#like him and have created a whole characterization for him outside of the show. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mimymomo · 2 years

Text

In ‘Lucas on the Line,’ Lucas Sinclair experienced countless bouts of racism and micro aggressions including but not limited to:

Had children run away from him and refuse to touch him because they thought his Black skin color would rub off on them. This happened IN THE THIRD GRADE! And he never told his parents about it!

Calmed his anxiety about being the only Black kid in his homeroom class by coming to the realization that since there was no other Black kids that meant he most likely wouldn’t be bombed

Had to install a camera in his locker because his property got defaced by a glitter bomb

Lost his first and only black friend/mentor who supported him thanks to an ACTUAL MAKESHIFT BOMB being installed in his locker that caused a janitor to go to the hospital for 1st/2nd degree burns (and the white boy who did it barely got punished)

Got teased that the only reason he got on the basketball team was because he was Black

Comes to the realization that he might’ve actually only gotten in the team because the coach has a history of recruiting Black boys for the team regardless of their skill level

Gets called an Oreo (for uneducated: white on the inside, black on the outside) by racist bullies. Erica (who apparently has also been called this) sticks up for him and is the only one who understands what the insult means which means Mike and Dustin don’t know/understand the lengths of how deep the racism Lucas experiences in Hawkins on a daily bases

And these aren’t even all of them! These are just examples I had from the top of my head!

And despite all this happening in the book, “fans” have STILL FOUND A WAY to turn this book about Lucas and his struggles as a Black boy in a mostly white suburban town and his deteriorating relationship with Max and make it about Byler!

The fact that Lucas, one of the only characters of color on this show, can’t have ANYTHING to himself without people using him to push their ships is so aggravating!

He and Erica constantly get shit talked and miss characterized by fans, get excluded/cut out of group shots, and barely get any fanart/fics about them and their struggles compared to the white characters (I could make a whole new post about the terrible way this fandom treats Erica but I won’t do that here). Hell don’t forget that the fandom constantly tries to dispute the racism Lucas received in S2 from Billy was either not really racism, just a moment that Duffer Bros. put in to “ruin” Billy’s character and ultimately can be tossed out and ignored.

The only time I ever see Lucas get any large amount of attention is either due to 1) Lumax (but let’s be honest: 90% of the lumax tag on here isn’t even about them and has now become Elumax 2.0 and most post are people praising ElMax and then being like “oh Lucas/lumax is cute too” in the tags and that’s it). 2) people creating “parallels” of Lumax to their ship of choice (mostly Byler and Mileven) as a way to say that their ship is gonna be canon or 3) to say that he’s bisexual.

And all that is fine and whatever, ship and headcanon things to your hearts content, but if you only care about Lucas if he’s helping push you ship narrative or because you think he’s gay (to the point where some people actually read snippets of the book that talked about Lucas coming to the realization that Black boys like him can be considered attractive and only acknowledge the “queer” reading of the text and completely ignored the big race element that was the main focus), I’m sorry but, that’s not cool. The fact that 95% of the Lucas Sinclair tag isn’t about Lucas himself but white characters like Steve, Eddie, Byler says everything about how the fandom treats him.

I’m just so tired.

Lucas Sinclair deserves the same respect that the white characters get!

I leave you one of my favorite sections of the entire book: Lucas learning to become unabashedly himself:

Rant over.

Edit: in my blind rage I realized I forgot to edit out the Twitter handle. That’s completely my fault. Please don’t hate that Twitter user. I’m just coming back to fix that.

#stranger things #stranger things spoilers #lucas sinclair #lucas on the line #st season 4 #you know what? I AM gonna tag all the popular ships #if you clog the Lucas/lumax tags I’m gonna clog yours #Byler #steddie #mileven #steve harrington #eddie munson #will byers #mike wheeler #Lucas Sinclair deserves better #also stan lumax for clear skin

8K notes · View notes

let-us-cultivate-our-garden · 5 months

Note

So I don’t know if you know of Doug Walker, but recently released his Disneycember review of The Owl House.

While he praised a majority of the show, he criticized the main villain, Belos, of how he was written.

Many of the comments tried to defend the writing of the villain.

Doug Walker..

Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

Yes, I am very familiar with Doug Walker; I loved his stuff along with Channel Awesome years ago and then the allegations came out and fortunately, the other contributors on that channel moved onto bigger and better things. Meanwhile, Doug just stayed the same, so I don't watch his stuff anymore.

Any way, I think it's funny people are scrambling to defend Belos' writing because, despite my own personal opinions on Doug as a critic, I actually agree with him.

For a show that is ostensibly about subverting tropes and not judging a book by its cover, by showing how people can choose to change or not, etc. Belos is a throwback to an earlier era where the Big Bad had basic motivations and characterizations. And for a show like toh, that actually ends up hurting the narrative.

I have categorized the comments I found defending the writing and here are my responses to them:

Belos does have a deeper layer, you just have to look for it.

While a show can certainly foreshadow and provide little hints about a major character, eventually all of that setup will have to pay off somehow. There has to be a reveal both to reward the viewers that have been paying attention and to inform more casual viewers who may not have. Fans analyzing every little frame to extrapolate a major character's backstory only for that backstory to really not matter in the end despite it being set up for a season is just bad writing. full stop. [A viewer should also not have to look on social media for crucial information on a major character.]

It's also not clever that the show left so much room for interpretation on Belos; it just means that they didn't make a commitment to what was being set up and reduced his character to glib one-liners whenever we learn something interesting about him (Masha's "little bro was jealous of big bro" line and Papa Titan's whole spiel).

2. Belos would have been written better if the show had more time.

The Toh crew knew about the cancellation during production of Eda's Requiem and wrote all of 2B with it in mind. So they knew they were working on a time crunch but still introduced elements like the Collector when they should have spent the time wrapping up their story. The cancellation is not an excuse for sloppy writing.

3. Belos as a villain works more on a meta level.

So the argument here is that Belos is the antithesis to the BI; it's accepting and diverse while he is hateful and only accepts things that conform to his worldview. The characters in the story change and grow, while Belos does not. The problem here is that a villain can't only work on a meta level, it has to work on a narrative one as well.

If the BI is place that accepts weirdos then how did someone like Belos come to power? Oh, he lied his way to the top and created problems that never existed? That just makes your populace look dumb and easily manipulated. The BI being so accepting also undermines the threat credibility of the Emperor's Coven because why should we worry about them if they have no real influence over how the BI residents think or behave aside from when the plot needs them to?

Also, I strongly disagree with anyone who says that toh has a "people are complicated and choose to do good and bad" theme when all of the good characters can blame their bad actions on being manipulated or on circumstances outside of their control OR the narrative ignores/downplays anything bad they did (cough cough Amity and Lilith). Meanwhile, the villains are just shallow with basic motives and this is supposed to be a deep message about how Some People Are Just Bad.

If you're going to contrast why your good characters are capable of growth then you need to show why your villain does not. What is stopping them? How do they react if given a legitimate reason to change (that isn't a cheap jab at Steven Universe)? What is their justification for their actions?

Whatever the answer is, the narrative has to support it and not undermine it with a stupid joke.

4. Belos is so refreshing when every villain character is redeemed.

Watch more shows. If you think that every cartoon villain post-Steven Universe is being redeemed then you're incorrect. Redemption of a show or movie's Big Bad is still in the minority while the redemption of the main villain's lackey is a dime-a-dozen.

Ultimately, I think the problem with toh is that so many of its fans take its thematic statements at face value without ever really stopping to think about the execution of those themes and if they really work or not.

Belos just happens to embody this little trick that toh does: it claims to have bold and timely statements and important themes, but the structure and execution of the plot, character development, and world-building undermines any attempt at a consistent or coherent message.

#asks #long post #the owl house #toh critical #toh criticism #emperor belos #philip wittebane #doug walker #nostalgia critic #disneycember

114 notes · View notes

captainofthetidesbreath · 9 months

Note

Fjord's perfect mechanical build? I admit I've never really dug deep into their character sheets, could you elaborate on this?

This is going to be a high-level view of my philosophical thoughts on this, rather than a precise mechanical unpacking, because I've written a lot on Fjord's mechanics while the campaign was running (see the end of the post for a small selection) and Fjord's actually has a lot of mechanics that will take a long time to go through; though, I'm always happy to talk in detail if asked about specific aspects of his build. Also of note, @utilitycaster recently answered a question about her favorite build among CritRole PCs that discussed Fjord, and I agree with everything in that post—so that also gives further insight to my belief in Fjord being mechanically flawless. (Fjlawless?)

I hold Fjord to be mechanically perfect because his build achieves something that requires a lot of technical skill to execute, has incredible versatility allowing him flexibility and viability in pretty much every situation, strongly coheres with the overall tapestry of the party's mechanics, is informed by and develops his characterization, and has deep relationship to his narrative.

His build is thoughtful, both as a mechanical exercise but also as a means through which he is characterized. His flexibility is so extreme that it is difficult to create a scenario where Fjord cannot do anything, short of preventing him from taking actions altogether. He works very self-sufficiently as an individual and equally as well cooperatively within the context of the party. Fjord's build is also an intentional challenge for Travis as a player, who was exploring outside of his comfort zone by taking on spellcasting, which intimidated him at the time after Grog.

I also generally commend Travis on focusing so heavily on mobility. Mobility Is King, and it was rather unusual to spend as many options on a Hexadin into movement and mobility to the degree that Travis did. The almost comical number of teleportation abilities is actually very crucial to Fjord's effectiveness as a build, and, frankly, the fact that Travis has picked up so many of them shows a lot of precise understanding of variations in spell use cases.

Fjord has a strongly defined niche of his own, but his build is so flexible and robust that he is able to adapt and pivot into various roles as needed. He shares a small amount of overlap with everyone else in the party so that he can "double up" on a particular aspect (tanking, spell damage, physical damage, support casting, healing) as needed, but he never feels like he's encroaching on other people's niches. He isn't the BEST at these things, but he can play all these roles in a secondary but manner that helps the Nein respond to the changing tides of combat swiftly and often allows other individuals to do what it is they do best by alleviating pressure and giving them space to work (If you're familiar with Overwatch terminology, he often acts as the off-role, i.e. off-tank, in a flex capacity.) This level of flexibility and adaptability is incredibly difficult to do without gutting your efficiency and efficacy, but Fjord's build is able to do it.

It's especially impressive when his build is strongly influenced by and speaks to his character and narrative, as we've all done a lot of discussion on as a fandom. I do want to call out that, in addition to the narrative as a warlock and paladin, Fjord as a character is someone who devotes himself fully to supporting the group as a whole and each member individually to operate at their best, and his paladin levels as narrative have been well-discussed. It's just really difficult to built that level of precision while also maintaining a sense that all of these choices are tied to character, but Fjord feels that way—and that contributes strongly to my belief that he is mechanically perfect.

Fjord is one of the highest examples of “characterization in mechanics” in this campaign, in my opinion. - after 140, updated to incorporate some two-shot information

I really want to appreciate the way Travis played during that final combat. - after 140

Can Fjord knock out any given member of the Nein in a single turn—without critting? Level 14 Edition! - I don't think burst damage is be-all end-all, but people like to look at it. There's always calculations for maximum possible damage if given infinite prep time, but I prefer to look at what's possible in a single round bc it's truer to actual combat.

Why does Fjord need so many teleports? Or, a comparison of teleportation abilities. - To give context on this, because I mention the myriad teleports.

Small discussion on Fjord, Yasha, and Beau as having slightly different niches as melee attackers

Star Razor and how it facilitates and encourages Fjord’s range flexibility

#Critical Role #Fjord #cr meta #Critical Role things #long post for ts

127 notes · View notes

thekatebridgerton · 8 months

Text

The thing about Colin...

So I've been seeing a lot of discourse lately about how Polin shippers never seem to care about Colin. And it made me realize I've never actually done a deep dive on why I find his character so interesting. The way I've done with Anthony and sometimes Benedict. So let's have a talk about Colin Bridgerton

I am very much attached to book Colin in the sense that in RMB we get to see something cute Luke hasn't shown yet: the depth behind his smiling face. And pretty much in the same way Hunger games movie viewers don't realize how they become part of the capitol when they reduce Katniss struggle to just her relationship with Peeta and Gale. Colin Bridgerton is the perfect example of how we become part of 'the ton' when we reduce Colin to simply his smiling happy go lucky looking self.

Because Colin is a great friend, I've said it many times, I would love to have a friend like him, he's very loyal, wouldn't abandon someone in need if he could help it, he has a great sense of humor, he is supportive and kind, roots for the people he loves and encourages them to follow their dreams. It makes sense for his favorite sister to be Daphne because, during Daphne's book, the reason she couldn't find a husband was because men got to know her and saw her as such a good friend it didn't register that she was also a woman.

Colin on the outside is in fact the quintessential happy, smiling, friendly gentleman. Penelope thinks that, lady Whistledown writes that. We as readers are fooled into thinking that as well. This is where it gets fun.

Because there's a point in the narrative where Colin shows his dark side and the reader is like 'wait where did that come from? I've never seen him act like that before ' and of course you didn't dear reader, you're the ton, you're the person who only knows him from Lady Whistledown. That's the trick. Because he didn't show his dark side to you! He's never shown it to anyone! He's charming Colin!

And this is where I absolutely love Colin. Because yes, he's funny and charming and a riot to hang out with, he's well read, well traveled and an excellent conversationalist. But behind all that, is a man who feels deeply and loves passionately and gets easily frustrated, what I mean to say is that underneath Charming Colin, is someone completely different who doesn't know how to break out of the label everyone has put on him for so many years and expresses his emotions in a clumsy extravagant way that is so Colin. Also behold, surprise surprise, he has a temper, he's got a responsible streak that's more in line with Anthony's years of conditioning than he would care to admit. And insecurities about his place in the world that lead him to lash out a time or two.

So if you ask me, I like the Colin we get to know underneath the superficial charming Colin thing he's got going on, more than I like the version we get in Lady Whistledown.

And it's funny seeing so many show viewers take his character at face value. Even Polin shippers, write him off as ' cute cuddly wouldn't harm a fly Colin, super friendly, clueless Colin ' when he's actually one of the most deep characters there is, exactly because he's a social chameleon and tailors himself to be what he thinks people expect him to be. As a third son, as a brother and as a friend. Never actually showing anyone his negative side because he thinks people won't like him any more ( and from the comments I see dissing his characterization in RMB that may very well be true)

The man may not have created a whole alter ego to blow off his negative emotions but believe me he has them and he's self aware enough to know he's expected to never show them. Which is actually worse in the long run because he ends up a mess of surpressed dissatisfaction and frustration.

Maybe that's what I find so interesting about him that his character is just as two faced as Penelope. I'm not saying that Colin isn't genuinely nice and funny and friendly. I'm saying he's not like that 24/7 and that he pretends he is just to cover up his insecurities. Because deep down he wants to be liked and doesn't tolerate rejection well.

It takes a lot for him to come to terms with the fact that he wants to be liked for who he truly is and not just for the mask he puts up Infront of the ton and his family. Assimilating both his happy go lucky charming side, with his darker more temperamental and dominant side that he never showed to people before. It's as much of a journey of self discovery for Colin as it is for the reader.

I had hopes that in s3 we actually were led to find out that no Colin isn't actually some clueless himbo all the time, because underneath that he's just as restless and dissatisfied with himself as the rest of his family but he doesn't show it. I would love for s3 to take us behind the scenes of clueless Colin to show us exactly all those sides of him he doesn't share with anyone else. But I don't know, maybe Shondaland will keep him just as friendly and seemingly wonderful as it's been showing him so far.

And that's the tea

#polin #colin bridgerton #we need to talk about Colin

115 notes · View notes

lurkinglurkerwholurks · 1 month

Note

I think the general idea for Batman (and DC/Marvel in general) canon is basically just the multiverse model. Like the mainline comics get respect for being the first one to exist, and of course you get the obnoxious idiots who whinge about how and deviation from the comics is Bad and Wrong, but otherwise the various different shows and movies are all their own seperate canons. Like BTAS Batman has his own canon, with only Dick and Tim as Robins and ending with him passing the Batman identity to Terry, but no one expects that to impact the comics. (Well, beyond massively popular characters from the other canons like Harley Quinn inevitably showing up in comics too.)

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that Batman as a story is big enough and has so many canons that it's really not unusual to be a Batman fan without ever reading the mainline comics.

It's an entry point thing. So take, I don't know, Middle Earth, for example. (Though technically, as broad as that phrasing is, even that isn't accurate because there are other places outside of Middle Earth that are still within the same universe. Don't come at me.)

There's capital C Canon, and that's the original books as penned by J.R.R. Tolkien (though even he dabbled in some metatextual rewriting with the retcon of the Ring between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings but we won't get into THAT right now.) The world of Middle Earth as a whole was created starting in the 1930s as a piece of literature up through J.R.R. Tolkien's death in 1973.

From there, though, it gets trickier. The stories of Middle Earth et al have been transformed and added to in the intervening years. Bakshi created an animated movie in the late 1970s that, because it is told in a different medium, by necessity tells a slightly different story. Is that canon? The live-action trilogies from Peter Jackson in the 2000s and 2010s, those are again different and diverging stories from the books. Are those canon? What about the added materials from Christopher Tolkien, as revised and published from his father's materials by the estate? Are those canon? What about the Amazon Prime television series? The Veggietales movie? They're ALL "Middle Earth" and all likely have functioned as the initial entry point for someone and therefore ARE capital C Canon for someone, but by design or circumstance each displays a different version of events and characterization that will necessarily conflict in small or large ways.

With comic-based canon, it can be even more complicated because Hollywood has a habit of skinning comic properties and dressing up new little blorbos in the names of older comic characters. Even I know the Nolan Batman movies look noooooooooothing like the Silver Age Batman comics and the Birds of Prey Cassandra Cain has no relation at all to any other Canon or canon depiction of her, as far as I'm aware.

So, yes. "Batman as a story is big enough and has so many canons that it's really not unusual to be a Batman fan without ever reading the mainline comics" because defining canon in and of itself is such a HARD and complicated thing to do. And I also understand why folks with a much more simplistic and rigid definition of canon (aka, their own specific, personal entry point to the world and characters) can feel so weird when they encounter someone else with a different definition.

But also I think there's an argument to be made that when the Arbiters Of Official Canon (in this case, DC) have aggressively rebooted and rewritten THEIR OWN CANON so many times without regard for continuity or even inherent internal logic, then there is no absolute authority of Canon or canon and we can all do what we want with the understanding that when you or I or anyone else gripes about "canon" and "characterization" we're speaking only within our own pocket of the bramble.

#I'm not even sure how clear any of that is outside my own head #but I Tried #I need a general ask tag #fandom #fanfic writer problems #fanfic reader problems #batman #batfam

24 notes · View notes

wnchester67 · 2 months

Text

S1E1

Q: What makes this episode so fuckin good?

Well, kind of everything.

As any good narrative should, this episode sets up (even if briefly) a normal, apple pie life, and then disrupts that normalcy in a big way. There’s this sense of dramatic irony as the viewer catches on to the foreboding feeling the show is doling out (flickering lights, the MUSIC, etc) and the characters remain unaware until it’s too late. Then, the best moment of the introductory scene, “Take your brother outside as fast as you can.” I really feel like this sets up the entire premise of the show, a thematic motif if you will, wherein Dean is his brother’s keeper (KIN).

The next segment of the episode sort of repeats the disruption of normalcy, settling the viewer into Sam’s life at school while creating this intrigue by setting him up as the estranged golden child. Then we get Dean’s introduction (which is the best fucking character intro possibly ever), aka the disruption of normalcy. I could talk about this for literally ever, but for now I wanna focus on one thing in particular: the dialogue. The writer's are presented with these complex characters and history and have like one scene to start revealing the important shit that sets up the rest of the episode, and they do that via clever, efficient dialogue between Sam and Dean. Most everything they say to one another either reveals plot or characterization, and does so in a way that feels really natural. My personal favorite thing about the dialogue is how it sets up this recurring theme of the struggle between wanting a normal, 'apple pie' life, and being unable to have it (and each brother's feelings on the subject, which makes me crazy). The dialogue for the rest of the episode is equally good at revealing who each of the brothers are, and how they were raised.

Now I'm gonna fast forward to the end of the episode, not because the rest of the episode isn't great (it's really great), but because the way the episode ends is a big part of what makes it stand out so much to me. Jess's death is the perfect example of a character death being necessary to move the plot forward. The show would not proceed the same way at all without her death happening when it does and the way it does, and the way it brings the episode full circle is just... as a writer I could actually piss my pants thinking about it.

In my opinion, while the middle bits of the episode are really good, its truly the beginning and end that make the episode such a stand out. It's the perfect introduction to the series, laying out enough information to let you know what's going on while still keeping a few cards close to the chest to keep you intrigued. I've already watched the whole series more than once, and every time I come back to this episode it's just really, really fucking good.

#i would love to hear other people's thoughts on the episode!#i'm gonna make a separate post on things i noticed about the boys and consequent headcanons and such #apologies ahead of time for the extremely unequal distribution of thoughts #sorry sammy...#the winchesters #supernatural #dean winchester #sam winchester #mary winchester #spn #castiel #john winchester #s1e1 #evie talks

28 notes · View notes

neonscandal · 4 months

Note

"Sure. So for Geto it's mostly that I don't like villains with a bigoted ideology and he's too incompetent to even fall in the "love to hate" category. Really, the worst thing a villain can be is incompetent and Geto in Vol 0 is barely better than your average disney villain. Doesn't help that he never gets pushback on his ideals. Gojo tells him in Premature Death that killing people is bad, but that's it. He spouts his bullshit about how genocide is totally necessary and Yuuta stands there like "idk you might be right, but you want to kill people I care about and that's the real crime here". Nobody really engages with his ideology except Yuki I guess, but that was before he became an antagonist. I could forgive that to a degree if he was at least a real threat, but he isn't. You don't get any of that with Geto, he's not even fun to hate because he barely provides any pushback. He's a bad villain and I dislike him as a person as well. His descent into embracing the superiority of sorcerers and resolving to kill all non-sorcerers was well written, but I don't feel for him at all. Good riddance to the guy, I'm glad he's now dead both in body and mind."

I was so sad, when reading this, what do you think?

When previously asked about JJK Antagonists I didn't mention Geto even though... he is my favorite.

It should also be said that, in terms of scary movies, I love a good creature feature or a deluge into the supernatural but, the scariest movies to me? Will always be the ones with human villains because they're far more plausible.

That summation of Geto is that person's opinion so I, personally, am unmoved by it. I've seen so many piss poor interpretations of Gojo and Geto's characterizations that it's honestly just best to let the story play out so people can retroactively come to some sort of understanding. Moreover, I think there are a lot of people who struggle to concede that, between Gojo and Geto, there was always love. Without that, you can't understand his spiral, you can't acknowledge the humanity of the villain. Moreover, to not understand Geto is to not understand Gojo. And.. since JJK seems to very much be a circular parallel between SatoSugu and ItaFushi, if you can't understand them you miss the whole story.

I'd be curious what villain doesn't have a bigoted and/or radical ideology, especially in shonen? They're meant to be horrible and hard to empathize with. Unless that person's tolerance for villainy is Oikawa from Haikyuu? Most stories hinge on the main character espousing a piece of whatever makes villains.. villains. RE: Yuji being a cursed vessel, Denji being a devil, Tanjiro's proximity to demons, Eren being a titan, Kaneki being a ghoul... I'd argue Naruto and Nine Tails but literally haven't seen the show at all to confidently compare.

Even so, let's get into Geto.

Gorgeous, gorgeous boy. So earnest, so upright... so forged to break.

I recently went on a tirade about SatoSugu which I won't rehash here because... then I'll feel inclined to add more and no one wants to see an adult woman cry today.

As a character, Geto attempts to be incredibly principled. Design wise, he is stylized with features that liken him to Buddha which I think he individually plays into as well to give himself some sort of identity. From his long hanging lobes signifying wisdom and compassion capable of hearing the cries of the suffering, to his gentle chastising of Gojo's flippancy. He believes that the strong should protect the weak while also keeping the strong in check. But... how would a jujutsu outsider come to such a noble ideal?

We know next to nothing about Geto's parents except that they were not sorcerers and, based on his affectionate ability to recognize family beyond blood ties, I think it'd be fair to make some assumptions about what typically informs a characters predilection for the found family trope. 👀

His cursed technique, I think, creates an impetus for purpose. I don't know how he figured out he could do curse manipulation. But we know he swallows the curse, the likes of which is compared to a rag that had been used to mop up vomit, in order to subjugate it. This process, this martyrdom of ingesting the negative run off of mankind has to have a reason to justify his suffering. Because, as the only person we see with this technique, it must feel like a burden only he knows. Moreover, with a special class technique, it's not like he's given much of a choice. But if it helps people, if it has meaning, purpose... he can endure.

We've seen the perfect storm of events that, don't necessarily challenge his pre-existing ideals, but... force him to question whether the ends justify the means. We can call each of these events a moral injury and I don't think it's a stretch to say that there is a link between staunch morality and radicalism which I'm going to bastardize as saying a person may have their ideals on a righteous pedestal. Believing that if I do "A" and "B" then "C" is sure to follow and it allows them purpose and reason. But life is seldom free of other stimuli. I'm not going to go into great depth about examples of this but suffice it to say, this break in Geto's belief system caused an internal chasm we see immediately.

When Gojo asks him if he should kill the believers that applauded Riko's death, Geto said "no, there'd be no reason" which I believe is sufficient for Gojo since he readily leans on Geto as a moral compass. But Geto keeps rationalizing further, likely to curb his own impulse to kill those gathered ignorantly in celebration. OP talks about no pushback on his ideals but the truth of the matter is the biggest pushback for Geto is internal.

When he decided to slaughter that village, he didn't leave a margin of error to come back from. He had to keep moving forward, keep pushing to achieve this impossible world because to not would mean that the atrocities he committed were done in vain and we know, from his characterization, that he would not be able to accept that. Gojo speaks of Geto not starting a war he can't win during JJK0 which is empirically incorrect. When they parted ways in high school, Geto relented that with Gojo's power, his vision could come into fruition. They both knew he didn't have the means to achieve this but he didn't have anything else to stand on. So he hurled himself further and further from his previous path of righteousness and further from himself. He'd committed too great a sin to not give it meaning. To question it now would shatter him completely.

So much of what makes Geto compelling is the fact that he is inherently characterized as a good person, forthright and gentle. He'd have been a great teacher. In fact, the events that transpired between Gojo and Geto are why Gojo is a teacher in the first place. I believe he tried to be a great father figure to Nanako and Mimiko (again, let's forget the murder for a minute) because he pointedly did not raise them in the ways or traditions of jujutsu society. He protected them as best he could even though they still didn't survive their teenage years because they were ignorant about binding vows with sorcerers! Crazy when you think about it. Even what he thought to be a kindness to them cost them fatally.

Things happened to him, likely intentionally, to create this departure from reality and the jujutsu world. He was forged to break because he lacked the flexibility and nonchalance to not be overly concerned for others. He wasn't a diabolical genius, he was overly compassionate and at a complete and total loss when terrible things continually happened to good people who were already sacrificing so much. Riko Amanai was resigned to give up her short life to guarantee the future of Japan. Haibara was a ray of sunshine who, with the means to do so, wanted to help people. The twins were simply cursed to see things the other villagers couldn't, a burdensome reality that damned them to a life he was finding no meaning in, himself. His weakness perhaps lay in a weakness of character? but I wouldn't even say that, honestly. He's like placid water hiding a violent undercurrent deep below the surface.

The gap between who he was and who he died as should be jarring. It should be a demonstration of the grisly reality of jujutsu society. Where classes of 2-3 children are regularly pressed to fight beyond their means against horrors only they know. The sacrifices of the few to protect the many regardless of their virtue. That's the point. He was a casualty of a system that would always lead him toward a moral crisis.

#neon asks #anon asks #manga with me #manga with me jjk #geto babygirled SO hard #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #geto suguru #suguru geto #anime #manga #jjk meta #jjk character analysis #character analysis #jjk geto

34 notes · View notes

bitchthefuck1 · 6 months

Note

you dont like Freddy as kaz?

I decided not to answer this until the show was cancelled bc I didn't want to risk getting dragged back into discourse for anything less, so sorry for the wait.

The short answer is no.

Some of those reasons are outside of his control (his age, the fact that he's not disabled, bad writing and dialogue, etc), but honestly even setting those aside, I just don't think he captures Kaz's physical presence very well. There's a level of intentional calculation and performance to everything that Kaz does that is just completely missing from Freddy Carter's version. This affect is a huge part of Kaz's characterization and what makes him him as opposed to every other morally ambiguous sad boy in fiction, to the point where even if they'd nailed everything else (and they absolutely did not), it still wouldn't feel like a good take on the character without it. Kaz is hugely defined by his sense of self control and how he performs himself and the identity he's created, and it's the kind of thing that would actually translate super well to the screen. It's what makes the moments where he's not in control or where the mask slips have so much impact, so without it the key elements to him that a huge part of his arc hinges on just aren't there. Any performance or adaptation that misses this just feels like it's missed the whole point of him.

#was wondering when id get the chance to talk about this and here we are #it just really doesn't hit and its the kind of thing that would be SO GOOD onscreen #like its one of the most interesting things about him as a character and i really dont see why someone would want to play him if not #for that #freddy carter #shadow and bone #kaz brekker #six of crows #asks

37 notes · View notes

memento-mori-twilight · 8 months

Text

Looking at the villians they had for My Adventures with Superman,

They honestly picked the best choices they could for a Season 1 rogues gallery.

Think about it (way too much detail below):

They didn't want to dip too far into multiverse and multidimensional villians, outside of Mxyztplk to introduce the concept, so they couldn't pull out Ultraman or Superboy/man Prime (who needs a Crisis Event to even exist properly if they want to do him nicely and that's a whole other can of worms).

They couldn't introduce Kryptonite soon enough for Metallo or Conduit to be relevant, and Metallo also kinda needs Lexcorp to exist beforehand (unless they wanna go with the military origin version who doesn't need Lex).

Conduit also requires an intense murderous rivalry with Clark from Smallville, which how they have made Clark Kent in this iteration, wouldn't make sense. What would he be pissed over, Clark beating him at a chess tournament?!?

Bizarro also comes from Lex's machinations having been a failed clone he created.

Aliens are *not* a common thing known, so intergalactic villains like Darkseid, Lobo, Mongol, and Zod aren't ones to form as threats until Clark knows what Krypton even is, or at least has a vague kind of idea.

We also don't have STAR Labs (yet) and barely have an evil form of Cadmus Labs (sincw they kinds blend in with Task Force X)

Honestly on that front, they did great reworking to have Parasite and Intergang in here as threats, since their origins/threat levels are often tied to Darkseid. Pairing them with Silver Banshee and Ivo were smart in that regards.

And yeah, I can hear the complaints already about Banshee not being a Metahuman and Livewire not being a Shock Jock, but metahumans being a thing not originating from a hush hush experiment from the military (as Episode 9 suggests is happening with Leslie) wouldn't work with how they formed Jimmy's story arc.

On top of that, Silver Banshee was born of magic shenanigans, and introducing that weakness before his more famous one of glowy rock with no known helpful magical allies would have been a major misstep, because that would essentially leave Clark no way to counter and win. She could still mess around with magic angle later in, though, after getting a taste of the power via the tech. (And maybe her sparking a romance with Jimmy, eh?)

As for Livewire not being a Shock Jock, that requires the fact of Superman being previously established as a hero in Metropolis for a time for there to be news about him (and a prominent radio station in Metropolis for Leslie to get zappy-zapped by radio tower after getting fired), which wouldn't work since the show's story makes it clear that Lois and Jimmy are the first ones to encounter him. {Also going the influencer angle wouldn't make sense for her getting electric powers because how would she get zapped while uploading vids on YouTube? Wifi or 5G doesn't work like that.}

Therefore, blending them in with Waller's proto-Suicide Squad of criminals and Sam Lane's distrustful actions against Nemesis Omega all wrapped in a military/government jingoistic bow was a smart move to not make some major potholes for the purpose of story direction. And making them have powers from repurposed Kryptonian tech also equals the unspoken question of "how is Superman constantly getting his ass beat?"

The only other real "Superman" villians they would have room left to mess with would be Toyman, the Atomic Skull, Ultra-humanite, Titano, Chemo, Bloodsport, the Prankster, Volcana (who is barely a villian and is more a victim of circumstance), Mr. Zed, and Manchester Black (depending how they implement them). And we very well may see many of them in Season 2, along with some of the ones from above, now that Kryptonite and the Multiverse exists now and Brainiac and other Krypton survivors have been teased.

They did their best with what they had left to work with, if they wanted to give us the beautiful characterizations and story beats we got in the first place.

Anyway, that's my piece on the villians, why they chose the ones they did, and why they were tech based instead of their other origins, and what ones they could mess with in Season 2 maybe.

Thanks if you read this whole thing, you're a real one for hearing me out.

#my adventures with superman #superman #dc comics #superman rouges gallery #bizarro #lex luthor #general zod #darkseid #toyman #Conduit dc #dc comic villians #livewire #silver banshee #maws #mawsm

47 notes · View notes

look-how-they-massacred-them · 9 months

Text

Preliminary Poll

Orko

Submission reason:

Orko is a wizard from another dimension that operates on logic backwards to our own - in his home dimension of Trolla, Orko is a powerful wizard, but outside of that dimension he is unable to perform magic without the use of an aid like a wand or amulet. Due to circumstances beyond his control, he is left stranded outside of his dimension on the planet of Eternia, but is taken in by the Royal Family as gratitude for saving the prince and made the Royal Jester/Magician (this title tends to vary depending on what series you're looking at). In the series he was created for (the 1983 Filmation Masters of The Universe cartoon), Orko's inability to do magic on Eternia tends to leave him depressed and feeling as if he needs to 'prove' himself or be 'useful', but his friends constantly reassure him that they love him magic or no, and a major theme of Orko-centric episodes, even when they aren't dealing with his feelings of insecurity, is that he's surrounded by people who love and support him.

Whether it's Adam, the prince he rescued/essentially grew up with and who trusts him with his secret of being He-Man, Man-At-Arms, his father figure of sorts who starts off the series not liking him that much but grows to genuinely care for him by the end, or any of his family and friends on Trolla once he finds a way back to his home dimension, the people in Orko's life love him no matter what. Personality-wise, he's a very sweet (if occasionally smug or overconfident) person, who's quick to judge and can hold a grudge but also deeply cares for his friends and loved ones. He can be a bit naive at times, but he's not innocent, and he's equal parts theatrical and anxious depending on how well his magic is working that day. This characterization stayed mostly consistent throughout the first generation of Masters of The Universe, which was comprised of the Filmation cartoon and numerous comics, books, and magazines (the Egmont comics changed his backstory so that he just shows up one day and is secretly mentoring Adam which is a whole can of worms that numerous other fans have discussed much better than I could and the German audiodramas made him much more self-centered and smug, but those two are really the only major changes), but after the first generation of MOTU ended in 1988 and the series moved on to New Adventures in the 90s and numerous reboots from the 2000s until now, things changed.

Orko disappeared from the 90s series entirely, although there were plans early in development to include him, and in the 2002 series the message of "Orko is loved regardless of whether he can do magic or not and doesn't need to prove himself to anyone" becomes "Orko is useless and only kept around because he makes people happy, but that's okay because he can become useful!" When Orko plans on leaving Eternia in the 2002 series, instead of assuring him that he's loved and wanted his friends HELP him with his runaway plans, and instead of him realizing that he doesn't need to be 'useful' to stay in Eternia he ends up finding his wand and staying because he's 'useful' now. Beyond that, he's treated as being in the wrong for wanting things for himself, isn't allowed to fix his own mistakes, and is implied to not only be trapped in Eternia forever, but also doomed to get stuck in the past and take on a new identity as the Oracle.

The 2012 DC comic massacred him even further by making him an outright villain, then eventually retconning it so that he was being controlled/possessed/corrupted by the skull of Horde Prime, but this is treated as a plot twist and something the main characters had no idea about despite the skull turning him into Dark Orko, A MASSIVE FLAMING DEMON WITH HORNS AND A NIGHTMARE FACE (which is more of a massacre than it seems on the surface because Orko's species, the Trollans, only show their faces to the people they love but with this edgy redesign his face is now on display to everyone in the comic who fights him).

When not possessed, DC!Orko seemingly only has two character traits ("sweet" and "funny,") is called a "would-be wizard" and referred to as Grayskull's "mascot" despite being an entire living sentient being, and never shows up in-person again after the Dark Orko arc despite it ending with Adam swearing to save him. He appears in a "bad future" story, and his silhouette appears in the final issue, but other than that he's gone.

Loo-Kee, a character who Adam never even meets face to face and is essentially only included as a cameo character, is shown more respect than Orko in the DC comics, showing up in Adam's mind during a scene that supposedly contains every person he's ever known while Orko doesn't even get mentioned. The Classics series of comics and toys utilizes Orko's Egmont backstory of "super special guy who was sent to watch over Adam and was always planned to come to Eternia", reduces him to nothing but "the funny one," and then HAS HIM COMMIT GENOCIDE AGAINST THE SNAKE MEN. Even the most recent two installments in the franchise, Revelation and the Core/CGI series, are not immune to Orko massacring.

Revelation changes his backstory so that he was ALWAYS bad at magic instead of only having issues when he came to Eternia, which would be fine and an interesting interpretation of his character (the 1987 Power Tour managed to pull off a similar concept quite well), except it gets 'fixed' in the same episode it gets brought up and he instantly becomes a mega super hyper god of magic after getting a single pep talk.

Core/CGI Orko gets it even worse - in this series, he's a robot named Ork-0 who has the memories of the original Orko implanted into him by accident and has to learn how to become his own person while still honoring the legacy of Orko the Great, except his arc is never treated seriously, cut short, and eventually just reversed altogether with Ork-0 suddenly becoming a-okay with being referred to as Orko in Season 3 and learning how to become a mega super hyper god of magic after getting a single pep talk AGAIN despite him FINALLY accepting that he couldn't do magic as a robot and learning to find joy in science! And from the looks of the Core/CGI art book, his storyline next season will end up possibly being even worse, with him stuck on Eternia while most of the main cast go to Earth and having to make a new Masters team despite there already BEING a second Masters team!

80s Orko wasn't perfect - the Filmation series was prone to flanderization as it went on, and the Marvel Star comics are atrocious with the way they treat his character - but for the most part he was a good, oftentimes even great, character that could be interpreted numerous ways, most commonly as a metaphor for disability. As the years have gone on, however, he's been massacred over and over again, most likely due to an influx of fans in the early years of the internet who considered him 'dumb' or 'annoying', and we're only just beginning to move beyond this viewpoint now. This man has been massacred SO BAD, which especially hurts because he's been my favorite character since I was a high schooler.

(my apologies for this being so long, I just love this character a lot and he means a great deal to me)

Orko started out as the goofy little comic relief, sure, but he had character to him. He was insecure about his inconsistent magic abilities. Since he grew up extremely skilled with magic, he came to associate this skill with his self worth, and so when he ended up on Eternia, which operated with a different magic system and scrambled his ability to do magic, it left him struggling to believe that anyone would want him as a friend if he couldn't be of use to them.

There is one episode, the Rarest Gift of All, in which he decides to return to Trolla under the belief that no one in the palace wants him around after he accidentally causes a fire. He goes to the Sorceress to get her to send him home and she ends up showing him that the others are searching for him worried sick and that they actually do care about him and love him regardless of whether he can do magic. Then came the 2002 show. It made its own take on the same premise, with Orko messing up his magic and causing billions in property damage and deciding to run off to the sorceress to get him home because, as an incompetent jester, he's of no use to the rest of the palace while they are in the middle of a major war. The Sorceress (or rather her disguised as some random old guy idk they never explain why she did that lmao), in this version, instead shows him that he DOES have use to them; his failure is funny and makes them laugh!! Which is bad enough, since it makes no attempt to claim that they actually do love him unconditionally.

But also... Orko's role in 2002 is SO diminished that he is hardly EVER shown actually entertaining others outside of this flashback. Once the war starts in episode 1, all his attempts to do what is shown in the flashback, cheering up others, is ignored at best or harshly reprimanded at worst. This gets even worse by the time we get to the garden episode. Orko wants a new job because he's sick and tired of not having anything important to do while everyone else is sent on missions, so he finally gets a job refurbishing the garden. Ultimately, he can't do it and the episode treats him admitting it as a good thing...

AND THEN NOBODY EVER ACTUALLY TRIES TO FIND A REPLACEMENT JOB FOR HIM. HE JUST GOES BACK TO BEING THE JESTER NO ONE WATCHES BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL OUT ON MISSIONS ALL THE TIME!! Late season 2 episode ""Second Skin"" does actually try to involve Orko more in the plot, sure. But despite ending on a note that would imply that Orko is going to involve himself more in the story, that episode ends up being the LAST EPISODE HE EVER APPEARS IN.

The tie in comics tried again with the ""Orko runs away"" plot and introduced A New Problem that would plague this and future iterations: the insistence on Orko's end goal to be ""get good at magic again""

This does not work because that is not a good lesson. He'd only be getting better at magic solely so he could be liked. But the writers i guess just kinda missed this important part of his character arc because the comic ends with him being rewarded with the wand that he lost that was supposed to keep his magic working (they don't explain how it survived being digested by a swamp hopper) and thats the last we see of him. He doesn't even appear in the 200X portion of the multiverse comic. Revelation came along and things got somewhat better, I mean, at least the characters treated him better than they did in 200x. But it still fell into the trap of having Orko's competence in magic being the end goal!!! It even changed his backstory so that he was ALWAYS bad at magic, even on trolla, which is just. erasing half of the dynamic of his intended character arc. Barely anyone gets to even react to his grand return where he's good at magic now because this show had ridiculously quick pacing to the point where characters did not get to properly react to ANYTHING towards the end of the show. CGI technically split orko into two characters, Ork-0 and Orko the great, Ork-0 being a robot with the latter's memories. ork-0 is decent as a character but there's a whole episode where he's insecure about his lack of magic since he's a robot now and the others reassure him that they love him either way... and then due to plot shenanigans they later just abandon him to babysit his clones and only come back to see him when they need him to do some magic for them, forcing him to learn on the spot. Nice. Great. Fantastic. Orko the great on the other hand is fine except. They gave him horrific Legs for exactly one shot and. Why did they do that. Aside from that, we have the comics. Won't go into them too much since they're not as well known as the cartoons but from the top of my head we got: - Marvel Star, in which everyone was really mean to Orko for no reason, and they put him in danger WHILE HE WAS INCAPACITATED without even an ounce of concern - Classics, which changed his backstory to that of Oh, Actually, he was deliberately downplaying his magic ability so the villains wouldn't see him as a threat! and he actually Can do magic now :) Yayyyy he can participate in the many many battles now!!! - 2012, the most infamous of the orko mistreatment, where they decided to make him a twist villain who was actually super evil and this was so poorly recieved they had to retcon it and say he was brainwashed instead. He man promises to save orko and he never does because the canon reset shortly after that.

Propaganda:

Tumblr user whymustablogbenamed has a post called ""How 200x Mishandled the Runaway Plot"" discussing the differences between the ""Orko feels he's not useful and runs away"" plots of the 80s/generation one and those of the 2002 series that goes into much better detail than I could here, I highly recommend checking that post out. Likewise, Tumblr user relatable-pictures-of-orko has several excellent posts about Orko's treatment throughout the franchise's history, such as their ""WHY LESSONS EXEMPLIFIES EVERYTHING WRONG WITH 200X"" analysis. I have a post on my own blog (madamegemknight) where I go into detail about CGI's Ork-0 and how not even the showrunners knew what to do with him as evidenced by the numerous contradictory claims made during interviews and in the artbook, but it doesn't have a title - if you search 'ork-0' on my blog it should be in the first few results though. I would also like to point out that the treatment of the Trollans parallels Orko's own treatment, and that him getting massacred typically means that his entire species will in turn. Sometimes it's even a LITERAL massacre, like the 2012 DC comic turning them into mindless beasts who exist solely for He-Man and Superman to kill in a fight scene or Revelation implying they might all (minus Orko) be dead due to a lack of magic. This isn't always the case - the aforementioned Power Tour does a great job at handling Orko's character, but doesn't mention the Trollans at all because of the limited time available in a live show to tell a story - but it's usually a prevalent connection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq3_YC8SyK8 picture of the aforementioned horrific legs (leg warning) https://64.media.tumblr.com/227eeba7d93d71833c4fd95037873418/2c0fcbe4cb43c1d6-fd/s640x960/2758c9ba6b56e9ce81eb0841c28d065c5849d620.pnj https://64.media.tumblr.com/3509190914fb08dcaf9c020d149f6569/f6ded1e537416cce-3e/s1280x1920/72e283d934df183ea32cff10ad51b2fded3160fc.jpg

#look how they massacred them poll #look how they massacred my boy #he man motu #he man 1983 #he man #masters of the universe #motu #motu orko #orko

56 notes · View notes

moonyeclipses · 1 year

Text

Rant(?) incoming I’m just gonna be talking about my fav boy and how much I hate his mischaracterization

But am extremely excited for the new season and maybe it’ll happen less cause I think a good chunk of the fan base probably just, view him differently from being anime only?

Hopefully lol (also manga and light novel spoiler warning!)

Excerpts from my priv twitter (but slightly altered to get my point across more):

Of all the bsd characters I think I could write the most about Ranpo and his characterization and how ppl completely fuck it up

Like- it’s hard to read a lot of fanfic with him cause they don’t portray him right? Like just the ‘UwU sweets loving boy who knows everything but is still oblivious’ OR ‘self centered arrogant man who acts too childish for his age and thinks he’s better than everyone’

LIKE NO‼️‼️

I know we haven’t really gotten to it in the anime yet but his whole thing is the fact HE DOESNT KNOW EVERYTHING- but he’s also aware that he knows a lot more than everyone else so people view him as this all-knowing unbeatable person when it’s simply not the case

Like, he puts himself on such a high pedestal cause he knows his family puts him on such a high pedestal, they expect him to be able to do everything and to know everything, and that’s why he fights so damn hard for the agency - he doesn’t want to let his family down

He’s always feels so isolated cause of it, and he’s so scared of messing up and he does mess up and it RUINS him

That arrogant front he puts is cause once your the best of the best there’s no where to go but down right? He keeps trying to prove himself and prove himself - he also doesn’t want to give anyone the idea of otherwise because he feels he has to be the one to keep everyone safe- if he shows weakness their enemies will find the loopholes and unfortunately for him that did happen

And yes he’s childish! He was literally sheltered from the entire world besides his also super genius parents for the first FOURTEEN YEARS of his life, he genuinely believed the world was out to get him and didn’t understand it once he was shoved into the outside world alone without the guidance of his now dead parents

They planned on raising him as a normal child to be a good person and not use his genius skills for bad, but they died early into the plan so he just, doesn’t know, doesn’t know any different

He thought everyone could see what he could and just refused to acknowledge it, and every time he would call something or someone out HE would be the one punished for it, it wasn’t till Fukuzawa came along and told him that he’s the only one to do that

AND, he knew to protect him at the time he told Ranpo his deduction skills were an ability, and Ranpo held onto that for protection, cause he refused to believe he was different for no reason, Fukuzawa knew he would be isolated from both normal people AND gifted people because of it

Please read the Untold Story of the Founding of the Detective Agency if you haven’t, it’s the third light novel and it’s about Fukuzawa’s and Ranpo’s meeting when Ranpo was only 14 years old and how Fukuzawa took Ranpo in and eventually created the Agency - it really helps you understand him more and why he is the way he is

Also! Once he discovered he is different, his first reaction wasn’t to use it for this benefit, his first reaction was “the people in the world are like infants, I understand now, the world isn’t cruel, it’s just stupid, and I need to protect them!” This has been his mindset since them, if no one else can see it, then he can and has to save them

It’s like having a pet and calling them stupid in an affectionate way whenever they do something dumb and taking care and nurturing them

Even if he’s not all that emotionally vulnerable and caring, he shows how much he cares through his actions - he’s different, he knows it, he states it like the fact it is, he brags as a manipulation tactic, but he still is a man who’s childhood was cut short, and grew up thinking murder is normal and a everyday casual thing, he loves praise and sweet things because he just simply does, he acts childish I believe as a way to keep a happy front and to stop others from worrying

“Alls well that’s well for me” he means it in the sense of, “if I’m happy, if I’m not worried about something, then no one else has to be, because I have the situation handled” and we see the opposite of this during the DOA arc, when he’s trying to outsmart fyodor and suddenly he gets dead serious - everyone is unsettled by it, they realize how serious the issue is

Idk guys I just, yes he’s a man child at times, yes he acts arrogant and self centered, yes he loves sweets and a lot of things children love but I hate it when people see it as his only traits

They don’t realize how deep his character is and how much he knows. His deduction isn’t just towards mysteries, he can read people in an instant, figure out their life story and more

He may not be a manipulation expert like Dazai but I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves in his other skills and how just, aware he is of everything happening around him - and how normal he tries to perceive himself and live his life in other non serious situations

And people don’t tend to realize how much he cares for everyone, all the innocent people in the world, and especially the agency who is family to him - he’s sacrificed himself on more than one account to protect them

He also puts his trust in the world even though he knows not everyone is as smart as him, because he knows he doesn’t know everything like when he did the press conference to prove the agency innocent

And you can see how relieved he is when some of them do, even if there’s a book that change reality to point all fingers at him

Anyway yea, I sincerely hope with the fourth season (and praying they animate the untold origins for the first couple eps like they did with the other light novels) more people will appreciate Ranpo, and the true Ranpo and not just some simple aspects of his character traits

Thank you for coming to my TED talk LMAO

160 notes · View notes

a-strange-inkling · 6 months

Note

If it were up to you ( one of the best hellcheer fanfiction writer) what would you fix or change about the fight of Icarus?

Aw shux, that’s high praise! I really don’t think I’m worthy of that, but thank you 🤍

Oh God… what a laundry list 😆 read at your own risk below (I think I’ve finally run out of things to say about this book and will be moving on now 😅)

I’m going to be honest, the best way fo fix it would be to not write a book. Point blank. If I was involved with the show at all I would have NEVER written a book about Eddie in any official capacity. I don’t know if the author was aware of just how unhinged certain parts of his fanbase are (I’m sure she is now) but you’re not going to make anyone happy with this. Eddie’s ridiculously popular yes, I get it, but part of his appeal for people was how untouched his background was.

Flight of Icarus is kind of a mess plot wise with pretty weak/poor characterizations. There’s some good elements and scenes in it. It’s not bad, but it’s not great either. It’s pretty mid. I mean books based on tv shows aren’t exactly known for their… luster. It’s obviously going to lack the passion of an unpaid fanfic writer who has spent endless hours watching season 4 and doing in-depth research and analysis for their work… but that’s what we’re all used to. That’s our standard. So it’s kind of already set up for failure.

But, if I was in charge of a book like this, here’s some of the things I would do differently:

I’d have picked ONE main plot to focus on because there is way too much going on in these 280 pages for me to have the time to be invested or care about anything. There’s like three plus storylines going on with Eddie all to push ONE narrative which is basically him choosing between risking everything for a fantasy/dream of fame and money or staying true to himself and what’s real which is the steadfast loyalty of his friends and family. This takes the form of Al vs Wayne, Paige vs Ronnie, LA vs Hawkins, solo career vs band/hellfire, dropping out to try to become a rockstar vs being the first Munson to graduate, who Eddie wants to be vs who he truly is deep down.

It’s just too much.

I’d have taken a little more time making Eddie three dimensional. I know he’s a side character, but a lot of heart and thought went into creating him (at least on Joe’s end). I’d have made more conscious choices for his character, especially if he’s narrating in first person (I would have not used first person). His outer dialog is great (the dialog throughout the whole thing is actually really great, you can tell the author’s a screen writer and it’s one of the stronger elements to the book) but his inner monologue is pretty ooc and at times really off. He lacks a lot of the things that drew people to him in the first place or it’s just not as strongly presented I guess. He doesn’t feel fully formed.

If I was going to give Eddie a love interest (I don’t know why you would do that to yourself at this point, his fanbase is volatile at best and either ships him with Steve, Chrissy, or themselves, no one is going to like it) I’d have given her WAY better writing than an immersive wattpad character with little to no character traits outside of her aesthetic and interests which is an alternative style and liking music. Wow. Groundbreaking. I would have her make decisions based on a fully formed personality verses the convenience of the plot. And if not, if she’s going to be a means to an end, I’d at least go all in and make her wild or evil or a total bitch or conniving or funny or grumpy or goofy or something. She’s not given enough focus or time to be well rounded so I’d just have fun and go batshit crazy with her (don’t worry Paige, you’re mine now and I will give you an actual character and vindication).

Eddie choosing between his dad and Wayne would have probably been the plot I picked to focus on and I would have really dived into that. The good, bad and the ugly of the Munson family. Because Al (that would not be his name btw 🤢) and Wayne reflect the two sides of Eddie’s character. A charming, self serving, cowardly asshole and a good, strong and kind person who protects and looks after others. I like Ronnie a lot and she’s probably the best written character in the book, but Wayne needed to have more spotlight for this.

I’d have definitely made the plot a lot less fantastical and way more of a simple character study. Just Eddie deciding between embracing the infamy of the Munson family or choosing to rise above it. Does he decide to scheme and cheat like his dad to get more out of life or does he do the right thing and stay the course to actually graduate and make something of himself. That’s it. All that’s needed. Eddie getting a shot at being a rockstar at eighteen in Hawkins is already kind of odd, especially when his in is a twenty year old “junior scout”??? Who just happens to be at his dive bar and have the hots for him and fucks him and pretty much offers him a life in LA on a silver platter with no issues other than having to bail on his band and high school club?? It’s… a bit much for our unlucky loser boy we see in the show. Book Eddie is as lucky as they come, but he’s a total dumbass and decides to trust and scheme with his deadbeat father??? Who has always failed him? Why? I get he needs money but his kinda girlfriend’s got a job and he’s pretty much got a record deal. What even is this? That whole storyline would be scrapped to hell. But hey, at least it’s more believable than an actual drug heist and a kingpin and a shoot out. Oh and arson. It’s giving… *shivers* Riverdale and not in a good way.

Lastly, I’d have taken the opportunity to develop characters from the show a little more. Not a ton, but like the author did with Higgins. I really like how he was written in the novel. He had a lot of fire and personality out of nowhere which was kind of hilarious. I probably would have expanded Jason the most actually, I’d have added more to that tense rivalry. And I’d have left Chrissy pretty much out of it. The talent show is best left to the imagination and we already have a delicate narrative between them because of the forest scene. I wouldn’t want to add too much there. But she’d have a cameo for sure. Like brief eye contact or a shared smile or something at the very end of the book. Just a little glimmer of what’s to come. I’m also a Eddie has always had a little bit of a thing for Chrissy truther, so in my bias I might have him quietly admire her from afar or something.

And there you go.

I mean you’re going to get my version of his backstory eventually anyway and bonus he and Chrissy live, get married and have kids. Yay!

#flight of icarus #hellcheer #eddie x chrissy #eddissy #munningham #chrissy x eddie #eddie munson #eddie book

27 notes · View notes

himboskywalker · 6 months

Note

I adore how you write anakin and Obi-Wans character, how do you do it? I would love to start writing but I have a hard time getting in a character, so I would love to hear how you do it. 🤗

Thank you so much! I feel like I have a harder time getting Obi-Wan's characterization right, so I'm always highly honored when anyone thinks I do lol I'm going to give you both some general writing advice and then a personalized approach for how I tackle characterization!

To start,good characterization sits on the foundation of each of your characters needs a motivation. Everyone that has ever existed in the whole world had wanted something, no matter how big or how small. Your character can be solely driven to survive the apocalypse because he wants a twinkie, or they can just want to get home to their cat, or it can be something deeper like wanting to belong or wanting to be loved or wanting power. But it is the human condition to want, and you cannot have a well written character if they don't want something. So let's narrow this down to Anakin and Obi-Wan, what do they want, and how does this want motivate and inform how they act, aka what are they going to do to get what they want?

What does Obi-Wan's canon character want? He wants to serve the Jedi, he wants to protect people, he wants peace, he wants to also serve and protect the galaxy. He also wants Anakin's friendship, and to be a good mentor, and that he could have saved his master. He wants quiet and probably a good cup of tea.

What does canon Anakin want? He wants to protect the people he loves to the marrow of his bones. He wants to protect and keep them so close he is terrified more than anything of losing them. Anakin wants the power and strength to protect his loved ones no matter the cost. He wants the exhilarating strength of being a Jedi and a general, but he also wants to be able to have conflicts of interest outside of his duty to the Jedi. He also wants, not just to be good at what he does, but the best.

They both want to protect, but this mutual want is driven by differing motivators. Obi-Wan's by selflessness, Anakin's by covetous fear. They are foils, two sides of the same coin. Obi-Wan wants to do his best, Anakin wants to be the best.

Storytelling is a journey of plot and development, but good characterization is also creating a person who goes on a journey, either externally or internally. Your character needs reasons for the way they think and act, and you show this either directly, by telling your audience, or indirectly through the character's thoughts, mannerisms and dialogue. And always remember, characters need agency. Your character wants something, and they should take actions in accordance to their motivations, and those actions drive the story. This is what is called a dynamic character.

We'll take Obi-Wan and Anakin out of their canon story and focus on a vague obikin oneshot, as I follow pretty much the same formula for every one I write. We know who Obi-Wan and Anakin are and their character drivers, but we'll also add in romantic want. Anakin wants to be a Jedi Knight and a General, he wants to fight and to protect those he cares about. He also wants Obi-Wan desperately, but he's more afraid of loss than he is motivated by romance. At least that's how I usually write him. Or we write the oneshot from Obi-Wan's pov. Obi-Wan wants to serve the Jedi and the GAR and the galaxy, and he wants the war to end, and maybe he deep down wants Anakin romantically. But Obi-Wan's sense of duty and morality trumps his longing, or at least that's how I write him. So we introduce a catalyst to override these foundational pillars to their characterizations. It can be reactional to each other's actions or words, or it can be due to their environment.

Another key to characterization is allowing your characters to change, just as real people do. Obi-Wan and Anakin change through the canon story arc of Star Wars. And in your story they will change too. Perhaps Anakin comes very close to dying and Obi-Wan is there, this would change Obi-Wan, how does that affect him emotionally, how would this inform his decisions, his perspective of the world, and his actions? Maybe on a mission Obi-Wan does his usual flirtatious shtick, does this change Anakin's internal balance of fear versus want? How would this inform his internal resolve, his perspective of others and himself, how would this motivate his actions?

I also recommend going to the drawing board and looking at the archetypes Obi-Wan and Anakin represent. What do they represent and how does this mold who they are? Obi-Wan is the older, wiser, steadier mentor. Anakin is the younger, tempestuous, rasher student. What do they thrive doing, what do they like, what do they not like? What aggravates them, what brings them joy? Humans are made of a trillion little pieces all jumbled together and your characters are too.

Obi-Wan is his wants and motivations, but he is also the way he speaks, the way he moves, the things he engages with and likes and the things he avoids and hates. Anakin is his wants and fears, but he too is the way he talks and carries himself and his interests and what he gravitates to and what he instinctively shirks. I recommend watching the prequels and literally writing down observations of their characters in real time. Notice how Ewan strokes his beard or the wonky way he smiles, notice how Hayden talks and that bashful way he holds his head.

#long post I'm so sorry #star wars #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #obikin #my fanfic stuff #on writing #characterization #anons

31 notes · View notes

inbarfink · 8 months

Text

So I guess what really bothers me about the popularity of the whole ‘Yellow Guy is David who is Lesley’s dead kid resurrected as a battery-powered Frankenstein’s Monster and the whole show is just the world she created for him so she won't have to lose him again’’ theory (outside of the general thing of, like, people just acting like their theories are Objectively Canon in a show that already thrives on vagueness and ambiguity) is how it just… kinda severely underplays the importance of Red Guy and Duck.

I mean, back in the Web Show Days, there were a lot of theories focused entirely on Red Guy or Yellow Guy as the only character that really matters in the narrative (I’ve never seen one attempted with Webshow!Duck but, like, I applaud anyone who tries). But with the Web Show's focus on the character personalities and interpersonal relationships being… kinda, nonexistent - it felt more thematically acceptable.

Like, when most of the characters’ explicitly displayed personalities are a wacky voice and maybe like a line of inferred context - than deciding only one is real and the others are a figment of that one’s imagination is, like, fine, you know?

At least compared to the TV show and the focus it puts on the trio’s relationships with each other and their characterization and giving all three of the main characters attention and personality and importance. I mean, the first thing we hear in almost every episode is that there’s Three of Them, just Three of Them.

(When I was watching the TV Show with my parents they kept forgetting it was called ‘Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared” and just called it “the Three of Us Show").

And with the increased focus on the main trio’s personalities and relationships with each other. And, the fact that it’s all three of them who are trapped by the Format.

“There’s only supposed to be three of us”

The same way Red said earlier in the episode that he’s not ‘supposed’ to wear clothing, the same way that in ‘Transport’ they talk about being at home together.

But this is... where we are!!

And Lesley’s room, the linchpin of that entire theory, is decorated with symbols of all three of them.

(note the stained glass showing simplified version of the Three of Them, and the repeating green squares, yellow circles and red diamonds)

Same as the Book.

(Red's googly eyes at the top, Yellow and Duck's decapitated heads, Yellow Battery and the Coin that fell into Duck's eye, decorated with Duck's maggots)

To me, this all reads as all three of them being important to the Wrongness that controls their lives. I’m not dismissing the possibility that Yellow Guy is the most important or central character- the fact he is battery powered seems to be Meaningful. As is the fact that when he’s fully charged he basically unravels the facade of their world in record time. My point isn’t to disprove the idea that Yellow Guy might be the most central character in DHMIS TV- just that he’s probably not the only important character.

After all, just as it is important that Yellow Guy is actually a super-intelligent cyborg guy who is one of Lesley’s ‘favorites’, and just as it is important that he had that whole Mulhoven flashback…

Is it not also important that both Duck and Red Guy were also in the flashback?

And that Red Guy is actually the first out of the group to fixate on Mulhoven?

And that Lesley has dolls of all Three of Them but not of any of the Big Boys?

That while Yellow Guy’s ‘D’ might be related to David, Duck was still the one who got buried as David and Red Guy was certain he should be dead?

And that the world seems intent on keeping all three of them Trapped in the Format?

(Actually now I’m imagining Red Guy discovering that his whole world is some sort of fantasy purgatory to keep Yellow Guy entertained in his unlife and his just totally collateral damage and being just SO ANNOYED because if it’s just about that other guy, why can’t he leave?! And Duck is just really pissed at the revelation that the hidden unfathomable mechanisms of the universe revolve around someone but that someone isn’t him)

And while I’m not super-attached to the David thing being the Secret Meaning to Everything, there’s plenty of ways to make it work while still keeping everyone Important.

What if all three of them were dead people important to Lesley? After all, remember how Yellow Guy defines them as a ‘family’?

Die in the same day in the same style of accident but in different locations!

Yellow’s Mulhoven Fantasy explicitly takes place in the morning, so there’s plenty of time for Red and Duck to also get run over by cars on the exact same day. And if this fantasy sequence is an actual indication of their original life in the real world - Red might’ve been Lesley’s neighbor and Duck might’ve been a pet. So they’d still be important people for her to keep in this felt purgatory but it would still make David/Yellow - her own son that she might’ve accidentally killed herself - the most important one and her ‘favorite’.

Or maybe Lesley was put in charge of the Three of Them by whatever mysterious force lies Upstairs.

And for Upstairs all three of them are cosmologically equally important, but Lesley took on Yellow Guy as her favorite and tried to cybernetically augment him to turn him into David. As kind of a mirror to what Red Guy did to Stains Edward.

So even if Lesley is focused on Yellow Guy, they are all important to the grander forces above Lesley.

(The thing I keep thinking with this theory is how the Death Shovel in Leslie’s room is in red)

(Like, the packet of Chaddle Dollops is in green and Duck is the one who found it. The batteries are in Yellow and obviously they’re tied to Yellow Guy. But you can argue the shovel from ‘Death’ is related to every character except Red Guy. Yellow Guy used it to ‘revive’ Duck, Duck used it to kill the other Duck. Red’s basically the only one who hadn’t touched it.)

(So I think maybe the symbolism here is that Lesley handled death in a similar way to Red Guy? Again, trying to mold a different living entity to the one she lost?)

Or maybe they are all David? Like, they’re all fragments of his soul or personality? And Yellow is Lesley’s ‘favorite’ because he’s the part of David she likes to remember?

Memories are a huge theme of DHMIS’s Death episode - and also, especially how people can remember others differently than what they actually were in life. That’s what the whole thing with ‘David’ was originally. People mourning Duck under the wrong name as a metaphor as to how Wrong people tend to get rememebred?

Maybe Lesley feels more comfortable remembering the parts of her son that were naive or innocent or inquisitive or thoughtful rather than admit he was sometimes kinda conceited or a snarky little asshole? And that’s why Yellow is her ‘favorite’?

There’s a lot of different theories and interpretations you can take to Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared - with or without the David stuff. But whatever read you take, I think it’s important to take into account all three of them. Because there are three of them, three of them, just three of them.... look closely you would see...

45 notes · View notes