wanton-votaress

[wanton-votaress]

There's a huge difference between redemption and humanization. I feel like a lot of "redemption arcs" aren't actually redemption at all, they're just attempts to humanize the villain so that they seem multi-faceted, but people read them as "redemption arcs" and think that that is meant to justify all the evil they've done before and negate whatever made them a villain in the first place. I think true "redemption arcs" are actually kind of rare because true redemption would take making the villain acknowledge their crimes, reevaluate their actions, actively choose to do better, and then proceed to make amends and become a better person, and that would this take more time than most stories are allowed to give their characters.

I've also seen people argue that a character has to be poised for redemption from the jump for it to work because once a character does something "too bad", they can't be redeemed. I completely disagree because redemption isn't justification or forgiveness, so no matter how horrible a character's actions, they could choose to become better, but because a lot of people (including writers) think redemption means "erasing the character's flaws and making it so they did nothing wrong ever", a lot of attempted "redemption arcs" just end up erasing a character's entire history or justifying every evil thing they've ever done. And yeah, in these cases, the only way to make a character go from a villain to a perfect cinnamon roll with no flaws *is* to have been planning it from the beginning and make sure they never do anything that can't be explained away later.

TLDR: real redemption arcs require a lot of self-awareness, patience, and growth, which are things that are rarely actually allocated to villains, and that's why real redemption arcs almost never get executed. The reason people think redemption arcs are overdone is because there are so many attempts to either humanize a villain that get misconstrued as redemption or attempts to blatantly erase who a character was in the name of "redemption", which is really just poor character development.

#this is so important to me #fiction #redemption arcs #writing

[wanton-votaress]

Certain words can change your brain forever and ever so you do have to be very careful about it.

[wanton-votaress]

Maybe this is the wrong platform to pose this question given the average tumblr user but

Is it just me or did our generation (those of is who are currently 20-30 ish) just not get the opportunity to be young in the 'standard' sense?

Like, everyone I talk to who's over 40 has all their wild stories about their teens and 20s, being young and dumb, and then I talk to my friends and coworkers and classmates, and we just... dont.

#i cant cry im in class

[wanton-votaress]

you have to stay alive. you're going to be such a beautiful middle aged freak. young freaks will see you in the street and know that things can be okay.

#one thing i think about a lot is this quote from pittdpeaches(?) It's something along the lines of “I'm 20 years old and make my legos kiss” #its become something of a mantra for myself #its calming to know that that kind of stuff doesn't expire #anyway stay weird #please #my thoughts on a page

[wanton-votaress]

you have to stay alive. you're going to be such a beautiful middle aged freak. young freaks will see you in the street and know that things can be okay.

[wanton-votaress]

I bet if a mushroom could lap water out of your hand with a tongue that a gently drinking mushroom tongue on your hand would be the softest and gentlest thing.

[wanton-votaress]

Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

[wanton-votaress]

amab enby righs

sick of other trans people looking like a deer in the headlights when reminded that amabs can be nb too. there are really still people in our own community who think a nonbinary person is like. a woman wearing jeans

i've had people treat me visibly different after hearing my voice or seeing my face as if i'm some sort of predator or interloper. this attitude towards amab trans people especially nonbinary people really paints a picture of what the lgbt community thinks of gender in general

[wanton-votaress]

When your friend gives you a lined notebook as a gift, you go back to your roots and draw in it.

They also got me into TMA so it’s only fair that I fill the entire thing with fanart and reckless pen lines.

#He would be a childs xl

[wanton-votaress]

[wanton-votaress]

#the magnus archives #tma #jonathan sims #not my art #jon sims #martin blackwood #tma fanart #THE BOYS #I LOVE THE WAY YOU DRAW JON #<3333!!!!

[wanton-votaress]

why don't people in zombie apocalypse stories ever just wear suits of armor? you think any zombie is gonna get their shitty rotting jaws through this?

I'm gonna rip and tear my way through the zombie apocalypse completely unharmed because none of the undead hoards will be able to get through my plate mail

[wanton-votaress]

I had an interview with a local paper this week about this rock snake I started on the longest street of a nearby city (where I work) because it's bringing people so much joy:

I said something during the interview that the interviewer seemed really shocked by, so in case it's important for anyone else to hear: When asked about the rock snake and some scavenger hunts that I've hosted for adults, I said -

"We don't stop enjoying the things we liked as kids; they just stop being offered to us. And when you're a kid, fun things like art projects and scavenger hunts are always brought to you, so you're not taught to make a habit of seeking them out as and adult."

She said "Wow yeah... life is so stressful... and you don't think to... wow."

So if anyone else needs direct permission to be a whimsical adult child today, I hereby grant it to everyone. ❤️

[wanton-votaress]

never let anyone tell you that trawling through mediocre victorian poetry isn't worth it. we just happened upon an absolute BANGER of a worm poem. go read it or else 🪱🪱🪱

#the magnus archives #tma #jane prentiss

[wanton-votaress]

i watched one (1) video on how to draw hands that changed my life forever. like. i can suddenly draw hands again

these were all drawn without reference btw. i can just. Understand Hands now (for the most part, im sure theres definitely inaccuracies). im a little baffled

#reblog for later

[wanton-votaress]

Based on actual events

[wanton-votaress]

thinking of all the undiscovered species that must have ended up swept under the rug because they were discovered on a site intended for development or resource extraction and the discovery of a rare species would have stopped the plans

thinking of all the undiscovered species that exist in unprotected and heavily disturbed places that get overlooked because everyone thinks only "untouched wilderness" has undiscovered species

thinking of all the undiscovered species that don't get studied because if everyone knew that "already destroyed," "no longer wild" places contained priceless biodiversity, developers couldn't destroy them for profit