#Bad Characterization

[unhelpfulfemme]

Damen's also a victim of gaslighting if you think about it, and it explains so many things about him.

Kastor seems to have taken care of him a lot while he was growing up (based on the amount of childhood memories that Damen has with him) and Kastor also fucking hated him. A child in that situation will sort of self-gaslight, they'll convince themselves that they don't see what they do so they can maintain a fundamental sense of safety despite their objectively unsafe environment. The end result is exactly what Damen is - someone who's pretty bad at telling apart those who love him from those who mean him harm.

If Kastor treats him like shit - Kastor fucking stabbed the barely teen-aged heir to the throne in the guts, mind - that's because Kastor is treating him like a man, he's giving him tough love and not coddling him because a prince doesn't need coddling, he needs tempering and seasoning instead. Damen is lucky to have a brother who'll stab him in the guts so he can become a better man and ruler, unlike those arrogant, spoiled other princes who get *checks notes* affectionate relatives.

And if Kastor is treating him like a man that's because Damen's earned it - Damen has a particular fixation about "earning it", whatever "it" is in a particular situation, because the main issue of contention between him and Kastor is that Damen gets the throne by default, regardless of who deserves it more, and therefore (in Kastor's view) Damen is a Bad Person who's screwing him over by his very existence. Damen's answer to this is to make sure that he works hard and is the best at everything (and working hard for things is actually a genuinely good value to have, mind), because this way he DID earn it, he DOES deserve it more, the better man has the throne, so peace on planet Earth, right? But he doesn't understand how this just further humiliates and angers Kastor, who then vengefully retaliates, the truth of which Damen, who loves Kastor and seeks his approval, can't handle emotionally, necessitating the "this is tough love, because I'm a strong man" mental defense.

I think this is interesting because it really spills over into Damen's incorrect conclusions about Laurent, sometimes in kinda embarrassingly stupid ways - because Veretians are Bad and being a spoiled cunt who's never had to work hard for anything is also Bad (in a very visceral way, because it's what Damen is desperately trying to avoid being), the Veretian prince must be both, concludes Damen after a 0.5 second glance at Laurent's resting bitch face. "A prince doesn't need to be coddled, he needs to be seasoned," says Damen to Paschal about Laurent, even though he's only in the position to have this conversation in the first place because Laurent's entire family died by the time he was 13 and he is currently being hunted down like a dog by his only remaining relative.

I also think that this is the foundation on which Damen's attitudes about slavery are able to change and develop - if his idea of someone deserving something is based in whether he's earned it (as opposed to birthright), becoming a slave is an easy way to disprove his current worldview about how much "earning it" matters in a fundamentally unjust society: first of all, Damen can't earn anything if Laurent doesn't allow him the opportunity to. Once Laurent does allow it, no matter how competent Damen shows himself to be, no matter how much Laurent treats him as an equal, no matter how much Damen earns Laurent's respect, this is all still happening at Laurent's whim and Laurent can turn around and treat Damen like a servant again, praise his military prowess with one breath and threaten him with a whipping with the next, and there's very little Damen can do about it. Damen goes from a privileged man's idea of meritocracy (I worked hard for it so I deserve it) to a more 360 degree one (some people can never have what I have no matter how hard they work, because I am fundamentally privileged).

Finally, it's really obvious that Damen also loves working for it in his romantic relationships, which probably stems from the same roots as all of the above, but it's a particularly interesting framework for drawing parallels between Laurent and the rest of Damen's life. Not only is Laurent the undisputed champion of Being Hard to Get, Laurent also hates Damen because Damen unthinkingly took something precious away from him (just like someone else!), and Laurent is also very punishing towards Damen over it (just like someone else!). But this time, Damen is actually capable of earning Laurent's respect (because facts will always take precedence over pettiness for hyperrational Laurent), and then his love, because Laurent is willing to see Damen as a person with feelings- as a man who loves him and cares about pleasing him - and not just as his role in the tragedy of Laurent's life.

I just think it's interesting to think about, is all, because I feel like the knee-jerk instinct is to analyze Laurent's more overt fuckedupness while not thinking about how Damen needs to also be kinda fucked up to find the thornbush pleasing to the extent that he does.

#captive prince #damianos of akielos #these books had such a visceral grasp on me that for a while I didn't trust myself to engage with other people's opinions on them #but now I am slowly easing into it and sometimes I see the usual reaction that you typically get in competence-porn-driven stories #where a character acting in stupid ways because of emotional hangups is #Bad Characterization #and I just felt like writing this I dunno hope someone finds it useful

[rael-rider]

Only 3 issues in and 2023 GotG is already challenging the Bendis run for the worst GotG run.

#Bad characterization #characters killed off panel #shitty overblown mystery #Only reason why the Bendis run is the worst is because of how long it lasted #I don't see this run going past 12 issues #Seriously Rich dodged a bullet #gotg 2023 #2023 guardians

[exposingtheidiocy]

This Scene Sucks: Sora's Breakdown (KH3)

"Sora Gives Up & Everyone Dies"

"Sora Gives Up"

You can probably already tell from the title of the video that it sucks. Context makes it even worse.

Much has been said about the scene of everyone facing off against Terranort and the Demon Tide, and I agree with all of the criticisms: everyone stood there and let themselves get fucked over, the scene was badly paced, cinematography was horrible, etc.

But the part I'm highlighting is after that, from around 6:17 and onwards, after the Demon Tide takes out the rest of the cast except Sora and Riku and he breaks down in tears. This moment got so much hype from the trailer showcasing it, and even today, many praise it as an amazing scene, but not me.

Listen to this garbage:

"They're gone. Kairi, Donald... Goofy, the King... Gone forever. What do we do? Without them...I... All my strength came from them. They gave me all of it. Alone, I'm worthless."

What the fuck.

First of all, Riku said a few minutes earlier that they still have their hearts, which means it was not too late, but they have to protect them. Despite this, Sora just stands there and spouts this garbage instead of fighting. I could see him breaking down after the fact, or even for a little bit before he starts fighting, but this is how he acts throughout the whole scene before darkness wins. Riku isn't much better, he doesn't pick up the slack for Sora, he doesn't try all that hard to get him to pull it together, he just says a platitude. Riku comes off as an uncaring dickhead, he couldn't care less that Sora is having a meltdown over people dying, or that said people just died.

The quoted line above is supposed to be this huge callback to the moment in Hollow Bastion from the original KH where Riku takes everything from him, but it fails. Sora lost everything: his weapon, his friends, and he eventually got his act together. Seeing Beast fight that hard for the one he loved was more than enough motivation, but in this scene, he still has a weapon, and Riku is still there (I guess he's just not that important to him anymore).

He also says his strength came from his friends (again, I guess Riku doesn't count), but who was doing almost everything throughout the game? Who was the one saving everybody? Him. It's not this clever deconstruction of the "my friends are my power line" that everyone says it is, it's just stupid. This sort of scene was also done better in the previous world, The Caribbean, in the same game - the scene where he pounces on Davy Jones wass good.

Another thing I see people say is that it's a culmination of his self-doubt in 3 (an arc that I think was so poorly executed as it required him to be ooc to tell this story), and that it was buildup from DDD. Yes, people, this COMPELLING character arc hinges on context from A FUCKING SPINOFF TITLE. I think that says enough.

The scene is also hilarious considering when he sees Chirithy, he's back to being the "sunshine boy"!

In summary, the scene was way too overdramatized in context, didn't live up to trailer hype, compromised Sora's character (and Riku's to an extent, as well as the others who just stood there and died), and the lines were badly written.

#bad storytelling #bad characterization #bad dialogue #anti kingdom hearts iii #Youtube #bad cutscenes #this scene sucks

[tlaquetzqui]

“I am not saying all stories need to be about likable, virtuous people. I am saying these creators think they are telling a story about likable, virtuous people, and they are very, very wrong.”

#bad writing #bad characterization #they had to add the quasielemental plane of salt back to the inner planes just for me

[danieljradcliffe]

i uh…. have no words y’all. absolutely none. I’m gonna need time.

#carlos reyes #911 ls #911 ls spoilers #bad writing #bad characterization #im so upset #Tarlos

[celestial-disharmony]

Frontiers and Eggman

Now seems like a good time to talk about how I hate Eggman’s characterization in Frontiers

Such a fucking nothingburger of a character. He held no real importance aside from simply trying to get the Ancients technology and he doesn’t even do that much since he got trapped in Cyberspace for 4 islands. What was the point of his character in the game at all? 

We see his little hubs scattered around the islands but... how are they there? In the very opening of the game, where was Eggman anyway? Surely already on one of the islands right? If that’s the case, it would explain why his ships are on the first three. But given the scenery of when he was first transported, was he on Kronos or Ouranos? The greater point of what Im trying to say here is that he still accomplished NOTHING in terms of acquiring Ancient technology. 

He merely recorded his observations and left them in logbooks we find from Big. Problem here is, if he has ships on the islands, why are the logbooks not just THERE? Why are they set aside with Big? What does it mean if Big has them anyway? Also, some of the memos keep in mind that Sonic is on the island. Which means they’re being made as the story progresses. So why the fuck are they with Big in the first place? How do they get there and why with him and not on any of those damn ships? No hate on Big here at all, but why does he have them, seriously.

Im going on too much on a minutiae tangent so allow me to focus back on another point that annoyed me: this father/daughter thing Eggman has going on with Sage. Yeah this was garbage lol. 

It felt rushed and never earned any of its moments. Likewise, I felt no reason to give a shit about Sage since all she did was attempt to kill us and tell us to leave. So when they tried to force this idea of Eggman prioritizing this one creation above every other robot he’s ever built, I laughed. Especially with that crying flashback. God that was laughably terrible. The moment wasn’t earned whatsoever and reusing cutscenes from like 20 minutes ago doesn’t support whatever narrative was attempted there.

I can see Eggman having a sort of parental bond with one of his creations, mainly Metal Sonic. A robot Eggman has built, rebuilt, and kept around countless times - Sonic CD - Knuckles’ Chaotix - Sonic Heroes - Sonic 4 Ep II - Sonic Mania / Mania Adventures - (Sonic Forces I guess??)

But anyways, then comes Sage. An AI that makes her debut and by the end earns Eggman’s admiration to call her his daughter. Yeah, just toss Metal Sonic in the trash and take a shit on him too I guess.

I don’t have an issue with Eggman showing a humane side but he also didn’t show any other side in Frontiers either. He wasn’t the main villain here nor the sub-villain. The real evil here was The End and the sub-villain was Sage and the Titans. Eggman could in theory be written out of the story with proper adjustments done to Sage. Eggman takes over the world in Forces and discards Infinite, who as shown by the prequel comic. shared Eggman’s vision of the world. He gives him power to defeat and capture Sonic, causes a lot of destruction on behalf of Eggman and his Empire, and once once he failed, he was forgotten about. Both by the player and to Eggman. Sage gets destroyed in a sacrifice to stop The End and Eggman desperately brings her back no questions asked. Like what is this??

I know people are going to point out different writing and all that, but when has Eggman ever gotten this attached to anything or anyone? I think it’s appropriate to say his relation to Sage warrants being called “Out of Character.”

Even though I brought up Metal Sonic, I can’t say Eggman is attached to him as he’s rebuilt sparingly. His only real appearances in modern games were Heroes and Sonic 4. He’s a consistent weapon that Eggman refines upon because he knows Metal Sonic can succeed or at the very least, come the closest to succeeding.

Throughout all the games, Eggman will have one plan and abandon it for the next best thing. That is how he is. Metal Sonic being the only consistent thing there for reasons already mentioned. So his rush to bring Sage back from cyberspace just feels so out of character.

Far as I’m concerned, Sage should’ve remained another shiny new toy for Eggman and served her purpose. Ending what little story she had anyways.

TL;DR Eggman’s characterization sucked in Frontiers and I wish to see less of it. He accomplished nothing as he got stuck in cyberspace for a majority of the game’s runtime. Sentimental moments were superficial and didn’t tug at any heartstrings with their laughably bad buildups. Sage was a weak character who I felt nothing for as she lost all interesting qualities the moment she was revealed to be Eggman’s AI. Eggman’s aforementioned bond with Sage likewise fell flat as neither character were remotely interesting in Frontiers.

#sonic frontiers #eggman #characterization #bad characterization #sage #everyone can have their own opinion on the matter #but i'll happily let it be known that i hate it

[hislittleraincloud]

Children.

You need to fucking run your fics through the appropriate tech checks before you publish your shit.

Yeah, I get that some of you aren't EPL (English Primary Lang). But that doesn't mean your fucking writing program is, or that you can't translate it then run it through.

My gods. If you want to sell me a shitty WFJ story with fkn multiple Jennas in it bc you are obsessed with your fantasies, then you better make it as smooth a ride as possible. I know you're all fkn virgins (most of the writers are, apparently, according to a poll a little while back), but don't let that fucking extend to your Spellcheck & Grammar function.

However, I think that ultimately it might be the dialogue that rips me out of everything. It's the terrible goddamn dialogue. I just cannot read Cairo with completely AU characters, because y'all can't fucking write it. You want people who aren't braindead obsessed with fucking Ortega to read it? Or do you just want to rub n' shoot with others who're rubbin' and shootin', because a quick, shitty fuck is better than no fuck at all? Cairo would have a field day in a critique with y'all, and it would end up a big, bloody mess where y'all would be running to the bathroom in tears. (Or maybe that would be Wednesday, since she doesn't give two fucks. But I feel like the reason Cairo has only one friend is probably more than just her being a typical loner. Both have competitive superiority complexes, so when unleashed on those whose skills are lesser in a competitive arena, they are both likely reach for the heart of their enemies...Wednesday with Bianca (and Sheriff Galpin to a degree), Cairo with Jon and Winnie.)

But I'm starting to whine about content rather than tech specs, so. Do better if you're writing wild AUs. Actually, do the least that is expected of you as an author.

Ugh, speaking of checking shit, people who write articles about RPF need to understand the difference between historical fiction, self-insert/Mary Sueing, and RPF. There are differences. Pretty big ones, even if the genres can overlap/intersect in places.

ETA: I tried to force myself to keep reading it.

Nope, nope, nope to the nope.

CAIRO DOES NOT HAVE HAZEL EYES. DO THESE LOOK FUCKING HAZEL TO YOU? NO. THEY NEVER HAVE.

There is no reasoning given for this change...none. 🤦🏽‍♂️ She's never worn contacts for her roles because people love her big, obsidian-dark eyes. It's dark, dark brown, almost black. I have the exact same eye color. Yay Mexicans!

*GASP* an EYE reveal 🫠 Sorry about the scary Orwellian BIG BROTHER pose, but it seems that no matter how I take a pic to show my eye color, my brows furrow when I'm looking at the camera. Or at you, oh she who writes less than her potential.

For the love of all that's holy, stop. 😭 Or at least GET a second opinion for edits before you publish, preferably by someone who you will be expecting tech wreck from. Not active authors, because we're too busy...but active readers who can take the time to help you run through bad tech (spelling, typos, some grammar) and through spec check (specs = character consistency with canonical aspects you're trying to achieve, but if it's totally AU this isn't a priority, obvs.).

There's a culture going on right now where people can't critique others' works without being seen as meanie or anti. You all get rubber stamped on your creations at AO3 because no one is able to offer meaningful critique, and that means being able to take criticism. Not everyone's writing is great, or even good for that matter. I'm not perfect either, but at least I can do the bare minimum for the readers. But Tor, that's how we prac —

If you keep writing the same shitty, un-edited stuff over and over again, that's not practicing to write better. That's spewing sub-par 💩 for fleeting wet fantasies.

Write your shit, whatever it may be, but god damn, respect your readers a little more but moreover, respect yourself as a writer enough to want to publish something that isn't riddled with easy fixes.

#bad fic #bad writing #on writing #writing #writer problems #writer probs #writer probz #creative writing #writing for characters #writing to character #ic vs ooc #IC used to mean 'in character'/OOC 'out of character' #bad characterization #things that rip me right out of a fic #miller's girl #wednesday netflix #netflix wednesday #write whatever you want but learn to do it better #fan fic writers #fan fic writing #eye reveal #lol

[moreespressoformydepresso]

A pet peeve of mine is character inconsistency in terms of emotional competence. I cannot stand it when a character either knows everything about their emotional state out of nowhere with no instigating factor or introspection at all because that’s not how feelings work outside of Disney movies. What I can stand even less, however, is when characters are completely in touch with their feelings and emotions one moment and then the next scene they’re super confused for three seconds and then have a moment of reflection where they realize what they were very aware of not five minutes ago. Do they know what they’re feeling or not?!?! Make a decision, author!! And don’t walk it back please I’m begging you-

#fandom #writing #pet peeve #pet peeves #inconsistency #writing inconsistencies #bad characterization #characterization #analysis #i cant #i hate it i hate it i hate it #i hate it so much #make it stop #don’t do it #don’t do this #it’s not good #it’s not that hard

[littlewalken]

Here's something that bad writing and people who fake multiple personality disorder (this isn't a fake claiming thing) have in common- bad characterization.

If all the characters sound alike you need to go back to characters 101. I don't mean the same literal speaking voice from a system, or just adding an accent. What I mean is you can't tell which character is speaking by the words they say and how they say it.

Here's an example-

"I brought the seven handfuls of earth, I watched him make the little rats, I went to the farthest corner of the world to get away from them, and still they came."

"When I brought the seven handfuls of earth I watched as they were created. They infested the world and I took myself to the farthest corner to try and escape them."

This would be said by the same character but I've cast two different people in the role. The first speaker has a different cadence than the second. This will effect every piece of dialog and even some of their gestures and actions. The first, as we say here, falls under the category of 'I am a nervous system' while the second is more chill.

Will a proper characterization you don't need to use ___ said so much because the readers can tell by how it's being said. It'll come across like an audio book in their mind.

#illness fakers #bad writing #bad characterization #multiple personality disorder #dissociative system #writing advice

[meiloorun-notthefruit]

The Scooby gang are friends. The Scooby gang are BEST FRIENDS. THEY ARE BEST FRIENDS AND THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH. THEY TRAVEL AROUND SOLVING MYSTERIES FOR AS LONG AS THEY CAN BECAUSE THEY HAVE A PASSION FOR IT AND BECAUSE IT MEANS THEY GET TO SPEND TIME TOGETHER WITH EACH OTHER. THEY ARE BEST FRIENDS.

They don’t hate each other. Maybe they get annoyed and cause they’re together all the time it might get a bit much sometimes but at the end of the day, they really deeply care about each other. They live out of a van most of the time and are on the road constantly out of CHOICE. TOGETHER. for crying out loud.

They are four teenagers and a Great Dane. They’re a family.

#scooby gang #scooby doo #velma #I’m worked up about a cartoon being so horribly bad about characterization and the creators clearly wanting to have nothing to do with #the series. they don’t care about it. how can you write for something you don’t care for. sure it’s the money but still #hm anyways watch the sword and the scoob if your want to see them be goofy teenagers #fred jones #daphne blake #velma dinkley #shaggy rogers #eli.thinks.of.things #24k and counting. damn

[mroddmod]

little scrapped comic bc it felt a bit ooc to me in hindsight

#tbb #the bad batch #the bad batch season 2 #the bad batch season 3 #tbb tech #tbb omega #i was worried that this wouldn’t really come across as i intended #i’ve heard a lot of people complain about the characterization of tech in fanon #they make him a lot less capable than he is in canon just because he is the ‘nerd’ of the team #which i totally agree with #so i didn’t want it to seem like i was doing the same #i just think that tech would have a difficultly expressing some of his vulnerability around his brothers because they are so often stoic #(and frequently make fun of one another) #and omega might be the first person he feels comfortable in letting that side of him show #idk #just a sweet idea to me #anyway i decided i wasn’t going to finish this because of my fear of being misinterpreted but i did like how these sketches turned out #so here :) #a little treat #mods art #my art #mods draws #star wars #sw tbb #star wars the bad batch

[cloneenthusiast]

Despite everything.

#the bad batch #star wars #tbb crosshair #crosshair bad batch #tooka #loth cat #kitten #bird's art #yeah.... #everyone deserves to be loved unconditionally #featuring Spits the tooka!! cross's lil devil #also for the sake of characterization #this is a private moment between him and his kitty cat #inspired by a personal experience #not to toot my own horn but I am proud of that second expression #idk if i'll capture it like that again fsghjk #tooka series

[the-bi-space-ace]

We do not give fans of the clones enough credit for giving characterization and life and love to characters that have like ten full minutes of screen time. We see a man with shiny armor and an attitude and suddenly there’s lore and fanfiction and art and I love that so much.

#the clone wars #the bad batch #<- every clone we see gets a backstory #they have friends and interests and they’re all alive none of them ever die #ily all of you #canon doesn’t give us any characterization? fine. we’ll do it ourselves.

[blackkatmagic]

I'm always a little weirded out by just how much both the movies and the fandom gloss over how utterly uncomfortable Padme was with being around Anakin in the beginning of AotC. Like, this is a woman who grew up under a microscope from the time she was 14, but she still goes so far as to cover all the cameras in her room, knowing that a bounty hunter is after her and just murdered one of her handmaidens, because Anakin watching her creeps her out so much.

And yeah, most of that is because the movies forget about it too in favor of reducing her character to "girl in forbidden love", but still. It's so deeply clear in the first half of the movie just how much Anakin makes Padme uncomfortable. Like. to wild degrees.

#reason 13543 why I have to believe there was at least SOME mental influence going on to get her to ignore that many red flags #at least if we're trying to keep her characterization at all consistent with tpm #kat rants #idk man it just always stands out to me so starkly #maybe because i've been that uncomfortable around people before and ended up in bad relationships when i didn't listen to my instincts #it resonates #padme amidala #star wars #anti anidala

[frodo-a-gogo]

also final word on this probably- I *like* Joyce Messier a great deal as a character. I think she's cool and interesting. I find it fascinating that she tends to approach things very bluntly. the words she uses and the manner in which she analyzes things, this is sort of an instance of a character who knows exactly *what she is* and articulates it in a manner congruent with the writers of the game. she is, as she says wryly but honestly, "a bourgeois woman". i cant think of too many rich people who would without prompting and prodding, self identify with marxist social taxonomies in this way, even with a thin veil of ironic self deprecation. She's educated. she knows the words and the motivating logics of class analysis. and shes *cool*. harry picks that up. honesty is cool. bluntness is cool. cynicism is cool. she is quite open about her place in the world and how she conceives of it. unlike a lot of other powerful figures in the game, i dont think shes completely swallowed by self justifying rhetoric the way, say, sunday friend is. or she is up to a point. she knows about countercultural movements and she has affinities for them and is also aware that they inevitably are consumed by capital. (this, by the way, is kind of complex in that like. ok its a depressing reality but also i think if the de team was fully bought into that line of thinking, they would not make this game. it is telling that joyce of all people would critique cindy on the basis of capital subsuming revolutionary art. I dont think joyce is wrong per se, but i think she is drawn to that line of thinking because it is *very comforting for someone of her class position to dismiss the value and power of revolutionary art and critique of capital* just a thought) She's disgusting in that her power is not rightfully hers. her position is not rightfully hers. she is actively repressing and oppressing others in service of disgusting, semi-fascistic, hypercapitalist forces. shes enjoying the comforts and benefits that such a role allows her. shes disgusting shes frustrating shes profoundly arrogant (as her clash with evrart claire proves definitively). Her self satisfied idiocy is what allows her to play with fire and foolishly assume she cannot be burned. She's smart but her comfortable position puts the blinders on her and so she's also pretty fucking stupid. and shes also deeply deeply sad. I empathize. I pity her. She's so fucking sad. I don't think she is drawn to self medication and self destruction through constant pale exposure or all that rueful nostalgic rumination for no reason. She knows what she is to the world and she knows what she's doing and she's too cowardly and comfortable and self interested to change, but she's too self-aware to ignore it completely. I think she probably dislikes herself to some degree and i think its destroying her. Like most of the cast of the game, she's complex and deeply human. She's hateful, but I also think she is too well realized to hate, at least not for me.

#i envy her obviously but i also pity her a fucking lot #i think she lives an adventurous appealing life that is largely facilitated by her moral cowardice #and is honestly characterized as profoundly empty and disheartening for her #shes a vibrant person and that vibrancy is being turned to ugly ends and its killing the spark #oppressive structures are bad for the oppressors too #joyce is a middleman to power but she is still in a place of power over the ppl she interacts with #that grants her a lot of excellent perks but its making her miserable and it renders her deeply pathetic imo #disco elysium #joyce messier

[god-mouths]

Self expression and acceptance in a world that (for the most part) does not understand you.

#sorry if this is like bad characterization i only ever write my own characters #jbsjbas #not ocs #ok buckle up because i worked for like a solid week on this its getting the whole nine yards of tagging #fantasy high #fantasy high sophomore year #d20 #dimension 20 #riz gukgak #fabian seacaster #fandom art #ok im done #fave #this is a personal comic be nice #comix