#and it also doesnt work because my characters have so many important details that are completely lost in the string of keywords AI consumes

[penginlord]

the worst part about having OCs you love and adore is that you can't just look up images or art or farmwork for them easily. It's hard to find stuff that looks similar to what you want, a d sometimes downright impossible of there are many aspects of the character you find important but hard to search all together at once

#and by gods i wish i could draw! but i cannot! #thus is where the problem lies #and i hate AI art #and it also doesnt work because my characters have so many important details that are completely lost in the string of keywords AI consumes #anyways #ocs #my ocs #characters #i could tag them here an no one would know anything about them

[glorified-red]

Things only get added into the room if the character interacts with it. If the character doesnt, then you're just telling the reader what to imagine.

can you go a little more in depth with this?

I'd love to! This is a really good question, too.

So most writers I work with are visual learners and need some kind of visual to understand an abstract concept, and with writing, there's many.

So sure I could say "Show. Don't tell."

But what does that look like?

So I say your story starts with an empty room. It's a little 4 x 4 room, no windows, no doors, nothing on the walls, no furniture, just absolutely nothing. When you start writing, your character gets plopped into that room.

The room is the setting of your story, but if you haven't specified a setting yet, the room is empty. Sure you can tell the readers that the room is supposed to be a forest, a classroom, or a mall.

But, you haven't detailed the room yet, it's still empty, it just has a little sign in the middle of the room that says "forest". But forests all look different, so that tells me absolutely nothing.

Plus, that's telling, and we don't want that.

So with my writers, I make them write me a scene with only one rule (fun little writing exercise for those who wanna try):

Nothing gets added into the room unless your character physically, mentally, or emotionally interacts with it. If your character doesn't? It doesn't exist.

You wanna specify that there's a desk in the corner of the room adjacent to the bed? You can't tell the audience, you have to find a way for your character to interact with it and show them that it exists.

This also applies to pre-existing scenes. If you read a scene and your character only interacts with the bed, yet you spent two paragraphs describing the furniture layout of the room?

I make them delete it.

They can then see visually that now there's only a bed in that once empty room. Plus, if your character only interacts with the bed and nothing else in that scene?

Then what's the point of describing the desk.

At that point you're just controlling your readers imagination because you can. You're taking away the readers freedom to imagine any room they want to, a room that they find familiar, find intriguing, or just think would look cool for the story.

Micromanaging the visuals of a story is fine if it's pertinent to the plot or you have a specific vibe (then you use tone, connotation, etc. Instead of focusing on specifics of where shit is, specify what it looks like because if you want a vibe, that's important to character portrayals which is therefore important to plot), or your character interacts with it in a specific way.

Otherwise? Does it matter?

Especially when talking about fanfiction. The entire point of reader-insert writing is for anyone to picture themselves and their situation into the fic and micromanaging what they can and cannot imagine limits that projection.

That's why all my fics are as vague as shit. So you guys can picture your bedroom or your kitchen, because me saying the countertops are marbled doesn't affect anything but your ability to effectively immerse yourself into the story.

Now if I were to have a flashback or reference that you and your comfort character spent a week remodeling the countertops and you can trace the spot where you tried writing your signatures in the marble---that affects the plot, that would be a fun tidbit.

So when it comes to setting and scenary, there's a fine line between creating enough things in the room to make a cohesive story, accidentally creating nothing at all, and creating too much.

And it all boils down to your audience, what your writing, why you're writing it, and your platform of writing.

Specifically in fanfiction, listing off scenery is fine to create the mood, but it gets boring when done in excess. I like for my writers to get out of the habit of relying on telling the audience what to imagine for the sake of "just 'cause" because that's the quickest way to tread the path towards excess.

"The desk was pushed against the furthest wall, the window next to it shining light against the array of notebooks and broken crayons. The bed was in disarray. Pillows made their way to the foot of the bed and the blankets were crumpled and half falling onto the carpet below."

Like yea, you could absolutely do that. It paints the scene well even though you're just telling the audience what to imagine.

But the key in that paragraph is that all the things I mentioned in the room had a purpose. I'm not just saying there's a desk in the room because I'm picturing a desk so therefore you have to picture the same desk (aka micromanaging imagination)

No, I'm showing that the room is chaos which could then bridge into a story about why. Maybe the character is going through Shit™ or that's a character trait. It's still showing the audience something in the subtext even though it's telling the setting.

(This would be an example of room vibes which helps with character portrayals like I mentioned earlier. Notice how I didn't specify where the desk or bed was In relation to each other, instead I focused on details of said things to get the message of chaos across [crayons, blankets, notebooks, etc]. I also implied that a character interacted with the room because how else would crayons break? How else would blankets fall to the floor? This is what I mean when I say a character can interact with the space without it being inherently physical [can be emotional or mental], it can also be implied. That implication counts towards creating stuff in the room because technically, your character interacted with it. So yes, I told you what's in the room. But I also had the character interact with it in the past. Fun little loophole to my rule.)

You can have both at once.

Sure I'm basically listing off bullet points of what the room looks like. But there's reason behind it. Because if a character walks into the chaotic room, it's showing the audience that hey, there's a reason why the room is chaotic, stay tuned to find out. Even though I never actually specified that there's a reason in the first place.

So you kinda gotta ask yourself where you want to show and where you want to tell, cuz showing all the time gets too poetic and hurts brains unless you want to be an asshole and write poetry.

But just telling makes for a shitty story.

So you gotta find a balance. And the exercise above with the empty room is for you to practice showing setting instead of telling it because it's an easy habit to fall into. Some people don't need the practice but by god do most.

You don't have to use the empty room analogy all the time, but if you find yourself spending 2-5+ paragraphs telling the audience what to imagine, it might be a good exercise to try out to see what matters to plot, what your characters are interacting with, and what your habits are.

I usually write out what the room looks like in detail and then begin the scene. After I finish, I delete all the paragraphs of me describing the room to see what the characters actually needed to make the scene run.

Then If I need to, and only if I need to, I'll re-describe the room with only those things in mind. And most times? I don't need to anyway.

Honestly that's why most of my fics jump into things immediately or start with dialogue because I don't need to describe that shower caddy hanging from the side of the standing shower, I don't even need to specify it's a standing shower and not a tub shower, I just have to say it's a shower.

Especially in fanfictions where the setting has already been created visually (aka the manor, the batcave, bedrooms, etc). Most often, your readers already have a visual of those things based on the canon content they consume.

Describing your version of the batcave is just, again, micromanaging their imagination. But yes, absolutely go into detail about how there's coffee mugs scattered beside the batcomputer and theyre all different shapes, sizes, colors, and filled with different liquids.

Because that implies the Batfamily is up together and each have mugs and it's cute and could affect the plot. (This is also implying character interaction in the past!!! This then allows the batcomputer to materialize into the empty room because the characters have interacted with it. Yes it was in the past, but they still did!)

But please, don't spend so much energy telling me the medbay is next door to the safe room. Cuz in my brain, it's not, and I'm just gonna ignore you.

#i really hope this made sense #its a lot to unpack #if it was a jumble of words and you dont get it #let me know #and id be happy to rephrase or explain something i brought up #especially with implying character interaction #and purpose #and when to delete shit #cuz its funky #asks #writing help #writing tips #writing advice

[lost-tardis-room]

something i've noticed about the difference between good omens and doctor who fandoms rn is that the good omens people are either making funny art or coming up with increasingly unfeasible theories about supposed 'hidden messages' in the show and generally being weird about it going out of their way to say they LOVE EVERYTHING about the show, and the doctor who people are like. damn this sucks.. unfortunately it's also really compelling. oh well <3

like idk the good omens people (generalising here of course) seem incredibly strung up on what Could Be Meaningful and making wayyyyy to much of a big deal out of minor details. and like the show is clever! there are secondary levels of meaning! but not everything is or should be. not everything is a metaphor. continuity errors exist. and the doctor who people (even new fans) are still yknow eating drywall over it but are also like HAHAHAHthat bit was awful. anyways its also incredibly thematically relevant to these other episodes so it's very important you watch it lol.

and i think the difference is that good omens is twelve episodes. just twelve. there's the book of course, which is a different angle than the show, there's the radio version etc. but there's only so much story. and a lot of the version are the plot of the book in different formats. whereas doctor who goes on forever and ever and ever and there will always be more content. so the good omens people are overanalysing the same few moments over and over again because thats all there is, they probably know their content better than the doctor who people, but b/c you only see them in so many Situations, its also easier to begin to warp your perception of them. you only see them deal with a crisis a couple times under very specific circumstances. there are only so many character moments, so things can be blown out of proportion b/c you cant compare it to another similar moment.

but doctor who is infamously long and infamously has a Very large eu so you have a lot more time with the characters to pull together your perception of the characters, even when regenerations and new companions come and go. you simply have more to work with to build your understanding.

like if you compare the 'i just lost my best friend' scene from good omens to any of the 'doctor thinks companion is dead' scenes--crowley reacts like that only once. he is distraught, obviously, doesnt quite know what to do about it at first, doesnt know what's happened to aziraphale--but its a specific moment. bookshop burned down. world is ending. aziraphale Gone. whereas doctor who there's a range of scenarios with a range of reactions--guilt and also hope when bill gets shot and then taken away. anger and denial over clara willingly dying knowing that she must (actually resolved her character arc quite well i thought, though so did hell bent). there are more but i forget. uhm end of s1 second to last episode rose gets vaporised but it's actually a teleport, the way nine responds to that. there's just more to work with!! which i think is why the good omens fandom is so deeply embroiled in arguing over minutiae of character and background detail b/c they dont have anything more to read about them except fanfics (which are obvious a feedback loop in any fandom) and because they only see aziraphale and crowley for such a short time. they cant compare their reactions during times of The Literal End of the World and The Disruption Of Their Quite Nice Life Together And Also Possibly the End of the World to them just chilling.

#idk thats my take on it at least #havent really thougt about good omens much recently but i'm still seeing a lot of teh fandom stuff #had to unfollow a few people though cos. hoo boy. #but yeah. #just something i've noticed #good omens #doctor who #damn this is long sorry. hopefully you see my point

[too-much-sunshine]

Finished the most recent chapter, and as an aroacespec person myself, I was so comforted by the slow and natural progression you've given Scar and Grians relationship in this. I'm inclined to physical affection myself, and that's something frequently excluded in pairings that people write as aroace/qpr adjacent. A lot of times they're always considered strictly romantic, but the way you've written this feels so right in the sense of Queerplatonic, as you mentioned you intended originally in the notes. I just wanted to say thank you for that! Reading how they hold each other and comfort one another (wont go into detail, as to not spoil ch26 for anyone reading this) just clicks in a way that's Their Connection, and it doesn't feel like it's trying to or needs to be anything else. It's so content, and it makes me feel so warm to see that in a fic with two characters I resonate with a lot.

Not to mention the plot- omg, I've been fawning over it all week! My favorite moment I think is definitely the kitchen scene with Iskall and Scars little standoff- the visual was so sassy and queer from Scars end, it just made me cackle to no end I absolutely loved the attitude. But really, I try not to theorize too much when reading stories that way every turn feels like a huge shock, and this fic keeps my attention so well I didn't even have the chance to, I was far too busy enjoying every little flair of dialogue and fluid change of scenario. I literally gasped and yelled "OH /SHIT/" aloud multiple times, I'm not embarassed to say it. There are so many details you kept so quaint and innocent at the beginning, I never even questioned them until their importance later on!

This story has been absolutely, insanely, phenomenally fun to read, and I can't wait to see where you take things next. I've been planning my own fic for ages, and reading something like this has really inspired me to pick up my pages and keep going. I hope you have a wonderful day, and that you have a lot of fun working on the rest of the story! I know I'm dying to read the next chapter whenever you feel it's right to show, and others will be too :).

Much love!

- minecraft-cake

OH MY GODS IM GONNA CRYYYY (/pos) TOO LATE I AM CRYINGGGG TTTTTTT AAAaaaa this means so much to me TTTT ASDFGHJK

Ive said it before, and I'll say it again: I started writing WOftL because I wanted to read something like it, but it hadnt been written. Not only in the superhero space (even tho I am a bit a whore for superhero fics UuU) but also just aspec wise. Im arospec/ace, and I just felt it wasnt being represented in a way the resonated with me!! So I wrote it myself <3

Im so glad that it resonates with others as well! I really hope that deciding to change the relationship romantic doesnt takes away from that! I feel like, personally, it doesnt change their background and their connection for each other. I certainly dont plan to have them act much differently then they do now lmaooo

Ommffggg you are so nicceee TTTTTT If Im forced to say one thing I'm proud of for this fic, i'd say the foreshadowing turned out much better then I expected lmaooo This is my first looongg fic, so I really happy with that turned out!! I have so much I can say about specific scenes and how they came to be in my brain!!! But for specifically Iskall and Scar, I loved how their little plot came out! Those two have History UuU

Thank you so much for reading and the kind wordsss!! This seriously made my whole week and its only monday!! Im so happy to have inspired you, and if your willing to share I would love to read your fic when you write it! I hoep you have a phenonial day, week, month, year and life bestie <3<3<3<3

#woftl #sunshinetalks #woftl spoilers #kinda? #Idk bestieee #Ugh everytime I worry abt a chapter it turns out being #fav so i think its time i start trusting myself #I say #knowing I wont #UuU #ASDfghjk you are still so nice #Im never getting over this ask #Im a gonner UuU

[isthejermaclipcute]

if jerma doesnt like "jerma isnt real jokes" then how could you possibly see him being okay with being treated like an animal ?? imagine if someone you didnt know did this shit about you. imagine if you did this with any other person you dont know on the internet. that would be weird as hell

I’m going to really dig into this ask, so I’m putting my response under a read more. This is going to be a long discussion, but I think it’s an important one to have.

As far as I am aware, Jerma hasn’t taken a stance on “Jerma isn’t real” jokes. Please correct me on that if I am wrong. My rule about “Jerma isn’t real” jokes is entirely personal preference; I think they’re overdone and annoying.

I do completely and honestly see your point here. To an extent, the whole idea of “is the (content creator) video cute” blogs is a bit strange. It’s not lost on me that these posts, if made about the wrong person and saying the wrong things, could cause real harm. Personally, I wouldn’t be affected by a blog like this made about me, but that is because I enjoy being compared to an animal (which sounds totally fake, I know, but it’s true).

I would never make a blog like this around anyone else, because I don’t know other people’s preferences around these things. What I do know is that Jerma has interacted with similar jokes to these before with no negativity, such as the “plastic skin” chat message.

I’d also like to make it as clear as possible that when I talk about Jerma in my posts, I do not mean Jeremy, the real person who streams on twitch. I am talking about the fanon idea of the “Jerma985” character. In many ways, content creators play characters, whether they are inventing entirely new personalities for their videos, or just omitting details for the sake of their own privacy. We do not truly know these people. There must be a degree of separation between the Jerma that we watch in livestreams, and the Jerma outside of streams, who lives his life.

I do NOT make posts about Jeremy. I do not say Jeremy in my posts for this reason. This blog is about Jerma985. If you are still uncomfortable with this, you are more than welcome to block me. I don’t want to force my posts upon people who dislike them. I started this blog for fun, and I want it to stay fun for everyone.

I hope this response has been satisfactory. I tend to work myself up over asks like this, so if I have been unclear or you haven’t understood anything, I’m more than willing to clarify. Thank you anon, for reminding me to confront what I do and say, and deeply consider what is appropriate online.

#not a rating #also: I’m pausing the queue for today and tomorrow because I want to reflect on this #no one likes confronting the idea that they might’ve done something wrong or harmful but its very important #especially considering how people can be around public figures #its very easy to get lost in what’s common in fandom without stopping to consider if it leaves a positive impact

[yj-98]

okay not story related but. how do the horses work

THANK YOU CROW ‼️ for asking <3 hehe i love talking game mechanics and like. details in general dw

so! horses are an important part of this game. to quote my best friend and the biggest horse + horsegame fan i know (gabe @porthavens):

it's not a true "horse sim", in that taking care of horses isnt a major gameplay mechanic with significant impacts. but there are MANY different kinds of horses with different stat levels, and you can tame wild horses OR buy horses from stables, and you can pet+feed+clean your horse, and you can form a bond with your horse by earning their trust. IMPORTANT Is that you can also name them and style their mane/tail differently.

now forgive me as i go into more detail because im allergic to simple answers:

what he said honestly got the basics i think. you feed your horse food or give it medicine to heal it/help it replenish energy, brush it to keep it clean, you have the choice of bringing hay to them at camp, you can use them to hunt or as transportation. etc. in general theyre really useful!! theyre well implemented in the game and thats important imo considering the time period its set in + who the main characters are.

(and thats not even touching how theres like. honestly so much detail put into each breed having a distinct body type + the coat colors and tail dynamics like theyre honestly just so well animated. and horses are notoriously difficult to animate. but they feel real, down to how their coats ripple)

i feel like RDR2 especially handles the horse as not only a mechanic or a vehicle for the player but also like... as a way of furthering characterization + humanizing the characters.

each of the main characters in the gang have their own horse that stays with them, or doesnt, throughout the game. its apart of their personality + identity. something important to know is that in the genre of westerns theres a visual motif with white hats, black hats, and similarly with black horses + white horses. it usually is as cut and dry as "bad buy wears black + has black horse, good guy has white hat and horse" and we dont have time to unpack that but it DOES mean that when we are introduced to certain characters its important to look at whats close to their identity and see

dutch van der linde, the leader, + father figure to the main characters, as long as an antagonist, has a black hat, but the most unique white horse. on the contrast, micah bell, the true antagonist of rdr2, has a black horse and white hat.

^ horse and hat spiel aside its about how each character is talked about in relation to their horse. dutch's horse, the count, looks more like an aristocrats pet. baylock, micah's horse, looks starved and bleeding later on in the game. john and arthur can talk to their horses and hum on horseback and call them petnames. each horse has a personality that informs the characters story yk.

lastly its like...... you do grow attached to your horses that You get. i had a grullo dun mustang named merlin (yk. arthur and merlin. arthur gets compared to the legend by jack his nephew) and i adored her. i also watched her die as arthur thanked her. its like. its about how the horses are more than a game mechanic but also more than just a narrative device. perfect blend

#the first red dead game also has horses :) tht you can tame/buy/etc and ride and feed and stuff but its no where NEAR as in-depth as RDR2 #asks #crimzoncrow #crow 🦋 #cowboygame lb

[writingmoth]

writing with "vibes" in mind is completely underrated tbh

ive thinking a lot about this bc ive playing a lot of games that use vibes to tell the story/to make gameplay moments stand out. and listen, i know games =\= books, but!!! i think it has merit.

under read more bc it got rambly. its just me wondering aloud about ways to write.

example 1: ffxiv, a fantasy mmorpg that relies HEAVILY on story. it's been out for more than 10 years, so the story is huuuuuuge (i spent like a month and a half just catching up when i started playing two years ago). there are callbacks to the base game in a expansion that came out 9 years after said base game. it makes the whole thing feel like a expertly drawn web of plotlines and characters... except that isn't that case at all. the writers have mentioned multiple times that things that happened in the third expansion (6 years in) weren't planned from the beginning. that is, they just threw paint at the wall back in the base game bc the colors (vibes) looked cool. they just had enough skill to make a painting out of it later.

i guess having a good grasp of your story's themes helps a lot with that, too, now that i think about it. it assures that the colors are at least complimentary when you are slinging them about at the start of the story.

example 2: destiny, which is a completely different game. destiny doesnt use story the same way ffxiv does, though it is important (somewhat)... but lore is where the vibes come in to play for destiny imo. they do so much with so little. still using the painting analogy, it's almost like negative space art - they fill in just enough to give you an idea of the figure but not nearly as much as you would need to discern the details. and still the world feels vast. most of the time you are shooting aliens while wielding space magic, but every weapon, gear, etc has its own lore piece, and whole plotlines/characters that never show up in game or in the main story can be told through them. it's basically just vibes - aesthetic, some character moments, letters/logs, etc. and it works! the world feels lived in, most of the characters are well defined and even though sometimes the main story kinda drags, there is enough to keep you interested.

(it kinda reminds me of how i write description, which i've talked about before, but for the lucky ones who don't follow my rambling nonsense on this blog: i have a lot of trouble visualizing places or people when writing (or reading tbh) so i usually use a lot of atmosphere and emotion to mask the fact that i have no fucking clue what this very important place/person looks like. )

there are cons and pros to this approach. by being so vague and focusing on small bits that seem an ocean apart, the game gives just enough for the player to fill in the blanks themselves. that is good, because then the player is more likely to fill said blanks with stuff they like. it ends up being more of collaborative effort - and i'm sure the writers behind the game use the players' "headcanons" as some sort of thermometer for what/how to write next. so its writers and players feeding off each other's ideas in a way.

buuuuut.... it can also be pretty bad. you risk never committing to a vision or plotline by writing like this. nothing is ever set in stone. retconning, which isn't bad by itself, can happen way too much to be acceptable. if something can end up being anything, what is the point of it existing anyway? why should you care if the spine behind isn't well formed enough to carry the story later?

another danger is that the actual canon and the player's canon can end up being way too different in the end. maybe you meant to write the story this way... but the player filled the blanks just differently enough that "this way" ends up being unsatisfying and wrong.

but the biggest problem, for me, is risking never getting a proper resolution. since so many story moments and worldbuilding elements end up coming from "vibes", you risk relying way too much on the rule of cool.... which sets up a lot of stuff, usually, but never concludes them. that's also my biggest problem with asoiaf, for example - so much of that series is about building up tension, foreshadowing certain battles or encounters or whatever... that the payoff is almost never there (which is only made worse by the loooong time between book releases). it gets to a point that nothing the author comes up with will satisfy what the reader is expecting of the story.

"vibes" (or themes & aesthetics if you will) do a wonderful job of touching a reader's (or player's) strings with imagery, emotion and promise. but whatever comes from it needs to be tied up into an actual storyline (most of the time, at least). ffxiv managed to pull it off with its last two expansions but destiny stumbled a bit with its last one. players were expecting SO much of lightfall after the expansion before it, witch queen, since it managed to nail both vibes and plot. witch queen and the seasons (kind of episodes) after it setup SO much stuff. it promised a lightfall that would be an explosion - a much waited confrontation between the players and the villain, answers given, mysteries solved... and it did nothing of the sort. confusion and anger soon followed.

which is to say... vibes can be very helpful when you pause to interrogate why they interest you so much. why do you like this particular aesthetic, this imagery, this turn of phrase? some elements just pull you in and its fine to go and write a chapter or scene that is basically just you going "wow this is SO cool" even though you have no clear idea why. it's just the vibes it gives. it just presses your right buttons.

... but you will need to wrap them up into something coherent eventually. and for writers i think it's easier - usually "later" just means "once the first draft is done" aka "no one but your trusted betas will ever have to glance at this mess". for live service games like ffxiv or destiny - or even regular rpgs like dragon age or mass effect - it can be very dangerous. writers come and go. turns out that vibes-fuelled story point someone cleared for release 4 years ago doesn't make sense after all! and yeah, hyping up certain characters and plot elements seemed like a great idea for player retention 6 months ago, but what the hell do we do now?

it's too late - the players have already played the thing, they have VERY strong emotions about the thing and they are waiting impatiently for you make the resolution of said thing awesome. and you've got no clue of how to meet said expectations.

(having said all that, i do believe authors can all fall prey to this in non-standalone works too. but we usually have the ability/autonomy to make hard decisions, which video game writers of huge ips like destiny/ffxiv/dragon age/etc usually don't have.)

and of course, using vibes can go very wrong in other ways. you know the negative art destiny does with its worldbuilding/characters? i think books can go way too hard in the opposite direction. i felt this way when reading stuff like acotar, for example. the story wanted to give me certain vibes BADLY, because vibes work!, but i could see right through it (and this is my opinion!) and there was no meat below the all the fanfarre.

sometimes your characters just havent earned the cool/interesting moments.

anyway!! tldr: ive been thinking a lot about just going with the vibes for my wip and i think that's a pretty neat idea actually!! sometimes tending to your darlings can lead to interesting realizations about your story's themes that you otherwise would not notice by being too stuck to rigid plotting and too much rationalization (does it advance the plot? is this scene truly necessary? how is this developing the main character? etc) - but only when you interrogate them enough to find that out and use this newfound knowledge to enhance the story in a revision/another draft.

#ffxiv and destiny released new stuff in the same day last week and now i have Thoughts(tm) #ren.txt #ffxiv #destiny #writing #idk how to tag this its just rambly nonsense ;-;

[sasoxichomoshi]

there's something so charming about hunter, but in a soothing way

it doesnt mean she cant be silly ofc, but her eyes reflect so much of her moods and personality

when she's with the eagle she looks calm and gentle and much of the expressions she makes are towards the eagle; when nimue gets the bird, when the godslayer stuns the eagle and got one of the flaps and at the end of the game when he corrupts the eagle completely there were always a close at her face to show us how worried hunter was towards her friend

it's as if the eagle highlights hunter in some way, cause if you think about it hunter is not really an important person; she's an outsider and a stranger, and eagle mother is there not only to push her forwards, but she also works like this excuse to develop what lies inside hunter - her feelings

the more i think about, like no human(oid) character in the pathless have a mouth, which is an interesting decision - may it be because the animator said "nuh uh i aint doing this" or because they had other intentions - having no mouth makes it harder to humanize a character cause to do so you work around facial expression mostly

for characters like the diver or the little guy from journey it works cause humanizing them is not the focus - they are vessels for the player to experience the message of the game, much like a blank page, but hunter is a more defined type of character, she's not only for the player to control; there are instance where she speaks for herself (literally), she reacts towards her environment (like when she groans when she hits the ground), it's a bit of "i exist in relation to others" kind of thing i dont even know if this explanations make sense

the thing is, if you gonna hide the mouth (and it's funny cause they got rid of the mouths but not of the speech), to deliver something believable you have to put extra attention in other places, like eyes (which is probably the reason why they made her eyes big, for emphasis) and corporal expression (i love all of hunter animations like ALL of them, the idles are so cool and my favorite has to be the climbing one HAVE YOU SEEN THAT CREATURE)

another aspect that locks my eyes on hunter is her color palette; she feels a bit like 60% red and 40% black which an almost dangerous distribution cause it gets near the boring looking too evenly palette, but i feel like this problem is partially solved by the color choice cause black and red is very iconic (but i see that this can be subjective, so take it with a grain of salt)

to give some examples: im typing from an nitro acer (black red palette), you can see cars with that bright red (+black of the tires), and i can name a few characters with red+black combination, like matoi ryuko from kill la kill, kaguya, that masochist from that cassino games school (she's iconic i will recognize but i wont lose my time googling it i dont wanna know details about that anime)

(also if i had to point a match for hunter from another media....... kikyo my beloved i fucking love you my gay awakening i kept watching inuyasha cause i wanted to see you on my screen omg)

but at the same time her color scheme puzzles me: what does it mean? usually color is used for storytelling or readability purposes

hunter red black contrasts very well against the greens/whites/oranges of the landscape, mostly bc it's highly saturated; but then you get to the boss fight and......

i know that the boss fights dont take as many screen time as exploration but considering that they are the action moment hmm idk the math aint mathing here

well what's about storytelling? a bit of the same problem shown on the above image; hunter shares the color scheme with the corrupted tall ones and godslayer which makes things even more confusing

(seriously am i stupid and didnt see the obvious hint everyone else saw and im just here staring at the walls idk)

that said i have come up with my own worms to explain this and it comes down to: it's not from the land/natural

godslayer and the corrupted tall ones shouldnt exist, they are not natural to this world and actually an evil twist of the reality; hunter not necessarily is corrupted, but is also not natural (from the island), she's an outsider, it's about this feeling of not-belonging

however in the end of the day the color choice is also about readability and keeping things cohesive; stretching the color palette of the entire game just to give hunter a different look would do more damage than helping, imagine changing to something not that far like a pink or yellow, things still would change drastically

in the end i still love hunter very much ma babegurl <3 sillly stupid<333 my dear blorbo<333 hope she finds a lot of hobbies <33333

#TP #demon speaks #hunter

[kenergized]

hi kenergy what's your fav thing about jekyll and hyde (the book not the characters. that's for another ask...)

tbh i dont have many thoughts about the book atm bc i havent read it in a couple years (i might tonight or some time later this week) ive mostly just been thinking about the musical again cause i relistened to it on the way to/back from my friends house (shes like an hour away)

ive always been drawn to stories that get adapted over and over again n j+h is for sure another iteration of that. i love seeing the parts ppl keep, what they change, what they add, what they remove, how they convey different things across different media, etc etc... but i think i also like things that aren't very good that get adapted. lol... like its almost like a blank canvas for this reason. theres little that is super essential so u dont really lose much and it gives creators the freedom to go batshit insane with some small guaranteed audience. bbc jekyll im looking at you

more specific to like jekyll and hyde i love to see what part they put in the hyde and whats in the jekyll. its really relevant to both like who jekyll is status-wise but also the biases of whoever is adapting the story. tumblrinas love to make hyde queer and jekyll screaming and sobbing that he is a normal straight man. theres some older works with similar ideas (or like similar ideas in the developmental stages that were then axed) but idk the details. thats like a fun shippy take but i get more intrigued taking the story as a some kind of allegory for the ills of class society, how science fails to address ethical inquiries, the cruelties and failings of incarceration etc etc yadda yaddaaaa

its also extremely important that jekyll is a fucking idiot. his idea must fail and destroy him not because he isnt like smart enough but cause his quest is completely nonsensical. what i liked about the musical is how everyone else around jekyll was completely unable to actually argue the claim he is making, even if it so obviously absurd.

one of my favs now, even tho its so long. everyone is just an absolute disaster in this its great.

[doesnt answer the question]

[elysiuminfra]

hi anon i love you. thank you for thisi question (i just woke up) you have no idea how excited i am to talk about this. had to make a post since it didnt wanna publish ur ask :( in the ideal world AMPHIMAL (all capitals for silly) is a 14 episode 2D animated tv show (heavily inspired by gennedy tartakovsky's work - particularly with samurai jack and primal, as well as mike mignola's work on hellboy) (AND SERGIO PABLOS!!) (wait edit: AND the old animated batman movies) HOWEVER. i have had many many thoughts about its ACTUAL format as a webcomic. i think it works best in this format cause the internal dialogue is important and you'd lose that in a show (i have many many thoughts about how media format influences tone/overall storytelling) particularly i'd like to execute it as a webcomic set with unconventional format - im very inspired by indie comics such as quinn - a horror webcomic made by moby, tumblr linked here, an artist who's work ive followed for a while and who's work first piqued my interest in breaking "traditional" webcomic format. yugo limbo and mike mignola (there he is again!) are also huge inspirations. (and another webcomic im too embarrassed to say) im in love with the  idea of using the website itself as a backdrop for your visuals - it would be a mix of script, prose, intermingling with cinema-like stills as visuals - this is because traditional comics are difficult for me, i THINK in camera angles and shot layouts, not necessarily comic panels. i also plan on having annotations throughout the story, for secrets and descriptions of certain era-specific objects as fun optional facts - although when i actually put it all together on a website, this feature could be toggled. ideally it would be non-intrusive - think the note system from pentiment. the biggest inspirations i draw for AMPHIMAL though is Hellboy full stop in terms of palettes, visuals, and style. i plan on further solidifying and developing the "look" of amphimal as i do more research on victorian cultural and architecture motifs (they don't even know about the henry jekyll architecture associations) and also because i am the world's most unnecessarily detail-oriented person. my current work reflects moreso how i plan on amphimal looking when its published, with stark shadows, black shapes taking forefront, limited and striking palettes with heavy emphasis on color, shape, and object motifs. i am putting an unnecessary and frankly embarrassing amount of thought into literally every single detail (AND striving for semi-historical accuracy) (which is extremely difficult due to the lack of primary sources / bias in papers and the lack of accounts of certain aspects of victorian life, such as lgbt history and london’s underbelly of the era. particularly because many primary accounts are rife with racism, bigotry and inaccuracies - and they don’t paint a complete picture, so much of what i show WILL be speculation and not historically accurate) as for SCRIPT? behind the scenes its pretty rough - i have my charts and notes, but they're all pretty disorganized and i don't think i could share them without 1. spoiling a LOT of stuff (it doesnt differ from the original plot in any way, it just has far, far more depth into the characters - and some stuff i want to keep a secret!) 2. exposing just how deranged my note-taking skills are. amphimal currently exists only in pages and charts and key visuals i've made for myself that i MUST compile in a clean format for personal use (and sharing among those who can take peeks behind the scenes) as for key points oh boy. my favorite chapter and the one i'm most excited to write is utterson's search and first meeting with hyde. second favorite is utterson's scenes involving lanyon's death (he does die in amphimal, that i'm not changing - i thought about it at first but scrapped it) these moments show off utterson's character at key points OUTSIDE of jekyll (an absolute necessity!) - and he is, by far, my favorite protagonist out of all my projects. and i love him your honor ANYWAY ummm i dont really have much else to write other than thank u for sending this question!!! artistic format / experimentation is one of my favorite things to talk about. as for WHEN amphimal is gonna be a thing, it'll be in the future when i'm in a better living situation (and when the full amphimal theory bible is compiled - i'm obsessed with consistency between scenes and background motifs, so this will work as a reference for me once the project gets started however this will and is currently taking a LOT of research) ETA? later. possibly next year if i'm not too busy adjusting to the city im moving to. dont know yet but it'll happen. i'll make amphimal before i die promise because if i dont my spirit will never sleep peacefully

#answers #amphimal #sorry you activated my special interest (MEDIA FORMAT) #as well as victorian architecture. also had to edit cause grammar mistakes that *I* could not let slide

[lareinadelplata]

10, 11, 13, 25?

thank u ko love u <3

10. Has a piece of writing ever “haunted” you? Has your own writing haunted you? What does that mean to you?

I've been "haunted" by many pieces of writing as in they have stuck in my head for a really long, uncomfortable time. Right now what's coming to mind is the narrative voice of The Picture of Dorian Gray, it became my own internal monologue for months which was HELL. I'm not sure ive ever been haunted by my own writing, though.

11. Do you believe in the old advice to “kill your darlings?” Are you a ruthless darling assassin? What happens to the darlings you murder? Do you have a darling graveyard? Do you grieve?

YES. YES I BELIEVE IN IT IT'S MY GOSPEL I'm not ruthless at all, it hurts, sometimes it hurts enough that i make my darlings a little memorial by placing them somewhere else. Maybe they can fulfill their purpose at some other time. But yes I think it's so important to be able to recognize when a line or a paragraph or an entire scene is just Not Working and to get rid of it entirely. Sometimes when I'm editing and something's not clicking I like just cutting stuff i think might be superfluous and pasting it on a new document so I don't lose it if I find somewhere else to put it. I'm not the most economical of writers either and i love a little of purple prose but you gotta know when it's not helping.

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

I don't know about subject matters... I think stuff like parenthood might be really hard because it's an experience i just cannot find a way to relate to at all, but I also don't think I've ever tried because it's just not something that interests me either. Martyrdom is hard because it's important to me and I find it very difficult to not make it melodramatic. Devotion, on the other hand, is easier. I like writing confusion and writing consequence. Does this answer make sense? I find it so easy to write about Words that Should Not Be Said, Feelings that Should Not Be Felt.

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

This is such a hard question kdjkl I dont make up things I'm not gonna somehow use in the story. Mmmmh adelle actually LOVES puns but she thinks theyre Unserious so she doesnt make them and tries not to laugh at them. but she thinks theyre hilarious, the dumber the better

#thank you so much i had so much fun answering these!!!!!! #ask #laughingthelaughiest #rochu writes!

[icharchivist]

i completely relate to your feelings for the ff7 remake. its so crushing when you love something and then the remake/sequel/whatever carries its name but butchers the themes so thoroughly that you feel like they didnt understand what made the original so great to begin with. it just feels like a lazy cash grab. looking at every disney remake specifically. or i love this manga that has been going for 1000+ chapters and i wish it would end. i love it dearly its so nostalgic and it was like the first manga i ever read but the characters have become 2d caricatures of themselves and have lost their personality and it just kind of makes me sad. and i agree that a choice like killing aerith hurts because you love the character but it was meaningful and gave characters depth and raised the stakes and just not doing it in the remake because shes so beloved is missing the entire point. i just completely get it and while im not that attached to ff i completely get how youre feeling and why youre so annoyed. it looks great but whats the point if the story doesnt match? themes are so so important and your explanation of how ff7 is about the conflict between nature and industrialization and how aerith represents the planet itself sort of makes a lot of sense. its a really deep story with a lot of thought put into it and her death is so symbolic and important to the story itself. yes shes adorable and beloved but killing her feels like the only right move. its so integral. so yeah jail for square enix for disguising their fanfic sequel as a remake. jail for 1000 years.

aaah nonny thank you 😭💞

while i'm sad the feeling is all too well known it is reassuring at least to find people who relate to it, so thank you for sharing that thought.

the Disney remakes are also a huge pet peeve of mine in term of missing themes or fixing things that don't need to be fixed, but honestly i've given up caring about them at least, and the original always still stand very well on its own even now that it's just *shrugs* whatever yknow, if some people want to connect with the remakes so be it.

for the ff7 remake it irks me a little more since i know people tend to not like getting into older games in general. and with 7 having had many entries to the saga, the original game clashed in gameplay and designs, which threw a lot of people off from playing it.

And it's wild bc i can't exactly call the remake lazy, the amount of work is seen everywhere, but it does feel extremely cynical. Like idk the moment you bring a meta textual level criticizing the fans for wanting to keep the story like it was before, it ends up feeling personal rather than an actual thoughtful approach on the story.

As for like, super long sequels that ends up ruining the spirit of the original, gooood yeah. sometimes it's good when a series can properly end. Fans can do the "keeping the story alive" part just fine we don't need to milk it until the characters are no longer enjoyable...

I am also glad that my POV on Aerith's death and its thematical importance makes sense to you also 🥺 It's a death i feel strongly about because it's genuinely way better done than people give it credit for and i've seen too many takes missing the point that it's something i've been ruminating about for years. (i've read takes about how it's fridging women again for Cloud's manpain and it irks me a lot bc this is not what fridging is and while yeah Cloud suffers from it since yknow, he's the protagonist so we follow his own journey through pain - it's not about Cloud, not just about him anyway. There was also how in ff15 Lunafreya's death was compared to Aerith's by the lead developer and to me it really gives the perfect counter example on how meaningful Aerith's death was to ff7 if you compare it in details to Luna's.)

and of course Aerith is fantastic and i wish, on an emotional level, for her to be alive, but it's not the narratively satisfying ending imo, and any scenario where she doesn't die undo most of the story moving forward.

and honestly it's just. idk kinda sad, that they took back the original dev team from ff7 for this remake, and yet they went into this direction. I do remember that there were tons of interviews about doing right to the fans and honoring the characters the fans came to love so much (it was especially a Kitase's interview where he was especially talking about Sephiroth and Zack, two characters who shouldn't have appeared in the remake at the time, and that i found extremely noticeable bc i have an interview of Kitase in a magazine dating from 2015 where he mentions how much he was always pissed off by Zack's popularity and didn't understand why fans loved him so much.). And so it's like. is it really just fanservice for the sake of fanservice, wanting so much to please the fans you ignore the themes you put in the game? or were all of the themes genuinely accidental??? or the fact it was 25 years ago means it's too far away for them to be remembered as such??

Ad i do think it's even sadder considering how relevant the OG's themes are to our modern days in general.

So yeah, i'm sad the remake went in such a different direction, i feel a bit cheated, but especially i'm bewildered how much it betrays the original themes more than just being different yknow? like i said with the whole "the whole game was about coping with the denial that makes you rewrite your own life and be easily manipulable as a result, so why make the whole remake about "let's rewrite this timeline actually""

but HELP yeah that's definitely a fanfic alright *mumbles* and i've read better ones.

jail!!! jail for a thousand years!!!!!

thank you for your understanding nonny <3333

#hate that square put me in a situation where i have to defend killing my most beloved character #like come on Square i really wish i could just lash out like 'how dare you kill her!!!' #it was a rhetorical question joking about my distress it wasn't a challenge to undo it!!! #tragic... #but thank you so much <333 #ichareply #anonymous #ffvii spoilers #ichasalty #ichafantalks ffvii

[ravilson23]

Okay, so i think a lot of people noticed somehow worse quality of animation in the latest episode of Helluva Boss (s2ep2). So i decided to redraw some frames that bothered me. I think i did some better, some worse, some are more in my style than i would like but in general, i think i managed to correct some stuff.

At this point i got kinda tired of editing those frames like this ( probably cause i was doing this in the app that wasnt really created for this) and i decided to do simple redraws.

This one was kinda weird, cause i had bigger problem with anatomy than her face, I dont think i did great job but i hope its a little more balanced now. I felt like the original shot had Loonas body streched in proportion. On the other hand in my sketch the head may be a bit too small. Oh well

At this point i stopped doing mostly clean lines.

This is a suprising shot, cause it was a very important moment in the episode, so its a little disappointing to see drawings with not the best quality.

And here we go with Blitz. Honestly the oryginal shot is fine, its more cartoonish in expression and i think its okay. I did this one mostly as an experiment. In the end i think both versions are okay, just different. The oryginal definitely feels more emotive.

And this one is... idk, at first i tried just editing this but it didnt feel right so i said fuck it and just redrew this, much quicker even if less pretty.

And that would be all shots i decided to redraw. Not all that could be corrected, cause u know, its one frame, and all sequences are based on drawing with screwed proportions.

But to be fair i want to say some stuff. Loona is generally hard to draw and this episode isnt the only one that have some weird shots with her. Vivzies style is very expressive, and in my opinion not particulary regular. By this i mean that anatomy isnt very important, many characters are very slim, imps for example have pretty big heads (especially Blitz) [wait is this also a pun?!], while Asmodeus for a change has pretty small one (though it seems bigger with his other faces). The size of characters also can be inconsistent, its especially noticable when there is a big difference in size between them (eghem* Stolitz, EGHEM* Fizz and Asmodeus). Blitz is also hard to draw because he has a really particular shape of head and horns. Its hard to place his eyes, especially since imps are based on reptiles and their features are also reptile like (no nose to help). With Loona on the other hand its hard to draw her in 3/4 perspective cause of the shape of her eyes and especially her muzzle. I think animators try not to cover them with her nose or mouth and i believe it doesnt works well. Most of the characters have also a lot of details which makes it harder to animate them. Blitzos headmark, his scars, even his clothes! It takes a lot of time to draw it all. And its like that with most characters. So i am not doing this post to shame those animations, but rather to show that its not easy to do and despite it being not so great it still took a lot of work. For me personally those shots werent even the biggest issue, i was more annoyed with camera jumping around.

Last thing. I liked one shot with Loona A LOT and i am really sad i cannot post anymore pictures in this post, so here is its time in the ep: 17:18 - 17:24. Whoever animated this did a truly great job, and i send a lot appreciation to this person.

#helluva boss #english is not my native language #helluva spoilers #helluva boss s2ep2 #helluva boss animation #helluva boss fanart #? #does it count? #redraw

[supernova1us]

Updated version

credit for the original template here

Fave Ninja Turtles blank by cekena on DeviantArt

clearly i have a preference for the 03 series lol

leonardo(2003 series)-this leo didn't quite go though the leadership arc most other versions do but he had many of those attributes down from the start which, to me, made him consistently enjoyable. he also felt like he handled the honorable/traditional aspects better. his extreme character arc in season 4 though, fighting against his own more controlling/extreme mentality was really stand out and well developed

raphael(batman vs tmnt film)-he's pretty standard for the character(most are pretty similar) but sticks out to me because of the small details, like his larger, more muscular size and scar, plus hello, he stood up to an angry batman and earned his respect, you cant beat that. 

donatello(bay films)-this version just nails the nerd angle so well and all the added details/gadgets are pretty fun. Rise version might have earned this spot if he wasnt so obnoxious and arrogant.

michelangelo(Rise)-03 version originally had this spot for the small spotlights he had, like his recurring "turtle titan" stories were always memorable to me. but rewatching Rise, it just nails him as the younger brother feel, being both a goof as well as more naive, immature  and impressionable.

splinter(2003 series)-this version was just amazing at balancing his depiction as a father(both strict and caring), teacher and legendary warrior. plus it was one of the best at depicting his strong connection to yoshi.

april O'neil(Rise)-the rise version just sticks out to me so much more for her personality, likability and relatability(what with the job troubles). plus she's one of the better versions at relating to the turtles, being treated like a sister to them as well as her many teamup eps with splinter. and her role in the series finale just cemented her as the best version to date.

casey jones(2003 series)-he doesnt have the edgy grittiness of other versions but he's still tough, likable, a good friend to the turtles and has a very cool backstory/history with hun and the purple dragons. is intro was also great as being a mirror up to raph of his own aggression struggles.

shredder(2003 series)-this is the most ruthless, tough, intimidating, absurdly cool looking and by far interesting version of shredder ever, especially with his hybrid characterization with krang. even when he wasnt in the series he still felt like an impactful presence.  

foot clan(2003 series)-the foot clan is typically very generic, but i love all the branches, groups and inner workings of how grand the organization is in this series.

karai(2003 series)-this version has to be the most developed and explored to date, walking the line between and honorable warrior and her loyalty to shredder; and her dynamic with leo was always entertaining. plus she is extremely awesome when she later becomes the shredder herself. the version from 07 film was a close second.

baxter stockman(03)-he didnt check off the mutant fly box but hes an ambitious scientist and a megalomaniac so he works perfect and always felt important. I do have to admit the progressive mutilations and constant returns always stuck in my mind.  

bebop/rocksteady(IDW comics)-prob my fav tmnt characters, the comics both update their designs in a fun way but it was their characterizations, history and motivation that really endeared this version of them to me. honestly, the lack of these two is one of the only cons against the 03 series.

#meme #Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt

[ratbutmakeitfyodor]

I know how many of byler shippers are annoyed that will's crush and basicaly every conversation he had with mike (where he was kinda lying because he was talking abt himself) made mike and el got back together. Look i get it im annoyed too. But its not bc i think that will having crush on mike is a bad scenario choise or the way they made him handle the situation is bad. No i think that wills character is one of the best of them all. S4 made me fall in love with him.

Steves crush on nancy is forced and unrealistic as well as nancys idk supposed feelings for him? Guys its the biggest bullshit ive ever seen. Nancys and johnatans fight is also very random created only to give some place for stancy. Im sorry but i didnt care much about jopper this season this ship was kinda cute in s1 and s2 (a little) but later on it was just jeah they'll end up together at some point and i dont care its ok. I also dislike hopper a bit - his anger outbrusts are too much for me despite his huge heart and stuff. Dustin and susie - i dont care. Dustin is amazing suzie is a boring character used only whan theyre having trouble. Max and lucas - they are nice s4 made me like max more and this scene in hounted house was awesome and cute. But they are lacking the tension bc we know somewhere in back of our heads that they'll end up together and drama is needed to build up both of their characters and it works (not like this s3 painfull drama to teach mike a lesson about beeing posesive - i didint learn much abt max and lucas then)

I think that finally will's character is treated seriously in s4. In s1 and s2 he was just in danger and everyone tried to save him. In s3 he had some place to be annoyed and sad but again all of his problems vanished as soon as they found out about mind flayer. In s4 noah shnapp is doing AMAZING job making will constantly on werge of crying (and it somehow isnt too much which dropped my mouth on the floor. Dont underestimate that! Usually characters that cry everytime theyre having a convo with anyone are annoying and you just wish they shut up but not will)

If we look at all those small details and clues the show kept giving us about wills sexuality (like people bulling him and laughing at him in s1 calling him homophobic slurs, him looking at mike before dancing with a girl on a snow ball in s2, mike saying is not his fault that will doesnt like girls in s3, that weird ass feet flirt? (gross) and wills presentation about alan truing in s4 for example) it gives us a good amount of reasons that it isnt just a part of his character like it was with robin in s3. The coming out scene wasnt like a confirmation of some obvious clues or shit. Her character wasnt about beeing gay it was about beeing a person and beeing gay. Which is huge difference. As a fan of casual representation i was very satified with steves and robins thread in s3 because i already loved them before the coming out scene (and its also a reason why im disapointed with it in s4 because they threw away the importance of their friendship and focused on romance instead which has been done wery poorly) But will also isnt just gay. He's a very confused child focusing on figuring out who he is. Its more like a heartstopper kind of storyline but he has no one to talk about it no one to support him like openly without just guessing what he is going throught. He doesnt have 'am i gay quiz' or any kind of people like him he can talk to. Instead he has a crush on an absolute asshole (I will get to that soon) and mindset of puting others before him. So it shouldnt be a surprise that he does everything he can to support and help mike. And look at him HE CRIES ALMOST EVERY TIME the emotions inside are taking him over. The problem isnt the plot isnt the crush isnt will's character its mike

What in the fucks sake happend to him over the seasons? In s1 and 2 i belived that he is nice he is caring that he is a heart of a group. He was a GOOD FRIEND. But now show has to desperately remind us about all this stuff because he himself isnt. Since s3 he is just revolving around el. All the time no place for anyone else there. Well maybe they are buliding up like a sudden realisation scene where mike will realise what this relationship was doing with him or something. But guess what HE WON'T why? BECAUSE HE IS UNABLE TO FIGURE OUT HIS FLAWS HIMSELF or read basic signals from his friends that he's hurting them. So maybe in s5 someone (probably Will) will have to put some sences into that oblivious mind of his (i hope will will be yellig) and honestly that is the only rational reason i can see for watering down his character this much (rational where its not just a poor writing) i hope it will happen i would enjoy it i would forgive using wills feelings for ending mikes and els fight. But if nothing like this happens mileven is doing perfectly 'fine' as always will is coming out but it has no impact on anything than im throwing that show away other threads arent enough to make me invest in it as much as this one is (im not saying that i need byler to come true what i need is a logical explanation on why mike is such an asshole and REAL character development this time) Every time show is fucusing on mikes flaws (its always just one flaw - like mike beeing possesive or not caring about will at all) other characters confront him making him realise what he was doing wrong he apologises and everything is fine again exept its not. Because he fixes this one single flaw they were taking about every other out there is left untouched. He doesnt grow as a person (one good thing about him - he doesnt make same mistake twice) actually hes beeing even a bigger asshole. So theres no surprise for me that all he takes from wills advices are ways to make up with el bc thats all he is focusing on. He doesnt look at bigger picture of situation - at wills emotions at ways his voice sounds like at reasons why he took that painting for that trip or why he painted him in that contects in the first place.

I dont know what elese to write to clarify my point (i hope its somehow understandable) I am a huge byler shipper but as i said it doesnt even have to be canon for me because if it was with mike left the way he is it could be even more painfull for will. What im really hoping for in s5 is explainging mikes horrible begaviour and fixing it for real this time (this scenario in case they made him this bad on pourpose) or fixing his character generaly (in case it was accidental) and a satisfing wills coming out scene. I cant specify exactly what im expecting but im counting it will be as good as robins

#stranger things #stranger tgings s4 #mike wheeler #will byers #byler #rats trash talks

[readymades2002]

still on about 2-4 miles! putting this under a cut because it is quite long and uninteresting. i promise i have thoughts on this case that arent just Mad i will try to word those better to share soon

i DO feel like i am being childish because i’m very very upset about that one thing that happens at the beginning of the trial but i hope it’s not that...i fell like. i’ve talked before about how aa flinches away from implying anything that miles actually Did during his time as vk’s protege and how i think that’s kind of cheap (if you are going to say phoenix became a lawyer for these reasons then COMMIT!!!) and even though i like miles very much (shocking to hear im sure) its very clear that these games ALSO like him and so don’t want him to be wretched. that shows up in most of his other appearances in these games! it feels obvious

so! of course, having said that! 2-4! WHY DID HE SAY THAT! i have wracked my brain trying to come to terms with this! i’ve finally played the part where the game attempts to justify this and well whether it’s because i’m biased or because it’s genuinely not good, i am not pleased about it. the leap this game takes just doesnt make sense, whether you interpret the jumping point as 1-4 (as originally intended) or 1-5. it is hard enough to take this scenario as it’s written, because before asking “how would these characters behave in this situation”, you have to CREATE the situation, and the situation created here is: bad! and i tend to dig my heels in and go “i’m not going to acknowledge that this happened because it’s shocking for shocking’s sake and i hate it”, but this method doesn’t really work as you’re playing the situation obviously

the most direct address of the response to adrian’s refusal to talk about herself in court (which, by the way, every character who talks about it is also mystified that miles said That Thing He Said. just want to note that) goes something like “That wasn’t like you at all. You could have made her testify as many times as you wanted, but to go that far...” To which miles says “But she wouldn’t testify about That until I said something. The courtroom is a garden of judgement. I am putting myself on the line when I stand in there. And that’s why I made the witness do the same...it’s only natural.”

which. HOOTS. this is quite an explanation and at the same time that it’s incredibly INCREDIBLY rife with implications i don’t buy it as an excuse for the game doing that fhksdj

i don’t think this is the worst explanation and in fact i think there are ways in which it could work. in the previous game, miles floated the idea that he followed in manfred’s footsteps to punish himself. following that line of reasoning, this is SURE something. as we know already, he and adrian have this common ground of Choosing Death. when he returned, he almost immediately got told that he should have stayed dead by maybe the two most important people in his life. because of 1-5, we’ve also already seen how the judgement he faces has affected him (and my god i have some thoughts on that but i don’t want to get into it here). putting the pieces together, him dredging up adrian’s past in detail is a lot of things. it is a way to drag her down with him, it is a way to deflect judgement onto her, it is a way to punish them both for being Weak(TM)(TM)(TM). when he talks about his Departure later, even though it’s the most honest he has been about it yet, he still refers to it as “leaving the prosecutor’s office”. when talking to adrian, though, he refers to her ideation as “choosing death”, which like. is the same wording he actually used when he left. that makes it feel like...he won’t acknowledge it himself, but when faced with adrian, he sees something that means they’re both on the line. it’s got some Implications! justice for all has been a pretty decent game for characters not saying what they mean. i think that theoretically this works.

HOWEVER and i’m sure you guessed there was going to be a However, i don’t think this makes sense for miles after the first game! not after 1-5, CERTAINLY, and not even really after 1-4. frankly, this game starting after 1-4 originally is borderline nonsensical. some really, REALLY good character shit comes up as a result of miles’s storyline in this game, but it’s also so transparently here for drama. it’s very very frustrating! i think the discussion between phoenix and miles during phoenix’s crisis of faith in this case is rich, but i also think in the context of this series as a whole, it is kind of soup! investigations comes later and clarifies that years later, miles is still struggling with what he wants to do (which kind of rules and also i think points to how restless his role as a character is). actually, looking at j4a miles after playing investigations is sooooo much. investigations says he has this desire to find the truth that has persisted even under manfred’s teaching, even though he gets punished for it, and turns his face turn in 1-3 into this thing that has been gnawing at him his whole life coming back into the light (even as he tries to bury it). there’s not really anything in j4a miles that is represented that isn’t done better in another game. this place where he is  quietly leading phoenix to draw his own conclusions about what he wants to do is interesting, but it also doesn’t feel like miles.

there is SOMETHING here that isn’t really in any other miles iteration, though, and this IS relevant to me, and it is the thing that has been like. hammering on me the entire time i play this case. which is the adrian stuff. him doing this to put adrian on the line as well as a statement of punishment towards the both of them doesn’t make sense to me. not everyone has to immediately grow and learn from their mistakes once identifying them, but to have miles disappear and figure out for himself what his role means only to come back and immediately use it to punish himself by proxy again doesn’t feel like it rings true. and, of course, for him to use this to punish adrian...is cruel. it’s abjectly cruel. it is a cruelty he doesn’t display in any other case, really. not as a rookie, not with sebastian, not in any form that we ever see. everyone who knows him and HAS known him in his previous forms is still upset and stunned by this, and, being in the future where other games have come out to expand on this character, its like. this stands out! this stands far out! this stands out like lorikeet stands out among pigeons!

i hope this isn’t me just...being mad that a character i like is bad, i think i’ve made it clear that i wish the game would push him on his worse traits more and that i think wanting every character you like to be always right and good is boring so if this is just that same urge manifesting i’ll be very embarrassed. but i just don’t think this needed to happen like this! i don’t! with everything else, with EVERYTHING that the game says about adrian and celeste, “my mentor was a strong woman she wouldn’t do this over anything”, “she’s a person who depends on other people”, adrian hating herself for her perceived weakness, most of the other women that appear in this series as bit parts, this feels like just another manifestation of that misogyny along with the pointless Shock that has accompanied miles’s entire role in this game.

i think that you COULD suggest that this makes sense. it could. if you ignore that this was written by someone, and you accept the explanation offered along with the other character work done in this game for miles, it’s not NOTHING. miles is kind of a hypocrite. he’s cryptic and indirect when talking to phoenix. it is possible that he regresses after returning and being greeted pretty coldly. not all development is linear. it is also an artifact of the games being made that his portrayal in 1-5 came about long after this game was written. but overall i just feel like. i really.......i really think this case is just Bad. the game’s overarching themes and character arcs are something, the themes introduced in this case are Something (adrian has what fandom klavier wishes he had essentially), but it all feels like its just a cudgel to excuse the deluge of abuse and exploitation heaped on celeste and adrian and it sucksssssssssss

tldr (attempt) i dont think this miles interpretation is without foundation. but it feels cruel in ways the game has never committed to showing anywhere else BUT in portraying the women in this case, and if they’re trying to actually go “see? demon prosecutor” it is FAR too far along to be doing that and it never shows up anywhere else so i’m not buying it. don’t write a game in one month next time

#turnabout autism