#that you establish the protagonist in this world and THEN send them to another
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Young Royals and the three act structure, Part one
Seems like there was some potential interest in a full three-act story structure analysis, so I’m taking this opportunity to indulge myself by going full nerd. I’m going to attempt to make the argument that limiting the show to three seasons is actually perfect for Young Royals, by highlighting the pattern the story follows.
A few things to keep in mind before we start.
This analysis is not about the characters deep inner emotional lives. We are not here to pass judgment on their actions. We are simply identifying the beats of the story in a neutral and objective manner, for the purpose of analysing the structure of the story.
As you will notice, the points I have identified are all from Wilhelm’s perspective. That’s because he’s the point-of-view character, the main conflict is shaped by him and his emotional state. He’s the protagonist. Each subplot however, will follow the same pattern and has its own purpose, but I’ll get more into that another time.
I’ll be referring a fair bit to Lindsey Ellis’s video essay on the subject, because I like how she describes the structure pattern in sequences. So I’m gonna borrow some of her language. Also, note that the examples she uses to describe the tree-act structure are all feature films. Since Young Royals is a series, it’s gonna divert slightly from her description. But that’s what is so great about this structure, it’s flexible. It’s not meant to be set rules, but rather guidelines to help keep your story relevant and engaging all the way through. If you find this stuff interesting, I’d highly recommend watching her videos!
The three act structure is absolutely not the only way to tell a story. There’s many different formats that works just as well! It’s really about finding what structure works best to tell your story. The three acts however is the most common format you’ll find in more commercially viable works, such as Disney films for example.
And finally, I’m not a writer, but an animator, and I have studied film theory/structure. I’ll do my best to motivate the plot points I’ve identified, but if you’re a proper story expert and disagree with me, I’m happy to discuss!
Okay, let’s get to it.
A three-act structure is constructed of just that, three acts, and roughly looks like this. Essentially, a beginning, a middle, and an end. Or the set up, the confrontation, and the resolution. These acts may vary in length, act two usually being the longest and act three usually being the shortest. But what truly defines them is the tension of each act, meaning what drives the conflict forward at that point. A story will have a main conflict yes, but that conflict will take on many forms depending on where we are in the story. Lindsey Ellis describes each act as consisting of multiple sequences, and defines each sequence by its individual tension as well. Though all points of tension should always stay related to the main conflict! So the main points we’re looking to identify in the story are the main act tensions and the main sequence tensions.
Let’s go through season one of Young Royals and talk about each story beat.
Act 1
Act tension - Wille has to attend Hillerska.
Sequence 1
We start with the Set up/Hook. The purpose here is to establish the world and the protagonist along with their internal conflict, such as their flaws and/or desire that makes them feel incomplete - The way Wilhelm’s character is introduced informs us that he is royal, but struggling with his role, because royals have set rules to follow.
“Why can’t I decide how the hell I want to live? I want to live a normal life!”
The thing that sets the story in motion is the point of attack. Something happens that is outside of the protagonist's control/knowledge - That would be the royal court deciding to send Wille to Hillerska without his permission. This gives the protagonist something to react to.
Sequence tension is established - Wille does not want to go to Hillerska. The rest of episode one reinforces Wille’s discomfort at the school.
Next, we get to the inciting incident. An event that disrupts the status quo, and our protagonist has to get involved - The initiation party, particularly when Wille and Simon almost kiss at the end. This leads him to acknowledge his attraction toward Simon and become more proactive in his pursuit of the boy.
The sequence tension is resolved. Notice how in episode two, Hillerska is no longer the main focus for Wille, but Simon is. The seeds for what will become the central conflict have now been planted. The conflict is usually driven by character motivation. This is where we can consider the protagonist's Want vs Need. The want drives the main tension - Wille wants to be with Simon. But we’ll find want he needs later on in the story.
Sequence 2
The purpose here is to build up the creation of the main tension of the story. The main antagonist can also be established here - August keeps getting on Wille’s nerves. Especially when he’s trying to hang out with Simon.
That’s our sequence tension - Wille is working to befriend Simon, but August keeps getting in the way.
The end of the sequence sees the first major plot point, the Lock-in. Where our protagonist makes a decision that changes everything. Usually, something they can’t come back from - In Young Royals that would be the first kiss. Wille and Simon’s relationship has fundamentally changed. The main tension is now established.
Act 2
Act tension - Can Wille be with Simon, despite him being a prince?
Sequence 3
At the start of this sequence, the protagonist has most likely achieved some kind of milestone or learned something - He’s definitely like that.
To keep the story interesting, writers will add so-called pinch points in between the bigger plot points. These usually act as reminders of the antagonist or the pressure our protagonist may feel - Wille feels he needs to break it off with Simon because a prince is not supposed to be gay. As we established in the set up, royals have rules.
Sequence tension - Can Wille deny his feelings for Simon? Queer pining ensues.
Sequence 4
The purpose of this sequence is to build up towards the midpoint. We see the protagonist making attempts to achieve their goal - The want never changed, Wille still wants to be with Simon, despite the pressure. Wille invites him to spend the weekend with him.
Sequence tension - Wille is trying to prioritise his new relationship with Simon, but August is still being annoying.
Then the midpoint hits. A major disruption, either from a character action or a force of nature. Can be positive or negative, just something that changes the aim of the quest without resolving the main tension - This time it’s literally halfway through the season. End of episode three, Erik dies and Wille becomes the crown prince. Everything has changed.
Sequence 5
Everybody has to adjust to the new world order after the midpoint disruption. We’ve reached another pinch point - Again we are reminded that royals have rules, and Wille makes another attempt to follow those rules. By embracing his new role, he breaks up with Simon once again, then sort of pursues Felice and joins the society.
Sequence tension - Wille adjusting to his new title while mourning his brother.
It’s common for subplots to advance around this time - Like Simon giving August the drugs to sell.
Sequence 6
Another plot point, where our protagonist may stop and reflect. Maybe have a heart-to-heart with another character, and perhaps make a decision - This is where we see the football field scene and the end of episode four. Wille reaches out to Simon for help, reconnecting with him. This leads them to pursue a relationship once again. They are put in a false sense of security. They are finally together, thinking all is good. BUT, we in the audience know that August has the video of them and the writers keep reminding us of him and the threat he poses. Even if Wille and Simon don't know it yet.
Sequence tension - Can this happiness last?
Sequence 7
(Here’s where the story leaves the classic structure for a bit, and adds an extra sequence for some more drama, as filler. In theory, they could have skipped this sequence and gone straight to the video being released. This part is mainly here to give motivation for August’s character, making his actions clearer)
So we are essentially given another pinch point, a reminder of antagonist or pressure - August tries to break them apart by telling Wille about the drugs, which leads to the music room fight.
Sequence tension - August is becoming more hostile.
Wille saving Simon from being framed for the drugs is more related to August’s money subplot. And the Lucia hug scene is mainly there for character building purposes. I’ll talk more about that stuff in part two.
The plot has advanced to the culmination of the main tension. The crisis that serves as build-up to act three - August releases the video. At the end of act two, the protagonist faces their biggest challenge yet. They’ve hit their lowest point - The aftermath of the video's release and Wille is totally lost.
Act 3
Act tension - Can they save their relationship after the video?
Sequence 8
Begins with the protagonist making a big decision that creates the new act tension. The tension in act three will be different, but still related to the main conflict - Wille and Simon talk in the locker room, where Wille says he won’t do the statement.
Sequence tension - Can Wille avoid making the statement?
We’ve reached our last major plot point, located at the end of the sequence. Sometimes known as the twist in the third act - And what a twist, Wille does the statement anyway. This narrows down the tension further, to focus on a more character-driven intimate place for the next sequence.
Sequence 9
Sequence tension - Can they be together despite the statement?
Climax, the last big fight - Simon tells Wille off for being selfish and breaks up. Wille also finds out that both August and his mother betrayed him. The protagonist’s need has emerged from this journey and is now clear to us - Wille needs to decide who he wants to be. The want and the need should be different from each other, but still connected. Wille wants Simon, but in order for that to happen, Wille needs to break out of this cycle of self-preservation and stand up for himself against the royal court.
The climax will most likely lead to some kind of character growth - Wille is now pissed because he’s lost everything and realizes how corrupt the royal court is. As Lisa so beautifully put it, “A flame is ignited in him”. Hugging Simon in public is a display of his character growth.
And finally, Resolution. The point where the story is usually wrapped up neatly, but if left ignored, you get a cliffhanger - Which is exactly what happens in this season. Nothing is properly resolved at this point. Resulting in an open ending/cliffhanger.
Oof, that was a lot. How are we all doing? So these are the main beats of the plot. Makes sense? Let me know if you need any further clarification 😅 I was gonna get into how the rest of the show fits this format as well, but that’ll have to be in a separate post. Here’s part two!
#young royals#prince wilhelm#young royals analysis#young royals season 1#film theory#story structure#story analysis#young royals and the three act structure#wilmon#simon eriksson#august horn#my meta#my analysis
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Gal shouldn't be here.
The Craft Sequence is a very contemporary fantasy, and one with a realistic- if not cynical- view of power. Again and again our protagonists find themselves up against gods and corporations, establishments with the very most established positions, and have to use every edge at their disposal just to keep some kind of hope for something better alive. There aren't any knights in shining armour coming to save them. Except...
The Ruin of Angels deftly sketches in a picture of Camlaan - an insular island with Imperial dreams, spinning tales of love and heroism as it sends its thugs to project its will outside its island borders. It's a familiar picture to me as an English reader, and its mythology is so clearly a justification, a comforting self-deception for the iron fist of an immortal queen. You can't say "a true knight wouldn't-" because the knights who would are real, and the ones who wouldn't just a story they tell. Except...
The Ruin crew are thieves. They have their motivations and dreams, and they're risking life, limb and legal process to score artefacts, and for all Raymet's preoccupation with scholarship and heritage, that seems to be a side-hustle to the crew's overall goal: profit. And yet, somehow, one of the crew is a storybook knight with an unbending code of honour. It's not that she's a hypocrite, not exactly - the climax of her arc with Raymet wouldn't make any sense, wouldn't have remotely the same emotional impact, if I didn't feel in my heart that what Gal's willing to justify (what she feels is just) is the most important limit on her behaviour - but she's like an invader from another story, too wild and pure to live by the rules of this world.
And all of that is vital to her place in the book.
We see her, largely, through Raymet's eyes, and our sense of genre brings us right along- how are you even real?
But the book carries on, and she keeps being like that, and eventually Raymet curses her out, and the people who made her into someone who just doesn't fit the world that really is, and- "I don't understand this. I don't understand you."
Gal reads like the intrusive work of another, better world, and part of me resents her for that; but once I accept that she really, truly is only and completely what she seems, the only word for such a senseless thing is miracle.
It's a book about love. It's a book about a lot of things, but when I read for Raymet and Gal, it's a book about love. Disbelief, and fear, and the blossoming of joy as you realise this is real, you're here, all the reasons you shouldn't be just don't matter because you are.
That's how it feels, sometimes.
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This week's campaign of Galposting is brought to you by @swordswomanshowdown and my discovery that I'm willing to put a whole lot of effort into trying to get people to vote for a character I adore in a Tumblr poll tournament.
#max gladstone#the craft sequence#craft sequence#ruin of angels#the ruin of angels#yeah we're on the full Tag For Visibility plan here I'm not fucking around#galposting
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If you follow members of Studio Orange's staff on Twitter, they've said that every character has their own wants, likes, and dislikes, and each one of them could serve as a protagonist in their own right. Shoot, Vash can cover both positions of male and female protagonist because of the actions he's taken and what's happened to him as a result.
But if we had to pick a protagonist specifically to serve as the audience's eyes? That's Meryl (and Roberto for the more experienced fans but I'll get to that in a sec--).
I'm mostly looking at this through the usual three-act structure that folks are usually taught in Literature classes. Where it's "leave the ordinary world, travel through the "other" world, then come back to the ordinary world changed" path.
To be more precise, Act 1 is mostly world-building and establishing the baseline, then booting the protagonist out into the world for some character growth. Act 2 is the meat of the adventure, with its ups and downs, and normally ends with an emotional low before a moment of clarity that sends the protagonist off into Act 3, to confront the main villain in a climactic scene that quickly wraps up and ends with the protagonist going back to what they were doing before, or at least something similar. Changed, but still them.
Vash, from his perspective, has been in Act 2 for a long time. His big "call to action" -- which normally happens at the end of Act 1 -- could arguably be an interaction with Nai post-Big Fall, either in the immediate aftermath or in the crashed space ship when all their sister-Plants were put through a Last Run state right before Vash arrived. Which means that right now, he could be going through the emotional low right before the point of clarity that normally happens at the end of Act 2 and the start of Act 3, mere scenes before the climax.
But here's the kicker that means we're getting another season: Meryl and Nicholas are still smack-dab in the middle of Act 2. Especially in terms of character development.
Putting this under a cut because this is gonna get long.
So, if we're looking at the 3-act structure from Meryl's perspective:
Her Act 1 "normal" world is being a reporter-in-training, getting a mentor in Roberto, and her initial, normal world call to action is to go find information about Vash the Stampede. The "other world" call to action doesn't hit her until about Episode 3 when Knives comes in and completely destroys Jeneora Rock. After we've had some world development and pulled Meryl into the "hey, there's more going on here than you know" sort of scenario.
But that's the funny thing about calls to action. They can happen multiple times in a story -- just because a story follows a "three act structure" doesn't mean it has to follow those rules to a T. I say this because a mentor character's death can be a call to action, too.
Which brings in Roberto as the experienced fans' eyes. He knows about the villains, and even knows to be suspicious of Wolfwood when we first meet him in Episode 4. He fills in the newbie on what she needs to know about the world. He's jaded and knows there's danger around every corner -- and like the fans who hate Stampede, he doesn't want anything to do with it.
But Meryl -- the new fans -- keep pulling Roberto back in, and drag him along. As a result, Roberto and the old fans' eyes die in Episode 10, because they went along despite knowing what they know.
Roberto's death represents the kick in the pants Meryl needs to develop more closely to the character we remember her being in the old show, and it makes Meryl become the eyes of the old and new fans as a result.
Roberto's death may not be the end of her Act 1 if we count the first call to action as that end, but I don't think it's her true emotional low in Act 2, either. Meryl is fully submerged in the "other" world now, and is prepared to do what she needs to in order to help Vash.
(Granted, if we count each "season" as its own book and each book having its own 3-act structure, Roberto's death could absolutely be that emotional low before Meryl's Act 3, but we know they're not done with Trigun Stampede's story yet)
And then Wolfwood. His "normal/ordinary" world is the world that Meryl gets pulled into -- that of the Plant brothers warring with each other, and the Eye of Michael. He gets a call to action with his mission to guide Vash, but it's not the call to action that gets him moving into the "other" world yet. Vash attempted to give him one by saying "I'm trying to save you too" in Episode 10 after he got shot, but Wolfwood turned that down by letting him go to his brother alone.
Episode 12 is going to give him his real call to action that'll boot him straight into Act 2. I'm certain of it. Nicholas is Vash's foil, after all, and that means they both get development, damnit.
Which lets me circle back to Vash and how he's technically moving into Act 3 territory. Like I said before, he's been in the meat of his "adventure" for a long time, and there's a climax coming for him. But that's the funny thing with story climaxes: there can be smaller ones in Act 2 before we hit that emotional low and moment of clarity before the big one in Act 3. It's just that they're gonna be smaller than the big, final climax, and maybe even mimic how the Act 3 climax is going to go.
You see this a lot in book series, mostly because it's hard to end Act 3 with being back in the "ordinary but changed" world for every single book. That means starting up again with the basic world-building, etc for the next book, with Act 1 all over again. But nope. Sequels start in Act 2, because Act 1 only happened the once, and the protagonists haven't had their true final battle yet to get out of Act 3.
So Vash could still be in Act 2, and may even slide back a little in terms of development because of Knives messing with his memories. While it may not entirely wipe out what makes Vash who he is, memories are an important part of our core. They help tell us why we react to certain things emotionally the way we do. Here's hoping Knives left a little something behind when he messed with Vash, because otherwise he's gonna be very different from the person we've been spending time with the last 11 episodes.
And Knives? He's in the meat of Act 2, too, like his brother, although his call to action came much sooner -- it was when he saw Tesla, and thought he needed to protect his younger brother. His emotional low was when Vash pointed a gun in his face, followed by the clarity of "I need to force my brother to my side. He'll see, one way or another."
Which would place Knives in a climax point, either in a lengthened Act 2 or in his Act 3. But that doesn't mean he's done developing as a character -- far from it.
Because I think Vash is gonna give him reasons to develop next week. Whether Knives likes it or not.
#cross' rambling#trigun#trigun stampde#millions knives#vash the stampede#meryl stryfe#roberto de niro#nicholas d wolfwood#character anaylsis#story analysis#long post
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Casting Prompts #2 #4 & #29
The Dark Lord, Great Sage and Hero
This is gonna be a ramble (basically just some of my headcanons and backstory I made for funsies), so be prepared, cause I have a lot to say
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we ever got any concrete establishment of time in this game.
By that I mean, we don't get told when the Dark Lord attacked, when the Dark Curse came to be, when the Great Sage encountered them, etc. And seeing as this is a magic world, it's kind of hard to try and compare it with a real world time period. (At first I would have said it's more reminiscent of the time around the Middle Ages, but then stuff like modern scientists and New Lumos exist)
But I'm not bringing this up because I have a problem with that; it's the opposite, in fact. Because this gives me a lot of room to interpret my own string of events into this game. Because I think the Dark Lord has already been terrorizing Miitopia for centuries. Just not always in their current form.
The Dark Curse took their own face hundreds of years ago, and since then, has always picked up the next best victim to choose as a body, before either wrecking them beyond use, or abandoning them for the next best vessel. That also means monsters have been roaming around, and people have been getting their faces stolen for generations now, but it's not like anyone could do anything about it, so they had to learn to live with it.
But then why has the Dark Lord not taken over yet?
Because there were always people that could do something about it. For one, there are the hundreds of other adventurers (Tanks, Warriors, Vampires, etc.) that are strewn across Miitopia, and they must obviously be able to fend off monsters to an extent, at least. And second, the Great Sage exists.
Now, I don't think it was always the same Sage. Their magic does allow them to live longer than most, but not that long. Our Sage is not older than 120 at most, I'd say. I think, it's basically just another job. Not one that you can pick yourself, though, but something you can learn, if you get mentored by the previous Great Sage. And with every Sage, their wisdom and power grew, and they could fight against the Dark Lord more efficiently.
But they also knew, that they wouldn't be able to take them down. Which is where we arrive at my last point:
I don't think that the protagonist is the first Hero.
There isn't a prophecy that chose them. The Heroes showed they were willing to help and stand up to the Dark Lord, and that's how they earned their title.
But a lack of prophecy also means a lack of guaranteed success. If their victory was set in stone, the Dark Lord would focus more on killing them, than toying with and teasing them. But they know that the Hero is defeatable. And they have defeated them, before.
Our Great Sage alone has had almost a dozen Heroes in their lifetime, some they even chose themselves. But before the protag, none of them succeeded.
They never saw them as disposable, though. To them, every Hero had worth, they were still their own, living being. But they had to watch every last one of them die.
They don't enjoy choosing Heroes to send out to battle, but they know that they have no other choice.
Now, that the Dark Lord is defeated, and The Reborn is under their care, however, the souls can rest, and the Sage can finally take their time to properly grieve. Just maybe not right in front of their new student, of course.
The Reborn's future in Miitopia would of course also be very interesting to try and piece together, but this is all that I have planned on writing for this post.
Thanks for reading :)
#ArtTopia2k23#ArtTopia#ramblings#headcanon#some angst at the end#death mention#miitopia#dark lord#great sage#miitopia main hero#the hero#miiblr
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Thinking about wizards
Actively pitching a Wizard101 TV Show in my brain every night to help me go to sleep
It’s an isekai
The protagonist is genderfluid and doesn’t feel comfortable staying in the gendered dorms so Merle Ambrose lets them stay in Gamma’s tower until a new dorm can be constructed because in this story Merle is a chad
This is a plot point ^
The story I have so far is basically this:
“Where am I and why am I in a Wizard school?”
“We have some idea of where you came from but we can’t send you back yet cause it’s in another world so wanna stay at Wizard school for a little longer?”
“Sure I guess, woah that’s a super evil bad guy what’s going on?”
“Whoops looks like Malistaire is up to no good, guess we have to postpone your return home for a while, wanna run a few errands for me in the meantime tho?”
“Yeah sure consider it payment for letting me stay in your tower. Whoops looks like I just defeated Lady Blackhope and Rattlebones huh”
“Wow this whole child labor thing was completely unintentional maybe stop running my errands for a while and focus on your schoolwork”
“No :3 because I have no sense of self preservation :3”
“I am going to adopt you and that is a threat istg”
And that’s it for now
Protag is a Necromancer btw, for the extra angst factor
The season ends with the new gender-ambiguous dorm being established after the defeat of Lord Nightshade and a whole bunch of students both new and old move into it including the protagonist
Their move is reluctant and forced, however, because Merle has suspended them from any activity unrelated to schoolwork because they keep actively traumatizing themself trying to fight the forces of evil in an attempt to feel both useful and in control of their current isekai situation
Once again Merle is a chad in this story and in no way would a self respecting chad of a headmaster/semi-father-figure allow his student/semi-child-figure do this to themself
The story eventually progresses of course but not before a nice heart-to-heart and also a few self-preservation lessons
I’d turn this into a fanfic if I wasn’t busy 24/7
#I HAVE A CHARACTER DESIGN IN MY HEAD AND I AM PHYSICALLY UNABLE TO DRAW IT#I’ll find a picrew or something don’t worry#also the protag befriends a ton of the NPCs from the game#wizard101#wizard 101#also for some reason I decided one of the background romances was gonna be Penny Dreadful and that one library intern guy#i forgot his name but you know the guy. not the dog. the myth wizard guy#i think he’s myth idk. i forgot his name. but that guy#they’re gonna have a very wholesome romance
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I find Superman the animated series severely held back by its creators obvious disdain for the character compared to Batman
Though his own villains were more interesting than the big blue himself
And it’s obvious that Superman’s rogues are in desperate need of a show of their own
Who would be the ideal protagonist for a show like that?
A Super-Rogues show akin to Harley Quinn: The Animated Series? I'd choose Bloodsport as the main protagonist.
He's a killer for hire so that pretty easily provides justification for any kind of plot you want. You can have him in Metropolis taking on contracts either solo or with a crew - and much in the same way as Harley Quinn you could easily use lesser known Superman villains as supporting characters, you can send him out elsewhere in the world on a contract, you can have him fight his fellow villains, or fight heroes such as Superman himself. Bloodsport is a Rogue capable of being dangerous for Superman, but his powers aren't so threatening that simply using them makes you wonder why Superman doesn't immediately show up. Long as Bloodsport isn't firing mini nukes or black holes out of his guns it's feasible that he might be able to elude Superman's attention for a while. And when or if you do decide to have him take on Superman (personally I'd have Bloodsport's contract on Superman be the series finale where he finally establishes himself as a big name by putting Big Blue in the hospital), you can finally show the audience what The Suicide Squad only hinted at.
His personality and background are further assets for a show. He's got a sympathetic background in both the comics and the DCEU. You can either push further on the sympathetic angle as the DCEU did, or you can lean into him still being a bastard at heart as the comics have. Bloodsport dealing with his family issues and mental health alongside money problems, moral dilemmas, and clashes with the law can be a way to flesh out his character and get us inside his head. Does he feel remorse over his actions or is he indifferent? Depending on if you want him as an anti-villain or straightforward villain, there's plenty of opportunities to show him in a sympathetic or villainous light while out completing jobs just as TSS did.
Final reason to go with him? He's finally cool after Idris Elba brought him to life, why not capitalize on that by using him as a way to shine on spotlight on the sides of Metropolis we don't get to see much? DC seems content to let him slide back into irrelevancy, yet another example of this company failing to do anything with non-Bat characters who succeed outside of the comics, but I obviously don't share their indifference. If Bloodsport can succeed as part of the Suicide Squad I think he can succeed on his own, Peacemaker has and I liked Bloodsport more than Peacemaker.
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Fantasy Tropes I Like Too Much #1
Characters becoming mythology in later stories
Like not even the other direction either. Sure, it’s cool to hear about somebody in myths and then go back and see a POV or meet them through another character or whatever, but on the other end you have a character you’ve followed for maybe hundreds of pages, through hardship and decision, through triumph and tragedy, and then you see them in the history books.
In order for a good story to work, you need to care about your protagonists, so the author has been building up that relationship between you and the characters, meaning that when you see that Painting hanging on the wall in some gallery or a statue in a city depicting their glorious visage you can point and say “hey I know them!”
You just don’t get the same thing in reverse as easily. Bonus points if they get the history wrong and you utterly confuse the reader or any characters who are still around that we’re with the protagonist.
The best I’ve seen this done is in Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series, since you have a whole trilogy set in like 18th-19th century and following your little band of crooks, murders, and weirdos, but then a time jump after book three sends us into the industrial revolution and now those weirdos are the subject of religions and stuff.
Now you’re here watching the new protags going through a graveyard and seeing a statue of Vin and being all “ah, the Ascendant Warrior. What would she have said, were she here, I wonder? She was so wise and powerful if only I was more like her” and you’re reading like “nah man she was a gremlin for the first several years and even after that she was still really murdery”
I want to care about your history, and though this is the most time intensive and difficult way to do it, it’s super super effective for establishing a connection to the world.
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Composer A-Zal Talks ‘Ms. Marvel’ Music and Finally Telling His Own Story
The following article has been posted on August 08, 2022 at 09:17PM:
An Overlooked Tracks News Finding: Here’s an article you might have overlooked. Having a partnership with NewsAPI, we try to catch music entertainment news for you to view, read and possibly enjoy. We will continue to find what’s available in the world of music entertainment, concert information and music releases. But obviously you – the listener and reader are the biggest source for news in your area, so if you can share with us. For right now, look at what we found for you:
“From The Rolling Stone – India Magazine Website – Composer A-Zal Talks ‘Ms. Marvel’ Music and Finally Telling His Own Story”
New York-based composer and pop artist A-Zal aka Atif Afzal.
New York-based Indian music director Atif Afzal has been taking acting and dancing lessons, building his way up to become a pop artist in his own right.
When New York-based, Mumbai-bred composer Atif Afzal linked up with Marvel after years of slogging it out in the music soundtrack space in the U.S., he was tasked with providing a lot of option tracks and working from temp scores, and at the end of it all, he still didn’t know which series (or movie) would feature his music.
He says over a call from New York, “They [Marvel’s team] depend a lot on you once they hire you. I had to work a lot and give a lot of options. They work in code words.” The first time around, the artist was asked to compose a track influenced by Moroccan music. “Adhaan Maghribi” eventually ended up in an episode of Loki last year. As it turns out, he was also tapped for another Marvel project, supplied with similar character outlines and then asked to send in options for background music.
It led to two songs, “Aye Khuda” and “Dheemi Dheemi,” appearing in Ms. Marvel, which concluded its first season last month. A-Zal says once the tracks were picked up, he had to revisit them and get them mixed and mastered again to suit the series. He says about the tracks he composed, “The protagonist [Kamala Khan, portrayed by actor Iman Vellani] is like a young girl. It’s establishing an innocent chemistry between Kamala and Kamran Bhat. They wanted a more profound track, which is more Sufi.”
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It led to the artist enlisting his father and lyricist Aslam Afzal, who wrote Sufi-inspired words for the song, performed by a star-studded lineup of South Asian music. Sure, Ms. Marvel had its trailer and opening title to the first episode punctuated by the unshakable “Blinding Lights” by The Weeknd, but it went on to offer so much more. Everyone from Abida Parveen to Swet Shop Boys, Jai Wolf, Ritviz, Khanvict and Ali Sethi were among the musicians featured, making it a special moment for desi artists.
A-Zal was part of that, entirely on his own terms. While the sync deals for Ms. Marvel probably involved negotiations between Marvel and the likes of Coke Studio Pakistan and major labels, A-Zal was repping his own label, Atif Afzal Music. He says that a lot of labels wanted to represent him when he began producing music for the screen, but he didn’t play into their hands, retaining most of his catalog (A-Zal is represented by BMG in the U.S. and globally for some of his material) under Atif Afzal Music. That’s why the songs from the series still aren’t on streaming yet, since A-Zal is deciding where and how to put them out.
As someone who’s navigated composing for the screen since 2009, A-Zal has seen enough of the music industry’s oft-exploitative mechanisms to know he will always keep his ear to the ground and be an artist on his own terms. Whether that involves setting up his own label or even performing in New York subway stations, he knows what he wants. To that end, up next on the horizon is his own pop career.
He’s been working with acting coaches, trainers and more to take on a pop persona as A-Zal, recently releasing his own version of Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect.” He says, “It’s the song that really lived with me like no other. It’s encouraged me to get out there for something which I had initially set out for.”
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So a piece of “writing advice” I came across was to have your character want something, and then, right when it seems they’re about to get it, yank it away.
Which…what? “Haha, it looked like things were leading up to a satisfying payoff but they didn’t, I’m so brilliant for subverting your expectations!”
That’s just asking the reader to fantasize about eviscerating you. Like that as you stand there with your chitlins uncoiling onto the ground, you hear them, with the part of your awareness that’s not too busy dying, say, “Haha, it looked like you were going to make it to tomorrow with your innards on the inside, but you didn’t, I’m so brilliant for subverting your expectations!”
#god i fucking hate plot twists for the sake of plot twists#MAYBE this meant like at the beginning and then have the character have to recover from it#but honestly a twist like that right at the beginning is only better for having wasted less of my time#that's also one of the lesser problems of isekai#that you establish the protagonist in this world and THEN send them to another#just have them be from there you idiot#even andre norton had that problem in the first witch world novel#and she was the first female sfwa grandmaster#and that was back when that meant something#never waste your reader's time
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Guide to Writing An Unlikable Protagonist
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What is an unlikable main character?
A character whose demeanor is not welcoming, or whose motivations are not sympathetic. However, their antics or perspective is interesting enough to make engaging with their narrative entertaining and worth investing in. They may not be the most pleasant character, or particularly easy to root for, but it remains enjoyable to watch the story unfold with them at the center. We may not like them, but we still care for them. This is the difference between an unlikable protagonist, and a protagonist that is simply bad. Even if we determine that they’re unworthy of sympathy, or that their actions are reprehensible, we remain compelled to empathize.
Secondary Characters
When your protagonist is, by nature, difficult to root for or sympathize with, it’s important that the secondary character’s reasoning for remaining connected to them is clear. Perhaps one character witnessed their upbringing and clearly sees why they behave in particularly unsavory ways. Perhaps another friend is more interested in what the protagonist has to offer than in the protagonist themselves, so they put up with the negative aspects of their personality. One friend may just be extremely insecure in their own right, and has trouble setting boundaries, so the protagonist’s toxic behavior goes largely unchecked because the friend can’t or won’t stand up for themselves. This is an interesting way to explore the story through relationships between characters. Noble and relatable protagonists are easier to do this with, but unlikable protagonists can be very complex and intriguing to the reader when you explore their flaws through their relationships.
Redeemable Qualities
Your protagonist doesn’t have to be likeable, but they have to have some role or characteristics that make it reasonable for a reader to be invested in their story anyway. Wanting a character to prevail is not the only effective means of engaging with a narrative. Even if your protagonist isn’t a delightful person, they can still be a three-dimensional character with better qualities that compete with their flaws. Real people are complex and real people have negative characteristics that can overshadow their positive ones. You have to make it clear to the reader where the protagonist is strong and where they are weak, and how that affects their behavior or mindset. If they’re unlikable for the sake of being a negative character, they’re uninteresting.
Understandable Motivations
The biggest aspect you have to pay attention to, with any character, is demonstrating their motivations. What do they want, what do they think they need, and what do they actually need? What are they willing to do to get it? What are they not willing to sacrifice? Where did this motivation originate, and how does it affect their relationships? Even if a character is altogether unlikable, they can still be interesting and understandable. There are plenty of unpleasant people in the world, and they have a place, but if you’re going to write about one, make them interesting, and give them a reason to be unpleasant.
Interesting, not Annoying
It’s very easy when you’re designing a character to mistake complexity for intrigue. Yes, you want to make your character as realistic as possible and as clear in the reader’s mind as you can, but if you shove a bunch of traits into the protagonist without any real consideration for their implications, you’re going to end up with a convoluted mess of contradiction and plot holes. Be incredibly clear and intentional when setting the tone for an unlikable protagonist. When you instill a new characteristic in the character that becomes visible to the reader, you must account for how that trait impacts the way they react and respond to the conflict. Keep the personal details relevant and clearly connected to the plot, and if you can, show them through relationships with other people rather than in personal monologue. If their mindset is displayed through their narrative action, rather than through their narration or point of view, the reader will register it more objectively, and it will inform their interpretation of the character’s future behavior more effectively.
Common Struggles
~ How do you keep readers invested if they don't like the character?... A protagonist doesn’t have to be pleasant to be interesting. You want your reader to engage with the story, and you’re attempting to depict it through a unique perspective. You want them to be invested out of interest in what’s going to happen in the plot, rather than the protagonist, and part of that is witnessing the protagonist’s arc. They stay to watch how the character evolves and what they learn. They may not be likable by the end, or even redeemed to any extent, but the arc should make sense and it should be interesting to watch. Even if it’s like watching a train wreck, they should be sucked in by the story, and that doesn’t have to solely rely on the protagonist.
~ How do you make it clear that you are not condoning the unlikable character's actions?... Don’t make excuses for the character’s actions through text or subtext, and don’t give them an undeserved happy ending unless that in itself is apart of the overall message. Think about the story you’re trying to tell, and think about what you want the reader to take away from it. If you’re constantly using the narration to make unchallenged excuses and justify the protagonist’s actions, you’re neglecting to consider the reader’s interpretation, whether it’s conscious or subconscious. If they get a happy ending, despite morally reprehensible notable actions, and the intention behind that ending is unclear, you may be sending the wrong message.
~ Should the character become likeable by the end of the story?... Not always. Sometimes the character’s arc is about the reader understanding and developing empathy for the protagonist as they learn more about them. Sometimes it’s focused on establishing that someone doesn’t have to be pleasant to be justified in their behavior or sympathetic when they’re struggling. The character doesn’t have to change their disposition by the end of the story to have undergone a full arc. It’s really about what you’re trying to convey to the reader through the story that should determine what happens to the protagonist by the end.
~ What are the benefits of writing an unlikable main character?... It can depict the story through a unique perspective, and some stories are naturally suitable for a protagonist that is less than delightful. It can add interest and interpretive engagement to a story when you do it right, and unlikable characters can be just as satisfying to watch as they grow and learn.
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The Silent Patient vs The Maidens
I will start by saying that I understand the appeal of these novels as page-turners. They are easy to read and if you want a twisty reveal at the end, you will probably be entertained and satisfied. That being said, I am SO CONFUSED by the near-universal adoration of The Silent Patient and the reasonably positive reception of The Maidens. The weaknesses of the two are strikingly similar, as well, which doesn’t give me much hope of seeing improvement from this guy, though I am intrigued to see whether he keeps repeating the same (apparently successful!!) patterns. These books were at least super fun to hate.
(For context, I read The Maidens for a bookclub I'm in, because several of the members had read and loved The Silent Patient, and one of them gave me a copy of the latter to read on my own time. I loathed The Maidens and then read The SP for comparative purposes. And because I'm a masochist, apparently.)
SPOILER WARNING! Do not read on unless you've finished both books (or unless you care not for spoilers). Sorry if it gets a bit shouty.
Here are the similar weaknesses I noticed in both:
PSEUDO-PSYCHOLOGY
-> Weirdly similar “group therapy” scenes early on where a cartoonishly unstable patient arrives late, disrupts the meeting by throwing something into the middle of the circle, and is asked to join the group after the therapist(s) speechify on the importance of boundaries (HA! None of these therapists would know an appropriate boundary if it kicked them in the ass) and debate whether to “allow” the patient to join. Both scenes are so transparent in their design to establish the credibility/legitimacy of the narrators as therapists, but instead both Theo and Mariana come off as super patronizing. The protagonists are less and less believable as therapists at the stories progress (though at least Theo’s incompetence is explained away by the “twist” at the end; Mariana, on the other hand, is confronted in the opening pages of the novel by a patient who has self-harmed PRETTY extensively, and rather than ensure he get proper medical attention, she essentially throws him a first aid kit and tosses him out the door so she can pour herself a glass of wine and call her niece... and it devolves from there).
-> Ongoing insistence throughout the narrative that one’s childhood trauma entirely explains the warped/dysfunctional way a character behaves or views the world, which is why the books go out of their way to give EVERY potentially violent character a traumatic childhood; when Theo insists that no one ever became an abuser who hadn’t been abused themselves, I wanted to throw the book across the room. (That is a MYTH, SIR. GET OUT OF HERE WITH YOUR ARMCHAIR PSYCHOLOGY.)
-> Female murderers whose pathology boils down to “history of depression” and “traumatized by a male loved one/family member.” Because, as we all know, depression + abuse = murderer!
-> The “therapy” depicted in both books is laughable and so so unrealistic, mostly because neither narrators function as therapists so much as incompetent detectives, obsessively pursuing a case they have no place pursuing (or skill to pursue - both just happen across every clue mostly by way of clunky conversation with all the people who can provide precisely the snippet of info to send them along to the next person, and the next… until all is revealed in a tired, cliched “twist”). Their constant Psych 101 asides were so tiresome and weirdly dated (also, the constant harping on countertransference got so ridiculous that at one point during "therapy" Theo literally attributes his headache and a particular emotion he feels to Alicia, as though the contents of her head are being broadcast directly into his mind... and I'm PRETTY SURE that's not how it works???)
CHARACTERS
-> Psychotherapist narrators with abusive fathers and pretensions of being Sherlock Holmes, which results in both characters crossing ALL KINDS of ethical lines as they invade the personal lives of everyone even tangentially connected to their cases (and, in Theo's case, violate all kinds of patient confidentiality. Yeah, yeah, by the end, that's the least of his offenses, but before you get there, it's baffling that NO ONE is calling him out on this).
-> All female characters are either elderly with hilariously bad advice, monstrous hulking brutes, or beautiful bitches (except for ~MARIANA~, who is Bella Swan-esque in her unawareness of her own attractiveness, despite multiple men trying to get with her almost immediately after meeting her. I'm so tired of beautiful female characters being oblivious to their own hotness. Are we meant to believe all mirrors and male attention have escaped their notice? If it’s to make them “relatable,” this tactic really fails with me).
-> All characters of color are shallow, cartoonish side characters, and most of them are depicted as unsympathetic minor antagonists (the Sikh Chief Inspector in The Maidens continuously drinks tea from an ever-present thermos, and his only other notable characteristic is his instant dislike of Mariana, whom he VERY RIGHTLY warns to stay out of the investigation that she is VERY MUCH compromising… the Caribbean manager of the Grove is universally disliked by her staff for enforcing stricter safety regulations at the bafflingly poorly run mental institution, because HOW DARE SHE. There's a very clear vibe that we're supposed to dislike these characters and share the protagonists' indignation, but honestly Sangha/Stephanie were completely in the right for trying to shut down their wildly inappropriate investigations).
-> "Working class" characters (or basically anyone excluded from the comfortably upper-crust, educated main cadre of characters) are few and far between in both stories, but when they show up, he depicts them as such caricatures. We got Elsie the pathologically lying housekeeper in the Maidens, who is enticed to share her bullshit with cake, and then a TOOTHLESS LEPRECHAUN DEALING DRUGS UNDER A BRIDGE in the SP. I kid you not, a man described as having the body of a child, the face of Father Time, and no front teeth, emerges from beneath a bridge and offers to sell Theo some "grass." I was dyinggg.
-> There are no characters to root for. Anywhere. Partly because they’re all so thinly drawn — and because we’re clearly supposed to view almost ALL of them as potential suspects, so they’re ALL weird, creepy, or incompetent in some way.
-> The flimsiest of flimsy motives, both for the narrators and the murderers. Theo fully would have gotten away with his involvement in the murder if he hadn't gone out of his way to work at the Grove and "treat" Alicia and his justification for doing so is pretty weak; his rapid descent into stalking and murder fantasy and his random ass decision to "expose" Alicia's husband as a cheater with a spur-of-the-moment home invasion and staged attempted homicide is ONLY justified if the reader hand waves it away as WELP, HE'S CRAZY, I GUESS (after all, he DID have an abusive father and a history of mental illness, and in Michaelides novels, that's ALL YOU NEED to become a violent psycho). I guess we're lucky Mariana didn't also start dropping bodies (because the logic of his fictional universe says she should definitely be a murderer by now... maybe that'll be his Maidens sequel?). But she especially had NO reason to randomly turn detective - and she kept trying to justify it by saying she needed to re-enter the world or that Sebastian would want her to (??), even though she had no background in criminal psychology... or even a particular fondness for mysteries (really, I would've accepted ANYTHING to explain her dogged obsession with the case. WHY were Sebastian and Zoe so certain she would insert herself into the investigation just because one of Zoe's friends was the first victim? WHY?). As for Zoe and Alicia, their motives are mere suggestions: they were both abused and manipulated, and voila! Slippery slope to murder.
WRITING STYLE
-> Incessant allusions to Greek tragedy and myth, apparently to provide a sophisticated gloss over the bare-bones writing style, which opts more for telling than showing and frequently indulges in hilariously bizarre analogies. Credit where credit is due — the references to Greek myth are less clunky in the SP, and I liked learning about the Alcestis play/myth, which I hadn’t heard of before - but OMG the entire characterization of Fosca, who we are meant to believe is a professor of Greek tragedy at one of the most respected universities on the planet, is just absurd. His "lecture" on the liminal in Greek tragedy is essentially the Wikipedia page on the Eleusinian Mysteries capped off with some Hallmark-card carpe diem crap. The lecture hall responds with raucous applause, clearly never having heard such vague genius bullshit before.
-> Super clunky and amateurish narrative device of interludes written by another character; Sebastian’s letter reads like a mashup of Dexter monologues and Clarice’s memory of the screaming sheep, but by FAR the worse offender is Alicia’s diary, where we’re supposed to believe she painstakingly recorded ENTIRE CONVERSATIONS, BEAT-BY-BEAT DIALOGUE, even when she’s just been DRUGGED TO THE GILLS with morphine and has mere moments of consciousness left… and even before that, she literally takes the time to write “He's trying the windows and doors! ...Someone’s inside! Someone’s inside the house! ETC ETC” when she thinks her stalker has broken in downstairs. WHO DOES THAT?)
-> Speaking of dialogue, the dialogue is so bad. Based on his bio, Michaelides got a degree in screenwriting, which makes his terrible dialogue even more baffling.
-> HILARIOUSLY rendered voyeur scenes where the narrators spy on couples having sex. Such unintentionally awkward descriptions. First we had Kathy’s climax sounds through the trees and then the bowler hat carefully placed on a tombstone before the gatekeeper plows a student. Again, I died.
PLOT/"TWIST"
-> The CONSTANT red herrings make for such an exhausting read. Michaelides drops anvils with almost every character that are so obviously meant to designate them as suspects in our minds. There is absolutely no subtlety in his misdirections.
-> The “crossover” scene between the SP and The Maidens makes no sense - when in the timeline does Mariana’s story overlap with Theo’s? They confer just before Theo starts working at the Grove, obviously (though Mariana appears to be the one who alerts Theo to the job opening there? Whereas in the SP, Theo has been obsessively tracking Alicia since the murder and had already planned to apply to work there?), but then are we supposed to believe that while Theo has been psychotically pursuing his warped quest to “help” Alicia, he’s also been diligently treating Zoe, so invested in her case that he repeatedly reaches out to Mariana to get her to visit Zoe and even writes Mariana a lengthy letter to convince her to do so??? And then a couple days after The Maidens ends, Theo is arrested???
-> But the thing I really did hate the most is how Michaelides treats his female murderers (who are both also victims themselves) as mere means to deploy a “twist”; there’s no moment spared to encourage our sympathy for Zoe, who was groomed and manipulated by the only trusted father figure in her life, and even after spending a decent amount of time getting to know Alicia via her ridiculous diary, where it’s so apparent that she’s been demeaned, objectified, manipulated, gaslit, and/or used by EVERY man in her life, she’s sent packing to spend the rest of her days in a coma… HOW much more satisfying would it have been for her to succeed in exposing Theo and reclaiming her voice? But no, she basically rolls over when he comes to finish her off (SPEAKING OF — ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THERE ARE NO SECURITY CAMERAS IN THIS INSTITUTE FOR THE CRIMINALLY INSANE????), writes one last diary entry, and drifts off forever. And then a couple pages of nothing later, the story is over. GOODNIGHT, ALICIA!
Both books kept me rolling throughout (by which I mean eye-rolling but also rotfl). Maybe I will check out his next effort — I’m morbidly curious what he’ll turn out. It does leave me wondering whether I should give up on thriller novels entirely, though. Are many of the weaknesses of these novels just characteristic of the genre? Maybe I'm just holding these books to unfair standards? I'm mostly only familiar with thriller films — many of which I think are amazing — but maybe you can get away with more in a film than you can in a novel.
...I really only intended to write a handful of bullet points, but more and more kept coming to mind as I wrote, to the point where subheadings became necessary. Whoopsie.
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Writing Prompts, Pairings, and AUs
I’m excited to announce I am part of the Dragon Age Drunk Writing Circle! Send me a writing prompt (@dadrunkwriting or general) and I’ll do my best to fill it. Check out the list below for character pairings, prompts, and AUs on offer. <3
Update 12 February 2022: I have included a list of completed prompts, and prompts that have been sent to me already, so you can know which ones have or will be filled
Note: Please refrain from sending ‘for anyone’ prompts, if you can. The more specific, the better I can fill the prompt!
Another note: no smut prompts at the moment, but that might change later on. I’ll make an announcement, when that happens. <3
Behold, OCs on offer (I don’t mind writing generic Hawkes or Inquisitors or Wardens, either. But I do like writing my OCs because they’re my babies <3). Click on their names to learn more about them on my Tumblr blog.
Valena Cousland, my warrior Warden who wants to be queen
Solona Hawke, my mage Hawke who just wants a book. and her dog.
Revka Cadash, my non-protagonist, middle-aged dwarven OC who’s the Carta’s leader in Kirkwall. And a ball of chaos. With arrows.
Aranehn Lavellan, my super-reluctant Inquisitor that gets lost in the Hinterlands often and prefers her herb garden over Orlesians. (I don’t blame her <3)
Rana El-Khoury, my modern girl in Thedas. She’s a Lebanese opera singer who hit her head and woke up in Kirkwall. While she can’t fight, she can sing, and quickly establishes herself as a bard in Kirkwall. Likes bringing modern inventions to Kirkwall. Actively searches for a way back home. Love chocolate.
Keep reading under the cut for Pairings, Prompts, AUs and Completed Prompts!
Generic Pairings on Offer/no world-state attached
Romantic (my favorites are bolded)
Fenris x Hawke
Sebastian x Hawke (bonus: Fenris x Sebastian x Hawke love triangle)
Varric Tethras x Hawke, Cassandra, or Inquisitor
Varric x Revka Cadash
Josephine x Inquisitor, especially a Trevelyan (the politics! the drama! the dinner parties with the in-laws! how fun!)
Hawke x Merrill
Morrigan x Alistair
Alistair x Warden
Aveline x Donnic
Hawke x Anders
Cullen x Inquisitor
Solavellan
Platonic/Friendship
pretty much any of the DA2 crew being buddies
Hawke & any of the DA2 crew
Varric & Hawke
Fenris & Sebastian Vael & Donnic
Dorian Pavus & Inquisitor
Varric & Inquisitor
Revka & Inquisitor
Revka & her cousin Edric ‘Dasher’ Cadash (a friend’s Inquisitor, the head of the Fereldan Carta)
Revka & any of her numerous family members
Josephine & Inquisitor
Warden & pretty much anyone from the Origins crew
Warden & Anders
Warden, Hawke, or Inquisitor & a pet of your choice
Revka & a pet of your choice (including her messenger crow, her dracolisk, her pet nug, and/or her terrier)
Songstress and the Swordsman Universe:
Set during my fic, The Songstress and the Swordsman. Songstress takes place during Act 3 of Dragon Age 2, but extends out into pre-Inquisition territory. Sebastian Vael moves to retake his throne, with Fenris as his commander. Much court intrigue, political scheming, assassinations, political marriages, and council meetings ensue.
Romantic
Fenris x Rana El-Khoury
Marian Hawke x Anders
Sebastian Vael x Cecily Seymour (my OC, the Teyrn of Ostwick’s daughter; starts as a political marriage that becomes a love match)
(past) Merrill x Tamlen (this would technically be set in Origins, before the Dalish Warden origin)
Platonic/Friendships
Rana El-Khoury & Varania
Fenris & Sebastian Vael
Fenris & Varania
Fenris & Varric
Fenris & Merrill
Hawke & Isabela
Rana El-Khoury & Merrill
Fenris & Varania’s son, Leto
Girls night with Rana, Cecily, Merrill, and Varania (or any combo of them)
Boys night with Fenris, Donnic, Sebastian, and Varric (or any combo of them)
AU fun!
Modern AU
Band AU (want to read about Fenris playing bass guitar? me, too <3)
Historical AUs like 18th century, Regency, Ancient Greece or Rome
Pretty much anything with Tevinter, Seheron, or Antiva also makes me happy, so if you ever think of a prompt with that setting, that’s cool.
Prompt Lists
Please copy + paste the entire prompt in the ask, so I know exactly what write for you. :) And feel free to elaborate/specify/expand!
Blue’s Epic Scarlet Pimpernel Prompts
Miscellaneous Dialogue Prompts
Nonsexual Acts of Intimacy
Dragon Age Specific Dialogue Prompts
Trope Bingo
Hand Holding
50 Kisses
Prompts with Children
Sensory Prompts
Short and Angsty Prompts
Florence + the Machine Prompts
Winter Holiday Themed Prompts
Completed Prompts:
Scarlet Pimpernel: Hiding from the enemy in a hollowed-out tree (Cullen/ my Inquisitor, Aranehn Lavellan); Coming Soon: Disguised as the enemy agents to escape through the front gates (Hawke/Anders); ‘Lud, madam!’ (Revka Cadash); Coming Soon: "Please, you move too fast." "My heart dictates the pace" (Inquisitor x Josephine Montilyet)
Sensory Prompts: Aloe being slathered on a sunburn (Anders & My Warden, Valena); Fireworks close enough to feel in your chest (Revka Cadash); a shimmer of water droplets in the sun (Fenris / Hawke)
50 Kisses: Coming Soon: "Forehead or cheek kisses" (Hawke x Varric)
Non-Sexual Acts of Intimacy: Holding hands across the table (Sebastian Vael / F!Hawke); Coming Soon: one falling asleep with their head in the other’s lap (Sebastian Vael / F!Hawke); One falling asleep with their head in the other’s lap (Fenris / my oc, Rana); Sharing a dessert (Fenris/Rana El-Khoury, my OC); Coming Soon: Finding the other wearing their clothes (Varric / my oc, Revka Cadash); Coming Soon: Modern Band AU version, adjusting the other’s necklace/accessory (Fenris x Hawke)
Hand Holding: Coming Soon: cold hands in warm hands (pairing TBD); Coming Soon: not really paying attention, both doing something else, but still holding hands (Varric x my OC, Revka Cadash)
Florence + the Machine: I’m not calling you a liar, just don’t lie to me (Cullen / my Inquisitor, Aranehn Lavellan); Coming Soon: ‘It’s a fine romance but it’s left me so undone’ (Fenris / Hawke)
Misc. Dialogue: “You’re supposed to talk me out of this.” (Hawke/Anders); Coming Soon: ‘I will if you will’ (Fenris & Isabela); Coming Soon: ‘You’re supposed to talk me out of this’ (Hawke & Isabela); Coming Soon: “No one has a heart of stone.” (Varric x Cassandra)
DA Dialogue Prompts: ‘I think I’m going mad’ (Anders & my warden, Valena); Coming Soon: "This is why the Maker left.” (Varric x Hawke)
Short & Angsty: ‘You don’t mean that’ (Fenris / my oc Rana El-Khoury); Coming Soon: ‘because I care about you, okay?’ (Varric x my OC, Revka Cadash);
Modern AU: Coming Soon: Varric / Cassandra
Modern Band AU: ‘and there was only one (tour bus) bed’ with Fenris, adjusting the other’s necklace/accessory (Fenris x Hawke)
I can’t find the prompt list for it: Coming Soon: ‘Right now, the only duty I care about is to you’ (platonic Aveline & my OC, Solona Hawke);
#writing prompt#prompts#inbox open#dragon age#dragon age fanfiction#dadwc#da drunk writing circle#send me a prompt#if you'd like#<3
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so i saw your post regarding ruby rose dismenbering a man and i need to ask... are you talking about Tyrian? the Serial-killer who's working with the evil witch who's trying to destroy the world? the guy who had only a few minutes before announced that he wanted to kidnap her and tried to kill her friends? And who had just poisoned her uncle with his tail, and thats why hed had cut his tail of? Like in kind of confused about your point because you made it sound like Tyrian was just some random dude she attacked for no reason and i want to engage in good faith here
You said you wanted to engage in good faith so I'm taking that at face value and using this to elaborate my point:
So I made that original post at around 3am when I was fed up enough with the show's ableism to share my own opinions on the part of the series that bothered me the most. So forgive me if the wording wasn't the most clear.
I am not here to argue on the morality of the characters. Tyrian is a bad guy; he's obviously evil and never in my post did I state otherwise. I figured we all knew that was a given, but I've quickly learned that unless something is clearly stated in bold letters, people will just make their own assumptions. This is my first time engaging with the rwby fandom so that's my bad. Ruby's actions in the situation were fine. It was self defense and perfectly understandable, I have no issue with that. My issue lies with the placement of her actions within the show and how the writers decided to treat them.
The scene where Tyrian gets his tail cut off happens in volume four. At this point in time, the main characters are split up because of the aftermath of the fall of beacon. One of the major parts of this aftermath is Yang getting her arm cut off. In the first half of the volume they spend a lot of time establishing how traumatic this was for her, and how she's coping with it. She struggles in coming to terms with how this change will affect the rest of her life. How well RT depicted this struggle is a topic for another day, but they tried. They established the idea that amputation is a serious thing that has lasting consequences and should be treated as such.
And then they go and cut Tyrian's tail off.
Here's where my issues come in: up until this point the show had conveyed the aforementioned tone toward disability. And that on its own was well and good. Then they introduce Tyrian, a character which you're not really supposed to like. He's violent, out for blood, and has a clear mission of harm. They then reveal that he's a faunus with a scorpion tail, and we're introduced to a new and dangerous fighting style. One episode later, and that faunus trait is severed from him. Afterwards? Not another mention of it, aside from Tyrian quietly getting a new prosthetic made in the background.
The main problem lies in the presentation of Yang's and Tyrian's events. We all remember how Yang lost her arm. This dramatic, cinematic shot that slows down time and replaces blood with glittering yellow lights. It's obviously a big deal. Then we have Tyrian losing his stinger: a harsh and violent shot, that makes sure to linger on how he writhes in pain before calling Ruby a bitch. It's very clear which one of these presentations gets the favoritism here. One is prettied up and artsy, and the other is cruel and unforgiving.
Viewing these two framings of limb loss in juxtaposition--especially considering their close proximity time wise--sends a very clear message. Only the good guys get their disabilities treated with dignity. "If you're one of the protagonists, of course you deserve to have your disability respected! But if you're an antagonist, we have free reign to be as insensitive with the topic as we want, because, well, it doesn't matter when it comes to you does it? We get to pick and choose when we want to handle serious topics with tact."
My issue was never with Ruby as a character defending herself. It was with the writer's respectful establishment of Yang's character arc regarding disability, and how immediately throwing that respect out of the window with Tyrian felt like a slap in the face.
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No Hero [And Not Made Of Stone]
...I’ve got nothing. Not even sure where the idea came from, but as per usual, the moment my brain had an idea it immediately took it by both hands and ran with it so here you go. Name for this AU might change, but for now here have another song lyric [from Five Finger Death Punch’s “Wrong Side of Heaven”]
Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Warnings: mild profanity, dysfunctional families, a metric buttload of gender and identity issues, because the protagonist is a possibly agender character [their stance on gender can be summed up as “huh, those parts are new. Weird. Moving on”]. Not exactly Tony-friendly at times, but not for the reasons you’d think.
To sum up: haven’t done a SI-OC fic before, let’s see how it goes. Under the cut, because RIP mobile users otherwise.
.
Justin Hammer’s name wasn’t always Justin Hammer.
He doesn’t really remember what it was anymore, but he knows that much.
.
Honestly? This ‘memories of another world’ thing was more a pain in the ass than anything else, at least at first.
It might’ve been cool if they remembered something useful— concrete dates, specific innovations, hell, even any tips of what stocks to invest in— but no, they had to get short end of the stick with weird dreams, identity crises, and a longing for a family they’d never had.
Oh, and another round of puberty, because of why the hell not. Like last time hadn’t been enough of a pain in the ass.
Ugh. They wanted a refund.
.
...okay, so it probably could’ve been worse.
Justin has vague recollections of going to sleep hungry, of huddling with their younger sibling under blankets because their parents couldn’t pay the electrical bill— so really, in the great scheme of things, being born as part of the 1% this round was. Something.
Trippy as hell, is what it was, honestly.
This family was loaded, and under other circumstances, they might’ve even been able to enjoy it— if, y’know, they hadn’t had the incredibly shitty luck of being born two years before Tony Stark.
.
“Look at what he’s doing, that could be you” this, “study hard, he’s going to be your rival” that— geez, if any other kid had been in Justin’s shoes, he would not have envied them.
If he didn’t already have a firmly established sense of self, it would have been a mindfuck of a childhood because for some reason, his father kept comparing them? And yeah, Justin could kinda see some of the parallels— they were about the same age, both firstborn sons and heirs to their parents’ respective companies— but that’s about where the similarities ended.
Look, Justin wasn’t a genius, okay? He was fairly bright for his age, but...he wasn’t a one-in-a-million prodigy. And, up until he was 6, that had been acceptable.
But then the press went wild because oh, look, Howard’s son built a circuit board at age four, and it all went downhill from there because suddenly, being normal wasn’t good enough. Not for his parents, anyway.
.
Sometimes, he wondered what would’ve happened if it had been another kid in his shoes— how they would’ve handled the small army of private tutors and the extra classes they kept being signed up for in the hopes of finding something they excelled in.
The pressure of constantly being compared to a once-in-a-generation prodigy, and always being found wanting.
Justin wasn’t afraid of hard work— but it was grating, even for him.
Really, just about the only silver lining to this ‘second life’ thing was his adorable little sister, Stephanie.
She, at least, looked up to him: her gap-toothed smile didn’t hold any expectations for anything other than the piggyback rides he regularly offered, and this time he didn’t even have to worry about medical bills, or—
Anyway.
.
His family and the Starks run in the same social circles, because of course they do.
Now that he’s getting older, Justin’s being dragged along to all of the fancy shindigs with his parents, and it’s only due to two lifetimes’ worth of self-control that keeps his polite smile from wavering when he’s introduced to the bane of his existence.
“Hi, my name’s Tony Stark.” The little brat said, and Justin bit back a sigh as he shook his hand.
.
...so, the Stark heir his father wanted to be his rival was a kid. Actually a kid, which just made this mess that much more pathetic because part of Justin had almost been starting to want to buy into this rivalry thing, but.
In this life, and the last one, they’d been an older sibling.
This time, despite everything, he could tell he was softer— he had never gone to bed hungry, never had to worry about the roof over his head, or being solely responsible for his younger sibling’s health and safety— but.
Old habits die hard.
.
Of course Justin’s father hears “the Starks are sending their seven-year-old heir to boarding school” and thinks “good idea, why didn’t I think of that?”
Of course.
Of fucking course.
Steph had cried when they’d packed their things, and for that alone, Justin would never forgive their parents.
.
The other brats at boarding school are more invested in the Hammer-Stark rivalry than they are.
...this was going to be a long 9 years, wasn’t it.
.
One of the perks to going to one of the most elite boarding schools in the world was the options. Certainly, Justin doubted other places offered skiing and fencing and over eleven languages in their electives.
Not that he was complaining: it was definitely a way to keep busy, certainly much better than the constant attempts at one-upmanship that came part and parcel with cramming the richest heirs, heiresses, and honest-to-goodness royalty in one place.
At the end of the day, though, they were all kids. Bratty, entitled little shits who were still at the stage where they constantly went “my father will hear about this!” and Justin had way better things to do with his time than engage in those petty little playground attempts at power plays.
So he dove into everything the school had to offer, bouncing from elective to elective like a ping pong ball, and trying not to think too hard as to why Spanish had come so easily to him, though he’d never studied it before— or why he’d felt a pang when the instructor had congratulated him on his accent.
.
Somewhere down the line, Justin...kinda made a name for himself? Apparently?
Ugh, they’d never understand these people.
.
Okay, so apparently he’d kinda become an older brother figure of sorts to the brats around here? Somehow? Even though he hadn’t exactly been planning on doing anything of the sort when he saw an underclassman struggling during practice, or stopped fights before they could start in the common room because he’d just sat down and didn’t have the patience to move all his stuff somewhere else to study.
Didn’t make sense to him, but apparently it was enough for some of the professors to write ‘good leadership skills’ on his transcripts, so whatever.
As a bonus, it made his old man happy. Not that Justin gave a damn about what he thought about him personally, but the increase in his ‘allowance’ [it was in the triple digits, like hell he was calling it that] was nice.
.
Among the hobbies Justin bounced between, there were a few that raised more eyebrows than others.
Knitting, for instance, was something some of the more annoying brats liked to laugh about. They eased up when they found out he sent the scarves and hats he made to his little sister, but... eh, whatever.
Sewing, too— apparently it was okay if it was framed as a Boy Scout-esque ‘know the basics so you can always be prepared!’ way, but the moment he did any sort of embroidery there went his respectability.
Well, at least nobody gave him a hard time about cooking. But then, his chilaquiles had some of these guys’ eyes watering just from the smell of it, so.
It still didn’t sit well with him sometimes— kinda like how puberty had Not Been Fun on a number on levels, but hey, if all else failed, he could just ignore it harder.
It hadn’t failed him yet.
.
Stephanie insisted on going to boarding school with him when she got to the age he’d been shipped off at.
It was...nice, having his little sister around again.
.
It was a good thing Justin had been okay with being designated the heir of Hammer Industries, because Steph was... exactly like he remembered her.
Cheerful, upbeat, startlingly devious and manipulative when she wanted to be, and just a tad bit spoiled.
...okay, so Justin had probably contributed a bit to that last one. In his defense, he’d been doing his best to shield his sister from the staggeringly high expectations he himself had to deal with, but look, he wanted at least one of them to have some semblance of a happy childhood, okay?
Goodness knew he hadn’t [not this time, nor the last].
.
Stephanie wasn’t interested in the family business, was more interested in pursuing a career in the arts.
Justin, of course, encouraged her wholeheartedly.
Their parents weren’t entirely happy about it, but...wasn’t like they had much to complain about. Not when Justin was always in the top ten of his year, not when the professors practically gushed over his responsibility and work ethic.
He was no Tony Stark, but he’d made a name for himself nonetheless.
.
“So, we’re supposed to be rivals?” The bane of his existence said once, at yet another gala. “Howard says so, anyway.”
“Seems that way,” Justin shrugged as they pilfered a flute from a nearby table, carefully not commenting on how he’d referred to his father by his first name. Talk about a strained relationship, right there.
“You’re not really acting like one.”
“Well,” Justin sipped at his flute before making a face when he discovered it was champagne and not apple cider like he’d hoped, “it’s nothing personal, just business. Healthy competition, y’know? Someone’s got to.”
Stark eyed him for a moment, before giving him a brilliant smile. “You know, I think I’d like that.”
.
Justin would never, ever understand these people.
.
In the time Justin Hammer got his degree in business, Tony Stark got several Ph.Ds.
Not that he envied him: the idea of being shoved into the limelight after losing his entire family? Hard pass.
.
For some reason, Tony Stark seemed to think they were friends.
Why.
Sure, Justin tried to be as cordial with him as he did with anyone else, but... how on Earth did that translate into being friends?
.
“You look at him like he’s a kid,” Steph says once, laughing, “you look at all of us that way, haven’t you noticed?”
“Well, to be fair—”
“You’re only a few years older than us, but you keep acting like you’re dad. More like a dad than our actual dad, sometimes,” her smile dropped for a moment, “don’t think I forgot that time he didn’t even call for your birthday.”
Justin made a face. “But what’s that got to do with anything?”
She sighed, then gave him a smile and a look he couldn’t decipher. “You’ll figure it out eventually.”
.
By the time Justin Hammer became the CEO of Hammer Industries, Tony Stark had held the same post in his company for over half a decade.
Yet...well, something weird was going on.
Maybe it was because Justin’d had more time to prepare for the cutthroat world that was the defense industry, but—
For some reason, he couldn’t help but think Tony was softer than he’d thought.
No-brainer contracts that would have been a cinch to broker, passed over simply because their distributors didn’t pass their incredibly high standards; buyers who wanted in, but whose past associations— very, very far in the past— meant SI didn’t even consider them.
Justin couldn’t understand it.
For someone in the industry, Stark’s morals were...unusual. Respectable, from one perspective, but remarkably naive from any self-respecting businessman who wanted to turn a profit.
He was fairly certain the only reason Stark Industries was considered number one in the sector was because of the constant influx of new designs; they just were turning down too many contracts for him to consider otherwise.
Sure, sometimes Hammer weapons found themselves in the wrong hands— much more often than Stark weapons, regrettably— but it was one of the hazards that came with the business. They’d both known it from the get-go; Stark weapons were considered the best for a reason, even though somewhere down the line, his company’d gotten a reputation for no-frills dependability and ruggedness to the point where unscrupulous individuals would do anything to get their hands on either. Wasn’t like there was anything they could do about it, not when money talked in ways laws didn’t.
Why Stark was so hung up over it, he just. Couldn’t wrap his head around.
.
Stark was proclaimed dead, and there was strong evidence to indicate the attackers had been using his guns.
...well, fuck.
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“This is fine,” Justin muttered as his personal headache proceeded to come back from the dead only to say his company was going to stop doing the thing it was known for and making an ungodly mess in the stock market while at it, “it’s not like it affects me, anyway.”
.
Overnight, Hammer Industries became number one in the defense sector.
Justin was not a happy camper about the spotlight.
Even more so, when he had to take additional measures so his sister could continue enjoy the privacy she’d had after pursuing her dreams as an artist because the press didn’t want to leave well enough alone.
.
“You know, you could’ve given me a warning.” Justin scowled when he saw Tony at the next gala.
“You handled it well enough, didn’t you?”
Ugh.
His headache was back, and worst part was, the smile he got more than made up for it.
.
...and then I kinda ran out of steam.
tl;dr: MCU canon had Justin Hammer as a foil to Tony Stark, here their dynamic is more along the lines of Beethoven and Mozart [one really respecting the other’s genius, and working their butt off to get to that level of respectability and general acclaim].
in this AU, Stark Industries is kind of like Apple— very futuristic high-tech stuff, all the bells and whistles going on, etc, whereas Hammer Industries is the Nokia in this analogy: not fancy in the slightest but as close to indestructible as it gets.
#No Hero [And Not Made Of Stone]#No Hero [Downward Descending]#My writing#character study of sorts#fic idea#fic ideas#3 am musings#kinda#also#does it count if said 'fic idea' is over 2k long?
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Philip K. Dick, For Dummies.
I’ve been researching PK.D for a few years now, as he’s my father’s favourite author and I’ve been watching movie and show adaptations of his work for the longest time. I have personally only read the books listed, here’s the order (I think) you should read them in, based on difficulty level and the knowledge you need of the PKD canon to understand the books that follow. This is purely my opinion based on knowledge of the author.
by philip-k’s-dick (lol)
Beginner. (These books and stories allow readers to explore Dick’s pet themes and stylistic quirks without falling too far down the rabbit hole)
The Short Stories: Over the course of his life, PKD wrote somewhere in the range of 150 short stories. Naturally, it would be silly of me to dump all of them on you at once, but undeniably, the shorter format allows the big ideas of Dick’s work to come through more clearly, and even the screwier stories conform to relatively coherent shape, making them an excellent jumping off point, especially for an author who wrote almost nonstop throughout his life.
My Favourites:
In The Days of Perky Pat - In this novel, survivors of a global thermonuclear war live in isolated enclaves in California, surviving off what they can scrounge from the wastes and supplies delivered from Mars. The older generation spend their leisure time playing with the eponymous doll in an escapist role-playing game that recalls life before the apocalypse — a way of life that is being quickly forgotten. At the story's climax, a couple from one isolated outpost of humanity plays a game against the dwellers of another outpost (who play the game with a doll similar to Perky Pat dubbed "Connie Companion") in deadly earnest. The survivors' shared enthusiasm for the Perky Pat doll and the creation of her accessories from vital supplies is a sort of mass delusion that prevents meaningful re-building of the shattered society. In stark contrast, the children of the survivors show absolutely no interest in the delusion and have begun adapting to their new life.
(Elements of the story were later incorporated into Dick's novel The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, written in 1964 and published in 1965, in which a Perky Pat simulation game is induced by drugs and miniature models instead. Palmer Eldritch is not a continuation or sequel however.)
What the Dead Men Say - Death is followed by a period of 'half-life', a short amount of time which can be rationed out over long periods in which the dead can be revived—so that, potentially, they can 'live' on for a long time. When attempts to bring back important businessman Louis Sarapis fail, it's clearly more than mere negligence. Sure enough, Sarapis starts speaking from beyond the grave. From outer space, in fact. Yet no-one seems terribly bothered, other than those directly concerned in the plot mechanics. Eventually entire communications networks (phones, TV, radio) are blocked by Sarapis' broadcasts
(Philip's later novel Ubik is a continuation of What the Dead Men Say)
Autofac - Three men wait outside their settlement for an automated delivery truck. Five years earlier, during the Total Global Conflict, a network of hardened automatic factories ("autofacs") had been set up with cybernetic controls that determine what food and consumer goods to manufacture and deliver. Human input had been lost, and the men planned disruption to try to establish communication and take over control. They destroy the delivery, but the truck radios the autofac and unloads an identical replacement, then prevents them from reloading items. They act out being disgusted with the milk delivery and are given a complaints checklist. In a blank space, they write improvised semantic garble—"the product is thoroughly pizzled". The autofac sends a humanoid data collector that communicates on an oral basis, but is not capable of conceptual thought, and they are unable to persuade the network to shut down before it consumes all resources. Their next strategy sets neighbouring autofacs in competition with each other for rare resources and seemingly succeeds, but there is a hidden level
Beyond Lies The Wub - Peterson, a crew member of a spaceship loading up with food animals on Mars, buys an enormous pig-like creature known as a "wub" from a native just before departure. Franco, his captain, is worried about the extra weight but seems more concerned about its taste, as his ship is short of food. However, after takeoff, the crew realizes that the wub is a very intelligent creature, capable of telepathy and maybe even mind control.
Peterson and the wub spend time discussing mythological figures and the travels of Odysseus. Captain Franco, paranoid after an earlier confrontation with the Wub which left him temporarily paralyzed, bursts in and insists on killing and eating the wub. The crew becomes very much opposed to killing the sensitive creature after it makes a plea for understanding, but Franco still makes a meal out of him. At the dinner table, Captain Franco apologises for the "interruption" and resumes the earlier conversation between Peterson and the Wub - which now has apparently taken over the Captain's body
Human Is - Jill Herrick and her husband Lester are in the middle of an argument. Lester deflects his wife’s claim that he is “hideous” with cold indifference. He tells her that he will not allow their child in the house and will have him removed to government custody because he is interfering with his research. Before the distraught Jill can pass this onto their son Gus, Lester gets news that he will be taking a trip to Rexor IV. Despite Jill’s desire to go there and see the planet, Lester insists that he will go alone.
Later Jill tells her brother Frank and she is going to leave Lester. She explains how happy she has been with Lester gone and how he seems to be getting worse every year of their marriage. More cold and more “ruthless,” not to mention the incessant working.
Lester comes home a very different man. He praises Jill’s cooking and expresses disgust with his work on Rexor IV studying toxins. He says he prefers Terra and being home with his wife.
Jill reports these changes to Frank, while Lester is playing in the room with Gus. Frank has Lester brought to a lab for more studies under the guidance of the Federal Clearance agency. Before long they realize that Lester has had his body taken over by a Rexorian.
The Hanging Stranger - The protagonist, Ed Loyce, is a store owner who is disturbed when he sees a stranger hanging from a lamppost, but finds that other people consider the apparent lynching unremarkable.
He finds evidence that alien insects have taken over, manages to get out of town, talks to the police commissioner, who believes him, and after getting all the information about what Ed knows, explains that the body was hung to see if anyone reacted to it, anyone they didn't have control over. He then takes Ed outside and hangs him from a lamppost.
The Commuter - Ed Jacobson is a railway worker at Woking station. His life takes a turn for the worse when his son, Sam, begins experiencing psychotic episodes. When he is selling rail tickets at work, a young woman named Linda asks for a ticket to a destination called Macon Heights that is not listed on any map.
The Minority Report - In a future society, three mutants foresee all crime before it occurs. Plugged into a great machine, these "precogs" allow a division of the police called Precrime to arrest suspects before they can commit any actual crimes. When the head of Precrime, John Anderton, is himself predicted to murder a man whom he has never met, Anderton is convinced a great conspiracy is afoot
Full Books:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter for the San Francisco Police Department, is assigned to "retire" (kill) six androids of the new and highly intelligent Nexus-6 model which have recently escaped from Mars and traveled to Earth. These androids are made of organic matter so similar to a human's that only a posthumous "bone marrow analysis" can independently prove the difference, making them almost impossible to distinguish from real people. Deckard hopes this mission will earn him enough bounty money to buy a live animal to replace his lone electric sheep to comfort his depressed wife Iran. Deckard visits the Rosen Association's headquarters in Seattle to confirm the accuracy of the latest empathy test meant to identify incognito androids. Deckard suspects the test may not be capable of distinguishing the latest Nexus-6 models from genuine human beings, and it appears to give a false positive on his host in Seattle, Rachael Rosen, meaning the police have potentially been executing human beings. The Rosen Association attempts to blackmail Deckard to get him to drop the case, but Deckard retests Rachael and determines that Rachael is, indeed, an android, which she ultimately admits.
Clans of the Alphane Moon - War between Earth and insectoid-dominated Alpha III ended over a decade ago. (According to the novel, "Alphane" refers to the nearest star to our own system, Alpha Centauri). Some years after the end of hostilities, Earth intends to secure its now independent colony in the Alphane system, Alpha III M2. As a former satellite-based global psychiatric institution for colonists on other Alphane system worlds unable to cope with the stresses of colonisation, the inhabitants of Alpha III M2 have lived peacefully for years. But, under the pretence of a medical mission, Earth intends to take their colony back.
Against this background, Chuck Rittersdorf and his wife Mary are separating. Although they think they are going their separate ways, they soon find themselves together again on Alpha III M2. Mary travels there through government work, Chuck sees it as a chance to kill Mary using his remote control simulacrum. Along the way he is guided by his Ganymedean slime mould neighbour Lord Running Clam and Mary finds herself manipulated by the Alphane sympathiser, comedian Bunny Hentman.
The Man in the High Castle - In 1962, 15 years after Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany have won World War II, Robert "Bob" Childan owns an Americana antique shop in San Francisco, California (located in the Japanese-occupied Pacific States of America), which is most commonly frequented by the Japanese, who make a fetish of romanticized American cultural artifacts. Childan is contacted by Nobusuke Tagomi, a high-ranking Japanese trade official, who is seeking a gift to impress a visiting Swedish industrialist named Baynes. Childan's store is stocked in part with counterfeit antiques from the Wyndam-Matson Corporation, a metalworking company. Frank Frink (formerly Fink), a secretly Jewish-American veteran of World War II, has just been fired from the Wyndam-Matson factory, when he agrees to join a former co-worker to begin a handcrafted jewellery business. Meanwhile, Frink's ex-wife, Juliana, works as a judo instructor in Canon City, Colorado (in the neutral buffer zone of Mountain States), where she begins a sexual relationship with an Italian truck driver and ex-soldier, Joe Cinnadella. Throughout the book, many of these characters frequently make important decisions using prophetic messages they interpret from the I Ching, a Chinese cultural import. Many characters are also reading a widely banned yet extremely popular new novel, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, which depicts an alternate history in which the Allies won World War II in 1945, a concept that amazes and intrigues its readers.
Frink reveals that the Wyndam-Matson Corporation has been supplying Childan with counterfeit antiques, which works to blackmail Wyndam-Matson for money to finance Frink's new jewelry venture. Tagomi and Baynes meet, but Baynes repeatedly delays any real business as they await an expected third party from Japan. Suddenly, the public receives news of the death of the Chancellor of Germany, Martin Bormann, after a short illness. Childan tentatively, on consignment, takes some of Frink's "authentic" new metalwork and attempts to curry favour with a Japanese client, who surprisingly considers Frink's jewelry immensely spiritually alive. Juliana and Joe take a road trip to Denver, Colorado and Joe impulsively decides they should go on a side-trip to meet the mysterious Hawthorne Abendsen, author of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, who supposedly lives in a guarded fortress-like estate called the "High Castle" in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Soon, Joseph Goebbels is announced as the new German Chancellor.
Intermediate. (These are the books to pick up once you have the basics of what makes a PKD novel down. They’re obtuse enough to hit a little heavier, but don’t provide the full dose of surrealism Dick was capable of serving up. This is also good spot to jump in if you’ve experienced weird fiction before.)
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said - The novel is set in a dystopian version of 1988, following a Second Civil War which led to the collapse of the United States' democratic institutions. The National Guard ("nats") and US police force ("pols") reestablished social order through instituting a dictatorship, with a "Director" at the apex, and police marshals and generals as operational commanders in the field. Resistance to the regime is largely confined to university campuses, where radicalized former university students eke out a desperate existence in subterranean kibbutzim. Recreational drug use is widespread, and the age of consent has been lowered to twelve. The black population has almost been rendered extinct. Most commuting is undertaken by personal aircraft, allowing great distances to be covered in little time.
The novel begins with the protagonist, Jason Taverner, a singer, hosting his weekly TV show which has an audience of 30 million viewers. His special guest is his girlfriend Heather Hart, also a singer. Both Hart and Taverner are "Sixes", members of an elite class of genetically engineered humans. While leaving the studio, Taverner is telephoned by a former lover, who asks him to pay her a visit. When Taverner arrives at her apartment, the former lover attacks him by throwing a parasitic life-form at him. Although he manages to remove most of the life-form, parts of it are left inside him. After being rescued by Hart, he is taken to a medical facility.
Waking up the following day in a seedy hotel with no identification, Taverner becomes worried, as failure to produce identification at one of the numerous police checkpoints would lead to imprisonment in a forced labor camp. Through a succession of phone calls made from the hotel to colleagues and friends who now claim not to know him, Taverner establishes that he is no longer recognized by the outside world. He soon manages to bribe the hotel's clerk into taking him to Kathy Nelson, a forger of government documents. However, Kathy reveals that both she and the clerk are police informants, and that the lobby clerk has placed a microscopic tracking device on him. She promises not to turn Taverner over to the police on the condition that he spend the night with her. Although he attempts to escape, Kathy confronts him again after he has successfully passed a police checkpoint using the forged identity cards. Feeling in her debt, he accompanies Kathy to her apartment block, where Inspector McNulty, Kathy's police handler, is waiting. McNulty has located Taverner via the tracking device the hotel lobby clerk placed on him, and instructs Taverner to come with him to the 469th Precinct police station so that further biometric identity checks can be performed.
Time out of Joint - Ragle Gumm lives in the year 1959 in a quiet American suburb. His unusual profession consists of repeatedly winning the cash prize in a local newspaper contest called "Where Will The Little Green Man Be Next?". Gumm's 1959 has some differences from ours: the Tucker car is in production, AM/FM radios are scarce to non-existent, and Marilyn Monroe is a complete unknown. As the novel opens, strange things begin to happen to Gumm. A soft-drink stand disappears, replaced by a small slip of paper with the words "SOFT-DRINK STAND" printed on it in block letters. Intriguing little pieces of the real 1959 turn up: a magazine article on Marilyn Monroe, a telephone book with non-operational exchanges listed and radios hidden away in someone else's house. People with no apparent connection to Gumm, including military pilots using aircraft transceivers, refer to him by name. Few other characters notice these or experience similar anomalies; the sole exception is Gumm's supposed brother-in-law, Victor "Vic" Nielson, in whom he confides. A neighborhood woman, Mrs. Keitelbein, invites him to a civil defense class where he sees a model of a futuristic underground military factory. He has the unshakeable feeling he's been inside that building many times before.
Confusion gradually mounts for Gumm. His neighbor Bill Black knows far more about these events than he admits, and, observing this, begins worrying: "Suppose Ragle [Gumm] is becoming sane again?" In fact, Gumm does become sane, and the deception surrounding him (erected to protect and exploit him) begins to unravel
Ubik - By the year 1992, humanity has colonized the Moon and psychic powers are common. The protagonist, Joe Chip, is a debt-ridden technician working for Runciter Associates, a "prudence organization" employing "inertials"—people with the ability to negate the powers of telepaths and "precogs"—to enforce the privacy of clients. The company is run by Glen Runciter, assisted by his deceased wife Ella who is kept in a state of "half-life", a form of cryonic suspension that allows the deceased limited consciousness and ability to communicate. While consulting with Ella, Runciter discovers that her consciousness is being invaded by another half-lifer named Jory Miller
Difficult. (This section comes with a caveat: within these novels you will encounter numerous hallucinations, drug trips, an entire trilogy about gnostic spirituality and mental illness, and more than a little unabashed nightmare fuel. It’s normal to get tangled up in what goes on in these books. It’s also normal to be weirded out. But with proper grounding, you’ll make it though with your faculties intact. Probably.)
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch - The story begins in a future world where global temperatures have risen so high that in most of the world it is unsafe to be outside without special cooling gear during daylight hours. In a desperate bid to preserve humanity and ease population burdens on Earth, the UN has initiated a "draft" for colonizing the nearby planets, where conditions are so horrific and primitive that the unwilling colonists have fallen prey to a form of escapism involving the use of an illegal drug (Can-D) in concert with "layouts." Layouts are physical props intended to simulate a sort of alternative reality where life is easier than either the grim existence of the colonists in their marginal off-world colonies, or even Earth, where global warming has progressed to the point that Antarctica is prime vacation resort territory. The illegal drug Can-D allows people to "share" their experience of the "Perky Pat" (the name of the main female character in the simulated world) layouts. This "sharing" has caused a pseudo-religious cult or series of cults to grow up around the layouts and the use of the drug.
Up to the point where the novel begins, New York City-based Perky Pat (or P.P.) Layouts, Inc., has held a monopoly on this product, as well as on the illegal trade in the drug Can-D which makes the shared hallucinations possible.
The novel opens shortly after Barney Mayerson, P.P. Layouts' top precog, has received a "draft notice" from the UN for involuntary resettlement as a colonist on Mars. Mayerson is sleeping with his assistant, Roni Fugate, but remains conflicted about the divorce, which he himself initiated, from his first wife Emily, a ceramic pot artist. Meanwhile, Emily's second husband tries to sell her pot designs to P.P. Layouts as possible accessories for the Perky Pat virtual worlds—but Barney, recognizing them as Emily's, rejects them out of spite.
A Scanner Darkly - When performing his work as an undercover agent, Arctor goes by the name "Fred" and wears a "scramble suit" that conceals his identity from other officers. Then he is able to sit in a police facility and observe his housemates through "holo-scanners", audio-visual surveillance devices that are placed throughout the house. Arctor's use of the drug causes the two hemispheres of his brain to function independently or "compete". When Arctor sees himself in the videos saved by the scanners, he does not realize that it is him. Through a series of drug and psychological tests, Arctor's superiors at work discover that his addiction has made him incapable of performing his job as a narcotics agent. They do not know his identity because he wears the scramble suit, but when his police supervisor suggests to him that he might be Bob Arctor, he is confused and thinks it cannot be possible.
Donna takes Arctor to "New-Path", a rehabilitation clinic, just as Arctor begins to experience the symptoms of Substance D withdrawal. It is revealed that Donna has been a narcotics agent all along, working as part of a police operation to infiltrate New-Path and determine its funding source. Without his knowledge, Arctor has been selected to penetrate the organization. As part of the rehab program, Arctor is renamed "Bruce" and forced to participate in cruel group-dynamic games, intended to break the will of the patients
(If this one seems difficult to wrap your mind around, that's because its a fictionalized account of real events, and you may need to read about Philip's life at the time to understand the autobiographical nature of the book.)
The VALIS Trilogy
(Fictionalized account of religious experiences in PKD’s life.)
VALIS - In March, 1974, Horselover Fat (the alter-personality of Philip K. Dick) experiences visions of a pink beam of light that he calls Zebra and interprets as a theophany exposing hidden facts about the reality of our universe, and a group of others join him in researching these matters. One of their theories is that there is some kind of alien space probe in orbit around Earth, and that it is aiding them in their quest; it also aided the United States in disclosing the Watergate scandal and the resignation of Richard Nixon in August, 1974. Kevin turns his friends onto a film called Valis that contains obvious references to revelations identical to those that Horselover Fat has experienced, including what appears to be time dysfunction. The film is itself a fictional account of an alternative-universe version of Nixon ("Ferris F. Fremount") and his fall, engineered by a satellite called valis. (The plot of the fictitious film Valis was that of Dick's then-unpublished novel Radio Free Albemuth.) In seeking the film's makers, Kevin, Phil, Fat, and David—now calling themselves the Rhipidon Society—head to an estate owned by popular musician Eric Lampton and his wife Linda. They decide the goal that they have been led toward is Sophia Lampton, who is two-years old and the Messiah or incarnation of Holy Wisdom (Pistis Sophia) anticipated by some variants of Gnostic Christianity. In addition to healing Phil's schizophrenic personality split, she tells them that their conclusions about valis (which Fat had previously termed "Zebra") and reality are correct, and more importantly, that we should worship, not gods, but humanity. She dies two days later due to a laser accident caused by Brent Mini. Undeterred, Fat (who has now resurged) goes on a global search for the next incarnation of Sophia.
Dick also offers a rationalist explanation of his apparent theophany, acknowledging that it might have been visual and auditory hallucinations from either schizophrenia or drug addiction sequelae.
Characters:
Phil (Philip K. Dick): Narrator (first person), science fiction writer, author of Man in the High Castle, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and Three Stigmata.
Horselover Fat: Narrator (third person), a schizophrenic modality of Phil himself. (Philip in Greek means "fond of horses"; dick is German for "fat".)
Gloria Knudson: Suicidal friend of Fat's who Fat is unable to save.
Kevin: Cynical friend of Fat's whose cat died running across the street, based on K. W. Jeter.
Sherri Solvig: Church-going friend of Fat's, eventually dies from lymphatic cancer.
David: Catholic friend of Fat's, based on Tim Powers.
Eric Lampton: Rock star, screenwriter, actor, a. k. a. "Mother Goose"; a fictionalised version of David Bowie.
Linda Lampton: Actress, wife of Eric Lampton.
Brent Mini: Electronic composer, a fictionalised version of Brian Eno.
Sophia Lampton: Two-year-old child (personalised incarnation of Holy Wisdom within some variants of Gnosticism), said to be the daughter of Linda Lampton and valis and the "Fifth Savior".
The Divine Invasion - After a fatal car accident on Earth, Herb Asher is placed into cryonic suspension as he waits for a spleen replacement. Clinically dead, Herb experiences lucid dreams while in suspended animation and relives the last six years of his life.
In the past, Herb lived as a recluse in an isolated dome on a remote planet in the binary star system, CY30-CY30B. Yah, a local divinity of the planet in exile from Earth, appears to Herb in a vision as a burning flame, and forces him to contact his sick female neighbor, Rybys Rommey, who happens to be terminally ill with multiple sclerosis and pregnant with Yah's child.
With the help of the immortal soul of Elijah, who takes the form of a wild beggar named Elias Tate, Herb agrees to become Rybys's legal husband and father of the unborn "savior". Together they plan to smuggle the six-month pregnant Rybys back to Earth, under the pretext of seeking help for Rybys' medical condition at a medical research facility. After being born in human form, Yah plans to confront the fallen angel Belial, who has ruled the Earth for 2000 years since the fall of Masada in the first century CE. Yah's powers, however, are limited by Belial's dominion on Earth, and the four of them must take extra precautions to avoid being detected by the forces of darkness.
Things do not go as planned. "Big Noodle", Earth's A.I. system, warns the ecclesiastical authorities in the Christian-Islamic church and Scientific Legate about the divine "invasion" and countermeasures are prepared. A number of failed attempts are made to destroy the unborn child, all of them thwarted by Elijah and Yah. After successfully making the interstellar journey back to Earth and narrowly avoiding a forced abortion, Rybys and Herb escape in the nick of time, only to be involved in a fatal taxi crash, probably due to the machinations of Belial. Rybys dies from her injuries sustained in the crash, and her unborn son Emmanuel (Yah in human form) suffers brain damage from the trauma but survives. Herb is critically injured and put into cryonic suspension until a spleen replacement can be found. Baby Emmanuel is placed into a synthetic womb, but Elias Tate manages to sneak Emmanuel out of the hospital before the church is able to kill him.
Six years pass. In a school for special children, Emmanuel meets Zina, a girl who also seems to have similar skills and talents, but acts as a surrogate teacher to Emmanuel. For four years, Zina helps Emmanuel regain his memory (the brain damage caused amnesia) and discover his true identity as Yah, creator of the universe.
When he's ready, Zina shows Emmanuel her own parallel universe. In this peaceful world, organized religion has little influence, Rybys Rommey is still alive and married to Herb Asher, and Belial is only a goat kid living in a petting zoo.
In an act of kindness, Zina and Emmanuel liberate the goat-creature from his cage, momentarily forgetting that the animal is Belial. The goat-creature finds Herb Asher and attempts to retain control of the world by possessing him and convincing him that Yahweh's creation is an ugly thing that should be shown for what it really is. Eventually Herb is saved by Linda Fox, a young singer whom he loves and who is his own personal Savior; she and the goat-creature meet and she kills it, defeating Belial. He finally discovers that this meeting happens over again for everyone in the world, and whether they choose Belial or their Savior decides if they find salvation.
Characters:
Herb Asher: audio engineer
Rybys Rommey: mother of Emmanuel, sick with MS
Yah: Yahweh
Elias Tate: Incarnation of Elijah
Emmanuel (Manny): Yah incarnated in human form
Zina Pallas: Shekhinah
Linda Fox: singer, songwriter, Yetzer Hatov
Belial: Yetzer Hara
Fulton Statler Harms: Chief prelate of the Christian-Islamic Church (C.I.C), Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church
Nicholas Bulkowsky: Communist Party Chairman, Procurator maximus of the Scientific Legate
VALIS: agent of Yahweh, disinhibiting stimulus
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer - Set in the late 1960s and 1970s, the story describes the efforts of Episcopal Bishop Timothy Archer, who must cope with the theological and philosophical implications of the newly discovered Gnostic Zadokite scroll fragments. The character of Bishop Archer is loosely based on the controversial, iconoclastic Episcopal Bishop James Pike, who in 1969 died of exposure while exploring the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea in the West Bank.
As the novel opens, it is 1980. On the day that John Lennon is shot and killed, Angel Archer visits the houseboat of Edgar Barefoot, (a guru based on Alan Watts), and reflects on the lives of her deceased relatives. During the sixties, she was married to Jeff Archer, son of the Episcopal Bishop of California Timothy Archer. She introduced Kirsten Lundborg, a friend, to her father-in law, and the two began an affair. Kirsten has a son, Bill, from a previous relationship, who has schizophrenia, although he is knowledgeable as an automobile mechanic. Tim is already being investigated for his allegedly heretical views about the Holy Ghost.
Jeff commits suicide due to his romantic obsession with Kirsten. However, after poltergeist activity, he manifests to Tim and Kirsten at a seance, also attended by Angel. Angel is skeptical about the efficacy of astrology, and believes that the unfolding existential situation of Tim and Kirsten is akin to Friedrich Schiller's German Romanticism era masterpiece, the Wallenstein trilogy (insofar as their credulity reflects the loss of rational belief in contemporary consensual reality).
The three are told that Kirsten and Tim will die. As predicted, Kirsten loses her remission from cancer, and also commits suicide after a barbiturate overdose. Tim travels to Israel to investigate whether or not a psychotropic mushroom was associated with the resurrection, but his car stalls, he becomes disoriented, falls from a cliff, and dies in the desert.
On the houseboat, Angel is reunited with Bill, Kirsten's son who has schizophrenia. He claims to have Tim's reincarnated spirit within him, but is soon institutionalized. Angel agrees to care for Bill, in return for a rare record (Koto Music by Kimio Eto) that Edgar offers her.
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer is one of Dick's most overtly philosophical and intellectual works. While Dick's novels usually employ multiple narrators or an omniscient perspective, this story is told in the first person by a single narrator: Angel Archer, Bishop Archer's daughter-in-law.
Characters:
Angel Archer: Narrator, manager of a Berkeley record store, widow of Jeff Archer.
Timothy Archer: Bishop of California; father of the late Jeff Archer and father-in-law of Angel. Dies in Israel, searching for psychotropic mushroom connected with Zadokite sect. Based on James Albert Pike, Dick's personal friend, who was an American Episcopalian bishop.
Kirsten Lundborg: Timothy Archer's secretary and lover. Dies from barbiturate overdose after loss of remission from cancer.
Bill Lundborg: Kirsten's son who has schizophrenia, and who is obsessed with cars.
Edgar Barefoot: Houseboat guru, radio personality, lecturer. Based on Alan Watts.
Jeff Archer: Son of Timothy Archer, and deceased husband of Angel. A professional student who was romantically obsessed with Kirsten.
Thank you, if you read all of this. it took me six hours today to write this all
#scifi#science fiction#philip k dick#electric dreams#blade runner#in the days of perky pat#what the dead men say#autofac#beyond lies the wub#human is#the hanging stranger#the commuter#minority report#do androids dream of electric sheep#clans of the alphane moon#the man in the high castle#flow my tears the policemen said#time out of joint#ubik#the three stigmata of palmer eldritch#a scanner darkly#valis#the valis trilogy
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Sorry if you've answered this before but I really enjoyed your post on how Harry Potter is a colonial fantasy, and I was wondering if you could elaborate on what told Hagrid fulfills in the colonial narrative? Bc I have a basic idea but I feel like I'm missing some important connection
Wow, what a fun ask!! Thank you so much for sending this :)
First of all, doing literary analysis will never yield real "answers" so saying that one character definitely fulfills one trope or another is just something that cannot be done, if one actually cares about literary analysis. However, the whole point of literary analysis is to tell one's own opinion on the subject, and in my opinion there is a certain continuation of trope usage in how Hagrid and some other characters are used in Harry Potter novels.
Western colonial literature has a long history of using a character who works as the main (white explorer's) servant and sometimes a confidant. Probably the most famous example of this type of character is Robinson Crusoe's Friday. In Shakespeare's Tempest we have both Caliban and Ariel, as both a villanous and virtuos example of this character. This type of character is saved by the white (almost always male) protagonist, and in return, the character becomes the protagonist's loyal and grateful servant-friend. Almost always, the danger this character had to be saved from, are their own people.
An evolution of this character could be argued to appear in Collin's Moonstone in the form of Ezra Jennings. No longer explicitly subserviant, Ezra is nevertheless employed by a white british man, where no one else would take him, and therefore becomes a loyal friend and servant of Dr Candy and his friends, with no needs, desires or wishes of his own.
A character like this can help establish the protagonist as a merciful, kind and decent person, in contrast to the villains, who would abuse the loyalty shown and given to them.
What postcolonial theorists critique in this trope, is the fact that the friendship between these character is never equal, and that the usage of this trope fails to consider the systematic abuse of imperial system, relegating all relations between the colonial subject and the coloniser to interpersonal conflicts, where being kind to one colonial subject frees you from the sins of the empire. This type of character also cannot be written from their own POV and therefore have their own rich, inner life worth examing and relating to.
Now, in Harry Potter we can firstly establish that there is colonial subject-coloniser tension inherent in the way the world is constructed. The creatures are subject to the law and authority of the Ministry of Magic, without being recognised as citizens with political rights by said ministry. The Ministry of Magic allows the centaurs to have some land. (OOTP) The Ministry of Magic doesn't allow goblins to use wands. (GOF and DH) Creatures are several entire demographics, who have to obey a rule of law set by a government they have no representation in.
Albus Dumbledore is textually said to be a great champion of creature rights, even if what he has actually done for creatures is never elaborated on. During the books, the only actual things he is shown to do relate to individual acts of benevolance towards non-humans. He allows Remus Lupin to attend his school as a student, saving him from life of misery. He allows Hagrid to stay and work in Hogwarts, after the legal system fails him. He takes in and employes Firenze, after he is banished from his herd. He takes in and shows kindness to Dobby and Winky, after they have been freed and left without a home.
All of these characters have few things in common. One, they are in a situation where Dumbledore's kindness is their last saving grace. Two, they are non-humans. Three, they all become intensely loyal and grateful towards Dumbledore in exchange for his kindness. Four, the rest of their people are either actively hostile or unsymphatetically indifferent towards them and their plight.
Therefore, I think that Hagrid, and other non-humans that Dumbledore has saved, serve as very evolved versions of Robinson Crusoe's Friday. A character there to prove that the character comfortably sitting atop the imperial system, is still a good man, and champions for the well-being of the lower castes, without having to compromise his own position.
Other's might have different and better analysises, but this one is mine.
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