something inside of them, and there's never a random rock falling onto my head! being with them just makes me feel lucky, even if i'm not. if only i had just a little luck to have a chance..."

#genshin impact x reader #genshin x reader #genshin impact voicelines #xingqiu x reader #diluc x reader #thoma x reader #xingqiu #thoma #diluc #bennett #bennett x reader

[sam-glade]

Ctrl+F'ing the Document

Part 2/3 of my editing process. Part 1 link.

This is what I do to a novel or a novella before showing it to anyone (including beta readers). I’m posting it in hopes that it will help someone, and I’m not expecting it to work for everyone. Take any parts that help you!

The goal of this step is to reduce word count by removing redundant and filtering words, and make the text more crisp and direct.

Two things up front:

‘Imperfect’ doesn’t mean ‘bad’. Good writing can have imperfections.

The goal is to get the manuscript to a stage where the imperfections won’t be distracting to beta readers.

Remove filtering and padding words

(With examples from my current editing pass of Gifts of Fate)

Search the manuscript – literally, with ctrl+F – for the following words. Try to remove especially those outside of dialogue. I allow more padding in dialogue to help differentiate character voices. 

Most of these words can be removed within the context of the single sentence, maybe with a glance at the previous or the next one, for repetitions.

Suddenly – can be removed in 99% of the cases. In 109k words of GoF, I’m left with 5 occurrences, 3 of which are in dialogue. E.g. ‘He laughed suddenly.’ → ‘He burst out laughing.’

Then – as above. E.g. ‘He blushed then and looked to the side.’ → straight up remove ‘then’. What do you add to the sentence, little word?

‘In order to’ – can almost always be replaced with just ‘to’, but see a note below on using ‘to’ to indicate intent.

‘At that’, ‘at him’ in phrases like ‘was surprised by that’, ‘smiled at him’. E.g. ‘Ianim smiled at him with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.’ → Just remove ‘at him’ 

Something – can usually be replaced with 1-2 more specific words, which will pack a sentence with more information. E.g. ‘It was something he could trust, and so he did.’ → ‘It was an instinct he could trust, and so he did.’

And on that note…

Turn intent into action

Don’t tell me what the character’s immediate plan is; show them doing it. This makes the action more direct, since we spend less time in the character’s head, and more watching the events unfold.

The first words to search for here are: could, would, should.

E.g. second pass of the last example: ‘It was an instinct he could trust, and so he did.’ → ‘It was an instinct he trusted.’

E.g. 'He could understand where they were coming from' → 'He understood where…'

I’m not that aggressive with removing the latter two.

Similarly ‘to’. Searching for it with ctrl+F produces a lot of false positives, but the instances I’m looking for are ‘they did X in order to do Y’.

E.g. ‘She slowly reached out her hand to touch the blade.’ → ‘She reached out slowly and touched the blade with a shaking hand.’

E.g. ‘The animals began to scuttle away.’ → ‘The animals scuttled away.’

E.g. ‘He sat straddling the bench to look directly at Lissan.’ → ‘... and looked …’

Yes, the meaning changes a tiny bit, but is the distinction crucial? In my case, the answer is almost always: it’s not.

Other padding words, often included in writing advice, are ‘that’, ‘almost’, ‘still, ‘quite’, and ‘very’, and again, they can be either removed or replaced with a stronger/weaker word.

E.g. ‘The wall to the right was almost entirely covered by a detailed map of the Five Princedoms.’ → ‘The wall to the right was covered by a detailed map of the Five Princedoms.’

E.g. ‘It even glowed very faintly in the dark.’ → just remove ‘very’.

Filtering words

Heard, smelled, felt, saw – they’re the filtering words, ok, but what does that mean? They distance the reader from the events, like observing them through a window. They also shift the focus from the events, onto the characters – so yes, I’d leave the words in when I want to stress that the character managed to see/hear something, despite it pushing the limits on their senses, but in most cases, they can go.

Each one of them is a little different, and I’ll order them from the most straightforward to most nuanced.

‘Heard’ is probably the easiest, and the only times I’d leave it in is when someone is eavesdropping (with description of how clearly they can hear a conversation) or to highlight that someone has exceptional hearing (with a note on the distance). Other than that, remove. E.g. ‘He heard his own voice falter.’ → ‘His voice faltered.’

‘Smelled’ – I try to remove it in sentences of the form ‘they smelled apple pies’, not ‘the apple pies smelled delicious.’ I’m also less aggressive about this one, and again leave it when it highlights someone’s super-senses. And! I never remove it at the cost of not describing a smell – include all senses. E.g. ‘Lissan smelled a rejuvenating, not quite minty aroma.’ → ‘A rejuvenating, not quite minty aroma drifted towards Lissan.’

‘Felt’ – there are at least two reasons why I’d want to remove it. First is that it’s telling emotions, in sentences like ‘He felt embarrassed.’ and I’ll get to these in the next part. The second thing is strictly filtering, describing what a character noticed about the environment. E.g. ‘It was black and it felt oily.’ → ‘It was black and oily, leaving unpleasant smudges on his fingers.’ E.g. ‘He felt a gust of wind at the back of his head.’ → ‘A gust of wind ruffled the hair at the back of his head.’

‘Saw’ – again, there are two ways in which I see this word pop up in my draft, which I want to cut down on. One is describing the action of watching, noticing, or spotting, and in most cases it can be replaced with a more specific word, like the ones above. E.g. ‘She’d seen Barran sew a cut like this once.’ → ‘She’d watched Barran…’ The other way it comes up is the typical filtering: E.g. ‘He saw Lissan tense up.’ → ‘Lissan tensed up.’

One exception to this rule is when removing them makes you ask how the POV character saw it, e.g. when they’re facing a different direction. E.g. ‘They saw a glint of steel out of the corner of their eye. They pivoted on their heel and raised their Sabre to meet the falling blade.’ → leave as is. Note to self: ‘Out of a corner of their eye’ is not a get out of jail free card for using ‘saw’. I definitely use it too often.

Oof that’s all I the words I ctrl+F for…

As I write more, I start forming sentences without these words by habit, and I find fewer and fewer ctrl+f’able words to remove.

Part 3 to come soon.

Requested tag: @galactic-mystics-writes

#editing #writing #writing tips #writing advice #novel writing #creative writing #writeblr #writeblr community #writers of tumblr #writing resources

[pb-dot]

hey! this is chance & here’s week 3’s prompt. share an excerpt that you’re very proud of from any of your wips.

Thank you for the prompt chance! As always there's a voice in the back of my head that wants to share nothing because nothing I create is good, but that's a jerk I've been suppressing for years now, so let's go, yeah? This bit is too long for the "x lines" tags that I normally post and it's hard to divide up honestly. For context, Jake is working on repairing 13's shoulder, and 13 has something important to tell him.

“Hey Jake?” 13 asked, “yeah 13? Feeling something resist?” Jake had become hyper-vigilant to his gears’ flaws, and whether they added up to resistance or other problems. “No, no, you’re doing great, as always,” there was a smile in 13’s voice, but Jake didn’t dare to look away from the precision work he was doing on 13’s elbow. “I, uh, I’ve been thinking about something,” “Yeah? What is it?” Jake could hear this was no idle comment. 13 had something on his mind, and whatever it was, it was important. Jake finished up on his current gear and looked away from the all-consuming work, towards 13’s apprehensive face. “I wanted to ask you if you can do something for me,” Jake nodded, he didn’t want to interject and add additional difficulty to what was clearly a challenging ask. “Can you… uh, no...” 13 stopped himself and allowed a moment to pass as he gathered his will before he spoke again. “I don’t want to be called 13 anymore,” he said, once those words were out the rest came like pearls on a string. “It’s not the name I was born with, it’s not a name I care for, and it’s not a name that was given to me by anyone who actually cares about me.” Jake nodded, it made sense to him to rid oneself of any ties with a man so casually cruel and demanding as Creator, who, Jake reminded himself, he should find some sort of disparaging nickname for time permitting. “Of course. What, uhm, what would you prefer I call you?” Jake asked. “I’ve been thinking Adrian if that doesn’t sound too stupid to you…” Adrian said, a shadow of a blush on his cheeks. “Adrian, yeah, I like it. Good sound to it,” Jake said. “It suits you.” Adrian looked away, to not give away that he was crying if Jake had to guess. “Thanks…” Adrian said. A slight silence fell over them before he spoke again. “Ok, this is stupid,” Adrian said with sudden urgency. “But I got to let you know now or I’ll never be able to stop thinking about it, or worrying if you’ll ever ask me if I’m named after someone or… anyway. I got it from the Olimar Trent books. Adrian Disimila is this little wimpy filing clerk at the judiciary who keeps helping Trent out although he’s both too weak and too cowardly to do much but be in the way, he keeps trying and he never takes the easy way out even when Trent offers it to him and I think he’s just…” Adrian took a deep breath. To the best of Jake’s knowledge, Adrian didn’t actually need to breathe the way normal people needed to, but there was more to breathing than staying alive. “Sorry,” Adrian said. “I just think this character is interesting and admirable, and thinking about how being out of your depth is no reason to give up has really helped me through all of this. That probably sounds really stupid, but at least now you know.” Jake didn’t want to smile, not because Adrian’s bashfulness around the origins of his name wasn’t adorable, but because he’d loath to give the impression that he was mocking him. “I don’t think it’s stupid,” he said. “I think it’s cute how bashful you are about the whole thing right now, but I don’t think it’s stupid.” “Shuddup,” Adrian punched Jake lightly in the shoulder with his functioning arm. “No, no, I’m serious,” Jake said. “It’s sweet that you’ve found strength when you needed it in those books. I’m not much of a reader myself, but maybe I should have a peek one of these days” “Yeah sure. if you manage to pull your nose out of my parts for five minutes maybe,” Adrian said. “Cheeky little clockman,” Jake responded in mock outrage. “Watch out or I’ll reverse your knees, see you bounce around then.” They shared a laugh. It was a stupid little joke, but it felt good to share things that just weren’t all that important once in a while.

Tag List @ettawritesnstudies @mrbexwrites @teacupsandstarlight @anonymousfoz @wrenofthewords @sm-writes-chaos @dyrewrites

If you want to be put on the Tag List for this project, please interact with my Tag List Post

#hearts in clockwork #the clockwork boy #writing #writeblr #asks

[tealmaskmybeloved]

So, I know you’re probably tired right now (you don’t have to answer this immediately), but I just wanna ‘leak’ a little ‘teaser’ for what’s about to come ;) in ‘Toxic Consequences: The Magenta Fragments’. These are quotes for upcoming characters, they won’t say the quotes(except for the first), at least, to our ears, but they will sort of embody what type of character they are. So, have fun theorizing what they are!:

“Don’t worry…Kieran’ll get you next time!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Your moves won’t save you now!”

“Time to make your blood rain!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’re not my friend…”

“Just Perish!”

“Why won’t you GIVE UP?!”

“I RESENT YOU!!!!!!!!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “MOTHEEERRRR!!!” *crying out for his mom*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “You want to battle? Oh I’ll show you how to battle!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Strength and Heroism won’t get you far…”

“KCAROOOOOO!!!!!!!!”

“GET BACK HERE!!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’re not from Kitakami, you…you’re PRE-takami! You’re all, must begone!!!”

~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, so the last one was a bit out of context, but yeah, here are the quotes. I’ve hidden several references in all of them. But, you can have fun thinking about who or specifically, WHAT are saying these quotes. Other users can discuss as well about it. And, if you hadn’t fully fleshed out your AU, you can consider my idea to be plotline. I’m not saying you should, but, I’ll let you think about it. See you!

OoooOOOOOH NOW THIS IS FUN

Okay so here's my thoughts/theories on who's who. I may be wrong here.

1. I think the first one is between Dokutaro and Ogerpon, you know, where Ogerpon is ready to thwack Dokutaro into the sun for killing her partner

2. I honestly have no idea, but I assume Florian/Juliana talking to Kieran? I imagine Kieran would still be somewhat angry at the two for lying to him, and I imagine Dokutaro would add fuel to that fire

3. Okay now I'm stumped. Maybe it's the MC again, since they're the only ones seen with their mom? But I have zero clue

4. Nemona I assume. She does enjoy a good battle

5. Dokutaro taunting the protagonists shortly before he gets obliterated i assume

6. Maybe Carmine? Since she doesn't like outsiders? Unless it could also be Ogerpon telling Dokutaro and the Loyal 3 to fuck off, since they weren't originally from Kitakami.

As for your suggestion about the whole plot line and such, I've actually been working on fleshing out the au and even making an aniamtic about it! When I get more details settled out, I'll finalize my decision about having your ideas and mine being connected.

Thanks for the ask!

#pokemon #dokutaro #pecharunt #ask and ye shall receive #toxic consequences au #the magenta fragments au #pokemon au

[quirkwizard]

Ok,been trying to make a Shoji sibling Quirk, and I think I have one. You said the parents had a Quirk that made shoulder-based organs organ tendrils & a Quirk that made the arms into wings. Shoji got the arm & transforming part, so a sibling could get the shoulder & wings part. So here it is: growing flesh wings from the shoulder & shoulderblades. I'd say probably two sets of wings max. Not exactly powerful, but still helpful, can probably fly kinda fast. Thoughts/anything to add?

For some of the Kuse characters, like Shoji, Aizawa, or Monoma, what could their sibling Quirks be? If you have to choose just one I choose Shoji, his could provide the most interesting sibling Quirk.

So I'm trying to make an oc who's Shoji's sibling but I can't think of a good Quirk. Do you have any ideas for how your ideas of his parents Quirks could mix differently?

I don't have a lot of interest in writing about sibling powers in that context, if even at all, but I can try to talk about your ideas.

So I think that there is something in the idea, it's simple enough to easily work as a Quirk but I'm not sure about the execution. It seems rather weak in comparison to something like Shoji's ability, as a lot of sibling powers seem to be on a similar caliber barring odd circumstances. What's more is that it doesn't really relate to his power. The webbed wings I get, but it doesn't fit too much with the core concept of Shoji, which is based around organs. Shouldn't the concept of the power be more tied into the power of organs, either making more of them or empowering the ones that they have? Like maybe the wings can be transformed into giant organs like what Shoji does later on or they're more based around duplicating then pure enhancement, losing out on the power Shoji has but having more control over them. At the very least, the wings should be capable of more then flight since Shoji can kind of already do that.

#My Hero Academia #Quirks #Quirk Reviews

[moononmyfloor]

My goodness tumblr driving me crazy, my alon posts don't show up sometimes

Please pardon if you see this again.

Edit 1: yeah that's it. Kill me now

Edit 2: Oh it shows up when I remove the League of Nobleman part from the original text. Lemme try again.

Edit 3: Oh then when you edit it the post will continue to show. Dear god.

Edit 4: I can't seem to post images either.

Alright so I was saying.

From the author's notes of Zhang Gong An chapter 81

"关于《张公案》晋江改为无CP的解释——【性向】这个华丽的栏里 面只有言情、纯爱、百合、女尊、无CP五个可选。《张公案》不 是纯粹讲爱啊。顶着纯爱两个字有点搞。然后另外三个,言情、女尊、百合就更不能选了。

我以前啥都没选,但是这次更新,系统给我发个对话框,非让我从 里面选一个,否则就没这没那,我只能选无CP了…………"

Further clarification according to Dramapanda:

Responding to Netizens who pointed out that her web novel has been marked as "no CP (couple)" in a literature website, the novel's author said "then... how do you think I should classify it? If I mark it as a danmei, will you say I'm taking advantage of the genre's popularity...?" She further adds how she has "always been puzzled as to why some people have always asked her to characterise "Zhang Gongan" as a romance. Although the writing might not look like it, I am really writing a detective novel...” Dafeng Guaguo said that whilst the novel's classification has always been under "suspense" or "mystery", because the literature website didn't have those classifications, she just marked it under "no CP".

So this is where the entire "The author said no CP" thing comes from.

Welp I suppose everyone then ran away with the No CP thing, which is just grossly out of context to the point the actual meaning was lost🥲

It just means there was no other option in the jjwxc website to label the novel under! It doesn't mean that this story is necessarily straight or that there's absolutely no queer undertones in it or all the polycule vibes in the drama were later additions! Like I've said in this post, the drama didn't add anything romance-vibe-wise the novel hadn't already!

Think of a non-BL/BG story that does not have an explicitly stated front line romance arc. As in, the focus is on the case solving and other stuff, while the characters may show a subtle attraction here and there, or have a relationship in the background, or in flashbacks. So one might argue the story does not technically fall under the romance category.

Same here.

It is not a BL in the sense that it is 99% focused on case solving. Zhang Ping and Lan Jue’s interactions are largely platonic/colleagues too.

But the third arc that deals with Shulin backstory gives the same (probably more) vibes like the drama did, and there are scenes of how Wang Yan came in between that entire entanglement. There is also the scene of Zhang Ping asking Chen Chou whether they are Zhijis.

Now, what label would you categorise a story like this under?

It's not a BL, it's not not a BL either. This story shares the same universe as the author's other novel Imperial Uncle which is very upfrontly queer, it is just not a focal point here. Like....handwaves~ gay people exist ok?

I have seen way too many comments of "You people are so fujoshi for reading gay undertones to this because the author said there's no CP!" like smh.

Honestly I think lots of people have been spoiled by the practice of dramas and novels declaring who their "CP" is beforehand, and once a CP is declared have gotten used to expect this couple to behave in XYZ ways for no reason other than that they are the CP, and if two people behave in a way that is even slightly queer, to panic "OMg this CaN't be because the author said no CP!"

Sigh. Once again I implore, it is OK to just enjoy a story as it is, yknow? That the characters in your story are written as very real human beings that have several crushes during the course of the story (like yknow, normal people do) is a good thing, a testament to the author's ability to write 3D characters.

I know, "one true pure love" is a charming concept that I also love and if it is in a story then great, but yknow... stop expecting that all stories MUST have it and the stories that don't are lesser than the other and also to not to automatically assume a story that is not screaming in neon letters that it has subtle romantic arcs doesn't necessarily have any.

Most importantly, to not think the "one true love" of a character is any less worthy because they fell in love multiple times with different people. Having read Imperial Uncle and now 3/4 of Zhang Gong An, looking at some comments I'm so confused. If you don't see the shipping potential then don't ship, let the people who do have their fun. Simple as that.

#a league of nobleman

[hunt4tlow]

WAIT you mentioned that you stanned Willow before ASIAS, when DID you start stanning her?? for me, I've always loved her, but i started stanning her when I saw her lifting weights and bossing Amity around in FATCDP😭

“stanning” lol I’ve just always thought she was neat. Ironically it was during the great willow drought of season 2a that made me really see the potential in her character that had gone mostly overlooked

for starters there’s her dads! Even though they never really get never really proper focus in an episode (despite the blight parents getting several… ugh.) they managed to grab my interest in that single interaction they DID have with willow. I especially find it interesting how Harvey is willing to drop everything for willows education, and when we later learn he was an abominations student at a notoriously competitive school, it adds a whole new layer of context for why he was so adamant that willow stay in that track despite her obvious struggles. He probably started off much the same way as willow, and had to work his way to the top, and genuinely believes that this is what is best for willows future, even if it pains him to watch his daughter cry after once again failing to construct an abomination for homework. I would have LOVED to see an episode in season 1 or even season 2 examining how this affected their bond, think about it: a younger willow who knows that her dads only want what’s best for her, and they support her no matter how badly she’s doing, but she knows deep down that she’s not like her papa, abominations aren’t for her and they never will be, but she ALSO knows how important perseverance is to him. This is what I really want to write about at some point so I guess I should save all this for then LOL

S2a is also when I started shipping huntlow hehehe!!! Bc ohhhhhhh my god the half a witch parallels??? How they both understand what it’s like to be perceived as weak, as someone they’re not???? Ohhhhh man like you just KNOW they would understand each other so much from that shared experience alone. Like on top of all their other shared interests, like hunter having at least a chunk of knowledge about plant properties and willow working out much like hunter probably does regularly in the EC it would make so much sense if they became close friends and potentially something more than that. Then asias happened and 😄😄😄😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

ASIAS IS WHAT ITS ALL ABOUT‼️‼️‼️ idk if I would call it my fav episode anymore since it has some issues but ough it’s definitely my biggest comfort episode aka the one I rewatch the most. Willow finally gets to show off her phenomenal leadership skills as flyer derby captain!!! Now that she’s dropped abominations, flyer derby feels very much like a new way to connect with her dads and it’s so sweet :’) ohhhhhhh and her team??? The entrails??? Beloveds???? I would die for them. And the episode reminds us that willow still has those insecurities despite everything, she’s still healing from the bullying, being “half a witch”, like her flyer derby opponent is her former teacher holyyyy shit. And while I do think they could have cut a little of hunters role in the episode since willow definitely needs the screentime more, I love how well his presence complements her. To him, willow isn’t any of the things she sees herself as in her lowest moments, she’s the captain. She’s fearless and brave and ready to throw hands with a coven head to protect her team. He sees her the way she wants to be seen and it’s so lovely

AND WILLOW BEING SILLY IN TTT IS SO IMPORTANT so many people forget that she’s not the overprotective mum friend or whatever the fuck she’s 15 and she loves poking strangers in the butt with plastic pitchforks and saying “mwahaha!!” and doing fingerguns at the nerd who is so so clearly in love with her!! She can be a strong responsible leader and still be a goofball some of u are just cowards ok. And she loves photography??? The contrast between inner willow burning away her memories of amity because “out of sight, out of mind” to present willow treasuring her time together with her family and friends, capturing the memories in a scrapbook while they all try to get home??? Cries forever. I can talk more if you want. I am normal about fictional characters ok 🙂

#SORRY I WENT A BIT BONKERS HERE. HAHAHAHAHAHAH #half of this is literally about after asias. sorry lol #I just. willow………….. #asks

[ashley-slashley]

Holy Diver

Chapters: 1, 2, 3

Summary: POV: you have a crush on a catholic priest having a crisis of faith

Rating: M/Mature

Warnings: cussing, heresy, very long paragraphs

A/N: I’m definitely going to hell for this one. I’m blaming William Peter Blatty, William Friedkin, and Jason Miller for making Damien Karras a very loveable and friend shaped character. If you’re not cool with the idea of sleeping with a grief stricken and religiously challenged Catholic priest, I understand, and I highly recommend you not read this fic. I’m taking some creative liberties with both the exact time of year the movie is set as well as the map of the area the movie is set in. If someone is thinking “well actually” about this, you’re having redditor thoughts about a smut. What are you doing with your life?

Chapter 3: me, myself, my bullshit, and a man that society says is unfuckable

Who in the fuck calls at this hou-oh. How is it 2:30 pm?! “Hello?” I try to not sound rude on the phone, “I wasn’t given a name, but I was given this number in the offering plate today during mass.” a kind and curious voice was audible through the phone. They fucking did it. “I’m incredibly sorry father, a friend of mine thought it would be really funny to put my number into the collection plate.”, he asked where my friend would get an idea like that. How do I tell a priest that I’m going to jump out a window in embarrassment? “My friends are really”, I paused, holding in my want to use an expletive, “annoying. Please excuse their”, can’t say bullshit in this context, “nonsense.”

He asked if I was ok considering the pauses I was taking to calculate my words, well, he’s already heard my bullshit at the bar. “To put it frankly, I’m censoring myself so I don’t accidentally spew heresy in your presence. Before you ask, I wasn’t raised Catholic, I just know there’s some things you can’t say in front of a priest”, “I actually was put through medical school and trained in psychiatry through the society of Jesus” he explained. I fucking lost it, he probably thinks I’m having a mental breakdown or a Satanist if I’m laughing at that, I should explain. “I am so fuckin’ sorry, man, whenever someone says the word society, I can’t take the subject matter seriously. I have no idea why.” I rambled, aw shit, I said ‘fuck’ in front of a priest. I’m already going to Hell, might as well take the fastest route possible.

I heard a noise I didn’t expect - a giggle. He’s laughing, I laughed at something about him, and he’s laughing. “Why did your friend put your number in the offering plate. If it makes you feel more at ease, you can think of me as a psychiatrist.” Damien assured me. I asked if he remembered those women at the bar who were laughing and someone mentioned killing themselves and then they went to the restroom together, he asked if that was my friends and I. I explained that no we weren’t drunk or high, we’re just - weird, and no, none of us actually wanted to kill ourselves, I’m just an edgy bastard. Things you don’t say to a priest or a psychiatrist, well, at least he doesn’t know I would accept his company in bed. I heard another snicker, are you fucking kidding right now? This dude, I swear to god. What next is he going to ask, “would you want to meet up at that bar today or this evening?” goddammit, he must be a telepath. I accepted his offer, I can already hear my friends giggling and making stupid remarks about this.

Unlike other people in my situation, I’m not going to dress up in a figure hugging outfit and show off my physique as well as wearing the most uncomfortable shoes solely because they make my legs look better and add sex appeal to my appearance. I don’t have time for that shit, nor do I feel comfortable in that attire, I like to look shapeless and ominous, thank you very much. Besides, you look at the weather and tell me it’s appropriate to look like a generic centerfold you find in a smut magazine. It’s like in the lower thirties outside, though dying of frostbite and hypothermia might get me out of meeting with a certain priest, I don’t think he’d appreciate that. Donning an appropriate layering of clothes, I make my trek to the same bar from last night. Alone. Nobody to hide behind or make an excuse to hide in the restroom with. It’s just me, myself, my bullshit, and a man that society says is unfuckable.

#the shitposter writes #damien karras #damien karras x reader #the exorcist

[clingyduoapologist]

Ok, since it’s been a bit and I’ve had some time to sit with it, here are my thoughts.

If you separate this stream from the greater narrative that Wilbur has been weaving, then it’s fucking superb. The c!Crimeboys parts are some of the best we’ve had in the entire history of the server, the Utah bit is fucking hilarious, and the overall message of the stream is so heartwarming, literally I’d have no problems calling this one of my top 3, maybe even top 2 c!Wilbur streams.

The issue is, that this isn’t a standalone story. This is the conclusion of c!Wilbur’s story on the dream smp. More specifically, it’s the conclusion of revivebur’s season 4 arc, and as an ending, it kind of makes no sense?

Like sure, the message of Wilbur freeing himself from the narrative by actually crossing over into the real world is cool, but at least to me it comes off as so much more of a downer ending than it was probably meant to. Basically, I’m left to assume that this guy who’s struggled for so long is now just sitting alone in a random gas station in Buttfuck, Utah? The final poem even goes so far as to suggest that he’s never going to forgive himself (which is also supported by the crimeboy’s conversation on the peninsula)? There’s no suggestion that he’s going to be doing better, which just feels like angst for the sake of angst.

That’s not even mentioning how this slots into the other apology streams. Like, this stream takes all the juicy character dynamics we got introduced to in those streams, and throws it out in favor of showing Wilbur being potentially miserable for the rest of his life? Like, looking at the Fundy stream in particular just makes this ending ring that much more hollow, as it’s just Wilbur leaving fundy again, showing that he’s learned basically nothing from any of those interactions?

To me at least, the point of the apology streams seemed to be showing how Wilbur’s negative self-image damaged his relationship with other characters, making these apologies extremely superficial and one sided. Inconsolable Differences especially seemed to prove this point, but now these streams just seem so much more, idk pointless? Like, they seem so boring in context of this finale.

Basically, this ending is the safest, and least interesting out for c!Wilbur in my opinion. The only logical takeaway this arc gives the audience is that if you think that you’re a bad enough person, you don’t deserve your friends and family and should

And again, in context of the greater narrative of not only c!Wilbur’s arc, but the entire dream smp, it just feels cheap.

Feel free to add on if you disagree but I just don’t think this ending works.

#discourse #negativity #to be clear I don’t think this stream is bad at all #I just think it fails as an ending #but again just my opinion #Dream smp analysis #c!wilbur

[your-fave-jewish-magical-girl]

I promised that I would become a Spy Classroom blog so here I am! And I will be ranking every single villain in Spy Classroom from worst to best.

Keep in mind that unlike a lot of series, I don’t actually hate any of these characters. Even though some of them aren’t very deep, I think they all fulfill their purposes.

Spoiler warning for Light novel season 1 (Volumes 1-4) and Anime season 1-2 (first 24 episodes) under text

David

Yeah, so this one goes without saying. I’m betting most of you don’t remember him. (I’m probably one of like 5 people who remember his name, Takemachi included.) but just for a refresher, he was the antagonist in Grete’s short story in SSC 1 : Bridal Royale and the finale of season 1. He is the president of Mannheim inc. and started a harassment campaign against a local meat pie owner to gain his recipe without paying. He attempted to take advantage of Lily (under the alias Lillian) under the assumption she was desperate and poor and turn her into his “lover”, which is really gross. He is just a violent, borderline pedophiliac scumbag and I hope he never shows up again. Overall there is not much to talk about since he’s just a guy who adds tension to the plot and exists so Grete and Lily can defeat him in the end.

Frisé

Ok, in his defense, having Orphan Gang Leader in your resume is really funny. You also may have forgotten him, but like with David from before, Frisé is a character from Bridal Royale/episode 6. He was in charge of a gang of child orphans which he picked up from the street and forced to commit crimes for him in exchange for food and shelter. If they (the orphan children) didn’t meet their quota, he would respond by physically abusing them under the guise of his expression of “love.”

Really fucked up guy, arguably worse than David from before, but unlike David, his fight with Klaus and Sybilla was cool and his philosophy of being someone taking in these kids with nowhere to go and giving them a home and food on the table while the government of Din all but abandoned them is pretty interesting, and goes back to Sybilla’s past in a natural way. (Also in the light novel, he is referred to as a golem looking guy before he is given a name which is funny.)

Eve

Yeah, so am I the only person who did not imagine Ever would end up looking like that? Thought she would look younger and a bit more disheveled.

Anyways, bad villains end here folks, While Eve doesn’t actually get to do much (especially since the anime cut out all the cool shit she did). She makes every moment count with her light novel screen time. Her wire ability is really cool and I hadn’t seen anything similar at the time of reading it. Her philosophy of extreme brains over brawn, while it doesn’t go anywhere (since she gets offed by Klaus like 3 pages later) adds context for the world of spy classroom. She treats soldiers as beneath her because she is a young adult in a world where that kind of combat is growing more and more obsolete.

Where Eve really shines is in Bridal Royale with her fight with Monika. She is the best out of all three of the antagonists in that volume. The way she used her wires to surround the living room and how Monika had to use her calculation skills to get out was awesome. Props to Takemachi for giving her a cameo in that volume because she was someone I wanted to learn more about (even though I forgot about her until I reread volume 1.)

Rip Eve, Takemachi cannot stand to see a girlboss win.

Matilda

So rip any anime-onlys I guess (though you should have heeded the warning.)

Yeah, I’d you’re wondering why Matilda is so low, she is kind of my least favorite main villain in season one of the light novels. She is the antagonist of Volume 3 of the light novel and will show up in season 2 as an antagonist for the former half of the series. With Guido and Olivia, the other twist villains, you don’t really see it coming. With Guido, because you are under the assumption that he is dead and that Klaus’s arc will consist of moving past his abuse. And with Olivia, she had previously been a mob with not much presence. You really had to not be paying attention or understand the formula to not think she’s gonna do evil shit.

Even so, she’s the “bad” kind of bad villain. Yeah you don’t sympathize with her because she’s a piece of shit who abused Annette, made her blind in one eye and literally gave her amnesia. But she doesn’t have any guiding philosophies that make her worldview understandable like most of the villains and she doesn’t get any cool fight scenes either. You’re really just wondering when they’re gonna reveal that she’s a baddie.

Her role as a character, despite how predictable she is is still good in terms of her role in the story. The actual conflict she creates between Lamplight (specially Monika and Thea) has created one of the best fights in the series revealing a lot of character between them that has stuck with both of them ever since. I love seeing Monika and Thea as rivals and Volume 3 convinced me of that. The impact she leaves with Thea as the end actually lasts too, creating legitimate questions Thea had to ask herself moving into volume 4. She is like the anti-Hearth in that way. The fact she actually unnerves White Spider speaks volumes about how deranged she is. The scene where she holds up her blue toolbox with White Spider in the room saying that she used that toolbox to beat Annette’s memories out of her gave me straight chills. Like holy shit, this woman should not have been anywhere near a child.

Her impact on Annette though…Christ. Rereading scenes with her and Annette in volume 3 with context make everything so much worse. She’s the only villain so far that Lamplight has outright killed. (Lamplight being Annette). I can’t say she didn’t deserve it.

And maybe that is the point of her, Takemachi didn’t her her reasons for acting like a live of shot or an ideology that justified it simply because. She is an awful person who did awful things to Annette because she’s a coward. Even so, that does not make it any less awful to read about her.

Corpse/Roland

Ok, before you scream and cry at me for putting Roland so low, let me explain: I think Roland is a good character, I don’t think he’s a good villain. This is because his actual character development happens in Volume 4 where he has been defeated is not acting like a villain

Roland’s role in Volume 2 was basically to be a decoy to distract you from Olivia, hyping you up for a showdown between him and Klaus when he couldn’t actually measure up, that was it, it was funny, but “Corpse the evil imperial assassin” ended there.

Now Roland has a different role in Volume 4. He is withholding information from the Foreign Intelligence Office and when he is giving information, he is warning Lamplight of Purple Ant. In the latter half of Volume 4, we learn a lot about him, how Purple Ant stole his life away and turned him into an assassin, abandoning everything, how he eventually got bored of being an assassin and wanted something new and exciting (a callback to when he became Olivia’s boyfriend.) Thea helped him defy his Master and fight for his freedom. While he did die, he died on his feet as opposed to living the rest of his life on his knees. And that’s pretty damn honorable.

But yeah, we see an ok fight between him and monika and him betraying Thea in Volume 4 was cool which does put him above Matilda. But his great aspect’s don’t really come from him being a good villain specifically.

Guido

Oh hey, on the subject of pieces of shit, we have Guido! Yeah, you can argue that we know less about Guido than Matilda, and I’ve heard people argue that he is the worst villain. I doubt that, as of now, the information we know about him is scarce. We know he was a member of inferno and was basically like Klaus’s Dad, he treated him harshly and insulted him. For some reason, he left Inferno to join serpent and let the rest of his team minus Hearth and Klaus get killed on the Abyss Doll mission. We don’t know why he acted that way to Klaus, and we don’t know why he defected.

One reason I am putting Guido above Matilda is that he actually gets one of the most badass fights in the series. Takemachi did NOT pull his punches with Guido. The actually build up to Guido was great and well foreshadowed. The flashbacks with Klaus and him could easily have been interpreted as an arc for Klaus to overcome Guido’s death and accept Lamplight as his new family, and we got that…just not in the way we were expecting. Guido is my favorite kind of twist, a twist that is completely inevitable in the context of the story and makes you goes “How did I not see that coming?” Even though all the evidence was right there. His fight with Lamplight is on par with later fights in the series like Purple Ant or the one in Volume 5.

Second reason, I don’t think we’re finished with Guido just yet. We know next to nothing about Serpent (and I doubt It’s the standard run of the mill imperialist type stuff the empire does either.) and discovering serpent is going to give us clues to Guido and why he did what he did.

So yeah, while we don’t get much of him, we will soon. His role as an antagonist is extremely well fulfilled given his lack of time and his impact on Klaus sticks with the rest of the series, overall, great villain.

White Spider

No image yet! Anyways, White Spider is great. He isn’t the most memorable, but he breaks the formula for a Spy Classroom villain. White Spider is a serpent member, and so far the only villain Lamplight has not defeated. He stands out from the rest by being a guy who is pretty reasonable-ish. He doesn’t make messes when he fights and he knows his own limits. Also in the fight with Klaus in Volume 3 he was really funny. He has a concept of morality (thinking Purple Ant and Matilda are monsters) and really is just here to get the job done. From what we’ve seen with him so far, his mushroom appearance is great full exaggerated (which is sad, rip mushroom boy) but he makes for a good straight man when communicating with the rest of the villains. Not that much to talk about, but I do hope to see him more!

Olivia

Talk about a controversial pick. Yeah Olivia is a really underrated villain and I am fully planning on writing and analysis on her and how she acts as a foil to Grete one one these days. (The anime completely nerfed her design from the manga lmaoooo)

Anyways, I really love Olivia. She is a bitch, she is selfish, she is insecure, superficial and jaded and I love her. The buildup to Olivia was fantastic, you wouldn’t be blamed if you thought she was just going to be some random mob while the girls hunter for Corpse. But like with most spy classroom twists, the villain was right in front of us.

It was less predictable than last time, but the way Olivia was revealed to be a villain in the light novel was no short of awesome. She is so awful and I love her to bits. Her relationship with Corpse makes for a wonderful contrast to Grete, their dynamic is inspired and brings out the best and worse in both of their characters. Her time in the underground brothel thinking that was all she would ever add up to before meeting Corpse really stuck with me, and knowing what we know now about how Corpse actually thought about her, she wasn’t really deceived. Olivia was an opportunist. She saw Corpse as a way out and she took it, same with Roland. You hate her for making the choices she did but you can never fully blame her. It’s could she have even escaped her soul sucking existence if she hadn’t taken his hand.

I really want to write about Olivia in the near future because she is my favorite villain to think and write about, and she does not get the appreciation from the fandom she deserves

Also, I hate how they cut out the final scene with her and Grete disguised and Uwe. It was the perfect ending for her character before getting captured by the republic.

Purple Ant

Yeah, this should surprise nobody. But hey, guess who has an official design now. (Pleasedontfuckuphisdesignintheanime)

Purple Ant is the best villain in Season 1 by a long shot. He is cunning, sadistic, manipulative, charming and so much more. He is the king of Mitario, the greatest villain Lamplight has faced so far. With the manpower of 400 Ants worldwide. He challenges all of Lmaplihht at their own games. All without lifting a finger. He holds an iron clutch on the lives of hundreds of people he believes are lower than him. Miranda, Barron, The bartender, Corpse, the accounts of their torture burned into the brain of anyone who read volume 4.

Purple Ant breaks people, targets in no way excluding, pushing even Klaus to the absolute brink in a way we have not seen in this entire series. Being an Ant is a fate worse than death, your body and mind in control of someone else, being forced to murder, torture, capture, your family members held hostage and being punished if you do not do everything to a T—or just because he feels like it. When you become an Ant, you are stripped of you. You lose what makes you an individual and turn into another one of Purple Ants pawns.

That isn’t even breaking into the neat of him, his relationship with Hearth, Thea, Klaus, Corpse, holy crisp do I need to do a mega post on him. I feel like his ideology towards Mouzaians (the people he turned into Ants exclusively because he believed they were entitled and privileged after Galgad lost the Great War to them) has clues on serpents actual ideology. He offers a piece the puzzle that has been brewing throughout the entire series.

Props to Takemachi for keeping him alive…so far, I hope he gets in one or two extra moments before Takemachi offs him for good. I can’t imagine this bastard ever getting redeemed lmaoooo

#spy classroom #spy kyoushitsu #spy room #the rest of the tags are spoilers guys #David spy classroom #Friśe spy classroom #Matilda spy classroom #Eve spy classroom #guido spy classroom #Roland spy classroom #corpse spy classroom #blue fly spy classroom #Olivia spy classroom #white spider spy classroom #purple ant spy classroom

[judasisgayriot]

I’ve probably fallen for the front Nathan puts up but maybe I’ve fallen for the consequences of his actions while masking? Idk. Maybe it’d help if someone elaborated (aka pls feel free to go off about Nathan but I still may end up disagreeing depending on the results)

Ohhh my god I didn’t mean to write so much but I have so uhh fair warning I have Feelings on the subject:

I have a lot of complicated feelings about Nathan the same way I have a lot of complicated feelings about Heroes, lol. Don't get me wrong, though I may seem like a grumpy fucker, the show holds a v special place in my heart and has for 16 years, it does mean a lot to me but at the same time there are whole chunks of it that I find just bad/stupid/infuriating, and that also colours my perspective on characters too -

I actually think villain!Nathan could have been done well/interestingly, for example, and the building blocks were there - Nathan is someone who is incredibly self-loathing about his power in particular and believes it makes him some kind of freak, and makes comments to similar effect in s1 about how he thinks they should all be locked up etc, so I can see how he could slide into that villain lets-lock-everyone-up thing if done well, but the way it's done in s3 is a mess and comes out of nowhere and makes no fucking sense lol, like he’s misguidedly going along with his dad’s idea of giving people powers, then peter knocks over his Vats of Stuff and for no clear narrative reason Nathan decides to do a 180 and like dob everyone in to the President lol, like it could have been done well as a “tragic self-hating villain who you kind of understand but his path of destruction is still bad” thing, not a “I guess he’s just an Evil-Now Kind of Metaphorical Racist” lol.

so I'm like ehhh *handwave* whatever, I don't even think of it as, like, in character, as opposed to the General Jerkery he displays in say, s1, which I do think is representative of him, or at least the front he puts up -

ALSO, it's not that I think 'Nathan is constantly masking/pretending to be someone he's not (which is true) so therefore he did nothing wrong' - he still hurt people and did morally questionable things lol, that doesn't absolve him. I just think it's easy to see why he is the way he is and it adds a lot to his character. Nathan has layers! Nathan is like an onion! Oh no I'm writing an essay! Lol.

At the same time I'd like to emphasise that despite being a Proud Nathan Apologist, I'm not like "Nathan has never done anything wrong ever in his life!" - he can be a jerk and a shitty person, he's done plenty of Bad Things and fucks up near-constantly, and I actually love him more for it - I love him bc while I find him deeply sad and sympathetic, he's a very complicated, morally grey character (well, I'd argue morally *confused*, lol) with so much compacted self-loathing that he takes it out on other people too, and that's Bad, and yet he's still so, so tragic to me (he's my poor little meow meow OK, I get to woobify him, SOMEONE has to - half the fandom are Sylar apologists which is their god-given Blorbo Right which I will defend, but I don't rly care for him so I'm just like *eyeroll* well *I* don't give a fuck that he's Sad or forgive him that easily lol. So I do 100% see the other side of the coin lmao.)

Anyway all that said (oh my god that was a long preamble sorry), it's easy to see how people miss it if they're not that interested in Nathan as a character tbh bc I think you need the context of like, s2/early s3 Nathan to see the full picture, but basically all of his arc in s1 is about how Nathan is wearing a mask all the time of being this kind of Jerkass Alpha Male I'm a Totally Normal Man that he's been expected to be his whole life

(see the way Angela blatantly manipulates and controls his whole life and simultaneously treats him like he's about 5 years old and a stubborn child to be given orders ("that's my boy") and told off, while also being vaguely creepy and clingy in a "you're the man of the house now" kinda way, see "everything we are is what people expect us to be, if you take that away nothing means anything" and his admission that without Peter he doesn't even really have a sense of self, cf. his COMPLETE spiral into rock bottom in s2 without him, see later in s3 Arthur's "I made you" and Nathan's admission that everything he's ever done in life has been because of his dad - becoming a lawyer, becoming a politician (which I genuinely think Nathan doesn't even LIKE or want to do lol. I'm serious, it’s presented as this key facet of his character but I don't think Nathan is even that Ambitious deep down or particularly, like, wants to be President or whatever - it's all what he keeps being TOLD he should want, which he goes along with), like even who he was set up to marry, apparently. His life is being like, puppeteered from his fuckin birth by his terrifyingly morally bankrupt parents who experimented on him and "wanted to be better than God". Jaysus. Ahem anyway this parenthetical got LONG-)

Anyway his arc is about how actually, that isn't the person he actually is at all. He feels like he has to be this Persona of Alpha Ambitious Arrogant Very Normal Heterosexual High-Flying (loool) Successful Manly Man but actually, the main choice he makes, which changes everything, is that even though this has all been conditioned into him from day 1, he does what he's told like a good little attack dog, he *chooses* Peter/love (and aren't they the same thing? Awww) over all of that, precisely when no-one expects him to. Of course, Claire is no small factor in this (see: how his parents LET HIM THINK HIS CHILD WAS DEAD FOR 14 YEARS, how he does clearly want to see her but then gets too overwhelmed to go through with it and conceal-don't-feel nearly cries in the back of the car on his way back (even tho he rightfully looks bad in Claire's perception at that moment), how Angela literally says that she knows that deep down under his gruff exterior "you're a sap" and if he sees her "sad weepy eyes", "you're gone, you're finished". Like Yeah, precisely lol). It's another tangent but she really is the one who makes him realise there IS a way to break free from everything that's been suddenly heaped on him re: The Plan in s1 (shout out to my babygirl Claire I love you so much Claire mwah).

Anyway there's that, but then you start to see just hoooow Mentally Ill Nathan blatantly, actually is (plus, very clearly ND/autistic to me in a lot of ways, which the masking is a serious part of too). In S2 obviously he's in just a complete black hole of depression, is hallucinating his Burned Self as this kind of conceptualisation of all the things he hates about himself, and literally self-harms because of it (punching the mirror), and then in early s3, when he's literally died and been brought back to life, has a full-on mental breakdown and is just literally so fragile and vulnerable and it makes me so sad - never mind the weird religious mania and delusions, he's terrified bc he's seeing visions of a man he hates and fears (which yeah is just his dad fucking with him deliberately, but like - yeah that’s WORSE) - no one really seems to like, care if he's OK at all, he pleads with Future Peter to tell him what "the right thing to do" is because he literally does not know (see "morally confused" as I said earlier, he straight up doesn't have much of an innate conception of what the "right thing" even is) and gets basically no help, like this man is NOT OK and to top it all off he has a complete mental breakdown LIVE ON TELEVISION and gets handpicked to become a Senator literally because someone witnesses that and decides that he looks like he'd be easy to manipulate and control (like, He Is Not In An OK Place! Let The Man Rest! Get Him Some Therapy, from a Person who Knows About Powers Preferably so He Doesn't Have To Mask Further! I'm So Angry Oh My God!) and like. Yeah. Yeah.

Anyway wrapping back around to the original question I guess (again I… don't know how this got this long. Clearly I Feel Things About This lol) I feel like a lot of people just take that surface-level Nathan, the one who's just a kinda callous jerk sometimes and doesn't really have much to redeem him, at face value and. hate him. and don't like Look Underneath! At the Layers! He's So Tragic and textually there was really no way for him to like, Live and Be OK. Like the only road for him was death and he didn't (despite all the jokes about how many times Nathan dies lol) get a Chance to get past all of that and feel, like, Relatively OK, Ever. Oh god you can fit so much repression inside this man *slaps Nathan's head* and then he kept being repressed despite tentative attempts to like Come Out of The Metaphorical Power Closet (sidenote Nathan is ostensibly meant to be like textually straight but he has literally such a Closeted Gay Man storyline that it's almost textbook 1-to-1 allegory. That's A Long Meta For Another Time though) and then he died :( and maybe he did a few war crimes too but that whole thing was stupid, man, idc

This is like fucking ungodly long now lmao and you DON'T have to read all of this but like. Anyway if you still just don't rly like Nathan or care about him as a character, 's all fine and I'm not gonna convince you otherwise bc everyone has Faves and Unfaves and Whatever, Blehs. I clearly just have a lot of fkn investment in Nathan's Layers, lmao.

#asks #anon #long post // #like. really long. like I just wrote 1700 words about my blorbo long. i have no defence #nathan petrelli #heroes #heroes ramblings #meta #am i an angel or a monster #you don’t have to agree with me of course lol. i kind of love him because he’s bad. but he’s also good actually. it’s complicated. #on fb we’re ‘it’s complicated’. same with me and the show as a whole Lmao #anyway I clearly fuckin care don’t I. now I look way less cool (Jk I was never cool) #I know it’s literally not that deep. i know. i am a fool. lol #the fact that literally no one cares Anni 💀💀💀