#it isn’t going to make a character or book compelling

[ofbreathandflame]

With the rise of booktok/booktwt, there's been this weird movement against literary criticism. It's a bizarre phenomenon, but this uptick in condemnation of criticism is so stifling. I understand that with the rise of these platforms, many people are being reintroduced into the habit of reading, which is why at the base level, I understand why many 'popular' books on booktok tend to be cozier.

The argument always falls into the 'this book means too much to me' or 'let people enjoy things,' which is rhetoric I understand -- at least fundamentally. But reading and writing have always been conduits for criticism, healthy natural criticism. We grow as writers and readers because of criticism. It's just so frustrating to see arguments like "how could you not like this character they've been the x trauma," or "why read this book if you're not going to come out liking it," and it's like...why not. That has always been the point of reading. Having a character go through copious amounts of trauma does not always translate to a character that's well-crafted. Good worldbuilding doesn't always translate to having a good story, or having beautiful prose doesn't always translate into a good plot.

There is just so much that goes into writing a story other than being able to formulate tropable (is that a word lol) characters. Good ideas don't always translate into good stories. And engaging critically with the text you read is how we figure that out, how we make sure authors are giving us a good craft. Writing is a form of entertainment too, and just like we'd do a poorly crafted show, we should always be questioning the things we read, even if we enjoy those things.

It's just werd to see people argue that we shouldn't read literature unless we know for certain we are going to like it. Or seeing people not be able to stand honest criticism of the world they've fallen in love with. I love ASOIAF -- but boy oh boy are there a lot of problems in the story: racial undertones, questionable writing decisions, weird ness overall. I also think engaging critically helps us understand how an author's biases can inform what they write. Like, HP Lovecraft wrote eerie stories, he was also a raging racist. But we can argue that his fear of PoC, his antisemitism, and all of his weird fears informed a lot of what he was writing. His writing is so eerie because a lot of that fear comes from very real, nasty places. It's not to say we have to censor his works, but he influences a lot of horror today and those fears, that racial undertone, it is still very prevalent in horror movies today. That fear of the 'unknown,'

Gone with the Wind is an incredibly racist book. It's also a well-written book. I think a lot of people also like confine criticism to just a syntax/prose/technical level -- when in reality criticism should also be applied on an ideological level. Books that are well-written, well-plotted, etc., are also -- and should also -- be up for criticism. A book can be very well-written and also propagate harmful ideologies. I often read books that I know that (on an ideological level), I might not agree with. We can learn a lot from the books we read, even the ones we hate.

I just feel like we're getting to the point where people are just telling people to 'shut up and read' and making spaces for conversation a uniform experience. I don't want to be in a space where everyone agrees with the same point. Either people won't accept criticism of their favorite book, or they think criticism shouldn't be applied to books they think are well written. Reading invokes natural criticism -- so does writing. That's literally what writing is; asking questions, interrogating the world around you. It's why we have literary devices, techniques, and elements. It's never just taking the words being printed at face value.

You can identify with a character's trauma and still understand that their badly written. You can read a story, hate everything about it, and still like a character. As I stated a while back, I'm reading Fourth Wing; the book is terrible, but I like the main character. The worldbuilding is also terrible, but the author writes her PoC characters with respect. It's not hard to acknowledge one thing about the text, and still find enough to enjoy the book. And authors grow when we're honest about what worked and what didn't work. Shadow and Bone was very formulaic and derivative at points, but Six of Crows is much more inventive and inclusive. Veronica Roth's Carve the Mark had some weird racial problems, but Chosen Ones was a much better book in terms of representation. Percy Jackson is the same way. These writers grow, not just by virtue of time, but because they were critiqued and listened to that critique. C.S. Lewis and Tolkien always publically criticized each other's work. Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes had a legendary friendship and back and forth with one another's works which provides so much insight into the conversations black authors and creatives were having.

Writing has always been about asking questions; prodding here and there, critiquing. It has always been a conversation, a dialogue. I urge people to love what they read, and read what they love, but always ask questions, always understand different perspectives, and always keep your mind open. Please stop stifling and controlling the conversations about your favorite literature, and please understand that everyone will not come out with the same reading experience as you. It doesn't make their experience any less valid than yours.

#long post #literary critique #literary criticism #booktok #books & libraries #booktwitter #but yeah it’s really hard for me to embrace booktube #and BookTok when the conversations that are most prevalent #are the ones telling people to not be critical of what they’re reading #esp the ones who desparately don’t want to understand differing opinions #‘how could you not like this’ or ‘how could you hate this character’ #easily #because I can #a traumatic backstory isn’t gonna erase a bad story #it isn’t going to make a character or book compelling #more trauma doesn’t make the story more complex #see: with fourth wing. #thank you for reading this long rant #congrats if you make it to the tags💀😭

[flight0fthenavigat0r]

A Goodbye to The Bad Batch

I don’t even know what to say first. Because this is goodbye, but it is also everything but. But I suppose I should start at the beginning.

Just a couple of years ago I found my love for Star Wars. My entire life, as far back as I can remember, my dad has tried to get me into the fandom. Now, he’s not a fan the exact same way some of us are, he’d only watched the saga and the Mandalorian, funnily enough I was the one to introduce him to The Clone Wars and beyond, but it’s been a joy in his life for a very long time. I was never interested in it when I was little, but then I got a little older and Star Wars started to capture my interest.

One random weekend, I believe in 2021 or 2022, I decided that I was going to watch all nine saga movies in those forty-eight hours, and then start on my goal to watch every show and the additional movies.

This is, without a shred of doubt, one of the greatest decisions I have ever made, and one that I will never regret. I would not be the person I am had I not given Star Wars a chance.

It would sound ridiculous to anyone anywhere else, but this has become such a safe place for me that I know I can be honest.

Everyone finds that one thing that makes them happy like nothing else. A person, a hobby, a place, a fandom. Mine is the galaxy far, far away that lets me escape from my life whenever I need to.

The Star Wars fandom has its faults, and there is so much hatred.

But more than anything, there is love like no love I have ever experienced before. The love between fans and our love for these movies and shows is something I never expected to have in my life. But somehow, for some reason, it has all found a permanent place in my heart, and I couldn’t be happier.

At this time, the first season of The Bad Batch had just been released. I was branching out, watching The Clone Wars and then jumping to The Book of Boba Fett, though I’m not sure why I chose to watch everything in such a completely random order.

But then I started The Bad Batch.

I had no idea what Crosshair, Tech, Wrecker, Hunter, Echo, and Omega would come to mean to me.

I have dealt with a lot in the last few years. Nothing compared to others, but depression finds a way to wedge into your life. I love to be alone, but I don’t like to be lonely, and I have managed to isolate myself to a point of misery.

I found more comfort in The Bad Batch than anything else in my life, and I will never forget the joy The Bad Batch brought me in these last few years.

I began to write when I found Star Wars, and I was inspired to do so by The Bad Batch. Before, I had never felt so compelled by any one piece of media to add my own part of it to the world, until this. Writing has become another escape, one that gives me an outlet to continue the stories of characters left behind.

What I already knew has been reaffirmed, the lessons I have learned remain with me, and will even after this is over.

That it’s okay to feel afraid, because everyone does, and to make mistakes, provided you learn from them.

That feeling out of place for one reason or another does not make you unworthy of love, and having limitations with affection isn’t something you need to apologize for.

That being goofy, having fun, finding joy in the dark places, is just as vital a part of life as anything else, if not what we need more than anything.

That taking time for yourself, to make sure you don’t fall apart, even while taking care of others, is important.

That our worst moments can be one of two things, what consumes us, or what we grow from.

That being a young woman is not a detriment to your worth, intelligence, talent, or any other aspect of life, but is in fact what makes you strongest.

That what makes us unique and our faults are a part of who we are, but they do not define us, and we are so much more than the ideas people have of us.

My only regret is not making friends when I had the chance. I’m bad at that, opening up and putting myself out there, and I shy away from talking to new people because it makes me uncomfortable. But I wish I had been able to put that aside before it was too late and found people who love The Bad Batch the way I do to continue talking to, even after the show ends.

But to all the people who have supported me and who I have supported, thank you for being part of my Bad Batch experience.

It's very difficult to believe that this is it.

Though The Bad Batch has not been around long, it feels like it has, because as long as I have been watching Star Wars, The Bad Batch has been in its active run, and I’m so grateful I got to be here when it was.

I know that even when the credits roll for the final time, when the greater fandom forgets the show that they never really understood the way we have, I’ll be here, and hopefully, so will all of you. I think that the family brought together by The Bad Batch will endure, even if we go quiet for a while.

We’ll stick around, for the day the Batch comes back. Because I know they will.

Thank you Clone Force 99, the Bad Batch fandom, Dee Bradley Baker, Michelle Ang, the Kiners, and everybody who played a part in telling this story.

The impact The Bad Batch has had on my life has been profound, and I wouldn’t give it up for anything. It’s been a wild ride, and I have enjoyed every second of it. It has been a privilege to be a part of this piece in the ever growing history that makes up Star Wars.

Goodbye, Bad Batch. Until next time.

“Change takes getting used to. You’ll see. Just give it time.”

#star wars #the bad batch #tbb #star wars the bad batch #sw tbb #star wars tbb #sw the bad batch #the bad batch season 3 #tbb crosshair #crosshair tbb #crosshair bad batch #tbb tech #tech tbb #tech bad batch #tbb wrecker #wrecker tbb #wrecker bad batch #tbb hunter #hunter tbb #hunter bad batch #tbb echo #echo tbb #echo bad batch #tbb omega #omega tbb #omega bad batch

[melrosing]

Do you think Jaime sincerely regrets what he does to Bran despite only thinking of it once?

ya of course. I think something that maybe needs to be said more often (particularly regarding Jaime’s POV but also broadly applies to others) is that you are not always going to see a character doing the workings that lead them from point A to point B. you have to fill in some of the gaps yourself and surmise the changes in thinking that have taken place offscreen.

The Jaime and Bran thing is a good example of this. we can gather from the scene in which the push takes place that this isn’t something Jaime wanted to do, but felt compelled to: he helps Bran up when he initially falls, and when he asks Bran his age etc a reader can gather when rereading the scene that this is Jaime trying to make time as he deliberates what he’s going to do next. then ‘the things I do for love’ is said with ‘loathing’. already we have plenty to determine that Jaime was not happy w this line of action, but felt he needed to take it.

then we get the AGOT-early ASOS scenes where Jaime comes across as a cut and dry villain and does nothing to help himself, half-jesting to Bran’s own mother about what he did and demonstrating no remorse whatsoever. shocking on first read but a rereader should be able to go back based on what they learn of Jaime later on and realise that he talks differently to what he feels, and maintains this darkly careless front specifically to avoid digging up his true feelings on difficult subjects. this is made apparent over and over again.

then there’s a big gap where Bran is neither mentioned nor thought about by Jaime, when suddenly right towards the end of the book he declares himself ashamed of what he did. so now the reader realises that Jaime has been thinking about what he did, even whilst we haven’t read those thoughts. and then looking at how the act was performed in the first place, we can realise he’s always been ashamed of what he did, has just been telling himself and others differently for his own complex reasons.

I think there are a lot of people who can’t accept that character work sometimes takes place off the page as well as on it, and a character won’t always declare every step they take in a new direction, but sometimes a certain line here or there will tell you that that work has been taking place. if executed well, this is just good writing: it’s boring having the writer spell everything out for you, good books should feel like you’re working with the writer to build the full story.

a lot of people do want it spelt out though lol, you see that a lot with discussions re Jaime, because I’d say he’s maybe the most ‘show don’t tell’ character in the series. and like I always say this isn’t fuckin Paradise Lost or whatever you do not need a degree to crack it but idk like. reading is a skill?? spend any amount of time in asoiaf fandom and truly u will realise that some people just. well they haven’t honed that skill yet lol

#ask #jaime lannister #asoiaf

[secretmellowblog]

I hope tumblr doesn’t die because No other social media site is as good for long, thoughtful, nuanced analyses of media. Yeah tumblr is also full of dumb shallow hot takes and shitposts, but you can make dumb shallow hot takes and shitposts anywhere —-there are no other popular social media sites that let you easily format and share long essays on the media you enjoy, and then have conversations around those long essays.

Fandom on all the other big social websites just seems so utterly …shallow. And it’s not because people on other websites aren’t thoughtful or don’t have deep things to say, but because these sites’ formats do not allow for any kind of long nuanced conversations.

Tiktok? Things have to be crammed into a super short video with an attention grabbing headline, and you can’t hyperlink sources. Instagram? Everything has to be in an image format with strict limits on length, and nothing will be shown to your followers anyway because of how Instagram’s algorithm works, and also no hyperlinks. Twitter? Strict character limits, and if you split it into threads it means someone can retweet a part of your essay completely out of context, and also very little freedom with formatting.

It frustrates me so much. If I go into the Tumblr Les Mis fandom I’ll find really compelling long essays on the original novel (including essays being written for the ongoing book club) on the story’s historical context, or the parallels between different characters and their narrative foils, or the way the politics were defanged for certain adaptations, or the way Victor Hugo’s personal life and failings affected the novel. But on tiktok I’ll get the same five shallow stale jokes from 2013 over and over, or maybe the same “DID U KNO THAT IN THE MUSICAL JAVERT AND VALJEAN SING THE SAME LEITMOTIF” style of basic Intro To Les Mis 101 For Babies media analysis (which is what Tiktok considers deep media analysis), or stale “LOL JAVERT ACTS GAY” style jokes as if we’re living in the early 2000s and calling a character gay is still a funny punchline. And it’s impossible to have any kind of deeper thoughtful discussions than “DID U KNOW <x Kool Fact>” or “lol <shallow observational joke>” on tiktok because the platform just isn’t built for building niche communities around in depth conversations. it’s built to churn out bland generic content for as wide an audience as possible, which means pointing out a small detail like an Easter egg and calling it “cool” is deep media analysis, because you cant have longer more in depth conversations without alienating people. And I hate it. Bc like, it’s not because there aren’t smart clever thoughtful people on Tiktok— there are—it’s because Tiktok isn’t built for these conversations, and anyone who wants to have them has to really fight against the things the website encourages or prioritizes!

Or like, if I go into the LOTR fandom on Tumblr, I’ll find tons of extremely long analysis and fanfic, and analysis of queer readings of the story. On Instagram people will still shriek in terror if you suggest the characters are gay, and most of the popular lotr posts are stale memes recycled from like 2007. There’s really no room for thoughtful media analysis, and even if you did create it, instagram’s algorithm would make sure no one saw your post anyway.

And everyone’s going to say “the algorithm shows you what you’ve seen before so maybe it’s your fault ~” or whatever but i do look for things I want! I do! “The algorithm” doesn’t know me or what I want or value or care about beyond this meaningless surface level.

The only thing that was worthwhile about these sites was the great visual art people were creating, but now the websites are overwhelmed with meaningless soulless machine-generated AI glurge, and it sucks. It just really, really sucks.

I’m honestly confused about why people don’t use tumblr….There’s no character limits! You have freedom with post formatting, and can insert images throughout textposts to illustrate specific points you’re making beneath the paragraphs where they’re necessary! You can add hyperlinks, linking to your sources! People can reblog your entire essay and share it, and then add on with commentary that then becomes part of a larger conversation! People can find your stuff through the tagging system! Reblogging means posts stay in circulation for years instead of being dead 30 minutes after they’re uploaded! If you want to have genuinely interesting text conversations about a piece of media, there really isn’t a better social media website for it anywhere.

To be clear, I’m definitely not saying Tumblr media analysis is *always* clever and thoughtful or etc etc. there are shitposts and nonsense here too (plenty of which I’ve created lol.) I’m saying that Tumblr gives people the tools for in-depth insightful analysis to happen. Whether people choose to do it or not is their own decision XD. But the reason lengthy in-depth conversations and book clubs are even possible here is because Tumblr is built for allowing these conversations to happen, in a way other sites simply aren’t.

It’d really suck if it died, because it’d be a huge blow to…being able to easily find long insightful in-depth media analysis written by fans. I currently don’t think there’s anything that could replace it.

#tumblr #I’m currently working an overlong essay post #comparing the locations Hugo references in Les Mis #with the photographs taken by Charles Marville in the 1860s of those very places #and just thinking “wow this would be hard on other sites

[aevyk-ing]

Watching the making of Wish

-Patting their backs for reusing animation as an homage. Like yeah, it’s nice, there’s work behind that, but it’s the way they say it, like: “We’ve worked hard! Trust us!” We know animation is hard and the problem with Wish was never the animation.

-I didn’t know Sabino was based on Roger from The Aristocats. I love Roger, he’s delightful. Poor Sabino just looks bland in comparison.

-They say Asha has her good and bad traits (which isn’t true) and is so brave to go against what she has believed her whole life. I've seen that done way better and with actually compelling characters.

-“She has to balance being a good friend and family member to speaking the truth and I think we can all relate to that” Well… nope. All those things can be different things. And both your friends and family should help you or at least listen to you.

-Saying that the “I want” song explains how the character is, like… duh.

-Well, yes, Ariana DeBose did great with what she was given.

-So Asha has freckles because some people of North Africa and Southern Spain have freckles… what? Any skin color can have freckles. And I can’t talk about North African people but Andalusian aren’t quite freckled (yes, that’s the name of Southern Spain). Also, I never saw her as mixed. She totally follows more of her mother’s culture. That’s why I don’t like her calling her father’s father saba. Her mother’s father would be her saba and her father’s father her abuelo.

-I love Bill Schwab’s designs, he’s a great artist. But he was only told Asha’s age, race and height. Which yeah, it’s important, but for designing a character you should think about their personality too, because that also translates into their features, hairstyle, clothes and mannerisms. We still don’t know anything about Asha. Is she shy? Likes comfy clothes? No, wait, she’s adorkable.

-They talk about Disney Princess gowns using elements from the current period where they were made (something quite interesting) but they just put the Modern twist in Asha’s hairstyle. Like, what were you afraid of?

-Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but Schwab’s just did his job with a model sheet and that was the ONLY reference they had for animating Asha for a while. Then one of them used his daughter as inspiration and then Ariana came with lots of ideas. They didn’t know how Asha moved for the longest time! Their lead character!

-They say Asha is pure energy, which is… somehow correct? Like she’s just awkward and making those weird moves and trying to be cute and funny. The movie is done and nobody knows yet who the heck is Asha as a character.

-Apparently, Asha has details of pumpkin seeds all over her clothes and she’s wearing periwinkle because of the idea of making her THE Fairy Godmother. I still think she looks better in orange.

-Seeing the voice acting outtakes was good. But now I wish the Bland Dwarfs looked more like the actors. All of them have interesting features that could have been implemented in the designs instead of making them clones of the Encanto family and the mother from Strange World.

-The first deleted scene is after Sabino retrieves his wish and he sings a song. I would have put it in the end as a farewell song with everyone joining it.

-"The Wish equation" is to have a true wish, be responsible of it and… finding support? Fight for it? Exclude fear? Accept change? What are we even talking about? A dream career?

-They say the FG gave Cinderella the dress but couldn’t make the Prince fall in love with her, so she was supporting her! Like… Cinderella just wanted to go to the ball. BAM, there you go, a new dress, WISH GRANTED. Cinderella’s wish wasn’t to make the Prince fall in love with her, she didn’t even know him yet!

-“Music happens when you’re too overwhelmed with emotion.” This clip plays AFTER a snippet of "Welcome to Rosas". I guess Asha was too overwhelmed with being late. That shouldn’t have been a song, she should have told us about Rosas in the book opening.

-They wanted it to be like a fairytale and then hired a pop composer. Like the director says she grew up with the Disney Renaissance Era. Which used Broadway music!

-They talked about this earlier but “This wish” was the song that helped them write the movie, just like "Let it go" made them rewrite Frozen. So you can tell they didn’t have much to work on, maybe an idea: “Hey, just do a fairytale about wishes for our anniversary.”

-The songwriter was so overwhelmed with the commission she had to reach a friend to help her.  Maybe because nobody actually knew what the movie was about? But hey, she’s the youngest to ever write a Disney OST.

-You know? The more I hear “This wish” the more I’m sure it’s the best song of the entire soundtrack.

-Hey, I know that guy in the archive! I’ve seen this clip before!

-I’m just hearing they didn’t know what the heck to do and dived into the archive for inspiration. I like the idea that they studied the greatest artists for some scenes, but sadly, all that is lost in the movie. They scenes are too short to appreciate the animation, but A+ for effort.

-They thought doing a fairytale illustration style was difficult to do… in 3D. Just don’t do it in 3D! Also, I don’t think it’s that difficult, Blue Eyed Samurai did something great.

-The composition is interesting and the backgrounds too, but the characters look quite bad.

-The illustration style led to the backgrounds (and everything) being in focus, which I think it also makes the movie look weird. Look at any old painting: the background is less detailed than the main focus (less brush strokes). They could have gone that direction. The backgrounds of Wish are too detailed a lot of the times and always in focus, so it’s distracting.

-BTW, most of this is: “We did this like in this movie, that like in that movie…” but, what’s original? What makes Wish its own movie?

-They talk about lines like lineart in animation, which we’ve seen it masterfully in Spiderman. But here is so subdued it doesn’t add anything.

-“Wouldn’t it be great to have a warmer climate than the one we’re used in fairytales?” Yeah, because there’s snow in Encanto and Hercules. Also, nothing tells us that’s a warmer climate. Google “Andalusia”, please. There’s flowers in bright colors everywhere, white houses, narrow streets and people, just a lot of loud and happy people. That’s Southern Spain for you all.

-At least with Frozen we CAN TELL it’s Norway. Here, there’s nothing that says SPAIN. Give us people eating serrano ham or tortillas, maybe put a bull around there, have them drink wine from botijos and play guitars!

-Again with the “this was based on this”. Rosas was inspired by The Sleeping Beauty: Germany and France. That’s a whole different architectural design! There’s no verticality as main focus in Mozarab architecture, is all about curves.

-“So it’s your fault.” Yeah, that doesn’t sound fun. I have the feeling you’re not telling a lot of things.

-You know, another Fantasia would have been great. Maybe one with all the Disney characters.

-This is now about the story of Disney, so yeah, padding. Also, way to use “At all costs” in the background. We don’t want to remember what you’ve done in the past, we just want you to tell a good story again.

-This should have been the beginning, the “wish upon a star” that put Wish in motion.

-It was going to be about the origin of the wishing star?

-“Return of Disney villain” Hahahahahahah…

-They didn’t know how bad Magnífico could be and made him do mean stuff like smashing Sabino’s guitar (they called it a guitar here).

-Also, apparently he was going to be shirtless in a scene. Like, you know, a Disney villain.

-We don’t watch him BECOME a villain, we watch a magic book CONTROL him!

-“With "This is the thanks I get" I was like, oh, yeah, we have a narcissist.”, so they didn’t know anything about Magnífico until the song was written! That’s why he doesn’t act like a narcissist much until that song and why the mirror ending felt rushed.

-“When Chris Pine came in I was like: that’s it, that’s the character.” Because they didn’t even had designed it? Like, that’s literally him!

-He did give it all to that song.

-Magnífico was an alchemist?

-“We didn’t want people to know he was evil right away.” Every poster and article: “Disney’s new villain, everybody!”.

-“Makes him more dangerous the quieter he is.” Magnífico in the end battle: eyes fully open, screaming, laughing.

-Oh, Star, here we go. He was going to be pure energy as well… just like Asha! Yeah, we were robbed. BTW, he’s not like Genie or Maui. Maui and Genie aren’t even the same!

-He could have been a fantastic creature as well. And all those designs look crazily fun. But also that’s the kind of exploration you do at the beginning of the production, not in the middle. Unless someone meddles…

-Someone went out to design different sparkles for Star but I could only see it being adorkable. Focused on the face so the sparkles weren’t even noticeable.

-“…they put their personality on it (Star)” Yeah, because none of these characters had any personality… nor have it now that the movie is done.

-People being made of stardust is one of the most beautiful scientific facts. “You are a star” is the worst song in the movie. No wonder it took so long to write.

-Nope, Doc was a leader. Dalia is just there… talking. Of course she’s a way to get the medal of  “we put a disabled character” but at least she has more personality than Asha.

-BTW, just saw the Story Artist wearing a pin with a Pride flag in the shape of a Mickey.

-“She’s just a young woman, going with her life.” “And succeeding.” Yeah, representation is good, but it’s better if you’re not talking about how good you are for doing it.

-Also, we have mixed-race representation, older people with dreams representation, etc. but hey, that girl has a crutch, we’re cool.

-“Animals in Disney have to be smarter than people.” Why? Just why? And also, Valentino is no way smarter than any of the other characters. So why say that?

-“(Alan Tudyk) He pretty much made the whole character.” Yeah, because it looks like nobody had any idea of how these characters were.

-“Inspiration can came from anywhere.” You just COPY-PASTED the ideas of others.

-“Everybody has seen me crying in the studio.” For a good or bad reason?

-Ending with a Walt quote proclaiming they always do their best job… huh…

-“It served the story better to have Amaya as a good person.” Yeah, nope. It made no sense for her to switch sides so easily.

-Sabino dying would have been such a strong way to start the story. Him stealing Asha’s diary… yep, not good.

-Reinforcing my theory that Disney wanted to move away from shapeshifters after the Nimona fiasco.

-Looks like they gave the chaotic energy Star was going to have to Valentino.

-Making any other animal talking surely was a mistake. What’s with the sassiness?

-Dalia wasn’t called like that?! BTW, the writers were so proud of her clutch not being mentioned but, in the deleted scene, it’s the first thing they do. Twice.

-“When you’re underestimated, they don’t see your power coming until it changes the world.” Whoa, just whoa. Disney writers, everybody.

-LOL, the deleted scene with the animals is so bad. But Magnífico was going to transform into a Beast, so… kinda interesting?

Here's the link, BTW.

And congratulations if you read this all. If you're interested, here are my own Wish rewrites: 1, 2.

#wish #disney wish #rambling

[yourqueenb]

As a continuation of this ask that I responded to, all the things I mentioned are just parts of the overall issue I have with Blades…. which is that, in the grand scheme of things, I feel like MC is simply a plot device for the other characters rather than a fully developed character who has a fully developed and satisfying arc herself. It’s clear that Nia’s is the story the writers really wanted to tell considering how intertwined her characterization/development and the overall world building are. They basically even admitted as much.

So my question is why not just make her the MC if that’s really what you wanted on the not so down low? They still could’ve incorporated the skill mechanic. Why create a whole player character just to have us running to solve everyone else’s problems/support them while acting like everything that happens to us exists inside of a vacuum in the meantime? So far, all we’ve really been doing in this book is reporting where the group needs to go, telling them what to do, having heart to hearts with them when they need help moving to the next stage of their development, and then being spoonfed information through the lore tablets, which are apparently more for the players’ benefit than MC’s since they barely affect how we respond in game anyway. I’m fine with being the leader or the glue that holds everyone together, but to me it’s unsatisfying that that’s all we are as the main character.

We somehow become more competent due to the skill mechanic but no less clueless at the same time. We have all this terrible shit happen to us, but are only offered a few lines’ description of how that’s affected us. And then the rest of the attention goes to setting up the light vs. shadow conflict and our friends, who get to have personal and compelling conflicts of their own. I mean I feel like MC is more of an emotional support animal to them than an actual person with dreams, feelings, and a (minimal) background. Imo the only character who’s getting shafted almost as much as us is Imtura.

And all of this might make it sound like I hate Blades, but it’s quite the contrary actually. It’s still one of my favorite series and has a lot of fun moments and lovable characters. But I think at this point, its flaws have become too large for me to ignore. So that’s still affecting my enjoyment a bit and probably the reason why I’m so upset with how certain things are being handled. Of course I’m aware that Blades isn’t the only book that has some of these issues though. I think it’s just a little more disappointing because I expected more

#choices bolas #choices blades #blades of light and shadow #choices stories you play #playchoices #and again it’s not lost on me that a lot of my opinion is probably colored by being on Mal’s romance route alone #from what I’ve seen of Tyril’s route he at least seems to care a bit more #he even shows concern for MCs who have a purely platonic relationship with him #I’m not sure about Nia and Imtura #but even still I feel like MC isn’t being given nearly enough from the writers regardless of who you’re romancing #also I’m still not sure I’ve really explained my thoughts clearly #I feel like I just typed a lot and then decided to post bc I don’t have the capacity to try to organize this any further #so it just never would’ve gotten posted if I waited for that 🤦🏽‍♀️ #but either way I hope it’s semi coherent and doesn’t just sound like a lot of whining and rambling 💀😭 #choices #choices app

[oddberryshortcake]

Deuce’s learning disability

A core part of Deuce’s character is he isn’t the brightest. In the past, he skipped school and acted as a delinquent and therefore fell behind what is easier for other kids…But why exactly was school so hard for him even before he started taking it seriously?

It’s never outwardly said, but as someone who has a learning disability and dealt with the frustrations of not being understood by my teachers or helped by previous schools, combined with some subtle details added in the game and by the voice actor, I think it’s possible that Deuce has a learning disability. 

I don’t think it’s a singular one in specific, it can be either of them, but in my personal opinion, he comes off as dyslexic to me (as someone who has dyslexia and dyscalculia)

Here are some traits I recognize from my own learning disability I’ve seen exhibited in Deuce-

Mispronouncing/misreading words 

Spelling errors

Repeats words to help him better understand/memorize it (Deuce’s VA said this is how he interprets how Deuce learns, and I love that added personal thought and interpretation) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ_frMuJvu4

Being characterized as ‘dense’ and a slow learner 

Deuce reveals in Book 5 chapter 40 that he always struggled in school, that he is slow to learn, and he needed extra help that likely no one was giving him (until NRC,) so he turned to delinquency, to cover up the inadequacies he felt with being too cool to try hard. 

But what does he do when he gets to NRC? He still struggles, but when he’s offered remedial lessons from Crewel, he happily takes it, because finally there’s a teacher who is offering him the extra help and attention he needed to succeed in school.

(Remedial lessons are essentially extra help for students that need it. It isn’t always for kids with learning disabilities, but I was given remedial lessons as a kid after I got diagnosed to help me) 

Deuce struggling with feeling inadequate and dumb despite how hard he’s trying is so compelling because I’ve been there; I’ve been in his place. It makes me sad to see the other kids pick on him (namely Ace), but I know he’s going to kick ass and be everything he wants to be.

This one is for all the dyslexic/adhd/other learning disability kids who busted our asses despite what everybody said

#Twisted Wonderland #twst #Deuce Spade #Whenever I get dyslexic vibes from someone I feel so seen #but really he speaks for anyone with a learning disability I love u son #twst analysis

[toastandjamie]

You know I think the most compelling thing about Mat is? He’s a subversion of literally everything his character is Supposed to be. He’s the rogue archetype but he’s not a lonewolf or even particularly cowardly despite his insistence in the contrary. His major character trait is his Loyalty, that’s his defining characteristic. Not his wit or even his charm though he has both, the thing that all other characters around him mention is that he’s loyal and true to his word. Not the most Rogue-like personality traits.

But he’s not even just a subversion of the rogue archetype. He’s also a subversion of masculinity in a lot of ways, he’s described as wiry and isn’t especially tall. He ISNT physically intimidating, which stands juxtaposed to him being one of the greatest generals and fighters in the book. I really like how the fact that he isn’t what people expect is one of his strengths, he’s chronically underestimated by other characters. When he’s hunted by darkfriends they often send big classic street thugs after him and expect him to be overpowered because unlike Rand or Perrin he doesn’t LOOK strong. Only the moment anyone actually gets into a fight with him they’re taken off guard by his absolutely brutally he fights. And he’s not actually that physically strong, he’s certainly not weak by any means, but compared to many of the other characters and enemies they face Mat isn’t particularly strong. He instead outsmarts his opponents, he’s faster and more agile, he takes advantage of distance fighting mostly with throwing knives, polearms, and long bows.

Compared to the other Ta’veren he’s also the least traditionally heroic, “he’s no bloody hero” isn’t entirely a false claim. He’s the only one the three Ta’veren boys that doesn’t have a crisis of conscious over being violent in battle, sure he’s got the sane hang up as Rand about killing women, but he had no issues with immediately employing guerrilla warfare against the Seanchen and never takes prisoners. The Aes Sedai tell him off for leaving leaving wounded enemies without aid, breaking the rules of warfare, and he tells them that he doesn’t care about being honorable. And he doesn’t, Perrin and Rand(particularly in the beginning and end of his character arc) tend to be very honorable and respectable opponents when they aren’t fighting Shadowspawn. Mat will cheat and trick throughout battles because he’s first and only priority is keeping himself and as many of his men alive as possible while killing as many enemies as he can. He’s vicious and efficient, Perrin went back for the Whitecloaks in Towers of Midnight, where Mat wouldn’t have. He helps invent canons and immediately begins trying to make the automatic crossbows faster, because his priority is always doing the most damage to the rival army before retreating to safety. Mat’s style of warfare is certainly reflective of RJ’s experience in Vietnam. The Band literally wears camo armor.

Lastly is Mat and Tuon’s relationship. When we first learn of the Daughter of Nine Moons prophecy, Mat always describes this future as her appearing from the ether and spiriting him away, and Egwene’s vision is of Tuon wrestling Mat to the ground and collaring him. We are set up with the expectation that Tuon is going to be the one chasing him down and capturing him. Then Mat kidnaps Tuon and you’d think “oh there’s the subversion Tuon’s the kidnapped damsel” but BAM we get another subversion because Tuon CHOSE to be kidnapped, and Mat fell head over heels in love with her, like tripping off a cliff. She didn’t capture him physically but she certainly captured his heart and that has always been a much more effective collar and leash than any physical one you could put on him.

I just love Mat being so unexpected to both the audience and other characters. I love how he’s just a walking contradiction, of being irresponsible but loyal, being vicious but compassionate, being foolish and clever. He’s everything and nothing, complicated and simple. I love him.

#wheel of time #mat cauthon #wheel of time spoilers #major wot book spoilers #character analysis #mat cauthon my beloved

[queer-reader-07]

ok time for me to be an aziraphale apologist / stan on main. because i am tired of how much shit he is getting.

1) i hate hate HATE the amount of people who keep insinuating that crowley is *more* in love with aziraphale than aziraphale is with crowley. did we watch the same show and read the same book??

did you not see aziraphale’s longing gazes that started *checks notes* literally before time? did you note watch as he got himself into precarious situations just so that he could be rescued by crowley and subsequently be asked out on a lunch date? did you not see aziraphale take any and every opportunity to simply touch crowley’s body? to just feel a little more closeness? he literally gave crowley holy water. if that isn’t love i don’t know what is.

yes, crowley shows his love for aziraphale very differently. for crowley it’s acts of service and that loving snark. but that doesn’t mean aziraphale doesn’t love crowley. they both love each other so so deeply and equally. they just love differently.

2) aziraphale is not a bad person for choosing to go to heaven.

i have talked about this in a few contexts before (eg how it makes sense from a religious trauma standpoint) but today i’m talking about it generally.

aziraphale did not choose heaven over crowley. he chose saving the world in the now, so crowley can be safe in the future. so that he and crowley might still have an earth to have a future on.

aziraphale still has faith that heaven can change for the better, and if it can be him doing the change why wouldn’t he want to take the opportunity? i don’t think you have to like his decision, but so many people are screaming “aziraphale bad!!!” and i just don’t get it.

the decision makes sense. it is so completely in character.

look. i understand being distraught or upset about the ending of season 2. i won’t pretend that i was happy about the ending. but i think a lot of people have forgotten how stories are structured. season 2 is the second act in a three act story. the final fifteen are the standard conflict that basically every three act story has.

but it was really shocking to see how many people went from loving aziraphale to just crapping on him because he made an in-character- understandable-in-the-context-of-his-past decision.

idk i just don’t think it makes sense or is fair to boil his decision down to “it’s out of character” or “he doesn’t love crowley as much” (don’t even get me STARTED on coffee theory) just because you didn’t agree with it.

aziraphale has flaws, but so does crowley. that’s what makes them such good and compelling characters. they aren’t black and white, bad and good. that’s the whole point of their characters and dynamic, they exist in the gray space.

#is this polarizing? idk but this has been sitting in my drafts for far too long so here it is #i will go to bat for aziraphale every day because i love him #i am the blue print for Crowley Coded Aziraphale Stan #aziraphale apologist #aziraphale #good omens #aziracrow #ineffable husbands #good omens 2 #good omens meta #gomens meta

[cowboyinternist]

what makes sam and jackie compelling/interesting as a ship to u? /gen :O (not related to anything ive been meaning to send u this ask for a while and only just got round to it lol)

i think a big part of it is that the way jackie talks about sam makes them a lot more interesting as a character?

because objectively, sam sucks! as we see them about 90% of the time, they’re incredibly self serving and negligent. and that’s putting it in as simple terms as possible.

but we get these small implications as time goes on that there’s something beyond that! which is most notable in the interaction they have with dana in episode 83 (another thing i could talk about for a million years (i could also go on a whole other tangent about how them showing their face is another really huge example of this but that’s off topic rn)). but none of them are necessarily set in stone, outright saying who they are. like MAYBE sam isn’t completely horrible, but who can really be sure?

but then Jackie says this in it devours,

sam is nice! really nice, actually! outside of the specific context of them being the sheriff and instead them,,, fundamentally as a person. and it isn’t like jackie is this one off character whose judgment we can’t trust. we spend an entire book getting to know her! and i feel like jackie is reliable in this aspect, especially post novel 1. this is the first and really like,, ONLY time we get info on sam from somebody who actually knows them personally. and interestingly enough, the next time we get insight on this aspect of their character, it can be linked back to jackie. they only decide to stand up against the university of what it is once they threaten josh, who is jackie’s half brother. and it is IMMEDIATE they are,, FRONT and fucking center in that movement. like their relationship is so interesting because jackie saying something as simple as that shakes up everything we know about this character.

and this all makes it very interesting to explore just,, what makes sam so fucking horrible outside of that? like what is it that drives them to be that way. and there are so many possible answers to that question and i have my own extensive thoughts on that but again,, off topic.

i love it all so much because it plays into the major themes of perspective that wtnv has? which i think is my favorite thing about the podcast. cecil has his own perception of sam, so does dana, so does jackie. and none of those perceptions are necessarily false, because they’re based on those people’s individual experiences.

also i enjoy the way their relationship is foreshadowed in the novel because i think that with the way she describes it, sam is like the LAST character you’d expect her to end up with lmao.

but yeah TLDR; i find them compelling because sam is absolutely awful and jackie is not, but she describes them as a really nice person anyways ^-^

#tysm for asking!! i’ve been wanting to talk about this :3 #i was gonna put a cut on this but no… in 2024 we are irritating…. #they’re also both just really weird but in different ways which is funny #number one obscure wtnv ship in my heart #i think what sams character gets reduced to a lot in the fandom is like. their weird art shit and their ~opinions~ on desert bluffs? #but they literally have not done the art thing since episode 93 (EIGHT YEARS AGO) #and they have implied (really implied) character development on the desert bluffs thing #guys they’ve done other bad things too okay 🙄 #idk they’re very multifaceted. #also this is mostly unrelated but i’m SO UNBELIEVABLY UPSET that sam won’t be in the live recording for the attic #like i was so so so excited i was gonna analyze the fuck outta that #it’s okay though #wtnv #welcome to night vale #sheriff sam #jackie fierro

[physalian]

Tackling Characters with Mental Health Issues (or, ‘Write What you Know’)

**Trigger warning for this entire post**

This is completely off the cuff and unplanned but here we go. I just read a book that POV switches between its two romantic leads. One of these leads was intended to be written with a severe case of generalized anxiety. I have confirmation from the author that it’s not an author-insert. This character was entirely based on research, not experience.

Without putting them on blast, because they really did try…. While ‘neurodivergent’ or ‘mental health disorder’ isn’t a protected class, it should still fit squarely under other topics you shouldn’t write about if you don’t experience it with a massive asterisk.

TL;DR: If you yourself aren’t part of X minority or suffer Z physical or mental disability, you should not be barred from writing characters with those traits. ***HOWEVER*** writing these characters struggling, suffering, or overcoming this given trait in a pro-cis, straight, white, neurotypical, able-bodied America is not yours to touch.

This suffering isn’t your story to profit off of, when you didn’t actually suffer any of it.

I cannot remember who said it and I am absolutely paraphrasing but for example: White authors can and should include characters of color (and I am a White author). White authors should *not* write about a character of color as their protagonist experiencing bigotry, discrimination, hate crimes, and all that hardship, at the hands of white society. It’s just not your story to tell, and all the research in the world will never give you the lived experience you need to do it justice.

Like, you can write about the concept of slavery existing in a fantasy novel. Or sci-fi. Or some Alternate Universe historical fiction. You cannot write about the American slave trade like you lived it and still suffer the ramifications of it when you didn’t, especially when it is the thesis of your entire book.

Anyone remember that awful Amazon movie, My Policeman? Based on a book written by a straight, white woman whose straight female lead took an entire narrative to whine about how she was jilted by her gay husband and his gay lover who she got arrested and institutionalized so she could keep her husband… and never told them? With the predatory 3rd love interest and the whole ‘liar revealed’ and… yeah. That one.

Unless you do the work very few authors are willing to do, with permission and encouragement and a backing from whatever minority you’re writing about and their stamp of approval that you knocked it out of the park, just don’t. Save yourself the headache.

—

As I read this book, and this entire character’s arc is about her mental health, for 100k words… why would you *want* to take on that responsibility? Why would you want to take on all that extra research, all the stress of making sure you get it right, all the costs of hiring sensitivity readers and the risk of your character falling apart with readers who do fit these traits?

Characters with mental health problems are very, very tricky to get right for one massive reason: Accurately depicting many disorders and anxieties means your character can come across as extremely unlikeable, uncompelling, confusing, and frustrating. These characters won’t make logical choices or arguments, they’re likely to self-sabotage, contradict themselves, argue in circles, and die on molehills they think are mountains. This is just what anxiety does to people in the real world. We are not always compelling protagonists, and we don’t always get happy endings.

Writing illogical characters takes a lot of practice if you yourself are not an illogical thinker and if you’re writing half a book elbow-deep in 3rd person limited, intimately trying to describe how this disorder impacts their daily life, you, my friend, have so much more work cut out for you than you anticipated.

So why?

It got very sticky very quickly when the message I took away from the book was “character A can love away character B’s anxiety” and that just… it’s just not how it works. That is a very dangerous mindset to have, for both parties involved.

Character A does not exist to “fix” Character B, nor should A exist to be B’s therapist.

Making A B’s “medicine” can encourage some dangerous codependency. Especially if they break up, B backslides and spirals, and A takes on guilt for not being there anymore, as if any of this is A’s fault.

It says that ‘curing’ anxiety just takes a little romance. Which. No. B has to love themselves, first, before they’re able to love anyone else or let anyone else love them.

It got stickier when the author accidentally wrote a trauma-induced ace who wanted to start liking sex to please her partner and not for her own peace of mind (with internalized self-hate for her anxieties around sex as if not liking it after a traumatic experience isn't completely justified), as if she wasn’t good enough with the boundaries she had. And the narrative backed it up because she was *cured* after a couple rounds in the sheets—I worked really hard on my Ace character guide to help stop people from doing this.

Had Character A accepted these boundaries B had, and these two come to a creative compromise around intimacy that B does like, it would have been so much healthier. B liked making out, just not being the 'recieving' partner, while A chose to die on a 'if we can't have the sex I want, I can't be in a romance with you' hill and it just broke my heart for B. B wasn't being picky. B was traumatized.

The worst thing you can do to your ace character is a) reinforce the idea that they’ve failed as a human because they don’t like sex and b) reinforce the idea that they “just haven’t found the right person yet” and this narrative hit both in the bullseye.

The author wasn’t trying to write an ace, I can tell, but aceness aside “good sex is the best cure to your sexual trauma” is… also, not great? If you yourself didn’t experience this? The point of all of this was clearly to attempt exposure therapy, it just got so bogged down with other problems that the nuance necessary to stick the landing was completely lost.

If this was fantasy, like Twilight, with Bella’s dangerous codependency on Edward in New Moon, mental health is not the point of that book. The author didn’t set out on a mission to provide respectful representation of depression and healthy relationship goals. It’s toxic as hell, but it also takes a backseat to the actual story and the audience who loves those books couldn’t care less about how toxic it is.

The books aren’t about Bella overcoming her depression. They’re about sparkly vampires and the dangers of… teen pregnancy?

It got even *stickier* when the character revealed she’d apparently been in therapy for a decade and a half, only for her therapist to shrug and go ‘I guess you’re stuck with it’ while her mental health issue became a physical health issue, because she should have had a crippling eating disorder that the narrative didn't at all take seriously.

Why would you want the stress of writing this?

—

I am not at all saying you can’t write anxious characters if you yourself are not anxious. But make that an ingredient of the pie and not the entire pie, yeah?

Ask yourself why you’re doing this. The fundamental argument of that book seemed to be “anxiety can be loved away” and from the very first page, it was doomed. That was the book’s thesis. The entire story hinged on the success of this depiction.

I can’t even be mad, because it wasn’t intended to be harmful, but it inadvertently reaffirmed so many dangerous and incorrect assumptions and stereotypes about mental health. Good intentions historically do not guarantee good results.

If you do not suffer from anxiety, you are still allowed to write a character who experiences it (Or OCD, specific phobias, BPD, what have you). I tip my hat to anyone willing to do all the work to get it right because those are all tall orders, but you aren’t blacklisted from these characters.

But with any minority, anyone who isn’t “cis, straight, white, male, neurotypical, and able-bodied” write a character who is also X, instead of an X stereotype, who happens to be your character.

#writing advice #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools #writing a book #writeblr #writing #character design #character development #mental health #mental health in media #anxiety disorder #anxiety #write what you know

[rwrbficrecs]

Readers' Choice Rec List Part 4 of 7

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

lifelines by @indomitable-love

@dot524: I have been working my way through all of indomitablelove’s fics. They are all fantastic, but this one blew me away. Added so much depth to an already very dramatic event. Well written & includes some very thoughtful character PoVs.

@space--potat0: A perfect companion when you're rereading the book but want some extra Pain And Sadness

babygrxmlin: The emails from everyone else's point of view (it's so beautiful and gorgeous and stunning and it made my chest ache in the best possible way, please read it everyone!)

Rio by @treluna4

Statueinthestonetoo: This was one of the first rwrb fics I read, and Treluna is a wonderful writer who pulls you in and captivates you with their words. It's sexy and sweet at the same time and I highly recommend it.

eyes full of stars by @acdsbff

@musicandi: I submitted this fic because it is so beautiful and heartfelt.

Now and Then by @mudbloodpotter05

anon: This author told a Soulmate story with a canon divergence and made it AU all at the same time. Not only that, while it does have an MCD, the author has a happy ending that…well, gotta love that “soulmate magic” because while it does have an MCD, this story has not let me down when I need to feel the bad and read the good.

ManBatman: I tend to stay away from stories with an MCD, but when I saw that this was a Soulmate story too, I decided to read it especially when it said happy ending, despite the MCD. Happy endings can be subjective, but I can tell the author loves the Henry and Alex because as much as they lean into the drama, and live up to the mcd tag, they still pay off the happy ending in a way that definitely reminds me why soulmate stories are my favorite.

Hit (my love) out of the park by bleedingballroomfloor

Tabitha: The first story and the series as a whole, of Baseball Boyfriends, always is just the perfect read for me. Angst and joy, love and patience and acceptance of others and one’s self and never leaves me feeling left wanting when I read this series at least once a month!

Hashtag Soulmates by @everwitch-magiks

@mudbloodpotter05: This is such a crazy story and one of the first ever RWRB stories that I read in the fandom. Each chapter has a different fanfiction trope, and leans into what we love about fanfiction in the first place and just how outlandish and fun a story can be all the while telling a compelling story that has some angst, but also provides that lightness that comes with a happy ending

@three-drink-amy: It is the ultimate love letter to fanfiction and rwrb! So fun and well done!

The Other way by @three-drink-amy, @everwitch-magiks, @athousandrooms

@mudbloodpotter05: I love this story because it take reality tv and puts an RWRB spin on it while still staying true to Alex and Henry. Even though it isn’t the standard RWRB story for them, they still have to learn to communicate and grow all the while trying to make it down the aisle for their happy ever after.

In need of assistance by @stutteringpeach

anon: This story and it’s follow up are just one of those sweet stories that fill one’s cup I always come back to this story because one, arthur is alive and two the way he tries to go about setting up Henry and Alex is amazing and so obvious you can’t help but love it and the sequel is just as good as the first!!

Aged like a fine wine by @three-drink-amy

anon: I was reading this one as it was posting and I was absolutely hooked for weeks. It has several rwrb tropes I love and it's definitely one of my favourites

#readers choice #rwrb fic recs #red white and royal blue #firstprince

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/729708592592306176/how-about-a-different-discourse-death-of-the

What this ask is missing, a bit, is that Death of the Author *does* mean that the author’s take on things is no more or less valid than anyone else’s. It’s about decentering authorial intent in analyses of media. Barthes is pretty clear and quite pointed about it in the original essay.

What bothers me about misuses of it and what I think this anon means to say is when people start decentering the actual *text*. The idea behind Death of the Author is also that the text stands alone. You don’t need to look at any extra shit to understand it. As you said, it was a response to a mode of analysis that obsessed over plumbing through author biographies.

The issue with what people do in fandom is they ignore the text. “I don’t like this element of canon, so it doesn’t exist.” (Which is different from arguing that it’s there but it sucks because of XYZ reasons, so I’m going to consciously ignore it in my fan works. This is when people just act like it isn’t there in the text in the first place.) “You have to take my bizarro world out-of-nowhere headcanon that is based on nothing except that I want it to be true, that I love this character and I wish they were XYZ therefore they are” and take it just as seriously as headcanons that actually engage with what’s in the show/video game/book/movie/whatever and use that as their basis (like building off something that is subtextual in the original work).

Granted we all do this to some degree, we all come to a text with our own biases and you can’t *always* easily separate those out, and that can affect, for instance, your interpretation of what the subtext is, but I think the irritating fandom behavior is when this kind of ignoring-the-text-to-substitute-your-own-reality is this very deliberate sort of laziness. The annoying thing in my current fandom is people who are fans of this one ship that they insist is the most progressive and other people just don’t see the scintillating “subtext” of because we are bigots or whatever, between two characters who don’t interact that much for two MCs and when they do it’s not at all shippy (but these characters both have very shippy subtext with different characters), but where these people think the ship *should* exist because of their identities. And their “evidence” for the ship is always gifsets taken way out of context and not including the dialogue that makes the non-shippy context for that scene very clear (including that it might actually be shippy for conflicting pairings). It’s like this bizarre version of “close reading” that strips out the largely context *deliberately* in order to make a particular conclusion seem more compelling than it actually is.

Anyway, all that ignoring-the-text stuff is STILL bad analysis per DOTA. Since the point of DOTA is to go based on the text, if you’re obscuring the text you’re kind of just installing yourself as a new author.

This is why DOTA doesn’t mean “anything goes.” It just means “authorial intent is just one interpretation that doesn’t have to matter.” It doesn’t mean other stuff we use in analysis doesn’t matter, and if anything the point is to make it even more text-centric than the older author-centric analyses were. People can still disagree about what the text says, of course, but they should both be going back to it in how they construct those arguments, and not, like those shippers, deliberately ignoring chunks of the text that weaken their arguments.

--

I don't think all of them are consciously throwing out actual canon, but they are often throwing out all context that would help evaluate subtext.

Like... if you're analyzing a Marvel movie, you might ignore what the director said in an interview, but you probably shouldn't entirely ignore the fact that it is a Marvel movie and apply assumptions that make sense for some arthouse film.

And, yes, if you're arguing for shippy subtext, even unintentional on the part of creators, "I like this ship because..." needs very little, but "This ship has more support than this other ship" requires going back to the actual text and looking at it in its totality.

There's a lot of faux-intellectualism around garbage like TJLC where people try to make themselves feel smart by using the language of close reading while having the media literacy of a bucket of rotting fish.

[featherymalignancy]

Okay like if you agree, but….

here are 3 trends that I wish the fantasy genre would take a break from for a little while.

*Quick disclosure, this isn’t meant to feel overly negative, I mostly want to hear other people’s opinions on these trends and others!*

Hungry Games-esque “a competition with deadly stakes” plot lines. On the one hand, I get it, because like the rest of the world, I was totally enthralled by this premise when it was first introduced in the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale and later, the Hunger Games. However, at this point the idea of the main character entering into a deadly competition feels a little tired and predictable, and unlike Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, the many of the latest iterations lack the searing social commentary which made the premise so compelling. Notable Examples: Serpent and the Wings of Night, Lightlark, The Jasad Heir

Motherfucking EPIGRAPHS. You know, that line or paragraph of text which proceeds every chapter. In the fantasy genre, often it is an except from a historical or religious text from the world in which the book is set. And here’s the thing—it’s not that I hate epigraphs, or that I don’t understand their purpose. They can be an elegant way to add context to the story without burdening the main narrative with too much exposition, and they can also help the created world to feel more “lived in”. Having said that, I feel like they are starting to get way overused, and for me, they’ve gone from feeling like a cool way for the author to provide context and add meta commentary to their story to serving as a slightly less clunky vehicle of info-dumping. Like…am I supposed to be remembering the characters of this lore which I only ever hear about through these epigraphs, because I can assure you, I am not. In other instances, they can feel like an authors lack of faith in the reader, as if they are afraid we might miss the point if they don’t include an unsubtle cue as to where we ought to focus our attention at the start of every chapter. I respect the role epigraphs have played in fantasy classics like Dune and Wheel of Time, but I currently feel the number of novels employing them has become fatiguing, and I hope the trend of including them decreases, at least in the short-term. Notable examples: Fourth Wing (Empyrean Series, Swordcatcher, Furyborn (Empirium series)

A [Blank] of [Blank] and [Blank] Not much to say here other than…when are romantasy authors going to let this go?? 😮‍💨😮‍💨 While you could argue the true genesis of this title naming convention could be GRRM’s A Song of Ice of Fire, I think we can all agree that—for better or worse—it was the popularity of ACOTAR that sent this title style into the stratosphere, and at this point, it has become ubiquitous to the point of literal disorientation. To me there is nothing inherently wrong with this title style (though I would also argue there is nothing particularly gripping about it, at least not enough to warrant a trend of this size) but it basically renders all of these books—which are already of a similar vibe and style—virtually indistinguishable. As a reader on the hunt for new books to scratch that romantasy itch, it’s nearly impossible to tell the dozens of titles bearing this title apart, which means I have no sense which which ones I’ve read, which I haven’t, which caught my interest, which I started and didn’t care for, etc. I have idea how much of this is a consequence of publishers trying to capitalize on a known entity in order to make the most money and how much is just the fact that naming a book is really fucking hard, but good lord, what is it gonna take to stop this madness? Notable examples: quite literally too many to name

What do yall think? Do you agree, disagree? What are some fantasy trends you’d like to see go away/make a comeback

#feathery asks #fantasy genre #fantasy trends #iron flame #SJM

[madwheelerz]

Seeing as a lot more compelling evidence than the evidence used in the original theory has come to light, I’ve decided to redo the manifestation theory. So here we go and far warning for any potential plot twist reveals.

Overview

The manifestation theory is a theory of mine that the show operates as one huge D&D game and that a lot of the settings that we see such as characters, locations, and events aren’t real, at least not in the traditional sense. They exist in the real world, but they originated from a child’s mind. Mike’s mind.

First let’s see why Mike would’ve randomly started manifesting monsters. The simple answer is that he wouldn’t not without a reason and certainly not on purpose. What I think Mike did is that he tried to turn back time and succeeded, but with the consequence of having expended the reach of his mind a little too far and releasing beings from the mind. Mike is the DM after all so if anyone might be pulling the strings it’s him.

Let’s provide some evidence that the events aren’t actually happening first.

Do I have your attention yet? Good. What I think happened is that Will died. He was murdered in another timeline and after around a year of learning to use his powers Mike turned back the clock to the last time, he saw Will alive, the initial D&D game. This would’ve been something of a save point and is why so many important things show up in relations to that game.

At 8:15, Karen stops the game. Will dies after rolling a seven, Mike wanted twenty more minutes. The works. Will leaves and is kidnapped into the upside down. If Mike is the writer here, then Will is acting as the main character. The game is built around protecting Will except it’s hitting a point beyond Mike’s control.

The barrier between Mike’s mind and reality is weak and it keeps getting weaker the more time passes. The involvement of time travel explains Mr. Clarke bringing up that multiple world’s interpretation and the references to curiosity voyages.

Mike is highly suspicious in the way that he seems to be constantly framed over dialogue suggesting a connection to other worlds and the “Vale of Shadows”, which is what the kids were originally calling the upside-down.

There is also the way Mike sometimes knows stuff and is completely unable to explain how.

So, none of this is real. We’re in a kid’s game and Mike is the DM. This I think is the reason that the three playlist left belong to Will, Billy – literally the other William, and Mike. Mike’s playlist description is also referring to a 5-hour (season?) D&D session despite the fact that none of Mike’s campaigns are that short nor does his playlist actually last for that long.

So, Mike dies = the upside down dies or something to that effect. The Hawkins National Lab isn’t real, but wasn’t one of their main goal to discover time travel?

Weren’t they pushing so hard that they released monsters onto the world. No one from the lab would’ve seen Will prior to his kidnapping to the upside-down, at least not in enough detail to recreate it quite that perfectly, but Mike saw him. They spoke, Mike was acting weird, Will told Mike that the Demogorgon got him. Why do I think the lab isn’t real well…

This is the very first DM book that Mike has. We get a nice shot of it right before Dustin starts to read about the “Vale of Shadows”. As he’s reading, we see Hopper traveling through the interior of HNL. This is also Mike’s first campaign book, so it makes an appearance twice, which is interesting simply because the DM books don’t seem to appear twice, but especially not in the same season.

When Mike narrates from it is connected with the guy in the lab running from a Demogorgon. It’s also interesting to note that the book is the only DM book that we can clearly see has the design of a building on it. So a building design connected with the interior of the lab. It also carries a small drawing of the cardinal directions right above the building and considering that later Dustin is using a compass to lead them to the lab that’s pretty interesting.

This and the fact that Mike’s D&D campaigns take place in the basement and most gates only open in a basement of some sorts. For example, the HNL basement and the starcourt basement, but also the Mindflayer’s main operation being in the basement of steelworks. Basements, basements everywhere.

Why do I think that Mike might’ve turned back time first?

This and the way that Mike is constantly associated with running out of time. With that I’ll leave you to it, but if you decide to watch the show with this interpretation fair warning it gets trippy.

#slay #manifestation theory but part 2 and make it compelling #manifesation theory #byler #<- for attention #jason's speech is insane too tbh

[amygdaline]

Thinking about the different relationships characters have with “Truth” in Axiom’s End and Truth of the Divine...

- For Nils, truth is a human right but some people are more human than others. Nils’s slogan is “truth is a human right.” But his actions in TODT paint him as either cognitive dissonance-ing himself away from his own lies, or as a blatant, corrupted manipulator. Truth is a human right, except when he secretly blackmails Kaveh, schemes to indoctrinate his children for gain, and requests political favors in exchange for information. 

- For Kaveh, the means to truth do not justify the ends if the means cause more suffering than the ends prevent. Kaveh worked with Nils on at least one of the same projects, outing government atrocities that Sol was wrapped up in. But Kaveh believes this is a truth that needs to be outed to save lives and hold the government accountable, not to get his name in an article or book. When he has the truth of what Nils is willing to do his own integrity as a truth seeker and human being helps him make the easy decision to never want to work with Nils ever again. 

- For Cora, lying is seen as a way to protect herself and protect others, but if she goes too far it does the opposite. Cora tells little white lies, usually in the pursuit of peace. “I believe you,” she says when she doesn’t believe somebody, but doesn’t want to fight. She manipulates and minces interpretations of Ampersand’s comments for the sake of keeping peace. Her omissions of truth rarely cause great harm but neither do they ever help anything. However, as her illness progresses, little white lies snowball until she’s lying about the state of her own mental health, until she breaks. She hurts herself and her loved ones by proximity.

- For Luciana, it feels like telling the truth has only caused harm in the long run. Luciana wants to believe in her own goodness, and therefore cannot conceive that she would ever do something like breaking a NDA or hurting her family. She’s so concerned with being correct that she hurts her family, anyway. And still, that truth hurts. 

- For Ampersand, the truth will only make you suffer, so omission is an act of self-sacrifice; his instability for your stability. Ampersand always lies by omission, telling half truths or distracting from the real truth. He’s exactly like Cora but to the extreme, omitting truth because he believes the truth will hurt those around him. However, he’s gone so far down this hole of omission that his problems never get solved; he hurts himself, he hurts all his loved ones, and he knows he needs help but feels too broken to seek it. 

- For Nikola, there is no reason why he needs to lie or omit; the end is near, anyway. Nikola only tells the truth, as he understands it. His truth is pessimistic but his actions optimistic, something Kaveh notes about their friendship. When he says he’s ready to die but takes care of his body and mind, he isn’t lying about wanting to die. He wants to have hope but he is compelled to let the humans understand the odds of their hopelessness, all the same. 

- For the pequod superorganism, truth is a tangible thing they can hold in their hands, and they consume it like their sister-species “consumes” planets. The general pequod society, if Nikola is right, thinks that they can keeping going and going and going, that the universe is a black-and-white thing they can pull apart. But Nikola sees it as something bigger and incomprehensible than either pequod or human beings. There is a divinity- the unknown- which they can never touch. But the superorganism will keep trying to understand, anyways. They will destroy themselves and the miracle of other intelligent life in their endless pursuit of black-and-white.

- For the human superorganism- particularly the USA where the story is set- truth is only a tool. General Porter thinks he deserves the truth on the basis of his position of power and very likely his ethnicity and sex. He wants to use it to kill people. The general government agencies depicted, including ROSA, think they deserve to know everything they can squeeze out of Ampersand, even at the expense of their alien guest’s health. Political parties want the truth by any means to use it for their own political campaigns. Even those with less power- middle class to poor people- use truth and speculation of the truth for their own agendas, to discriminate against others, particularly Jewish and Muslim communities. The truth here does more harm than good, fought over like a commodity, manipulated and repurposed. You have the truth, now what? “He was a hero,” “he was a species traitor,” he’s great for views.

#axioms end #axiom's end #truth of the divine #TOTD #noumena #im not sure how to place sol's relationship with the truth #he doesnt seem to be a liar nor an omitter hes just along for the ride #however he DOES have an accurate lie-dar and i think he knows cora has been lying or omitting for most of the books #even if he doesnt always know the exact depth of her omission hes been trained on lying and probably assumes lying of most people