#the redemption arc was CLEARLY always the plan

[byoldervine]

The Trick To Writing Filler

(TL;DR at the bottom)

Filler is when you spend a chapter padding the length of your story between plot-related events. Filler chapters have little to no impact on the overarching plot and can be self-contained, and thus in TV shows filler episodes are often reran the most as people unfamiliar with the show can casually watch without being confused without the knowledge of prior plot beats

So with the chapter being largely self-contained and acting outside of the plot, what do you use to make the filler chapter engaging? I’m going to use filler episodes from Avatar: The Last Airbender to provide examples

1. Worldbuilding. Zuko Alone depicts Zuko’s travels taking him through an Earth Kingdom village and becoming acquainted to the family that allows him to stay with them, especially their young son. He learns about what the Fire Nation’s impact on this village has been; destroyed houses, families torn apart, constant robbery and other abuses of power and injustices. And even after Zuko defends the villagers and his new friend, he’s venomously cast out from the village by even the little boy because he outed himself as a firebender. This episode explored the impact of the war on the people of the Earth Kingdom, the victims of war that have no involvement in it and no way of defending themselves from it

2. Character exploration. In The Beach, we learn more about Mai, Ty Lee, Azula and Zuko and how their own traumas and personal upbringings have impacted their personalities. For Zuko this is part of a turning point for him, but for the girls it’s more to understand why they are the people we’ve gotten to know over the seasons, especially Ty Lee and Mai. The episode also serves to showcase how Azula and Zuko are so out of place being just normal teenagers; Azula has no idea how to talk to her peers and no identity outside being Princess Azula of the Fire Nation, while Zuko’s hotheadedness and jealousy issues lead him to lash out and be far too confrontational and controlling for his own good. This episode isn’t really used to develop these characters, or at least not the girls, but instead explains and showcases their behaviours and the reasons behind them

3. Character development. Going back to The Beach, Zuko does indeed receive development rather than just character exploration like the girls do; he comes to understand that he’s not just angry at the world or angry in general, but angry with himself. This is a notable turning point for Zuko’s redemption arc, because he now understands fully that he truly regrets betraying Iroh and sacrificing his new start in life in favour of returning to the Fire Nation. He might not yet be fully decided on turning his back on Ozai, but without this moment I don’t know if he’d have gotten there, or at least not as quickly as he did

4. Relationship development. Sokka’s Master has a C plot of Aang, Katara and Toph all being rather bored and lost without Sokka’s presence. The A plot exploring Sokka’s feelings of inadequacy and uselessness in comparison to such powerful and formidable bending masters being contrasted with the Gaang unable to function without him already speaks volumes about their dynamics, but looking deeper into the C plot also shows how much value Sokka really does bring to the team; structure, planning, humour, a quick wit, strategic moves. The Gaang always supported Sokka and never seemed to view him as expendable outside of the occasional teasing, but having it acknowledged so clearly and plainly that they can feel a little aimless and flat without Sokka and being so delighted when he returns really shows us the kind of value Sokka brings to this team and brings us and the characters to further appreciate it

5. Downtime. The Ember Island Players depicts the characters taking a break to watch a comedic play based on their wacky adventures, only to be largely underwhelmed and displeased by how they’re portrayed. There are no stakes to this episode and barely any plot, just the Gaang taking a breather as they react to a bad play. This chance to relax and watch something inconsequential is just as important to the viewers as we’ve got the show’s finale in the next four episodes, which will be very plot-driven and intense. The Ember Island Players also has the additional viewer bonus of recapping the events of the show right before it all ends, giving the viewers time to reflect on the journey they’ve gone on with these characters. In order for the stakes to feel high and the tension to rise, there has to be downtime where there are low stakes and low tension; if things are intense all the time, the moments that are supposed to feel super intense will just feel average in comparison. Resetting that intensity right before such a big event while still acknowledging the looming threat coming soon will feel like the calm before the storm and allow your audience to soak it all up like the characters are

Wow, did I just go through all that without talking about Tales of Ba Sing Se? I’ll save that for another post if people are interested in more

TL;DR - filler provides a moment to breathe, reset the intensity levels the audience are experiencing and take a chance to step away from the external conflict (the overarching plot) in favour of worldbuilding and the characters within your setting. Small moments can amount to something big, and can help make large scale decisions or plot twists feel more build-up and in-character

#filler #worldbuilding #character development #avatar the last airbender #atla #writing #writers #writeblr #bookblr #book #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writers of tumblr #writer #how to write #on writing #creative writing #write #writers and poets #female writers #queer writers #writblr #writer things #writing tips #writerscreed #writing advice #writing life #writer stuff #writersnetwork #writer problems

[soopersara]

Recently, I've pondering Book 2 and 3 of ATLA, and I reached a conclusion that surprised me a little.

Specifically, this: Zuko would have been very unlikely to join Team Avatar if not for Katara.

Now I'm not saying that Zuko had a secret crush on her or anything. As much fun as that concept can be to explore in fics, I don't love the idea of Zuko's redemption being motivated by romantic interest, and his canonical arc is clearly driven by his own evolving understanding of the world and the morals that come along with that understanding. Still, if you cut out his interactions with Katara, especially in the crystal catacombs, I just don't see him ever taking that last step to turn against his father and join Team Avatar. He would have been discontented in the Fire Nation, sure. Spending a few years away from home with a guardian who genuinely cared about and protected him could easily push him that far all on its own. He might have become disillusioned enough with the Fire Nation and its role in the war to run away too. Zuko spent enough time in the Earth Kingdom, learning about the people and their suffering, to have doubts and regrets when he finally learned about Ozai's true plans.

But without Katara reaching out to him in the crystal catacombs (or more accurately, Zuko reaching out to sympathize with Katara, and Katara reciprocating), I'm not convinced that he would have considered his future or his place in the world enough to go farther than that. To leave and to join the enemy. And even if he had considered joining Team Avatar, I'm not convinced that he would have thought he had a chance of being accepted if he hadn't shared that moment in the crystal catacombs with Katara.

I mean... sure, Aang sort of reached out to Zuko way back in Book 1. But even leaving aside the fact that that was one moment several months before Zuko finally left home (and an offer that brief and that old is probably shaky at best), it wasn't an offer of friendship in quite the same way that Katara's kindness was. What Aang said to Zuko was:

You know what the worst part of being born over a hundred years ago is? I miss all the friends I used to hang out with. Before the war started, I used to always visit my friend Kuzon. The two of us, we'd get in and out of so much trouble together. He was one of the best friends I ever had, and he was from the Fire Nation, just like you. If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends, too?

"If we knew each other back then, do you think we could have been friends, too?"

It's a hypothetical question. Aang is thinking back to a time before the war, to the people he knew in the Fire Nation an entire lifetime ago, and trying to imagine where Zuko might have fit into that time and those relationships. He doesn't reach out a hand to directly offer Zuko a friendship in the present (and frankly, it wouldn't make sense in the moment if he had), nor does he ever make another offer of friendship until after Zuko actually joins the team. Every encounter between Zuko and Aang from The Blue Spirit on through The Western Air Temple is either a) a fight, b) Aang sparing Zuko's life while Zuko is unconscious (and therefore unable to see the kind gesture and interpret it as an offer of friendship), c) unwilling cooperation against a common enemy, or d) ... That Face that Aang makes at Zuko after interrupting him and Katara in the crystal catacombs.

Maybe it's just me, but... none of those interactions exactly set up a strong foundation for a future friendship, or even a future alliance. If Aang's old "offer of friendship" was all Zuko had to go on, then joining Team Avatar would have been a long shot. An extremely long shot.

By contrast, Katara bares her heart to Zuko and, at least in the moment, makes it clear that her kindness is deliberate. They've fought against one another time after time, they've been unwilling allies in the fight against Azula, and they've had some... generally antagonistic face-to-face interactions as well. But even after all of that, Katara offers to heal Iroh with very little hesitation in The Chase, then offers compassion to Zuko himself in The Crossroads of Destiny. She openly shows Zuko that there's a chance for him, and even when he turns against her in CoD, her angry dialogue still reflects the fact that she thinks he can be better. That she wants and expects him to be better. "I thought you had changed" isn't just anger, it's also a sign that her trust and kindness in the catacombs was genuine.

It's a sign to Zuko that if he can become the person who Katara thought he was for those few minutes in the caverns beneath Ba Sing Se, he might be able to prove himself worthy of that same trust and kindness again. And once Zuko has finally had enough of living under his father's thumb, of sitting silent on the sidelines while the world burns around him, once he leaves his old life behind for good, it's the beacon that draws him onward into a new life and a new purpose.

I can't claim to know exactly what would have happened if Zuko had never shared those pre-redemption moments with Katara. I'm just one random fic writer in a quiet corner of the internet, but I don't think it's unreasonable to say that her kindness to him in Book 2 made his decision easier. Without Katara, Zuko still might have left the Fire Nation behind. He still might have told off his father and tried to rescue Iroh from prison during the eclipse, but that doesn't necessarily mean that his next step would have been to run off to the Western Air Temple and offer himself up as a teacher.

Without Katara, Zuko might have fallen into the cracks in between the Fire Nation and Team Avatar. He might have become a different type of dissenter - maybe a less obtrusive one, like Piandao or Jeong Jeong, or he might have fallen back into his vigilante persona. He might have gone searching for his mother while the war kept raging on the other side of the ocean, or he might have tried to settle down into the type of quiet life that Iroh wanted for them both in Ba Sing Se. But regardless of what choice Zuko would have made, I think it would have been much harder for him to choose Team Avatar if he hadn't had Katara's voice in the back of his mind, telling him that he could be better, and that if he was, he might have a place with her and her friends.

Ship them or not, Zuko and Katara had an incredible bond that shaped a lot of the show. And while I'm not exactly on Team 'Zuko had a secret crush on Katara from the beginning' because of what it can do to his character arc if it's not handled carefully, I think I just found myself squarely on Team 'Zuko changed because it was right, and Katara opened the door for everything that came after.'

#zutara #not necessarily romantic in this post #but you know how the fandom is #atla meta #zutara meta #zuko #katara

[mdhwrites]

Honestly I personally believe Sasha Waybright character arc was better written and engaging than Hunter and Amity’s arcs combined mostly because there was more agency in her arc and while the other two characters who go from enemies to allies to friends just didn’t engage me as much as Sasha’s.

I’m especially dissatisfied with Hunter and how his story while interesting wasn’t as cool as it could’ve been

So I've talked a lot about this in the past but the angle I'll take this time is simple: Sasha is more compelling as a villain to ally arc because the show let her be a villain.

That might sound simple but it's clearly something TOH itself struggled with. One could argue that ALL of the redemptions in TOH follow a pattern of one bad action followed by them being tenuously on the same side and then on the same side. Amity is out of character for her first episode and then Luz is actually at fault for Covention, even if Amity takes it too far. Then Amity is weirdly antagonistic during Hooty's Moving Hassle and then NEVER AGAIN. Three episodes into knowing her and she is now the person we are supposed to sympathize and want around and her biggest crime feels entirely out of character for the rest of her portrayal.

Hunter is similar. His first appearance is not Hunter. It's the Golden Guard who is WAY more fun a character than Hunter ever was and kind of a bastard. Then the mask is removed in his second real appearance (not counting the stinger in Escaping Expulsion) and he is someone to start sympathizing and working with. He is the sad but mad boy by his third major appearance and his second appearance makes him somewhat sympathetic, just like Covention did for Amity... Or For the Future does for The Collector despite lines like "I can't wait to play amongst the bones!" in Hollow Mind that feel, drumroll please, OUT OF CHARACTER TO THE REST OF HIS WRITING!

Lilith is the only to subvert this... Kind of. No, they actually go out of order but still the same essentially with her. Her first appearance makes her sympathetic and not properly a threat because she's still willing to play ball with Eda for a one on one competition, then she spends the second half of S1 just palling around in shenanigans she should not be allowing but is because... Fuck you. Then we get her one truly evil action in kidnapping Luz, coupled also with having been the one to curse Eda but that's also used to show she's a good person now so the kidnapping is the bigger deal here. Then... She's just a good guy afterwards.

This all makes for the most shallow, bullshit uses of this trope I think you can do while being allowed to claim you did it. After all, a key point to all of these redemptions aren't "Then they sided with the good guys," it's just "Then they're a good person." They don't bring who they were as a villain with them. The strengths that led to their villainy are just gone and they're hard to say what they were in the first place, what they add to the narrative in their redemption and joining of the main party because who were they before they joined. What are they actually fighting against as a person instead of just deciding not to be evil anymore or wanting the cookies that the light side offers?

It'd be like if after Sasha was redeemed, she was as bad as Anne at being able to lead and use people. If the show went "To better erase all the crimes she's done, not only will we say Sasha only is a bad person because her father is Ultra Satan but also she now is entirely incompetent in what she was good at before." Amity loses her intelligence. Her plans are always the most straightforward after she starts getting a crush on Luz and she canonically started having her grades slip. Hunter is the most pathetic character in the main cast with I think zero wins in his belt besides his first appearance despite being the only one with combat training. Lilith is just... Sad in how much they reduce all she was for over forty years of her life to go "Now she's a silly nerd girl. Fuck ambition."

And, of course, their bad sides being blamed on mother, uncle, mother kind of for Lilith actually, just that the exposition for that comes after her redemption, and the Archivists and Belos for the Collector. They aren't bad people, they just were forced to spend time with the wrong people. Now that they're nerds and led by nerd Jesus, everything is okay.

There is a VEEERY real problem in TOH of Us vs. Them mentality that comes from these arcs that's really gross. Swap Luz to a white, male jock and suddenly the show becomes WAY MORE UNCOMFORTABLE!

Sasha dodges all of this because no one tries to excuse Sasha. Sasha never tries to pretend she's anyone other than who she is except for when she's explicitly putting on an act. This means everything compelling and good about her as a villain can cleanly transition to when she is a hero, even if it's hard to believe that which the show even calls out.

There is no Sasha's Angels in TOH. That might be a weird one to reference to you because it doesn't include much Sasha but it nails on the head what makes this trope so exciting. To Anne, Sasha letting others do the work while she gets to theoretically kick back looks like the same old Sasha that she now is suspicious of. Someone who is self serving and so Anne lashes out. However, it's not the case. Sasha's ability to manipulate always came from being able to read a person's weaknesses and strengths. She's a MUCH better manipulator than Belos in this way because she doesn't leverage on you or for you to already be siding with her. She can read you like a book and tear apart your pages until she plays with your spine. And as a hero, that's going to mean she's a great delegator. She's the sort who would go "Nah, we don't need to save them from what you see as certain doom. I know he can deal with it." And she's right. Not because of blind faith but because of the same skills that made her villainous.

Something that wouldn't hit nearly as hard, or feel reasonable on Anne's part, if we didn't get so many examples of this being who Sasha is. Of the fact that Sasha uses other people for her own means. And even now, you can claim the same... Except it's not for her means. It's for their needs.

It actually is part of what makes her becoming a therapist so pitch perfect. A good therapist can call you out when you're trying to hide behind something to not get to the core of your problems. They can catch what is at the root of your issues even as you don't see it yourself. They also can see your value and use your strengths to help combat those problems after helping you identify them. It's actually pretty close to how she tried to get out of Toad Tower in her first appearance. Bring in someone, earn their trust, use their passions against their weaknesses and make them better. The only difference is that now she cares about making them better.

Amity, Hunter and Lilith could never have such a satisfying future because again: What are their strengths? Hell, post redemption, that statement stands true. You can call Amity good at magic I guess but Hunter and Lilith are pathetic people who kind of luck out in being useful at times and that's really it. These aren't people who have anything going for them. They're as good as goons with one of them being an elite in a one off episode as far as villain forces go and that's not very compelling for a redemption of this sort. Not unless you're really going to get into that and A: Lilith was one of the strongest mages on the Isles and studied her ass off so you'd think she'd mocked less for sucking at her job and being a fucking moron and B: they didn't even try for half a second with Hunter who I don't really know if they intended to make look as pathetic as he did skill wise.

So their futures are just random factoids introduced during the story. Does Amity being an inventor say anything about her redemption? No. In fact, it really sucks because Odalia would have LOVED her daughter to follow in her father's footsteps because that's the most profitable option for their company. Good job show. Hunter just takes up the job that connects him with the only thing we know is explicitly Caleb related, no conjecture needed, which sucks for a character who was supposed to be his own person. Then Lilith is... A historian. Because she likes that I guess. Does that have anything to do with her time as the coven head? No. Her ambitions? GOD NO. It's just a random choice that puts her in line with the inoffensively nerdy cast.

And before ANYONE says anything about the shortening, I want to say I've done a blog comparing the fact that Amity, in S2A (so before the shortening) has as many appearances as Sasha does in Sasha's entire redemption arc. You didn't need more time to do this better, the show needed to actually commit to its concepts. Actually needed to be willing to do its tropes rather than slapping it on for marketability and to make lazy analysts happy.

Because enemies to allies is not one of those tropes you can half ass. Not unless you want none of its power and boy, these are some weak character arcs. At least we've got Sasha.

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I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

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#amphibia #sasha waybright #the owl house criticism #toh critical #amity #Hunter #Lilith

[fracturediron]

I haven't really had any standout favourites amongst the DFF characters and I don't really ship any of the canon ships in the usual sense (i.e. no obsessive brainrot, although I'm enjoying them all from a narrative perspective). But the bombshell that was ep 9 has finally made me latch onto a character. This guy:

Although not I think for the most common reason that has caused Tan/New's surge in popularity i.e. being Non's avenger. Because man, New is so much more than that. This kid is a hot mess who's lost everything he holds dear, filled with guilt for failing Non and then his family, seeking answers, revenge, redemption and now has nothing left to lose. I'm so here for it. New's character and his arc is just fucking fascinating to me. Kudos to Mio for playing it so subtle until now and then knocking it out of the freaking park for ep 9.

This kid was the golden child of his family and favoured at least by his mother, and yet clearly felt the pressure of those expectations.

And then! And then! His and Non's whole deal makes my brain buzz. I love me some tragic siblings with a yawning emotional gulf in understanding between them; of a relationship lost or a closeness that never quite made it, of a relationship of two brothers endlessly set against each other and damaged by their parents. A relationship where he failed Non in a litany of little ways by not being there for him, and one always inevitably overshadowed by the comparisons their parents made between them both.

And when Non disappears, New is overcome with guilt! For failing him, and for not being able to be there for him, and so he resolves to find out what happened to him. And he fucking commits to it! This guy throws away his scholarship, his life in England, to fucking redo highschool and infiltrate the gang of kids who bullied his brother! For two years, he hung around with these people pretending to like them and lied to his parents, only to have nothing to show for it and to lose even more when his mother kills herself, his father disowns him and then does the same! This shit would break the strongest of people (and I'd argue something in New is broken now) but he still finds it in himself to kickstart the plan that will bring hell down on these kids.

This kid has lost everything, and is clearly at a place of desperation and despair. But he's still not giving up. Even in the face of ruination and perhaps his own destruction, I feel like New will keep going on regardless if it means finding out what happened to Non. He'll do whatever it takes, burn the world, immolate himself, if it means making that happen.

I think ultimately, I love that New's a tragic, complex character who's been ruined by life and by his own doing, and through ruination, has come out of it unhinged, perhaps even something worse. Someone haunted by the ghosts of his lost family, by his failures and his guilt. Someone with so much potential for further tragedy, who'll likely destroy themselves relentlessly chasing his end goal and end in misery.

TLDR; I love me a haunted, broken, unhinged, fucked up li'l guy.

#i wanna scuttle around in new's brain like a beetle #wind him up and watch him go #dead friend forever #dff the series #dff #dff spoilers #new dff #tan dff

[shinidamachu]

I think you or someone else discussed how Inuyasha is most likely demisexual because of his lack of interest in nudity until he formed an emotional bond. I was just thinking how the anti’s claimed Inuyasha settled for Kagome, but all evidence points to him loving her *despite* her resemblance to Kikyo. Not hating on Kikyo, just pointing out how Inuyasha kept saying it’s his fault she died because he didn’t trust her, even though trust has to go both ways but whatever, so if he was settling then Kagome would be a daily reminder that he failed Kikyo. Which would sound like hell considering his repeated claims of his fault.

But clearly in the past discussion of Inuyasha being demisexual, we all know he isn’t shallow or ”settling”.

I might have mentioned Inuyasha being demisexual once or twice, but I don't remember posting something that specific. Maybe someone else did and I reblogged it?

I'm glad you brought up the "Inuyasha settled for Kagome" terrible take, though, because you make great points and boy do I have something to say about it.

First, I love that you mentioned trust has to go both ways despite Inuyasha blaming Kikyo's death solely on his lack of trust on her. It always bothered me how quickily and sincerely he owned up to the role he played on her fate when there was zero reciprocity from Kikyo.

He went as far as taking responsability for things that have never really happened and that would be completely out of his control if they had, such as Kikyo "dying to follow after him" even though he didn't ask for it and never would.

The irony is that, between the two of them, Kikyo was actually the one more equipped to realize they were being played and yet, not only she falls for the same trap, but never really acknowledges that her lack of trust on Inuyasha was just as detrimental to their downfall.

Naraku's entire plan was based on both of them doubting each other. If either one had been more trusting, it'd have failed. Inuyasha recognizes this and regrets not trusting Kikyo, immediately treating her like the victim that she is and never once blaming her.

But he is a victim himself and she never extends the same courtesy to him, still thinking her actions were justified because he should have trusted her — not the other way around — and so she never bothers easing his guilt. On the contrary, she purposely adds to it.

The thing about the love triangle — for lack of a better term — is that Inuyasha and Kagome are constantly pushing their feelings aside to empathize with each other's and Kikyo's pain, while Kikyo acts like she's the only one who's hurting.

Which is to be expected at first because she is the one who died and was brought back against her will, but as the story progressed, I kept waiting for Kikyo to see a little bit of herself on the ordinary girl who was entrusted the weight of the world upon her shoulders, had her shoes to fill and the mess she left behind to clean up.

I kept waiting for her to show some sympathy for the boy who lost fifty years of his life because she misjudged him and was willing to die for a debt she manipulated and guilt-tripped him into thinking he had, a boy she supposedly loves.

None of it came, at least not in a way that felt organic or satisfying. That's my main issue with how Kikyo was written. You can't paint her as a complex character and then gloss over her flaws. You can't sell her as gray character and then pretend the bad things she did never happened.

Takahashi wanted her to reap all of the rewards that come with a redemption arc without really bothering to make her go through one, because that would mean having Kikyo face her mistakes for what they were — including her distrust on Inuyasha — and then apologizing or making up for it, a feat that rarely happened in canon, if at all.

Instead, she abruptly stops acting as vicious, so everything can be conveniently forgiven and forgotten because "she isn't like that anymore." The lack of explanation about what motivated this change makes harder for the audience to connect with her and results in many plot inconsistencies.

And the lack of accountability regarding Kikyo's actions keeps her from growing and reaching her full potential as a character, indirectly regressing or preventing the development of the characters around her as well, which I believe is a huge part of why the story feels repetitive and stagnant at times.

Now, you're definitely onto something when you argue that all evidence actually points to Inuyasha falling in love with Kagome despite her resemblance to Kikyo. I've actually talked about it here and here.

While it's true that Inuyasha mistook Kagome for Kikyo when they first met, it would've been unreasonable to expect anything different. Their looks and scents are similar, he had just woken up from a fifty years long spell and up until then he had no reason to believe otherwise, but Inuyasha actually caught up in a decent amount of time.

After that, as much as he still refused to call Kagome by name, he was also very aware she wasn't Kikyo, to the point that it took seeing her with complete priestess attire on for him to even make that correlation again.

And yet, Inuyasha still doesn't go back into thinking they're the same person, but rather that Kagome's a girl who resembles Kikyo. Only eventually, even this starts to change the more time they spend together and suddenly, when Inuyasha has a nightmare about Kikyo, is Kagome he sees first.

Mind you, he has only seen Kagome in priestess clothes once. Kikyo wore those her entire life. It'd be understandable for him to confuse Kagome for Kikyo and yet Kagome was his first thought here when, by logic, she shouldn't have been. From them on, he doesn't even see any resemblance between the two girls at all anymore.

Which makes sense, because even if Inuyasha had tried to use Kagome as a replacement — something he never did — he couldn't possibly have succeded, since both girls are polar opposites — a creative choice that was done completely on purpose — and Kagome wasn't slightly interested on being anyone but herself, making her into the worst Kikyo replacement ever.

That's why it got easier for Inuyasha to distinguish one girl from the other with time. Their distinct personalities make up for completely different dynamics and bring completely different feelings out of Inuyasha, because they represent completely different things to him and, again: this is done absolutely on purpose.

In the manga, this is better illustrated by two very specific panels. In the first one, Kikyo is smiling sadly but genuinely at Inuyasha — which we don't see her do often — and he admitted later on that the exchange made him feel guilty, like he had done something wrong, since he had just been rude to her.

In the second one, Kagome is smiling brightly at Inuyasha, which she does constantly, then we immediately see him blush and think to himself how relieved he is to see that smile

Of course those are very different contexts, but they pretty much set the tone for both relationships and if the arrangement of those panels wasn't a conscious choice — which I doubt — then Takahashi is insanely lucky. It's also worth noting that Inuyasha felt relieved to see Kagome smiling because it was further confirmation that even after Kikyo's resurrection, she was still Kagome.

So I think it's safe to say the physical resemblance actually slowed the romantic process down, considering that the staged betrayal made Inuyasha build his walls even taller than they were when he met Kikyo. This becomes even more clear when you compare their respective first "amicable" conversations.

With Kikyo, even though he was reluctant about her approach and suspicious of her intentions, there was still a part of him that obviously wanted it to be true, so he was at least open to what she had to say.

With Kagome, he was visibly more aggressive and closed off because he has been burned before and she was the reincarnation of the woman who did the burning, which makes her managing to get his trust so quickly that much more remarkable, since she apparently did in less time and in worse circumstances, what Kikyo couldn't.

And Kagome did it precisely because she never acted like Kikyo. She actually took the time to know Inuyasha, to give him her trust and to earn his, to build a solid relationship, based on honesty and real acceptance.

I like to think that, while Kikyo found a crack on Inuyasha's defense she could slip in, Kagome slowly smashed his walls to the ground, therefore leaving an ever lasting impact on him that she couldn't have made by being anyone but herself.

When Inuyasha starts to pursue Kagome romantically, he does so after concluding that there's absolutely no resemblance between the two girls at all and after going through an entire arc where Kagome cried for his sake and trusted him blindly, none of which has anything to do with Kikyo.

People argue that Inuyasha was actually trying to kiss Kikyo here, but why would he do that when he still thinks she betrayed him? And if this was really the case, then why has he never willingly kissed or tried to kiss Kikyo until their final goodbye, Sunrise additions excluded?

At this point, it makes more sense to me that he was avoiding to look at Kagome not because she looks like Kikyo — he has been looking at her just fine before —, but because he has started to catch feelings for her despite his efforts not to and doesn't know how to act. In fact, when he had the chance to kiss Kikyo soon after, this is what we got instead:

And then he hugs her — something the anime cut out — but the important thing is that Inuyasha had this and many other opportunities to rekindle his relationship with Kikyo and simply didn't.

In this particular occasion, he even go as far as to ask Kikyo to return the piece of soul that keeps her "alive" to Kagome knowing full well what the consequences were.

Why would Inuyasha settle for a "replacement" when he could have the real thing instead? Even if you believe resurrected Kikyo to be nothing more than a malicious replica of the original, she's still more Kikyo than Kagome could or would ever be.

I dislike this notion because if it's true and there's not an ounce of Kikyo there, why should the audience or the characters care if she "lives" or "dies"? If she gets a redemption arc or not? It feels like a cop out to only consider her the real Kikyo when she does good things.

That being said, save for maybe one scene at the beginning where Inuyasha shoved a bow and some arrows at Kagome because Kikyo was a master archer, he never expected her to behave like Kikyo, never tried to change her so she would and never acted frustrated or disappointed at the fact that she was her own person.

Inuyasha has his flaws — as any good main character should — but he always respected the inviduality of both girls, which is more than I can say about the people who insist on this baseless take.

To wrongly paint Inuyasha as someone who settled for Kagome because she looks like Kikyo gets especially icky when even Naraku, the villain who was obsessed with her, never redirected said obsession to Kagome.

It's such a common trope that I was actually expecting it, but I'm glad it didn't happen because it's a subtle and yet effective way of sedimenting both girls as separate individuals instead of going for the cheapest option.

And ironically, the only character who treated Kagome as if she was Kikyo was Kikyo herself, but even that was very early on and she only seemed to do it as a way of belittling Kagome, because while mentioning her to other people — or by the end of the story — Kikyo had no trouble referring to Kagome as a different being.

Sunrise's adaptation made very questionable choices but something they were pretty consistent on was making clear Kagome and Kikyo aren't the same.

Besides, something fundamentally wrong with this argument is that Inuyasha comes off as shallow and Kikyo as disposeable. Shallow because it suggests physical appearance is all that matters — which goes against everything his character stands for in canon — and the soul is just a seal of approval.

Disposeable because it hints Kikyo's personality is so forgettable and unimportant that it played absolutely no part on sparkling Inuyasha's interest. She's so easily replaceable that even someone who had opposite world views, thoughts, feelings, temperament and mannerisms could do the trick. The memories they made are so generic that it wouldn't have make a difference if any other character was in her place.

Why do people even like those characters, why do they even ship them together if they truly believe that? That's why I don't buy that they actually do.

You see, considering how huge Kagome's soul is, Kikyo technically has got to be someone else's reincarnation too, but I've never seen anyone making the case that she is anyone but herself or that her predecessor is also the love of Inuyasha's life.

The reason they try to do this with Kagome is so that they can pretend Inuyasha and Kikyo somehow ended up together to cope with the fact that they didn't. And that's the exact same reason they pretend he setled for Kagome as well.

Which is funny because what exactly was Inuyasha settling for? Like, in the great scheem of things, what was Kikyo able to give him that he couldn't get a thousand times better from Kagome with no strings attached and just had to make his peace with it?

It seems to me like it was the other way around: Kagome managed to accomplish everything Kikyo failed to do, so if anything Inuyasha was settling, it was for Kikyo, resigned to spend the rest of his life as human — something he hated to be — just to get "accepted" or to die for something he didn't do just to appease her.

Finally, to say inuyasha settled implies he had no other choice but to marry Kagome. He had: staying single, because now that he has friends and wasn't alone anymore, he doesn't need a lover to fill that empty space in his life if he doesn't want one.

Plus, Kagome wasn't entitled to his love. She jumped trought that well knowing that three years is a long time, that people and feelings change and that what waited for her on the other side was a mystery, but she did it anyway because all she ever wanted from him was to stay by his side and for him to be honest with her.

Kagome would've been fine with a platonic relationship because even though she obviously wanted more, she was ready to accept whatever Inuyasha was willing to give her, but he wanted her to return so he could give her everything, which he couldn't before because he felt in debt with Kikyo. That's the whole point.

Inuyasha was the one who iniciated every romantic moment they had early on: the first hug, both almost kisses, etc. And it was clear that the things Kagome made him feel, such as that sense of peace, of belonging, of unadultered happiness, were very new to him, so the idea that Inuyasha was settling for her is laughable when this is the character in question:

I know a lot of those scenes were deleted or changed by Sunrise but I watched the anime without reading the manga beforehand and reached the exact same conclusions, so I'm still of the opinion that the people who convinced themselves Kagome was a consolation prize either didn't pay attention or have an agenda of their own to push, that won't change by reading the original material.

TLDR; one does not simply "settle" for their soulmate. They come home to them.

#As you can see I have no self control when it comes to this topic #I bet you regret sending this ask now but this one is on you anon #I won't feel bad about it because I know nobody will read it anyway #And I'm glad I wrote this because if I ever get another ask on the subject I can just link this post and call it quits #So thank you for this opportunity #Sidmailing #Inuyasha #Kagome #Inukag

[writers-potion]

Writing the "Mean Girl" Character

How do we write the "mean girl" without making her another shallow copy of the brainless, pink-clad, cheerleader we see in high teen dramas?

Of course, there's nothing wrong with such a character if you want them to be funny/light in the first place.

However, I can hear myself slowly losing my last two brain cells when I keep reading about such papercut characters for more than an hour - reading clearly requires more effort than watching a class B movie, so I always appreciate when authors put more effort to make the characters dynamic.

No "Mean for the Sake of Being Mean

The classic way to avoid this is to give them a sad backstory. They used to be overweight/ugly and were bullied, or their parents don't care about them enough, or they are too insecure. Obviously these plot points are quiet stale now, but the basic principle still stands - if your charcter is mean, she needs A REASON.

I love reading about a mean character's backstory then feeling, "actually, I would have felt like doing that, too."

Whatever their motivations may be, remember that bullies pick on the weak, not the successful/powerful. While the Mean Girl might feel jealous/inferior towards the protagonist, I hardly think that should be the sole reason why they picked their victim. There must be a flaw in your protagonist that happened to be something that the Mean Girl knows how to exploit, which makes them a target above others.

Give Them A Twist

There are two ways that I can think of: (1) A seemingly nice character is in fact a mean girlie, or (2) A mean character turns out to be kind and well-intended.

Personally, I love Mean Girls who are intelligent/ know what they are doing. They are purposely manipulative:"are you okay?" as if the victim has something wrong with them or providing "constructive" criticism. Or kindly inviting them to a party that she knows they wouldn't fit in.

The conflict deepens when everyone else likes the Mean Girl due to her manipulative nature, making the protagonist doubt themselves.

A Purpose beyond Providing Conflict

Think about what the mean girl aims to gain from bullying your protagonist.

Is she continuously trying to prove herself "superior" so that she can feel better inside? Is she an academic rival who just needs to be the first in everything, even is that means reverting to questionable behavior?

Overly ambitious/perfectionist characters can come off as mean when they feel like others fail to live up to their standards (which only they know about, and are usually up in the sky)

Give Them A Proper Redemption

If you plan on giving her a redemption arc, make sure that she has earned it! The worst thing you can do is make it sound like you approve of the horrible things she has done.

this transition doesn’t mean the character does a complete 180 and is suddenly all smiles and good favors. They can fall back on their old ways of thinking, but is trying to make an effort to step out of their old clothes.

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References:

https://writingquestionsanswered.tumblr.com/post/668302340882857984/how-would-you-write-a-mean-girl-character-without

https://www.writingforums.org/threads/how-to-write-the-mean-girl-character.160729/

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[liashinigami]

Was gonna gather my thoughts and write a post tmr on the general mood in the ofts space after the finale bc I feel like a whole bunch of people overthink the amount of editing that was supposedly the result of "promo couple fans complaining too much" but I literally cannot sleep before I get this off my chest so here goes nothing:

Do you guys not understand how tv show productions work....

The script was written, reworked, and then finalized before they even began filming. Yes they might have changed some stuff between the initial scrips draft they had before the mock trailer and the true beginning of production this year but considering that they booked two at the time new but well received promo couples (remember that this show was already in planning at a time when Enchené and The Eclipse were still very very fresh), TopMew and SandRay were always gonna be endgame. It's especially obvious now that the full series is out bc if you go back and watch the mock trailer, all the same storybeats are there. This is how the story was supposed to go from the beginning. They most likely cast two promo couples on purpose because of the added bonus of pre-established compatibility and chemistry needed for endgame couples in such a messy series.

Then they filmed stuff. They finished filming I believe the day that episode 3 aired, so they could not have changed any of the ending based on audience reactions (as I have seen multiple people suggest), since we were barely a few epiaodes into the story. The book based on the series was also already finished and in the last stages of preparing to be released. The only thing they actually did was edit out parts of scenes or full scenes that they found did not add anything at this point in the story (like the sandray garage scene) or would actively harm what we, the audience, are supposed to be understanding and feeling right now (like the Mew smashing shit scene and Top attempting to sleep with someone else, which both were explained to have been cut because audiences were reacting strongly negative to Top even a few episodes into his redemption arc, when we were clearly supposed to start being on his side). They might also have moved some scenes around to aid the story flow but I am unsure of that one (I suspect the scene where Ray and Mew finally solve their shit out was supposed to be directly before the SandRay donut scene bc of obvious clothing reasons, bc they either fucked up hardcore with clothing continuity or moved the first SandRay rehab discussion to after the RayMew talk because it made more sense that way when seeing it played out on screen. If that was the case I am glad for it bc it would have felt a bit weird the other way around idk...).

All of this is however not new. It happens all the time in film and broadcasting production (also in book publishing....this is why editors and alpha/beta readers exist. I mean Brandon Sanderson's books famously go through four (?) stages of feedback before they get published...). Some scenes just get dropped in editing because when you see it on screen it feels redundant or not quite right, so it gets taken out before it changes what they want the audience to take away from other scenes. Movies and tv shows that have months between filming and airing dates usually solve this issue with test screening audiences and several runs of editing. There have been instances of Movies having test screenings at cinemas and then having their release date scrapped because they have to be re-edited completely as a result of unexpected audience feedback. GmmTV series being on smaller budgets and timeframes results in this time window falling away and relying on observing audience reactions to already aired episodes closely and then editing the next episode close to its release is one strategy to still ensure that you bring across what you wanted to (Kdramas also do this very frequently). It might not be ideal but it's not unusual and it certainly does not mean that anything substantial from the story was changed. All the storybeats as well as the character and relationship development remained the same because they already had everything filmed. They did not do reshoots or we'd know it. The story was planned this way. It was in the script. If you did not like it, then you did not like it. But don't accuse the directors of "bending to the will of fans" bc that's just plain wrong.

I too have my issues with some of the writing and some of the characterizations. But let's keep the criticism where it is actually deserved ok?

Edit: I have also seen quite a few people over here and also on Twitter say how disappointed they are in the "editing based on audience reaction" and that they should release a "directors cut" with all the scenes but like....this IS the directors cut. THEY decided how to edit this because the original intent is not always what arrives in the brains of the audience. Storytelling is a two-way street and if a massive chunk of your audience interprets a part of your story so differently to how you intended it to be understood, edits are necessary. Because that means that your intent is not communicated well enough.

#only friends #ofts #only friends the series #I said pretty much the same things a few weeks back added onto someone else's post a few weeks back #back when that interview with jojo and ninew came out where they first said they look at audience reaction before they edit the next ep #I thought we got past that but apparently not #apparently people need to justify their own frustrations towards the writing and the storyline in weird ways #blame it on 'couple fans' #completely ignoring that realistically most people who got interested in this show found it through the mock trailer release #way back when the eclipse had barely finished airing and enchenté was also only a few months out #heck I hadn't even watched those two shows when the mock trailer came out and I went insane #haven't watched any other forcebook show to this day and while I liked the eclipse I certainly wouldn't have called myself a firstkhao stan #and still it was obvious to me from the mock trailer way back when and then the proper trailer a few months ago who would end up with who #I just feel like a lot of y'all were anticipating a different show than what it was advertising itself as...

[aspoonofsugar]

What do you think of soukoku? Do you think Dazai has any role in helping Chuuya become a leader?

Hi!

I am not sure about Dazai helping Chuya to grow into a leader, even if I think Chuya will become a leader.

So far, I think Chuya's story in the manga is set-up to have two layers:

Becoming the leader of the mafia

Solving his relationship with Dazai

The first one is prepared in the Cannibalism arc. The second one instead permeates Chuya's screentime in the manga. After all, every arc ends with a sskk fight, but also every arc (minus Cannibalism) has skk parallel Atsu and Aku structurally:

The first arc ends with sskk's first real fight over Kyouka. Just some chapters before, there is Chuya's introduction and his first confrontation with Dazai

The second arc ends with sskk vs Fitzgerald, but the climax is kickstarted by skk vs Lovecraft

The current arc has clearly paralleled sskk's real struggle while Aku is vampirized with skk's fake one over Chuya's brainwashing

In short, sskk and skk are almost always paralleled structurally, which means that even if the new generation is gonna save the world, the old one has still a role to play. Most likely, this role ties with Dazai's arc, which is probably gonna take flight in the climax of the series.

In general, Dazai's plan to make Aku and Atsu partners has a double objective:

a pragmatic one- the combination of their abilities is gonna save the world

an existential one - Dazai is trying to save himself through the two kids

Dazai projects all his past bonds on Atsushi:

Atsushi embodies Odasaku's goal to save orphans

Atsushi is Dazai's second chance to be a good mentor after Akutagawa

Atsushi is an attempt Dazai does to indirectly help Akutagawa after leaving him

The sskk's partnership reveals how Dazai is still emulating Mori to an extent. Mori sets up skk's alliance and Dazai does the same with Atsu and Aku

Finally, Dazai pushing Atsushi and Akutagawa together, so that they can save each other is an indirect aknowledgement of the importance the bond with Chuya has for him.

Sskk represents Dazai's redemption, to an extent. He couldn't help Oda, but can help Atsushi. He left Aku behind, but can still save him through Atsushi. He can't properly communicate with Chuya, but he can recreate his bond with him through Aku and Atsu.

Still, what is Dazai and Chuya's bond? Let's explore soukoku! (Here I finally come to your ask after much blabbering).

DOUBLE BLACK = DOUBLE LONELINESS

Soukoku is a play on words:

It is pronounced "conflict"

It means "double black"

Soukoku sounds like conflict because that is Dazai and Chuya's superficial relationship. They are always annoying each other and fighting. Their whole dynamic is a rivalry.

Soukoku means double black because it describes the meeting between two darknesses. Dazai and Chuya are both engulfed by black, so together they make the black double. They are double darkness.

What does the darkness in Dazai and Chuya's life stands for? The answer is found in Fifteen:

" " existed in a sterile bluish-black darkness. There was no up or down, backward or forward. Even the flow of time was ambiguous. " " had no idea who it was or why it was there. (...) Beyond the heavy darkness was a clear wall. " " knew instinctively that the wall was keeping it inside - that it was a seal. (...) But one day, that seal was destroyed. The sacred realm had been opened, the darkness had been tainted, and the outside world had intruded. Someone was calling " ". (...) A man's powerful hand grabbed on to " ", and reddish-black flames erupted from where it touched. Those were the cries of a newborn. (Fifteen, phase xx)

Chuya recalls his time in the lab as fluttering in a bluish darkness (the black fluid) sealed by a glass wall (the tube). This state is one where he feels nothing and isn't anyone. It is perfect solitude. And yet, Verlaine and Rimbaud come and bring Chuya into the world. They taint the darkness, which is nothing, but Chuya's loneliness:

LONELY DARKNESS MY SORROW, once it is opened by the key I'd rather just fall than go back to being alone Staring at the destroyed cage of this self, (GRAVITY) Slowly, I sing, "Not bad at all."

Chuya is scared to find himself alone again. And yet, he deep down wishes to go back to a perfect and untainted darkness:

I want nothing anymore but simplicity, quiet, murmurs and order. O acquaintances, grantors of dark disgrace, do not wake me again! I will endure my solitude, arms seeming already useless.

In the verses used to activate corruption, the poet gives up on life and community. He chooses nothingness and loneliness instead. So, every time Chuya awakens Arahabaki he is metaphorically giving in to these feelings. He is letting the Tainted Sorrow take control.

This is the contradiction Chuya is built on. He consciously doesn't want to be alone, but unconsciously he is tempted by the bluish darkness of his childhood. Dazai is instead Chuya's opposite. He behaves as if he is unapproachable, but deep down he craves human connections. Chuya and Dazai are made of similar parts, but show and hide different things. This is why they seem opposite, but are actually the same.

They are two lonely people, who crave companionship, but know that bonds come with pain. They are victims of the hedgehog's dilemma:

The hedgehog's dilemma, or sometimes the porcupine dilemma, is a metaphor about the challenges of human intimacy. It imagines a group of hedgehogs who want to huddle together for warmth in the winter, but they cannot avoid sticking each other with their sharp spines. Though they all want a close mutual relationship, their own prickly nature might make this impossible.

Can Dazai and Chuya grow close to people or does their nature make them impossible to understand? Is it worth it to search for intimacy, when it comes with pain? These feelings and doubts are the true nature of Dazai and Chuya's darkness. They are soukoku because they are double loneliness.

Fifteen is the story of these two lonely people meeting:

They picked what they deemed the fairest method of deciding things: the loser would have to obey the winner no matter what. They ended up playing close to a hundred matches, but that's a story for another time. (Fifteen)

Dazai and Chuya are two abnormal teenagers. Dazai is too smart, while Chuya is too strong. This is why they find themselves with no real peers. However, when they meet each other they find someone they can act their age with.

Dazai is usually gloomy and makes people around him uncomfortable. However, when he is with Chuya he gets angry and annoyed like other kids.

Chuya needs to always act as a leader and to put the Sheep's needs before his own. This is why he acts dead serious when he meets Shirase and the girl at the arcade. However, when he is with Dazai he goes back to be himself. He shows his feelings and acts silly, like a teenager should.

Dazai and Chuya don't like each other, but they are attracted to each other because the other brings out a hidden part of who they are. A part tied to humanity and life.

NO LONGER HUMAN

Dazai's skill is called No Longer Human because he feels inhuman:

"He's already dead," said Chuuya. "Quit shooting his corpse." Dazai was puzzled. His expression was bizarrely childlike- fit for a boy his age, yet unlike any he had shown before. His lips suddenly curled into a gloomy smile. "You're right. When you're right, you're right. That's the most common reaction to have." (...) His expression was back to how it usually was: lifeless and utterly disinterested. "Ha-ha. Normal. Ha-ha-ha." (Fifteen)

Dazai sees himself as wrong and thinks Chuya is far more normal than he is. Sure, he has an incredibly powerful skill, but deep down he is just another kid. This is why the reveal of Chuya's background leaves such an impact on Dazai:

Chuya: Arahabaki is me.

It forces him to look outside himself and to reconsider what it means to be human. The point of Dazai's character is that he thinks he is this impossible to read being, who stands above others. And yet, he is really a normal person. Not only that, but he is also pretty childish. He wants friends and grows attached to the few people who step into his loneliness (Mori, Chuya, Oda, Ango, Akutagawa, the ADA). And yet, he sucks at communicating with them out of fear, which leads to more problems than needed. In synthesis, the story of Dazai in Fifteen is really that of an emo kid, who discovers the jock has more reason than him to be emo.

This is why Chuya grows linked to the idea of humanity in Dazai's mind:

"You sound like you're certain he's human." "I am." Dazai sighed, smiling. "There's no way I could hate a man-made character string this much." (Storm Bringer)

In Storm Bringer, Dazai risks the destruction of Yokohama to prove that Chuya is human. He does so because if a guinea pig like Chuya is a normal human, then surely Dazai can be human, as well. Dazai cares about Chuya's humanity because it is linked to Dazai's own humanity. It gives him hope.

THE SUICIDAL BASTARD WANTS TO LIVE

Chuya's skill is called Upon the Tainted Sorrow because deep down Chuya wants to die:

The Tainted Sorrow has Nothing to desire and nothing to wish. The Tainted Sorrow has A dream of death to its wary self.

This is why he is so disturbed by Dazai's suicidal tendencies. He sees a dark mirror of himself in the other boy. This is why Dazai's sudden wish to live impresses Chuya so much:

"Working for the mafia has piqued my interest, albeit slightly," Dazai began. "In the outside world - the world of light - death is kept separate from everyday life. It's swept under the rug. People find it unpleasant. But the Mafia's world isn't like that. Death is an extension of everyday life. And I tend to think that's more accurate. Death isn't the opposite of life, but merely a function of it. We breath, eat, fall in love and die. And you can't get the full picture of living without observing death up close." Chuya quietly stared at Dazai's expression as if he were searching for something human deep inside of him. "So you're saying... you want to live now?" (Fifteen)

And after Dazai opens up about his feelings, Chuya does the same:

"Hey. You wanna know why I always fight without using my hands?" Chuuya asked as he approached Randou. (...) "I've never lost a fight in my life. I've never even been in real danger... But that's no surprise. After all, I'm not even human. My identity is a safeguard, like you said. Hey do you know how that feels? (...) That's why I kept my hands in my pockets. I figured I'd one day feel like I was about to lose, no longer enjoying the fight, but just doing everything I could to protect myself... I thought maybe that way I'd start to like myself as a person - me, a little pattern without a body of my own." (Fifteen)

Dazai and Chuya say the same thing. They both like risking their lives because in this way they feel they are truly living. It is only when they are fighting to survive that they can truly believe in their humanity.

The twist of Fifteen is that Chuya seems more normal than Dazai, but he is really as self-hating and as suicidal as the other teen. And yet, it is because of this similarity that Chuya ends up associating Dazai to life:

Dazai: You used Corruption, believing in me? How beautiful. Chuya: Yeah, I did. I believed in your disgusting vitality and craftiness.

In Dead Apple, Chuya jumps in front of a Dragon and activates Corruption because he refuses to believe Dazai might really be dead. He needs to hold on to the idea Dazai is alive because Dazai's willingness to live gives him the strength to keep on living, as well. After all, if a suicidal bastard wants to live, then surely Chuya can share this wish, as well.

ON HUMANITY AND LIFE - RIMBAUD'S FINAL MESSAGE

Dazai and Chuya are two suicidal and self-hating kids, who meet each other and realize they are not alone in their feelings. This doesn't make their sense of loneliness disappear, but they can at least be lonely together. They recognize each other as human beings, who want to live:

"Your plan better not fail and get us both killed, or I'm gonna kill you, Dazai." Dazai smiled back at him. "I'm fine with that. Now, let's do this, Chuuya." (Fifteen)

Chuya reveals he is Arahabaki and Dazai admits he wants to live. The result of this shared moment of vulnerability is that the two kids enter an alliance and defeat Rimbaud, who is trying to take away their humanity and life. And yet, it is Rimbaud's last words which convey the lesson Dazai and Chuya need to learn:

"Live," Randou said in almost a whisper. "There is no longer... any way of knowing... who you are or where you came from," he rasped. "But even if... you are but a pattern... etched on the surface of raw power... you are you. Nothing changes that... because all people, all humanity... their brains and flesh... are nothing more than patterns - beautiful patterns... upon the material world..." (Fifteen)

Everybody feels cold. Everybody looks for answers they aren't gonna find. The dark feelings Dazai and Chuya have are proof they are humans. And the only thing humans can do is to keep on living, despite it all.

TOGETHER ALONE

Bsd is full of people who are together alone. Let's consider two of these bonds, which foil soukoku:

Rimbaud and Verlaine

Fyodor and Gogol

Rimbaud and Verlaine

Rimbaud and Verlaine are Chuya's literary parents and their relationship clearly foils soukoku. In particular, they fall apart because of communication problems:

Rimbaud doesn't understand Verlaine's pain

Verlaine fails to open up to Rimbaud

The end result is that Verlaine betrays Rimbaud and their confrontation escalates into a fight, which ends with the worst outcome possible for both. Not only that, but they end up projecting their issues on Chuya (their metaphorical child). Rimbaud believes that if he makes Chuya his skill, he will find Verlaine again. Verlaine thinks that if he forces Chuya to come with him, he will stop feeling the loss of Rimbaud. In the end, though, they manage to find each other again through empathizing with Chuya.

Rimbaud understands Chuya's fears of not being human. In this way, he can finally understand Verlaine's feelings. By seeing Chuya is human, he also sees Verlaine as human. Because of this final realization, Rimbaud gives up on his humanity and turns himself into a singularity with no regrets. He becomes Verlaine's core and a proof of his friend's personhood.

Verlaine realizes through Chuya that he himself is human. In this way, he can finally aknowledge his grief over Rimbaud's death and apologize to his friend. Verlaine is a lonely monster, who finds redemption and humanity in a single meaningful bond. Rimbaud symbolically takes the place of his heart.

Dazai and Chuya have similar communication problems. Dazai is unable to be honest about how he feels about Chuya and the people he left behind in the mafia, as a whole. This is why soukoku's interactions are full of gags where Dazai jokes about dramatic confessions:

He probably has something to tell Chuya, but can't. If anything, he leaves the mafia without giving any explanations. And in Beast, he marches towards his death without telling anything to Chuya.

Chuya instead fails to truly understand Dazai's reasons. The mafia is Chuya's family and he is content with it, but it is an organization which sucks away Dazai's willingness to live. Chuya probably fails to see it.

The end result is that Dazai betrays the mafia and leaves both the organization and Chuya behind. It is probable that this past grudge is gonna come up eventually. If anything because past grudges keep being mentioned when it comes to soukoku and Chuya:

Not only that, but just like Rimbaud and Verlaine, it is possible soukoku has their own metaphorical child to save:

Q appears in Fifteen and is the person soukoku join forces to save in their first fight together in the manga. They clearly represent both Dazai and Chuya's inner child:

They are a problematic child taken in by Mori, like Dazai. They are taken advantage of and trapped because of their monstruous abilities. Dazai himself is assigned as Q's guardian.

They have a skill they deep down hate, like Chuya. They even admit they don't want their gift while tortured, just like Chuya does while a prisoner in Storm Bringer.

So, Q is the child Dazai and Chuya used to be. And yet, they both show very little sympathy for them. That is because they have yet to reconcile with the most frail parts of who they are. They can do so only through both Q and each other. Once they do, Dazai will be able to be honest and Chuya will be able to understand.

Fyodor and Gogol

Fyodor and Gogol share Dazai and Chuya's religious motif:

Dazai is often compared to a demon and Chuya to a God

Fyodor calls himself a God and Gogol refers to himself as a rebel angel (aka the Devil)

This imagery highlights how all four characters feel separated from the rest of humanity. At the same time, Fyodor and Gogol are set up as Dazai and Chuya's dark foils. It means they are pejorative mirrors of the characters. They have some traits Dazai and Chuya also possess, but taken up to eleven. In particular, the two couples' juxtaposition is centered around control, freedom and how these two ideas impact relationships.

Fyodor and Dazai are both manipulators. They are able to read others' behaviors perfectly and can control others' actions. This is why they can build exploitative relationships, where others are just puppets. Fyodor fully embraces this part of himself. This is why he refuses to forge real bonds and pushes Gogol away. He can't accept a friend with his own free will. Dazai instead has learnt from his many bonds that he can't fully control other people. No matter how much he tries to turn Chuya into a slave, he never gives up his freedom. He tries his best to stop Oda from dying, but his friend goes on with his suicidal plan. Ango betrays Dazai, despite their friendship. Kunikida is able to surprise Dazai in their first mission together. And so on:

Gogol and Chuya both feel trapped by the world and are constantly fighting against a sense of nihilism:

Even though it feels like I might be trapped, there is no room for sentiments I'll push myself to the limit and dye everything jet-black The world is a bird cage, faded in colour Even if I lament, I can't get out of this prison BUT NOW, DARKNESS MY SORROW I have not yet fallen apart So, as I laugh off this imposed inconvenience Let's overturn even the heavens and the earth (GRAVITY) Within the darkness, a shadow of a hat lightly dances.

Gogol's freedom is nothingness. It is the same nothingness Chuya experiences in the lab, before his rebirth into the world. It is poignant that Gogol uses similar imagery to the one Chuya sings about in his song. Both talk about a cage and the ability to fly away free from gravity. However, this wish can't be realized because being humans means not to be fully free. Neither from morality nor from feelings. Gogol wishes to escape from himself. This is why he wants to murder Fyodor. Because Fyodor is his only bond, a tie. Chuya instead keeps binding himself to others. He starts with the Sheep, goes on with the Flags and with the Mafia. Gogol keeps on fighting to free himself from everything. Chuya instead accepts he is always going to be a prisoner.

In other words, Fyodor wants to control everyone, while Gogol refuses to give up even a small fragment of his freedom. This is why they push each other away and (apparently) lose to soukoku in the current arc. In order to have a bond, you need to trust the other person and to sacrifice some freedom to them. Fyodor and Gogol refuse, so they fail to forge a true relationship.

Dazai and Chuya have similar flaws, but they are lucky enough to have many people to teach them about friendships and bonds. This is why they can have relationships with others.

That said, it is possible the next confrontation soukoku has with Fyodor and Gogol (yes, Fyodor is gonna be okay and yes, they are set up to fight in the future) won't go as smoothly. After all, the role of a dark foil is to challenge the character so they can see their shortcomings. This is gonna happen to Dazai and Chuya, as well.

A TAINTED DARKNESS

Dazai and Chuya are two people with opposite personalities and the same existential emptiness. This is why they gravitate toward each other, but also repulse each other. Theirs isn't a bond that can fix pain. Rather, it is a bond, which is real, despite all its contradictions. In a sense, it is the opposite of Dazai's romanticized double suicide:

Dazai curled into the fetal position and screamed, "Dying with Chuuya? Anything but thaaaat!!" (Storm Bringer)

Dazai and Chuya don't heal each other. However, they keep on living along each other, despite the pain and the messiness. They don't make the darkness disappear, but they manage to taint each other's blackness.

This metaphor is brought home by their use of "corruption".

Upon the Tainted Sorrow is a metaphor of Chuya's inner depression and nihilism. Whenever he activates Corruption, he lets this side of him take over. He goes back to his dark loneliness.

No Longer Human is a skill that nullifies others' skills and it is a metaphor of how Dazai feels estranged from others. Not a human being.

And yet, Dazai is able to use his inhuman gift to bring to the surface Chuya's humanity. At the same time, Chuya's loneliness is tainted by Dazai's touch. Once again, another hand comes into his dark world and brings him back to life.

In conclusion, double black is really two tainted lonelinesses.

#bsd #bsd meta #my meta #chuya nakahara #dazai osamu #soukoku #skk

[stevesbipanic]

Billy was not racist. He was trying to protect Max and Lucas both from his father, who would have harmed both of them plus Billy if he knew they were even hanging out let alone romantically involved. Billy was a victim of abuse at the hands of his father, and his mother abandoned him to his father despite knowing what cruelties he would suffer just to save her own ass. Was Billy an asshole? Yes. Was the shitty way he treated people especially Max okay? No, never. Nothing excuses it. But you try living with the sorts of abuses his father heaped on him, and on his mother before she left, and the abuses he would have been heaping on Max's mom too. I have zero doubt that Billy's father r-worded both Billy's mom and later Max's mom because "wifely duties" or some other misogynistic garbage. Billy would have overheard the sounds from it pretty much any time it happened while he was home. You try living with all that and see how YOU turn out. Billy did deserve a redemption arc. He got one of a sort when he sacrificed himself despite "the mindflayer's" control over him, all to save El, Max, Max's mom, and even people he hated. Because he knew what "the mindflayer" had planned. Did you not see Billy's tears when "the mindflayer" was speaking through him? Did you not notice Billy told Karen to stay away from him rather than give in to "the mindflayer" and kill her? Did you not notice Billy flat out lied to his father when his father demanded to know where Max had run off to? There's no way Billy didn't have some kind of clue where to find her. But he lied to his father, to shield her and to shield Lucas, from whatever harm would absolutely have come to them at the hands of Neil Hargrove. Billy is not the embodiment of evil you clearly think he is.

Did Billy somewhat sometimes care about his stepsister? Yes. Did he get abused by his dad? Also yes. These facts don't excuse him from his actions in both seasons 2 and 3.

In our early meetings of Billy he highly threatens to run over the party while they're on their bikes. A normal same human being wouldn't do that. He also beat Steve to the point the kids thought he might be dead. He continued beating Steve even once Steve had been thoroughly knocked out, and likely would've killed Steve if Max hadn't knocked him out.

Also YES HE WAS RACIST WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???? Did you know that Billy's line "certain type of people" in regards to Lucas, was originally a black slur? He was a racist character picking up the trait from yes his abusive dad. Just because his dad was abusive doesn't mean Billy didn't become racist because of his upbringing with him.

You can definitely say that line is to protect Max from abuse from her stepdad if he found out she was talking to a black boy. But it certainly wasn't protecting Lucas, billy couldn't care less about Lucas' safety (SEE TRYING TO RUN HIM OFF THE ROAD).

His character was written to be a bad person, accept this. Characters aren't always written to have redemption arcs or all be good people. He was a racist bully from the 80s with an abusive dad. Just because you think he's hot doesn't change these facts.

Also, abuse doesn't inherently make your character grow up to be a bully. Lonnie Byers is heavily written as an abusive father, even going so far as it was suggested he killed Will in season 1. But neither of the Byers grow up to be bullies. Eleven is brought up in an abusive environment and moves past these traits. Steve's parents are seen as hard on him and in some ways absent and neglectful and besides Jonathan we never see him fight anyone that wasn't for protection.

Billy is the only older character that shows complete disregard for the kids safety. And him dying in st3 doesn't forgive these actions nor rewrite his racist abusive character.

You're allowed to hate characters that are written to be the bad guys. No one attacks anyone for hating Dr Brenner because he's the villain. Many people including myself didn't like Steve in season 1 because he was written to be the popular asshole. Characters are written certain ways for reasons. So go enjoy your self insert fanfiction where you really just want Billy to be a hot ooc. But for the rest of us it's totally fair to hate on one of the villains of the series.

#anti billy hargrove #stranger things #anti billy stans #b asks

[fomee-c]

Adventure Time has the best redemption arcs

I love deep-diving into my favourite shows, which makes me lucky that Adventure Time has been analyzed to death.

It's awesome because it feels like the show itself is growing up along with Finn. The older seasons are a lot more episodic and focused on the surreality of Ooo. Meanwhile, the later seasons really embrace the show's complicated lore and the idea that morality isn't black and white. The progression of maturity in this one show is INSANE. As the show becomes more mature, so does main character Finn, physically and emotionally.

Nowhere are the show's themes and Finn's personal growth better demonstrated through the show's use of redemption arcs. As the show progresses, classical villain-hero archetypes are subverted to show that Finn is learning that people aren't exclusively good or bad. As the show and Finna age, being a hero or doing the right thing evolves from the basic idea of "fighting evil" to being empathetic and seeking peace.

Heavy spoilers for the main series after the cut.

Some context

I just wanna mention some facts about the show's history.

If you watch the first AT episode followed by the last episode, you're gonna feel disoriented. They're clearly the same show, but it feels like they have very different goals. Early AT is more lighthearted and less serious. The episodes have morals, but they're pretty simple. The randomness of Ooo is played more for comedy than for lore purposes.

Around season 5, the show started taking on a different direction. It's still funny and weird, but the characters are more fleshed out and the messages the show is trying to convey require a lot of digestion. For example, Princess Bubblegum is always smart, but the way she's depicted in episodes like"Enchiridion" vs "Burning Low." Although I consider this a massive improvement, it's unclear how much was pre-planned. Was PB always destined to become a control-obsessed, unethical ruler-scientist? Or was her initial characterization just Finn's crush?

Yes.

Episodes as early as season 1 ep 24 ("What have you done?") show PB acting more like a tyrant than a princess and have the Ice King depicted in a less antagonistic matter. The reason for the tonal shift in the later season is that as Finn grows up, his experiences change the way he perceives reality.

Ooo through Finn's eyes

Adventure Time is about Finn the human and Jake the dog, but really it's mostly about Finn.

The other characters get character arcs and have plot-relevant conflicts, but the show's main focus is dedicated to Finn's coming-of-age story. Finn is Ooo's hero: he's social, caring, and brave, and he's motivated by a strong sense of justice and a desire for adventure. All he wants is to try new things and help others at any cost.

However, he's only 12, at least at the beginning. His idea of being a hero is rooted in black/white morality. If you do bad things, then you're bad. Stopping bad people makes you good. And as a 12-year-old, he believes the only way to stop bad people is through violence.

The show is immature in this respect, too. For the first few seasons, there are two main antagonists. There's the recurring Ice King and his plots to force princesses to marry him, playing off the "save the princess" trope (more on him later). And then there's the Lich, who's a genuinely powerful cosmic entity that seeks to destroy life in all its forms. Naturally, Finn fights them both off through righteous punching.

The show presents this basic understanding of evil, that evil is as evil does. In the beginning, there's almost no nuance to these characters. And this is true with good characters, too.

Billy is a huge catalyst for Finn's character development, but you can see the show's limited understanding of heroism in his debut episode. Billy is Finn's predecessor in a way, being the number one fighter against evil. In "His Hero," Billy realized the fighting evil through violence didn't treat the root problem, opting instead for community activism. However, the show makes this look like a bad thing, with the moral of the episode being that violence can solve problems. Ironically, Finn's character development mirrors Billy, as he realizes over time that he fighting evil might mean hurting people he cares about. Case in point: Simon Petrikov, the Ice King.

The power of redemption arcs

Redemption arcs are controversial because they're ideal but they feel forced if they go unearned. In Adventure Time, redemption arcs serve a two-fold purpose: to convey the message that "evil" people can be understood and rehabilitated and to show Finn's developing maturity as he realizes this.

Ice King

The first character to get a real redemption arc is the Ice King. Initially, he's portrayed as Jake and Finn's natural nemesis, especially when he targets Princess Bubblegum. However, as the show goes on, it becomes clear that the Ice King isn't really malicious; he's just lonely and he doesn't know how to socialize in an appropriate way. Over time, he becomes a sympathetic villain. However, this changes with the Christmas specials "Holly Jolly Secrets, parts 1 and 2." In this episode, Finn and Jake discover the Ice King used to be a man named Simon, whose personality and sanity were corrupted by magic. Simon's backstory is further developed in "I Remember You" and "Simon and Marcy." From this point on, Finn starts referring to the Ice King as Simon, acknowledging Simon's true self and stops treating him less harshly. This leads to a really heartwarming moment in "Don't Look," where Finn's perception literally warps reality, causing the IK to revert to Simon (in appearance but not in personality).

Consequently, the Ice King becomes less antagonistic in general and we even get IK-centric episodes where he takes on a heroic role. For all intents and purposes, post-season 3 Ice King is Finn's friend. The show went from using a cliché villain-type to dedicating a significant amount of time and plot to Ice King's eventual return as Simon. From this, Finn learns that treating people with kindness is imperative to stopping evil. Not only did finding out that IK's personal life was tragic but by treating him as a friend he diminished IK's evil inclinations.

Magic Man

Magic Man is one of the more disturbing characters on the show. He always shows up to do something gross or psychologically messed up. Unlike the Ice King, who was shown to be evil because he wanted companionship, Magic Man wants people to suffer out of pure contempt for the world. His "pranks" include simple stuff like turning Finn into a foot, to more deranged acts like forcing Jake to escape a dream world where doing so would mean destroying all his new friends.

What's interesting about Magic Man's redemption arc is that Finn and Jake have little to do with it. Magic Man redeems himself practically by accident.

We gradually learn that Magic Man's wife was destroyed by GOLB, a powerful entity that can erase things from all realities. So Magic Man's cruelty is best described as frustration or vengeance to an extent. He is constantly suffering, which he tries to mitigate by deriving pleasure from others' suffering.

However, he eventually loses his magic powers (and with it, his anger and sadness) in"You Forgot Your Floaties", grounding him back in reality. From then on, his journey is one of atonement. He tries to reconcile with his family and seeks forgiveness from the people he has tortured.

This arc says more about the show's maturity than it does about Finn's. Although Finn shows no hatred towards a magic-less Normal Man, he seems pretty indifferent. The show, on the other hand, takes the time to make him a tragic figure and offers him a chance at redemption. It wants the audience to know that experiencing loss is not an excuse for being a jerk, but it can explain someone's actions.

King Man's (his title after rejoining the Martian community) redemption arc also demonstrates AT's advancing writing skills. Instead of giving King Man a clear-cut redemption arc, the show depicts him as genuinely sorry without changing his personality. King Man is still obsessed with Margles and is harsh with Martian prisoners, but he's no longer angry with the world. He hasn't moved, as is difficult to do with grief, but he wants to contribute to society instead of rage against it.

Betty Grof

Betty marks a milestone in the show and Finn's personal growth. She is the first antagonist who is shown to be sympathetic from the start. It helps that we know Betty before she goes crazy with magic, but despite that, Finn nor the show ever thinks of Betty as an "evil" character. She's misguided and unethical but well-intentioned.

Betty's whole deal is that she wants to be with Simon, which requires curing him of the Ice King Crown's effects. However, after she absorbs Magic Man's madness and sadness, she starts undertaking strategies that cause Ice King more stress than good.

She becomes a true antagonist in the Elemental mini-series when she prioritizes Simon's recovery over the lives of Ooo's inhabitants, despite the Ice King begging her to save his friends. Even after she betrays Finn, he doesn't seem to see her as a villain specifically. The real source of conflict in the Elemental series was more so the unchecked emotions of Finn's friends; Betty was just an obstacle.

Betty's redemption arc is completed in the show's finale. Betty summons GOLB, risking the entire universe's destruction to save Simon. Except her goal is not only to save Simon but to save their relationship. In an act of self-sacrifice, Betty manages to banish/merge with GOLB to save Ooo, despite knowing she could never be with Simon.

However, it's not as clear as I make it out to seem. While Betty does sacrifice her relationship with Simon, she still manages to save him, begging the question: if Betty couldn't save Simon, would she have made that decision? (I'm inclined to think no, but let me know what you think!)

Even if the "redemption" part of her arc feels rushed, it's Betty's journey that highlights the show's maturity. Just because she does bad things doesn't mean she's a bad person. Finn gets this; he doesn't blame Betty for almost destroying the world. He's more focused on aligning with her desire to save Simon and the rest of Ooo.

Through Betty, Adventure Time explains that it's impossible to judge people as good or evil. To do the right thing doesn't mean to help people who you think are "good" or oppose people you think are "evil" but to find common ground and a common goal.

Uncle Gumbald

He's basically the last antagonist of the show. I don't think there's a lot to say about him that hasn't already been said, so this section will be short.

He's a lot like PB in that he's a visionary. Their conflict stems from their competing ideas and the fact that they both want to subjugate each other.

They almost reach an understanding in the finale when they experience each other's lives, with PB realizing that Gumbald deserved to be treated as an equal. However, he isn't redeemed because he attempts to subjugate PB anyways by faking a truce. I feel like this was supposed to highlight PB's character growth as early PB definitely wouldn't have been willing to share authority.

Fern

I would say this is probably the most important redemption arc for Finn's character. It's weird to say that because Fern is introduced so late into the show and his arc is completed when he dies in the last minutes of the finale. Furthermore, he's a strange character to begin with. He's a grass clone of Finn made from two magic swords, and he's hardly antagonistic toward Finn except in the last two seasons.

But let's look at what we're dealing with here.

Fern's internal conflict is an identity crisis. At one point in the series, Finn comes into contact with a past self (merging timelines situation, dw about it), turning one of his selves into a sword. It's intentionally ambiguous at first, but it's eventually revealed that there is a miniature Finn inside the sword who is cognisant of the world around him. Because of Real Finn's carelessness, Sword Finn ends up getting busted, and eventually infected with a grass parasite, creating Fern.

Up until now, Finn has been acing his new pacifist approach to conflict resolution. He now prioritizes understanding someone's actions and reasoning with them, saving fighting as a last resort.

Fern represents Finn's greatest empathy challenge: trying to understand someone he thinks he already understands. To do this, Finn has to accept that his preconceived notions of Fern are wrong and take the time to get to know the real Fern. He thinks that because they share some sort of biology and memories, they are the same people. He fails to acknowledge the different life experiences that have forged him and Fern into distinct people.

When Fern heel-turns into an antagonist, it's not a surprise. We have seen repeatedly the jealousy that he feels outcasted by the real Finn. We also know he's frustrated with the dissonance between his past "life" and his current circumstances. Like Betty, Finn doesn't see Fern as a villain. However, he doesn't try to understand where Fern is coming from. He assumes that because they are similar, Fern will be willing to talk things out. In other words, Finn wants to reconcile with Fern but doesn't get how devastating Fern's identity crisis is.

In the finale's dream-dimension fight sequence, we see Finn finally hear out Fern's concerns and the two explore Fern's past together.

Fern does die because of plot reasons, but not before re-establishing his and Finn's friendship. I don't really like it when stories sacrifice one character for another's development, but it makes sense given Finn's narrative is about realizing that doing the right thing isn't always a feel-good experience. Finn wants the people he cares about to be safe, and he knows that Fern is in danger by siding with malicious characters like Gumbald. Fern also decides to align with people who care about him rather than someone who wants to use him. If Fern's villain arc is caused by feelings of inadequacies, then it's resolved through self-acceptance. Redeeming Fern requires Finn to truly understand Fern, but this means Finn loses someone who gets him.

I think it's implied Fern could never be at peace alive, since the grass demon was keeping him alive while corrupting his heart. It's a unique take on a heroic sacrifice: setting Fern free means letting Fern go.

Misc. thoughts

Not all redemption arcs are equal. I wanted to touch on a few mini-redemption arcs that either didn't fit the post or had a lesser impact on the story. These aren't relevant to the text, so feel free to skip to the conclusion.

Irredeemable villains

Some AT antagonists never get redemption arcs. These are usually one-off villains who don't get much characterization apart from just being evil. I don't think that AT wants to imply these people are beyond help (see Magic Man for proof), but maybe becoming a good person means that someone has to understand you first, which is harder to do in some cases. Examples include:

Ricardio the heart man

Thief Princess

Wyatt

Redemption arcs?

Originally, I wanted to write a section on Princess Bubblegum and how she gradually releases her iron grip on her kingdom. However, I decided against it because Finn never really sees her as a bad person. However, understanding that she's not perfect is definitely part of her arc. If I were to write about PB, it'd have to be a separate article, probably incorporating how Marceline plays into her character development and how her relationship with evolves over time.

Another character I omitted from this analysis was Lemongrab. I wouldn't describe his arc as a redemption arc because I feel it was more focused on self-discovery than making up for his past actions.

Finally, I thought about writing about the Lich's transformation into Sweet Pea, but I almost don't count it since they are essentially two different characters. A redemption arc to me means that a character undergoes a change of heart. I feel like Sweet Pea is more like the Lich reborn, and while you can argue that the events in "Whispers" are the good Lich fighting against his dormant persona, I feel like it's clear that Sweet Pea and the Lich are not one and the same. Either way, Sweet Pea being the Lich's redemption is to muddy to discuss in this context.

Becoming good

One thing I like about Adventure Time is that no one tries to make the bad guys turn good. Redemption arcs are mostly self-initiated. With characters like Ice King, Finn doesn't try to turn him into a hero, he just stops treating Simon like a villain. Unlike in other media, heroes and villains are not real roles in AT. They are more like social constructs that are easily altered once you start to empathize with supposed villains.

But while "villains" is a flexible term in AT, evil-doing is not. AT puts forward the standard that people should seek forgiveness and atone for the ways they've caused harm. It's a pretty grown-up idea that we should own up to our actions but also forgive people who want to be forgiven.

Conclusion

In Adventure Time, Finn wants to be a hero, but in trying to do so, he needs to answer this question: "What makes a hero?" Originally, the show asserts that a hero is someone who beats up bad guys and obeys people in authority. But as Finn and the audience get older, the show's ideas evolve, too. Through the use of its extensive rogue gallery, Adventure Time affirms that "bad people" are usually just normal people with personal issues. Heroism becomes less associated with righteous violence and more geared towards empathy and reconciliation. Eventually, Finn and the show give up on the hero-villain dichotomy, acknowledging that these categorizations prevent people from helping those who need it most.

Note: this is the first analysis I've posted on Tumblr and I'm planning on writing more with the goal of getting better at writing and media literacy. Additionally, I really love this franchise and I'm always down to discuss it further. Please let me know what you all think?

#adventure time #adventure time analysis #tv analysis #cartoon network #finn mertens #finn and jake #princess bubblegum #ice king #magic man #betty grof #fern #uncle gumbald #golb #the lich

[look-how-they-massacred-them]

Chloe Bourgeois

Submission reason:

Threw her character development out the window! She had so many redeeming moments but then they started backpedaling and making her crueler than she was even at the start.

basically she's always been the stereotypical high school bully character but also there have been areas where it seemed like she could be redeemed or she could have any sort of character development at all but it's always scrapped so she can be a bully again. she also had her miraculous taken away for the reasoning of ""hawkmoth knows your identity now so you cant have a miraculous"" but several other miraculous holders have had their identities revealed yet they're still miraculous holders

She was set up for a redemption arc, but the writers gave her a damnation arc instead. They changed her from a more complex character to a boring, one sided one. Not to mention that she is ""punished"" by being sent to live with her emotionally abusive mom, while the man who raised her is ""rewarded"" by getting to raise her half-sister instead.

since she‘s your pfp i‘m sure you know what i‘m talking about but they really just build up to an amazing redemption arc over 2 or 3 seasons and then went with rocket speed the other way like what why where‘s even the point

Given a compelling reason for change and then being dumped to the wayside for a previously nonexistent twin sister

-the CREATOR (grown man) has this weird personal grudge against the character? -writers undid any potential character development and made her a hate sink, took away any of the character depth they set up -they retconned her into be the source of Marinette’s trauma??

She never got a redemption arc, despite the narrative building to one by introducing her as a main character’s childhood friend, and building on her bad relationship with her mother. Instead, she became a cartoon villain, and her secret sister randomly showed up and got the redemption arc that was clearly meant for Chloe.

Her character development got undone because the creator hates her. I don't even like her that much but that was absurd on a level that I do not often see. AND she got replaced.

Reduced from multifaceted bully with potential to reform to puppet for the other antagonist plans.

She had a redemption arc in season 2 but then the creators decided they prefered it if she just... got even worse than she was at the beginning. Also, they created her half-sister, who could be named ""Nice Chloé"" because she's literally Chloé if she was nice and a lesbian

Propaganda:

She is my daughter now, André and Audrey Bourgeois.

nothing else! thank you

Not propaganda. Just saying the image links have not been working in my favor and I'm sorry bc I don't think the link goes anywhere

She’s my silly and I’m mad about this <3

She is the original lesbian<3 in my heart

#look how they massacred them poll #look how they massacred my girl #chloe bourgeois #mlb chloe #miraculous #miraculous chloe #mlb

[innocentimouto]

Honestly if Jet joined the Gaang, the shipping wars would be between Jetara and Zutara.

I think Jet would shut down some of Aang's "antics" regarding his behavior and his relationship with Katara. He'd probably would have Aang keep a distance from Katara in order to feel focus ( such as when he had to choose to let Katara go or not in the Guru episode). He'd probably be in favor of Aang letting go if it meant the Fire Nation's war would be over.

I'm not sure Kataang would even be able to develop as it could with Jet being right there.

I'm not even sure Kataang would happen if Jet and Katara developed further romantically. Although I don't ship it - I prefer my crackship of Jet and Haru lol- I'd probably be in favor of them over K/A and even Z/K.

Also, if Jet joined earlier, it might've made Zuko's redemption more shallow as Jet would've already fulfilled that role.

Outside of Aang kissing Katara in the play episode, nothing about his behavior seemed wrong to me. He always supported Katara. When she stole the waterbending scroll, Sokka was lecturing her over it while Aang laughed at how she contextualized it. For the fandom claiming he's incapable of seeing her anything other than perfect, he didn't have a problem with her stealing.

That episode is a prime example of how kind Aang is to Katara. And it even shows how the narrative makes Katara apologize so many times for

stealing a waterbending scroll that's actually useful for her and Aang.

It helped her get better, which is possibly the only reason she even lasted against Pakku, meaning Aang probably would have had to stay at the North for longer if Katara hadn't got a chance to learn.

She was able to help Aang in fights after that.

reclaiming a part of her culture that was stolen from her

Zuko being at the island because Iroh wanted a game tile, yet Iroh blames her

Sokka has many lines of blaming her, her being obsessed with waterbending, endangering all of them, and yet when on Kiyoshi Island, when Katara told Aang they needed to leave soon because it wasn't safe and then was proven right, Aang admits he was wrong, Katara doesn't blame him, and they leave. End of story. Sokka isn't even in the equation here.

The writing is very different, but ironically the only one who actually judges Katara is Sokka. Aang has always been supportive, except when she was planning on killing someone in a clearly upset state.

The whole thing about Aang having to let go of Katara to activate the Avatar state doesn't make sense to me because this was never true for any of the previous avatars. And he activates it again later anyway.

I lean more toward Jetara than Kataang, but it's not impossible for Kataang to happen with Jet in the group.

Sorry when it comes to shipping culture and the like, I'm the worst because I'm that one person who will read a major shipping fic just to see good writing of my favorite character, and good friendships, and skip every romantic scene. I have a few ships I like yeah, but romance as a genre doesn't work for me, despite me trying to enjoy it. So if there would be a love triangle if Jet was there, or jealousy or drama, any of that doesn't appeal to me. The drama and messiness of romantic tropes can make for really entertaining stories but I am not the intended audience.

I don't think Jet having a redemption arc would make Zuko's shallow because Zuko was on the side of the oppressing nation and was desiring his "rightful place on the throne" for a long time. Jet was entirely different. Besides even if say Zuko actually had a redemption arc, it's not like they're all written the same way.

Not all of them have to end with befriending the main cast, or with complete forgiveness. I enjoy when characters rightfully dislike someone for some injustice, but have to work together for a common goal and still don't become friends. Just because someone has apologized, or has helped, doesn't mean the character deserves forgiveness. It's also a more interesting dynamic than all is forgiven, to me at least. Especially because then it truly emphasizes the person wants to change not for someone's forgiveness or good graces, but because they recognize they did wrong and want to change.

Besides Zuko joined right after a failed invasion. That is EXTREMELY suspicious. The kids just got separated from their people and fathers, and now the prince of the Fire Nation shows up. Zuko joined at the worst possible time. My first question, if I didn't attack immediately, would have been why didn't Zuko help during the invasion?

#atla #anti zutara #Jet #atla jet #Jetara #Zuko critical

[writernusratsultana]

the one huntress that matters

ও a study (read: ramblings) on allison argent in light of the news that according to the 2023 teen wolf movie, allison is alive...with absolutely no repercussions for it??

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Allison Argent will always hold a special place in the land in my heart that Teen Wolf occupies. If you look her up, you'll find articles on why she was and is one of the most important female characters in the history of teen dramas. I agree. I agree with it all.

She was not a black-and-white one-dimensional character. She was layered and complicated, someone we were all conflicted about: What is she doing? Do we support her? Is she good or bad?

            Allison entered as the archetypal pretty new girl, unaware of anything supernatural. The hero's love interest, and nothing more. I thought she was pretty but didn’t give her much agency.

The show clearly had another plan for her. Over the course of the first season, it became clear that she had her own storyline, separate from Scott's, which is hardly ever seen in such shows. She no longer had to use “love interest” as her crutches. We saw her becoming a talented archer and a conflicted hunter, targeting her own werewolf boyfriend before ultimately accepting Scott.

            Scott and Allison's romance (I blame them for idealistic expectations) was real and moving: the excitement of new romance but the undercurrents of a first love that went deeper. She became his anchor; the one that brought him back when he teetered on the edge. All he had to do was think of her. All she had to do was hold his hand to let him know she was there.

            Season 2 saw Allison pick up her trademark weapon and evolve into the strong hunter we began knowing her as. She and her bow and arrow came before Katniss did (The Hunger Games released 2012), so you couldn’t compare them. We saw how far she could go, what limits she could cross. Unaware that her mother died trying to kill Scott, she was manipulated into thinking that a rival werewolf pack was responsible for her mother’s death.

            Her mother's death started her downward spiral—something that was completely fresh and unexpected in a teen drama and wholly fascinating to see in a lead female character. Instead of breaking down, Allison used her anger as a weapon, pulling away from Scott and hunting down the rival pack, shooting arrow after arrow into teenagers until she was stopped by her stunned father.

We watched her, a human, fight werewolves that were stronger than her, using her training, her daggers and arrows, to make them bleed. Her transition from a sweet and pretty love interest to a strong and dark warrior was a change that all us fans were enthusiastically cheering for. Teen Wolf was setting milestones in their character portrayals and breaking stereotypes, setting an example for all media ahead.

            Season 3 became Allison's redemption arc. She needed to atone for the wrong she'd done. And so, she broke up with Scott and became completely independent—another move that made her different from other teen female leads, especially back then. She was making her own choices and telling us that we could too.

            We saw Allison become less confident in her abilities, unsure of what she was capable of and if she could really protect her friends. Her insecurities made her more human. Despite their break-up, it was clear that Scott and Allison still cared about each other.

Lydia’s friendship with Allison also evolved. For the first time, a female friendship was given as much depth and importance as a male one. We saw Allison become more protective of Lydia. When Lydia had to meet the Alpha that was responsible for biting Scott and killing Allison's aunt, Allison accompanied her, ready to defend her if needed. Lydia pushed her to gain back confidence in her abilities, giving her encouragement when she struggled with archery.

            In fact, the character relationships are probably the best thing about Teen Wolf. When people remarked that Allison and Stiles weren't really friends at all, the show proved them wrong: When Allison has to confront Void Stiles in season 3, she has tears in her eyes and an angry, determined expression that betrays her emotions—it is not an expression someone who isn't a friend would have. She doesn't even have to verbally say anything.

Season 3 was the show’s peak. Allison overcomes her internal struggles and is able to protect her friends without worrying she will hurt them. At this point, I was completely invested in the main gang. I was rooting for them to make it through. I was rooting for Scott and Allison to get back together despite the introduction of Kira.

Here, Allison was at her high point. Fierce, loyal, caring and sweet. She had emerged as one of the strongest female characters on the show whose role wasn't reduced to being the love interest, and it made history. Her story wasn't merely connected to Scott’s nor was it there just to support him, nor was it always impacted and affected by him. Her storyline was her own, and that's what we all loved. We loved her.

Which is why the entire fandom blew up when Allison died at the end of season 3. It was the first time I broke down over a character death on a TV show.

            It's important to note where Lydia was at the time of Allison's death. She and the real Stiles could not see what was happening; they were in a tight passageway so narrow Lydia could touch both walls if she stretched her arms. The scene that followed was remarkable in its depth. Where once Allison was so unsure of her abilities, here she was, using her bow and arrow to destroy the Oni.

            When she realized that an Oni was about to kill Isaac, you see her nocking an arrow and pointing it at the shadow warrior. And then you see her visibly take a deep breath. She's both steadying herself and assuring herself that she can do it. That she can hit her target. That she can save her friend. It was amazing—it made her so human. She was not perfect, just like the rest of us.

And it hits. The arrow goes right through the Oni. And in that brief moment, her face lights up. She did it. But she doesn't see the other Oni that promptly avenges his fallen mate. And she is run through with his sword. I screamed when that happened. No, no, no. No, she'll live. She'll survive that. She will.

            The scene cut to Lydia with an unconscious Stiles. The moment the sword went through Allison, Lydia stiffened and gasped. And she screamed Allison's name. The scream was bloodcurdling, both terrible and ultimate.

            But wait. Lydia is inside. She didn't see Allison get stabbed. So how did she know? You could say it was banshee powers. Intuition. But as the viewer, you realize that Lydia felt the sword. It was as if she had felt the sharp pain Allison must've felt. Could you imagine losing your best friend that way?

            But Lydia is not the only one who breaks. Scott comes running just in time to see the Oni drag his sword back out and vanish. Allison collapses into his arms. The blood that stains her lips looks like crimson lipstick. You can see the struggle in Scott's eyes, the helplessness, the shock: like he can't process that the girl he has always loved from the very beginning of the show is now dying in his arms. It was something not even we, as fans, had seen coming.

            And then Allison says something. "I love you," she says to Scott. "I love you, Scott McCall."

            Why was this so important? One, because Allison and Scott are not together. And yet she says this. Second, one thing I've always loved about Teen Wolf is that not everything is verbal. There are meanings underneath what they say on the surface. This is a show that treats its teens in a more mature way than you see in most teen shows.

            So when Allison said "I love you," to Scott, it wasn't just a romantic love she was talking about. She truly loved him. As a person. She had always loved him just as he had always loved her (fun fact: this line was not in the original script. Crystal Reed had come up with the line herself, against the producer's wishes. She too believed that till her dying breath, the one person Allison Argent had always loved was Scott).

            Everything about this scene was brilliant and beautiful and top-notch for what you'd normally see in a teen drama. It wasn’t sappy. It wasn't overdone or underdone. I loved that they emphasized the friendship between Allison and Lydia—two female characters—just as much as they had emphasized the lovers. Because yes, Allison's death took something away from Scott. But it also took something away from Lydia. When I think about Allison's death scene, it is Lydia's reaction that stands out most in my mind, despite her not even having witnessed the death like Scott did. 

            Allison's death was almost historical. MTV put up a website that was designed as her memorial. All you saw were fans posting about how much Allison had inspired them. Entertainment websites and blogs waxed poetic about why Allison was such an important TV character and why her loss really was a loss.

            It was especially sad because Jeff Davis had not originally planned for Allison to die. In fact, in his plan, Allison actually lived and he had envisioned her and Scott getting back together and eventually getting married (give me a moment while I cry about this forever). Allison's death was a result of Crystal Reed's decision to leave the show to pursue other roles.

            Of course I wish she hadn't made that decision. The entire fandom wished it. It is true that Allison’s death marked the beginning of the show’s fall, its downward spiral and shaky foundation. Ever since her death, the show was unable to keep itself steady, mostly due to the high character turnover. Characters entered and left as if everybody was a guest star instead of the main cast.

            They began introducing a plethora of characters with immense potential, just for the show to never expand on them, or for the actors themselves to leave.

            The worst blow came when the show wrote off Arden Cho, the only, might I add, Asian character in the main cast. Kira Yukimura was a kitsune, a fox spirit. She had no control over the kitsune inside her—rather, when she was in battle, the fox spirit rose up and controlled her instead of the other way around, and Kira didn’t even know it.

            This created so much potential for her. How could she help Scott and be a part of his pack if she couldn’t control her powers? What if the kitsune completely took over? What havoc would she wreak, especially with a sword in her hands and her powers in tow?

            But just when her story was building up to an exciting crescendo, Arden Cho revealed that she would no longer be part of the show come season 6. The writers had cut her out—their excuse was “too many characters to keep track of.” It was a slap in the face to fans who had invested in Kira the same way they’d invested in Allison. Now, just like Allison, Kira would be leaving, and she didn’t even get a proper goodbye.

Yet, the show chose to keep irrelevant characters. They were introducing unnecessary male characters instead of expanding and building on the characters they already had. We were all confounded when after giving that reason to cut Kira out, they announced that a new cast member would be joining—“a hunky, sexy lacrosse player who gets drawn into the supernatural world.” At this point, we already had way too many “hunky, sexy” boys. It was ironic how the show that complained they had “too many characters” was now introducing a new face none of the fans wanted, when they could’ve spent that energy developing Kira.

            But one thing Teen Wolf did that I loved that was very unlike typical teen dramas was that they didn't brush off Allison's death nor did they ever forget that she was such an integral part of the show. In other teen dramas, when characters die, the show tends to find a quick replacement and move on without looking back. Teen Wolf did the opposite.

            For example, the fandom was pretty angry when Teen Wolf didn't give Allison a funeral and instead jumped right back into trying to save Stiles. But upon thinking about it, I realized that they did it to reflect the situation: the truth was that none of the teens had any time to process Allison's death—they had to rush to save Stiles before Void Stiles caused anyone else's death.

            This is why, at the end of season 3, the scene where Scott sits alone at the kitchen table staring into space until his mother arrives and he suddenly breaks down crying in her arms, hits that much harder.

          Teen Wolf has always done well with nonverbal scenes and I loved this one. Without any words at all, we understood who Scott had been thinking about. That was both a testament to how well we had grown to know Scott over the span of the show and to the writers of the show.

            We thought that after season 3, Allison would never be mentioned or thought of again. But we were wrong. In the 5th season, the gang attends a “senior scribe:” a tradition where seniors write their initials on a bookshelf in the library decorated with the initials of previous seniors.

          Scott writes his initials. Pauses. Then, right underneath his initials, he writes, “A.A.”

            The fandom went crazy. It was so endearing. With that simple—again nonverbal—scene, Scott proved that he would always love Allison. He would never forget her. She too would’ve been with them, taking part in this tradition, if she were alive. It was lovely and it hurt.

            In season 5, the fans celebrated Crystal Reed’s return. She would be guest-starring in one episode as Marie-Jeanne Argent, a woman who bravely killed a beast who turned out to be her brother, Sebastian.

            When Sebastian and Scott are facing off, Sebastian is winning. Ready to serve Scott the killing blow, he digs his claws into the back of his neck: however, in doing so, he is immediately immersed in Scott’s memories.

            And who did he see? Allison. What did the fans see? Flashbacks of Allison, who we thought we’d never see onscreen again. Disoriented at the visions, Sebastian stumbles back, whispering his sister’s name: “Marie-Jeanne?”

            That quick moment gave Scott the time he needed to save himself from the blow that would’ve killed him. Though dead, Allison had saved Scott’s life yet again.

  The fandom went wild. This was the best tribute the show could’ve given and nobody had been given any warning. The show had not revealed that they’d be doing anything like this. It was the second tribute they'd given her despite it being two years since her death, and it was beautiful.

The fact that the show understood the value of its female characters (with the exception of Kira) and makes sure to remember them is something I have not witnessed in any show. Allison was the perfect flawed character. Teen Wolf will always be special for their deft handling of their characters and the amazing way they turned an actress’s desire to leave into something beautiful.

So while I am elated that Crystal Reed is back for the movie, the fact that they brought Allison back, alive, after I've finally gotten over her death—has me in doubt. I wonder if it doesn't negate all these beautiful moments, the growth the characters and the fandom has had because of her death. Because then, what was the point?

#teen wolf #allison argent #stiles stilinski #stiles stilinksi x reader #void stiles #teen wolf x reader #dylan o'brien #crystal reed #lydia martin #dylan obrien #teen wolf imagine #stiles stilinksi smut #scott mccall #teen wolf headcanons #derek hale #teen wolf the movie #teen wolf smut #teen wolf imagines #teen wolf one shot #multifandom account #character study #multifandom imagines #sterek #incorrect teen wolf quotes #mieczyslaw stiles stilinski #teen wolf gifs #teen wolf gif #teenwolfedit #allisonedit

[litgwritersroom]

Could you write something for Rocco, please? Poor boy needs some love - and a redemption arc. In villa, post villa, AU...

I will also accept food truck smut 🤣

THE COLOUR THAT YOU ARE

Rocco / MC - 3000+ - @mrsbsmooth

A mess of auburn curls, tanned skin, eyes that looked like nature.  And around him, an explosion of colour.

For as long as she could remember, Freya had been able to see things that no one else could see. Her Yaya called it the gift. She was proud that her granddaughter had it too.

Freya’s siblings rolled their eyes whenever she said anything, and the kids at school made fun of her. So she stopped telling people.

It was hard, sometimes, to see past the colours, but she mostly learned to ignore them. Most people were brown, which Yaya said meant they were just normal, everyday people. Materialistic people who hadn’t opened their minds; who trudged through their everyday routine, focused on nothing more than their own problems. 

Yaya was blue. She’d always been blue, but the colour seemed to change with the day. Some days, it was warm and sapphired as the ocean, and others, light and airy as the sky. She could always tell Yaya’s mood based on the colour; swirling and dancing through the air around her body. Lighter meant she was feeling good. Darker meant she was tired. And towards the end of her days, Yaya’s aura was navy; such a deep, shimmering blue it was almost black. 

It was Freya who held her hand as she passed.

She didn’t care much for people’s colours after that.

Occasionally, she’d see someone in the street that caught her eye. Like the broad, business-type man, screaming about stocks into his mobile phone, whose magenta-pink aura betrayed his inner kindness. The small girl in the tutu, whose cloud of tomato-red made Freya giggle. Impulsive, impatient, and probably a little fiery. Her poor parents. 

But every now and again, someone would see hers, too. 

They were always older - and often unassuming. A man at the park. An elderly lady on the bus, furrowing their brow as they looked at her before their eyes widened, and they smiled at her. Freya didn’t know what colour she was. She’d never tried to check. She knew what the colours meant, and she didn’t want to know. 

In fact, she hated that she could see them at all. 

It felt intrusive, in a way, to know so much about a person without even knowing their name - without them knowing that she could see their very soul; the very essence of their being. She hadn’t asked permission to see them so clearly, and it felt so wrong that she could do it without asking. She certainly didn’t like the idea that strangers could know so much about her. 

So she kept her eyes to herself.

Until him.

She hadn’t planned to go to the park that day, but warm days were rare in a Belfast autumn. She’d overheard some high school students on the bus talking about a food truck that was stationed out there. They’d laughed and made fun of it, giggling about the loser who owned it, an older guy who flirted with everyone, and smoked too much weed to care that he was selling alcohol to minors. 

So she’d slowly walked, soft music in her ears until she’d seen the truck. There was a line of people, most of them young, and as she drew closer, she saw the sign.

Cocktails & Cronuts.

She couldn’t help but be confused by the weird mix of breakfast and late-evening treats, but something drew her closer. She joined the back of the line, the girl working the counter smiling broadly as each customer stepped up, quickly pulling pastries from a cabinet behind her, and talking animatedly to someone in the back. But as Freya drew closer, she started to feel… weird.

There was something in the air; something wiry; as if walking through a cloud of static electricity. She tried to keep her eyes focussed in front of her, but the girl working the counter seemed to furrow her brow as she approached. The girl kept glancing sideways, growing seemingly concerned, talking hurriedly to the person that Freya couldn’t see. But with every step, the feeling only grew stronger, and she fell within earshot of the girl at the counter. 

“Rocco - are you sure? Do you need to sit down? You’re looking–”

And then Freya saw him. A mess of auburn curls, tanned skin, eyes that looked like nature. 

And around him, an explosion of colour.

There were so many she could barely take him in, a mess of hue and pigment, like an artist’s palette discarded at the end of the day. Orange, green, white, red, yellow, blue, indigo; he was every colour at once, dancing around him with not swirl, but floodwater. There was something so unsettling about it, like she could feel the restlessness within him.

She’d never seen anyone like him.

Orange people were creative, and had to learn lessons from experience. Indigo people were empaths, who absorbed the trauma and emotions of others. Green people couldn’t be tied down, but red people were stubborn. Blue said ‘ungrounded’, but white meant ‘perfectionist’. 

How could he be all of them at once?

He must’ve felt her gaze, because he turned toward her, his brow furrowing as his eyes met her own. He looked at her; really looked at her; that stare so focussed and intense, as if pleading, begging her to see him. She couldn’t tear her eyes from his, something about him drawing her in. There was something about him, something about the tumult of his soul that had her aching to know him. 

To know how someone could be so many colours at once.

But before she could even say anything, he looked away. Almost in an instant, she saw his colours darken, as if by seeing him so clearly, she’d somehow bruised him. It hurt her to watch, a pang of pain through her stomach as he turned his entire body away from her. 

“I’m gonna take a quick break,” he muttered to the girl behind the counter, before hurriedly moving through a curtained-off area.

The girl frowned, but turned back to face Freya with a smile. “Sorry about my brother, he’s a bit of a weirdo.”

Freya smiled politely back at her, and ordered her food, deciding at the last minute to skip the cocktail. She took her cronut to the far side of the park, spreading her jacket out to sit against a tree, and tore piece after piece from the flaky pasty. 

Who was this guy? His sister had called him Rocco. How could he be so many colours at once? And why was he so… so…

Scared?

She couldn’t stop thinking about him.

She’d never seen anything like it, and she was almost certain she’d never see someone like him again. She wished for her Yaya, for the guidance she could give, wishing she was more religious so that she could ask for a sign to point her in the right direction. 

Google was no help, neither were any books she found in Yaya’s things. Freya paced around her apartment, trying to figure it out, on the verge of calling one of those psychic hotlines and asking someone who actually knew what they were doing. 

She knew she should just forget it. She knew it was weird that she was thinking about him this much. For all he knew, she was just some girl; staring at him way too hard, and coming back to stare at him again.

But she just needed answers.

It was almost a week later when she finally went back, and when she did, Rocco wasn’t there. His sister was running the truck by herself, laughing and kidding around with the few customers she had. But as Freya got to the front of the line, she seemed to brighten. 

“It’s you!” she gasped. “You’re back!”

Freya looked up at her questioningly, and the girl beamed at her. 

“Rocco’s been rambling about you all week. Freaking out, and going on like ‘she saw me. She could see me’. None of us have any idea what he’s on about.”

Freya took a deep breath, almost closing her eyes, as she let a small smile pull at her cheek. 

“I know what he means.”

The girl shook her head, laughing to herself. “Well, that makes one of us. He’s just gone off to clear his head. He should be b— oh!”

Freya felt him before she saw him, his presence warming her back, even though she could feel that he was still quite a distance away. She turned, and was almost blinded once more, his disarray of colours even more muddled than before. 

It was like staring too hard at a Monet, watching the watercolours bleed together in a swirl of uncertainty. It was beautiful, in its way, but so… so…

He paused as he saw her, before taking a deep breath of his own. He reached her side, meeting her gaze once more, and exhaled, a single word parting his lips.

“Hey.”

They walked for what seemed like hours, sometimes in silence, sometimes making small talk, but not yet acknowledging what they both already knew. They came to a stop at a small clearing, and he sat, leaning against a large oak tree, his arms resting on his bended knees.

“I don’t know why.”

Freya sat on the ground beside him, watching intently as he stared off into the distance.

“I don’t know why I look like this,” he frowned.

“Can you see it?” she asked, but he just shook his head. 

Freya furrowed her brow, silently asking him the question, and he spoke softly.

“I had someone tell me, once. An old lady in Greece. She pulled me aside and told me my aura was… different. I didn’t really understand what she was saying. I thought she was just a bit, you know, off. But she–” He turned his body toward Freya’s, meeting her eye once more, sending shiver down her spine. “She looked at me the same way you did. Like she could see something really bad. And I just… I don’t know why.”

Freya nodded, holding his gaze, almost distracted as his aura began to grey.

“I’ve never seen one like yours.”

He waited patiently for her to continue, the breeze blowing softly through the curls that made him look like some kind of fallen angel. 

She smiled softly at him. “It’s not bad, at least I don’t think so. It’s just so… different. Most people have one colour, maybe two if they’re in a transition period. But yours is everything; every colour; every emotion all at once. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

He furrowed his brow, pursing his lips together. “What does it mean?”

Freya shook her head. “I don’t know. My Yaya was the one who knew what it all meant, and she died a long time ago. I can see the colours, and I know what they mean individually, but I don’t know what it means to have so many at once.”

Rocco paused, looking over at her once more, and she held his gaze. 

“What do you think it means?”

“I told you, I don’t know. I just–”

“Please.”

There was something so honest in his eyes, and she was suddenly overcome with the realisation. 

He believed her. 

No one since her Yaya had believed her when she’d told them about her gift. And here he was, this guy she’d barely met, and he did. She could see it in his eyes, in the honesty of his colours, the purple seeming to pulsate as he trusted his intuition. 

She could feel him, every swirling cloud of his presence, almost like he was drawing her in. There was something there, just under the surface, something she could almost see. She closed her eyes, letting the colours engulf her, feeling them instead of seeing them.

So looked up at him once more. 

“I think it means you’re trapped. It’s like your soul is being pulled in sixteen different directions, and none of them are what you want. It’s torture, and it’s breaking you apart from inside, like you have no idea who or what you’re supposed to be. When I look at it, there’s no sense to it, there’s no consistency. The colours around you are like an oil slick on top of water. It’s beautiful, so very beautiful; but there’s something about it that’s just… so–.”

“Suffocating."

She watched as he whispered it. He swallowed deeply, as if trying to suppress the emotion that had just risen in his throat. There was such pain in his eyes, as if she’d brushed by a part of him that he never realised was hurting. She couldn’t help but wonder what had brought him there. Was it a girl? Or just the weight of his own expectations; choking him with each day that he woke up to walk a path that seemed to trip him at every turn?

She wondered what it would be like to see him without his aura, to see him as others did; and she furrowed her brow. 

A little dishevelled. Tiredness under his eyes. A frayed bracelet that had meant something once, but now, he wore just to look like he had a story. The impractical sandals for the brisk autumn day, the loose shirt and the earthy smell of weed in his hair. He looked broken, like he'd had his face shoved into the dirt one too many times. Like his carefree facade was a single judgemental glance away from falling apart forever.

How could they know - how could any of them know? They couldn’t see him the way that she could. They could see the outward appearance. They could see the truck, and the weed, and the rampant flirting. 

But they couldn’t see him. 

They didn’t see the creativity in his orange. The compassion in his green. The kindness in his pink, or the empathy in his indigo. They couldn’t feel the warmth of his blue, or the energy of his red. There was a universe inside him that only she could see. That even he couldn’t see. 

And it was beautiful.

As the sunlight softened his features, she looked harder, her eyes searching for a pattern in the mayhem of hues. It was there, she knew it was there, she just needed him to breathe. 

Freya took his hand, and he almost recoiled, but with a slight reluctance, he laced his fingers with hers. She said nothing, just held his hand, as the two of them stared at the distant horizon, lingering in the comfortable silence.

There was something so wonderful about his presence; in the warmth of his hand, and the way that setting sun illuminated the gold in his skin. The steady rumble of his breath, and the sound of his voice as he finally spoke.

“Do you believe in fate?” he asked, still not looking at her.

She smiled. “I suppose?”

“Do you think that we were maybe… supposed to meet?”

She didn’t react, just looked over at him, smiling encouragingly as he mulled over the thoughts in his head. 

“Because when you first came last week… I felt… something. Like I knew you were there before I saw you.”

Freya nodded. “I felt it too.”

“So what does that mean?”

She smiled, shrugging her shoulders gently. “Who knows? Maybe we were meant to meet. There’s no way of knowing, really.”

They fell into silence once more, and she brushed her thumb over his hand. He responded in kind, relaxing with each trace of her thumb over his skin. 

He was so out of place in this cold, dreary autumn, like he’d been born in the wrong place. Perhaps it was her own fascination with him, but the few rays of sunlight that still shone seemed to focus on him. They caught the green in his eyes, the pink of his lips, the dark auburn of his hair; the masterpiece of beauty and colour that she couldn’t understand why people couldn’t see. 

“Have you ever travelled?” she asked. 

He shook his head. “One trip to visit my Grandmother in Greece. Other than that… never.”

And suddenly, she knew the answer. 

She turned her body to his, squeezing his hand tighter as her heart began to race.

“Let’s go together.”

Rocco turned to look at her, his brow furrowed, and his colours began to swirl with excitement. His eyes were focussed. Serious. Present.

“Go where?”

Freya couldn’t help it, that same electricity burrowing deep under her skin, as that energy between them seemed to charge.

“Wherever you want to go.”

As they made their way back to the food truck, there was something different about him. The colours were still there, of course they were. But now, they seemed to… shimmer, like they, too, had felt the electricity. Rocco and Freya arrived back at the food truck, and he stumbled over his words a little as he excitedly told his sister he was going away for a while. She raised an eyebrow, but ultimately, smiled and shook her head; as if she’d known that one day, she’d watch him do something exactly like this. 

Freya stopped by her apartment, letting her landlord know she’d be gone for a while, threw some clothes and shoes in a backpack, and grabbed her passport on the way out the door. She hopped on the train to the airport, and walked into the international terminal, the electricity growing with every step.

And there he was. 

He looked up at her, and smiled, looking as nervous as a kid on his first day of school, his rucksack thrown over his shoulder. As soon as she reached him, he slipped his hand into hers, and she could feel he was shaking. 

“What do you think?” she asked, turning his attention toward the board of departing flights. “Peru? Kenya? Indonesia?”

He looked over the board, his brow furrowed, but paused. He closed his eyes, taking a breath, and opened them again, smiling softly to himself. He stepped closer, wrapped his arm around her waist, and pulled her into his side.

“Thailand.”

She nodded, before standing on her tippy-toes, and kissed his cheek. Rocco smiled shyly, that same beautiful energy radiating from his skin, his eyes full with gratitude as she saw him in his entirety.

He was beautiful. He was so beautiful, in his mess of colours and tones, in his opposites and his hypocrisy. He was real, so unbelievably real.

And he was here.

She ran her fingers through those auburn curls, holding his gaze, and smiled softly back at him.

“Let’s go and find out who you are.”

#litg #litg fanfic #litg Rocco #litg season 2 #mrsbsmooth #litg writers room #writers room #love island the game #ask #writing prompt

[showtoonzfan]

I’m honestly 80% convinced that when Hazbin comes out, most of the show as a whole and those “character arcs” Viv is always talking about that she has “planned”, will mainly all revolve around drama or relationships, rather than what the actual show is supposed to be about, which is redemption. I know that Viv has said that Hazbin is “story driven”, but with how scrambled Helluva has become and how Viv has proven to me multiple times that she has no idea how to be a storyteller and a proper show runner, I find a hard time believing her. I mean, look at Helluva. It’s clearly a story driven show, especially since the characters themselves never move the plot along and are only written inconsistent or dumbed down to FIT the plot and make it happen. I obviously can tell that Hazbin clearly seems to be gearing towards big events, having villains and all that, but judging by the sneak peak gifs we got, I feel like the show will more be like “The office”, where it’s mainly just the main cast bouncing off one another and getting into shenanigans and relationships drama, rather than Charlie working to rehabilitate them all and the characters actually learning and growing as people. It’s clear she didn’t make this show because she was passionate about the concept of redemption, she made this show to show off her Oc’s and her world. I’m know I’m speaking too early and will just have to wait and see until the show comes out, but y’all can’t blame me for having doubts on everything Viv says regarding Hazbin due to the train wreck that is Helluva Boss. This is the same person who had said that Helluva is a show where the characters aren’t looking for redemption and is more about the relationships between said characters, except it clearly IS or why else would the show call out Blitz and Stolas for their shitty behaviors and then want to make you feel bad for them too. It’s trying so hard to be this deep morality show, everything that Hazbin SHOULD be since it literally revolves around characters trying to redeem themselves, but for some reason Vivzie went “Nah let me make ANOTHER emotional serious story driven show about characters and all even though I just created a show that’s perfect for that!”-

#vivziepop critical #spindlehorse critical #helluva boss critical #hazbin hotel critical #Hazbin hotel criticism #Hazbin critical #helluva critical #helluva boss critique #vivziepop criticism #vivziepop critique #Hazbin hotel critique

[ln-g]

just watched a video essay and realized how perfect missy's death is in the doctor falls. after the redemption arc this whole season, then the "will she wont she" that is this whole finale, guessing whether or not she'll actually do what's right this time, she chooses to abandon the doctor despite clearly considering it very heavily, and then changes her mind, kills her past self, and goes to stand with him for no other reason than it being the right thing to do. it feels like a very appropriate conclusion, and we as the audience are *so ready for it*. but we (and missy) have forgotten something, haven't we?

because what has the theme been this whole season since episode 6? "without hope, without witness, without reward". so logically, for missy's redemption arc to truly be complete, she needs to be good under these conditions. so let's check the situation. without reward? well that one's easy, standing with the doctor she'd literally be sacrificing her life, doesnt get much more "without reward". without hope? absolutely, nardole literally calls this out in the episode and the doctor agrees with him. even if this plan succeeds, the cybermen will get those people eventually. no matter what happens, they or their descendants will eventually be converted or killed. its a completely hopeless situation.

but without witness? if missy dies standing with the doctor, he'll know she was good in the end. she will have the satisfaction of showing him her completed character arc and having him recognize that she is, in fact, good.

and for the conclusion to *really* work, for her redemption arc to really be fulfilled, that can't happen. we need that second condition, "without witness", to be fulfilled. and so she has to die alone. it's another greek tragedy: it's clear in hindsight that this was always going to happen. it always *had* to happen. as the master says, *this* is where she was always going. shooting herself in the back. her past prevents her from moving forward in a very literal way (and in a way the fact that she doesnt anticipate him doing this shows how much better shes become, shes forgotten she was ever that evil and vindictive) but in a way it only solidifies her redemption. in the deepest pit, in the darkest hour, without hope, without witness, without reward, missy is truly good.

#doctor who #the doctor falls #missy #michelle gomez #the master #john simm #i realize this is incredibly obvious and also something that everyone figured out six years ago but i needed to scream about it