#no two characters have actually impacted my worldview so much
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I shouldn't be this deeply invested or high hopes about the RE universe, but I read that post about unkilling Wesker in the remakes and the part about Ada being inspired by Leon and I just can't help but side eye them if that's the route they take.
I like her, always have, but christ will she ever become her own character? She's a grown woman, older than him and an arc that's all "Oh, well our hero is just super super heroic so this one woman who's profiting from dodgy business from the beginning had a change of heart because of him and nobody else. Yeah. We decided she should still completely lack agency. We'll pretend she's miss independent by giving her a zipslide weapon or wahtever, but literally everything she thinks and does is decided by the men she's surrounded with", and I'm supposed to swallow that pill without tasting misogyny whatsoever. I've said it before, but for Ada to ever truly live up to her promised name and potential, she needs a story separate from Leon entirely. She needs her own agency and her own arc. She needs to actually exist as a full person outside of a ship, but I also recognise that myself and other fans are just... expecting way too much.
There ARE good female characters with decent backgrounds and fair stories. Those are Claire, Jill, Sherry, Ashley(sort of), Moira and Natalia. It's just sad that they don't really seem to recieve the same response, though maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. Even Claire, who's had an entire two campaigns to herself, who actually saved Sherry, has a whole ass story behind the scenes, is seemingly only mentioned when paired up with Leon... it's a stupid grievance, but it's all deeply seeped with raging misogyny and it often gets on my nerves. What are your thoughts?
No, I disagree; that's a bad call. Cutting her off from him is a horrible idea for the way the story has already been written. They've already gone through 2R and 4R with Ada's character arc still tied to Leon. If they were to completely sever her arc from his character now, that would still be terrible character writing, just in a different way. She still needs to close out that arc with him and achieve catharsis from it in some way. Otherwise, it makes the first two full game titles she was in completely pointless.
This is why I said that if I were to rewrite Ada's character myself exactly how I wanted her, I'd swap Leon and Claire's campaigns in RE2. I'd put Leon in charge of Sherry and the Birkin family drama and have Claire deal with Ada. Not only does that service Ada's character, but it also makes more sense narratively in general -- since Sherry is such a huge part of Leon's character arc when she's not really for Claire, and Chris's sister would be dealing with Wesker's spy.
But that's not how it happened, so we need to look at what the story is actually doing and analyze it from there.
As the Remakes stand now, there is still an opportunity for them to do more with Ada. Just because Remake Ada is inspired by Leon doesn't mean that she can't exist without him. Every story and every dynamic character arc needs an inciting incident. There's actually a literary term for what Leon is for Ada, especially in the context of Remake: he's her impact character.
The simplest definition I can give is that an impact character is someone who challenges another character's worldview and forces them to re-examine their ideology. Different characters can impact different other characters at varying points of the story, but the idea behind this is that their impact has a direct and relevant effect on the character's trajectory, which in turn helps shape the entire story.
All dynamic characters are affected by impact characters at some point (that's what makes them dynamic rather than flat) -- including protagonists. Leon and Ada are that for each other. Ada teaches Leon that his sense of justice is naive and somewhat childish and that the real world isn't so nice, and Leon teaches Ada to question what it is that she's fighting for.
That doesn't mean that those two can't be impacted by anyone or anything else, though.
We've already seen this happen with Remake Leon. Ada is just his first impact character. Krauser is his second.
Ada forces Leon to change how he looks at the world, but Krauser completely changes how Leon views himself. Leon killing Krauser in RE4make is a huge moment for his character because, prior to that happening, Leon still views himself as being different from the people who lie and betray and kill and get so focused on their own goals that they don't care who gets caught in the crossfire.
He isn't. If he was, he wouldn't have been able to drive a knife through his teacher's heart for the sake of finishing his mission; he would've still tried to help save him in some way.
Leon isn't just mourning Krauser when he almost cries after the fact -- he's mourning himself; he's mourning the last little piece of innocence that he was still holding onto -- that last little bit of naivety that allowed him to believe that there was still an Objective Moral Good -- that there were still such things as Good Guys and Bad Guys.
That's why the trophy/achievement you get after that boss fight is "You used to be a good guy!"
Who's "you" in this context? Is it Krauser? Or is it Leon?
This is also why it's so important that they changed Krauser's character from "guy who went a little nutty and decided to slob on Wesker's knob" to "guy who was betrayed by the government who was supposed to take care of him even though he did literally nothing wrong and is now just trying to reclaim some sense of safety and autonomy and purpose in his life" but that's a whole separate post on its own.
Anyway, the point is --
There's nothing that says that they can't do the same for Ada. She can still have a second impact character come into her storyline.
They still need to have Leon and Ada's connection pay off in some way and provide catharsis, but as of the moment of writing, there's nothing that says that Leon is the only avenue for Ada's character to be impacted and/or that she can't go on to have meaning and grow in a context divorced from him.
It's too late for OG Ada. It's not too late for Remake Ada. But Capcom needs to have the balls to do it.
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Thank you so much for the Jason review rec list! It motivates me to start reading his comics, tbh. It helps tremendously that you put so many details of his characterization in it, because it prepares me of the way hes written in it! :D I do have a question, which is: in your opinion, which of runs have the most consistent writing/characterization? Ive heard that hes written.. very inconsistently bcs they dont know how to write him (wont let him be an anti-hero or challenge batman, which also brings me to another question on what counts as his true characterization; is it him before the n52 reboot?) Thank you!
I'm really glad to hear that! I hope you have lots of fun exploring Jason comics :D
Wow are both of those questions very difficult to answer! But I shall do my best to under the cut!
Most runs are very internally consistent with regards to his characterization. Jason will stay mostly the same throughout the run, or have an actual character arc that keeps him feeling like the same character throughout.
Batman and Robin (2009) is a notable because Jason is written by two different authors in it, and Grant Morrison's Jason and Judd Winick's Jason have very different vibes.
What people usually mean when they say he's written inconsistently is that every author has a different take on what Jason should be like, and they all have a different idea about what kind of story they want to tell using him.
Judd Winick read Hush and thought something along the lines of "Wow this story would have been so much better if Jason had actually been the one behind everything that happened here!" and so he wrote Under the Red Hood, and made Jason into Evil Batman: someone with all of Batman's methods and techniques, yet without the commitment not to kill and with a serious thirst for vengeance.
Grant Morrison wanted a much more traditional Batman villain. Villains who blame Bruce for all their problems despite Bruce not actually being at fault and then killing people about it are pretty common. Morrison took that idea and used Jason to fit this mold in a new era where Bruce was gone and Dick Grayson took up the Batman mantle.
Scott Lobdell wanted a story about redemption and healing and family. So Jason gets repeatedly paired with other people to care for or to love and shown parallels in his own life that force him to confront his own unwillingness to forgive and become a much, much gentler person.
The authors of The Man Who Stopped Laughing were faced with the challenge of finding a suitable antagonist for the Joker. Jason is a character with enough of a violent streak to actually be menacing to the embodiment of all evil that is the Joker. But that requires bringing out that murderous streak, and thereby countering Lobdell's characterization.
Which of these is the true characterization?
None of them.
All of them.
One True Characterization can't exist in comics. Especially not DC comics which has a policy of almost routinely destroying their entire multiverse and building it back up from scratch.
Every character's personality is an aggregate of all the different stories that have been told about them. Those stories are told by dozens of different people, in a constantly shifting setting, full of characters who are also written by dozens of different people. What is and isn't canon changes constantly. All you can do is read a bunch of comics and get the general vibe of a character from that.
Jason's characterizations in particular have been so widely different that it's hard to figure out what exactly you should count as being true to him.
The reason many people may point to pre-new52 comics as 'true' characterization is that an important part of characterizing is keeping in mind the events the character has gone through and how those might impact their thinking and worldview. During the time span of around 1980-2009 DC comics were written such that it was pretty easy to make a timeline of events for any given character. Post-new52 I and many others find it nearly impossible to tell what history any of the characters have.
In between 2009 and now there have been at least two or three reboots. So, for any comic passed 2009 here is a list of questions about Jason that I can't answer:
Has Jason ever been to prison?
Did Jason fight Tim in Titan's Tower?
Was the Red Robin identity originally held by Jason?
Did Jason ever attempt to be Batman?
Has Jason actually stabbed Tim before?
Did Jason ever shoot Damian and Dick?
Does Jason remember the time he spent multiverse hopping with Donna Troy and Kyle Raynor?
Did he ever have tentacles?
Does he know that Dick has killed people? For that matter: Has Dick killed anyone?? Did Blockbuster ever exist??? Is that time he killed the Joker counted as canon still????
Did Jason ever kidnap Mia Dearden?
How many people has Jason killed? I can't even tell you if he's killed less or more than 100
Did the All-Caste thing happen?? Did Lost Days happen???
Was he involved in Hush?
These are really important questions! The list does not stop there either!
This uncertainty does not invalidate the newer comics, but the nature of the reboots does mean that the already difficult task of getting a 'true Jason' is impossible. You have to take every reboot as a reboot, meaning that new-52 Jason and Rebirth Jason and 2005-2009 Jason are literally alternate universe versions of each other. This is both true on a meta level, and has been written into the canon of the fictional world he lives in. Arguing that one is more real than the other is futile.
(Though it does mean that if you want a stable timeline, starting with 2005-2009 era comics is a good idea. It's easier to follow along with what is supposed to have happened and when. It also contains the majority of the events that fandom likes to play off of.)
The versions I like best reside mostly in the 2005-2009 era, and that's true for most of the other Jason fans that I follow on Tumblr, but I know of a few blogs who much prefer Rebirth Jason and neither of us can definitively prove that one Jason or the other is more valid or canon or true or whatever.
Most arguments about which Jason is the true Jason will just come down to personal preference anyways. Many, many people could write essays, pulling up sources and comic panels, to argue very effectively that I'm wrong about Brothers In Blood and Batman and Robin (2009) #1-#6 being in character for him. That's okay. It's cool even! The fact that he is messy and complicated and can be interpreted so many different ways is great! As you read, you'll find out which versions appeal to you best and they might be very different than mine!
My biggest advice is to read each author's rendition of Jason with an open mind, and an open heart, and just see if you like it!
Don't worry about searching out the real Jason. Just vibe with the stories that have been made about him and think about how each appeals or doesn't appeal to you. If you start reading, you'll develop an understanding of him. Your personal interactions with the art/stories will always be more valuable than figuring out the fan or authorial consensus about him.
#jason todd#damian's tomfoolery#Hope this answers things satisfactorily anon!#And thank you for the ask :3 I like rambling about blorbo and comics!
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Throughout the month of December, I’m going to be making several Exile Arc essays to explore my favourite arc in all of media, ever, and as a celebration of its two year anniversary! This essay is about hypothesising what Dream wanted Tommy as an ally for. Obviously, everything here is to do with the RP characters. Discussion of abuse in detail is inevitable, along with suicide, kidnapping, torture, mental health issues, and self harm, so be warned. And without further adieu, onto the essay!
——
While Exile Arc as a whole is a massively impactful part of Dream and Tommy's stories, and one that can’t be overstated, it’s also a very mysterious one to some degree. What happened is common knowledge, and easily accessible by watching the streams, but something that isn’t is motivation.
Even Tommy himself is somewhat unclear here, and an unreliable narrator to himself, denying his own feelings and making errors due to stress, but that’s something that can easily be seen through. But as for Dream… his motives for committing such a heinous, calculated, and prolonged act remain somewhat a mystery.
We know, through confirmation on Twitter, that Dream enjoyed the power trip it gave him, and that he wanted Tommy to think of him as a friend so he could use him as an ally. We see signs that Exile was planned weeks in advance, Dream framing Tommy for crimes, exaggerating the damage on George's house, and pushing for an exile only he seemed to want even before the Spirit thing. So why was Dream so insistent? What did he need Tommy for?
Well, that’s not something I can answer in full without this essay getting extremely long, and I do have something else planned about why Dream targets Tommy specifically and the complexity of their relationship that often goes overlooked. But I do have a theory on what Dream needed an ally for. Actually, I have a few, but there’s one I believe to be the most likely as of the finale streams, and I’ll be exploring my conclusions, the evidence for them, and what I believe this says about Dream, Tommy, Exile, and their arcs as a whole today!
Theories about the purpose of Exile have been floating around since the event itself, and there’s many common ones that have proven to be inaccurate. Some believed it was to get Tommy out of the way or dispose of him, but the fact Dream explicitly wanted him on his side and conditioned him into dependence renders that improbable- why would he make Tommy rely on him if he wanted Tommy out of the way? Others assumed it was for sheer cruelty, but while Exile was cruel and cruelty was part of the point, it was calculated for a goal.
Before the reveal of the Staged Finale, the hypothesis that seemed the most supported was that Dream was going to eventually move Tommy to the prison, due to him seeing him as the key to the server and a useful tool. While the latter bit isn’t entirely inaccurate- I'll be exploring how Dream as a character tends to reveal truths about his worldview accidentally in his lies in a later essay- it has become clear that, at least by the time of the Disc Finale the prison wasn’t for Tommy.
I don’t think it's impossible that Dream considered putting him in there at some point- the fact that the prison was built around the same time as Exile and it containing many of Tommy's known triggers seems a bit too much of a happy accident to be entirely coincidental. Still, I think this is an unlikely reasoning for Exile with the knowledge we have now, though it certainly has more evidence than the first three theories I brought up.
However, once the Staged Finale was revealed, along with confirmation that Dream intended on making Tommy an ally, I started to develop a new theory. Specifically, that Dream wanted Tommy to serve as a spy on the outside while he was in prison. Punz is a good warrior, but is fairly solitary, while Tommy has close ties to the majority of the server and is incredibly perceptive and surprisingly intelligent even if he’s not book smart.
If Tommy played along with the Staged Finale, both he and Punz would have a lot of suspicion off their back, and Tommy would likely be able to influence Sam into making the prison conditions less harsh, along with visiting frequently. Plus, any injuries and damage from Exile- which almost certainly existed, which is something else I plan to cover at some point- would only serve to make the server trust him more, and see him as harmless in a way Punz couldn’t be. If Punz was to be Dream's sword, Tommy would be the dagger.
However, this theory also has problems. Namely, the idea of Dream going through with the Staged Finale if one of the most important variables he needed wasn’t under control like he planned. Dream is often a surprisingly impulsive and reckless character- he's a lot like Tommy, actually!- but he’s also a clever schemer, and would know better than to risk so much when the plan had basically already unravelled at the seams. It’s still not impossible, after all, anyone can make mistakes and it certainly would explain Dream specifically focusing so hard on making Tommy trust him and rely on him, but as of the finale I don’t believe this to be the most likely motivation at this point.
No, what I think Dream wanted is for Tommy to join him on the revival experiments.
You might wonder why I believe that if Punz is already an ally there, but I have several reasons. For one, Punz is in a fairly risky job, and even if he wasn’t there’s safety in redundancy. If there’s two of them, all it takes is two bad accidents to undo everything they’ve done- with three, that’s much less unlikely. In addition, it’d allow them further research that can’t be done with two people- how would their limbos interact? Could they revive each other while in limbo? The possibilities are expanded a great deal, and each one brings them closer to immortality. And, well- Punz is there of his own free will. If he wanted to leave, he could. Meanwhile, Dream had tried to completely erode Tommy's free will in exile. It’d ensure he'd have no way to turn the power against him like Punz theoretically could, and as such Dream could guarantee no matter what he’d always have someone to bring him back.
Now that I’ve established that, what’s the evidence? Well, for one, I think the amount of times Dream's specifically offered Tommy immortality is definitely suspect. While, of course, these are also to torment him, the fact that Dream has used that against him more than anything makes me think it’s more than an idle threat. Specifically, it was Dream and Punz's wording on how they’d kill everyone on the server except those who joined them that made me think this was, in some way, a genuine offer. As later, that whole plan was presumably proven to be a lie (unless Dream didn’t care about destroying the universe if it got him friends), the only reason to say that was specifically to allow Clingyduo a chance to join them.
Secondly, there’s the way Dream treated Tommy's lives. He was uncaring when Tommy took damage, but he was furious at the idea of Tommy taking his own life. The latter reason is obvious- as Tommy stated, Dream doesn’t want him dead for many complicated reasons- but the former is interesting, as it heavily implies that Dream may have been planning to use the revive book if/when Tommy died in exile, which would be a perfect opportunity to hold it over his head as a saviour and to introduce the concept of the experiments to him. Something that wouldn’t work if Tommy WANTED to be dead.
Additionally, this would mesh very logically with the aforementioned Staged Finale theory! It’d be less risky to go ahead with the plan if he was intending on inducting Tommy when he was trapped in lockdown with him due to the prison bombing, though he underestimated how Tommy wouldn't simply fall back into his Exile-era subservience. It’d also mesh with him perhaps staging the finale to make sure eyes were off Punz- both he and Tommy wouldn’t be under suspicion, and they could continue the experiments safely for as long as they needed. And since the prison was used as a lab for these experiments before, it’d make sense if that was part of it the whole time!
While I plan on leaving the impacts of exile on both Dream and Tommy to two separate essays for each of them- because I could go on for hundreds of paragraphs- I think this essay would be incomplete without a small examination of what this theory- if true- would impact their characters.
Dream's very much a character who operates off twisted compassion, and he's basically what could happen if an all-loving hero was warped into something twisted and evil, and I think this would compliment it quite well. Immortality is something he sees as a gift, and as an intensely curious man knowledge is it’s own reward. In his head, “allowing” Tommy into his circle of Gods might seem an act of compassion- but like most of Dream's attempts at helping, it simply causes more pain and suffering.
Meanwhile, Tommy would be facing an even worse fate than expected. After all, Tommy would never want to become a God. He's deeply religious towards Church Prime, and would likely view such a thing as blasphemy- and even if he didn’t, Tommy HATES being in the spotlight. Being important is a curse that has been foisted upon his shoulders, and he’d much rather be invisible than a hero. Being immortal itself as an idea broke Tommy to the point he grew addicted to potions and hid underground for months- but being forced into Godhood, into commiting and being the subject of cruel experiments… there isn’t anything he’d despise more, I don’t think.
Anyway, what are your thoughts? Feel free to share- I love talking about Exile in any context and I’d love to hear other peoples opinions! I hope you enjoyed me talking about my special interest haha.
#dream smp#dsmp#dream smp analysis#exile arc#primeboys (derogatory)#tw abuse#tw human experimentation#tw referenced suicide#tw kidnapping
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(i forgot that editing asks was broken and saved this to my drafts, where i now cannot finish it.)
so my take is actually that one in fact Cannot set john adams's surprise appearance aside because it is one of two (2) decisions within that episode (more to come hopefully?) that makes the whole debacle work narratively for oscar — as opposed to work narratively solely for the upcoming change in the brook + van rhijn family dynamic, which was the broader objective that required oscar losing the family fortune and which would have been served no matter the means of said loss. (the other decision is oscar's conversation with george which makes me want to die so i'm not going to go in depth on that one!)
but this is a great opportunity to share the conclusion of the maud post series i was writing about what i Did want to happen — and THE most important caveat i can give before sharing this is that i was operating under the real life assumption that john adams would not be coming back in season 2.
below content from past me 😌 (strikethrough and [brackets] are present me)
Especially after 2.06, with our first main instance of behavior from Maud that is notably out of the ordinary enough that it's worthy of comment from another character, I don't really think it's unlikely that this turns out just to be a scam that Maud was in on from the beginning. If we give the show the burden of proof to show that Maud is telling the truth, and that Maud's connections are not limited only to the characters we see on screen, it's easy to create a thread between her interactions that leads to her actions being ultimately to defraud Oscar.
To me, the narrative & character impact of a total scam (company is fake, takeover is fake, Maud and Crowther are fake/lying) is:
Oscar never had a chance with Maud to begin with (and by pursuing her lost time in which he could have been pursuing another girl)
Oscar expresses (some degree of) honesty and vulnerability with another person and has it used against him / is punished for it
Similar to what @likehandlingroses pointed out this morning, Oscar is doing what is expected of him by his social peers and superiors and placing his trust in them, and taking for granted that the information they give him is true and to his benefit without further critical thinking — and getting seriously burned by that. That could significantly impact his worldview and teach him the necessary lesson that his society is not invested in his well-being and safety, buuuuut it could also just put him in a position where he can abdicate personal responsibility. Everyone thought Maud was what he thought she was, so how much can he be blamed for seeing her that way?
Oscar loses money from a foolish and hubristic financial decision, and could have continued his life unaffected if he had stayed out of it
Oscar is seen, successfully, as susceptible to scamming by another person/group of people by tempting him with a pretty girl — this would follow 2.01, where we had narrative confirmation that Oscar is seen, successfully, as easy to deceive specifically by feigning interest in him as another man / likewise, Oscar is a genuine actual victim of another person/group of people for the second time this season
We do not know what was or was not true about Maud other than that her interest in Oscar was not intended to be genuine
This is the least telegraphed (as of 2.06) storyline of season 2 if not the show as a whole, and demonstrates a departure from the usual JFCU style — in that the story relies on the audience having outside knowledge to really predict what is happening
I really don't like the combination of the first two! I think that is a serious setback in Oscar's character development, and it pushes him in the opposite direction that he needs to go. Oscar does NOT need to learn the lesson that making himself vulnerable to others and approaching them in good faith leads to ruin. Everything about him screams that he already sees everything that way; this result confirms his world view and discourages him from taking any steps to grow as a person. It puts him back to his own square one and reinforces the beliefs that are making his life difficult. He can't let anyone know any truth about him or what he wants; he needs material wealth and power to be happy; he needs to be more calculated and cautious and second-guess the intentions of others.
I simply don't think Oscar has the emotional maturity at this time to independently get from point A to point B on how to care about and invest in other people without getting hurt in this kind of plotline. He thought he was paying attention to Maud and her circumstances; how could he pay more attention? And the only way it would matter if he had paid more attention is if it made him see the scam, but if he didn't know what to look for then he wouldn't have done that, so his hands were tied, etc. There's room to see error but not room for improvement. How does he know what he needs to do next time?
I do not see a narratively coherent path forward for him after that (other than perhaps a very unhappy, guarded attempt 3 at finding a wife or giving up entirely) (his whole life being ruined and losing everything he has both materially and immaterially is not narratively coherent for my purposes here), because this outcome doesn't really encourage him to think about what he does have control over and how he can change his behavior for genuinely different results.
3 & 5 are really the only points that genuinely interest me and that I can see serving the broader story, but I also don't really think they're exclusive to this outcome.
I just really don't think that (given the information I currently have) it is the most compelling way to serve Oscar's story and narrative, nor Maud's for that matter. If Maud is "just" a con artist, we lose the information that gave her depth and humanity because it becomes untrue, which reduces the dimension of her character. (As an audience member I care more about characters who have confirmed character traits and are not lying to me the entire time!)
As I said in the previous post, even if all the information we have been given [about Maud, Crowther, the railway takeover] is true and as it is shown to the audience, it is STILL a series of bad decisions from Oscar, and it can still lead us to the same place of Oscar becoming bankrupt — all roads lead to Van Rhijn family financial issues to create a power shift between Ada and Agnes — and potentially losing Maud.
But unlike "it was a scam all along and Oscar shouldn't have involved himself at all", it does so in a way that is:
An expansion of multiple concepts introduced but mainly glossed over in the previous season, such as illegitimacy
An alignment of Maud's motivations for her behavior with Oscar's: obligations to their families
An exploration of 1880s business practices - a portrayal of how shady methods of doing business today that throw many red flags to a modern audience was business as usual for robber barons and indeed critical to their accumulation of immense wealth
Justifying Maud's screentime that demonstrates her consideration and concerns about Oscar's motives and reveals that she is operating on a broader moral framework, and tying her actions in to the broader narrative themes around how and why women married at this time in American history — if Maud is only scamming him, the only narrative purpose of these scenes is to mislead, and I would rather have not had that and gotten to see something else either about Maud that better set up her intentions or see more of another plotline that didn't have as much screentime
Oscar making a series of social and financial choices that lead to an undesirable outcome, when he could have made different choices at any point with the possibility of a desirable outcome that would move him closer to his goals / what he thinks his goals are (rather than just the possibility of not having the undesirable outcome) — but because of both his greed and his fear of discovery, he was taking only the information that he wanted to be true, making assumptions based on it, and ignoring information that might make a more thoughtful person think twice
More specifically, he loses money from foolish financial decisions that he makes out of hubris, but he alone is responsible for sabotaging his chance to achieve his goals.
Oscar, again, ~making a series of social and financial choices~, that are in line with goals established for him in the first season — involvement and prominence in new money society — and that prove that at the current time he is unequipped to move within and keep up with the community he wants to be in, which plays by different rules. (This doesn't work as well if this isn't Actually a new money scheme with Actual new money stakeholders and is just generic fraud.)
Consistent with the style of storytelling we see in the rest of the show, where we usually have indicators of some kind about a character's true motivations from very early in their inclusion in the story (compare Maud to Turner, our primary schemey character, who was framed in a suspicious way from day one)
above content from past me 😌
rereading all this... honestly, i do have reservations about where oscar will go from here! as well as distaste for certain choices made, such as bringing in a female character who could be ~complex and interesting~ and reducing her dimension to be more of a plot tool than a realistic person. i do not vibe with maud as a disposable character and also i think that crowther and maud are both unrealistically good actors for this gig — people keep talking about anna sorokin and cassie chadwick and like, yes they were successful scammers but also we have evidence they were unliked and at least some people thought they were fishy social climbers. this could have been avoided by having literally Any scene before 2.06 give the impression maud might be deceptive. it means the plot is kind of an outlier in terms of the audience feeling like they're in on the story — i know a lot of people thought maud was scamming oscar, but frankly some of the most outspoken justification for that was not based on what we had seen in the story so much as. how those people feel about oscar (no shade to anyone on tumblr. lots of shade to people on other websites). it's just really not my preferred storytelling vehicle. (not saying it's bad or people are wrong for liking it. i specifically do not like it.)
but most importantly, i want oscar to stay on the show, and i don't want his life to effectively be over — that can be great fun in various alternate universes one might consider, but it would not work for me in the actual show. they have already set up the consequences for behavior like oscar's in this series, and those consequences are death (patrick morris) and impoverished ostracization (collyer/watson). i don't want either of those things for oscar, especially when they have greatly expanded his role this season and evolved his relationships with marian, ada, and aurora. (this could have happened with the alternative, though.)
HOWEVER. as i wrote in this other post, and also the oscar van rhijn lily bart parallels post, they averted the narrative consequence i was most afraid of resulting from this plotline by having oscar go to john pretty much immediately! instead of teaching him he can't be vulnerable and honest with Anyone, he instead remembers and prioritizes that he does have someone who, he thinks, might care, and with whom he can really be honest and himself. that changes the entire tone and clarifies the story they are trying to tell in a way that did not seem possible to me if john isn't coming back.
in addition to that the george thing successfully replaces item #7 in my second numbered list above, and if on the very off chance maud comes back we have a chance to get #4 and perhaps #2 and a negation of my rant two and a half paragraphs ago. inb4 maud shows up in 2.08 back from newport where her for real aunt was for real sick and she got scammed too or something. my only preferable alternative to list 2 #6 will be if they do list 1 #3 well, and i am hopeful that they will (albeit not yet Convinced they will) based on the scene with oscar confronting aurora.
and while i do not Want a social ostracization plot. i must admit i could change my mind about that if it involves john and oscar getting back together. but that means they need to stay on the show, which means oscar needs to retain relationships with other characters.
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I agree about your two last asks regarding gojo. I can understand how op characters might struggle to connect with other people, but this character trope has been done so many times, that I don’t believe it’s impossible for them to actually find a connection with someone who’s just an ordinary person. Gojo has always had the ability to make that connection with other people, he just didn’t believe it’s possible for him, because yknow he’s sooooo above them *eye roll*... I don’t hate or even dislike how gojos arc was executed, cause the set up was there. Gege was always open about what kind of person gojo is and just how flawed his philosophy was. So narrative and characterisation wise, his arc makes sense. I DO think it’s a well executed arc. The only thing that personally bothers me is that… I really liked gojo for his flaws, but in the end they don’t actually seem to matter, because they were never really challenged (?) he got out of his box, he didn't give much of a reaction to his plans completely falling apart right in front of him (which… fine ok I guess he always had other priorities) or didn't even acknowledge megumi's situation beyond what it meant for the fight, went to have a fun fight, had fun and died. The end. so, at least to me, it feels like he completely got away with dealing with any consequences of his actions. They don’t matter anymore, his character reach his final destination. so as much as l genuinely appreciated gojo for his flaws… I don’t know how to feel about his character now. Right now, he’s just an overpowered guy who’s been struggling with an identity crisis for the past decade, until a stronger and smarter guy showed up (smarter because well… he kinda did outsmart him in the end) and gave him an answer by dethroning him of his title of the strongest (aka brutally murdering him). so all in all… his arc feels quite underwhelming… I mean it’s a good arc, but I wasn’t blown away lol there wasn’t much of an emotional impact for me AND THERE COULDVE BEEN, cause there are things gege could’ve tackled and developed better, but that’s on me I guess. I too in a way fell for the hype of gojo satoru, so I did end up having some expectations. I can only be glad that my actual fav here (Sukuna) has still place in the narrative and gege has kept his symbolism and philosophy rather tightly guarded, which doesn’t really leave us much room for expectations, since there’s very little we know about him. Honestly I’m just happy that the plot can finally (hopefully) move forward.
yes to everything. thank you for writing this <3
i also appreciate gojou for his flaws because i also thought something would be done with them narratively. i would've also preferred if his worldview got challenged actually and if he had to actually deal with the consequences of his actions a beliefs. now the kids will have to.
i wonder what this story would've been like if gege didn't decide to speed run it at some point. i wish i knew why they want to finish is as quickly as possible so badly.
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The new chapter is amazing!✨️
My girl Nobara is finally here! ✨️✨️✨️And the way she appeared too, very fitting for her. Poor Higurama is not prepared for this.
The fight was amazing! I really liked how Nanami had to confront his previous view of the world, had to look at his past at a corporate job without any close friends and realize that he could have ended up like Higurama. I just really love character foils and you really know how to write them!💖
Their conversation was heavy... It's a subject I tend to think about a lot and seeing it discussed through a fight was interesting in a good way. I really like how you bring meaning to the battles between characters. The fact that Nanami won the battle made me feel hopeful, even though Higurama is not yet ready to accept hope or reflect on his words.
The fact that until the end Nanami had no idea who Higurami worked for was very funny. InIaughed out loud when he said that the only thing Toji is against is paying taxes.
Poor Geto, it would be really tragic for him if it wasn't funny and also his fault. He should really upgrade those communication skills, maybe call his husband while he's at it. Higurama is right, it's not his fault that Geto never gave him a list of all the people he pretends to hate but actually doesn't smh.
I think this ask is very long and I have to study for uni🥲 so I will stop writing now. This chapter gave me feelings I didn't knew existed and I am excited to see what will happen next!💖
yayy i'm glad you liked it!! nobara is here!!! higuruma is indeed nowhere near ready for our girl to literally come crashing into his life. poor guy. law school did NOT prepare him for this
character foils are so fun to write and explore! these two especially have a lot of nuance. nanami and higuruma have such opposing worldviews and i wanted to portray how much they challenge each other. i think bringing meaning into fight scenes is what gives them so much power and impact -- which i may talk about sometime if i ever get the energy to write an ultimate guide to fight scenes...sigh
also, i'll have you know i cracked up at "Poor Geto, it would be really tragic for him if it wasn't funny and also his fault." you're so right. his communication issues really do be causing problems for everyone, including and especially himself. deserved tbh. he should really get his head out of his ass and call his husband and yet. can he overcome the dumbassery in his own brain? it's a tough call. at least our beloved lawyer man scolded him accordingly.
i hope your studying went well!! and thank you so much for reading <333
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What are your thoughts on the claim that Knightfall is a dangerous portrayal to men women? imo this is a buncha bullshit but a lot of people I see calling it a "crack ship" are also saying that if it ever happened it would be toxic and harmful. Some say the idea of having a man save a woman is wrong and others say having Jaune date a killer would ruin his character. How do you deal with stupidity on this level?
Lol it's bullshit. Of course it's bullshit. It's not even worth debating because it's such a waste of time and such a reductive opinion grounded in bad media analysis and bad philosophy. If you hear the word 'toxic' you need to stage exit the conversation, it's a red flag.
Sure, women consuming the wrong fiction will make them get into abusive relationships, I love the victim blaming here. Or attributing abuse in real life relationships being a result of fiction? Yeah, I am sure that is going to fly in sincere debates surrounding intimate partner violence (IPV). I can guaratee you if you read any surrounding literature about IPV or DV, the focus is not going to be on who likes Kylo Ren too much or reads the wrong type of romance.
Even then, I don't think Knightfall is a) a crackship - it most certainly isn't, thank you, it's very narratively justified, and one of Jaune's biggest moments in the show, well two of them, are with her, or b) something bad or toxic at all, in fact thematically motivating the relationship (in canon) would be healing, forgiveness, and compassion, and fundamentally uplifting the notion of nonviolence. So Knightfall isn't even anything textually 'problematic'.
If it were textually problematic I would still dismiss the notion it would have a serious impact on real-life relationships - though trying to draw some type of actual casual impact is extremely difficult, because the kinds of things influencing real life harm is actually multi-modal. If you care about that thing, sincerely and truly, which to be quite frank people obsessed with toxicity in fiction don't care. Motivating a lot of this is just cloaked ship wars, or 'me not like this and it hurts my fee-fees'. Or deep, profound resentment for the art and structure of narrative and metaphor.
The reality is that tonally R/WBY is fantastical and it is romantic. A character like Cinder Fall killing Pyrrha Nikos isn't just flatly about killing, it's also conveying lots of different ideas:
the inevitability of change and growth (ooh! Autumnal theming!), the violence of change, the complete unseating she symbolically represents in the story [for the characters to grow], the death of childhood, the complicated morality of an expanding worldview as you come to see adults as people/the world beyond black and white/understand what made Cinder do it
and if you flatly define that as 'Cinder Fall big bad meanie who need dieeeeee' then your analysis bad too. But the irony here is that people who say ships like Knightfall are toxic are people fundamentally not interested in a) metaphor and the relationship we have to stories emotionally, b) actual compassion and transformation and healing, c) actual harm in the real world, especially when they go out of their way to hurt real people over fiction. You don't know the shit I've seen in the Reylo fandom (and yes, Reylo is a feminine-driven narrative, Rey was on the Heroine's Journey (most prominently in TLJ), though Reylo and Knightfall aren't necessarily tonally 1:1). I mean it was really shocking and so bad I don't want to talk about it, and people used Reylo as a cover to harass Jewish Reylo fans - calling them N*zi apologists!, Black Reylo fans, female and trans fans, and I saw some really shocking stuff. Again and again and again. By the time we hit the pressure point of TROS I saw one of the most offensive opinions about Kylo Ren expressed and retweeted on Twitter, which I advise you to skip the rest of this paragraph if you are in a sensitive space mentally: a user suggested that actually, if Kylo Ren's evil is analogous to mental illness, sometimes mentally ill people really do need to kill themselves because they're beyond help. Tell me: how is Kylo Ren being naughty worse than that? It fucked me up and still fucks me up, not just because of that but because of other things I have experienced.
So just ignore their framework and their approach. It's not about harm and it's not about protecting people or caring about what sort of relationships ought to be depicted in media. It's using false concern to load their argument and make it impossible to debate because you might concede territory to the idea that toxicity is okay. It's literally impossible to ever hold a conversation and I can guarantee you that 99% of people I've encountered with that opinion are 100% disinterested in hearing anything to challenge the notion of 'toxicity' because it's not about that - it's about ship and story taste. And nihilistic storytelling. Because stories are stupid and metaphors are also stupid.
Some say the idea of having a man save a woman is wrong
Lol this isn't even what it would be, but they're automatically trying to say it will be because they can't conceive of Cinder as an active character in the story because a) big mean baddie and b) stupid woman, really showing their hand there about how they conceive of female characters. Jaune helping Cinder, when everybody else has completely failed her, is profoundly meaningful, and Cinder being able to act on her own terms is profoundly empowering considering her enslavement.
But anybody trying to convince you that community is weak and we shouldn't help each other and we can't be uplifted through connection either has an ulterior motive or is somebody who has bought into deeply cynical thinking, which is probably more hurtful than anything Cinder could do.
and others say having Jaune date a killer would ruin his character.
Ruin his character how? Because he's their self-insert and it disrupts their projection? Because Jaune shouldn't do something important and transformative and he's better off left to the side? Because his Semblance shouldn't have a serious impact on the story? Lol
Yeah, would be so much better if Jaune killed Cinder. I've heard that story before, it's tragic and I don't like it. The whole point of Cinder's redemption is it would redeem the tragedy of Pyrrha's death. It's narrative patterns babey
How do you deal with stupidity on this level?
For some context, I am a TFA-era Reylo. I have seen it all. People who say Knightfall is toxic etc. (which I honestly haven't even seen because I know how to curate my fandom experience - just avoid stuff you don't like if you dislike Knightfall) are like little babies. Watch this
The way I personally deal with it is actually just to recognise you're never really having the argument you think that you're having. If you're somebody who takes IPV and the depiction of women in media really seriously, and you are interested in the way we resonate with narrative and want to discuss what it means for people to identify with villains, and if you enjoy discussing things seriously and trying to hear the other side out, you are having the wrong conversation and your 'ummmm this ship is toxic!!!' interlocutor does not care.
Yes, I'll allow there's probably some actual anxiety and projection into 'problematic media' that is actually about earnest concern - that displacement isn't controversial. But I would say that this doesn't make up the majority of the crowd. They're not interested in peer-reviewed sources, they're not interested in the kinds of 'problematic' stories which have been a part of storytelling for all of human history - and they deny humanist universalism and connection through stories as well, for dealing with complicated experiences, they're not interested in seriously debating the topic. It is the fandom age-old story of ship wars, and what kind of story someone is expecting, and this is especially apparent now with the rise of corporate storytelling. An easy story with cynical self-awareness, good vs. bad, kill bad guy. Make sure to insert a joke in there just in case you are getting too emotionally sincere.
But that doesn't matter. It doesn't mean anything to those people. Don't bother. Find your bliss instead. That goes for people who don't like Knightfall: maybe stop trying to destroy things and ask for other people to do the dirty work of making 'pure' media, and try to create things yourself.
You know why those 'pure' fandoms scare off creators and pretty much have dead fandoms? Because this kind of anodyne narrative analysis is actually creatively deadening. It's boring. Once you overthink your story this way it's impossible to write for. It's much more freeing to work in service to narrative, not in service to perceived political good... which for that matter, is a total separate tin of worms, which once you open up is extremely dangerous. If a story must be 'politically good' in order to allow to be told, I can guarantee you it will be used by the powers that be, not to tell empowering stories.
None of this is to say that I don't seriously think about the way social attitudes imprint themselves on fiction. The argument here is that social attitudes imprinted on fiction are as harmful, or as concerning as harm in real life, and must be wholly avoided. I am very comfortable reading stories which contain misogyny; I can recognise it's wrong, and part of my critical analysis enables me to use my groan up girl brain to identify whether it's something being used by the story to further its themes or whether the author is a fuckwit. I like to think that many others are just the same.
But Knightfall's not even like that lol. If anything it's empowering. To me I find the story of the deeply wounded villainess who comes into her own feminine power and redeems it through someone reaching out to her with uncompromising and literally magical compassion like, um, very compelling. Narratively the only person who can forgive Cinder is Jaune. That's why it's fun. It's not about fighting what you hate, but saving what you love.
Also, if the deep wound of the story is Ozlem, Jaune and Cinder - two characters in an ensemble cast, yes - coming together and proving you could work back from Ozlem as enemies back to lovers is... everything. That's not just emotionally moving, that's actually seriously saying something.
Although to me, the idea that you can still come back from something, and fix it, and you're not too far gone, and you can change, and you can open your heart, and you could decide not to choose violence today, and you could have a home, and you could be free, and you could take on responsibility you're prepared for, is very moving. See? It's not about toxicity. In my opinion, it's a resistance to vulnerability. Bad characters who change and recognise badness in themselves are scary.
Thanks for your ask anon. I may have got a bit impassioned there... sorrey...
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My school experience with bullies
I’m not sure if it’s really common for kids these days to encounter one or two bullies in their lifetime. I had a couple of bullies that made my school experience a little bit unpleasant. I try not to focus on the negative parts of my childhood and focus on the positives. I realize over time how much the negative experiences did impact me in a way it change my worldview about people.
Luckily, I’m truly thankful I wasn’t physically abused by other kids. On the verbal side, I was called ugly and fat. You know, the cliche. I did struggle with my weight as a kid. I was a chubby kid, not obese or anything. Funny enough, once puberty hit most of my fat distributed evenly as I got taller so now I’m pretty slim. As for being called ugly, I grew up with very curly hair. It was wild, my curly hair would make it difficult for me to brush my hair. I remember one boy told me my hair reminded him of trash because it was so curly and chaotic. Now as an adult, my hair has become more straight and slimmer. I was very self-conscious about my hair and weight but most of it resolved on its own later in my teen years.
I really dislike bullies honestly. Out of all the things they can spend time on, they decide to pick on another kid for no reason. Some of the bullies actually came from a Christian church I used to attend to. Maybe that’s why I turned out to be an atheist as an adult. I remember this one guy told me I look like Yoda from Star Wars because of my wild and curly hair...but I didn’t get it though. Yoda has...no hair? And he’s short and green. I was pretty tall in my teen years. I think this guy was trying to call me ugly. But the strangest part is whenever I saw him in church he kept calling me Yoda and the kids around him also called me Yoda. I didn’t even know who Yoda was because I didn’t watch Star Wars so his comment didn’t really impact me back then. It might have made more sense to me if he just called me ugly so I knew what he was talking about.
I looked into Yoda later out of curiosity on wtf the guy was talking about and...lol, I didn’t see the connection between a green alien and myself? I looked nothing like the character, but these days I wonder if he was trying to describe my personality. In Star Wars, Yoda is a really wise, kind and intelligent character but he was very introverted in the series. I doubt he was giving me a compliment but rather trying to convey I looked like some green alien. Honestly, as an adult, I find it kind of a compliment because Yoda represents the good in the world, he is revered for his wisdom and power. But unfortunately, as a kid, I took it quiet negatively because all I saw was a green alien but did not know about the content of the character. Many Star War fans admire Yoda as one of their favorite characters in the series.
Of course, there’s more stories of other kids calling the cliche’s which is ugly, fat or stupid. It’s so weird, kid’s pick on the things they don’t like about you, but they didn’t try to see the things that could be positive. I felt at that time, they weren’t very patient to understand neurodivergent kids or try to see the positive sides they had.
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[parasocial bestie] GOOD MORNING ALY I SHOT UP TO WRITE THIS THE MOMENT I SAW UR ANSWER AND I JUST. I WAS. YEAH I WAS LIKE YEAHHHHHHH YYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAH so anyway firstly HELP I CANNOT STOP LAUGHING AT "my cat is here as i write this she can explode too" PATCHES NO maybe yes like perhaps dont explode yet i would also like to know ur thoughts on xiao genshin impact before you do and i will allow it just get ur guts on the floor after ur honest answer patches
"NO BC i dont think ive seen full on infantilization of xiao (Yet.) but the thought of it just now esp w/ zhongli flooded dread through every ounce of my being dear Lord" i mean uhhhhh i Mean not gonna badmouth too much but there is Plenty of those fics and i definitely have my eyes unfortunately lay on age-regressing xiao but like. mentally. he acts like baby. i mean cool ok cool sure sure sure sure sure do what you enjoy of that typa familial interaction i respect u as i push it gently aside.
"zhongli Gets It zhongli knows whats up <333" yknow like THIS GETS ME SM its so important not just abt keeping them both in-character (at least in my perception of what canon is) its also. abt keeping their thoughts in line with it as realistically as possible. i think. i could go so far with how zhongli wud treat xiao with care and warmth and CAN address that sometimes,.. xiao can still be weak can still be the exact opposite of the hardened side he had been and while it does bring to the eventual guilt he feels like a child,.. like my good sir you didnt get to be a child before either. i think a little pampering is something u deserve (AND WHAT DOES PAMPER MEAN THAT DOESNT FEEL LIKE ZL IS BABYING HIM HONESTLYYYY cus in my view its just the former archon being indulgent but also treating xiao. as humanly as possible. as accordingly as what he needs. and xiao needs a Lot)
"said as if i dont put him in so many situations with So Much affection because i cant get the idea of him w/ the traveler specifically being very casually physically affectionate out of my head after seeing the way he holds onto them during that One cutscene" WELL I MEAN,... well i just eehhehehbvkfh though it does catch a lot of hearts especially in the beginning of liyue and iirc thats the second time xiao and lumine ever met in person at all. personally i dont see it that way then having that physical affection develop and have been staying like that in writing their development since (cus man am i so attached to the idea of an emotionally constipated/detached xiao so much that he doesnt just need guidance to overcome his conflicting worldview, but also to understand human emotion and how those two goes hand in hand).
"him being casually affectionate gets me so bad but him being touch repulsed or touch starved or both or him only really accepting physical contact of anytime in combat because thats just how it works or him feeling as though he doesnt deserve the affection" THAT OSIAL FIGHT SEQUENCE IN THE TOWER ASUNDER FIC WHERE XIAO AND LUMINE FIGHTS SO SEAMLESSLY that lumine chose him specifically not just bc of his battle prowess on short-range but his ability to stay mid-air and helping her stay mid-air. throwing her in all angles so every side of osial isnt left out as they both fought. their skills and techniques despite the years and worlds of difference melding in instantaneously after mere seconds of being introduced to each other feels like a form of affection itself in battle its so PERFECT I DIE OVERTHINKING ABT IT explodes explodes.
"i actually have partially written with him enjoying/accepting it from lumine but having no idea how to reciprocate in the slightest" yknow the bits of ideas i told u especially abt the xiao deadge brainrot and wings ask where they have a certain intimacy going on. well both of them are close to the end of lumine's journey hence an important kinda-resolution of how they think abt their relationship (brainrot) and after the journey ends (wings ask, post-teyvat). my interpretation of xiao reciprocating these affections that doesnt just center from lumine,..... its built up on that confusion and xiao hesitates a lot, but can become fully accepting once he understands it. like the times lumine would feel so torn about her brother directly (quests with dainsleif), or any circumstance that relates to him (aranara world quests with nara varuna) that she needs somekind of grounding and he KNOWS lumine herself does it in his own depressing moments so its like a 2+2 thing. what she does for him, he does it back, simple as that. it used to be a logical, but a little careless thought process without the genuine care, but soon enough the concern he had for her would match the gestures he does in turn.
i overanalyze dat shit and how xiao would act the way he does bc i do Not. like naur way NO WAY i dont rlly believe strongly he instantly cares and goes almost perfectly affectionate on the reason its for lumine and her only. thats a big problem with me and seeing xiao regarding attachments and im pree sure ive ranted that sht often enough here HAHAAKFJHSD ANYWAY I JUST!!!!!!!!!!!!! man xiaolumi can get so specific to me sometimes and i love to explore this certain aspect of their relationship where they do grow to be close, but theres this?? invisible distance, somekind of barrier i cant explain between them especially when they conflict each other with their worldviews and understanding. and post-teyvat is where that barrier didnt really destroy between them, but enough that they can reach for each other. like yknow!!!!!! yknow,............. shniff
[also this is the most oot thing ever did u know i actually did drafted my asks before sending it to u on this doc so i can rmb what the fuck i was talking abt and how it relates to ur response and it happened like. prolly my second ask in the Very Beginning so anyway. the doc reached 59 pages 32k words probably more than i could ever write for my uni thesis light and love <333]
HIIIIIIIIIIIII HI HI HI BESTIE I HOPE UVE HAD A GOOD DAY AND THAT UR NIGHT IS AMAZING <33333333
no bc. bestie shannon and i (first of all shannon if ur seeing this thats ur official title now second of all context shan is the one who reads at least half of these asks/conversations which is still WILD to me) have been watching rwby together lately and patches is there Most Of The Time and every time she shows up i point her out and we'll ask her rwby questions...... and idk ur rwby knowledge if any but blake is a character who has a largely black and white color scheme and gold eyes and cat ears and patches has gold eyes and she's black and white so every time Blake Specifically shows up we'll go "patches what are your thoughts on rwby character blake belladonna" and it makes me giggle sm and from now on whenever she shows up when im writing or playing genshin i know Damn Well im gonna start saying "patches what are your thoughts on xiao genshin impact" and she will Stare At Me with her big patches eyes and say nothing. and i will nod understandingly and say Wise Words Patches. sorry its not even 10am i got so much sleep and yet i am Deliriously exhausted anyways
AGE REGRESSION IS SO. i have sm respect for it esp as like a genuine coping mechanism and i cant really speak on fics for it but the thought of xiao specifically as a character regressing is so ??? i get it in Theory but in Practice. you can not tell me that that man would a) do that voluntarily under any circumstance or b) trust ANYONE enough to tell them if he did it involuntarily. sometimes u just gotta write fics where you baby the fave and i look away from those in general out of personal preference but i am especially looking away from ones where its xiao i can Not see it i can not imagine it in any world <- lying a little bit because now that im thinking about it i can under very specific circumstances but NONE within which and none of which would lead to him being like actually genuinely infantilized in any way shape or form. it simply would not happen i cannot see any fics babying xiao as being in character for anyone involved in the slightest
"xiao can still be weak can still be the exact opposite of the hardened side he had been and while it does bring to the eventual guilt he feels like a child,.. like my good sir you didnt get to be a child before either" LITERALLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY king. king put down your weapon shed your armor let yourself Rest you were never allowed to do so before just allow it of yourself now trust the people around you to look after themselves and liyue and allow yourself to take care of yourself to maybe even be taken care of just a little bit. just a little. please. Please.
"cus in my view its just the former archon being indulgent but also treating xiao. as humanly as possible. as accordingly as what he needs. and xiao needs a Lot" naur dw i get it like there's a difference between like. okay how the Fuck do i word this. there's a difference between treating someone gently knowing their strength and capability and choosing to be soft regardless in a good, respectful way, VS flat out ignoring that persons capability and strength and treating them like glass and truly believing that they could shatter at any moment if thought of any differently. zhongli knows exactly who xiao is and what he's capable of, hes not about to forget any of that or cast it aside in order to act like xiao is this tiny, fragile thing. hes going to be well aware of it and still make the choice to be kind and gentle and accommodating, to try and give xiao some of the care and concern he's so rarely seen or known in his life. xiao can be cared for and maybe even pampered a little without it being weird or ooc or disrespectful or anything of the sort
"he doesnt just need guidance to overcome his conflicting worldview, but also to understand human emotion and how those two goes hand in hand" o(-( DIES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! no bc i genuinely love this so fucking bad especially just. the emphasis on his conflicting worldview and thinking about it and sajbdnamfnafgdsag. I JUYST WROTE LIKE A WHOLE PARAGRAPH but it was super fucking rambly in a way that made NO sense whatsoever so it is gone now goodbye </3 but god. yeah. Yeah.
"that lumine chose him specifically not just bc of his battle prowess on short-range but his ability to stay mid-air and helping her stay mid-air. throwing her in all angles so every side of osial isnt left out as they both fought. their skills and techniques despite the years and worlds of difference melding in instantaneously after mere seconds of being introduced to each other feels like a form of affection itself in battle its so PERFECT I DIE OVERTHINKING ABT IT" no bc this scene is the most important thing in the whole entire universe YOU'RE SO RIGHT ABOUT IT FEELING LIKE A FORM OF AFFECTION ITSELF the way that they're able to just. to just. im. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM i cant even say anything the scene is Right There it speaks for itself you read it you Understand you get it. you get it. the fact that it happens So Quickly the immediate trust in battle the fact that they work so well together its just. and that had SUCH a huge influence on how i perceive them and how i write them, two very like-minded souls two people who've been through so much that no one else understands but who are able to find that understanding in each other, recognizing that the other has lived for millennia that the other has lost their closest family that the other has people they trust, people they care for, but still ends up isolated in so many ways. pasts and mindsets no one else could understand, seeing so much of themselves mirrored in the other. nothing exact but the similarities, the shared loneliness and hurt and deep buried longing, fuckidfngf. explodes. dies. ive already made a post about this im just repeating myself but man. MAN.
"the xiao deadge brainrot" DEADGE. FUCKIGN SOBBINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
this is the part where i got distracted and suddenly its 9pm instead of 9am and i am just now finishing answering this but also significantly more braindead adn it shows. um. anyways.
"its built up on that confusion and xiao hesitates a lot, but can become fully accepting once he understands it." BASED AS HELL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! what she does for him he does back... "but soon enough the concern he had for her would match the gestures he does in turn." crying shaking bawling sobbing GODDDDDDDD yeah. Yeah.
"i love to explore this certain aspect of their relationship where they do grow to be close, but theres this?? invisible distance, somekind of barrier i cant explain between them especially when they conflict each other with their worldviews and understanding" mmmmm i Think i get this like i am way too braindead to try to put it into words but i think i understand.
THE DOC PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE i literally need to write at LEAST that much for this freakigngnfkng xiaolumi fic <- said as if i am not actively procrastinating writing more for it. but man looking at my guide/plan doc thingy for it i am Praying. 30k feels like so much and such a stretch but i also will like sneeze and the next thing i know there are 5k more words on the page so maybe. Maybe. perhaps. hopefully. Please. maybe.
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ESQUIRE ALERT
Lee Jong Suk for Esquire Korea 2023 March Issue
INTERVIEW Part1.
There is a reason why Lee Jong Suk deliberately left gaps in his acting in <Big Mouth>.
Lee Jong Suk said that many of his decisions were based on a realistic awareness of the problem. With his feet firmly planted on the ground, he looked stronger than ever.
continue reading below❣️
Q: It's been a while since a shoot ended so quickly. How was the shoot?
JS: (Laughs) The clothes were pretty. For some reason, there was beauty like Hanbok. Did you feel that the long coats were like a scroll? The set-up made of Yeoncheong was also really pretty.
Q: I felt that the youthful beauty was alive. Her lively feeling went well with Margiela.
JS: no way. I'm in my mid-thirties now.
Q:Age and boyishness don't matter.
JS: (Laughs) But I also really liked today. The head of photo and the staff at Margiela all cheered hard. Thanks to you, I think I finished it in good spirits.
Q: The last time we met was right before filming for <The Witch 2>.
JS: that's right. It was only after I was discharged from the military and working on a pictorial with Esquire that I started to work in earnest.
Q: In The Witch 2, Jang actually made a special appearance. However, it was a role that had more impact than I thought.
JS: I was also surprised when I saw the trailer. The amount of me appearing was small, but the work itself was fun.
Q: He was a very meaningful character in the world of <The Witch> drawn by director Hoon-Jung Park.
To the extent that it was even mentioned as a candidate for the main villain of the third film.
JS: In fact, I didn't hear the director's detailed explanation of my character or the worldview of the entire work until I entered the work. I just participated because he said “I have a cool character, would you like to try it?” Later, after watching the director's interview, I learned about that worldview.
Q: I have a relationship with director Park Hoon-jung in my previous work.
JS: I appeared in a work called 〈VIP〉. Personally, the director and the gag code fit well... Would you say he's a close friend? The director is very blunt, but something is interesting. It's fun to do tiki-taka because you talk about obvious things in a fun way.
(Coat, shirt, denim pants, shoes, tote bag, price undecided Maison Margiela.)
Q: His first drama after being discharged from the military, 〈Big Mouth〉, was a huge hit. You said that you had a lot of worries about your next project, but it seems that those concerns were valid.
JS: that's right. There was a time when I was thinking about my next project for a long time. I was lucky. It's been a long time since I've come back, so I thought a lot about what kind of work I should bring out, but I thought it was really fortunate that you liked it more than I thought. I was also against it. Because there was a side of me that I didn't see much in this drama.
Q: I once talked about Cha Eun-ho from <Romance is a Bonus Book>, which Jong-suk liked. “Eun-ho is a character with a sense of reality, but he has no prejudice, and he shows unconditional consideration for the person he loves, so he is rather a fantasy-like character.” Park Chang-ho before he changed in the drama is a little incompetent, but I think he thinks of Mi-ho similarly.
JS: I rather think that those two characters are polar opposites. In fact, rather than having special aspects such as supernatural powers or outstanding qualities, Cha Eun-ho is a character who cares for and loves others and shows them a fantasy character. Although the love for Miho serves as the driving force behind the windows in Big Mouth, the characters themselves are extremely different.
Q: I thought that if I put Cha Eun-ho in an extreme situation where I have to protect Mi-ho, it would change dramatically like Chang-ho.
JS: You can think of it that way. But actually, while playing the character Chang-ho, I thought a lot, 'Is this really for Miho?' Actually, while acting while watching Chang-ho, I thought, 'Aren't Chang-ho's words only for Miho's sake?'
Q: (Laughter) Even in the drama, it's actually just words, so it's also a 'big mouth'.
JS: I mean. When we're apart, I miss Miho and shed tears, but when we meet, I give her a hug and go about her errands on Miho's phone.
Q: I was angry then. There is a scene where Park Chang-ho pretends to die from being shot, and if that's the case, shouldn't he have told Mi-ho?
JS: Yes. How worried would Miho, her wife, be if she didn't even talk and pretended to be dead. Compared to Eun-ho, who is considerate of her opponent, she has aspects of Chang-ho that are a bit lacking (laughs).
(Padded coat, hoodie, wide pants, bag, shoestring belt, all prices undecided Maison Margiela.)
Q: The process of the clumsy and sullen character expanding is actually the core of this drama. He was a 10% odds lawyer, then a prison boss, then a fake Big Mouth, then a real Big Mouth, and the process of taking down the colossal evil is depicted heroically.
JS: When I first saw the script, that was the most interesting. It was only in the first playthrough that Changho showed his true nature. Only in that first episode, Chang-ho's true character is revealed, and after that, he only shows it as an improvisation to overcome adversity in order to overcome the situation that comes his way. He doesn't show the essence of a person, but only the side that emerges in a very special situation. A character who overcomes difficulties with something that is not mine. I read up to Part 4, and I felt a great attraction to that point and thought it was new.
Q: After that, the window completely disappears.
JS: I also fell in love with it as I moved past the mid-to-late half. The aspects of Chang-ho that I showed in episode 1 disappeared one day. He was a completely different person.
Q: But people change drastically after going through something really big in life.
JS: There are cases of awakening. I understood that. But usually, even if you go through a really big thing, after a month or two, your original personality will come back a little bit. So, I thought that the basic personality didn't change much. But I think what the reporter said is probably right. I have a very introverted and timid personality, but I changed little by little while working as an actor. Of course, that tendency still remains, but it has changed to the extent that I step forward when I have to. It means that it can be changed to some extent.
(Denim coat, shirt collar sleeveless knit, denim pants, sneakers all price undecided Maison Margiela.)
Q: I've said that before. He said that he was so introverted that it was not easy to step out and act while dozens of staff were watching, and there were many times when he was nervous.
JS: I'm trembling. I was always trembling. In the beginning, I thought more about whether it was a character I could play. I am a character with a complete 'I' tendency in terms of MBTI, but if the character I have to take on is a cheerful, extreme 'E' tendency, if the direction I can express and the direction this character aims is completely different, can I overcome it? I thought so.
Q: I want to show you what I'm talking about in a video. It is impressive that he is calm and introspective, and thinks carefully about choosing a word and speaks it slowly.
JS: In previous interviews, I always answered whatever came to my mind. Looking back now, I get the feeling that the interviews I did back then were not refined. It was a little different from being honest. I thought that I had to be honest, but I had to explain what I wanted to say smartly and correctly so that it would not be misinterpreted or distorted, and that I could understand it enough even if I conveyed it only through text.
Q: I think you know what I mean. If you are nervous or excited, you will say something completely different from what you want to say. For example, in a situation where you have to say “Avante is good value for money”, you say “Avante is too cheap”. Then there are cases where the meaning is conveyed incorrectly.
JS: I mean. I like interviews. However, if you kept asking questions during the interview, there were times when I felt obligated to answer something, so I did it even though it wasn't actually about me. As I get older, I choose my words more carefully and think twice to avoid misunderstandings. If I don't know, I just reply "I don't know".
Q: That's wise. It's hard for journalists to say they don't know what they don't know. Especially for the latest trends. When journalists gather together, there is nothing in the world that they do not know.
JS: (Laughter) Journalists might be like that. I think I was like that in the past too. But now, if there is something I don't know, I can honestly ask what it is. When you don't know, just saying you don't know is a virtue and courage. I learned that.
Q: Even as we talk about it now, I feel that the conversation with Jong-suk is really comfortable. I thought that while watching <Big Mouth>. I thought that the audience might feel dizzy because the play itself moves like a roller coaster. But I think it's fortunate that the lead actor is Lee Jong-suk, so he has a sense of stability and persuasion.
JS: It's a very thankful story, but there were many times when I was very anxious when I was acting. It wasn't that I was acting while knowing the script until the end. I started filming without the script being finalized, so I didn't know who I was, and I didn't even know the identities of everyone else. Besides, the way the events unfold in this drama cannot be inferred from the cause of what happened before until you receive the second script.
Q: I see what you mean. For example, when Park Chang-ho and Gong Ji-hoon made a bet on a list of 5 drug criminals, right? If you haven't read the script that follows, the only case in which Park Chang-ho knows the names of the five drug offenders is if Park Chang-ho is Big Mouth.
JS: that's right. When you act with only knowing that much, you don't know what kind of explanation follows, so you have no choice but to act like 'Eomsa Musa', with an expression that fits well with Chang-ho or not. Even I, who is acting, couldn't set a clear sense of direction, so it was difficult to fill in the gaps and act. So he really had no choice but to act according to the fingerprints in the script.
Q: Until the middle, there is doubt that Chang-ho will be Big Mouth.
JS: In fact, I was quite certain that Changho would not be Big Mouth. However, since he was not sure what followed, he had no choice but to act safely, and at some point, viewers became very interested in finding the big mouse.
Q: That really turned out to be a godsend.
JS: There were a lot of really interesting guesses, such as Chang-ho having a dual personality, Chang-ho being the culprit, Miho being Big Mouth, and so on.
(Jacket, shirt, pants, shoes all, price undecided Maison Margiela.)
@esquire.korea
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Source🔗https://www.esquirekorea.co.kr/article/75126
Posted 22 Feb 2023
Thank you for sharing🙏
My @jongsuk0206 #LeeJongSuk is life.
#TheOneMyLeeJongSuk
#이종석 #李鍾碩 #李钟硕
#อีจงซอก #イジョンソク
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just thinking about zuko and katara hugging...and swaying back and forth with their eyes closed...content in each other's arms
#i'm actually taken aback sometimes by how strongly i care about this couple#like yeah i've shipped things before but no couple has touched me so deeply that i wanted to write my own happy ending for them#no two characters have actually impacted my worldview so much#like i really truly believe that these two fictional people deserve the world and everything good#and that's a little weird actually?#i wonder why i feel that way#i mean half the times i'm more invested in their lives and romance than my own#zutara#feeling very soft for red and blue today#unable to put it into words and use it for my writing but you know what#i am working on remembering that that's okay#anywayyyy i really should focus on real life now but it's just so annoying :/#blue rambles in the tags#shut up blue#i sound like a four year old again don't i
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content warning: unfiltered c!tommy crit. c!tommy fans on this blog proceed with caution. curious i'm looking at you.
you know - sometimes i really think i am on c!tommy fans' sides, i really do. he's just a kid, right? a kid who wants his friends and his home and he discs! and yeah he's a prick about it, and yes he makes mistakes, but it's got to be easy for people to enjoy him for a reason!
and then i watch like three minutes of him talking, and i stop to ponder on how in the world someone can be so non-self-aware and so self-centered to the point of not being aware of anyone besides himself at the same time.
this kid is the most unreliable narrator in the dream smp - no, probably the most unreliable narrator of a character i can remember off the top of my head in all my years of reading.
he is so wrong about everything and everyone all the time. i haven't seen him genuinely having a point yet. he doesn't listen to anyone, he hurts people as a result and then blames them for it, he says he cares but then acts only in his own benefit - it's infuriating.
i'm beginning to understand why people who watch and enjoy c!tommy have such insufferable takes on literally every other character. i am considering making an oath to swear not to listen to anyone who trusts a word the kid says ever again.
he thinks he's always right, he thinks his feelings and his story are the only important ones - yes, he has people who are important to him but that is the extent to which he ever takes anyone else into consideration - he has such an obvious protagonist complex. and i'm not talking hero complex - he's never had a motivation that would be anywhere close to helping others, or a consistent one - no, he's far from that, he doesn't want to be the hero, and even if he wanted he very obviously isn't and isn't trying to, but he very intentionally doesn't actually value people who he doesn't deem as important beyond playing certain roles in his narrative.
"they have feelings? no they don't. they have their own story? nope! they have their own opinion? well they're wrong because i'm always right and i'm always right about what they feel as well!"
he doesn't respect anyone, and not in a "rebellious charmingly chaotic" way, but in a "can you look further than yourself and your own perspective for once in you life for the love of prime" way.
he doesn't understand anything about the story! he doesn't understand others' motives - because he never listens to them and immediately denies anything that strays from his restricted, biased, and extremely skewed worldview.
someone telling him he's wrong means they're immediately an enemy or need to be taught otherwise, no questions asked.
l'manberg isn't the heroes and techno needs to blow it up for everyone's good? well i don't care what anyone else besides me has to say because Obviously they are wrong, so let me just make a scapegoat out of him as i do of anyone who ever "wrongs" me!
it's so frustrating, and it is even more when some people genuinely think the things he says or thinks is true, while i cannot listen to over two sentences of what he says without wanting to pull my hair out at how incorrect it is. most of the stuff he says isn't even stuff you would discuss in discourse, it's just blatantly untrue.
despite everything, i really want to believe that he is not a bad person, but he has such a horrible impact on the way both the audience and other people in the story view the narrative as a whole or the characters in it.
characters like c!techno literally came into the narrative to expose his and others' hypocrisy and disrupt the status quo - show just how wrong he can be and is. and yet with just a "l'manberg meant so much to me!" the audience clings to c!tommy as the hero, as if the point of the entire "doomsday" arc of s2 wasn't the fact that a country as a concept shouldn't mean this much to people.
he thinks he's the main character, thinks he's the protagonist - and even though i don't want him to be hurt any more, which wouldn't help at all anyways, i really wish he gets knocked down a peg and finally begins to get over himself. i really wish someone - c!techno, c!tubbo, anyone - manages to do that, without hurting him further, and actually even helping him both heal for himself and being less of a jerk for his and others's sakes.
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i’m gay i’m mentally i’ll i’m hungover and i’m new in town this is gonna be such a chaotic ask
i’m on floss’s intro episode but really i’m more invested in the fact that faith and elektra really should’ve been a couple. dammit cbbc
i swear literally half these kids have queer energy?? i mean. liam and frank?? elektra and faith??? tyler? lily? and we’ve talked about johnny. they’re all just so wonderfully varying degrees of queer-coded and we just get more of them in later seasons too-
hey why do both tyler and ryan have episodes where one of the other boys gets a job at a cafe, so they go to the cafe, cause chaos and end up banned. that is an oddly specific similarity
once again thinking about how similar rick and ryan are, and specifically about how it makes so much sense that tyler and ryan were close, since tyler and rick knew each other since burnywood
‘a day in the past’ time!!! the best of the group trip episodes, except maybe that one beach one from like s4
oh my god floss is so tiny in her cute lil green dress???? also i get the feeling the events of this episode had,, an impact on her worldview
we stan feminist rachel in this household, she is an absolute icon??? she deserved better than being stuck working at that house
ahhh another episode of johnny being a dick and also wildly repressed- this kid needs therapy and it honestly kinda pisses me off that they took this gay-coded character with a ton of self-loathing and issues with anger and authority…. and had him join the army.
harry is just vibing wearing a straw hat and honestly? valid
i love how george is trying to correct mike on how to manage children,, he really should’ve seen the problems coming
you know… ryan and johnny really did have a lot in common huh. queer-coded boys who are regularly the villain of the episode, are manipulative and have anger issues, have younger sisters who they’re protective of but also controlling of, and ended up leaving by joining a government service, just after their shitty parent came back into their life-
mo! he was such a wasted character huh. he only got like. 3 episodes that actually explored his past at all, and he was around for like 4 seasons?
johnny calling tee “patron saint of lost causes” as if he isn’t the most annoying bitch at the dg at that point. like i love johnny but. come on
i feel like you could make a really difficult “who said this” quiz with just quotes from johnny and ryan
i’m gonna end this ask but uh. yeah no not gonna be the last ask of the day i’m so sorry
oh god, what a combination. let's go!
Floss' intro episode is a really good one for Faith and Elektra. if cbbc weren't capital 'c' cowards, they would have given them to us.
you're not even wrong, practically all of the kids have queer energy. there's so much potential in all of them!!
that... that IS a specific parallel. huh. very interesting. not that it really has anything to do with it, but it's fun that the parallel is between Tyler and Ryan, two characters who end up with a pretty close dynamic.
oh okay, you led on into that yourself! (you can tell I don't read ahead, I just reply paragraph by paragraph) it does make a lot of sense that Tyler and Ryan were so close when thinking about how similar Ryan and Rick can be at times. I really like the idea of Tyler just being drawn to Ryan initally because of that without really knowing why.
'a day in the past' is truly an iconic episode!
tiny Floss!! honestly, you're probably right.
I will forever adore Rachel, I imagine she probably quit after that day and moved on to a similar job but with a boss who was all for educating about feminism and women's rights and how the treatment that women (and servants in general) was unfair, and made sure that while the kids were playing the parts with some accuracy, that they were learning what was right and wrong at the same time.
whenever I think about Johnny joining the army, I just want to scream. he needed help, not a gun and a ton of more trauma. the kid lashed out at the smallest loss of control due to childhood abuse and they thought the best way to help him through that was... war? it doesn't make any sense. I like to live in an au where Johnny is talked out of joining by everyone. they get him a therapist to talk to instead, telling him that if, after a few sessions, he still thinks the army is what he wants, then they won't stop him. but as the therapist gets him to open up, he begins to see that the army isn't for him; he just wanted to feel in control of something, like he was actively fighting against something, stepping back into the role of protector because he wasn't sure he was good for anything if he wasn't doing that. he's just finished school so he enrolls at college instead, gets in and moves on-campus, where he takes an interest in business and social work for children. maybe he even meets a guy in his classes and they hit it off and he finally understands a part of himself that has been weighing on him for years. give me queer, happy Johnny who does not join the army but has a nice, peaceful life! he realizes he can protect kids like him and Tee, giving him that feeling he so craved, and making a difference to other care kids.
harry was precious with that straw hat. (I loved my one trip to a victorian school, dressing up in the outfits. I only despised the cane.)
yeah, that was a pretty telling sign. just because the guy has seen a few groups of school days for a couple hours a day, does not mean he actually knows the first thing about them. and he simply refused to listen to mike trying to explain that they all live together so they had to be more sensitive and make sure there was no upset, because they wouldn't be able to just go home and forget about it by the next day.
yes!! the Ryan and Johnny parallels are just wonderful. hmm. a gifset may be required for visual proof of this. I will work on this.
Mo was SUCH a wasted character, you're right. just as we're talking about queer-coded characters as well. Mo had some of the biggest queer energy around, specifically around Bailey. but yeah, it bothers me how little they did with him considering everything they had to work with? when he's up in the attic with Tee in his first episode, he says that he and his 'parents' lived in a shed. not only that, but he also said that his 'mum' didn't like him very much, and we saw he reacted with fear to the idea of Mike 'hosing him down' AND he put himself in the corner when he thought he had done something wrong. a lot of this feels implies at least some form of neglect at worse and active abuse at worst. but this was of course never mentioned again. all we got after was the revelation that his 'parents' were actually his grandparents who STOLE HIM from his parents because his grandad thought they were unable to look after him due to their cerebral palsy and from them leaving him alone in the house with the door open at the age of 18 months. there's just a lot to work with and yet? we get like three episodes focused on him then he's gone.
it's funny, Johnny calling Tee 'patron saint of lost causes' like he isn't the exact reason that she is that way. she's always protected him and stuck up for him when everyone else has deemed him unredeemable for the things he's done or said. he is the biggest 'lost cause' in her life and while she's gotten mad at him and tried to 'disown' him a couple of times, she's still been there for him in the end.
don't tempt me, I will absolutely make that quiz.
skdfhsk it's okay!! sorry I couldn't get to this ask (or the rest) sooner, but I'm happy to have so much to reply to now!
#ds-umbrella-manufacturing-co#ask away earthlings!#tdg#the dumping ground#floss guppy#elektra x faith#johnny taylor#ryan reeves#tyler lewis#rick barber#tyler x ryan#mo michaels
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Writing the Influence Character
Much has been written about the protagonist, but few talk about what's called the "influence character." This is a character whose power comes from his or her influence/impact on the protagonist. This is often who the protagonist is in an important relationship with, in the B story, or perhaps, a lead role in the B story. It might be a love interest, mentor, friend, sibling, rival, ally, parent, classmate--almost anything. It's someone who has power based on impact. And typically the influence character and protagonist are linked together, usually by a similar goal.
Here are some examples.
In Moana, Moana is the protagonist, and Maui is the influence character.
In The Hunger Games, Katniss is the protagonist, and Peeta is the influence character.
In The Greatest Showman, P. T. Barnum is the protagonist, and Charity is the influence character.
In Hamilton, Hamilton is the protagonist, and Eliza is the influence character.
In Songbirds and Snakes, Coriolanus is the protagonist, and Sejanus is the influence character.
In Legally Blonde, Elle is the protagonist, and Paulette is the influence character.
This doesn't mean the protagonist isn't influenced by other characters, of course, but these are the (or rather, "primary") influence characters--their relationship with the protagonist influences the outcome of the story in significant ways, and for at least part of the story (if not the whole thing), these two people are bound together on a similar course or by a similar end goal. This creates a "we" perspective within the audience. We are trying to do X. We are stuck in the same situation. We need to work together. We need each other.
But this relationship is about more than . . . well . . . just being in a relationship. The protagonist and influence character mirror and foil each other in key ways. Often by the time a writer finishes a professional-level story, he or she will have done this, even if he or she isn't aware of it.
Let's talk about the key components of this relationship (concepts courtesy of Dramatica).
Change vs. Steadfast
A character who "changes" (arcs drastically) will grow significantly--often doing a 180--by the end of the story. Most of us are familiar with this concept.
A character who holds "steadfast" will stay more or less the same--he or she may grow by degree, but not by a drastic 180.
A "changing" character often starts with a flaw, misbelief, or inaccurate worldview that he or she must overcome in order to succeed in the story.
A "steadfast" character will start with a strength or an accurate worldview that will then be tested through the story. The rising action and tension comes from the cost of the steadfast character trying to hold true to that. The steadfast character will likely still experience doubts, temptations, pain, and suffering--as the world, environment, and other characters challenge that view.
Think of the story of the Little Red Hen. The Little Red Hen understands that you must work for desired results. Others challenge this worldview, which means she has to ultimately work all alone. It still costs her effort and resolve to make the bread, which ultimately proves her worldview is correct while the others' are wrong.
For the steadfast character, he or she is proven true through the experiences of the story. The experiences must happen, in order to turn his or her faith/belief into knowledge/wisdom. It's one thing to believe something. It's another thing to have it tested and proven true.
In this sense, the steadfast character still grows, but it's by degree.
The steadfast character will often change others and the environment when he or she succeeds, more than herself (generally speaking). (In the future I want to do a post specifically about steadfast characters, but for now, this will suffice.)
If the protagonist is a character who "changes," the influence character will be a character who is "steadfast."
Katniss changes--her worldviews change through the story.
Peeta is steadfast--One of Peeta's main goals is that the Games won't change who he is, even if he dies. He wants to be steadfast. His feelings toward Katniss (shared in an interview), the fact he's from the same district, that at some point both Peeta and Katniss can be victors--all impact and influence Katniss's plotline. While he might seem to waver, ultimately, he stays true to his beliefs.
P.T. Barnum changes--he comes to realize he only needs to be accepted by his loved ones, not win over the world.
Charity is steadfast--she knows what matters from the beginning, and her relationship with Barnum helps him eventually come to his senses. Despite what Barnum costs her, she holds on to what she believes is true.
Hamilton changes--Hamilton does a complete 180 by the end of the story.
Eliza is steadfast--she starts loyal and true to Hamilton and supportive of his goals, and ends loyal, true to, and supportive of him and his work. She is largely an influence and impacts him.
- Remember, just because a character is steadfast doesn't mean she doesn't experience doubts, or even act on those doubts for a time. Steadfast characters may still struggle with their beliefs.
- At first glance, you may want to put Burr as the influence character, but he doesn't actually influence or impact Hamilton until more than halfway through the story.
Coriolanus changes--he loses his innocence and his worldview shifts.
Sejanus is steadfast--despite even voicing his need to change, ultimately, Sejanus is steadfast in who he is, and his worldviews.
If the protagonist is steadfast, the influence character changes.
Moana is steadfast--at first glance, it may seem Moana is a changing character (she's even referred to that way in other contexts, including a guest post on my blog, for simplicity sake), but ultimately, she grows by degree. She's always felt drawn to the water and something more--but it's the people in her environment, who try to convince her she's wrong. She may experience doubt, but ultimately, she believes there is something more out in the ocean and more for her, and that's what she acts on. Through difficulties, she proves to herself and others that she was right.
Maui changes--Maui does a 180 in the story. He believes his identity and self-worth are based on others loving him, but realizes it's within. Since he's the demigod who stole the heart, he impacts and influences Moana's journey.
Elle is steadfast--Elle believes she has what it takes to go to law school. Again, this doesn't mean she doesn't grow at all, but by degree. It also doesn't mean she doesn't experience difficulties or moments of doubt, she does. Through the course of the story, her beliefs are tested and ultimately proven true.
Paulette changes--Paulette doesn't feel capable of addressing the problems with men in her life. But by the end, she's able to get her dog from her ex and strike up a relationship with the delivery guy. She learns to believe in herself.
Worth noting is that it's not technically necessary that the steadfastness in one leads to the change in the other, or that the change in one leads the other to remain steadfast. The point is one is steadfast and one is changing.
According to Dramatica, the reason this is the case, is because it offers two different perspectives on the central idea (in a sense, the theme) of the story. A story needs both to help it feel "complete" or "whole."
Similar Paths/Goals, Different Approaches
Since the protagonist and influence character are somehow linked, they will be on the same course and/or have the same goal.
What's often different is the way they address the path or goal. This may lead to arguments, a power struggle, or complications, which can be a great way to feed into the story's theme.
Both Katniss and Peeta are doomed to compete in the Games as tributes of District 12, but they each have very different views about how to approach that. And frankly, they both want to make Katniss win. So Peeta says he has a crush at her, which makes her look desirable, but to Katniss, it makes her look weak. Peeta believes he needs to be with the Careers to accomplish the goal. Katniss believes she needs to work alone (primarily).
P.T. and Charity both want love and acceptance. P.T. believes he does this by getting the world to love and accept him. Charity believes how to do this is to surround yourself with who you love most.
Hamilton and Eliza have opposite views of what the Hamilton narrative should contain and look like. Ultimately, they both contribute to what it becomes.
Coriolanus and Sejanus have different views of how they within their society and society itself should exist, in relation to the theme topic of control.
Moana and Maui have different opinions on how to deal with Te Fiti.
Elle and Paulette both want their dogs and love in their lives, but they naturally approach those things in different ways (which stems on whether or not they believe in themselves).
One Influence at a Time
Sometimes the influence character may not always be available in the story, because of the plot. He or she may be absent--on a trip or maybe even dead. Or maybe the protagonist hasn't yet met him or her. But the role of influence still needs to be in the story.
In cases like this, there will often be a secondary influence character.
Before Moana meets Maui and after Maui leaves, Moana's grandmother acts as the influence--even if she's not the influence character. Maui's influence carries much more weight and is vital to the story. But her grandma lends impact when Maui is unavailable. Interestingly, Moana overall has the steadfast role with Maui, but in her moments of doubt and wavering, her grandma has the steadfast role by comparison, while Maui who usually wavers, is out of the picture. This creates a sort of influential triangle (which is also present in some of my other story examples).
Likewise, in pretty much all the Hunger Games books, there are secondary influence characters. Peeta is the overall influence character in the first one--he carries the most impact on Katniss's plotline. But when Peeta is unavailable, Rue takes on the role of influence character. She's in a key relationship with Katniss that ultimately impacts Katniss's view of the Games and Panem. After Rue dies, Katniss soon reunites with Peeta.
Similarly, both Lucy Gray and Sejanus influence Coriolanus. One could argue that Lucy Gray is in fact the influence character, but I've zeroed in on Sejanus because I see Lucy Gray as more part of Coriolanus's own journey and Sejanus as more of the relational plotline that adds dimension. But what's key to point out, is that only one of them plays that role with Coriolanus at a time. When Lucy Gray acts as an influence character, Sejanus is distant. When Sejanus acts as influence character, Lucy Gray is distant. Even when Collins set them all up in the same scene, she finds a way to remove one or the other.
And in Mockingjay, Gale, Peeta, and Katniss are only really brought together when one of the influence characters, Peeta, has been hijacked, and no longer has the capacity to consistently act as the influence character. (Another influential triangle is made between Gale, Peeta, and Katniss, with Gale and Peeta being opposites and Katniss in the middle.)
George Washington also acts as an influence character in Hamilton, but he's never in the same scene as Eliza. (Okay, they were once both present in a scene . . . in a song that got deleted). One could argue that Washington is the greater influence character, but I've chosen Eliza as the primary, based on story structure and story dimension. In either case, they are both steadfast and tag-team influencing Hamilton. Both Eliza and Washington are on the same page, which Hamilton is not on.
Typically, there can only be one person taking on the role of influence character at a time--unless it's a group or whole societal entity. For example, say the relationship is between the protagonist and his soccer team--the soccer team as a whole could be the influence character. But in order for that to work, they must believe and act as a whole.
If no influential characters are available, but are needed, the protagonist or someone present may recall what the influence character would think, say, or do in a given situation. Or there may be a letter, email, or notebook found of the influential character.
In Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore is the primary influence character, even though he is not present. The trio often talk about what he would say and do, or what he means by certain things. Harry even carries around Dumbledore's biography. In a sense, he influences Harry greatly, even when he's totally absent.
Overall, the influence character is often key, because he or she adds dimension to the story--fitting on a plotline that sits between the protagonist's greatest external journey and greatest internal journey. The audience isn't as close to the influence character as the protagonist, but not as opposed to them as the antagonist. The influence character isn't directly against the protagonist, but isn't directly in line with protagonist. They have similar paths, but different methods. This unique position can also add more meat to the theme.
#writing tips#writing tips and trick#writeblr#nanowrimo#character#oc#fanfic#writing help#writing reference
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In relation to one of your previously answered asks, it makes me question if lily and claude genuinely love athy or is it just because of diana. And something tells me that claude is the most underdeveloped character in the manhwa in comparison to others because of this claude apologism. Like claude apologists act like parents of spoilt brats. Like nooo don't make my baby experience the things that might make an impact on him (and help him grow as a human being), he might get hurrrt, nooo don't confront him with his wrong deeds my baby too fragile. As if he's the only character who had a horrible childhood and is having a hard life/dealing with heartbreaks. Athy, Lucas, Jennette's lives were totally not harder than his, given their optimism and how they tackle all the hard incidents like they don't have to go through the same trauma as him.
I see your point, but Claude is making baby steps towards being a better person father, well.... until he reverted back to his old self and almost killed Jennette. But this is realistic too. For some people progression isn't a straight line and they go three steps forward and two back.
He’ll never be normal though.
Right now for Claude there are only him and Athy above all else. And then Felix. Because of Diana maybe Lily (though she’s in the servant/tool category). And because of Athy Jennette. Though I doubt he views the latter as even human. Everyone else has to do something so that he can deem them worthy (i.e. Lucas), otherwise their value is zero and he has no qualms to get rid of them if they irritate him in any way. I can’t see him letting go of this worldview entirely. Being stuck in the past (Ana & Diana), not wanting to confront his mistakes (like how he danced around an apology and promised Athy gifts or a punishment for those who had wronged her) and a reluctance to change IS part of Claude’s character. I don’t know how much influence Claude apologists had in his character development, but it’s understandable why his character development moved at snail pace. I’d be genuinely surprised if Lucas and Claude started to treat Jennette as anything but a pet that Athy had taken a liking to.
Hmm, there is a chance this might change tho once Claude and Ana become bros again. But this would mean that Jennette’s value only increased because it’s tied to her relationship with two people close to Claude instead of one. Even in the third last chapter he only viewed Jennette kind of as an extension of Ana and used her to get under his skin. So if his feelings towards Ana changed to be positive his feelings towards Jennette would also be a bit more positive?
Actually, Lily and Felix might be more undeveloped than Claude. They are still stuck at where they started: the maid and the knight. Their only purpose in life is being loyal to their masters and this hasn't changed at all. Yeah, Felix did do some things behind Claude's back during the amnesia arc but in the end it was all still for Claude's sake. Besides dedicating every waking second of their life to their master's well-being they don't seem to have any friends, hobbies or particular interests. (Their lack of character development might be blamed on their limited screentime though. And to be fair they are side charas.)
May I ask, how would your ideal character development for Claude look like?
#anon#answered asks#confessions#this season Claude's character progressed quickly though#claude discourse
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The Handmaid's Tale: The Wilderness (4x10)
Oh boy. I don't even know what else to say. Just. Lots of stuff happening here.
Cons:
So, obviously I'm going to talk about the Fred situation, but I actually want to start by saying there was a logistical weirdness with the end of the episode that kind of troubled me. For one thing, and this is just a script decision I don't understand, why does the mailman open the mail and see the severed finger and wedding ring? Why not have Serena opening it so we get the full impact of the horror? That just felt odd to me.
And then... the ending. June comes back to say goodbye to Nichole, and says she's leaving in five minutes. My initial read on this was that she was going to go and face the consequences/get locked up for what she did to Fred. But then I realized that made no sense, and maybe she's instead going back to Gilead to get Hannah? See, the problem here is that a) I'm bored of Gilead and want to keep the story in Canada. And b) June's connections with Lawrence and Nick seem to be able to get her a lot of things... it feels like it would be a relatively simple matter to snatch Hannah and run at this point, wouldn't it? The narrative stakes feel uneven, after what we saw June was capable of orchestrating in this installment.
Also just going to go ahead and say that as this was a finale, I was a little bummed not to have more time with certain characters. No Janine update, and only sparse screen time for Moira, with no mention of her love life at all.
Pros:
Okay, let's start with a smaller detail: Mark Tuello has been more of a narrative device than a character for most of the show, so much so that I kept forgetting his name. I don't think this is necessarily a mark against the writing or acting. He's meant to be representative of the slow-moving arc of justice, of a neutered American government trying to do its best. But here he came to life for me, in two moments. One when he asked Serena to explain her decision to stay with Fred. And another when June shows up outside his house and he has an outburst about how she's crossed a line, and then apologizes for it.
He's a person. He's dealing with a lot of fucked up people, and traumatized people, and he's trying to prioritize the greater good while seeing the very real personal consequences of Gilead's atrocities up close. I just really liked how he was utilized in this episode; it almost felt like a culmination, happening quietly in the background.
And then there's Fred Waterford. It's hard to really put my finger on why Fred is such an unsettling villain, but I think it has something to do with the fact that he buys his own bullshit so easily. He's really incredibly gullible. When he and June have that chilling scene where they both say they "miss" Offred, Fred is 100% buying what June is selling. June is... not even that good of an actor except when she has to be, but Fred genuinely, actually, believes that they had something approaching a relationship of mutual understanding back when June was his literal sex slave in Gilead. And June plays him like a fiddle. He's utterly shocked by June showing up at the end and kissing Nick. It never occurred to him that June, a person he repeatedly reminds everyone is duplicitous and sneaky, might be involved in some greater scheme.
And why? Because he really is that full of himself. He has every reason to believe that the world will keep catering to his needs, that he will, again and again, be able to dodge the consequences of his actions. It's always been true in the past, hasn't it?
That's the genius of Fred as a villain. He's not playing three-dimensional chess, he's not someone you can just "outsmart" and be done with. It's his worldview, this absolutely unshakable belief that he is a good person. He even apologizes to June in this episode, but it's not in a way that holds himself accountable for his behavior. It's more in a "I'm sorry you suffered, I do regret that aspect of it" kind of way.
There's something so twisted about a zealot whose zealotry is tied up so intensely with his misogyny that he looks like a caricature of a sexist man when you see him talk, and yet he's not playing it up. That's really how he thinks! Just imagine it.
But also... holy shit, that scene at the end was brutal. Can't really blame June for it, I guess, but it was tough to watch. Not because I felt sympathy for Fred, but because I felt sorrow in my heart for what he'd driven these women to. I hope they get some measure of peace from his death.
I think (and kind of hope) that Season Five of The Handmaid's Tale is the end. Not because there's not a lot here to enjoy, but because it seems like we're reaching a culminating moment for June. Getting back to Hannah has been the driving force of the show, and now June is right on the edge of achieving that.
There's a lot more I could say, but I'm keeping this one nice and zippy for the moment. See you next season!
9/10
#review#the handmaid's tale#the handmaid's tale review#the handmaids tale#the handmaids tale review#handmaid's tale#handmaid's tale review#handmaids tale#handmaids tale review
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