#this is in no way shape or form the order of posting future blah blah

[izzyovercoffee]

Mandalorians and the Force

I had begun a series about this on my star wars blog some time ago, and never continued it. Because it’s only tangentially related, as it deals more with the Jedi Order and how the Jedi may view Mandalorians, I’ll include a link to the tag, and may refer to posts from time to time.

musings: mandalorians and the force tag on the old blog

Overview

This has been something I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, as ... early materials, particularly in Legends, dealt a lot and often with Mandalorians and their relations with Force Users of all kinds --- but most obviously with both the Jedi Order of the old republic, as with the Sith Empire. 

The starting off point of between 3000 to 4000 years before the Battle of Yavin only had one conflict after another, after another, after another, involving Mandalorians drawn into galactic-scale wars by the fault of one of the two major bastions of Force warriors.

That kind of history shapes opinions. It shapes culture, and beliefs, and attitudes --- both personal and cultural --- towards the Force, as a religion, as a spirituality, and as an affliction in the form of Force Sensitivity.

History matters when it comes to understanding what those underlying attitudes may or may not encompass --- not just in and through a history of war, but also an understanding of mando’a as a language, and the sheer reach of the Mandalorians at their height of power during the Mandalorian Wars.

It also serves to understand what and who the Ka’ra are, and why they matter --- especially in the terms of Mandalorians and their unique understanding and relationships with the Force by a different name, or no name at all.

These attitudes, that history --- and Mandalorians are very much steeped in as much of a bloody history as one intermittent with peace, and venerate a type of ancestor worship through armor, and legends, and art --- then informs how a Force tradition may or may not arise.

The Big List

So, for organization, I’m making a bunch of bullet points and we can consider this a masterpost until such a time as I make a page for it, if I do.

The Mandalorian Wars

Conquest, Conversion, Conscription

Integration vs Assimilation

Force Traditions are a complicated, complex thing --- and something that can and does exist outside of the schools of the Jedi, and the Sith. The Clone Wars showed us, at least, that force traditions absolutely can and do exist without interference, and helped set a precedence that an unknowable number of unique cultural traditions exist in universe.

But what does that mean for Mandalorians? Well ... at the height of the Mandalorian Wars, the Mandalorian people had conquered most of the galaxy outside of The Core. The Republic very nearly fell, if it weren’t for the interference of Revan, Alek (later Malak), and the Jedi Exile.

Mandalorians, on the whole, are huge on adoption --- and are a culture that can take others in with ease, without requiring a total assimilation. What I mean by that is that ... it’s easy to be both a Mandalorian and, say, a Mirialan, when the requirements of “be mandalorian” are, essentially: “Education and armor, self-defense, our tribe, our language, our leader—all help us survive.”

It meant that anyone, literally anyone, could be a Mandalorian.

Throughout The Mandalorian Wars, the Mandalorians conquered a great number of systems and people. Mirialans among them, for one example --- a people for whom the Force plays a large role even in the mundane parts of the culture. Thus, Force traditions could be shaped in that way --- through a trace of history, and shaped by Mandalorian influence from that point onward.

Modern Attitudes Towards Force Sensitivity

The Jedi Order throughout history

The Sith Empire over time

Discrimination against the Force

Throughout various Legends sources, from KotOR i & ii and expanded materials to Star Wars: Republic Commando and on, Mandalorians are written as holding a strong bias against Force Users --- from as quiet and benign as a general distrust to as extreme and threatening immediate violence.

This begs the question: Why?

Are they just hateful against the Force and “supernatural” beings, or is there an actual reason for it?

For the most part ... on the surface, it certainly looks like there’s no reason for it except for fantastic racism and xenophobia. But, if you dig deeper, there is a repeated theme throughout Mandalorian history: the abuse of Force Users (predominantly Jedi and Sith) that manipulate, use, and lead the Mandalorian people into galaxy-wide war and repeated, imminent total destruction.

In light of that history, it makes sense for Mandalorians to, generally, distrust and dismiss Force Users as dangerous and not to be interacted with.

But how, then, might that bigotry also extend to children born within the population who begin to exhibit Force Sensitivity? Would they be accepted, or shunned and thrown out, and is that something easily predicted?

And despite that history, can there be clans with long-standing Force Traditions extending back through several millennia?  And what might they look like?

Mandalorian Cultural Beliefs

The Creation Myth, and how that informs concepts of Alignment

Chaos vs. Stagnation; Change and Growth (above all things)

Alignment conflicts juxtaposed against Light vs Dark

In the meantime, I offer my short answer to a complex question: Do Mandalorians view a Light/Dark side interpretation of the Force?

Yes, and no.

It’s made complicated by a belief system and foundation of cultural values that don’t recognize Light and Dark as “good” or “evil,” nor do they view them as separate ends of a single spectrum. This is why, I’m guessing, Mandalorians are often viewed as “all dark siders” to the more pious Jedi, and only “pawns never to be given too much power” to the more extreme Sith --- Mandalorians cannot commit to an extreme because that way leads to stagnation.

Extremes are a suffocation of growth, and Mandalorians’ cultural foundations, down to their very creation story, venerate growth above all else --- and see stagnation often as a sickness, something to fight against. To then adhere to either extreme suffocates chances for change if change requires moving against an extreme.

Another thing to understand is this: Mandalorians do not demonize the dark, just as they do not worship the light.

As I’ve said before, to mandalorians: Black, the color of darkness, is the color of justice. The real, genuine, understanding of capital j for Justice. And at the other end of the spectrum, white is a deception --- white, as in a field of snow, or a fresh start, is not so much a purity as it is a mask to hide flaws, and traps. And if one cannot see one’s flaws (whether it be age upon the armor, or a truth in plain sight) then one must be wary of deception.

And, as spoken in a recent episode of Rebels, the dichotomy is not good vs evil, or light vs dark, but something far more simple, and far more important:

“Hope, or Fear?”

Growth, or Stagnation?

Do we pursue the promise of a future, or do we lose our way imitating the past?

Mandalorian Spirituality

The Stars, the Ka’ra, the Mand’alore

Destiny, Luck, and The Force

Symbolism, History, Blood and Armor --- From Mandalore’s Mask to The Darksaber

Sometimes it’s easy to forget that in the Star Wars Universe, “Destiny” is a real, palpable thing that exists through the Force. Mandalorians may or may not be agnostic as a people, but they are not remotely ignorant and willing to indulge in willful blindness to facts --- especially ones that have and continue to affect their history, their livelihoods, and their continued survival in as real and dramatic ways as The Force has time and time again.

The Mandalorians are also an incredibly sarcastic people, who crack ironic jokes and puns and indulge in gallows humor --- because that’s just how they are, and describes what they do and how they feel about “destiny.”

When talking about Destiny, and Luck, in Star Wars? You’re also talking about The Force --- whether you like it, or not.

So. What is "Destiny,” to Mandalorians? Destiny is synonymous with good luck. And good luck? Jate’kara. Luck, Destiny - literally: good stars, a course to steer by.

What are the stars? Ka’ra. Stars. From ancient Mandalorian myths, also known as the ruling council of fallen kings (not gender specific, gender doesn’t exist in mando’a).

Who are those fallen kings? The Mand’alore of history. Every. Single. Once-ruler of the Mandalorian people --- all dead, but were once alive, once mortal, once real. Made unreal in death, and each became a star in their passing. Each became a light for luck, for destiny, to steer by. Still alive, still living, through cultural values, in beliefs, in armor, in blood, in masks and sabers.

How Mandalorians view the Force, then, is shaped not by existing views (as the Jedi Order, or the Sith Empire), but very much steeped in a unique form of ancestor veneration and a complicated spirituality that avoids gods of worship in exchange for stars to favor, ancestors for guidance, and a never-ending need to strive, continuously, to “become better than we were.”

#mandalorians #izzy talks mandalorians #izzy talks mando'a #kind of #meta: mandalorians #meta #v: star wars #i guess maybe i should tag rebels in here too #eh it's like a footnote nevermind #meta series: mandalorians and the force #i will most likely update this post in the future with links to each post i make #for now it's just bullets bc lol #this is in no way shape or form the order of posting future blah blah #but you can reblog if you like #but for now this is a brief overview of each section and then ... hopefully i can actuall lmao finish this series this time #but anyway #long post for ts #B')

[maraudererasmut]

what kinds of things did you do when you were first practicing digital drawing? did you use reference images? where did you find them? anything you would recommend to a baby drawer with a short attention span for instructions?

Well, first and foremost, I’m gonna take a moment to do a little fangirl wiggle, because I’m a huge fan of your work! Thank you for messaging me! 

I’m gonna include a lot of info here, so bear with me! I’ll try to break it down so that it’s easy to understand, but if anyone ha any questions, feel free to ask!

The absolute most important thing for starting out drawing is practice. 

You’re going to hear it from everyone, everywhere, but it’s so very true. When I first started digital drawing, I made sure to use my tablet every single day. Now, that doesn’t mean I spend three hours each day trying to do something amazing; some days I only had a few minutes here and there, but I’d try to sketch something rough, something loose, maybe just a doodle. Maybe it’s a face one day, maybe it’s just a bunch of swirls and stars the next. It doesn’t matter what you draw, as long as you are developing the habit of drawing! No matter what it is you are doing, you’re learning! Playing with brushes to see how they feel on your new drawing program? Learning! Trying to see if one way of colouring is better than another? Learning! Drawing the same nose over and over and over again until you like what you see? Also learning!

Another key step to learning to draw is to identify what you like!

What does that mean? Well, look at other artists who inspire you! Why does their work appeal to you? What is it about their drawings that you LOVE? Once you realize what it is that makes something beautiful to you, you know what to practice and how to learn to adopt that into your own style!

@burdge is an excellent example for illustrating this. They are a fandom artist that has been around for so long, nearly every fandom artist I know has been inspired by them in one way or another!

So what is it about Burdge’s art that I love? I love the closeness that’s portrayed, and the softness. But those are very arbitrary things that are difficult to identify and even more challenging to implement. I love the noses. I love the proportions. I love the hairlines! I love the body movement! Those are things that are a bit easier to pick out and start practicing!

This leads so well into my next point:

It is okay to copy someone else’s work if it’s for practice!

Let’s break this one down, just to ensure that nobody accidentally misinterprets what I’m saying: It is okay to copy someone else’s work if it’s for practice. It is NOT okay to copy someone else’s work and post it, claiming it as your own! If you use a reference picture, generally speaking, most artists will post which reference they use, but I know that I often forget to do that as well! But using a reference picture is different than copying. 

When you copy someone’s work, what you’re really doing is working on identifying what you love about it. You’re practicing drawing in their style! And that’s totally fine! When you’re first starting out, it’s actually really helpful to be able to use someone else’ expertise and practice to guide you to draw something you love! A lot of people have it in their heads that copying = bad. And sometimes it does. But I think it’s important for new artists to get rid of that notion in their heads. Practice is practice. When you practice cooking, you copy other people’s recipes! You’re not going to post those recipes online and say you created them, but you CAN feed them to your friends and you CAN eat them yourself! And if you do post pictures of your food? You can say whose recipe you used and thank them for a great meal! 

We were all starting at one point, and every artist I know started by copying something. 

Use reference pictures! Use them liberally! References are helpful!

Yes, some artists are so good that they do not need reference pictures. That’s fine. Good for them! I’m very proud of them!

When you’re first starting out, you don’t have to worry about that! Don’t get into your own head and tell yourself “Real artists do XYZ, blah blah blah, etc.” None of that is helpful. Use whatever is available to help you improve!

Now the question is what actually makes good reference pictures? Well, everyone uses something a little different. Some people use faces of famous actors, some people use stock photos, some people use other people’s drawings that are specifically made for references! 

What do I do? I save every single photo I come across that inspires me into a folder. I have tons of folders labeled “Reference: Pose” or “Reference: Remus” or “Reference: Gay”. (That one is smut references. :3 )

I use blogs like @posereference and @fantasyartistreference, which I follow on here! I’ve gone through their content and saved photos that I think will inspire me in the future. Sometimes I don’t do anything with them. Sometimes I use them! 

I also take advantage of stock photos. That includes ones that adobe puts onto the internet as well as ones that other artists put! Senshi Stock on Deviant art is an excellent resource that has made a TON of photos available to artists to use for FREE! 

Google is also my friend! I like to google terms like “Couple Pose Reference” or “Couple Kissing”. If you include search terms like “pose reference” you often find that you get things specifically created for artists to use to help with poses!

Look at all the helpful poses! 

Now, this leads us to my next point:

How to use reference images

Everyone does this part differently, too! I’m going to show a few different examples. Let’s use this amazing reference sheet by @kibbi as our example!

Some people like to have their reference photo beside their drawing space, to use for them to look at, simply as a guide:

Some people like to have their pose reference in a layer beneath their actual drawing on a lower opacity so that they can trace right over it:

Often times, what you end up doing is using your traced sketch as your base for your drawing, with your actual drawing over top of it. Essentially, you’re using this time to identify what you DO like about the reference pose and what you DON’T like about it, and changing it!

See how different it’s looking already? I put my own style over top of it, but I used the pose as a reference because I really liked it!

((EDIT: I JUST REALIZED THAT I GAVE SIRIUS THREE ARMS. I AM SO SORRY, GUYS!!!!))

Side by side comparison for the curious:

Eventually, a time will come where you can do simple poses like this without the use of a reference. That’s amazing! You will be so proud of yourself! But if you still need to use references for complicated poses or foreshortening, remember not to beat yourself up about it. It is OKAY to use reference poses, and it is OKAY to take advantage of resources that are available to you! Just try to remember to cite your sources, just like we all did in school! :P

Practice Anatomy

Try doing things like figure drawing! Use sites like Quick Poses to give yourself a timed figure drawing session, if you’re up for it! The more you practice bodies and anatomy, the better you will get at drawing them! Don’t focus too much on anything being perfect; remember to say loose and just aim for general shapes and general proportions.

This isn’t the greatest example, because I didn’t do any dynamic poses, but here are some rough figure sketches:

See how loose I was? See how little I cared about it looking nice? That’s the best way to start a sketch! Just with loose scribbles!

The same thing can apply to faces:

Learn the rules, and then learn when to break them!

Just like writing, where you have “rules” for writing an essay, in drawing, you have rules for anatomy! But… I don’t always love to follow those rules. It’s important to understand human anatomy (if you plan to draw humans), and then figure out where you want things to be exaggerated in order to create your own style! Here’s an example:

The same rules apply to musculature! It’s important to understand what muscles go where and how they move in order to properly draw them consistently! However! That is something a bit more complicated that we can go into another time! I don’t think that would be included in my simple break-down of drawing!

And… last but not least…

Have fun!

You’d think this one would go without saying, but I’m going to specify it anyway. If you are NO LONGER enjoying drawing what you’re drawing, STOP. Don’t just draw humans because I told you to practice anatomy! If you’re not having fun, you’re going to grow to resent it, and we don’t want that! Draw whatever it is that you want! If you want to draw the same two men hugging over and over and over and over and over (Case in point: my entire blog), you do that! Ignore everything I said about knowing anatomy and about reference pictures and about anything! Just do exactly what makes you happy, nothing more and nothing less. Practicing should be fun, and the moment it’s no longer fun, you’ll begin to lose your passion. So… move on to something else that’s fun! Tired of drawing Wolfstar? (Pfff, that’s impossible, but okay). Move on to Drarry! Or to Linny! Or to a different fandom! Or to flowers! Or to still life! Or to whatever you think will bring back that spark!

Because that’s what drawing is all about. It’s just another form of expression and another way to have fun!

ANYWAY! I know this was SUPER long! I hope it was at least somewhat helpful! I’m not an expert, not by any means, but I enjoy doing this, and I am still working on improving! If anyone has any more questions, shoot me a message!

#ask me things #ask me stuff #ask maraudererasmut #drawing guide #drawing tutorial #basic drawing tutorial #not even really a tutorial #Just... drawing stuff #my art #art how-to

[allisondraste]

Writing Deliciously Evil Characters: A Meta Post

Recently in a discord conversation, I was discussing some feedback that I have gotten on my longfic, regarding my portrayal of the odious Rendon Howe.  Arl Howe is a classic, stereotypical “mwahaha” type of villain, which is not the standard in Dragon Age where the Wardens are Grey and the villains are Greyer, in that most of the bad folks aren’t doing bad things for the sake of doing bad things (e.g. Loghain, Meredith, Solas), but rather because they believe what they are doing is “right.”  Howe, on the other hand is a man who betrays his closest allies in the first of what would be a series of awful vies for power during the Fifth Blight that would eventually lead to his death and the destruction of his family.  He’s not the only character who does evil for pleasure/power/personal gain (think Livius Erimond, the Grand Duchess, Corypheus, Danarius blah blah blah).  However, the feedback was about Howe, so I’m going to reference him throughout this post.

Essentially, I have received a number of comments in which people have remarked something to the effect of “The way you write Howe makes me hate him even more.” I love this feedback because that was the plan all along and it’s the equivalent of someone saying “The way you write [insert widely beloved popular hero character here] makes me love them even more!”  I love love love villains, and as much as I am in the camp with everybody else wanting to stab the man in his slimy, weasley guts, I also love writing him.  In my personal opinion he is actually a very good villain, and I’ll go into why in a bit.

For those of you who haven’t encountered my meta posts before, I’m not a writer by trade.  I am a mental health professional, and my background is in psychology.  So when I make posts about “writing” some type of thing, I typically focus on the psychological components of why certain things work for characters, why others don’t, and how to make a character’s actions realistic and true to who they are as a person. That being said: I do speak about sensitive things in my posts, and this one is no different, so I will be putting the rest of this post behind a Read More.  If you are triggered by the mention of trauma and abuse, violence, and mental illness then I would caution you to take care of yourself if you choose continue on!

What is Evil?

If I were to ask you to give me the name of someone who is “evil,” I would bet money that the people everyone lists would be what society likes to coin “psychopaths” or “sociopaths,” and these are individuals who are callous, cruel, and lack consciences, anxiety, and empathy.  They are your serial killers and super villains.  Your unarguably bad, awful, evil people. They were always evil.  Born evil. Raised evil.  They eat, sleep, and breathe evil.  Concentrated evil flows through their veins. They probably also hate puppies and babies.  You all get the picture.

First of all, this is not only an inaccurate understanding of what standard human evil is, but it is also an inaccurate and romanticized view of psychopathy/sociopathy (the words are actually interchangeable, people just like to pretend they are different).  The media loves itself a juicy slice of psychopath.  It’s why we have movies about Ted Bundy and why Discovery ID is a thing. However something that is so incredibly important to note is that regardless of how an evil person presents, “evil” as a thing, a behavior.  It is  not a personality trait, but a societally motivated response. People are not evil; they do evil.  Someone  may be born with a diathesis, or predisposition to do evil things, and then be influenced by environmental factors to enact those evil things, but nobody in the world is born evil. Not. A. Single. Person. In fact, as the Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by Philip Zimbardo (who also has a wonderful TED Talk  on the Psychology of Evil), shows ANYONE under the right circumstances can do evil.  The Stanford Prison Experiment is actually an excellent example of why the Templar Order is the way it is!  When people of equal standing are placed in a position where one group has perceived power and authority over the other, and when the guilt is diffused across a “group” rather than placed on a single person, horrible things can happen. In fact, more evil is done by groups of people than individuals for this very reason.

I originally had a much longer explanation about how society causes evil, but the post ended up being long anyway and this was unnecessary (but, if you want a post about that in the future, feel free to hit up my inbox or otherwise just check out that Zimbardo talk linked here).  

My point is that in order to write compelling villains it is important to understand what drove them to reach the point of atrocity they have reached, why they do as they do.  A villain who you cannot answer those questions for is going to fall flat.  Disclaimer: I am not suggesting that you excuse a villain’s actions or make apologies for what they do.  Evil is evil regardless of intention, however, knowing the explanation for the behavior can help you capture it in a story.

Why Villains Fall Flat

If my readers are anything like me, then there have been times in the consumption of media that they encounter a really awful bad person who you just kind of feel “blah” about.  They are supposed to be your protagonists’ mortal enemy, but their defeat falls flat and feels empty and anticlimactic.  Sometimes in the horror genre, authors take the “telling less” approach regarding their villains because that increases the “oooh” creepy feeling that they want to have.  This is actually really really effective for a horror film.  It is not so effective when writing action/adventure, romance, etcetera.  Why? I think that it can be pretty well summed up by the following quote by existential psychologist Rollo May:

“Hate is not the opposite of love; apathy is.”

Essentially, in order to truly hate a villain and to be both disgusted by their actions and thrilled by their defeat, you have to care about them in some way shape or form.  You have to be invested in their “origin story” and/or care about someone who is closely tied to them or affected by them.  It’s why Rendon Howe is such a good villain, and why playing the Cousland origin and meeting his children makes you hate him even that much more.  When you play the Cousland origin, you get to see the Arl through the eyes of someone who doesn’t know that he is bad.  Rendon is aloof, but ultimately respectful and he seems to have the implicit approval dear old dad (they were war buddies after all! Fought in the rebellion together!!).  Then, he has the family murdered in their sleep in a premeditated act of sheer ambition.  We get to see the death of a young woman and her son, and watch as Warden Cousland leaves her parents behind to die.  It’s tragic, it’s all Howe’s fault, and it’s effective.  Then you have this opportunity to meet Howe’s eldest son Nathaniel who is so bitter and full of rage that *you* the “hero” destroyed his family.  He can’t fathom his father doing something evil enough to warrant what happened to the Howes.  He was never that bad!  He just got caught up in politics!  He picked the wrong side in a war!  He tortured prisoners because the country was at war!.  His bedroom was  next to the torture dungeons because politics and war! I’m not saying that Nate has the most accurate view of his dad -- the man certainly wasn’t winning any father of the year awards, after all, a fact which Nathaniel eventually comes to realize (“maybe I shouldn’t defend the man who found the screams of prisoners to be soothing bedtime ambient noise” -- okay I’m exaggerating so sue me).  What I am saying is that in  listening to Nathaniel speak about his father and his family, we learn more about Howe, his life and his motivations.  We realize there is nothing more than a man behind all that evil, a man who has a family (and a family in which the other members are actually good and decent at that) and we are able to see that maybe he could have been good had things gone differently for him.  Again, it’s effective.

What Causes People to Do Evil?

As I mentioned before, just as with greatness, people are not born evil.  Evil is something that people have thrust upon them, and it is honestly really tragic if you look back and see all of the individual steps that led to a person becoming the villainous bastard you know and love to hate.  There are many different reasons a person might do evil things, but it typically falls into the theory we psychology nerds call the “diathesis-stress model,” which posits that certain people are born with a “diathesis” or a predisposition for a certain type of behavior.  In the case of an evil person it might be that the person has an irritable temperament or ambitious, selfish, narcissistic, aggressive, deviant, manipulative, etcetera tendencies.  When these people are placed under a stressor (such as, but not limited to: abuse, trauma, modeling of crime or deviant behavior, desperation, loss, etc.), the darker sides of those qualities comes out.  

NOTE: This is not to say that everyone who has these qualities and undergoes a stressor is going to become evil.  This is not to say that abuse/trauma/etc. causes evil.  In fact, most people who are traumatized do not go on to traumatize others; however, if you look at everyone who has done evil, almost all of them have done so because they grew up in an environment where such evil was the norm, and they learned nothing better.  They are people who were pushed by desperation.  They are people who ultimately have a story that is not “Oh, they’re just bad.”

Evil is the perfect storm of nature and nurture that, unfortunately, some people are not able to escape.  

Sometimes, it’s easy to care about villains because their intentions and motivations are very overtly stated.  For example:

Loghain is motivated by a very rational fear of the Orlesians and Cailan’s closeness to them.  We learn all that Loghain’s family went through during the Orlesian occupation, what happened to his mother.  We also can toy around with the possibility that his decision to quit the field at Ostagar was less obvious treason and more obviously pragmatic.  This of course doesn’t justify anything he does (you know, like striking a deal with the magisters to sell the Alienage elves into slavery or allowing Howe to, uh, torture people, what have you).

Meredith - See my above discussion of the Stanford Prison Experiment, but also consider her temperament and the trauma she was exposed to as a child with her sister who had magic and caused the death of 70 people including her family.  Is it okay that she abuses her power and abuses mages? Hell no… but we have motivation.

Solas - *sigh* Don’t make me do this one.  We get it. He has to RIGHT the WRONG. It’s his DUTY.  Cool story, still evil. (disclaimer: I love Solas. Ma vhenan. But I look at him with a critical eye when I choose to love him.  That’s important.)

Sometimes the motivations are not so clear.  I’m not particularly inclined to care about Corypheus other than I’d kinda like for him to get away from me with that demon army.  I don’t really give a flying duck about Erimond other than he is, as Cole so succinctly puts: an asshole.  There are lots of characters like that, and honestly it’s good to have a few of them sprinkled about a bit.  They’re not particularly fun to write or compelling to read (in my personal opinion), but hey! Your mileage may vary.

And now we’re back to Howe (Maker help me I never thought I’d be doing a  meta post about this awful man, but here we are).  He, and actually most if not all the minor villains in DAO, is actually really good despite his motivations not being so blatantly obvious as Loghain’s or Ulfric’s or any of the others you face in that game.  When he says, “I deserved more!” at the end, without further thought about the topic, it’s easy to say “God what a power grubbing weasley little snake of a man,” or a “cold codfish arse,” as one of my friends aptly described him.  However when you look at his background… it’s not so simple as all that. Just a few notes:

According to the lore Rendon has two fathers: Padric, who disappeared with the Wardens never to be seen again and who Rendon never forgave, and Tarleton who had no sense for loyalty and sided with the Orlesians in the rebellion and was ultimately hanged.

Young Rendon, despite his parentage chose to join the Rebellion with his besties: Bryce Cousland and Leonas Bryland.  At some point, he becomes injured and is no longer able to fight.  He is cared for by Leonas’ sister Eliane, who would later become Lady Howe.

There seems to be a lot of strife between Howe and his wife’s family, so much so that Eliane’s parents were even cold and critical of the Howe kids, Nathaniel in particular (maybe because he looks the most like Rendon, who knows?).  He expected to receive some of the Bryland wealth, but that did not happen (likely because he did not actually love his wife and Eliane’s family had no great love for him.  As far as marrying a Howe in Thedas, it would be much like marrying a Greyjoy or a Frey or a Bolton in Game of Thrones.  It’s not a family anyone particularly wanted to be associated with)

It is likely that Howe became very insecure and upset by the success of his friends, even resentful of them.  Handsome Bryce, his promotion to Teyrn,  and his Pirate Wife.  Leonas and his lovely [wealthy] family.  It made him miserable, and accompanied with all of the things that had been modeled for him by his family… it was not much of a stretch for him to go darkside.

So…What Was The Point of this Allison? Why Have You Written This Hellishly Long Post?

1.) I wanted to.  It was fun for me. This is how I spend my free time apparently.

2.) I wanted to provide some basic pointers for writing believable, but undoubtedly bad villains, and I felt like it needed context.

The Tips...Get On With Them Already. Please. We’re Begging You.  TL;DR!

1.) “Evil” is not a personality trait, it is a behavior.  People are not born evil.  They are led to do evil.

2.) Romanticized psychopaths/sociopaths are boring.

3.) In order to develop hatred for a character, you have to make the audience care about them, and the ways to do so are endless.

4.) Evil is the combination of a predisposition to do bad things plus some catalyst that causes someone to go darkside.  Nature and Nurture working together to make a twisted thing.

5.) Grey villains are abundant and very cool. Their motivations cloud their morality.

6.) Not-so-grey villains are also abundant, and can also have the potential to be very cool or the potential to be glorified Scooby-Doo villains (“And I would have gotten away with it too if it hadn’t been for you meddling WARDENS”)

7.) The line between a compelling “mwahaha” and a bleh “mwahaha” lies in the character’s backstory and motivations.  It lies in the audience caring in some way, shape, or form about that person.

8.) Rendon Howe is a character who, in my honest opinion was done right.  People loathe him.  He’s absolutely detested. Why? Because he’s a “cold codfish arse”? Maybe.  I posit that it’s because we have enough information to care about him.

Thank you for coming to this TED Talk, you all have been wonderful.

#dragon age #writing reference #villains #meta post #psychology #allison talks psychology again #yes this is a post about rendon howe oops #tw: trauma mention #tw: mental health mention #tw: violence mention

[ravenwritesstuff]

Dark Water (1/5)

Fandom: Frozen Pairing: Kristanna (Kristoff and Anna) Rating: T (Angst, feelings, adult themes, blah blah blah, don’t expect a happy ending, mermaid feelz) A/N: I wasn’t going to post this till I finished all of the parts but then I decided to see if anyone is interested in reading this. Let me know. Otherwise I am going to let it die.

There is an order to things in Reef, The Way Things Are Done, and Anna has learned better than to question them. The Way is there to protect them, created by the old mer and carried down by each generation with stories of The Way Things Were Done as cautionary tales. The stories highlighted times where Reef was nothing more than chaos - danger - until a distant king established order. Now the rules are simple and few. She knows them as well as she knows her scales.

They are:

All mer must operate for the benefit of the entire reef.

Mer were made for the sea. They must not stray from it.

She has never had difficult with the first rule. She loves the community of Reef. She loves seeing the way the pieces of it work together for the good for the whole. The second rule, however, has always been a struggle.

Why must the mer always stay below the surface of the water, far from The Above, and out of sight?

As a pup she had asked her mother just that.

“Why would you ever want to think of such things when you have everything you could ever want right here?” Her mother had said.

“But what would happen if a mer went to  Above? Would they die?”

Her mother’s expression had tightened in the face of precocious youth.

“Above is nothing with which you or any good mer in Reef should concern themselves.”

The way she had spoken told Anna that there would be no more talk of it that day - or ever.

So she had asked her father, the mighty king of Reef, what he could tell her of the second rule. Her father had clamped her shoulders as tight as he ever had and locked eyes with his daughter.

“Do you remember the stories of Reef before our forefathers brought order?”

She had nodded. She knew the stories of disruption, tyranny, and darkness but stories are just that to the mind of a child. What she did not know was what that had to do with Above, so she asked.

Her father’s lips set a firm line. “There will come a time when you will learn that some things are the way they are - and it is best you left them that way.”

Anna had known that that was the last she would ever speak of such things with her father, too.

Anna had never even tried to ask her sister.

-----

Magic is commonplace in Reef. Merpups with talent are identified and removed from their family unit to train up their abilities at The Heart of Reef. There they are shaped and molded into great protectors of Reef. The magic they are given is thus returned in a life of service, and the balance continued.

Anna’s older sister, Elsa, manifests talent before her seventh whale migration (early - say reverent whispers). Oh how their parents’ eyes shine with pride to see their daughter - their firstborn and future ruler of Reef - with magic sparkling from her small fingers. What Anna would have given to have had her parents look at her that way, but they never will. After all, she is born second and Plain (as they call those born without magic).

Elsa is taken then to The Heart were all those with magic go in Reef while Anna stayed alone and waiting for the day her sister would return. Elsa the royal did return, periodically for royal necessity, but Anna’s sister never fully returns. Time and experience made them different, distant, as their functions grow further apart. Yet still Anna waits, and waits, and waits, though she no longer knows just for what.

-----

She has heard stories of the surface, of creatures with with bodies half like her own, but finless. The stories say they do not swim, but have two additional arms longer and thicker than than the other two that they used to propel them along the land. Legs. They are called legs she knows even though she should not. She should not know anything about these creatures. Contact between mer and the surface is forbidden, but merfolk talk and she is adept at listening (especially when she knows she should not).

Anytime she catches mention of these surface creatures (humans she hears them called and she loves that word) her body heats and prickles. Humans - she thinks the word again and again and wonder just what kind of lives they live. Are they anything like merfolk? Why do they travel the sea if they were not built for it? What do they eat? What do they do for fun? Do they have fun? Maybe they are a serious race built for only one purpose like the sharks.

No. No. They are not like sharks. Sharks mauled merfolk the moment they had the chance. Humans had never done that.

But perhaps that is only because they have not had the chance.

She shakes her head. The thought sounds just like her parents - her sister. If a human wanted to maul a merfolk they would have done it long ago, she decides, but they had not. In fact - she never heard any stories of just what happened when mer met human.

Could it be that there are no such stories? Could it be that the humans knew as little about the mer as the mer knew of them?

She swims the protected coral corridors of the palace for hours wondering just this.

------

The day her parents die is not the same day that she learns of her parent’s death. By the time the news reaches Reef they have been dead for some time. Word comes by messenger that the King and Queen of Reef had never made it to the arranged summit at the court of a neighboring colony. Search parties go out then, skimming currents and drifts in hopes of finding answers - survivors - but find nothing.

On the day her parent’s had been scheduled to return, three weeks after their initial departure, her sister leaves The Heart and is crowned Queen of Reef.

After the coronation, they are hidden away behind a seaweed curtain, waiting to be announced to the assembled dignitaries. Anna watches as Elsa adjust the unfamiliar weight of her crown in a mirror. It resembles the one that had been lost along with her mother, made of the most beautiful shells, but the form is changed. It is different, yet not, like so many other things in their life now.

“They could still be alive, you know.” Anna wrings her hands, heart tearing between the joy of her sister’s day and the cause of it. “They could have been swept away in a current - or maybe they got lost.”

There are other things she wants to say, how much she loves her sister, how she grieves the loss of their childhood together as much as she grieved the loss of their parents now, but the words stick in her throat.

Elsa sighs and looks down at her hands. Anna remembers the first time those hands had been different than hers.

“I think - “ Elsa hesitates. One breath, two breaths, three - “I think it would be easier for everyone now if they just stayed dead.”

And with that - she swims through the curtain and is gone.

----- -----

He has heard the stories same as any fisherman had - tall tales to pass the lonely, crowded hours between trawls - but he never pays them mind. There are other things out there waiting to get him, solid things like the wind and the waves, and those have his attention. He leaves the fantasy for those who need it to get through the wet miserable hours. He leaves it for the children trying to understand the mysteries of the deep. He leaves it for the simple minds who had time for frivolity. He leaves it because he had enough to carry on thick shoulders without bearing them down with the fear of old wives tales.

So when an old timer on the docks begins rattling on about the time he saw something he can not explain, a creature as beautiful as it was repulsive, Kristoff snorts and turns away.

-----

His ship is named De Ni Døtre, The Nine Daughters, and he believes her as close a family as any he has ever had.

She is small, only big enough to hold two (maybe three) sailors at most, but it suits him. He’d worked the big ships, whalers mostly, long enough to know he was better off on his own. His only crewmate is Sven, his 3-year-old forest cat and best mouser on the seven seas. His only interaction with people comes when he ventures up to the village to sell his catch and purchase supplies. It suits him just fine.

He thinks occasionally, often when his mind is loose with drink, of altering his solitary lifestyle to one of companionship. He is not immune to the charm of a woman's touch, not ignorant to the comfort of fleshy curves, but he knows the life he can offer is nothing that they will want.

His first love will always be the sea. He obsesses over her regularity, the pulsing of her tide. He dreams of her undulating body beckoning him further into her grasp each time he pushes off the coast. He gives her his full attention, rapt to her every mood and whim, and he can not imagine ever feeling that for any simple woman.

So he stays alone and thinks every now and then what it would be like know what it would be like to be loved in return.

----

His father had been an ice man and had wanted the same for his son as all fathers do. The trade had been passed from his father before him, and his father before that. The cabin they lived in deep in the woods had similar ancestry, but his father had been swallowed whole by the ice he loved and he and his mother had been forced to leave the only home he had ever known.

She had wanted a better life for her son than that of an iceman. They were taken in by an elderly great aunt in a fishing village and that was the first time he had seen the sea. Even from that initial glimpse he knew there would be no other life for him.

“Merchant sailors can make a very respectable name, a very respectable wage.” His great aunt and sole extended family would say over dinner, wrinkled skin pulling over sharp cheekbones. “A boy can have much less desirable goals than a life at sea.”

He would look at his mother then to see what she thought of such good advice but would only ever find her looking right through him

“Perhaps.” She would say and that would be that.

She died before she bestowed any of her hidden wishes for him, exactly one winter after his father and his great aunt followed suit the spring after.

It was the first moment he found himself truly alone in the world that he walked to the shipyard and never looked back.

----

He often ventures out on the sea alone though many seasoned sailors warn against it. It gives him a sense of balance he can never find on the shore. Every morning he sets out with the tide and it is only then that he feels a homecoming.

The shore and the men upon it hold nothing but disappointment and hypocrisy for him. The sea alone is fair. The sea alone is just. Her chaos and her rhythm bow to no one and thus are the one true judge.

He has nothing to fear from her. He has taken nothing from her that he shouldn't.

----

He walks the shore on days the sea tells him to stay on land and lets the surf wash up around his feet. The foam sticks to his ankles. Seaweed laces his toes. Spray and rain bite his cheeks.

It is these days - the ones so dark and lonely - that if he listens hard enough he can still hear the sound of his mother singing to him.

It’s time for us to leave her Leave her Johnny, leave her Oh leave her Johnny, leave her For the voyage is done and the winds don’t blow And it’s time for us to leave her

---- ----

There is a ship (she is fairly certain she knows what a ship is) graveyard amidst a notorious patch of water with currents that run their own mind against submerged pillars of volcanic black rock. She knows of it only from what she has heard from the scavengers offering tribute to the crown. They bring the most fascinating items of shapes and substances foreign to the ocean floor. It is considered high tribute for all the danger endured to retrieve the unnamed items. The ocean was unflexing in her rules for her finned inhabitants as she was for those who lived outside of her depths.

She knows (not from experience - never from experience) that the waters outside of Reef are potentially lethal and the bravery of these scavengers is not overlooked. Those presenting the boldest conquests are rewarded with privileges, favors, and requests. She sits endless hours on her rightful throne beside her parents, and now her sister, and watches as each dutiful subject brought a yearly gift out of gratitude for the sanctuary of their city.

She watches and she waits because, after all, that is her purpose and her life does everything it can to make sure she never forgets it. Just sits and waits because she is the spare - if anything happened to her sister before she could produce an heir.

She tells herself she does not mind. She tells herself there are worse fates than waiting. She tells herself she is glad she is not responsible for accepting tributes, settling disagreements, and passing judgements. She tells herself that waiting may not be all that bad.

Except that it is.

-----

Time has made them different, birth has made them different. Anna knows that now. They were never destined for friendship, her sister and herself. They were destined for coexistence and as difficult as that was for her to fathom she knew she had to. Her sister has made it clear with her distance that she is not interested in entertaining the idea of anything more than a working relationship between those in the line for Reef’s throne.

Still Anna waits.

She is not sure for what she is waiting anymore, but she does. She waits.

And waits.

And waits.

----

There are certain shifts in currents, of water temperatures, that everyone felt in Reef. It does not happen often so when it does the entire city takes notice. Such a shift comes at the end of Tribute Week, but not from natural causes.

No.

It comes from a mer that Anna has never seen.

His body seems to bend the water around him and send it away changed. His scales are iridescent - violet and pearl - and Anna thinks of the shark teeth she had seen offered as tribute before this very throne.

Anna looks to Elsa to see if she feels the shift in the waters or if she is just imagining things. Elsa sits the way she always does in what used to be their father’s throne - so tall and proud - but her fingers were white where she gripped the armrests.

“You are not welcome here.” Elsa did not wait for him to finish his approach to the throne before speaks

“I am here to pay tribute like all the other fair mer of these waters.” His voice is smooth, deep, and Anna warms to the sound of it.

“You have nothing we could want.” Elsa lifts her chin.

The strange mer smiles and stops a respectful distance from the throne. His hair is red, like Anna’s, but darker with sharp cuts of it down his cheeks. He seems in no haste to leave despite Elsa’s emphatic dismissal.

A burst of anxiety explodes in Anna’s chest at the thought that perhaps he comes without knowing of Elsa’s ability. She can destroy him with the twitch of one of her long, thin fingers. Anna has never seen such a display from her sister, but she knows without seeing. She knows that power lays in wait beneath her sister’s skin as much as it did any of the protector’s of Reef and now this mer approaches, presses, potentially without knowing and Anna’s chest tightens.

Her tail flutters, an anxious motion, and she fights to urge to swim upright and demand attention. She has never demanded attention before, but the nervous flick of her tail is enough to draw his eye. He looks to her then, hazel eyes pulling over to her, and he seems to sense her distress. He smiles what she assumes is reassurance that she cannot accept.

Then, only then, did Elsa’s attention also flash in her direction. The lines of her young face are pulled tight and whatever reassurance she had felt at the stranger’s smile is now gone.

“You’re frightening her with your dramatics.” The strange mer said. “Really, Elsa, need you always be so tightly wound?”

His manner is light, teasing, so self-assured, and Anna leans into it. It has been so long since she has seen anyone be less than serious.

All it took was one instant for her sister to rip that away.

“You violated the code, Hans. Your consequences are your own, no one else’s, so if anyone here is causing dramatics - it is you with your unwelcome appearance.”

He chuckles. Elsa bristles. Anna holds her breath.

“What if I told you I could give you anything your heart desires?”

He swims just that much closer.

“Get out.” Elsa’s voice is arctic.

“Anything, Elsa. Any wish, any hope, any dream…”

Light flares at Elsa’s fingers where she grips the throne, but he does not flinch. Anna does.

“And I could do it for others, too. Think of it. The whole of Reef fulfilled to their utmost capacity. All of their desires met - you would be the most celebrated ruler in all of history. All you have to do is say the word…”

Elsa’s hands grows brighter. “I know the price of your magics and it is unwelcome here.”

“Your father said the same.” Hans’ eyebrow lifts. “Do you truly desire to end your rule as he did?”

Anna does not have time to flinch. The flash from Elsa’s hands is swift and immediate. There is no time cry out, to hide. The light is blinding as it comes from Elsa even as it subsides as soon as it appears.

Anna’s eyes adjust through the stars left behind from the immediate brilliance and she expects to see Hans crumpled at the ocean floor beneath their fins. Instead he cradles the light of Elsa’s magic in his palms.

Anna had never seen magic energy that way, controlled and undulating. It holds her in a thrall. That light is what separated her from her sister in such a tangible, yet undefinable, way. Now it sits in this mer’s hands as if it belongs there. It is as beautiful as it is terrifying.

“You never did quite learn how to control it, did you Elsa?” He rolls the magic over in his palms.

“What a waste of talent.”

“Get out!” Elsa’s hands boiled again with growing power.

“No need to shout.” He tossed the magic up in the water and it changes. The ball spreads into lines and curves, a central dot pulsing amidst it all. “Here’s my calling card for when you change your mind.”

With a smile, a swish of his fin, and another flash of light - he is gone.

----

It is a map.

Anna knows.

She knows what maps look like.

It takes Elsa and all of the most gifted mages from The Heart almost an entire light cycle to disperse the map from the throne room. It glowed there, unmoving and mocking in its persistence, and Anna sneaks in to see it as often as she can before it is dismantled.

She never swims close. Instead she traces it with her eyes from a distance remembering shark tooth scales and warm smiles. She asks Elsa in spare moments about this Hans, but her sister has nothing more to say than:

“He is a traitor to Reef and should be treated as such.”

But she does not know why. Elsa will not tell her. All she knows is he has made a promise, has left a map, and that is more than she has ever been given before.

Anna is tired of waiting.

#frozen #kristanna #raven writes kristanna #raven writes frozen #kristoff #anna #mermaid au #dark water