#so dramatic and intense

[theramblingvoid]

Low level/continuous pain tips for writing

Want to avoid the action movie effect and make your character's injuries have realistic lasting impacts? Have a sick character you're using as hurt/comfort fodder? Everyone has tips for how to write Dramatic Intense Agony, but the smaller human details of lasting or low-level discomfort are rarely written in. Here are a few pain mannerisms I like to use as reference:

General

Continuously gritted teeth (may cause headaches or additional jaw pain over time)

Irritability, increased sensitivity to lights, sounds, etc

Repetitive movements (fidgeting, unable to sit still, slight rocking or other habitual movement to self-soothe)

Soft groaning or whimpering, when pain increases or when others aren't around

Heavier breathing, panting, may be deeper or shallower than normal

Moving less quickly, resistant to unnecessary movement

Itching in the case of healing wounds

Subconsciously hunching around the pain (eg. slumped shoulders or bad posture for gut pain)

Using a hand to steady themself when walking past walls, counters, etc (also applies to illness)

Narration-wise: may not notice the pain was there until it's gone because they got so used to it, or may not realize how bad it was until it gets better

May stop mentioning it outright to other people unless they specifically ask or the pain increases

Limb pain

Subtly leaning on surfaces whenever possible to take weight off foot/leg pain

Rubbing sore spots while thinking or resting

Wincing and switching to using other limb frequently (new/forgettable pain) or developed habit of using non dominant limb for tasks (constant/long term pain)

Propping leg up when sitting to reduce inflammation

Holding arm closer to body/moving it less

Moving differently to avoid bending joints (eg. bending at the waist instead of the knees to pick something up)

Nausea/fever/non-pain discomfort

Many of the same things as above (groaning, leaning, differences in movement)

May avoid sudden movements or turning head for nausea

Urge to press up against cold surfaces for fever

Glazed eyes, fixed stare, may take longer to process words or get their attention

Shivering, shaking, loss of fine motor control

If you have any more details that you personally use to bring characters to life in these situations, I'd love to hear them! I'm always looking for ways to make my guys suffer more write people with more realism :)

#voidrambles #writing #whump #does this count as that? whatever those folks will probably enjoy it at any rate #this is honestly mostly for my own reference but i hope it can maybe help some other people too :) #I'm so pulled in by books that write pain in a human and detailed way and not just when it's dramatic or intense #would love to see more of that and incorporate it into my own writing #oh i should have added. distraction seeking to that list #like writing a really long post about. #...yes i may be chronically ill and having a flare today and yes i may be farming myself for writing tips for Future Me hdgfhfhsjs #but hey gotta do your research somewhere babeyyy it all goes in the creativity soup #tw injury #tw illness

[bakudekublogblog]

shigaraki being like “I’m killing you bc you’re izuku midoriya’s baby girl and it’ll send him into the rage” is SO LOVE INTEREST it’s so YOURE HIS PRECIOUS SOMEONE if something happens to YOU he’s gonna LOSE IT if you wanna go for izuku’s HEART you TAKE HIS KACCHAN

#bakudeku #bkdk #manga spoilers #I’m getting caught up in the manga and katsuki being izuku’s damsel is so #he’s so the love interest coded he’s explicitly izuku’s precious someone #how is bkdk up for debate when the MAIN ANTAGONISTS ARE LIKE it’s you you’re his baby girl get him #it’s so CHARGED ITS SO ROMANTIC ITS SO!!!! #no one means as much to izuku as katsuki does no one else has his love so intensely!! #like guys the author would NOT be doing this unless it was true #no sane author is gonna have just pick anyone to send the mc into a rage #at the CLIMAX his DARKEST HOUR #YOU DONT JUST PICK ANYONE TO KILL OFF DRAMATICALLY IN FRONT OF THE PROTAGONIST #YOU KILL OFF THE ONE THATS GONNA HIT HARDEST #anyway bkdk canon argue with the wall

[twinkodium]

[CAR CRASH] [BUILDINGS FALLING] “GOOD GOD” [EXPLOSION] [BABY CRYING] "WAH" "WAA" [YELLING] “SHUT THAT DAMN BABY UP” [SIRENS] WEEE WOOO WEEE WOO [HELICOPTER AND NEWS TRUCKS] “WE’RE REPORTING LIVE FROM THE SCENE-“ [BANG] [LOUD COMMOTION] "MY LEG…MY LEG!!!"

GIGGLING KICKING MY FEET AND GRINNING LIKE AN IDIOT 😩

#f1 #oscar piastri #I have trouble breathing 😩 #he’s just so perfect…? #like is he even real? doesn’t feel like it 😮‍💨 #just my imagination when I think about the prefect man with good manners and good looks 😍 #HAIIIR MESSIER THAN EVER!! #the arms placement hello??? showing off those beauties bby 🤯🤯 #ONE THIGH… almost out of the frame but I do see it 👀👀 #I wanna **** ** just for good measure 👀👀 #his little frown as he looks up damn 🥺🥺🥺🥺 #slightly intense gaze 🤯 my knees are giving up 😮‍💨😮‍💨 #neck is fine too but not really on the appreciation now as there is so much to look at 😩😩 #also I would like to *** ** *** *** & **** *** & **** *** *** @8@3 #like no tomorrow 😩😩 #there is enough space for that I reckon #not so pg stuff #alsooo the black T-shirt 😩😩😩 that’s my fav 🥹 #being dramatic with the caption sorry 😂

[thranduel]

astarion, the man who was dying and offered eternal life, but had no idea that it meant becoming a slave to a sadistic master.

astarion, the man who had his freedom and bodily autonomy ripped away from him.

astarion, the man who was forced to befriend, seduce and sleep with people to lure them back to his master, resulting in severe sexual trauma and the struggle to form any sort of intimate relationship.

astarion, the man who was horribly punished whenever he refused his master’s orders (one punishment being sealed away in a dusty tomb, starving, for an entire year. he scratched his hands raw trying to carve his way out).

astarion, the man who was forced to eat rats.

astarion, the man who hasn’t even been able to see his own face since he turned.

astarion, the man who had his body mutilated as cazador carved scars onto his back, which he later found out was to bind him to a ritual.

astarion, the man who is so severely traumatised that he admitted he doesn’t know how to say “no” or ask for help (and he feels guilty when he does).

astarion, the man who waited two centuries to be helped and freed from torture, but no one came.

astarion, the man who was always treated like a monster when all he wanted was to be treated like a person.

astarion, the man who came up to you in the middle of the night just to thank you for defending him and allowing him to make his own decisions.

astarion, the man who said that no one ever looked out for him or showed him kindness, and that you’re the only one. “other people don’t have a heart like you. you’re you. no one is like that.”

astarion, the man who broke the cycle of power and terror that started centuries ago thanks to the love, care and compassion that you showed him when no one else did.

astarion, the man who confessed that he loves you and feels safe with you; something he has never felt with anyone before.

#my darling boy :( #astarion #baldur’s gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 spoilers #his backstory and character development make me want to bawl my eyes out #this is why i get so angry when people don’t even try to understand him #and when they reduce him to things he’s not #like do you pay ANY attention to anything he says?? #or do you just stare at him and drool and then continue to sexualise him #sorry if that sounds dramatic but ughhhhhh man #it’s just incredibly annoying #like i don’t know why some people choose to pick up an intense game with really deep characters if they’re not gonna try to understand them #like they weren’t just made for you to treat them like they’re objects #and what gets me is the fact that astarion would HATE how people talk about him #and yes yes i know he’s not real i’m not dumb i am aware!!!!! #but he would absolutely hate it #that flirty sexy vampire image you have of him isn’t even real #it was a mask he wore #he was literally forced into doing those things #even in the game he has a reputation for flirting and sleeping around but that’s not even who he is or what he wants #it’s all an act #and it’s just so sad how everyone reduces him to that when it traumatises him every day #and apparently there’s a scene with raphael where if you haven’t seen astarion’s scars yet -> #raphael basically says he’s surprised astarion has kept his clothes on for this long and then he strips him naked in front of everyone #it’s so horrible and unfair #i just want to hold his hand and hug him tight. he deserves so much better in the game AND in this fandom #tw abuse #tw sa #my posts

[katiebell]

you know, I actually think the moment byleth steps in front of that blow meant for edelgard, an action that changes EVERYTHING about their fate, really is monumental, especially after warriors came out and added context

you have this mercenary who’s known for being stone cold, emotionless, and who can annihilate entire mercenary camps in minutes blank faced, as we saw with shez - by all means, they should never, WOULD never take a blow like that so carelessly for someone they don’t even know, much less with such an angry, determined expression - and yet.

the game draws some clear parallels between byleth and edelgard, and in all routes they have a connection that seems unbreakable - all of this starts at that very moment, when the merciless demon gets swept by a wave of emotion so strong that they throw rationality out of the window.

idk, one of my favourite fe3h analyses mentions the ‘literal divine intervention triggered by edelgard’ and that’s exactly what that moment is. not even because of sothis, but because that’s exactly when byleth takes their first step towards humanity and their freedom - i honestly think that byleth only fully regaining their humanity in crimson flower is the only outcome that makes sense, since that’s exactly what we see in one of the first scenes in fe3h. excellent foreshadowing, I’d say

#edeleth #byleth #edelgard #fe3h #few3h #byleth eisner #I’m a byleth fan as you all know lol was just listening to the very cool ashen demon ost and thinking about this #idk it’s just wild to see people saying that edeleth’s interactions in non cf routes come out of nowhere and don’t make sense like guys. #their meeting was THE pivotal moment of the series. it’s more obvious with el and many people unfortunately dismiss byleth’s personality but #el immediately is taken with byelth we all see it AND BYLETH IS THE SAME it’s just more subtle #even in non cf routes their interactions are always… intense and charged. el caught byleth’s attention as much as the other way around - so #much that she pulled on the power of the god inside her I mean come on. you can’t get more intense and dramatic than that

[cbmagus49]

AAAAA JUST BARELY SQUEEZING IN AT THE LAST SECOND HERE BUT

HERE’S MY FORDUARY STUFF Y’ALL ALL IN ONE GO LET’S GO WOOO

WEEK 1: FAMILY

WEEK 2: ANOMALIES

WEEK 3: INSOMNIA

WEEK 4: SWITCHING IDENTITIES

Whooo, that was a lot! I only got properly started on these like a week ago; I’ve been back at school for the first time in like 3 years which is really eating up my executive function, and with all the crap that happened in Jan/Feb on top of that I wasn’t even sure I was gonna do Forduary at all ^^’ Not half bad for a very very very last minute mad rush to get something out before the late entry cutoff deadline :D

(I am so tired T^T)

I had a lot of trouble figuring out what to do for the prompts this time around, and eventually ended up making two sketches for each prompt! ...buuuut I absolutely did not have time to do all of them with how late I left it so I just picked my favourite for each week to polish up. I’m probably not gonna finish the others, but I liked how the rough blocking was turning out and I thought the progression of all of them together looked pretty cool, so since I didn’t wanna just not post them I’ve put all the thumbnail sketches under the cut so you can see ‘em ^^

#gravity falls #forduary #ford pines #stan pines #I made it!!! heckin' sweet :D #hope you guys like 'em! #I'm hella proud of how these ended up #but like #hooo boi #wowee that was exhausting #I need to plan these things out better geez #totally worth it!! never again #the week 4 one is my fave #I love drawing the real dramatic scenes #they're so cool and pretty #'cuz with the various colour symbolism in the show #whether it's spooky portal stuff or magicky fire or the memory gun or whatever #'intense dramatic scene' usually means 'bathe the whole thing in cyan' #and cyan is my favourite colour ^^ #reason number infinity that I love this show

[artkaninchenbau]

An AWS comic

#My art #For the record I am not a medical professional and as far as I know AWS isn't even something you can be diagnosed with??? #It's so hard to describe what the two sensory hallucinations really *FEEL* like #Like the time one... You know how a dramatic slow motion scene looks like in an anime? #It's like that but if you made it a 60 fps interpolated version of it #It is an absolutely bizarre feeling #Meanwhile the hyper awareness and everything feeling intense feels like how a fisheye lens shot in an anime feels #No I could not be bothered to try to figure out how to draw that for this comic #For the record I haven't actually had those visual hallucinations since I was a small small child #Hell I don't even think I had any hallucinations in my teens at all like #The sensory ones just kinda started happening again in the past 7 years or so? #Also the swelling sensation I've only had once so far. Usually I get the hyper awareness sensation #(Also sometimes I get this intense feeling of swaying when I go to bed but that might not be an AWS thing??) #(Like there's other things that could make you feel like you're rocking on a boat when laying down so I didn't include that) #No I have never talked to anyone about these hallucinations because for the longest time I didn't know what they were #And they are like. Harmless. Like I'm 100% aware they're just strange sensations but not real at all #They last max 15 minutes if even that long and they happen like super rarely #Only once have I had the hyper awareness be SO INTENSE it made me feel distressed #So like. It doesn't really affect my life at all? So why bother with it? #Also IDK if I could even go to a doctor and ask about AWS and have them know what that even is #And even if I could as far as I know there is no treatment for it so like. Whatever #As long as I don't start having distressing hallucinations or visual hallucination's I'll be fiiiiiine

[stackslip]

actually i do have something to say about this chapter and it's quite critical of it but also i'm tired tonight and i've been talking about it long and hard on discord already and putting it all together in a coherent post feels like too much of a task tonight. all i'm gonna say is that part 2 was very obviously going in a certain direction from the start, and i loved that direction, and to an extent it is still going in that direction but now very obviously missing a huge chunk of what stirred it in that direction. and i'm hesitant to simply say it's fujimoto that's dropped the ball on this (though it might the idealization, who's to say) because from the actual shape of the writing + slump in paneling/art + recent bitter interview by fujimoto + japanese audience is apparently vocally not a fan of asa + my own cursed knowledge of shounen jump and shueisha editors and how they react to a fall in sales = i think the lack of focus on asa has really hurt the themes of part 2 when she was an integral part of it + i think this wasn't entirely fujimoto's doing and it's very likely because she is apparently strongly disliked in japan and there's good reason to believe that fujimoto was told to not focus on her nearly as much bc sales slump and people complain as soon as she shows up. which sucks. becaue what made part 2 work as well as it did was the synergy and parallel between the two protagonists' paths, and the absence of asa's path in the past few months (both in universe and by real time in the comic) feels like a genuine writing and thematic and emotional hole in the comic that to me shows that she WAS supposed to be there. fujimoto had fully intended to write her in there bc there's a hole in the shape of her where she is very obviously supposed to fit. it isn't simply a question of "author forgets his female character" it's a question of "this crucial part of the manga is missing and the author is painfully aware of it and bitter about it too"

#eli talks #csm #this is still not coherent i'll make a more coherent version at one point. #anyhow this still worked for me even during the denji megafocus #bc it felt like the boomerang was gonna return and asa was gonna be back in her place #and we were gonna see the counterbalance to denji's focus #her own rise to fame and emotions during this and growth with yoru #her absorption into the church and its horrors; the love bombing and adulation she finally got #the emotions about chainsaw man as a character and growing more reliant on yoru #the bitter and dramatic fall and its immediate aftermath; reacting to losing her arm #instead we get a character who until now had been an intensely emotion-driven and passive character IMMEDIATELY thrust into action #and given v little insight into her thoughts and interiority #something is missing! #it's not like fujimoto had nothing planned for her. she was written so intently and well #and suddenly it's like she dropped out of existence #and suddenly the paneling got worse and the art got worse and the hiatuses worse #and we get an interview from fjmt where he talks bitterly about commercial expectations interfering with artistic intentions #and how he wishes he didn't have to draw aymore #a guy who talked about how he was obsessed with drawing! #idk maybe it's idealization but i feel like it's not hard to put two and two together here

[thephantom]

To seek revenge may lead to Hell; everyone does it, though seldom as well... As Sweeney... As Sweeney Todd... The Demon Barber of Fleet Street! Josh Groban in the title role, 2023. @theriddletrades' master.

#*mine #sweeney todd #josh groban #murder daddy strikes! #okay i hate myself for typing that #but am i WRONG? #the best thing i've seen in the sweeney tag is 'born to be a girldad forced to murder' or smth along those lines like. HOW ACCURATE #anyways i wanna kiss him #the last gif. is so intense. he's so. that man has been waiting OVER A DECADE FOR THIS #AND NOW THE DEED IS DONE. AAAAAAAAAA #it's josh having to saw furiously on this poor guy's neck to make the blood packet explode for me #i almost CACKLED #it makes it so much more dramatic. you go sweeney. take off his head while ur at it! #tw long post #tw violence #tw blood

[anghraine]

Sparing a moment from BG3 to think about how nerve-wracking it must have been for Faramir to turn back and ride towards five Ringwraiths. I mean, yes, it was an incredibly cool thing to do, but also an incredibly frightening thing to do.

And it's not just an extrapolation—Pippin can tell he's been through the terror wringer and mastered it, just as one of a crowd seeing Faramir go by.

I think it's pretty important to his character that it's not that his specialness lies in not feeling the things anyone else would feel, tbh. I've argued before that he pretty clearly is tempted by the Ring in TTT for a moment, and his decision not to take it is bolstered by his previous promise (even though he didn't know he was talking about the One Ring when he made it). He's not uniquely immune and he takes care to keep it away from himself to avoid further temptation.

And he is scared of the Ringwraiths. Very scared, in fact. He just couldn't do what he felt he had to do without clawing his way through the terror and coming around the other side. And I do think that's a lot more impressive.

#he also gets angry at denethor—like. yes. they're weird númenóreans with weird númenórean powers. but there's something so intensely human #about the ways in which their relationship gets increasingly fraught on both sides under the strain of a ceaseless existential war #in fact for me a lot of what draws me to the most is that there's this very human dramatically alive quality about their dynamic #in some ways more than any other family relationship in the book #yet by the time faramir leaves he's overcome his temper and he only wants denethor at his side when he's dying :( #and doesn't breathe a word about any of it afterwards #so i think it's a really consistent note in his characterization #anghraine babbles #legendarium blogging #faramir #jewel of the seashore #húrinionath

[littleragondin]

so cocky! ~

eeeeh?! he was quite the little devil wasn't he? ~

*incoherent heartbroken sobbing*

In which Haruta is all of us.

bonus under the read more

The two that didn't make the cut but where Izumi-san and Akito were too cute not to share with the class 😔

#Ossan's Love Returns #おっさんずラブ-リターンズ- #Ossan's Love Returns spoilers #japanese BL #BL drama #asianlgbtqdrama #I just can't stop myself you'll have to deal with the spamming i'm afraid #Izumi-san is breaking my heart so I'm coping however I can #and I loved Haruta's reactions ok - he is so dramatic I feel an intense kinship with him #ragongif #gifs

[camilla-butch]

i'd like to believe that the formation of paul could've been a very lackluster healing of camilla's body but when camilla said "go loud" palamades decided to self-immolate just to be dramatic. like okay if we fuck this up we know we'd rather die, and if we do it right our body can absolutely handle being on fire so. let's go loud. our friends and family are watching, let's give them a show.

#i love them #they're so extra #like quietly the most intensely dramatic people ever yk #camilla hect #gideon the ninth #the locked tomb #nona the ninth #palamades sextus #tlt spoilers #paul #tlt

[bestworstcase]

I have a question about some of your Salem thoughts

If Salem is 110% certain that she can take down the Gods (assuming that's her goal since we don't actually know), why wouldn't she communicate her plan to Oz? Especially if she truly doesn't want anyone to die like you say. Oz would jump at the bit if Salem said "Hey I want to stop fighting" since that would mean their shadow war would stop. I really don't think Oz likes the Gods either, and even if he's afraid of them, if *Salem* is that confident she can stop them (she's far from an idiot), I'm sure he'd at least hear her out (which would tell Salem a LOT).

If she's that confident and truly doesn't want to fight, why wouldn't she tell Oz her new plan? And why would she kickstart her plan by attacking the kingdoms/Academies? Surely she could find a way to steal the Relics without flat out attacking them (like sending in double agents to take the Maiden powers)? Like... she would've known she'd get people killed, including children and innocent people. Even if she did damage control (which I think is just strategic, why bother going after people if she's focusing on the Relics? She's not gonna waste precious time and resources), she surely knew people would get caught in the crossfire.

Don't get me wrong, I like what you bring to the table!! Your posts are thought provoking and unique. But I can't see Salem being somehow secretly good. I don't think the show is setting her up that way, and I think she's a fantastic villain, so from my own perspective, doing that kind of twist would be a disservice to her character. I don't think she's inhuman or a complete and total monster who should go, but she's definitely not a good person especially if she can't communicate that she supposedly doesn't want people dead. She seems to be an "the ends justify the means" kind of person, and the show I think has stated that that isn't a good mindset i.e. Ironwood.

Sorry, I rambled and completely strayed from my point 😅 I don't mean to be mean if I come across that way. I hope my ask is interesting or thought provoking though :P

my position is that salem is right, not that she’s secretly good—that is an important distinction. i think she sees the gods clearly for what they are, thinks the divine ultimatum repulsive and unjust, wants remnant to be free, and believes that humanity is transcendent over their creators; she also, quite plainly, does not have any compunction about doing whatever it takes to achieve her ends and while i do think she is still fully capable of and driven by love, she is so TERRIFIED of being hurt again and so CERTAIN that no one could ever care for her that when she does care for someone else it comes out in very, very twisted and often cruel ways. she’s not good, she’s not nice, she’s just right.

equally the heroes are good but not right, because they have yet to really grapple with the premise of the divine mandate (that humanity as it exists right now does not deserve to exist) or their own role in upholding it (their immediate goal is survival, but when they envision the ending of this war they imagine salem driven back and the relics squirreled away again in hope of at best everlasting stalemate). the point of structuring the narrative this way is that neither side can get to the proverbial good ending alone; they need to work together, salem’s ends with the heroes’ means.

like. she’s evil. lol. that’s not in question and i think it goes without saying that she is doing evil things so i don’t feel the need to make a “but she’s still evil though” disclaimer every time i try to tease out what’s going on in her head. notice how my reaction to salem razing vale was OH GLINDA LAYS SIEGE TO THE EMERALD CITY, WE’RE REALLY IN IT NOW and not, like, shock or dismay that salem would do such a terrible thing. brgdfjs

(i DO think she has mostly been trying to avoid ozma and not reciprocating the shadow crusade against her prior to about fourteen years ago and that she isn’t about wanton destruction or killing for the sake of it; and in that sense i think she’s not as bad as the general fanon reading. but that comes with the territory of thinking she has actual reasons for doing what she does as opposed to being, like, a genocidal lunatic.)

anyway. to your questions. the short answer is she’s just as scared of oz as he is of her.

“but he’s the good one!”—think about this from her perspective for a minute. set aside your opinion of her and oz, presuppose for the moment that i’m correct on her motivations, and consider what everything ozma’s done in the last few thousand years looks like to her.

she knows that the gods were monsters. she witnessed them slaughtering the whole world and she saw how little it mattered to them after. she was alone for millions of years, and then hated and feared for thousands of years because she didn’t look human. all that suffering because the gods are punishing her for praying to them. yes?

then ozma returns to her, somehow. he doesn’t explain how or why—maybe he tells her he just doesn’t know—but that’s alright. what matters is that he’s here. he asks what happened to her, and she tells him the truth: the gods ended the world. cursed her. killed everyone. she was alone for so long. (maybe not the whole truth: there are things she’s afraid to say, because the gods did it all to punish her, and it’s her fault, and she’s so scared that he’d despise her if he knew everything. the only reason for her to fear ozma would reject her is if she blamed herself. you don’t hide things out of shame if you don’t feel ashamed of them.)

they learn each other again. fall in love all over again. things are finally okay. they fix up her house. they’re happy together. one day ozma tells her that he’s worried about how divided people are. she wants so badly to make him happy; she would move mountains for him. salem herself has no interest in ruling over people as a god—if she did, she wouldn’t have been living alone in a rotting shack in the middle of nowhere—all that enthusiasm is for him. to support what he wants.

they build a following, found a prosperous kingdom, start a family. four children! how long do you think they were married—ten years? twenty? and the whole time, the whole time, ozma was keeping these secrets from her. that the god of light, who’d condemned her to eternal suffering for praying to his brother, who’d shown utter indifference to the deaths of millions, had sent him back to redeem humanity FROM HER SINS, from what SALEM did. that the point of all this is cleansing humankind of her defiance and inviting THAT MONSTER to remnant to judge whether this world deserved to be subjugated under the brothers’ tyranny again or else be put to death.

imagine how she must have felt when ozma finally told her the truth, knowing that the first thing she told him was that the gods ended the last one. imagine the sickening realization that their whole marriage is built on a lie, because she would never, ever, ever have agreed to help him unite the world if she had known what he sought to unite them for, and ozma knew she never would. that he deceived her! manipulated her into serving the will of a god she knows to be a monster!

and even then—even to the very end—she loved him enough to try. she was willing to forgive all of that and figure out a way to move past it together, and the only thing she asked was that he walk away from his task of submitting this world to the judgment of THAT MONSTER. and he wouldn’t do it.

there’s a gap we don’t get to see, in between ozma backing away from her and salem catching him leaving with the girls, but we can infer that ozma walked out of that room and salem didn’t. imagine how she felt. ten years, twenty years, however long it was, and he was lying to her through it all, and he left her with hardly a moment’s hesitation when she refused to help him enact THAT MONSTER’S retribution against herself. because that is, ultimately, what this is all about; humanity is found guilty by association with her.

imagine how she felt. used. worthless. duped. like a fool for ever trusting him. did he ever love her at all, or was that a lie, too?

when she caught him in the hallway later that night, they both attack each other in the same instant. ozma remembers her attacking him first, but their volleys meet in perfect symmetry and right before salem throws her first bolt of magic, her eyes flicker down in surprise as she tracks the motion of his staff (which we see in the previous shot)—salem remembers him attacking her first.

because they were both so tense and scared and angry at each other that they snapped in exactly the same moment.

their battle is so intense they blow up the castle, and when the smoke clears, salem is a pile of ash. ash! he incinerated her! imagine how enraged you have to be to burn someone to ash. that level of fury, of absolute hatred of her, is literally burnt into her memory as the last thing he did to her before she managed to kill him, inextricably twisted around the guilt and unbearable grief she feels for her children.

he’s dedicated all but a handful of his lives since then to getting rid of her. finding a way to destroy her. (how far is he willing to go? what would happen if salem tried to move on, find community and solace somewhere far away from him? would he come after her? would he follow his god’s example and go after the people she cared about to punish her? is she willing to risk that he might?)

do you think salem understands why ozma did any of this? she doesn’t. she doesn’t get the luxury we do of jinn narrating his side of the story and showing us the anguish he felt, wanting so desperately to be with salem but eaten alive by terror of dooming the world for his happiness. she doesn’t know.

all she knows is how he treated her: the secrets, the deception, the manipulation, the immediate and absolute rejection when she told him no, the explosively violent anger at the end, then centuries upon centuries systematically erasing her from history and enforcing her exile whilst searching for the relics he needs to summon his god for the final judgment. which she knows will inevitably end in the annihilation of the whole world and yet more torture for her with no hope of reprieve, because if all of this was not enough to satisfy the god of light’s grudge against her for, again, just praying to his brother, nothing ever will.

salem feels about ozma now the way blake felt about adam. why did he lie to her, why did he use her, why does he keep coming back, why won’t he just LEAVE HER ALONE, hasn’t she suffered enough, hasn’t she been punished enough, when will it be enough—and intertwined with that, she is being EATEN ALIVE by the conviction that no one could ever truly care about her or feel for her or want to help her or think that she deserves help or even just see her as a person, because if ozma—ozma, the one who saved her from her father’s tower, who knew her and loved her before all of this happened—if ozma thought her so worthless that he would rather serve a god who ended the last world and promises to condemn this one too than suffer her to exist at all in this world, why the fuck would anyone else be any different?

thousands of years later, she still flies off the handle when anyone lies to her. (except cinder. but cinder is always the exception, to every rule.) there’s a reason she recruits the kind of people she does—desperate, broken, angry people starving for something she can promise to give them if they make themselves useful to her—and it’s because she does not believe that she can get anything better than strictly transactional relationships with people who have literally nothing and nowhere else to turn. and when she actually cares about someone? she fights herself tooth and claw over it because she desperately doesn’t want to open herself up to more heartbreak. look at how erratic and cruel she is with cinder.

it’s not rational. salem is smart and very, very tactically shrewd but she is making all of her plans and all of her choices from the assumption that she is and will always be alone in this, because she is unlovable, because she is worthless, because she is the reason this world is damned. and she’s terrified of ozma because to her everything he does suggests that his conviction and dedication to the god of light has never wavered. she cannot see his doubt. she cannot see his misery. she cannot see how much he misses her and desperately wants to make amends. all she can see is that he’s zealously guarding the relics and spreading his god’s word and training children to fight and die in the name of keeping her exiled.

why doesn’t ozma just go to her and tell her he wants to make amends? because he’s terrified she’ll never forgive him and terrified that he’ll damn the world to annihilation if he follows his heart. they’re the same. they’re exactly the same.

but this is also what makes it so possible—even easy—for salem to undergo a villain-to-hero arc, because the only thing that needs to happen is a spark of real hope. that someone, anyone, could really care about her. like. the things she says in her soliloquies about the transformative power of hope? “even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change,” and “it’s true that a simple spark can ignite hope, breathe fire into the hearts of the weary…”—that’s her. one small reason to hope. that is all she needs to change.

she doesn’t want to be razing kingdoms to the ground or cutting a bloody path through children to get those relics. she is willing to do it because she truly, genuinely, from the depths of her soul believes that it’s the only way to free herself from the torture she’s been subjected to for millions of years. she’s driven to this by desperation. she won’t keep doing it if she’s given a reason to feel less desperate.

but she does need to be given a reason, first. she’s hemorrhaging. this is why the winnowing of her inner circle and the split between everyone else in vacuo versus salem + cinder + summer in vale is important; Those Two are the ones she cares about—technically we don’t know for sure regarding summer yet, but the level of trust she has for the lieutenant holding beacon is suggestive—and that being reciprocated is what ignites her hope.

#she IS a fantastic villain #but what makes her so compelling as a villain is all the contradiction and tension in her character #how deeply she loves vs her deep conviction of being unlovable. not wanting to hurt people vs believing it’s the only way to free herself. #everything she does is so intensely personal and so circumscribed by the fear of rejection #these opposing forces drive change because they are pushing and shoving against each other inside her mind and the moment of culmination #occurs when one triumphs over the other. and then she changes in what i expect will be a startlingly dramatic fashion #(that doubles as writing advice btw if you want to write dynamic character arcs put unreconcilable contradictions in your characters)

[shannonsketches]

he's so important to me

#i guess i need to watch the anime but super's manga has just been a self-indulgent fever dream for me from start to finish #100000/10 absolutely perfect so validating so extremely catered to my tastes and headcanons and analyses and humor #so fucking funny and emotional and intense and goofy and beautifully drawn #my beautiful son getting to finally fucking see his HARD won character growth fucking shine and choose love and choose to be loved!!!!!! #Goku just being Goku Vegeta being Team Dad Piccolo being Team Grandpa Bulma being a fucking superstar keeping everybody organized and fed #god i love this squad i love this series i love these dumbasses and their struggles and their triumphs and their stupid childish bonding #I love that Toriyama just spent the last several years reminding the class that DB as a whole has always been an ACTION-COMEDY about LOVE #and I'm SO sad that the z anime really never did it justice in that sense because of having to fill time with dramatic tension but god. GOD #THE MANGA HAS ALWAYS BEEN SO CLEAR ON THAT THESIS. #Just all about Restorative Justice and Community and CARING even when you wish SO MUCH that you didn't care but yoU DO GODDAMMIT!!! #SUCH a great series I'm so sad it took losing mr t for me to finally read it but my god I needed to read it now and I'm so glad he wrote it #and i'm SO glad he wrote it Exactly Like This #once again rip to a legend i'm caught up and crying it's so perfect it's SO everything I've wanted to see onscreen and embedded in canon #and canon isn't everything but it still feels gREAT to be SO 1:1 on the same page with an author re: how you interpret your blorbo yknow??? #been rotating this man in my head for 25 years and Mr Toriyama just mWAH kissed me on the forehead about it #anyway enough tag rambles I'm off again aklsjla #bonus for that kenpachi shit and letting him say 'sorry dude I can't be cold and numb anymore but this is still cathartic as fuck lol' like #mr t i hope you see the HIGHEST tier of heaven for that (and obviously for like everything all of it the whole life you led)

[lee-thebee]

NEW PJO EPISODE HAS CHANGED ME AS A PERSON GUYS. I AM NOT THE SAME PERSON I WAS 40 MINUTES AGO.

#I am Talking abt a god buys us cheeseburgers #GUYS OMG IT WAS SO MUCH MORE INTENSE AND DRAMATIC LIKKKEEEE #percy jackson #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson disney+ #percy jackson show #pjo series

[0theghost0]

Update

Hi hi, everyone. I know it's been a long time. I was actually typing up a message to @prince-infidel because of an ask they sent me, but I realized I should probably just make it a post. So I guess this is an update. Okay, short version: The end of 2022 and the entirety of 2023 was horrible for me. A lot happened, and 97% of it was not good. Now to get into a bit more specifics. While all of this crazy stuff was going on, a friend of mine really needed help with their company. They were just going through a ton, and I jumped on to help them while they were trying to figure that stuff out. Turns out that I was a good fit. So I've completely changed careers currently. Also, with all of this crazy shit going on, I stopped drawing entirely. That's a first for me. No matter what was going on, I always had my drawing as an outlet. It was very new for it to be gone. I actually only recently started drawing again, and when I say recently, I mean last week. I haven't even finished anything and my progress comes in very small doses. Baby steps I guess. Now the stuff you're actually probably interested in. Even though I haven't been drawing, I have been making art. - I've been putting crazy amounts of effort into making costumes. It's really fun and I've level grinded a lot with sewing and fabrics. I made an entire Victorian costume on my own. It was cool. - I weirdly started working on dolls? I have no idea why I started doing that. I hate dolls. - I started making weird... sculptures? I don't know how to describe them. It's basically recycling and turning materials into monstrosities for my own entertainment and to scare random people. - And I've delved more into my hobby of SFX makeup.

I have been being creative, it's just a bunch of stuff that no one cares about. It makes me happy and that's all there is to it really. Which brings me to the long version, because I have no idea how to continue this without going into details. I can only assume all of this answers anyone questions who might be curious. Time to get a bit more specific.

I don't know how to start this, so I guess I'll just say that my interests have completely moved. I think everything above should make that clear, but when I'm referring to interests, I mostly mean the things that inspire me. This is actually typical for me. I love fiction and am a fan of many, many things. I get really involved in a fandom for a while, get bored, then move on to one that is piquing my interest more. Eventually I come back and the cycle starts over. I always keep up with all of my interests simultaneously, it's just that one usually dominates the others. The thing is, comic books have completely lost my interest currently.

There's a lot of factors. I'm not going to repeat stuff that you've probably heard a thousand times from other people about the current state of the comic industry, comic writing, the movies, the video games blah blah blah whine whine whine. I think one of the big things though is that this last year has really changed me. I'm just a really different person now. I'm not that happy-go-lucky nerd I was before. I think my major concern is that I honestly think it would be fucked up if I continued to post here.

People started following me here because of my art and my posts. It would be fucked up to switch that around on them and just show back up as this different person with different art, different interests etc. I've thought about making an update on here a bunch of different times, but I never did because of stuff like that. However, in a way, it's been really nice. It's been nice to just do whatever stupid art project comes into my head, and to do it just for the sake of making something. I think dropping drawing all together (not by choice, mind you) turned out to be good for me. I think I got in tune with a creative side of myself that I'd lost a long time ago. It's been pretty neat.

I've thought about just leaving this tumblr to history. I honestly think that I should. It can be a weird time capsule of this specific fandom in this specific time period. I've thought about just making different social media accounts so that people who want to see any of my new, awful creations could if they wanted to. I don't know though. I'm just all up in the air all the time now lol

I get this isn't an "all questions answered" kinda post. Not that most people needed them, but I know that there are people who just liked my art in general and I knew they must be curious. So I hope I at least answered some stuff and gave some clarity.

#updates #text post #I've read through this a few times and I think it makes sense #I'm currently very sick #I hope this isn't just flat out nonsense #I also hope it isn't needlessly dramatic sounding #whenever I try to type this stuff out it always comes across so intense lol #I'm also going to be a dick and post this in the middle of the night #if I leave it until morning I'll forget it exists