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#if you think good character development is about a bad person becoming a nice and soft cinnamon roll
tossawary · 3 months
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Regarding "The Hobbit" film trilogy, even if I ended up personally disliking and resenting how much time and focus the elf characters (and others) ended up taking away from the dwarves whom I think deserved more focus as rich internal characters (I know that studio pressures are a factor in that terrible love triangle and so on), I still... vaguely appreciate the effort to create and include named female characters like Tauriel, when the book is sadly lacking in them. I think she's fine, actually. Comparatively, there are many other elements in these adaptations that I think are much, MUCH worse.
But still, if you want to add female characters to this story, the obvious answer to me seems to be to just make half the Company into dwarf women? (With similarly fancy beards and other facial hair! Because I think that's fun.) It's just... so much easier?
Do NOT come at me with that "dwarf women are rare" bullshit. Unreliable narration. Logistically unlikely. Also, if you believe that "men are the warriors and craftsmen, the women stay at home" is how dwarf society strictly functions (boring, honestly, on top of being incredibly sexist), I could argue that the Battle of Azanulbizar and other struggles probably left a significant dent in this dwarf group's male population, leaving behind many widows and mothers without children to pick up the work. The battlefields have come to and TAKEN both Erebor and Moria from the dwarves. I see no good reason why dwarf women would not have equal investment in reclaiming their home and the gold. Many of the Company are not presented to be formally trained warriors, anyway.
Now, ideally, we could do way queerer stuff in terms of both romance and gender here, but we know cowards with veto powers would not let this happen. Still, I feel like basic genderbending would have been a very doable move and is, actually, a very reasonable ask of an adaptation that would have added some depth to the story even if you didn't acknowledge the change at all.
Like, preferably, this would be an adaptational change that would be directly addressed. Maybe all of the Company appear male at first due to traveling that way (and assumptions made by humans and hobbits), then Bilbo might learn that some of the Company are dwarf women when he becomes closer to all of them. We could have a brief scene acknowledging that dwarf women are fighting these battles for their pasts and their futures too. It doesn't have to be a big thing! They can just be there. Existing. Participating.
I even think it would be fun if two of the dwarves were actually an older married couple traveling together, instead of brothers or cousins, because loving married bickering and battle couples are fun. You can have running jokes in the background about how Smaug's invasion ruined their wedding day, and going back and forth with "you never take me anywhere nice" @ each other whenever they're stuck in Goblintown or the Mirkwood dungeons. (I like seeing good marriages & partnerships in fiction and established couples going on fantasy quests together. I just think it's neat.)
But another (sillier) direction is that you could just cast some actresses in beards to play some of the dwarves, then leave the fact that some of these characters are probably dwarf women (traveling as men) as a fun detail for the audience. Bilbo is either too oblivious to notice or much too polite to bring it up at all. It's canonically compliant to the text this way!
Now, obviously some few people would have complained that Tolkien's work was being ruined by "political correctness", but they complained anyway about Tauriel (when there are MANY other bad choices in these movies), and what worthwhile arguments could they have possibly made against genderbending some of the THIRTEEN dwarves? Like, most casual fans I know cannot NAME the entire Company, who get so little character development in the book that the films had to come up with unique designs and backgrounds for most of them anyway. Bro (directed towards someone objecting to the idea of including female dwarves), be real, there's no way that you honestly cared this much about "Nori the Dwarf" before right now.
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agronzky · 7 months
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⠀⠀⠀𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐎 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐀 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃 𝐕𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐈𝐍 𝐑𝐏.
⠀⠀⠀Anyone who knows me or has rp with me knows how much I love building ambiguous — or grey, if you prefer — characters or villains. The drama, the chaos, the complex plot… It all makes everything more interesting, especially once you get bored of characters who are exclusively nice, naive and suchlike. Even so, it's a construction that needs to take several factors into account and be very delicately written so it doesn't become a trigger rather than a character.
⠀⠀⠀For this reason, below I've provided some tips on how to create villainous characters for rp, taking into account various traits, setting and also demystifying the fact that not every villain is a soulless monster. Anyway, on to the guide.
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Deep and personal motivations.
⠀⠀⠀Convincing villains usually have compelling and understandable motivations, even if their actions are highly questionable. It's the premise of them being right in their quest, but using the wrong means to achieve it and ultimately losing their reason. This brings a sense of humanity and it's even possible to feel connected to what led this person to become a villain. You can truly see how they lost the way.
⠀⠀⠀Another point is the fact that not everyone wants to conquer the world, nor do they have the ambition to have a lot of money or power. Think of plots about revenge, twisted love, the quest for justice or fear. Generally, a character's deepest motivations give them more determination to fulfill their goals because it comes from something much more internal and traumatic. Give them a proper reason and make them lose the way, this is gonna make everything feel real, convincing and interesting to developed.
Moral complexity.
⠀⠀⠀The simple truth is the days of people liking completely cartoonish characters are long gone, and nowadays many people don't like those who are evil simply for the sake of being evil. This is because it's too out of touch with reality. Obviously there are people who are like that in real life, but the vast majority is more complex than this. Humans, in the end, are very complicated and, probably, will never truly understand why we are the way we are.
⠀⠀⠀To get away of this cliché and cartoonish form when creating your character, try to develop moral nuances and internal dilemmas which can explain their actions. Put a small fragment of morality in the character, make them question themselves a few times as to whether they're on the right path… Remember yin yang: there's a little tiny good inside the evil. This tip can be used for any character, when you think about it, but it's very important for those who want to create villains.
Human traits, personality and vulnerabilities.
⠀⠀⠀Like any human being, provide your character with traits unmistakably human, such as fears, insecurities or personal relationships that will impact them, to make them more realistic. Just because someone is doing something morally wrong doesn't mean they've lost all touch with their humanity, especially since not every villain is a psychopath who has no empathy for anyone. It's always very interesting when a character believes they're doing what's right or good for someone else, and this is their motivation. 
⠀⠀⠀Also bring some weaknesses to the character, whether physical, emotional or psychological. This provides room for development and also ways for other characters to access them in a more specific way, either to get to know them better or to retaliate against them at some point.
⠀⠀⠀You know that line "Do you like my personality? I created it especially for you!"? Well, consider how the character behaves and bring in more layers when making the personality. Take into account how they behave in different situations and with different people.
Charisma and a magnetic nature.
⠀⠀⠀The fact is that bad guys aren't unbearable one hundred per cent of the time, they need to know how to live in society and captivate people. So define unique and appealing traits for the character, whether they're genuine or merely a façade. It's always interesting when, within the plot, most people don't know about the evil or wrong side of a character because it gives them more room for development. Maybe make them ashamed of what they're doing and try to hide it as best they can. And just think about real life: do we truly know the people around us?
Connection with other characters.
⠀⠀⠀Nobody lives completely alone since we're in a society and this makes us having connections, for more simple they can be. Thinking about that, create connections with other characters to bring more motivation and drama to your muse, such as an old rivalry, a complicated personal relationship or a surprising connection which generates tension. You can also create connections that actually bring their good side to light, you know? It's also always good to add a certain complexity, to have troubled moments, wounds that haven't healed fully, secrets being revelead, etc.
Questions for creating villains.
What are the character's main motivations?
What is the character's origin story? What led them to become what they are today?
What are the past traumas or events that have shaped their worldview?
How does the character justify their actions morally? Does they believe they are doing the right thing?
What are their weaknesses and vulnerabilities?
How does the character present themselves to the world? Are they masked, manipulative or showy?
What do they want to achieve through their actions?
What are their emotional reactions to obstacles and challenges?
How do they justify their actions to themselves? Is there any sense of internal validation?
How do they relate to the authorities or the law?
How do they see themselves? Do they see themselves as the hero of their own story?
How do they react when their plans fail?
What do they feel when faced with the possibility of redemption or change?
Other small (and important) advice!
Corruption arcs are also super interesting, leading a good character to become bad over time and through traumatic situations. Redemption arcs are also sensational. The point is: nobody was born a villain and nobody has to die a villain.
Leave clues indicating your character before fully revealing your motivations. Also try to leave some motivations completely secret, using them when the plot calls for a surprise. In the best "surprise, bitch!" style.
Think about how environment and culture can influence beliefs and actions.
A villain doesn't have to be a psychopath or murderer. There are arcs of revenge and corruption which can be created without going to such extremes.
It's obvious, but always respect other players and the limits they impose. As I said, a villain isn't always doing evil and being a complete asshole, so make sure you know what kind of approach the other person will prefer.
Always be careful when approaching topics which are triggers and avoid them as much as possible. As I said, it's not necessary to go down this route, but if you do, always keep a firm grounding when writing, because triggers are complex real-life situations that always need to be handled delicately.
The end, for now.
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( Be with Morgana, my good girl gone bad ♡ )
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selene-19 · 3 months
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Katsuki Bakugo and Katsuki Gogo
Reminder that Katsuki is originally supposed to be a nice, cheery person and best friend with Izuku but Horikoshi HATES IT! I did think about it and I understand why Bakugo Katsuki is the best choice than Gogo Katsuki
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Gogo Katsuki has it all a strong quirk, good looks, a natural genius and have a nice personality. He sounds lovable, right? He would be like:
Izuku: Kacchan you are amazing!
Katsuki: you are amazing too Izuku! I bet you could do it too.
If this is their relationship I wouldn't ship them. Why? Cause I would rather ship Izuocha because it has the same energy. Sunshine x Sunshine ☀️
Izuku with this Katsuki is not good on my opinion. Izuku is self sacrificial, so selfless and with this Katsuki who I bet would just encourage him. He would be the Deku who does his best and Gogo would just be happy for him like a good best friend 🙃
Unlike Katsuki Bakugo who knows Izuku's self-sacrificial and hate it. I'm saying this without shipping glasses but Katsuki Bakugo is perfect as he is imperfect. He has flaws, mistakes, weaknesses, and insecurities and Gogo doesn't have actual flaws except being an airhead. Gogo didn't need to have that character growth and development. I mean Gogo Katsuki could have grown to be a hero and I think that would only be his development and doesn't need to be with Izuku for that.
This video after Kacchan vs Deku 2 shows how Bakugo Katsuki makes Izuku strive to be a better hero, them being rivals. He wanted to catch up with Katsuki and vice versa. Izuku admires Katsuki's strength and Katsuki fears Izuku's heart, they are twin stars, like yin and yang and of course as All Might said "Win to Save, Save to Win". You can see All Might proud smile while looking at them.
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Now, this sketch of Hori which is one of my fave shows how Izuku keeps chasing after Katsuki and wants to be the best hero with him. Look how he ran so hard with all of his might. He wants to catch up with Katsuki so bad, wants to be closer which he achieves eventually. Even with the bullying it never stops Izuku from dreaming of becoming a hero. I also like to add that Katsuki also chases after Izuku because both of them think one is ahead of the other shown in chp 362.
Let's go back to Gogo Katsuki. Gogo is a genius so obviously he is talented and good with everything and definitely supportive. So Izuku being quirkless is not an issue to Gogo cause he is nice so I think he would say that Izuku can still be a hero. And Izuku would be happy with that. He wouldn't push himself so hard or might push himself but either way, Gogo said he would be a hero and Izuku would believe it. Izuku doesn't need to do his very best to chase Katsuki cause he has his acceptance already so end of story 😟
There would be no "I keep chasing after you and What would Kacchan do" then no romantic rain, no heart issue, Katsuki apology would never happen, not Katsuki being Izuku's hero or vice versa, no Katsuki being sacrifice or him dying for Izuku cause why would he do that when he trust Izuku could do anything. They just don't bring the best out of each other. And we would never have Izuku looking at Katsuki with awe and wanted to be closer cause they are already close. They'll just be childhood friends and classmates. MHA would never be the same.
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Just looking at this it pisses me off. I understand Horikoshi why it angers him. Katsuki has an explosion quirk and should have an explosive personality but Gogo is just a burst of sunshine and just perfect 😂
credits to the editor 💖
With Gogo Katsuki I don't think Izuku would see him as his image of victory (why would he when Katsuki G is nice and won't fight and I bet is friendly with everyone) but rather a supportive best friend, I can see them being rivals, has a friendly rivalry like Asta and Yuno. So I would never ship them and I would agree with people saying they are like brothers.
Katsuki Bakugo is a complex character and I love him for that. Katsuki Gogo would be a good character but he would never achieve as much popularity as Katsuki Bakugo who is always number one on popularity polls. Horikoshi is amazing on writing Katsuki Bakugo's character and personality. Also, Gogo Katsuki should be with prototype Izuku or Yamikumo cause they have contrast in their personality so they are good with each other, unlike Gogo and Izuku.
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Lastly, I love Katsuki being a tsundere and I would never appreciate his genuine smile if he was Gogo who is a cheery person that always smiling 🥹
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As I end this I would like to add, we won't have our Izuku Midoriya we know today without Katsuki Bakugo. They are who they are right now because of each other and their experiences 🧡💚
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Found this on pinterest, credits to the artist
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blluespirit · 1 month
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It’s time for episode 4 thoughts
Here are my thoughts from Eps 1-3 😌
things I have enjoyed!!
the interactions between iroh and aang in the prison were good. i’m glad they didn’t just spell out his backstory immediately and left some suspense there.
Zuko in his breaking and entering era so true. i love it when he is sneaky 😌
I’m happy they got to include the minstrels singing the secret tunnel! I was wondering how/if they’d do it
I actually am enjoying the new Sokka characterisation, I don’t hate it at all.
I love Jet. I love his character. You can understand where he’s coming from but Katara’s speech to him sums it up nicely
Jet: Look at the power you have. That’s because of me. Katara: That wasn’t you. That was me.
She was iconic for that. she’s becoming the warrior we know and love
Also Gordon is perfect i love him he is Aang 😌
OMA AND SHU LESBIANS LETS GOOO
I’m pleasantly surprised how they have gone not with the Kataang route. I was never a fan with how they handled it in the og so i was hoping they’d either scrap it or develop it better!!
Zuko and Iroh flashbacks destroyed me. i am on the FLOOR. I will never be okay again.
So happy they included Zuko having fucking… insane strength (SMASHING METAL CHAINS WITH HIS FOOT). love it.
Zuko with everyone: 😡😤; Zuko with Iroh: 🥺😌
Constantly giving Zuko situations were he can either help Iroh or pursue Aang and him choosing Iroh every time. yeah exactly.
things that that I’m not a fan of or am unsure about:
Bumi. Sorry I just didn’t like him at all. i didn’t like the challenges either. idk why i just didn’t vibe with it. this one is just a personal opinion!
Not necessarily a bad thing but I’m just not sure if having all these Ozai scenes was the best choice ?????? I feel like if they wanted to make him feel more terrifying then you can build up to it? Like all the characters are laid out right away. I’m just not sure!!!!
Also I love Katara but something feels Off. I have no idea tho if I’m off base with this so I’d love to know your thoughts
OVERALL: Still enjoying it 😌 I think they’ve done a good job thus far and am very much entertained
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hoodlessmads · 4 months
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Dark Heir spoiler thoughts:
Okay some of these are criticisms but please understand I really liked it! I liked it even more than Dark Rise. I’m just an overdramatic person and need to yell sometimes.
These don’t have any particular order, I’m just freestyling -
Reading Captive Prince years ago (and rereading since) before reading Dark Rise made me have an unfair resentment towards James for being basically the same character as Laurent but not as good and that continued here
Will is the second best character Pacat has ever made after Laurent and book 3 might push him ahead
I loved seeing Will use more and more of his evil powers
The best one being where he possesses anyone with a brand and his eyes turn black and he turns into Legion (maybe shoulda turned that off before trying to appeal to Violet…)
Finding out his mom actually was tying him to bedposts and beating him this whole time somehow shocked me because for some silly reason I believed one of the most unreliable third person subjective narrators ever, Will, that she was a nice lady just doing her best. Anyway I love this revelation because it makes such perfect sense, it’s just, “Oh. Of course.”
Violet and Cyprian are both himbos yet Violet is somehow the only character with a single brain cell left at the end of the book
Cyprian drinking from the cup makes no sense after they had a whole discussion in the first book about how drinking from the cup put the Stewards into the Dark King’s plans and made them his thralls and was the entire reason they died, a massacre which Cyprian experienced viscerally, and then he goes and drinks from the cup anyway and oops surprise Will can in fact enthrall him. Cyprian is able to fight it off but that doesn’t change the complete recklessness and out-of-character-ness of it to me.
Violet/Cyrprian is a good ship
Phillip/Visander is hilarious (in a good way)
Will/James is fine but I wish I was more compelled by them than I actually am. For being the main couple, I don’t feel like their relationship has been given the room it needed to develop organically and instead it feels like we’re falling back on physical attraction and a vague shadow of a past relationship in the old world that we didn’t get to see. It’s hard not to compare to Damen/Laurent which by contrast was developed so painstakingly.
Elizabeth is incredible
Visander sucks, actually
The whole Light kind of sucks. The Stewards, the Sun Kingdom, they were all assholes
People with black-and-white morality are truly terrible, aren’t they? And pretty much everyone is like that except for Will, James, and Violet
Sometimes I felt like that fact was really being hammered in on purpose almost as though to make James murdering like 300 people seem less bad (but it didn’t….)
But I don’t dislike James because he murdered 300 people, I actually love villains and I especially am attached to the idea of everyone being redeemable. But what I don’t like is the book telling me I should like James without giving me a good reason or the book downplaying his actions to make him seem more sympathetic. He can have murdered all the Stewards and still be compelling, we don’t need to diminish what he’s done in order for him to be likable
Also everyone in this book except like, Will and maybe Violet and James is an idiot (and I’ll excuse Elizabeth for only being ten). Someone send these characters to Psych 101, they don’t seem to understand the concept of a self-fulfilling prophecy…
Like obviously if you tell someone they’re evil over and over again for their whole lifetime they will become evil
Theory - I don’t think Violet will turn on Will. I think she’s just shell-shocked. She wasn’t really given a chance to take a stance before James Peter Panned him away. Violet knows exactly what it feels like to be told you are evil because of some past thing, and she knows Will better than any of the other characters. And she knows that morality is not black and white (Tom is her brother). She’ll definitely end up in Will’s corner by the end.
Theory - The line of the Lady and the line of the Dark King are the same bloodline and they split off later. Sarcean’s “cataclysmic night together” with the Lady was mentioned not once but twice. Pacat doesn’t waste lines. The child that the Lady had was Sarcean’s, or at least one of them.
Will better figure out how to destroy that collar quick…before they both get even more traumatized. I think that will be one of his main goals in book 3. Or I hope…otherwise it will be hard to develop the genuine romance
I sure hope Will can also figure out how to expel that shadow from Cyprian before he like… dies. Don’t do that to Violet D:
So, I’m not a huge fan of YA in general (outside of YA anime and manga which for some reason hits different). I used to like it a lot, it used to be most of what I read. I grew up reading series like Redwall, Darren Shan, Demonata, Pendragon, and so on. But I’ve grown out of the genre (I’m 27). Not every adult does - one of my best friends who is a year older than me still really enjoys YA. But because I don’t like YA, I think my enjoyment of Dark Rise/Dark Heir is influenced and my criticisms may be unfair.
But I find that with fantasy series like this, I the books really need to be longer. Or there needs to be more of them. I feel like Dark Rise has so many moving pieces, enough characters that there could be a trading card game (and there are literally collectible cards), so many different magical artifacts and magical powers, an entire magical old world beneath the semi-magical 1820s Europe world to develop, and also by the way a whole story that took place 10,000 years ago that has to be told at some point. I find myself feeling like all these different elements are being introduced and moved on from too fast and I wish they were all given more time to breathe. I think that’s part of why the relationship between Will and James feels a bit rushed to me. I don’t know if the short length of the series was Pacat’s choice or an editor’s, though. I don’t feel like Captive Prince had this issue because there were no supernatural elements, the cast was much smaller, and the plot was comparably simple so a lot of it got to be characters just talking to each other, which was great, and the world building was accomplished mainly through these interactions. The plot and world of Dark Rise is much larger in scope but the page count is the same (a little longer maybe).
So wait who is Mrs. Duval
Why did Ettore leave the Stewards anyway? Other than the obvious, which is that they suck
Where was Grace during the whole ending scene? Wasn’t she there but just not saying anything. As this total calamity befalls her only remaining friend group she finally has seen too much and just nopes out and is busy making tea in the corner or maybe popcorn
I do really like Cyprian btw in spite of thinking his moral code is shitty. Gave Violet a chance but sold Will for one corn chip… I see how it is (okay that’s not fair but you know what I mean, he has flaws)
It sounds like I’m in the majority when I say that I still don’t like Devon - I saw that theory about him being the final big bad and I’m so on that train. I think he’d make a good enough final villain. I agree there is something predatory about him and Tom. I don’t necessarily think Pacat wants us to root for them as a couple, though. There were better ways to pull that off if that was the intent.
Not to repeat myself but Phillip was such a pleasant surprise. Like who is this fruit and how did he get here
So next book, I hope (assume) we get to see the rest of the old world story filled in so we can understand where it all went wrong for Sarcean and also the exact nature of his relationship with Anharion because so far it’s been quite vague (intentionally I assume). Like….. you know….. did he agree to put on the collar?
The tricky thing about this series is that once the reader learns that Will is the Dark King, it’s hard to maintain any sort of external tension. Right? It’s hard to feel afraid of the forces of the Dark when the protagonist has total effortless control over them just by virtue of who he is. Will can literally just be like, “No, don’t” and everything’s fine. He did just this at the end of Dark Rise. I find the way Dark Heir seems to end with their “only hope of stopping the Dark army” destroyed to be pretty unconvincing. Why on earth would Sarcean create a destructible object that is the only way of controlling his own army? Of course Will should be able to control them with his will alone. If he can control Shadow Kings and make them die with his words alone, why didn’t he try yelling at the shadow army to stop trying to possess people? This doesn’t make sense to me. And if people become Returners through his magic, shouldn’t he be able to exert some control over their existence the way he does with the branded? Pacat has done a good enough job at getting us to know Sarcean (an extremely good job btw) so as to make the destroyed brand plot point unbelievable. Anyway…
Instead, the tension in Dark Heir is almost entirely internal or realized in character relationships rather than physical threats. The tension is between Will and himself, and between Will and his friends. (There are tensions between other characters but focusing on the main plot here.) The possibility that they might find out and abandon him, and the possibility that he might actually be as nasty of a guy as Sarcean was, the slim chance that he might learn something that makes him go, “You know what, I agree with my past self after all.”
Now that everyone has found out who he is, that particular source of tension has sort of evaporated, so now in book 3 Pacat has to find a way to make Will’s conflict with himself and his friends compelling enough to carry us through 450 pages (I don’t expect this will be difficult). What I see as the problems now are 1) what was Sarcean actually planning and how did he plan on getting Will (himself) to fall in line with them (this was a question in Dark Heir as well but now it’s bigger), 2) how is Will going to destroy his own (Sarcean’s) Dark artifacts so he can free James, and 3) Can he convince anyone to ever love him (oh no ouch).
If I had to rank these books at this stage I’d probably give Rise a 3.7 ish…. and Heir a 4.2. I’m holding out for Dark King to be a 5 or close. (I don’t know what the actual title will be, I’m just guessing lol.) I definitely think Dark Heir is an improvement over Dark Rise since I always thought the most interesting part of the latter by far was everything that happened once Will learns he is the Dark King at the very end.
“Are we going to talk about the magic pseudo-sex scene—“ No and I hope we never will
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ghostkinnie · 2 years
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Ichigo has been described as having a scary face if you don’t know him, so how do you think he’d deal with meeting someone who treats him normally, he develops a crush over the next month, he purposely puts on the tough guy act throughout Bleach, so he is not seen as soft or embarrassed easily, so how do you think he’d deal with hearing his crush say right in front of him to somebody else, “I’ve always thought he’s sweet and funny” and the person questions “We’re talking about Ichigo Kurosaki. that Ichigo”. ”Yea he’s rough around the edges, but really nice”?
a/n: first sorry for the delay my tumblr started to delete requests ಥ_ಥ and second i loved what you asked because several bleach characters fit that so i took the liberty of doing other than ichigo
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BLEACH BOYS X READER WHO DIDN'T FIND THEM INTIMIDATING
➜ characters: Ichigo, Kenpachi, Grimmjow, Renji and Ulquiorra
➜warnings: none just fluff
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ICHIGO
Ichigo is certainly a bad boy look but on the inside he is cute and kind
Having someone who from the beginning saw him for who he truly is made something warm inside of him
And seeing you saying it in front of others or "protecting" him in words makes him want to keep you even closer
He may be a little rough but all he loves most are his friends and family. And now you've joined this list
He will be so tender and gentle with you, as if you were a flower.
"You don't have to protect me, damn you're so cute I can't take it!"
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RENJI
Another bad boy look that's just cute on the inside
It's very easy to see people intimidated by his explosive form and when you didn't, Renji became interested and confused
Seeing you treating him with respect and being kind made his heart soften even more
He wants to keep you close at all times and see you being affectionate more and more often
And when you protect him with words saying how cool he truly is, he will decide that you are the love of his life
"Hey Y/N, don't speak well of me let them think these things, i'm only nice for you, bunny."
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GRIMMJOW
I mean this man is such a brat, everyone is always intimidated or scared by his threats and manner and he knows. He likes it.
And when you first arrive and treat him like he's someone nice, his mind stops working for a few minutes
But honestly he likes different things and you got this man's attention and interest. Get ready this brat won't let you go anytime soon
He'll tease you all the time but that's just his weird way of showing that he's totally attracted to you. Even though he's trying to deny these feelings
There will come a time when he will just decide that you are his and that's that
"Oe, stop saying those things you idiot!" He's definitely going to swear while he's blushing
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ULQUIORRA
This poor man is going to be so confused, give him patience
He is not used to feelings and expects everyone to find him intimidating. So why are you being so affectionate? He doesn't understand
And that's exactly why he'll be so intrigued and curious about you
And when Ulquiorra least expects it, the feeling of curiosity over you will have become a passion
He won't understand what he is feeling but he'll just know that he wants you and protect you above all else
"I am the one who must protect you, woman. Why are you doing this for me?"
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KENPACHI
Look at this man. Anyone is afraid and intimidated by him and he loves it
Zaraki has a good heart and you've known it since you saw him and Yachiru. And when you treated him differently than everyone else he was immediately intrigued about you
He will keep you around with an excuse that you are weak but honestly he loves being around you because he feels welcomed
It's like you two become a family, the two of you and little Yachiru as the daughter. And he'll like it, he'll like the feeling of having someone to love him
He is so used to hate and fear that having you to take care of him even with words is something that makes him fall to his knees for you
"What are you talking about me, little thing? You're too good for them."
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http-angelite · 1 year
Note
can you do Craig Tucker x reader head canons??ఌ Like what is he like before and after the relationship. Like give me the good sides and the bad sides and silly sides of a relationship with him.
(i mainly want the silly side)
The reader is preferably fem but cab also be gn if you want! ALSO DRINK WATERఌ
LOVE, ANONఌ
❦❦❦
♡ craig developing feelings for you ♡
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characters: craig (aged 16-17)
note: since this is such a broad request and i have SO many ideas for craig i decided to make multiple posts based on this request. that way it won't be ridiculously long, and it'll be easier for me to write + organize. i hope that's okay! i will continue working on the others as soon as i upload this, and they will all be posted sometime today ♡ tysm for reminding me to hydrate, i don't think i've had a single cup of water today, so i'll get right on that :)
➤ fem reader
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you and craig both go to the same school. you share a few classes with each other, but neither of you really ever talked or engaged with the other. there was no particular reason for that, you just had your friend group and he had his.
he wasn't the kind of person to start conversations with anyone he wasn't friends with or didn't know. you were a lot more outgoing than him, but you've just never had much of a reason to talk to him. he seemed, to you, like the kind of person who didn't wanna be bothered, so you didn't.
he saw you around school pretty often, and he had to admit that he thought you were really cute. after some time, he began to notice you more and more. you laughing with your friends, helping others with their work, almost always smiling and doing your best at everything you did.
he didn't often pay attention when another student had to present something in front of the class. if it was you up there, however, he couldn't help but watch and listen. he enjoyed the way you spoke so eloquently with that sweet tone of your voice.
the more you caught his eye, the more he thought about talking to you and being your friend. you always seemed so nice to everyone you talked to, and people always seemed happy to talk to you. but he has a hard time starting conversations, and found himself overthinking every time he considered trying.
craig noticed that you rarely, if ever, participated in any kind of drama with other students. you were just kinda chill and very unproblematic. he definitely appreciated that, since he did his best to stay out of drama himself.
he had always heard nothing but nice things about you. if you ever came up in conversation with his friends, he'd hang on every word spoken about you. he'd sometimes ask his friends who knew you more about what you were like.
one day, you and craig were paired together for a group project in one of the classes you shared. he was nervous, but excited that he now had an excuse to talk to you, and you kind of had no choice but to talk to him. you were pretty excited to meet someone new, get to know him, and maybe even become friends. :)
you two moved your seats next to each other, introduced yourselves, and exchanged numbers. he did his best to keep cool and participate in conversation, trying not to seem awkward, but you could tell that he was a bit nervous.
you guys started texting each other with ideas about the assignment, as well as plans to meet up to work on it, but then you began also talking about other things. you would often ask questions about him. you'd ask how his day was, what his favorite classes were, what kind of hobbies he had, and other things like that.
he greatly appreciated what a good conversationalist you were, as well as the fact that you were interested in learning about him. it made him feel more comfortable and confident when he spoke to you. then he began to ask you similar questions about you in return.
he learned that you were actually pretty funny and intelligent, on top of being kind and pretty. you were able to make him genuinely laugh, which was kind of hard to do. when he looks back on it, he believes that was the moment you had officially stolen his heart.
you and craig started hanging out together to work on your project. you both found a significant amount of joy in each other's presence, and you both began to look forward to every time you met. you guys got the assignment done a little early since you both enjoyed working together so much that you did so practically every day.
you both started to consider each other a friend instead of just a classmate, and he slowly began to develop feelings for you. since he wasn't much of a romantic, and he had never really had these kinds of feelings for anyone before, he did not understand them much at all.
his friends, on the other hand, immediately noticed how much craig seemed to like you. i mean, he was so different with you. he was nicer, more talkative, and he smiled more with you. they noticed every time he'd giggle at a text you sent him, every time he said something complimentary about you to them, and every time he complained about another guy being too close to you or talking to you too much. he definitely liked you.
every time they brought it up to him, however, he'd deny it, thinking that his friends were just jealous because none of them had such a friendship with a girl. but, the more they talked about it, the more he realized that he did, in fact, have feelings for you.
"no, i don't have a crush on her. I just don't want her to date anyone else."
"just because i think she's the prettiest girl at school doesn't mean i like her."
"sure, i think about how i'd like to hug her and hold her hand all the time, but that doesn't mean anything."
"yes it does, dude."
"... nuh-uh."
"yeah, sometimes i think about what it would be like to kiss her but... wait, guys, i think i have a crush on y/n."
they were so relieved when they finally got it through his head.
but now is when he really starts overthinking. he had no idea what to do with these feelings now that he actually knew what they were. should he tell you? does he ask you out? how would he even go about that?
he does want to ask you out, but he's never asked anyone out, nor has he ever been asked out before, so he had no idea how to do that.
craig also feels like you're way out of his league, and he was worried that you might agree with him. he worries about not being good enough for you in general. and what if you don't like him back and it messes up your friendship and/or you stop talking to him?
and, don't get me wrong, he typically is not the type to be insecure (although, he also isn't the type to be super confident), but he feels like he's just being realistic when he thinks that you deserve better than him. he has a hard time displaying his emotions, so he thinks that you'd probably prefer to be with someone who would be more openly affectionate with you.
he has no idea that you've developed feelings for him too. if you confess to him or ask him out first, he will be sooo happy! you'll get to see his cheeks turn pink as he gets all shy and speechless, while trying his hardest to stay cool.
if you don't, then it probably takes him a little while before he ever tells you how he feels. he's just so nervous! he's so happy being your friend that he'd hate himself if he ruined what you guys already have together.
it most likely takes one of your or his friends telling him that you have a crush on him for him to actually start planning on how to ask you out. but, no matter how many times he plans out the moment in his mind, or how suave he is when he does it in his head, he definitely just blurts it out at the most random point in conversation and it catches you hella off guard.
"so, then my friend said that we should all go to-"
"i'm in love with you."
"what?"
"what?"
he will not repeat himself pls don't make him
"what did you say?"
"nothing."
you take a second to process, making sure that you heard him correctly, before you giggle and his hand in yours.
"i'm in love with you too."
once those words leave your lips, he smiles so earnestly, in a way you, and many others, had never seen before.
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my second request! ty for reading :) i hope you enjoyed! i am going to take a little break before i work on the rest of this request bc my laptop died as i was about to post this the first time and it deleted the whole thing, so it took me twice as long to finish bc i had to start writing the whole thing over again :,)
ty for requesting! any and all feedback is appreciated ♡
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utilitycaster · 5 months
Note
Hey! Because I have seen various, various, various takes on Ashton’s actions in ep77– both on twitter (whew) and on here— and I am loving all of the different perspectives on it, I was wondering what your opinion was on the take that Ashton may have manipulated Fearne in the conversation they both had right before absorbing the shard.
Personally, I feel like it may be a bit more complicated than that, but I still don’t know.
Hey!
I think this post I made sums it up. It's not. Ashton tells Fearne precisely what they intend to do. He then does it. Fearne has the opportunity to refuse this request, or to tell the rest of Bells Hells, and she chooses not to. Yes, he compliments her and tells her that he trusts her to do the right thing when most wouldn't. Laudna asks Imogen to kill her if Delilah takes over in virtually the same exact language earlier than episode, and I don't think that's manipulative either:
Laudna to Imogen: And if anything happens and I become her little puppet, I trust you to make the right choice. (Implication this is a request for a mercy killing in the context of Delilah and Laudna's lives being inseparable; is understood as such by Imogen as demonstrated from her response and her later scene in the temple)
Ashton to Fearne: Things are going to happen, and I trust you to help me make the right decision, and I hope you trust me to help make the right decision.
The fact one is being brought up and not the other really points out that the Twitter talks out their collective ass ten times more often than they do their collective mouth; and the fact that they cannot distinguish "put Fearne in a somewhat uncomfortable position" from manipulation really points out that touching grass is not enough; they need to develop meaningful relationships with a wide variety of people in the real world.
Going along with a friend's stupid-ass decision that they encouraged you to join in and immediately regretting it is not, in fact, manipulation; it's your friend at most being kind of a dick and you exercising your agency to make your own stupid-ass decisions. It would have been wiser and nicer of Ashton to ask the party who wanted to take the shard, sure, but Fearne actively agrees with them that they should get it, and Ashton is not really defined by wisdom and being nice, and also, the above would be way more boring.
I don't want to go into this because it's a massive out-of-scope rant not limited to this particular situation, and I'd like to drag my sleep schedule back into a reasonable place tonight, but I think a lot of the more rancid discourse, whatever it may be but especially about interpersonal relationships between characters, arises for the following reasons, and I have little patience for any of them.
Thinking the only way to be a Good Person is to use 2023-approved therapy speak (and, frankly, frequently 2023 Rando on Tiktok claiming expertise who is actually a freshman psych students with no friends and a D average approved "therapy speak")
Relatedly, an all-consuming fear of any conflict, fictional, real, or otherwise, and the accompanying lack of any conflict resolution skills; this is also why they think this is manipulative, because if Fearne said no, that would be Conflict which is bad so positioning someone where conflict might be required for them to express themselves must be evil.
The genuine belief that you can only understand someone if you get everything right on the first try; either you read their mind perfectly or you have failed and are probably a manipulator or abuser for potentially leading to misunderstandings which lead to conflict which, as we see from the above point, is evil.
A refusal to admit that sometimes people are merely 1. assholes or 2. stupid. I frequently talk about opinions I cannot stand, and I almost as frequently get questions about how this opinion is problematic, and the vast majority of the time? It's not. I think it says something quite worrying, actually, that people are more comfortable and even eager to assume that a stranger is hateful or bigoted rather than merely inconsiderate or not that bright. Ashton made a poorly informed decision and made Fearne party to it. It was dumb and it wasn't really nice. That's literally it.
Anyway here's the five geek social fallacies; I recommend reading any Twitter Take(TM) and deciding how many of them they are applying to the narrative, cast, and fandom. See if you can get a full house.
(also upon re-reading this I'm pretty brusque and I promise it's not directed at you; I just genuinely think that the majority of the Twitter fandom, and certainly the loudest voices thereof, are so stupid a Detect Thoughts spell on them would fail on the basis of intelligence alone and the fact that their takes gain traction baffles and infuriates me)
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wannaeatramyeon · 1 year
Note
HIII how are u doing girlie😍🤞🤞 Anyways can u pls write a scenario where ur classmates (htf characters?) find out ur dating seong taehoon and their reactions?? You dont need to if u dont want to ofc<333
Hey Anon! Thanks for the ask <3 I'm doing great!! Brain rotting away as expected but HAPPY FRIDAY! Hope you're doing well too and having a good start to the month :)
Don't you agree that there's a disappointingly small amount of writing for our lil nutjob?
Please enjoy the whiplash of my change in tone!
HTF discovering You & Taehoon dating!
Things were tentative between you and Taehoon. You've only been dating for a couple months, and you're still getting to know this side of him. Well. You say this side but it's still the same old Taehoon that you've come to grow very fond of.
The one that tells everyone to piss off but comes running, no, sprinting when one of his friends need his help. Who threatens to beat everyone up, but will come to your defence with no hesitation. This prickly, insufferable little shit.
Sometimes you worry about your own sanity for liking someone like Taehoon, but then he gives you a look in the middle of the company meetings and your feel your entire body flush and your heart palpitate. And you think about just being alone with him, the way that he looks at you like he wants to devour you, the way his hand runs all over your body and god bless his pale skin because it's so obvious how crazy you're driving him despite how cool he plays it- "Huh? Sorry Rumi, I missed that question. What did you ask?"
You know already this guy has no respect for other people's personal space, but since you've gotten together, a complete and utter lack of personal space has become the norm. At least when no one else is around.
Taehoon corners you in the company house.
"You got 500 won?" He's leaning casually on the wall, blocking your path of exit. He wears a smug smirk as his face moves closer to yours.
You roll your eyes, "Get your own 500 won, I'm not lending you any more money you bastard."
He glances down at your lips, "How about a kiss then?"
Bastard indeed. You blush, but with him so close by, with his lidded gaze and goddamn pretty pink lips slightly parted... you couldn't say no if you tried.
You lean forward to kiss him, and Taehoon deepens it before you have a chance to move away. His arm circles around your waist, pressing your entire body against him. You put your arms around his neck, pulling him impossibly closer and his hands start to roam your body. Perhaps you and Taehoon should move this somewhere more private-
A glass shatters. "OH MY GOD!!"
You both turn and see the entirety of Hobin Yu company frozen in shock.
Fuck. This was why you shouldn't be making out in the living room.
Hobin: Very happy for you! Congrats Y/N!!! But then after a moment... wait. Hold on. The reality of the situation sinks in. What?! That psycho Taehoon managed to bag you???
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Yeah Taehoon has a nice face but his personality STINKS. How can anyone stand him? AND MOST important of all: how did you guys beat him and Bomi getting together?! Life is so unfair!
Snapper: similiar reaction as Hobin. Who tf can put up with that nutjob. Side eyes you a bit cos surely you must have a few screws loose too. But... the opportunities for a newtube channel! Couple dates, couple vlogging! Ok, maybe this isn't such a bad development.
Gaeul: completely clueless. Even Gyeoul has commented on you two getting closer. This innocent little chick just thought... well, she didn't know what she thought - maybe you guys were just close friends? "You fellas, I'm so happy for you. Now don't you young whippersnappers get up to no good!"
Rumi: Oh Y/N I'm so happy for you! Hold on- let me just text Wangguk to set up a double date. What you doing this Saturday?
Mangi: another cinnamon roll. Gives you and Taehoon the biggest hug, squeezing the life out of you whilst Taehoon is just glaring, gearing up to give him a kick. So so happy for you, wishes you guys a lifetime of happiness (woah, steady on Mangi we've just gotten together!!) and that you are as happy as him and his girlfriend <3
Yeonwoo: You've always been nice and sweet to him. So you and Taehoon? Together? You're making this lil genius's brain hurt. Of course he'll congratulate the both of you, he's too polite to do otherwise. But his protective side flares up to make sure Taehoon treats you right.
Gyeoul: Who fucking cares
Taehoon finding out about everyone finding out: Headaches all around. What the fuck is wrong with these losers? Gets inundated with questions about you and their relationship. "Bastard that's none of your business", "Ask more questions if you want to die".
Temporarily wonders if this is worth it, but then looks at you and ok. Maybe it is. "Fuck, I'm so cringe I'm going to kick my own ass"
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yuikomorii · 4 months
Note
Let's judge fairly. Yui had her development too. It's not like she didn't have any development.
// I wouldn’t necessarily call it development, I would rather say the story itself advanced and she grew accustomed to the circumstances. Over the course of the games, she got better at managing the Diaboys since you get to know someone after spending a lot of time with them and well… she also started acting more cheeky and bolder with them, for the reason that they started dating. She didn't know Karlheinz well in HDB and MB, so she didn't have any opinion about him, but in DF and CL, she called him out after Karl revealed how much of a jerk he is. It's not like she wouldn't have done that earlier if she had known the truth about him from the beginning—she called out Cordelia in the first game, after all.
However, I do think there are two particular scenes where they tried to highlight some major (?) development.
One is from Ayato's MB route, when she acknowledged acting in a selfish manner and concentrating solely on her feeling rather than on Ayato too, who was also having difficulties. She came to the realization that Ayato isn't perfect, despite being cute and giving her pleasure, and learned to accept him for all of his good and bad traits.
The other one is from Laito’s LE route, in which Reiji tries to make her understand that not believing in your lover can be very painful and that it’s not okay talking like that behind his back.
The message itself was good but this is the type of forced character development I have mixed feelings about. They didn’t have to make Yui act like that because it only portrays her as the bad one here. Yui is the first person Laito has ever opened up to and she was well aware that Laito hates Karlheinz, so getting his powers would undoubtedly damage him, yet she kept failing to understand that, despite the fact that they’ve been dating for some months and should have known better. The scene in which she says that Laito knows everything about her, yet she knows nothing about him only makes her appear so foolish in order to generate conflict. Like… come on, how can the heroine claim such a thing after dating a guy for SIX games?? Plus, the reasons of Laito’s actions were OBVIOUS that not even Reiji could entirely put the blame on him based on his situation.
As for Ayato’s MB route, I can’t entirely put the blame on her; I mean… Ayato is super good-looking and could probably pull anyone, but I can’t comprehend how she failed to realize that he has negative traits too?? It should be crystal clear that nobody is perfect and that everyone has their own issues, so you can’t beg someone to consider you special if they don’t feel like it.
It would have been 10 times better if Rejet actually tried to overcome her weaknesses, instead of adding new flaws. No, writing the heroine to suddenly have a shallow or selfish mindset only to make her “become a better person after realizing her mistakes” was not needed at all. And it’s also not fun making a character learn the same lesson in more games.
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The best scene, in which they could have genuinely made her evolve as a person, was in Carla’s LE route, when she admitted wanting to help him and the ghouls. It would have been nice seeing Carla putting faith in her and giving her an important yet hard task. Seeing Yui try her best to do it right, even if she was struggling at first, would have been such a cute moment. But nope, they decided to push her aside instead.
Other than that, idk if becoming a masochist and less sane as in the beginning count as development, lol, but if it does then it works like that too.
I get that it’s an otome game and most people play it for the guys but I feel like the heroine deserves to have her own storyline where she discovers herself and improves. DL feels more like the Diaboys' journey than her own, which is ironic because she’s the HEROINE, and in her most recent appearance, Rejet literally described her as “Ayato’s lover” without even using her name. I don’t really think the developers care that much about her, otherwise I doubt they’d be ok with all her character inconsistencies.
Yui is my favorite heroine because I find her really cute and likeable, plus I relate to her, but I’m aware of the fact that a likeable character does not equal a good one. She’s your average early 2010s heroine, who could have been indeed better written but serves her purpose, which is still good.
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puhpandas · 5 months
Note
So anyway what are your thoughts on Michael pressing glamrock Freddy. Cause I think it’s one of my new favorite fic tropes. Haven’t found a whole lot of good ones where Gregory isnt Evan in a robot body or something yet, but I’ve found myself even enjoying those.
I've always liked glammike as a concept but in canon? hell no. at least for me. I think mike and Gregory as a concept in general is awesome and I've seen some really well done but you really do have to get them right.
I think the 'really kind adult making up for the lack of good father figures' character really works for Freddy and Gregory but with Mike it would have to be a different story. I dont think it works as well with him. mike himself is just such a deep character and it would NOT be black and white with him and Gregory. there would have to be a lot in between before they become as close as they would, and on top of that i think it would have to be more of a brother thing than a father thing
talking about mike and Gregory both having inner turmoils to do with eachother about trust. mike would see this kid and want to protect him and be going through a conundrum about how Gregory doesnt need to just be a make up/redo for Evan. mike needs to be aware that he could just be doing this because of his guilt. so he would be learning to get over that and also see Gregory as his own person because it wouldnt just be an insecurity, gregory genuinely would probably be to make up for Evan to Mike at first and he would have to get over that
and Gregory would obviously have never had any parental figures worth a crap and this guy that is being nice to him but with those instincts Gregory has undoubtedly developed he senses that there's something going on underneath with how Mike is treating him. and he would be right. so it would be grappling with his learned behavior plus his instincts that hes learned to trust and is trusting at that moment. I think they would be very rocky at first but it's only after some blow up happens where Mike being honest about a mistake he made with Gregory and its something bad he did? that would be suprising to Gregory and make him trust him more. and mike getting that off his chest and having a heart to heart with Gregory and seeing a kid who isnt Evan 2.0 would help a lot too
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ystrike1 · 6 months
Text
My Suha - By Chahyun (9/10)
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The long wait was worth it. This is a long, dramatic read that features a surprising amount of realism. If you're looking for a light rich guy/secretary story go somewhere else. The side characters are great. The villains are hateable, and there is no perfect happy ending. Life doesn't work like that.
Suha is kind of a slut. He's 32 and he isn't into commitment. He has a favorite gay bar. He's got a great job as a corporate secretary, because he's got great connections. The owner of the company is basically his grandmother, so he was able to get opportunities that would otherwise not be possible. His father died, so grandma CEO took his whole family in. It's kind of implied that he was an important employee, and grandma owed him alot of favors. How sweet...
Not.
Suha is basically a modern indentured servant. CEO Grandma is the ultimate villain, who always believes she is right. Question everything. Alot of the people in Suha's past have used him.
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Suha used to care for grannies not-so-beloved grandson, Jiwoon, when he was still a child. Jiwoon was "slow". He is the black sheep of the family. His parents abandoned him. His father left the family because, shocker, Granny was so controlling that she tried to force him to get a divorce. Apparently, his wife wasn't good enough. That's a sane and nice thing to say. His father ran off with his wife, but he left his son behind. He believed that his son should benefit from the family fortune. His father wasn't confident enough. He thought Jiwoon would resent him one day, if he took away the boy's chance to be rich and privileged.
Jiwoon, of course, quickly developed abandonment issues and his health got bad. Grandma favors her other grandson, from her more obedient son. Jiwoon dealt with near constant emotional abuse and neglect. In a gold cage, with five star food.
Suha was his only light, and Suha has no clue.
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Suha becomes Jiwoon's secretary. It's a coincidence. Jiwoon is really, really repressed. He is also bisexual. He's had a crush on Suha for uh...about 15 years??? He wanted to get over it, but he couldn't. He's really, really good at repressing his emotions. Grandma and Suha don't even know he's interested in men.
He starts to snap slowly.
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This is Ms. Choi. We love Ms. Choi. We love all the side characters that aren't villains. She's a potential wife for Jiwoon, but she notices he's crazy first. She knows he's dead serious about being with Suha forever. Suha sure doesn't. He doesn't figure it out for ages. Ms. Choi's sharp instincts are our first real hint.
Something Is Very Wrong With Him.
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Suha and Jiwoon start hooking up.
Suha thinks it's not serious. Jiwoon plays along. He tells white lies, but he does want to date.
Small problem.
Suha "dated" his extremely abusive and spoiled brother. You know, the grandson granny prefers???
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Do-hyeok is a monster. He only thinks about using the people around him for cash or pleasure. He's also into men, and women. He's a lecherous and merciless person. Suha has always been an attractive man. He took advantage of Suha's youth, and his grateful debt to granny, to drag him into a casual relationship.
Suha genuinely loved him. Do-hyeok pressured him into group play, and it basically got to the point where he was Suha's pimp. What happened in their relationship is...detailed and awful, and it explains why Suha is so afraid of commitment.
He thinks love doesn't last.
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Jiwoon really does love Suha. He lays it on thick. He waits for Suha to get more comfortable. They go to the gym in matching clothes. Jiwoon sometimes follows him around. Jiwoon sometimes uses Suha's sister to track his location, daily life, and habits. Jiwoon knows what he likes in bed. Jiwoon hates his whole family and the company that currently makes him rich.
He has no friends.
He is the same antisocial boy he was.
He's just better at hiding it.
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Do-hyeok attacks Suha. It's an amazing and dramatic arc. Suha bites his tongue and he ends up saving Jiwoon in the end too. It's great. Love wins. The evil is defeated.
....Jiwoon starts to get more controlling after Suha is injured.
He steals Suha's phone.
He tells Suha to quit his job, and somehow things still keep escalating.
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We reach a breaking point where Suha is constantly reassuring his boyfriend. Jiwoon begs Suha to stay. He says he's everything, but that's too much. After a whole month of bring imprisoned with lies Suha snaps.
After the Do-hyeok situation Suha was put on leave to recover. Jiwoon extended this leave, and he started isolating Suha. Suha has friends and a loving family. All of them start looking for him. Jiwoon goes off the deep end, believing that Suha will delete everyone and wait at home for him forever.
It's all for his sake.
Jiwoon takes Do-hyeok down, while Suha is locked up in a safe luxury apartment. His fraudulent spending is exposed thanks to Suha's amazing friends and Jiwoon's obsessive desire for vengeance. Justice comes, but when it does Suha wants to go back to work.
Jiwoon doesn't want him to go back to work.
Suha leaves the prison of love, and he says he needs a break.
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After a break Jiwoon tells Suha to come back to work. He does. Jiwoon has become his old self. The shell of perfection with no particular feelings for anyone. The perfect businessman, but his clothes are even nicer. He looks great. Suha thinks that he may have moved on, but Jiwoon is trying to be normal so he can be the right partner for Suha.
Suha says he loves Jiwoon. He doesn't have to be perfect and polite all the time....but uhhhh hiding his phone, using his sister, and trying to eliminate all of his friends...wasn't good.
Suha and Jiwoon go visit Jiwoon's parents, so the healing process can begin. It turns out that Jiwoon has two adult siblings he will never know. His parents had them after they abandoned him. He decides that he can't forgive them, but he wishes them well.
He moves on to a better chapter of his life, with Suha.
I would have made this review longer, but this story really is worth reading. It's dramatic, but the characters feel real and rough and sad. They're adults in their thirties struggling with being queer and lonely and emotional baggage. Jiwoon is also an enjoyable yandere, who does deserve his bittersweet happy ending.
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zykamiliah · 22 days
Note
Hey, sorry to bother you, but I've been seeing something in the fandom that kind of confuses me, so I'm leaving this ask to my favorite svsss blogs.
I've been trying to get more into Shen Jiu's character, as he is pretty interesting and arguably a fan favorite, and I've noticed that, so far of the fanfics I've read, he is more often than not depicted as a good teacher. A harsh one, but still good? Or not terrible?
One that likes teaching, is involved with his students, taking the little of what we've seen of Shen Yuan's teaching methods and just, giving them a twist, "improving" them even sometimes.
Often it ends up being a show of how Shen Yuan was clumsy, not that good of a teacher (or of a Shen Qingqiu) and I'm... Kind of confused by this trend? Like, is it rooted in canon? Obviously this is still more interesting to read than the "SJ is just a tsundere that never did anything wrong ever" thing, but it feels kind of similar.
I cannot imagine a character as genuinely bitter and angry as Shen Jiu enjoying being a teacher, having a nurturing bone in his body or even being hands on in the teaching of his disciples, several of which he literally bullied out of his peak. But maybe it's just me and I'm wrong?
Was Shen Jiu a good teacher?
I guess I'm just curious of where it comes from. I like Shen Yuan's character, and it often feels like people take Shen Jiu's to show how bad at everything SY is, even if it isn't consistent with SJ's character and often lack nuances, in my opinion.
(Or even if the story claims loving SY while also stripping him away of everything that makes him interesting other than his obliviousness, but that's a whole other thing.)
Sorry again, and I also apologize for the long ask, I'd just figured you or someone that follows you might have an answer.
(Also, I get that fandoms gotta fandom, and I'm not saying people shouldn't write it or anything, I may be a strickler for canon but I'm not the police. Write what you want. I just wonder where it comes from, as I figure that knowing its origins might help me in the future, but I promise I'm not trying to start discourse or anything, so I hope I've made my point clear enough without offending anyone.)
hello!! :DD
well sj being ooc in fics is a common thing by now. people tend to portray him softer than he's in canon, to the point it sometimes turns his whole character upside down. in extreme cases, you'll be dealing with a bitter, more tsundere version of sy with sj's backstory, which is secretly what many people want IMO lol often this people also perceive sy as an incompetent dumb nerd that only knows about monster lore and has no other skills or abilities aside from that-- essentially, they fall for the unreliable narrator's trap of believing every lie he tells about himself.
it's never outright stated, but sj didn't like children, so is fair to assume he didn't like teaching or caring for them either. taking into account qing jing peak's toxic atmosphere pre sy's transmigration, AND the fact that sj was paranoid about being overthrown since he hadn't developed a golden core even after becoming a peak lord and taking lbh in, I don't think he'd be interested in teaching anyone anything. in a lot of cultivation novels, disciples are just given manuals and left to self-study them (like he let lbh use the fake manual, expecting lbh would die from using it. haha. such a good teacher!). this could be the case. aside from that, I don't personally think sj would want to provide any kid guidance. and that's not mentioning how he allowed and enabled bullying, targeted talented disciples, and overall was more worried about his own cultivation and survival and reputation than other things or people.
so where this fanon sj comes from? I'm not sure, really, but I think some people just want a version of him that's palatable AND defensible, like my friend furby says, a declawed sj that's just a poor misunderstood meowmeow who deep inside is secretly good and nice. it's a thing that people who struggle with liking "villainous" or "morally bad" characters do: twisting the narrative around to justify this character's actions. It doesn't help that he's SO complicated, and people who have very black-and-white thinking struggle to place him in either side of the spectrum-- it's the problem mxtx outlined through sqh and sqq's voices
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ch.14 house arrest
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ch.19 shen jiu
really, the fandom has just proved mxtx's point xD
anyway, there's a lot of misconceptions about sj. there are some pretty wild theories around. some fans also treat his abuse as The Worst Abuse in comparison to the Child Abuse he did, because of the (unconfirmed) hints that sj was sexually assaulted by qiu jianluo, as if SA is the worst kind of abuse and child abuse falls back on the tier-list ¯_(ツ)_/¯ because obviously anything that involves sex in inherently worse, apparently
in other cases, people are simply more familiar with the fanon version of the characters, and that's who they portray in their writing. after all, many people read the novel once and then go on to read dozen of fics; it's normal the fanon sticks more on the brain than canon (not judging! it happens to me as well lol) and those fanon versions are more popular because, as i said, this version of sj is more morally palatable (and bland and less fun ┐(︶▽︶)┌)
thank you for the ask!! :DDDD ❤️❤️❤️ i love receiving asks~
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hanitarot · 2 years
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Your love story 💌
PAC #6
hello everyone. Choose a picture that resonates with you. If you feel that the description does not suit you, please choose another one. Sorry for my bad english-
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Pile 1
Hiii guys! I think your love story will begin when you experience something bad. Someone will break your heart. This is the moment when you pull yourself together and start working on yourself. You will spend more time with yourself and experience many difficulties. You have a karmic path to your love. You must become smarter, older, wiser before meeting your love. At the time of meeting with them, you will have many things to do that you will not even notice them. But they will notice you. They will definitely fall in love with you at first sight. They will notice your beauty and wisdom. I see a picture of them flirting with you and trying to interest you while you think they are just trying to hit on you. You kindle in them the passion to conquer you. They look like those very characters from the movies who are interested in someone and try to run after them. They will seek to meet you, follow you to every party. You seem nice and calm to me. You will most likely only laugh at their flirtations, but then your relationship will develop more and more. They will make plans with you and will try to interest you with their ideas. They will already be sure that you will have a relationship, while you seem more independent and all in business. I see that later you will love them with all your heart, too, for everything they do for you and for their love. You have taught them many things, and they will always be devoted to you.
your impression of them: they will seem to you cunning, too reckless and active. The ones who can't be trusted. They will seem to you those who have a lot of power and everything in this life
possible mbti: ENTP, estj, enfp, esfp, entj, enfj
"I'm really ready to give everything for you"
"for me you are the greatest gift"
"you look very hot"
"I want you to be mine, and I want to be yours"
"I will do everything to make you happy"
Pile 2
Hello!!! I see that you will meet your love somewhere at work. You may want to work in the beauty or finance industry. Either way, you will be in high position. You have experience and knowledge, you have already built a life for yourself. Your person is much more gentle than you. He loves very deeply, he is easily hurt and emotional. He reminds me of a puppy to be honest. You have already built yourself while they are sad that they are not good enough for you. They try their best, believe me. By the way, I think that the first you will be interested in them. Reminds me a lot of the love story of Han Joon-Woo and Im Hee-Kyung from True Beauty. I truly loved this couple. He will be extremely sweet and kind. You will be interested in their positivity and some innocence. They will seem to you wise, well-read. You will immediately understand that they are your destiny. You will always smile when you see them. They are the kind of people who smile at children, help animals, take care of things. They are well-mannered, a little awkward and clumsy. You will find them very funny. I see that you will most likely be colleagues, or somehow connected with work. They will fail in some case, and will be unjustly accused, but you will take their side. You will help them because you know how hard they tried. They are too kind.. They will raise your self-esteem, they will tell you the words that you should have heard. They will cheer you up, inspire you and inspire your feelings. They will always give you butterflies in your stomach.
your impression of them: very nice and diligent. Ready to sacrifice themselves. Sensitive and deep. They care deeply about the feelings of those around them. They will be like a gift for you that you deserve. They are the ones you look up to because they heal you and help you get better.
possible mbti: INFP, infj, enfp, isfp, isfj, enfj, esfj
"I'm not cute"
"If you want to see the most beautiful person, look in the mirror"
"why am I a fruity?"
"please don't get upset"
"I will help you in everything"
"I will always be with you"
Pile 3
Hi group 3! You will most likely meet on some kind of trip. You will go somewhere on business, but you will have some kind of problem or even trouble. You may lose money or something else, but then they appear. At first nothing will arise between you, they will come to help you. For some reason I see that this is a person from another country, or you came to another country. They kindly help a stranger in need. I see a picture of you crying, and they are trying to cheer you up. I tried to lay out tarot cards how you will communicate in the future, and here is a rather strange situation. They will most likely help you, but I do not understand how you will communicate further. Perhaps you will live next to them or work, communicate, etc. Ahahah what's funny is that you probably won't get along later.. Oops. When you're in trouble, they may call you a crybaby or a troublesome person, and you'll get mad at them for it even though they helped. I see you are active, emotional, irritable to some extent, you have a lively character, and they are calm, intelligent and reasonable. That's why they thought you were stupid when you met. After that, you often did not get along and could make comments to each other. I still can’t understand how you will meet later.. But I see a lot of comical and funny situations between you. I'm sorry, but I see you have a bit of a difficult personality, and they are smart and will always get you out of trouble. In fact, it's even cute. They will accept you completely and understand you. Contact will begin to develop between you, you will fall in love with each other very much. Although you will sometimes make mistakes that you will regret, they will accept everything calmly.
Your impression of them: they are probably older than you. They are smart and rather silent. But they are kind and give you a smile. You can often be very jealous of them. Your couple is quite funny and cute. You are like those same old woman and old man who argue but actually love each other :))
possible mbti: istj, isfj, esfj, intj, entj, estj, intp
"this is absurd"
"calm down"
"Trust me"
"why are you stupid today too?"
"every day a new beginning"
"I want to understand you"
Pile 4
Helloo.. Oops, I see you already know each other. Well, or in the future, you will first be friends. You will have a friendship, perhaps even a group of friends. You will have fun, constantly laugh. You will become as close as if you were best friends. Everything will be cool, but I'm afraid that later you will stop communicating. Something will separate you, you can quarrel or they will go far and cut off ties with you. I think you will most likely quarrel. You will stop communicating because of some stupid resentment, but the two of you already have feelings. You can understand them later. You do not want to give in to each other, so reconciliation will not be quick. Fate will bring you. As if everything is calculated so that you should understand yourself and each other during the time of separation. When you meet, you will already be different people. But new versions of you will only make you love each other more. Just at the first meeting, you will talk to each other, discuss everything that happened and all the problems. You will understand, apologize and forgive. They will be fascinated by who you have become. Like you had a huge glow up. You will be happy that you can now talk about your feelings, but something is stopping you. Damn guys, stop cursing and arguing because of your conflicting feelings. Accept your falling in love, don't avoid it, lower your ego. But I see that you will again constantly put up. The same couple that constantly puts up and swears. A bit like group 3.... But in any case, you will learn to find compromises. You are so beautiful and will become the best version of yourself, but work on your self-esteem, please. Self-esteem is either too low or too high... You will be fine in any case, you will be happy together and accept each other as you are. To be honest, you are very similar to each other, I think this was the problem in your conflicts. You will always be together, travel, spend time, hang out, build businesses, maybe even work together. Very cute couple, like you are real soulmates
your impression of them: You seem to already know them very well. They are so cheerful for you, funny, they always cheer you up when they act like fools. They are sociable and active. They have personal problems that sometimes break them. I feel the energy of a leo, you or they have in the natal chart. Venus in Leo or Aries... Maybe in synastry...
Possible mbti: esfp, entp, enfp, estp, istp, isfp, infp, intp
"these flowers are for you"
"you're wrong >:("
"let's talk"
"I just want to lie down with you"
"I want to spend as much time with you as possible"
"no one understands me better than you"
Thanks for reading, please feedback!
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Every umbrella academy character ranked
Prior to Season 4 coming this year, thought I'd share my character rank with you for the first 3 seasons all together. (Spoilers ahead)
#33- Marcus, Jayme, Alphonso and Fei
Painfully insignificant and underdeveloped. Their only character traits being "spoiled and a bit evil" made them EXTREMELY captivating villians...
#32- Christopher
Only higher because I find the idea of someone carrying around a cube on a stick onset really funny.
#31- Sparrow Ben
Hard to watch honestly, especially in comparison to his lovely counterpart Umbrella Ben.
In general, the Sparrows were terrible and pointless characters, and clearly the writers knew this because most were killed off pretty quickly. All except for Sparrow Ben, which just meant we had to suffer watching him for even longer.
#30- Viktor
This is a controversial choice. He is tolerable in season 1, but then just becomes a moochy emo sod who is boring to watch. I don't know if it's the acting, script or both, but he’s just such a meek and flavourless character who is PARTICULARLY bad in season 3 when he jeopardises his whole family and is repeatedly selfish and has a victim complex.
#29- Luther
He caused the apocalypse in season one and you can't convince me otherwise. Got some alamaba shit going on with Allison...
There are so many reasons I hate Luther. He's a self-centred man child who couldn't care less about his siblings and their feelings, showing zero empathy to Klaus or Vanya, for example. He only shows respect and kindness when he is attracted to the person (As shown when seasons 1 and 2 he is only nice to Allison, then completely ignores her when he moves on to Sloane) or when they pose as an authority figure to him. All he does is whine and feel sorry for himself.
What's that? You lived in the apocalypse all alone for 40 years? You are addicted to drugs and lost the love of your life in a war? You have a power you can't control and a lifetime of rejection? WELL LUTHER WENT TO THE MOON
#28- Carl Cooper
Hated him as a character but he was a menacing villian which I can respect
#27- Harlan
Couldn't care less about him, only there for plot convenience and Victor's arc pretty much
#26- Sloane
An improvement from Luther's literal sibling. Further evidence that Luther will simply fall for any woman who gives a flying fuck about the moon.
Personality: attracted to Luther
#25- Pogo
Basil exposition of the first series
#24- Detective Patch
Barely remember her
#23- The Swedes
They were kind of goofy as villians but there was some good acting and they posed a real threat. Cute moments with the cats. In general, alright, but they could have easily been replaced plot wise with something more interesting.
#22- Cha Cha
Lack of character development for me. I think she deserved to be fleshed out more, I don't think it's fair that only her partner got to be a three-dimensional being. What are her motivations? Who is she underneath it all?
But overall i liked the acting and she was a good villian.
#21- That hotel worker from season 3
He's barely a character but I liked his sass so he's on the list.
#20- Reggie (Reginald Hargreeves)
He is supposed to be the main antagonist/villian of the show, yet The Handler stole his spotlight. He's a bit too stereotypically evil and asshole-ish for me, basically twiddling his moustache and stroking a cat in a dark corner the entire show. The delivery is too blunt and that doesn't help to build the tension and mystery surrounding him as much, but if he were more complicated and cryptic in his personality it would be more effective.
This is very nit picky and overall Reggie is fine. He has some hilarious moments with Klaus in season 3 and I am genuinely intrigued about the unanswered questions surrounding him.
#19- Elliott
He wasn't a particularly important or central character but I enjoyed it when he was on screen and he played his role convincingly. He was a good comic relief in some scenes, and when he died (spoiler alert) the reactions from other characters were realistic and quite impactful. I felt for him throughout, which is impressive for less significant characters and he had a lot of depth relative to the size of his role.
#18- Destiny's children
Not a singular character, but I LOVED Destiny's children. It fit Klaus's character perfectly to have a cult and led to some of the funnies moments in the series.
#17- Dave
From the very limited moments we see with this character, a lot of personality and emotion was communicated, and I feel like we got a big sense of the character. That is down to the brilliant acting from both of Dave's actors and from Robert Sheehan that really sold this character with so little screen time.
Anyway please come back to life Dave! Death doesn't look good on you!
#16- Agnes (Donut woman)
Very sweet and I wish her all the best in life.
#15- Sissy
BRILLIANTLY acted and impactful. Stole every scene between her and Vanya.
Also, she looks EXACTLY like Sheldon's mum in young sheldon...
#14- Herb and Dot
I want to put them both in my pocket and protect them from harm.
#13- Kenny's mum
Again, barely present but I love her. She's a queen. I would go to a rave with Kenny's Mum.
#12- Stan
I love Stan, and he's a big part of Diego and Lila's character development and motivations. I hope they adopt Stan and live happily ever after.
But yeah, great one-liners from Stan.
#11- Grace
Very well acted and haunting.
Top 10 *drumroll please*
#10- Harold Jenkins (Lenoard Peabody)
Again, quite a controversial placement, but I stand by my decision. The acting and delivery of Harold Jenkins as a villain is possibly the best in the whole show. I was totally convinced Lenoard was a nice guy and I was rooting for him and Vanya, until he started dropping hints and slowly revealing his true self and losing the facade and its... it's chefs kiss. So realistic. The actor deserves an award and a standing ovation.
The writers also deserve a pat on the back for this one because he has a convincing motivation and backstory, and the dialogue is DELICIOUS when it comes to Lenoard. He is a truly menacing villain without being overtly scary and powerful and dangerous.
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#9- Ray
Charismatic, gentlemanly, empathetic, loving, trusting, supportive... Ray is THE IDEAL MAN. I'm a little bit in love with Ray so I don't blame Allison.
HUGE step up from Luther, for sure.
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#8- Umbrella Ben
I would have liked to see more of his character, but I liked what I did see. He loves his siblings and shows it. He is selfless and sacrifices his own existence for Vanya, he is blunt with Klaus because he cares and wants him to improve. Of course, he and Klaus are also a hilarious duo.
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#7- Hazel
One of the most touching arcs that offers an insightful message about what life is for, and about Love. Beautifully acted, a very real and lovable character who probably resonates with many in some ways. Hazel is adorable and i miss him in later seasons.
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#6- The Handler
I LOVE THE HANDLER MORE THAN WORDS CAN EXPLAIN!!! Funny, playful, entertaining, uexpected and whimsical and yet simultaneously dark and menacing, AMAZING villian that stole EVERY SINGLE SCENE she was in. Kate Walsh was the perfect choice for the role and she played it to perfection.
A bit of trivia about the role, The Handler was originally written for a man, and when Kate Walsh got the role she insisted they didn't change the script (which, let's be honest, they would have.) She put a wonderful spin on it and it's just perfect, I wouldn't change a thing. I would 100% watch a spinoff all about the handler. Season 3 was worse than the previous two thanks to them killing her off (amongst other questionable plot choices)
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#5- Allison
Allison was the only character who knew what they were doing, and honestly, if everyone just listened to Allison, there would be no apocalypse. Her storyline losing both Claire and Ray and her powers driving her crazy with power breaks my heart but is well portrayed and impactful.
She's charismatic, clever, strong, and kind. I love Allison and I think most of us do.
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#4- Diego
He's stupid but in an endearing way, I find him to be so entertaining and funny, and the actor's face is like an open book. He's not show-stopping but his consistent presence just sets the mood and allows others to act off of him, while he really sells it with his expressions. He's like the rock of the show.
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#3- Lila
Lila. Mi amor. Mon amour. Amore mio. Meine Leibe.
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#2- Five
For several reasons:
A) He is the daddy here, Luther!!
B) That should be the only reason you need
Seriously, though, I was SUPER impressed with Aidan Gallagher and his incredible screen presence, especially at such a young age. He really embodies the character. Five is the face of the Umbrella Acadamy, and is undoubtedly the most iconic character. 10/10, two thumbs up, absolutely BRILLIANT.
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#1- Klaus
No justification necessary.
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theerurishipper · 6 months
Note
do you think Zoe as a character is a necessary for the plot?
I lover her design but as far I can see her character doesn't seems to be necessary for the story, at all. I thought at first she'd be a challenge for Chloe to finally become better, especially after the play they did in Queen Banana. I thought with Chloe break of her friendship with Adrien that would be the time for her to slide in and try to be a sister/friend for her which will create a positive characrer development for Chloe.
But as the story progress I feel like she doesn't seems like to make impact on Chloe's life and it seems like she doesn't even interact with Chloe much, she instead hang out with Marinette and end up become another generic character added for the sake for increasing Marinette's harem and I don't know, a better bee holder who wouldn't talk back to Ladybug or demanding thing from her perhaps? Because this show has allergies toward character who challenge Marinette's morality.
I mean if the reason why they added Zoe is just for the sake for a new bee holder, I don't see a reason why they can't use Aurore or Mirriele since they already have unique model. Being from different class doesn't stop Marc to be a miraculous holder after all. If she's added for the sake of lesbian representation, we have JuleRose already. So why is she here?
Honestly? Zoe is one of the most useless characters in the show. She only really exists so that the writers can fit her into whatever role they need to progress the plot, because she doesn't have any established characterization. I do like her design, but that's really about all I can say. She's just such a non-entity to me.
Her first episode was actually quite interesting to me personally. A character who tries to hide her true self and lies in order to be accepted by her peers? Interesting stuff! I dig characters like that. Her being all nice and friendly with Marinette at first and then switching instantly to becoming mean and cruel? How intriguing! What a good way to establish a character! This could be the start of a really good character journey in which Zoe learns that she doesn't have to put on these roles to be accepted, culminating with her earning the Bee Miraculous as a fully established character!
But there was no character arc. There was no arc, no nothing she just... got over it thanks to one speech and got the Bee Miraculous in the next episode and then descended into obscurity. She could have been so much. Imagine how it could have been if we had gotten to explore her character. Like, maybe she could have caused the akuma on her first day instead of being the one to be akumatized. This could have set up everyone else disliking her while leaving Marinette wondering why she seems so different from before, and it could have started Zoe off on the path of realizing she didn't want to put on an act to please bad people and be accepted by them because she didn't want to hurt other people, actually.
Over the course of the season, maybe we could learn about what exactly happened in her old school through a proper backstory and not just an exposition dump. We could learn about why she is the way she through exploring her relationships with her father and her mother. We could have her grow through her interactions with others and her observing Marinette with her friends, and we could have watched her slowly realize that she maybe doesn't want to put on an act anymore and that she just wants to be accepted for herself. This way, we could actually get to see her act this way and understand why she is the way she is, and have her motivation be revealed in a natural and compelling manner, instead of just having it all be dumped onto us in her debut episode.
Then we could have the obligatory akuma, which lets Marinette know that there's more to Zoe after all. Maybe Marinette tries to reach out to Zoe after that. Maybe this leads to Zoe learning what real and true friendships are really like and leads to her finding people whom she can be herself with and who will accept her unconditionally. Maybe we could actually see her hanging out and bonding with everyone and actually watch the scenes with stuff like Rose and Juleka helping her dye her hair instead of it being relegated to an end-of-the-episode montage. They could have used those sneakers of hers more. Those were an interesting and compelling aspect of her character, considering the fact that she would write down the nice things people said about her on it. Maybe we could have a scene of her doing that with her new friends. And maybe after this, she gets the Bee Miraculous, and being able to help Ladybug like this inspires her to help others the way Marinette helped her, which makes her reach out to Chloe, thus letting her true self shine through completely, and this could also prompt a gradual change in Chloe.
I'm just throwing out some scenarios here and I don't claim that I'll do a better job of anything, but I really do think that the reason Zoe's character suffers is because of the abysmal pacing. They set up something interesting with her and then resolved it in one episode, which made her character dull and boring for any other time she's on screen. If they had stretched it out over the course of the season, she would have been way more interesting. As it is, she has nothing going for her.
From a writing perspective, Zoe has the most generic personality ever. She's nice and kind, just like every other character in the show. Any interesting facets to her character or any meaningful conflict she could have faced is fixed in her introductory episode and never seen again, and she herself only ever appears in the background of other episodes along with the rest of Marinette's classmates, contributing nothing of value. Her relationship with Chloe and her promise to always love her? Forgotten. Her conflict about not wanting to put on an act? Somehow, she just... got over it in one day and was always just her authentic self from then on. Like, name one character trait about Zoe that you can't say about anyone else. Even the rest of the class, obscure as they are, have more defined personalities and quirks than she does.
Zoe is literally just there, and the writers pity her sometimes, so they give her stuff to do. And you can't really say any of them don't make sense for her character, because she doesn't really have one beyond the base traits of nice and good. So you need a replacement Chat Noir? Zoe. Need representation? Zoe. There's no real reason for any of this to be her, it just happens to be her... because. Like you said, this could have been done by characters who were already here. We could have had our lesbian rep from Julerose, we could have had Nino for the Black Cat. There's nothing of value that Zoe as a character brings to any of these things, it just so happens to be her because she has nothing else going for her, and because her personality is so underdeveloped and practically non-existent that anything goes. And also Kagami would have been a better choice for both of these things no seriously this is Kagami erasure this is Kagami slander justice for Kagami.
And it really does suck, because Zoe could have been an interesting character. Her character premise was genuinely compelling. But then she just got reduced to another classmate who hangs around helping Marinette confess and to another one of Ladybug's team. All her scenes are just comparing her to Chloe and going "oh Chloe bad Zoe good." There is nothing Zoe has going on for herself. She's really just there to be a replacement for Queen Bee. And this would have been fine if the writing organically and naturally inserted her into the role by fleshing out her character and relationships with Marinette/everyone else. But she has virtually no development or character and most of her scenes are used to beat it down our skulls that Chloe is Evil and Zoe is Good, so root for Zoe, guyz!
They are so insistent on shoving the Zoe is the Good Chloe agenda down our throats that they have characters act OOC just for that. Somehow, being talked down to in front of the school doesn't make Marinette doubt Zoe in any way, shape or form. Instead, the blame is placed on Chloe for corrupting her. Andre suddenly decides to grow a spine and stop enabling his daughter, and once again Zoe is supported and praised and Chloe is condemned (I'm not saying it was wrong for Chloe to be told off, just that it coming from Andre of all people just makes it part of the problem because it's so OOC). They even had Plagg go out of his way to compliment Vesperia over Queen Bee like, five seconds after he's seen her for the first time, even though Plagg never compliments anyone so quickly or so much, not even Adrien. They had Plagg spend the whole of Deflagration kissing Zoe's feet and praising her constantly even though he would never do so while he offers to Cataclysm Chloe! He would not fucking say that.
Honestly, when it comes to others interacting with Zoe and the conversation actually being about her instead of about Marinette, it just results in more comparisons to Chloe and how Zoe is sooooooo much better than her. Even the episode focusing on Zoe and her feelings has a Chloe subplot that basically takes over the whole thing so that they can be compared.
And I am self-admittedly not a Chloe stan. I am not particularly fond of her. But I also don't like being told what to think, and I don't like how the narrative tries so hard to make us hate Chloe and like Zoe without developing either of them or letting us come to our own conclusions. Zoe isn't given anything of her own. Either she is being whatever the writers want her to be or she is being Chloe but Good or she is being Marinette's newest wingman. They could have explored so much about her. They could have fleshed out her struggles and her backstory. They could have done something with that set up in Queen Banana between Zoe and Chloe's relationship. They could have explored Zoe's new relationships (the Zoe/Lila parallels practically write themselves, as does the Adrien-Zoe friendship). They could have elaborated more on her dream of being an actress. But they didn't. They just kept comparing her to Chloe whenever anything had to do with her, and her character suffered for it.
Zoe could have been her own character in her own right, and she did not need to be bogged down by being forever labelled "Chloe's replacement," but the show didn't let her grow beyond that initial label and now it's pretty much stuck forever. Honestly, she deserved better.
Thank you for your ask!
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