#no no you like exploring these character traits because you have them not because theyre neat

[fanthirtheen]

I love Stolas and Blitzo’s struggling relationship so much because I relate to Blitzo (and Stolas) in ways I've latched onto. I guess I can see why some people don't like Stolas and his attitude and selfishness and his struggles give them an ick, because ultimately, fiction reflects life. Our favorite characters tend to be people we can project onto or people we wish we had in our lives.

Blitzo doesn't think he can be loved. He makes himself useful so he has some control over the terms in which he is in other people's lives. He doesn't want to be alone, and he doesn't want to be vulnerable enough to chance someone seeing him for what he is and deciding they didn't like it, they didn't like him, and leaving. So he makes himself into something they need, rather than finding someone who wants what he is.

And Stolas wants what he is. Stolas wants him. Stolas's love for Blitzo is an incredibly selfish love, and I understand why so many people don't like that. I can see a lot of people don't like that selfish love, they see real world people they have had bad experiences with in Stolas, and you know, that's what fiction is about.

But I love Stolas and I love Stolitz because I am incredibly satisfied and fulfilled seeing them together. Blitzo needs that selfish love. He needs someone to be selfish about him, to want him unrelated to all the bullshit he hides behind, to want him enough and in such a selfish way they can want him past the bullshit he pulls to push people away.

I've explored that dynamic in other fandoms some, but I cobbled it together from scratch. Not headcannons or anything lime that, just, from writing stories so much I corner myself in a dynamic that feels so right to me and so satisfying. One character doesn't know how to be wanted so they make themselves needed instead. The other character is so tired of being selfless or giving up things they want or not being allowed to have something of their own that when they get attached to the character that commodifies themselves, they decide with their whole heart that THIS is what they want. This person. This will be their first thing they want to keep and they want it selfishly.

And maybe it isn't picture-perfect healthy but it's good for them. The struggle isn't admitting they're in love with each other, the struggle is believing someone sees you for what you are not what you pretend to be to make yourself useful, and they want you so selfishly they will keep you even when you're not breaking yourself to be useful. And in getting what you want for the first time in your entire life and it being better than you ever dreamed.

So I kind of get it when people don't like Stolas. He is a bit selfish. But Blitzo needs him to be selfish, because Stolas’s "selfish" doesn't necessarily mean Blitzo giving anything up except his facade.

When the selfish character wants to keep the other character, not in a "you have to change your life to accommodate me" kind of way but in a "I love your life the way it is don't change I just want to be there with you" sort of way.

#holy shit that got away from me #the point i wanted to make was “we project onto fiction” #and i ended up on a rant about codependency #it took me years to realize i projected onto all my favorite characters #no no you like exploring these character traits because you have them not because theyre neat #i was writing characters that would fit an autism diagnosis years before I even considered it irl #so if anyone ever hates a chatacter i just assume that character reminds them of someone irl #and try not to take it personally if that character they hate is similar to me #especially if the parts they hate are the parts i relate to #context is important

[scatterbrainedbot]

I AM SPINNING I AM PACING I AM FULL ON FROLICKING IM SO EXCITED

@d1sc0rd1a THANK U FOR THESE TAGS

okayokayokayokay so pretty much all of these questions will be Officially Answered properly in the character design/intro pages im working on but also i am physically vibrating with excitement about the fact that you noticed all these details and i have very little self control so! lore dump time!!!

(minor tw for mentions of leos self-harm/self-destructive anxious behaviors and unhealthy coping skills)

- mikey does indeed have curly fur! i believe he would be considered a 'rex' rat (pictured on the left) for this trait? though the curls can be more easily seen on mice (pictured on the right). or, at least it seems that way. have not delved too deeply into the details of rodent genes and husbandry, but id assume its the same sort of mutation considering curly haired mice are also referred to as rex sometimes? either way hes a extra floofy bby 🧡

-as for raphie, unfortunately being more fluff and less shell than the average rapheal comes with its downsides. especially if you and your brothers occasionally encounter things like territorial dogs, hungry cats, or sewer crocodiles while exploring places ur dad said not supposed to go. (most of his scars will have more ninja related stories, but his ear i think got messed up from something very animal. probably around age 11 ish? old enough to sneak out from dads protection but young enough to not fully know how to handle himself alone against real danger. thankfully his ear injury looks worse than it actually is for the most part, as the damage was largely to the outer ear. his hearing wasnt super affected, except that he now has a bit of a harder time being able to track/pinpoint noises origins if its on his right side.)

-also yep! dons got some glasses that just clip/rest on the bridge of his nose! theyre mostly just for home use, as they do fall off if hes knocked around. in the field he has some goggles he tends to use (theyre helpful as they have multiple additional functions like heat-imaging, extra zoom/telescoping, and recording capabilities. but also theyll give him headaches if he wears them for too long without breaks). contacts are theoretically also an option but he absolutely hates the sensation of putting them in. so sometimes when hes tired he'll just not bother with either clips or goggles and just squint and struggle. leo hates when he does that lol.

-speaking of leo, he is def an anxious baby :) he has a few patches of fur missing on his hand cos he has the tendency to tug on it while hes thinking. he yanked and chewed on his own tail a lot when he was younger too, which is why when hes older he usually wears some wraps to cover the scars left from that behavior. he finds those scars specifically to be kinda embarrassing and shameful because they werent from any battle or life-lesson, just his own 'inability to control himself'. all of his brothers have repeatedly called him out on the fact that that is not a healthy way to think about his anxiety or mental health, but leo insists hes fine. hes kinda convinced himself that a proper warrior always has control over his own body* and his own thoughts, thus he should be able to just like willpower-brute-force his way into 'being better'. (this line of thinking pisses raph off so much he has to leave and go hit something)

Splinter also tries to talk him through some of that internalized guilt/shame/everything, but splinters very metaphorical, poetic, and indirect when it comes to talking about Big Things, which combined with how much leo gets caught in his own head, makes it kinda hard to gauge how much these talks actually help

*this is made extra fun considering leos also ftm trans, so he is faced with a body that fundamentally disobeys him perhaps more than the average rat-man.

-and im still going back and forth between a few species for splinter, but im leaning mostly towards an African Spurred Tortoise! they have these beautiful if kinda subtle geometric shell patterns and are the third largest species of tortoise in the world. the only thing that doesnt fit perfectly with Splints is that (allegedly) their lifespan in captivity is around 50ish years, whereas im p sure Tortoise Splinter is well over 75, probably closer to 90 when the boys are born and hes mutated into Old Man Papa.

but maybe hes just a particularly long lasting African Spurred Tortoise.

the Hamato family has taken very good care of him for many decades after all. :)

(well. until everything all fell apart, that is.....)

#tmnt #rat sons #my art #tmnt au #literally bouncing around the room thinking about this all #my downstairs neighbors are gonna hate me #ask reply #sort of??? #pats leos fucked up lil head #this bad boy can fit so much projection #get out of ur head idiot ur family loves and wants to help u #also looking at the chaco tortoise and ploughshare tortoise for splinter thoboth of those are smaller species than i think he is

[grantwilsonenjoyer]

why did i just see someone complaining abt ppl headcanoning dndads characters being neurodivergent. And technically they only mentioned ocd and autism specifically. But i suspect it is not just those (although ppl Were also talking about adhd and they didnt seem to have any problem with that! Hm. Wonder Why!)

dog consider that this is a Nonissue. "But but 😭. why are you talking about this in context of a dnd podcast and making them seem like fun character quirks" my brother in christ they literally said they relate to this character and ALSO have that so u KNOW why + even if they didnt it doesnt MATTER as long as they r not being weird abt it

As long as people are respectful (and the ppl theyre referring to Were!) there is quite literally nothing wrong with saying "hey i have xyz disorder and this character shows traits and has relationships that strongly imitate xyz disorder". OR EVEN "hey this character who has been through this traumatic thing probavly has xyz trauma related disorder." Or perhaps "Hey this character meets the criteria for/shows symptoms of xyz and interpreting them as such is a way to explore their character in a new light"

I would argue in fact that it is an issue to say "you arent allowed to talk about any of these in reference to characters because it's making a joke of them" or whatever. Dude people with ocd Exist. And.! people with literally anything else!. it is absurd to imply that mental illnesses/disorders cannot be considered and explored when interpreting stories. Like that is ridiculous

#dndads #dungeons and daddies #AND ALSOOO not to mention! #the players have literally brought up autism hcs. they support people making them. who CARES #+ the literal podcast is about generational trauma what do u mean they are making light of issues #if you only listen to the pod as fun background noise that is Fine but do not act like it can't have meaningful interpretations 😭 #idk . even in media that's not particularly “serious” u can still have these hcs. its like saying u cant make gay or trans hcs #like i do hate to break it to u but those people just Exist . it is bot absurd to say that they may Also exist in a piece of media #we need critical thinking skills BACK

[tomboyyyaoi]

OH i dont wanna forget so when ppl say meryl and milly are mirrors to vash and wolfwood im like RERHGGGGRRR UR ALMOST THERE.... UR NEARLY THERE........

if we look at the similarities between meryl and wolfwood all they really have is pretty surface level, theyr both the snappy dark haired one that keeps their blonde silly partner in check but thats it. because the second you dig a little deeper it falls apart because wolfwood has No remorse being a killer. he shoots to kill and kills to protect himself. the second he feels his life is threatened its one in the head one in the chest and thats how he lives, self preservation is his top priority and he'll do anything to achieve that.

meryl on the other hand is just as selfless as vash, shes just smarter about it, she stops at nothing to follow him wherever just to try and understand him a bit more, shes utterly baffled by and wrapped up in him and his inhuman care for everything that is not himself, she shares his desire to protect and inability to stomach the thought of shooting someone dead though her expression of this is more grounded through the lense of an average (for nomans land) office lady in her 20s, meryl and wolfwood are only mirrors in surface level character traits

where this gets really interesting though is when we take the milly/vash equivalent to this into account i like to think milly could, if put to it, shoot to kill for protection, if she holds a similar ideology to wolfwood where self preservation (and for milly, protecting loved ones) is the top priority and if someone has to die for that to happen then so be it, this is why i love the idea of milly having a more lethal gun, i want them to explore this a bit more in stampede

#sorry. god. god full time work is killing me i just want to. i jsut want to think about trigun all the time again...

[lord-shitbox]

more aisposting [demo spoilers]

while he's VERY open about a lot of things (about the seaspring & himself—things related to the groupmind & Ocudeus, "i was lonely," "people get honest when they're afraid" + "I'll buy you a drink for scaring you") he is very emotionally distant/closed off ("i only have one friend" reports man surrounded by people who are friendly with him & hang out with him + "don't worry, you'll never have to talk about your feelings" uquiz result description).

In regards to him & Vere, he and Vere are close and he likes Vere ("friends with benefits, but got too attached") but doesn't trust him emotionally (see above "only one friend"). In contrast, Ais is "the only person Vere's shown his true face to"— meaning Vere trusts him highly. given this I would love to explore how their relationship could develop, in both good & bad ways.

here's where i devolve into a stream of thoughts:

•"dislikes: isolation" & gets lonely easily -> why he's got so many pets -> also BUDDY IT'S YOUR ATTACHMENT ISSUES

•something about Mr Thing-With-Loneliness being the local Groupmind Guy. "One big happy family all in your head" hmm

•something about Mr Thing with Loneliness and eye imagery. his pact buddy is EyeGod ON PURPOSE...... connection vs perceiving /being perceived... hmm.

•also minor sidenote hes got "only One Friend in his head" (he is not a part of the Big Happy Family groupmind & retains his individuality)..... i think abt his relation to the groupmind itself a lot. They seem to be aware of his location at any given time, but don't know very much about him? ("ais is a gang leader" says groupmind lady on the stairs VS "gang took a walk" quoth mr all alone now....)

•I personally feel that in that situation he's referring to his old gang —the one that is no longer with him— because his expression when he delivers the line is a fake smile. it appears cordial and masks discomfort or discontent, & i think whatever happened in his past is a loaded subject for him

•@ the bar scene he says "he got lonely" so he went to hang out with Vere and Leander specifically.. theyre his (relatively speaking.) best buds

•he enjoys Kuras's company but doesn't go to hang out with him when he's lonely, because he's aware of Kuras's emotional distancing methods (kuras also doesn't drink, which i think could be related to him potentially not needing food or drink / just not liking alcohol / refraining from drunken social activities)

•in my brain he's such a dog boy. relevant character traits i see in him as a result include loyalty (i feel that, whatever happened with his Old Gang, he didn't just up and leave them) and liking biting. thanks

#touchstarved game #ais #shitbox meta #thanks redspring for the 'bite him & he likes it' scene. HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO #tumblr posts are formatting hell. cant have bulleted list with spacing between each list item (i cant read without it)

[jazzmckay]

oc tag meme!

tagged by @lyriumlullaby-ao3 to talk about an oc :>

here is one of my inquisitors from dai!

NAME: el of clan lavellan

NICKNAME: just el. el is already a shortened version of their given name because they're nonbinary and their given name has too strong of a gender vibe

GENDER: afab nonbinary

TAROT/ZODIAC: the knight of wands (upright: action, courage, energetic, rebellious, hot tempered. reversed: reckless, impatient, impulsive, volatile, domineering). and idk, aries?

HEIGHT: i never think about height idk whatevers average for elf

ORIENTATION: queer. in what way? wouldnt you like to know, weather boy

NATIONALITY/ETHNICITY: dalish elf

FAVORITE FRUIT: lemon

FAVORITE SEASON: autumn. they're more comfortable in cooler weather, but they also don't love how cold it gets in the south for winter

FAVORITE FLOWER: sorry to say el barely thinks twice about plants in general. they do NOT stop to smell the roses

FAVORITE SCENT: i may have picked the wrong character for this lol literally the one oc with the defined trait "dull sense of smell"

COFFEE, TEA, OR HOT CHOCOLATE: coffee. they like it bitter

AVERAGE HOURS OF SLEEP: at least 7, then five more minutes, and then lying about for a bit because if someone makes them move too fast they're gonna start biting

DOGS OR CATS: both are okay, but more of a dog person. they like the energy, the ability to have them as a combat companion, that sort of thing. cats tend to mind their own business though so el's cool with them

DREAM TRIP: regrettably, seheron. only place that both piques their interest and is worth exploring in their opinion, but of course. there is a war there, so

NUMBER OF BLANKETS: 2 max or they'll start to feel like theyre drowning in it

RANDOM FACT: when they're pissed off, they like to fuck or spar if they're willing to interact with other people, and if they don't want to deal with anyone, they go to the undercroft to make new weapons. harritt and dagna know to leave them alone unless they ask for something

---

tagging! @streganicha @thelaughingmagician @inscrutable-shadow and @broodwolf221 yes i know youve done it already but if youre up for round two, give us another :3

#oc el #tag meme

[princesseevee06]

love your swap au lots!!! its very interesting and id love to know more about it :)

especially shin and sou's whole deal (theyre identity thefting each other!!!! thats so interesting???) and maple and kugie crumbs.. 😳😳 though just about anything is great to see!

hope to see you post more on this au!! :D (also your art is very tasty. yum)

auuughghhh thank you so much you’re so kind!!! ;-; glad you’re enjoying my au. it’s a very self-indulgent thing, and when i started posting about it i thought not many people would be interested, so your support means a lot!!

i definitely plan on posting more stuff for this au (especially about shin and sou because they are my favorite characters hdjdjsjhd), but i keep getting sidetracked from making posts about the story because of my desire to create silly doodles instead… rest assured more content is on the horizon!!

since you asked, though, i can provide you a lil bit of insight into my ideas for the characters!! :D

- for shin and sou, i wanted to focus on the idea of their relationship being more evenhanded, where shin is able to stick up for himself (because as much as i love bullying shin that man needs a break sometimes). i thought it was an interesting angle to play at because i think the both of them can be very cunning when it comes to getting the results they want, and i wanted to explore what it would look like if they worked together as allies while also using that trait against each other… so the mutual identity thefting sort of functions as a show of the uneasy trust they’ve built, if that makes any sense?

- kugie is a very pivotal character in the story, and what’s really interesting to me about her is how her grief over losing her sister would manifest itself differently from kanna’s. i definitely think she’d react a lot more with anger and hopelessness, pushing others away and trying to solve problems on her own. she does warm up to a couple of the other characters though, such as ryoko and kai, and that fuels her a lot more to start working with others.

i also just think she’d be a lot more prone to calling people out for their bad behavior than like…sara, for example? i definitely don’t see her taking shin’s constant lying lightly.

- maple was also very very interesting for me because i had to think about what her life would be like as a human, and also how she would’ve gotten involved with asunaro. i thought it would be cool to connect her with mai, since they’re both bakery gals, and that’s eventually how i came to the idea of her signing the form to protect mai from the organization (and so, mai never gets kidnapped…)

personality-wise, i wanted her to take on an “older-sister” archetype, but also have it be clear she’s already burdening herself with a lot as well. she really just wants everyone to get along…

i know im probably just repeating a lot of what i said in my original post on this au haha, but i worry this post would get overly rambly if i got into specific in-depth story points… though i’m pretty much up for making posts about any part of the story (i’m planning on making one about the dummies soon), so if there’s anything specific you wanna see me touch on first let me know! :D

finally, here’s a lil maple as thanks for your support :)

#princesseevee answers #yttd #your turn ryoko #shin tsukimi #sou hiyori #yttd midori #kugie kizuchi #yttd maple #my art

[hybbat]

🔥 pokemon!

I have... a few...

There's nothing wrong with trubbish and vanillish as concepts, and unlike many pokemon their designs are still very good and cute and just the right balance of concept and design.

Gen 5 had almost nothong but banger pokemon designs and you cannot complain about them "just being replacements for other pokemon" when 1) pokemon has always had regional versions of the same concept, 2) newer games who only put out like 50 pokemon are also making blander clones of older pokemon, 3) regional variants exist and are far and wide a massive mistake, and 4) gen 5s takes on similar concepts were fully fleshed out into their own pokemon with their own place in the story and region and often did the concept and design better than the pokemon they are ecounterpart to.

Too many of the recent pokemon in the last two generations are too simple and just the animal theyre based on with a halfhearted gimmick or type slapped on in a way that usually ruins the design. This includes pokemon i like like wooloo, who is adorable and one of the few gen 8 pokemon I actually like, but it has no excuse for how simple and boring it is when flaafy exists.

Most regional pokemon force concepts onto older pokemon that would have been better as their own pokemon, but its easier to edit an existing pokemon. Most modern pokemon are designed to be easy to model rather than have good designs. There's a reason simple pokemon like diglett and pyukumuku have so many regional variants/similar pokemon and a lot more pokemon have patterns as their detail or simplified design concepts.

Raihan and Piers are some of the ugliest character designs in pokemon history, Marnie's character is nonexistent and her design is cowardly, and Leon is a nothing character with a bad design who has exactly one character trait (no sense of direction) which they go beyond tell dont show and have him actively contradict in his very first major scene (finding you in a foggy forest and guding you out)

The mainline pokemon games haven't become open world. They just became open field, and have less fun gameplay, less interesting locations, and worse visuals for it.

A 3d pokemon game is not inherently bad, even if it absolutely looks and plays better in 2d and 2.5d, and XY proves as much, as its only flaws could have been smoothed out entirely by a third entry the same as DPPt. The problem is the switch from tiling, the artstyle shift to more realistic, and switch to the switch which has done nothing but ruin all the portable consol games forced onto it while also making them more expensive. They problem is less content for your money, the simplification and reliance on nostalgia pandering to retain old fans, the poor modeling incapable of capturing the artstyle, and the refusal to give more time to make a game that requires more time to make due to the 3d. And the problem is the clmplete shift in focus and mindset that came with the onset of 3d games starting with ORAS and new management both in the pokemon company and nintendo.

Most fanmade pokemon games have terrible balancing and think increasing the levels and giving trainers bigger parties will make the game more fun. Imo gen 5 had the best balacing of any pokemon game, even on b2w2's hard mode, and I wish both official and fanmade games would take notes.

Pokemon went downhill when it took away HMs, because it also by extention took away most of its puzzle and exploration gameplay that was important to making grinding and travel fun. HMs had their annoyances, but they had an integral part of the gameplay that pokemon never truly bothered to replace, with the sole exception of ride pokemon in XY and Let's Go.

Pokemon sleep would be amazing and more than any company I trust pokemon to make games that have good intentions, and if it came out 10 years ago I would trust it, but I know it just exists to harvest data and track people.

I've gone on this rant before but rotomdex is the worst thing ever to happen to the emersion of pokemon. I hate having a smartphoen or tablet instead of a pokedex and poketch/pokenav/cute scifi device that could be made into a marletable toy.

Pokemon does not have any right to be a full price game on the switch, let alone package the postgame as DLC they also charge for.

#ask

[nulltune]

i'm Naut a gamer and they're changing it for the remake but honestly fate/extra's gameplay is really fitting for hakuno's character! it's all about finding out who your opponent is, understanding them and predicting their patterns based on that and countering it. i think this is why fate extra materials say she has "amazing detective skills and inference ability" – specifically about the how she figures out the heroic spirits' identities but i think this should fit too. though on the other hand, i imagine she'd be stuck if there's not enough information to analyse.

for my portrayal, i want this trait of hers to rlly play into part with how she interacts with others too >:3c she's a good judge of character (though very idealistic and prone to giving others a chance or the benefit of the doubt) but takes her time to get more information and get to know them. from that, she can get a better understanding of just what is needed by the situation/person and fulfill that.

i feel like you already see this in canon too! she's pretty good at figuring out people and how they'd react, and filling in the blanks from what she knows about them.

AND PLSS THEYRE SO FUNNY SVSNAVXJ

+ this dialogue option where you have to convince jinako to help you out and the correct option has hakuno appealing to jinako's,, tastes (🗿)

SO you'll usually see things like her going with the flow and doing things based on what the others want/need rather than herself, mostly because she doesn't know what she wants herself and is trying to figure out this way.

it's important because foxtail makes it a point that your choices is what shapes who you are. hakuno even admits to "going with the flow" and "following what everyone says" in and has her important turning point when she chooses her own path. good character development!! which i think can be best exemplified in this dialogue option from true route:

where the right answer isn't solely doing what hakuno thinks sakura wants, but also taking what hakuno herself thinks into consideration. it seems like a small thing but it's such good development for my girl /sobs

i alao wanna mention how hakuno highly introspective (though to the point of overthinking actually) and can easily understand parts of others that they don't explicitly show or tell or even admit to themselves. and how her best dynamics are the ones that also explore her character and taps into her emotions and feelings and how it relates to the other! like julius for example:

Just like Julius, the protagonist worked their way up from the bottom. So when they met the protagonist could immediately and clearly see through Julius, and this pissed Julius off to no end.

it's not just hakuno understands that julius is weak, but it's how hakuno understands what it's like to be weak. she understands what's it like to be deemed inferior and useless, and to try your hardest to prove yourself. not just an observation of the other person as a character and making informed guesses based on that, which is how i think hakuno navigates her usual interactions; but with a connection with them as a person that would also require hakuno to consider her own self and how she relates to the other person, which is great development for her!

so basically- not just understanding others intellectually, but truly understanding them from the heart,, 🥹

it's not to say that having something in common is required to have a bond though, ofc! the point is that it's necessary for hakuno consider herself too. as more of a character who interacts with the world and others rather than a self-insert who's just viewing things as an audience surrogate y'know </3

like this moment, where hakuno doesn't just pick up on bb acting different, but has her own thoughts and feelings about it (even if she doesn't really understand it):

#&&. hcs #ngl this is also for me too bc i'm constantly trying to make sense of her character orz #LIKE- i do feel like h.akuno being so observant and being able to notice things abt other characters could def be #more for plot purposes to let the players know stuff #but i wanna make it make sense and be worth smth for h.akuno's character too !!! 😤😤 #and da best h.akuno thoughts r always the ones she has in retrospect / relates to herself imo #this is also why i think h.akuno's characterisation in e.xtella is So Facking Bad!! bc all of this depth and nuance is just /g o n e/ #and ik that's bc they want to make the mc's a balance of self-insert and their own character #but i just feels like that limits their potential a lot orz and is just so unfitting for h.akuno whose character arc is #Literally abt self-discovery !! #my thoughts r all over the place but HHREENGGHH H.AKUNOOO..!!!!!!!! i think abt her......... A whole lot.

[mauesartetc]

Ask via @chinesegal (because Tumblr still hates it when I add videos to asks):

I've seen many helluva criticals say theyre confused why Stella wants Stolas dead for cheating if she never loved him, but to me it has always been clear as day that she cared more about the fact Stolas slept with an imp than the cheating itself, because of her line "I can't believe you slept with an imp!" in episode 2.

It was also obvious early on that they were in a mutually unhappy arranged marriage because when Stolas tries explaining himself to Octavia he says "we were always-" with the cutoff line suggesting he was going to say "unhappy".

I can buy that Stella hates Stolas for hurting her reputation by sleeping with someone lower class, but what I don't buy is making her character flat as hell.

Yep. There are definitely ways to make one character passionately hate another, yet maintain nuance in their motivations and how the writing portrays them as a person.

Gus Fring, for example, despises Hector Salamanca for killing his business (and most likely romantic, let's be real) partner, so much so that he takes his revenge on the entire Salamanca family before Hector himself, just to make Hector feel the same grief he has. Clearly this person is a cruel, calculating, vindictive motherfucker.

But he's also an amazing boss???

He also shows genuine affection for his old friend???

Thinking back to my stick figure test for fictional characters, Gus would have a good mix of positive, neutral, and negative traits despite his portrayal as a villain. It might seem contradictory to give positive traits to a character we’re meant to root against (or at least feel ambivalent toward), but what matters is how often the story shows us the positive traits vs. the negative ones. Gus is a terrible person, but at the end of the day, he’s still a human being. That’s the kind of multifaceted exploration we get when a show’s writers extend a bit of empathy toward even their most corrupt characters.

So what are Stella’s personality traits, exactly?

She’s elitist based on her outrage at Stolas sleeping with an imp...She’s loud, she’s inconsiderate, she’s vengeful, she’s kind of sadistic (”I enjoy tormenting you!”)... That’s about it. 

There’s no empathy here. There’s no (for lack of a better term) humanity here. No positive traits. No life outside of Stolas or Octavia. At this point she’s barely even a character; just a mean-looking puppet for an audience of children to boo and hiss at. (Never thought a Family Guy clip would be appropriate here, but...)

Like I’ve said before, the entire second half of Helluva 201 was pro-Stolas, anti-Stella propaganda. Not a great sign when storytelling takes a back seat to obvious favoritism. Yes, writers will naturally manipulate their audience’s emotions and opinions toward characters to some degree, but the good ones don’t show their hands.

Anyway, I hear a new episode’s out. Haven’t seen it yet, but I hope to God the writing is more subtle than it was in the last one.

#ask #chinesegal #helluva boss #helluva critical #helluva stella #writing #villains #character development

[rouge-the-bat]

was tagged by @princesstokyomoon owo, thanks for taggin me :3

Rules: List your top 5 favorite shows and tag 5 people!

...can i just list yu yu hakusho 5 times LOL god i fucking love that anime so much ive been hyperfixated on ever since i first watched it a few years ago gkdbjfbf that said, biiig surprise what my number one is:

1. Yu Yu Hakusho ⭐️

THIS SHOW CHANGED MY BRAIN CHEMICALS. I CANT PROPERLY EXPRESS HOW MUCH I ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ADORE THIS CAST OF CHARACTERS. THAT LIL DUDE IN THE MIDDLE?? HIEI, THE LOVE OF MY LIFE, I ADORE HIM SO MUCH, HES SUCH A WONDERFUL CUTE TSUNDERE BASTARD. literally the main cast is full of characters with "contradicting" traits that just work SO WELL in making them interesting and fun

kuwabara (the one in blue) is a precious himbo, a very loud delinquent kid who loves to fight but has an honor code he will ALWAYS abide by and has a cute little kitten he adores!!!

yusuke (the one in green) is similarly a delinquent and, honestly, is more of an asshole LOL but he despite his rudeness he doesnt hesitate to put his life on the line for others!

hiei MY LOVE is The Edgy One and always acts like they rest in the group arent his friends but he always is there to help when hes needed and clearly worries for their safety 🥰 and he has a sister hes very sweet and protective over!!! and hes also just Full Of Trauma that i wont get into as more of his backstory is revealed later in the show. and hes just an absolute badass and really hot,,, (forces myself to move on or ill just ramble endlessly about him)

THEN theres hieis lover partner kurama (the red head, and my big kin!!!!), whos by far the sweetest of the 4, is a total mamas boy, BUT hes also a centuries old fox demon known for his thievery and cruelty and was changed when he was almost killed and had to transfer his soul into an unborn human child to stay alive, where his human mom's love changed him to be kinder :'3 (none of that is a spoiler really, this is info he literally states very soon after his introduction) but even though hes changed, hes still can be absolutely RUTHLESS to his enemies. even hiei states early on that he chose kurama as his partner because he wouldnt want him as an enemy

AHEM okay. thats enough rambling about my hyperfixation for now i think fhkzhfjd i probably wont be rambling much about the other ones i just really really REALLY love yyh

the rest arent really in any particular order, and imma put em under the cut!

2. My Hero Academia

i was biiig hyperfixated on this show for a while there, i just absolutely LOVE stories that explore the gray areas of things, so when this show gets into that sorta shit with the hero society its a BIG fave. plus the characters are really fun, todoroki is my fave hehe

3. She-ra (reboot)

another previous hyperfixation, i just really love these characters and honestly theyre so fun to ship in a big ol poly pile lol. tbh i miss being fixated on this one, i had sooo much fun with it ♡

4. Talentless Nana

this was a shorter hyperfixation, but MAN this show gave me EMOTIONS. i dont wanna say too much about it because i think its best to watch the first episode without knowing too much about it, but there is a BIG TWIST at the end of the first episode, and the "genre" of the show completely shifts for all of the episodes after it. if you like darker series, i def recommend this one :3 i just hope itll get more seasons!! but at least theres the manga to continue on with after the first season!

5. Avatar the Last Airbender

an absolute classic from my childhood ♡ itll always be one of my faves!! the characters, the story, the world, i love it so much !!! i still wish i could be a water or fire bender ^w^

honestly it feels weird not putting up a sonic show on here, but when i think about it i never was the biggest on the shows and have always been way more attached to the games canon. though sonic x is def still a classic from my childhood too owo

ah shit i was about to post this without tagging anyone i almost completely forgot HFKSHGK uhh ill tag @megalo-station @catfuyus @transgaykurama @mageofcolors @l-lawliets-pussy @yoko-kurama-the-sex-god (i did 1 over 5 bc im a rebel 😈 JFLZJF)

#fuck i still dont have a tag for these tag games. maybe ill make some sometime #ANYWAYS WATCH YU YU HAKUSHO. PLS PLS PLS. ITS SO GOOD #id recommend checking out the does the dog die site in case u have any particular strong triggers tho jic #its a 90s anime so there is some iffy stuff lol #ALSO IF UR SENSITIVE TO FLASHING LIGHTS UH. DEFINTELY DONT WATCH THE SHOW ITS LIKE REEEALLLY FUCKING BAD WITH FLASHING LIGHTS #there maaaay be versions available that tones it down/fixes/cuts some of it potentially? but im not personally aware of any

[writing-plurals]

I have a character and story ive been letting ferment for a few years now. I have a few traits I want to run past peer review so i think ill just give the pitch and then point out what im concerned about? Mid fantasy. There is a wizard commune and our host, after getting in a fight with a fellow magic user woke up in the middle of nowhere, because of circumstances that are a mystery(at first?). after wandering and stealing an abandoned magical amulet/charm, she finds herself confronted by one of her alters in like a shadow body. its about both the system connecting and the host coming to understand stuff, and also the system helping put together that the wizard commune was like a military cult thing and are trying to take over the world? my main concerns are 1) the wizard duel did not cause the plurality, but the host is probably convinced it did for a good bit? 2) the first alter that presents themself in the story is a complete edgelord(on par with shadow the hedgehog) and I dont know how long I should be letting them hype themself up to avoid them looking like theyre going to be the "evil alter" trope. 3) the wizard cult. is it alright to explore that kind of stuff as part of this story? aformentioned wizard cult is hella screwed up and I'd hate to get someone hooked on a story about this system reconciling with themselves and their traumatic past and then throw the screwed up cult stuff in there and ruin someones day(tho i guess thats what cws are for)

Your first concern is avoidable if at some point, the host realizes that the Wizard Duel was not the cause. Doesn't have to be right away, as long as they figure it out.

Edgelord people exist! And it's different than it being an Evil Alter. If you're not sure, try adding more moments where the edgelord does things to protect the host alongside them being edgy.

You got the fix on the nose. CWs are the fix there, easy enough.

-Mod Tick Tock

#Mod Tick Tock #plural gang #writing plural characters #plural representation #actuallyplural #plural pride #pluralgang #writeblr

[bathroomtrapped]

What if they didnt fight cary and convinced him to return for saw 3... Then, would the scenario "jigsaw kidnaps larrys family" become real? Then, then, would it be more awesome than his coming back in saw 3d? I guess the answers yes. I'll forever hate Larry's treachery.

if it went according to plan, allison is kidnapped again and lawrence takes the role of lynn where he cares for john (iirc). either way, yeah theyre involved again. not sure abt diana tho?

okay so, sorry to be That Guy. but lawrence as an apprentice makes the most sense for his character and the saw universe and im going to use this random ask to voice my opinion so thank you for using my ask box as a saw google lol

A LOT more under the cut

i DO with we got to see that version because it would mean more lawrence screentime and i genuinely do not dislike any saw content. idc how shitty saw x is, it could undo everything and shit all over it but i would NOT care. any content means an avenue to explore saw further

thats one of the main reasons the apprentice reveal was so good, in my opinion. before i get to why its great for lawrence, i want to point out why it works SO well for the other aspects. amanda is johns pseudo-daughter, he LOVED her like a father. we see it at the end of saw iii. no matter what he says, john does not forgive people. he punishes jill for losing their child but at the end of iii, we see him genuinely look at amanda with love and forgiveness. and yet? he never trusted her enough to tell her about lawrence. this random fucking guy who didnt even WIN, is the golden child. trusted with his wife!

as for mark, he is the definition of jigsaws philosophy. he may have jostled his victims around but he had the strongest will to live out of anyone and never relished in hurting them (crying after kidnapping paul + killing seth). another reason i like 3D is that he cant even look at jills corpse. his "game over" wasnt victorious. not like johns always is. YET he is not trusted. hes been there since before amanda, followed his rules, lived his philosophy and he was shafted again. i think the reveal does a lot of good for the apprentice-john dynamic for everyone involved.

secondly, JOHNS TESTS DONT WORK. CANONICALLY. they do not!! amanda says it herself. jigsaw traps make people worse, and not just bc thats a logical response to trauma. working for john amplifies everyones worst traits. amanda became a killer, mark grew to find some sort of enjoyment in killing (at the very least, it made him dependent on it for power and a sense of identity after the loss of his sister)

lawrences test was designed to show him what john said he was missing: empathy. he has none! he lies and doesnt care, he cant understand other peoples points of view, and he prioritizes his own whims and wants over everyone. CONSISTENTLY. so what happens when his tests presents him with the very definition of his heart and moral core, then asks him to kill him? he gets fucking worse!

lawrence is a narcissist. as in the personality disorder. he has low empathy (this is canonically the reason for his test!! not just "he cheated" or "he ignored john", he does these things for that reason) and god. just look at the symptoms, its like they made every scene an example of them on purpose. the idea that his game would be a wake up call and cause him to reflect and adjust his behaviors is just insane to me! within the canon logic of the story, and when taking into account his clear personality disorder... its the most logical choice (source: i have it and also i have eyes. SIDE SIDE note, my real source is that hes a clear parallel to john and john was evaluated for NPD in his psychiatric files in the saw game. so theres that) i think this has a lot to do with people not understanding low empathy. they cant understand why he would betray adam and join jigsaw

trauma wont change that overnight. getting fixed by john for 2 years without seeing the sun certainly wont help either

lawrence as an apprentice is the most logical progression of his character. he does what he wants and what he has to, at the expense of others. hes isolated from his wife and child. he cant understand other peoples prespective. he has an issue with guilt or feeling empathy for people, including those suffering like john. this wont change bc he experienced his first shred of empathy after MURDERING someone he got to know for 6 hours. low empathy =/= no empathy. thats like saying dude bros who do shrooms and experience empathy for the first time in their life are changed people. they arent lol

also the contrast between his game over vs marks 5 minutes earlier is SO important for their characters. theres so much good shit in that movie. take out the corny lines and jill mistreatment, and u have a lot to work with! so yes i do think that itd be more awesome. i love saw 3D and what it did for his character. im not sure how saw iii hostage lawrence wouldve expanded on his character, but id rather go with saw 3D bc im confident they didnt butcher his character. im glad that a beloved protagonist is a complete narc, and hes still beloved! im never giving that up

#apologies if this sounded rude or targeted? ive been looking for an excuse to voice this #i hope this makes sense. i didnt want to elaborate TOO hard on npd lawrence bc its already so long #but it genuinely informs soooo much of his character #i mean #ffs #tapp has to sit there and tell him #CRIME IS IN UR NEIGHBORHOOD. WELL OFF DOCTORS AND DENTISTS ARE NOT ABOUT IT. UR NOT ABOVE IT #THE SEWER LINES RUN UNDER THIS NEIGHBORHOOD TOO!!! NO MATTER HOW CLEAN U LOOK #THERES ALWAYS POTENTIAL FOR DIRT UNDER THE SURFACE #anyways #sorry this is all over the place im high as shit and just ranted off the top of my head #im sure ill make a real post abt npd lawrence + saw 3D + npd mark another time #larry.txt

[thefinalvoid]

ooh tell me about julianne!

Julianne has gone through so much change but im really vibing with her current characterization!

She and Riley are old childhood friends, and Julianne largely defines herself by her friendship with Riley. Both of them have pretty absent parents, and when Julianne lost her leg while she and Riley were exploring an abandoned building when they were younger Riley was really the only person who comforted her. So, when he becomes invested in Iseul's life (and Myrtle's life to an extent) she feels really threatened. Especially beacuse while both Julianne and Iseul want to protect Riley, Julianne's protection is very show-y "im going to wrestle with Myrtle and shout at her and ultimately accomplish nothing but it looks like im fighting" whereas Iseul actually recognizes what is threatening Riley and actually solving the problem where it needs to be fixed, which often involves talking to people and just understanding why theyre bothering Riley. Julianne doesnt believe in that, as her other defining character trait is her Religion, and she is very strongly devoted to her religion. She fully believes that She (and by extension Riley) are personally Blessed and Protected by Proxima, despite having no real evidence. However her views on her religion are largely defined by what the priest dude has told her about Proxima. A lot of which is just flat out false. This does result in her feud with Myrtle, who is very critical of the main religion (which is so pervasive that it generally is assumed to be the norm and doesnt have an official name in-universe) and studies the Old Gods. This is generally accepted to be a heretic trait and is frowned upon. Julianne takes this to the next level, outright calling Myrtle a heretic and threatening to kill her. Riley really doesnt like this though, so Julianne never actually kills Myrtle. Noteably, Julianne gets worse before she gets better. Once Riley is fed up with Julianne's shit and unfriends her, Julianne goes into the deep end of religion and holds nothing back and genuinely tries to kill Myrtle. Specifically with the sword that she was "given" from Proxima. Now, the sword is from Proxima, but it wasnt meant for Julianne. Julianne was never the first into a new room in the ruins, but after an argument she went into the next room to decompress. This just so happened to be the sword room. It makes sense that she went in this room as it is heavily decorated with Proxima memorabilia, as is the sword, so it largely makes sense that she would take the sword.

Now, in the first genuine fight between Julianne and Myrtle reveals that they are both incapable of dying. While the specifics are unclear, it cements in Julianne's mind that she can have the Priest dude undergo the same thing that Myrtle did, but in a holy and sacrificial way rather than the heretic way Myrtle did. She starts taking more agency in her her own story, shes the one who tells the priest he should do whst myrtle did, she instigates most of the fights with Myrtle, and eventually she decides to learn more about Proxima (who really actually doesnt like Julianne at first) when Julian e does finally turn to good, she does it not to show off, but because she genuinely doesnt want to see the people she cares about get hurt. And when she finally cares about Myrtle she does a lot of things for Myrtle that wont be noticed by Myrtle. While shes still loud and showy, shes careful about it. Myrtle needs someone who drags her into public situations or shed loose her connections to others entirely, and Julianne knows she can get her out with a sparring session. Then Julianne can get Myrtle involved in other situations and thus Myrtle is overall better-off. This is Julianne making sure Myrtle is okay, whereas before she would just be like "fuck you me and riley are blessed!" Which... means nothing to Riley and he actively dislikes.

Uh yeah thats julianne :)

[adversityfought-a]

             ( ★ )          𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍𝐒.   /   𝐍𝐒𝐅𝐖. 𝟐 / ?

-`ˏ @megalcmania​ ˎ´- Favorite type, looks and personality wise? Please specify the trait. What’s your character’s favorite kink? Lingerie? Yes or no? Or specify the lingerie piece. ...for science reasons.

There's not just a single type that draws him in  -  usually it's an odd collection of traits or little quirks that catch his attention  &  keep him lured if that makes sense? Like the way they smile or how their lips curve, the look their eyes get or how they express emotion  -  personality too has to be a big thing to draw him in or else you could be attractive as all hell, but unless you manage to capture his attention in some way to keep him invested beyond just being 'pretty'  &  'shiny', he'll quickly lose interest.

Once his attention is captured, he'll start to notice the more physical traits, observe them in detail. While he'll still love the sight of a smile on someone's face, his mind'll wander  &  wonder just how it'd look in less than innocent situations,  &  what other sounds can be made. Eyes are a big thing for him too  -  he enjoys being able to see the deep myriad of emotions in them when theyre being intimate, the playfulness leading up to the more heated deed  &  the anticipation that buds when he catches the tell-tale sparks of interest or want.

He generally goes for others that challenge him  -  can vary between bratty / submissive types, or the more dominant types that push him while keeping him firmly invested through banter or challenging taunts  &  shared flirtations. It amuses him but also prickles at his more playful nature, which is a thing he loves. He also enjoys it more when he knows he has some sort of an effect on the other person  -  but for the most part, just poking him back with snark or being confident helps to garner his interest.

Physical wise! His type fluctuates  -  usually he only cares about appearance after,  &  though he's not too picky, he has noticed he has a tendency to drift towards those with striking eyes. For men? They can be either larger than him or smaller, but he will find himself staring a bit longer if they're more athletic in build. For women, it's a bit of a mixed bag. He finds himself drawn to stronger women who take no bullshit, so them being built or having some muscle makes him go awooga. Anything on the softer side for either gender triggers his need to shower in affection though, so, do with that what you will. ( someone poked fun at him liking blondes  &  maybe having a glasses kink cause of ye ol mystery  &  I'm snorting so hard but hi I can't unsee it now.  -  GLARES @  WESKER, DARCK god im so sorry ahahah  &  KARL )

As far as kinks go? He doesn’t fuck around all that often but when he does, it’s usually a heavily trust bound kinda thing. He is a big fan of anything with restraints  -  ropes, handcuffs  -  just anything where he or his partner can be restrained  &  edging or anything with a power play can be explored. But in all honestly! It's a huge a tie between sensation play  &  bondage though. He enjoys the trust that comes from them,  &  whether it's on the giving or receiving end of it, there's some satisfaction gained from knowing it's a shared thing.

HOO BOY  -  short answer? Yes. But long answer? It's complicated  &  depends on his partner  &  how it's brought up initially. He leans towards yes territory for it though, because on one hand, I feel like he wouldn't be too against it again if it gets a strong reaction from his partner, plus he knows how he looks  -  is confident enough in that aspect that he could possibly pull whatever it is off  &  muscle through the embarrassment enough to rock it. He wouldn't be the first to suggest it though, but he wouldn't be against it overall if it's requested. He just hopes his partner isn't put off by all the scars though...

#-`ˏ ★ ˎ´- ─ HEADCANONS. #-`ˏ ★ ˎ´- ─ NOT SFW. / SUGGESTIVE. #❝ Twisted hands casting all our blame . We got lost in our broken ways. ❞ . ( MEGALCMANIA )

[little-elenaarchive]

Why do you play Elena with so many negative aspects. She's a really nice girl and you play her like she's some judgemental arrogant person who always has to be right and causes more trouble than helps anything. She's the main character because shes really sweet and nice. In your carrd you have so many bad traits listed in her personality. Why? If you don't like Elena why do you write her? I love seeing your stuff as Elena but you make her sound mean sometimes.

Sorry it took me a few days to get to this, I was busy rip.

First of all, thank you for actually reading my Carrd, bc theres more on there than just your standard bio, so its cool that someone actually read it.

Second-

I love Elena. (At least s1-s3) She is a wonderful and complex character that I highly enjoy exploring and writitng. However part of what makes her complex is her terrible qualities. I do not write Elena as anything other than what I see displayed on the show. All of those character traits are canon to who she is as a person. Even my stuff about her mental health is seen in the show and refrenced in the first two seasons a lot.

Elena is a wonderful kind, and caring girl who would do anything for her friends, youre right shes very sweet.... but shes also manipulative, selfish, HIGHLY JUDGEMENTAL, arrogant, and at times just a bitch. All of these things are true, and its all of those qualities that make her so much fun for me to write. Any character thats all one thing gets so BORING to not only write but SEE after a while.

Elena is very much so like Katherine in a LOT of ways, they are exact copies of each other thats the nature of doppelgangers, the differences happen in the way their lives have steered them and amplified which traits to become dominant. Theyre ALL still there. Elena just got the opportunity and support to have her positive personality traits be amplified more than her negative ones... but theyre still very much so there. Elena is not an angel (excluding book Elena apparently???) and pretending she is takes a lot away from her character.

So to answer your question "Why do you play Elena with so many negative aspects" it's because I refuse to pretend and portray her as something shes not. Im glad you like seeing my stuff and I hope this answered your question and put it into a better perspective for you.

#answered #anon