#they're going to have to flesh out his backstory and his personality?? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mauesartetc · 5 months

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A while back I got a comment that demonstrated a misconception as to what the character design process actually entails, and I thought it had real "teachable moment" potential. So let me make this perfectly clear:

Drawing a character is NOT the same as designing one.

Let's say I wanted to draw a guy. No backstory, no defined personality traits or preferences, no details about his current life, just doodling some random, generic guy who popped into my head.

That's just a drawing.

But what if I decided to flesh him out more? What if I wanted his appearance to reflect his lifestyle and inner life as well? Here's where the note-taking comes in.

And now for the visual research:

I thought the bodybuilding angle would provide a fun contrast with this guy's profession. The mental image of a huge, burly dude working on a clock or watch with tiny, precise movements just makes me smile. Perhaps I could give him small, nimble hands that would suit his line of work.

Now that I have a better idea of how Mikhail's face and body will look, it's time to establish a pose.

Of course, I never expected to employ all the personality traits I started out with inside this single pose; those were just a jumping-off point. No one drawing will ever be able to encapsulate every single facet of a character, unless they're extraordinarily flat and generic (see also: random guy I doodled at the start of this post). If I wanted to write a story with this guy, I'd have to figure out how all the traits play off each other and how they'd cause him to react to different situations. There would be a lot more note-taking and development involved, but for the sake of keeping this post (somewhat) brief, let's just focus on visuals for now.

On to color!

I decided to give Mikhail a carnation in his pocket (for its round shape), specifically a red one, which represents deep love and an aching heart. Thus, the flower needed to maintain its red color for the symbolism to come through.

For some reason I initially pictured this guy wearing a pink shirt (perhaps as an offshoot of the "romantic" angle), but I wanted to try some different colors inspired by the 70s catalog pages I found. I ended up really liking the contrast of the cool blue shirt with the warm red pants, and that option made it into my top three as a result. I lined them up next to each other to compare them, and in the end, blue won out over pink. I think it also reflects the "colder", more cerebral, less-emotional parts of his personality well (namely "systematic", "stern", and "callous"- one from each column!). Just goes to show that you shouldn't get too attached to your first draft, as better ideas are just around the corner.

I then lightened the blue of the shirt so it wouldn't compete so much with the rest of the outfit, and wouldn't be quite as loud and "in your face". Mikhail strikes me as a bit of an introvert, so the calmer, quieter blue is a better fit. I added a darker belt and watchband and de-saturated the flower just a bit to make the values feel more balanced, and I think we've got it!

Let's see the final result!

Y'all, I was not expecting this process to make me emotional, but there's something special about fully realizing a little guy you've spent hours working on. All of a sudden you look at him and go, "Oh my god, there he is. That's him." This man wasn't even a twinkle in my eye a couple weeks ago and now I'd protect him with my life.

And the thing is, the only reason I'm calling this design "done" for now is that I basically just brought it into existence to make a point. But if this dude were attached to a larger story, he'd be nowhere near finished. I'd have to make a ton more iterations and go a lot more in depth with my research than I did (especially with the Armenian cultural stuff). Overall, though, I hope this quick project properly highlighted the difference between a single drawing and a more fleshed-out character.

Later!

#character design #art tips #art advice #art help #concept art #long post

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starrylayle · 4 months

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Marauders Fandom > "There is no canon !!" and other rhetorics

Guess who's back in their marauders phase after 2-3 years of being dormant lmao?? ((spoiler its me lol)). Anyways, a lot has changed since 2021 in this fandom so I just wanted to talk about the direction i think it's going.

I remember in 2020-21 the fandom started to boom in popularity on tiktok --> esp with the rise wolfstar + atyd. I remember people were so suprised with remus' characterization as 'rougher around the edges' instead of the 'soft boi' thing, and how that influenced the new wolfstar dynamic. [Just want to add that the atyd characterisation is much more complex than this and its one of my fave fics --> I'm more talking about the fandom at large's reaction to this)

And since fandom is incapable of having two nuanced and characters who are not stark opposites,, their roles were basically reversed and now Remus is the toxic dom alpha male and sirius is the cute girlyboy twink --- which um,,, the oc-ification is so real its embarrassing but whatever (omg don't even get me started on jegulus 💀)). I just assumed these would stay as headcanons. But now we have people saying, that 'we barely know anything abt the marauders in canon' or 'isn't the whole point of fandom to make shit up?' which i have sO many issues with so let me just try and compile my thoughts into dot points for the sake of coherency.

'we barely know anything abt the marauders in canon' ---> First of all, Remus, Sirius and Severus are fully fleshed out characters in the og series -- why do you think people would care enough to create an entire fandom based on their backstories if they were 2d flat characters in canon?? Like bffr. I saw a post on here (forgot who it was by, let me know if u know!) that said, 'I didn't cry over sirius' death in OotP just for ppl to say that we know nothing abt him in canon'. Like, its just mind-boggling to me lol.

'isn't the whole point of fandom to make shit up?' --> Ok y'all. For a fandom to work, there have to be some guidelines, some kind of source material, some point of reference so people can build upon it and make content. I think we can all agree on that. One reason why HP is such a popular place for fandom is the world-building and potential plots/storylines. I see some people argue that jk rowling was a shit writer anyways so might as well contradict everything she says. Now, I don't disagree with that point in particular, Jo is a pretty mediocre writer and a terrible person. HOWEVERrr, I'd argue that it is a lot more fascinating when people expand or work on the concepts in HP. JK Rowling has a lot of great ideas but executes them terribly -- I love when fic writes do this, which prolly explain why I love atyd as it is still very much canon compliant but executes themes on class, disability and queerness that jkr could barely do in subtext. This doesn''t mean I only think canon compliant fics are valid. That's not the case! I think as long as the charcterization is consistent to the character and the particular circumstances/world they're in, its fine! In fact, I love seeing how the same character would function if in a different place! I also love seeing explorations of the magic and magic systems in aus or fix it fics (or even canon compliant ones) that still fit in with the canonnical system that we know.

I guess what I'm trying to say I wish the marauders fandom explored the world and charcterizations more deeply instead of creating shallow oc-fied version of the characters that fit into whatever's trending -- like just write your own book or smth lol -- booktok will eat it up i promise.

Also, kinda related kinda not but um,,, why are we romanticising fascists -- like babe no evan rosier is not your babygirl he canonnoically tortured multiple ppl and became a death eater soo... not saying that I wouldn't want an exploration of his character or even a relationship with barty -- (who's not some cool dairk-haired edgelord but a actually a cowardly fascist murderer with blond hair -- yes the blond hair is important) -- I'd just want them to be portrayed as the not morally good people they are. Like,, if u want to oc-ify a character like pick someone whos not a death eater or has little info on them like dirk cresswell or frank longbottom,,, or ya know,, one of the MANY female characters in the fandom ((This fandom also has a problem with women and sapphic ships in general but that's a whole other issue lol).

I know this 'babygirlification' of death eaters doesn't mean to do this, but it also ends up watering down the themes of oppression, bigotry, etc and leaves us with not nearly as complex characters. Also one of the issues I had with the og HP world is that JK will introduce concepts like wizard racism and slavery and then just like,, not really do anything about it or just have half-arsed redemption arcs whilst not ever actually exploring the root of the issue. And now i feel like the fandom is following in those footsteps unfortunately.

Anyways, i've been rambling for too long so I'll just leave it here. Sorry if this came off as mean spirited in anyway,, I just have a lot of thoughts™ and my family is sick of hearing them lol. These opinions are not set in stone however so I'd love to hear your thoughts on this subject! At the end of the day this is fandom and we're supposed to have fun -- so yeah !! thanks for reading if you made it this far!

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vhstown · 8 months

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spider-teens ★ D&D HEADCANONS

— hobie, gwen, miles, pavitr (+ peter b & mayday!)

warnings: d&d jargon (there's definitions at the end if you're curious), shenanigans, miles being a NERDDD, a lil shorter than usual

a/n: how id imagine these lot playing d&d!!! ive only played / ran 5e so forgive me veteran players 😭 again feel free to add / disagree w me it's all in good fun

If MILES doesn't run the game, he plays a warlock for sure. Not because it fits him personality wise but because he wants to be a magic user but also not be held back by it. My man is thinking STRATEGY and takes every opportunity to geek out about the specifics of his abilities. He also definitely has a ridiculously fleshed-out backstory he's kind of too embarrassed to tell anyone about.

Either warlock or the nerd multi-classes and it confuses the hell out of EVERYONE... I feel like he tries a lot of the classes though so warlock is kind of a starting point when he's playing with his spider friends (he defo played fighter or sorcerer in the past)

Miles is the one who gets everyone together though (and jumps through universes to make sure everyone's on time 😭 he will NOT tolerate scheduling issues)

Peter B runs a lot of their games except he used to play 3e or Pathfinder back in the day (nerd...) so Miles is just like... gritting his teeth a little whenever Peter misses a little detail or a skill check. He probably used to play in high school / college I mean come on...

Speaking of Peter B OF COURSE he lets Mayday roll the dice. The entire party could depend on that roll and she's rolling it and everyone is TENSE (And he tries not to let her eat the dice... Tries.)

HOBIE plays a barbarian or rogue. He'd play a barbarian just for the hell of it (sounds cool) and would most definitely carry everyone by total accident because he's like... the only one alive.

Rogue also for the hell of it cause stealing is rebellious and that 😭 Though if he does play a rogue his character becomes one of the most unintentionally complex characters in the game.

Hobie would figure out the entire plot of the adventure completely by accident and Peter just laughs awkwardly and goes "You'll just have to find out next session!" and maybe dies inside (but it's not like he prepares for his sessions anyway 💀)

Absolutely crits at the most ridiculous times and derails the whole campaign because he decided to interrogate a minor political figure and now they're destabilising the region's government instead of fighting dragons

And he accidentally becomes the leader of like the whole village and maybe starts a revolution and Peter is sat there lips pressed together hands pressed together elbows on table like "...I guess that happens then."

Might cheat a little bit. Just a little. Not enough to ruin the campaign but enough to have Peter sweating 💀 A lil strand of web under his dice hurt nobody right? (Those goblins are DEAD dead)

Miles is gob-smacked and definitely a little jealous of him 😭

PAVITR originally wants to play a fighter because that sounds... cool as hell BUT when Miles explains the bard class to him he takes it and runs

I'd say Pavitr is relatively new to the game as are Hobie and Gwen but he hones in on the roleplay (not as seriously as Miles but definitely participates)

Probably leads the group and goes head-first into danger (Miles is literally pissing himself) and his character probably knows loads of languages cause he just conveniently picked a race with very useful languages for the adventure (as per Miles' suggestion)

But he goes out-of-character more than once to go "WTF????" when he doesn't manage to rizz up an NPC and they're have to roll for initiative (attempts to be a pacifist)

The goat when it comes to fights though he plays such a good supporting character and if he were to die everyone would totally be finished 😭🙏

GWEN plays either a monk or a wizard. I feel like she doesn't particularly mind but she plays wizard for a little bit before realising that she doesn't really like the magic stuff? Goes for monk and it's a lot simpler and more fun

More of an observer but is helpful when it comes to investigating areas and carries like EVERY item possible: potions, magical items, 20 rocks for some reason. Bag of holding girlie (like how she holds that trauma she has in real li—)

Has THE coolest weapons. Because her character can't rely on magic she's constantly upgrading or getting new weapons and her unique monk abilities come in handy again when exploring!!!

Totally makes fun of Miles (endearingly!) And maybe points out a plot hole in his backstory and he wants to curl up into a ball and disappear for a good minute (he rethinks his entire character for 2 nights straight)

Has an NPC she would protect with her LIFE. Barmaid at the inn? Anything for you sweetums 😁😁😁 *trips over and dies*

That's all given if they have an actually functional game... It takes them probably about like a year to finish a one-shot adventure

But it is SO worth the memories (albeit very chaotic memories.) Even when they're arguing over a roll (usually Hobie's) or someone's character has literally died they make it work through the power of friendship...! And a broken table

These guys are crazy I love them

"Embrace the chaos is the mood for tonight's session. AKA you guys are screwed... Roll initiative."

"What the hell?!"

"Don't swear in front of the kid!"

Jargon!

Campaign: A world containing one set of characters where different adventures take place

Dungeon Master / DM: The person who creates the story and runs the game

Skill check: Rolling a die to see if you've passed or failed a certain skill when performing an action (for example charisma when trying to persuade somebody)

Crit: Critical hit. When you roll a 20 on a 20-sided die. You deal loads of damage in a fight basically.

NPC: Non-playable character. Any characters who aren't the players within the universe. Controlled by the DM.

Initiative: The roll you have to make before a fight to decide the order of turns. "Roll initiative" means "you guys are in a fight now!!!! lmao!!!!"

🕸️🕷️💫

thank you for reading my insane midnight rant LMAOOO

i haven't played d&d in like 2 years so apologies if anything is diabolically wrong here 💀would love to hear your thoughts!

reblogs appreciated <3 read the rest of my atsv stuff here!

#pavitr prabhakar #spiderman india #gwen stacy #ghost spider #miles morales #hobie brown #hobart brown #spider punk #atsv headcanons #miles morales headcanons #gwen stacy headcanons #pavitr prabhakar headcanons #hobie brown headcanons #atsv #across the spiderverse #vhstown #dungeons and dragons #d&d

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joannerowling · 1 month

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funny that she would say "Tell me something about Dean. You can't, can you? He had no backstory," when Dean gets the most characterization out of all the Gryffindors (minus the trio + Neville). we don't know much about Seamus, besides that he loves Quidditch, that he isn't brilliant at school, that his mom is annoying and that he seems to like confrontation. that's very basic info. we don't know much about Parvati and Lavender besides that they are pretty girly, love divination, are interested in boys (and that Lavender had a bunny). i don't think we know much about both of them individually either (but that's okay because they are kind of like a codependent female duo, every school has those). but DEAN? he loves football, he is a good drawer, he is good at quidditch, but he is also a fierce fighter and has no hesitation standing up to people like Umbridge when she insults Lupin. like, come on, there is a reason why ginny choses to date him and there's a reason why Harry hates him so much -- Dean is the archetype of the nice, popular boy made up in a lab for Harry to be jealous about! he is the Gryffindor version of Cedric, in that sense. "We don't know much about Dean" he literally gets more "screentime" than every other Gryffindor (minus the trio + Neville). Dean was in the Malfoy's manor. Dean was on the run with the goblins and Ted in DH, we literally get a scene where the trio overhears him and it's such a poignant and moving scene!! Dean was at Bill and Fleur's cottage. Dean was Ginny's boyfriend. Dean was on the Quidditch team. Dean was in the AD. Dean was literally the most relevant secondary character in ootp, hbp and dh (as far as the Gryffindors are concerned). Not to mention that he has a fully fleshed out backstory - his dad was killed for refusing to join Voldemort and Dean was raised thinking he was a muggle but he finds out it's not true (we actually do get to hear some echo of this backstory in that DH scene when the trio overhears him talking to the goblins and Ted).

"He had no backstory, I don't think we even met his parents, he was just "Seamus' nicer friend"." this is projection. this is not how Dean is treated in canon, but this is how Dean is treated by the fandom. the fandom constantly overlooks Dean and ruined his characterization to make him look like Seamus' nice friend when he actually has a personality of his own and is more interesting as a character than Seamus. now, as a former Popular Deamus Blogger, i can tell you the reasons why the fandom prefers seamus over dean sooo much is a bit suspicious but i don't want to wave around the racism allegations.... but they do constantly uwu-ify Dean and reduce him to Seamus' friend while Seamus receives significantly more attention from the fandom. canon doesn't justify this, if we were to follow canon, then Dean would be the one getting more attention and fanfictions than Seamus. (Dean also has great potential for fanfictions as you can also ship him with Luna) Anyway, all this to say that this woman probably forgot all about the books and is going on a whim about fanon characterization. I'm mad she turned off reblogs because I was ready to go out of my HP blogging retirement to defend my lord and savior Dean Thomas, the best background character in HP

Girl!! In the name of all Rowlingblr, i would like to appoint you head of the Dean Thomas fanclub. That was some good fangirling.

I didn't know that Dean was currently or in some fandom spaces LESS popular than Seamus. I always thought the opposite was true! Seamus is kind of annoying and confrontational in canon. Dean is way cooler and could have been the hero of his own story. Dean x Luna had its hour of glory circa 2007 (post DH release), it was definitely a guilty pleasure of mine.

I think people who get all up Jo's ass about Lavender and Parvati being kind of vapid and annoying need to take a chill pill. It's not like they're on Pansy's level of mean and hateful, they're just not heroines. God forbid a story imply that focusing on gossip, fashion and horoscopes might not make you a role model.

#replies #djuvlipen #hp #dean thomas

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justatalkingface · 10 months

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what's your opinion on the big 3? When I was hyperfoxed on this series they were the thing I care Abt the most (I enjoyed season 4, obv I'd change some stuff now but I still remember it being atleast ok)

I hate how dirty they did my girl nejire, as far as I'm aware they didn't even do anything with her after the whole pagent thing she just got a small backstory about how she was sad (don't know all of it I haven't been keeping up that well w the manga)

mirios not having a quirky and having to save eri (a girl who I can't imagine would be that skilled at the age she is and has been training on lizards to give his quirk back all together, I'd imagine it taking a few more months but bnhas time is shit so) and coming back in the war arc to punch one person and then basically do noting iicr

The only decently written one was amajiki, I wish they had more going on I think they have a fun dynamic (w them helping taking care of eri and me rlly liking idk what it's called but I love the fluff it brings) :(

Lots of mixed feelings, in all honesty. Lots of mixed feelings.

I'll admit, a big part of my mixed feelings about them is they showed up as the latest, 'Stomp on Izuku's everything' at the point in the story where it was becoming obvious that there was always something stomping on Izuku, and that gave me a bad first impression on them I've never been able to shake... which isn't helped by how they're connected to the clusterfuck of Nighteye, of all people, which is kind of my whole thing with Mirio (warning; I am biased):

As a person, he's obviously nice, but as a character, basiclly his entire reason for existing was, 'give Izuku an existential crisis' and I don't think I've ever forgiven him for that, really. His entire character is just bigger, stronger, older, happier, more capable, more confident, more successful, more loved Izuku, who had a Quirk his whole life and only had to dig deep to find out how strong it, and he, was all along.

Unironically. It's....

It's a really bad look, to be blunt; he feels kind of like a bad fanfiction character written by a bad writer who wanted to put their super special OC in the story, except he's canon.

Since we've never seen him even think something unheroic, there's really nothing that distinguishes him from that impression factual statement, which, again, makes it hard for me to give a shit about him, or even remember him... which is a problem Hori seems to share, lol. It doesn't help that I loathe Sir Nighteye and that most of his development time is spent admiring him, to boot, and that his parts of the story are either empty or focused on a living plot device I can't quite like no matter how hard I try because of how blatant the emotional manipulation is about the biggest story breaking, SOD shattering plot device until Stars and Stripes showed up.

If he ever got any kind of development to flesh him out a human being rather than being either Izuku and/or a heroic archetype, it'd help, but beyond all of that his biggest personality trait is liking jokes, and that barely even comes up. Or, rather, considering both the Final Arc and his response to Bakugou's name, along with Nighteye's own tendencies, 'jokes', maybe.

He doesn't deserve it, I admit it, it's not his fault, but I just can't get past that. He also doesn't deserve to just be forgotten until his big moment of a butt joke, but... MHA, everyone. In all honesty, I'd just like him better if his entire story arc didn't exist in and as some of the worst parts of the Overhaul arc, but he's tainted by that fact.

I freely admit that I am unfairly biased against him, so take all of that with a mountain of salt.

As a side note though, god, the story doesn't seem to realize how badly Nighteye is using the poor kid; Mirio thinks Nighteye is training him because he's worthy, while Nighteye mainly seems to be doing it because he's the closest thing to an All Might clone he can get, bar him actually cloning All Might, even if he grew to like him for who he is. I'm not sure Nighteye ever thought of Mirio with just his Quirk as anything more than a temporary situation; even at the start of canon, when on his own merits he's rising to fame with how successful he is, Nighteye's overall focus is still about getting AFO into the kid.

I almost wish I could see Nighteye explaining how all of his training came down to getting All Might's Quirk, just to see MIrio react and tear Nighteye down a peg about it, except Hori's history of handling these kinds of things means he'd never be allowed to be properly offended on his own behalf, the poor bastard.

Moving on, Tamaki. Out of all of them, he's had the biggest of an on-screen story arc, and in a intellectual way his Quirk is easily the most interesting. Unfortunately, while he has a personality, it feels so bland at times that he's far easier to remember for his Quirk than who he is.

I liked his story, really, but at the time it was overshadowed by Mirio and his everything, and by the time he showed back up it was clear how irrelevant it and he was, so it was more about how (admittedly, very) cool he get his Quirk to be than it was about him, and with some brutal honesty, it's probably because his Quirk is so interesting that he even got that much focus beyond that initial arc by Hori.

And... Nejirie.

In a combat sense she's easily the best of them, really; Mirio is almost purely defensive, which limits him (especially if he's not surprising someone with it) while Tamaki's Quirk, while flexible, is so conditional in ways that can easily hold him back (we only ever see him fight with full preparation; if he's not gearing for a fight he'd be easy to ambush), and like a lot of things in the Final Arc, his big laser canon thing is.... questionable.

Nejirie, though, is just simply powerful. In a setting where everyone has one power and one main application of that power, where you either fly or blast things, but not both, she's the closest I've seen to a 'traditional' super hero, like you'd see in Marvel or DC.

At the same time, though, out of the three of them she least has a story, for obvious reasons, and it's a disgrace, really. If Hori had just spent some time on her, on the her backstory that apparently exists (yeah, I'm not sure where that is either), she could have been so interesting... but really, all she is is the Girl Teammate. Her personality traits are The Girl Teammate's personality traits. She's just The Girl Teammate stamped over all of the interesting stuff, and it's such a waste, it really is.

And finally, as a unit? The Big Three is a shiny toy that Hori forgot in the corner somewhere as soon as he got bored with it. He spent a few minutes oohing and aahing over them, focusing really hard on developing interesting powers, how they could be used, and how strong they were, only to start to lose interest as soon as those powers were established, and he was writing the three of them off before their introductory arc was even over.

#ask #bnha critical #mha critical #nighteye critical #izuku deserves better #my deeply conflicted feelings on Mirio's everything #he doesn't deserve it but still #he's the true victim of the Overhaul arc #i hate nighteye ever so much #hori's chronic hatred of women #the big three is big wasted potential

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spaciebabie · 1 year

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As a certified Springtrap simp, which backstory for William do you prefer: one where he was a good dad driven mad maybe by jealousy or the loss of his youngest child, or one where he was always an abusive narcisist that cared for nobody but himself?

i feel like the, "im evil so i must also abuse my creations and/or children" has been really overdone. like idk im just tired of seeing it personally. and the whole "haha!!! im craaaazy!!" thing we get in the comics also rubs me the wrong way b/c. thats not. how he's portrayed in the games at all. esp hearing him in sister location he feels like he would be a calm sort of madness. he seems like a rational guy. he doesnt talk like that. he doesnt act like that. it seems really contradictory

i feel like him being a good dad (or at the least caring deeply for his children) gives him more urgency and like,,,,makes sense w/what we're given. it aligns the most w/the theories we have asta why he started killing etc. i also just enjoy the tragedy of it. he started out as a good guy w/good intentions and then was twisted inta something unrecognizable b/c he was so focused on tryin ta reach his goal. personally my hc is that he was jelly of henry and then the death of crying child tipped him over the edge and started his whole killing thing. imo its better than, "hee hoo i was evil FOREVER!! im PURE evil and have always been EVIL!!!" like. okay. wheres the subsistence?? give him depth dammit

why would he build a robot for his daughter if he didnt love her. why would he tell crying child he would put him back together if he didnt love him (not really cemented as something he said, but i mean who else would say it?? certainly not michael he was a boy. i think as a fandom we assume its heavily implied). it makes the afton kid's deaths so much more impactful. the prospect of this man losing pieces of his life bit by bit and being driven insane by it is enthralling

i love a good chaotic descent. i love thinking abt him being consumed w/a need ta revive his own son becoming obsessed w/life and death as a result. oh the irony of loving your own kid so much you would take others children away from them, knowing how losing your own felt. and the twisting of emotions as he sees his son michael someone who he would've died for, try ta stop him. b/c hes not understanding, they need ta b together again. thats all hes tryin ta do. get his family back tagether. and all these fucking obstacles are in the way of his only goal. and the manifestation of hatred of his own son b/c of this. b/c hes getting in his way. like, talk abt juicy. i want that man ruined. it just adds a layer of psychological torture that i just adore. william fucking ruined everything. he ruined his own happy family, he ruined his own life, and if he actually mourns that? chefs kiss.

my thought is, why even have him have a family in the first place if they're just there ta demonstrate he's evil? seeing the afton family purely as a plot device, we already know afton killed kids. one can assume a person who kills kids is a bad person (maybe? see this is where the juiciness comes in w/him caring for his children. is it really bad from his perspective if hes trying ta save his kid? or is it noble?) so we dont need ta b demonstrated ta that hes a bad person again. if hes just pure evil from the get go it doesnt make sense ta me ta have the afton kids be prominent in the story (besides michael, but even then he could probably be replaced by one of the victims family members) when you could illustrate the same point by focusing on the kids hes killed and their families. why do the afton kids matter if he treats all children the same. why are we focusing so much on the afton family and what appear ta b major story beats in their story, especially since the children he has killed do not get as fleshed out as the aftons do. i feel like if his family wasnt important ta him we wouldnt hear abt it at all. you could achieve the same message by making him single and childless.

do u kno how many stories there are of "Righteous Child Of A Horrible Guy Who Hates Everything, Even Their Own Family, Goes Out Ta Stop Their Parent And Save The Day" there are? its b/c its too easy!!! its too easy for u ta assume that a character is the worst and has been the worst forever!!! its too easy ta assume that an evil character would abuse their family!!! its too easy ta assume an evil character wouldn't have traits besides jealousy, hatred and narcissism!!!!

#spacie splains #idk i think of things really objectively #i dont like clutter in my stories i like things ta have a point #and i like them ta serve a purpose and be unique. not just demonstrate the same facts over and over again #unless thats like a theme and intentional but yk #like i said i dont like the 'im evil and treat my family like shit' trope #overdone ta hell and back #so its a personal thing #thank you for asking me abt this! i love talking abt him as u can see :)#give me morally grey characters give me characters who descend inta the worst version of themselves for ways they could have prevented #give me characters who know they're spiraling give me characters who know its wrong but cant stop #give me characters who do horrible things for a cause that is sentimental and noble ta them #give me characters who you can understand why they did that even if it was awful #WOW I TALKED A LOT #.....8 years of brainrot‚ even if i wasnt conscious of it #I DONT LIKE THE EASY ROAD!!! I DONT WANT TA BLINDLY HATE HIM I WANT 2 THINK!!!#i like these rants i do so ill tag him #as a treat ta myself #william afton #fnaf #you: ask me a simple 'hey which one do u prefer?' me: here is my whole dissertation on the subject that is william afton

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triglycercule · 5 days

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what do you think of murder time trio poly

i thought someone would never ask.

murder time trio poly is like the sun is to a plant. me being the plant of course. without it i simply could not live a satisfactory life and would die out. i have so much to say about them

see now WHY is the ship so damn good?? because they're practically made for each other without even knowing it like hello why are these three characters with the same origin point so perfect for eachother despite having different backstories and personalities. the creators were all across the world yet these three fit so well together you might as well think that SAS rahafwabas and askdusttale communicated telepathically to place all these parallels and dynamics into theri aus. they have so much chemistry together even when theyre not being shipped it's unreal. you will never see them apart in art because they're the mtt. they literally have their own trio name that's how iconic they are together (they mightve stolen it from the bad time trio but its ok its ok they deserve it). you don't see any other characters beings referred to those names aside from the bad sanses and star sanses so that just shows how awesome they are together

they don't even have to be in love to be good with eachother like hello. even in their duos theyre so good for eachother but it feels incomplete without all three. and the best part is that they don't even know eachother canonically so it's completely up to personal interpretation how you think they would be together. like canon is already juicy enough already but theres still so many other interpretations based on aus or headcanons or literally just who is thinking about them (i love seeing other people's interpretations of the mtt because its always so different. you will never find two versions of them that are the same from two different people)

dust and killer have their beef with eachother where they hate the other for what theyve done but it's onesided mostly from dust. dust doesn't like him but he tries to avoid him (canonically. ya i read the dusttale blog and you should too) and yeah killer has a grudge against him because dust is an asshole but he just keeps bothering him and getting up into his business because hes curious and needs entertainment to distract himself and slowly but surely they start warming up to eachother and become frienemies. they will NEVER truly become full friends because they simply are too traumatized to do so. dust will always resent killer for teaming up with the human and killer will never be able to get dust to forgive him because he is permanently stuck as killer sans but they can try. they can try to be friends even if they fucking hate eachothers guts. they can stab eachother and then go patch themselves up. they won't help the other tend to their wounds but they will offer some offhand comments here and there if killer misses a gash or dust forgets about a bone he needs to fix. this is as healthy as they get but it's okay. the mutual rage is what makes kist work

like kist horror and dust don't like eachother either. it's a mutual thing for all three of them that they fucking hate eachother. but unlike kist (or horrorkiller aswell) horrordust are the "nicest" to each other. dust pities horror. he feels bad that horror had to go through something terrible all at the hands of a human just like he did. he knows that horror did some questionable things (why in horror's not so right mind did he think feeding papyrus HUMAN FLESH was a good idea. he understands why and all but it still upsets him) but it's not like dust will comment on it. dust doesn't have the right to after all the bullshit he did. but horror hates this he hates that dust pities him. he KNOWS what he did was wrong and he absolutely resents being reminded of what he did, or even getting the slightest bit of pity for himself (because nobody should feel bad for him especially after all he did. he doomed the underground and ruined his papyrus and changed everyone for the worse out of rage). horror and dust mutually avoid eachother (dust out of respect and horror out of disrespect 💀💀) but they eventually have a few interactions. they get along FINE. they have some passive aggressive bickering mostly started by horror and dust fires back but overall their relationship is courteous. they do get into fights but unless both of them are in a REALLY bad mood theyll likely just leave the other before it gets physical. they would get along fine if they could just fucking trust eachother but they don't. that tension will always be there where they judge eachother

horrorkiller is similar to kist. except not. like with dust, horror probably really doesn't like killer for similar reasons and killer probably bothers horror out of curiosity too. except the way they react is different from kist/horrordust. horror doesn't explode like dust does when killer riles him up. instead he just insults him back passive aggressively with no fire behind it because he knows that killer's just looking for entertainment (he also thinks killer's below him. probably.) killer is ngl intrigued by this. he wants to know what will make horror snap just like dust does at him. so he tries to make his insults more and more mean, but horror can actually spit back without getting mad and it bothers killer. he tries sabotage (pranks) but it turns out that horror likes pranks. what will it take for killer to piss him off??? (it's insulting actions like killing a papyrus literally infront of horror and making it a mockery it's disrespecting food in front of horror with intent to piss him off etc etc) but it takes killer a long ass time to figure this out and by then hes kinda become somewhat decent friends with horror (friendsISH. a canonesque murder time trio will never truly become friends with eachother)

"okay but triglycercule you fiend. none of this is about murder time trio POLY. this is about them as friends and you should never speak again." i hear you disembodied voice in my head but let me tell you this: mttpoly is literally just them as friends. and you wannanknow why its because of qprs. yaaaa personally i don't think that a canonesque mtt would be anything more than a qpr. dust wouldnt be interested in romantic partners (i think dusttale blog said that. dusttale blog i love you.) horror would rather die and have bis corspe fed to undyne than even think of doing anything non plstonic with either of those losers and killer just does not give a damn about the specifics of their relationship (because he's cool like that) and ya sure there are versions of them out there who might be more than a QPR and i wholeheartedly love those idas because i love these three but my personal canon(ish. nothing is truly canon unless it comes out of the holy mtt trinity of creators) interpretations. also none of this even considers the whole boatload of aus and personal hcs and other stuff that other contexts and people who can take these templates of characters that have never met and make them into something amazing with their interactions

but yeah. i just think theyre neat

#I AM SO SORRY THAT THIS IS SO LONG #i spent the whole day thinking about how to explain them #thank you for asking this i needed to yap #once again i deeply apologize for how long this is #i should just shut up and never speak again #oh god now i dont know if this is a rant or analysis #this is definitely a rant nvm #tricule rant

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crithaus · 1 year

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I wanna make some things like very clear to the new Vox Machina fans coming from the animated show to our humble home. Really I wanna settle some of the score about my best girl Vex'ahlia.

Now I know, I know that with so incredibly much source material to try and condense into just 36 22 minute episodes naturally some stuff is gonna be cut out or missed or edited, and TLOVM is it's own canon true, but what with it being Vox Machina but abridged it makes sense to me that it can be directly compared and perhaps found a bit lacking in regards to its source material, and so here I go.

They're not treating Vex with total fairness to be honest. A lot of her best early moments in VM are taken out or given to other people in TLOVM, like her first brush with death with Delilah in the Briarwood arc (it was her that got attacked by Delilah and almost died, not Keyleth, but like this one I get ig. The Twins and Percy held like the campaign record for being down and hurt the most like Sam had to deliberately change that so this wasn't hours of the twins just being near death like I'm not happy but I get it), or season two changing how she found Trinket (Vax was nowhere near her when she ran into those poachers) and mainly the portrayal of Vex as this snippy, mean, jealous, callous, unfeeling bitch without any of the uncertainty inherent in her or the tender moments to flesh her out.

Like in VM proper she's rude and a little snippy sure but that's borne of an established backstory of emotional neglect and the crushing trauma of poverty and Vax literally being the only other person who genuinely loved and cared for her after the mother who's arms she was ripped from was burned alive, (y'know after Syldor the worst dad god ever created literally abandoned them with their mother for 10 years while they were dirt poor (but happy, Elaina is the best mom to live ever), dragged them away from her for 5 in which time he destroyed her and Vax's self esteem, let the whole racist ass town he was ambassador of harass them along with harassing them himself and forced them to be the perfect quiet little doll heirs he only decided he wanted after 10 years of no 'true blooded' kids of his own) and then when they ran away, saw their mother had been murdered in her home by a fucking dragon had to spend the next several years at only like 15ish stealing (in Vex's case haggling and hunting) to survive! Like Vex's hangups around money are from the period in her life where she as controller of her and Vax's meager finances was in charge of making sure they didn't starve to death in the woods somewhere, at 15 she and Vax had to keep themselves alive with no help from anyone but each other, her haggling any and everyone down is a direct response to that.

And oh boy Syldor? Syldor? And his bullshit expectations and neglect are the reason she's so chronically unsure of herself and so desperate to keep being Vax's favorite. You think Keyleth is unsure of herself? Buddy you have seen nothing. Vex's confidence in herself is a facade and literally the longer you know her the more obvious that becomes. She's so slow to let other people in and equally slow to trust cuz she's been hurt so brutally and the few times she relaxes enough to do something for herself (side eyeing the broom incident), she gets narratively punished for it! Bro, the night before meeting with Syldor Percy finds her in tears obsessively polishing her armor cuz she's so desperate even after all this time to prove to Syldor that she is someone, that she isn't the diluted little half-breed Syldor always looked down his nose at (and then Percy, who never again was fooled by her false airs and stepped up to do The Sweetest thing god ever created), like...she's fucked up! And lonely! And wants nothing more than a stable home and people who genuinely like her.

Them leaving their home in when the conclave first attacked Emon drove her to tears because it was the first home she'd had in so long and now they had to leave it. She's got so much depth and she is so endlessly kind too. Every time she sees someone whose circumstances mirror her own she doesn't hesitate to open her purse for it. (her freeing those kids??? Anyone???) She's no Keyleth or even Pike to be sure but she's so sweet. Keyleth goes tearing off up the Sun Tree, Vex follows. Grog gets swindled by some punkass merchant? Vex goes tearing off after him, all her interactions with Vax to be honest she might have Little Sister disease but still, she is so endlessly kind and good and it's not as overt as Pike's genuine goodness or Keyleth's earnestness, it's slightly more subtle but always present. She's the beating heart of Vox Machina, she encourages them all, (just look at what they tell Pelor I mean.... And and I could go on and on about how the fact that she's the champion of the god of Life, Light and the Sun means so much narratively but I mean I doubt I need to I mean it's Pelor), They all look to her and Vax for guidance, look at what they do to fucking Saundor for him merely taunting her, (yes it's more deep than that I know), they literally get stuck in hell and wait there, in the middle of HELL for her cuz they can't/won't move on without her.

She's brilliant, and clever, and broken and 'greedy' and a bitch yes true, but she's so much more than that, and I'm not even gonna tell you to watch the podcast cuz fuck Orion tbh and y'know I am a hater and a gatekeeper both and am totally fine being in the little niche of of vox machina likers, but if you want substance, if you want all of her because god is she compelling, then take your cues from the podcast and not the show.

The show is new, and still ongoing, and I hope they start letting her shine as she was always meant too in later episodes, but she is the heart and soul of Vox Machina and y'all better put some respect on the name of Lady Vex'ahlia De Rolo, Champion of Pelor, Baroness of the First House of Whitestone and Grandmistress of the Grey Hunt, Coinmistress and Treasurer of the Tal'dorei Council.

#vex'ahlia #critical role #vox machina #vex'ahlia de rolo #the legend of vox machina #the legend of vox machina spoilers #vox machina spoilers #i guess #I'll not sppil the show it was only out like 3 days ago but VM ended like 5 years ago and i dont think i need to tag it but whatever 😒

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zombielesbean · 4 months

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the player characters for one of my upcoming games!

these are Damara, Azraelle, and Ekkla!

the game they're all going to star in is called Three Fates, and it's going to be a classic castlevania-like in terms of gameplay (think deliberate movement, tight spaces with lots of enemies, etc.)

I thought it'd be nice to share a bit about the backstory of these characters and of the game they're gonna be in!

in Three Fates, there'll be three different stories to follow, one for each of the characters. each one has a different background and different motivations, but all three will end up converging on the same endpoint: tracking down a notorious villain and ending up at The Tower of Fate

Damara is the most fleshed out character so far, she's a 'Spellbound', training in witchcraft, following in the footsteps laid out by her family. she's unhappy training to be a witch, however, and she'd much rather take after her great grandmother, who bucked the trend and was an adventurer and skilled swordfighter. so one day, finally fed up with the current state of affairs, she sneaks off with her great grandmother's sword and goes off to find her own adventure!

Azraelle is a bounty hunter (and just a general hunter, archer, and outdoorswoman as well), and she's on the trail of the aforementioned notorious villain. it seems like every time she's figured out his location, she gets there just after he's gone. but she's determined to track him down whatever it takes

Ekkla comes from deep in the forest, a member of a race of tree people. she's also a spellbound, and channels her magic from the earth. she's also interested in tracking down the villain, but her reasons are very different from Azraelle, as she and her people have been personally victimized by him for years, and she's finally ready to go out and enact revenge

thats all I've got for them so far, hope you like them and look forward to seeing them more in the future!

#indiedev #indie games

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artist-issues · 5 months

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Okay what do you think of the idea that Maginifico was more of the Protagonist than Asha was?

Why? Are people saying that? What's the argument for that?

I guess neither of them has a character arc, unless you count Magnifico going from "bad" to "worse." And neither of them is a powerful static character, (like Steve Rogers, who doesn't change much throughout his arc but his strong character traits are an instrument of change to the characters around him.)

I mean. You could try and say Asha doesn't have an arc, but she causes change in the characters around her because all the Rosas people never stood up for themselves before she started singing.

But it wasn't impactful. Because she really didn't do anything except "challenge" Magnifico, and she'd already done that within the first ten minutes of the movie during her interview without it affecting any change. It wasn't her "challenging him" that made the Rosas people change--her challenging him just changed their circumstances a bit because it made him reveal himself as the villain...and then the Rosas people did what they probably would've done whether Asha was on that tower during his villain monologue or not--they just started wishing that he wasn't controlling them. 🤷‍♀️ Oh boy. How powerful.

That's the thing about this movie. Characters just...receive new information and act exactly the correct way in response.

Asha learns the King is doing something wrong? She immediately suggests the exact right thing for him to do and totally stands up to him, despite living her entire life under his seemingly benevolent rule and looking up to him as much as everybody else in her world.

The Queen learns that a handful of side characters are staging a rebellion against her husband of decades? She immediately joins them.

Asha starts to act a little bit defeated because her mom's wish is gone and the King is condemning her family? Her grandfather and mother, who have recently lost everything, are not affected badly enough to keep them from encouraging her to go save the day.

The tower ceiling won't open up? The goat who has never been in the tower nor displayed any intuition about how things work (and sometimes he has even forgotten where they're going or what they're doing) suddenly knows the exact right way to fix the problem just by looking around.

Nobody changes because nobody has flaws. Everybody's just a good person who's a little ignorant.

(sorry, didn't mean to go on another ramble about why this whole movie is bad.)

Anyway. The only "flawed" character is Magnifico. And by "flaws" I mean, "he's the bad guy, so he's wrong."

But that's not usually what we mean by "flawed." Usually by flawed we mean, "has weaknesses in their character that informs their wrong or bad actions and view--and those weaknesses are something they wrestle with." By the end of the story, a "flawed" character either takes steps toward overcoming these weaknesses or loses the wrestling match and the story has kind of a tragic ending. Like Anakin Skywalker at the end of ROS, or Peter Pan.

Magnifico could feel like more of a "protagonist" if he was "flawed" in that sense. But just like everything in this movie, his "wrestling match" with his flaws isn't believable or impactful. Therefore, his flaws aren't "flaws" like we just talked about.

Magnifico is just the stereotypical Bad Guy who doesn't wrestle with who he is, like Ursula or Maleficent--with no believable character arc, and therefore no impact.

Actually, they really really hamstring him.

He should have either been totally aware that he was being selfish and power-hungry from the first time we see him and owned it--like Ursula--OR he should've had a much more in-depth backstory, with a noticeable fear issue that causes him to strive for control at all costs, and a fleshed-out story of trying and then failing to fight that urge for control.

But instead of leaning toward one or the other, they just halfway-commit to all directions. One minute, Magnifico is singing a gentle song about protecting others and smiling indulgently at Asha's drawings or listening to his sweet wife--the next, he's making little one-liners or singing a quick verse in a song about how he shouldn't turn evil--and the next, he's casually saying 100% evil things like, "I DECIDE" at the top of his lungs, or "How's that 'taking your wish into your own hands' thing workin out for ya? OH WAIT, I DON'T CARE."

Pick one. If you're going to have him wrestle between good or bad, make him wrestle. Like Stitch or the Beast. If you're going to have him believe he's totally in the right at all times, even when he has to be cruel, make him really believe it's because he's right, through and through, like Frollo or Scar or Facilier. If you're going to have him be all-out nasty from the beginning and totally okay with that, like Ursula, Maleficent, Jafar, Hans, or Clayton, then make him that, through and through. Enough with tell-don't-show half-commitment to all of the above. Pick one, so that you have time to show any progression convincingly.

Rambled again. 🤷‍♀️ In conclusion, no, I don't think he's "more of a protagonist than Asha" because he's exactly as impactful, believable, interesting, and important as Asha—which is not at all.

#Wish #wish 2023 #wish Disney #Disney wish #Disney #2023 movies #critical #wish hate #wish love #asked #answered #critique #king Magnifico #Asha #writing #storytelling #meta #Villain #Disney villains

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ckret2 · 1 year

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Now I'm curious about Bill's family. Can you share what they were like?

Now, I haven't fully fleshed out his family, so the details are subject to change. I haven't even decided on what shape his dad was.

(A purely Flatland backstory would be like, oh, probably a nearly-equilateral isosceles triangle unless something weird happened; but Flatland was written as a satire of Victorian society and the Victorian class system, and I'm not interested in satirizing Victorian society. So I've yet to decide what sort of shape descent rules make the most sense for the kind of story I'm telling here. Maybe I'll like, make his dad a rhombus, Say Nothing, and watch the people who read Flatland riot in the comments.)

But for right now, unless my thoughts change as I go, his parents are kinda like,

Bill: *meets Stan & Ford's mom* "Oh that's hauntingly familiar."

Bill: *meets Gideon's dad* "Oh THAT'S hauntingly familiar."

Meet itty bitty baby Billy.

(this is the post i made this picture for. Isn't he cute.)

Bill was born with what could loosely be called "psychic powers" and more specifically be called "the ability to see into the third dimension." Saying "Bill can see into the third dimension" is kind of like saying "this human can see into the fourth dimension" when you mean "this human can constantly see what's gonna happen thirty seconds into the future like a blurry image superimposed over the present." Constantly seeing thirty seconds into the future would be useful for avoiding car crashes or cheating at roulettes, but there's nothing particularly mystical about it. That's equivalent to the level Bill's ability was on. Especially since, in Bill's dimension, the power to see into the third dimension was an extremely rare but known and scientifically-documented ability, not mysterious magic.

However, when Bill started saying stuff like "The neighbor is coming over to visit, I can see her through the door" or "Yeah I can guess what's on your card, it's two red dots, I can just see the back of it from here, can't you see it too?" or "there's a bunch of white dots outside the world and a really big white circle that moves back and forth and I think the circle controls light"—

His parents went, "You Could Make A Religion Out Of That."

And that's how Bill got a cult.

I haven't done much to flesh out Bill's parents in terms of their looks personalities interests etc (though his mother is more developed), but I've got a pretty firm idea of the impact they had on him. In a way he didn't have "parents"—they did a pretty poor job of parenting—rather, he had business managers posing as his prophets. For putting together his childhood, I'm drawing on histories of cults, but also on other industries that are dependent upon exploiting children by putting them in the limelight—like beauty pageant children or kidfluencers put online by their parents. Things like this article with a kid who said she wants to stop making youtube videos and her father told her that was their livelihood.

So here's Bill growing up being told "you're special, you're SO special" by his parents; but also he's just the performing figurehead of his parents' new religion; but also he's so powerful and so influential; but also he's just a kid completely under his family's control; but also his family's prosperity and welfare is completely on his shoulders; but also nothing he says really matters and they could replace him with anybody who could say the same things; but also he's totally unique (and thus alienated); but also there are other people out there just like him (and they're dangerous to his position); but also he has the perfect platform to tell the world about the truth as he sees it; but also people only listen to him when he lies; but also everyone worships everything he says as gospel; but also the whole world knows he's a scammer and a joke.

And now he's a messed up adult who still acts like a kid (you can't grow up if you never get a childhood); and he makes new friends and helpers by bombarding them with textbook cult recruitment tactics; and he's more comfortable with waltzing into town square and appointing himself God than he is with talking honestly about his childhood.

Also between then and now he ended the world.

I see Bill as an only child, for a couple of reasons:

First, because of this in Journal 3: "Apparently, his thirst for power caused him to destroy his home dimension — including his parents and everyone else he’d ever known." If he did have siblings—or if we were even intended to feel like the possibility was open that he might have a sibling—it would be weird to emphasize "his parents" instead of something like "his family." The implications feel like we're supposed to believe his parents were the only immediate family he had. (And, since Journal 3 was kinda the last gift from a completed series, I'm doubting the wording was a red herring to obscure the fact that he's got a secret identical twin or something. ... Wouldn't that be so funny though—)

And second, because he seems like the kind of person who wasn't shoved in close quarters with another child and forced to learn how to get along. He was always the specialest boy and never had to share the spotlight.

The only reason I think I'd give him a sibling is if I found it was somehow essential to help develop/highlight some facet of Bill's character—like, if I wanted to do something with the "golden child vs forgotten child" dynamic to mirror what the Pines have going on, or have him underestimate the relationships between human siblings because he's projecting based on how he grew up. ("You probably think your brother is some burden you're shackled to by blood, like a non-consensual forced 'friendship' you wish you could break off!" "Um, no? I don't think that? I love him?" "Because you were coerced into loving him." "No???") But right now my goals for him are complimented more by the social isolation from being the only child in the household and limited opportunities to make friends on the outside.

#bill cipher #gravity falls #headcanons #about my writing #bill goldilocks cipher #anonymous #ask

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elekinetic · 11 months

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user elekinetic do you have any tips to spare for outlining fics 😭 i feel like I word vomit any of the concept that I have in my head, and dialogue ,and build off that adding paragraphs as I go and I go so slow bc of it. But ive been trying hard lately to write a list of “scenes” and bullet point the story but yeah.

do you know anything that could help me have an idea of where to go start to finish instead of starting at the random spot I’ve come up with first? I waste so much writing time because I haven’t built a backstory for characters and things like that so i don’t always know how they start the story off, only the situation they’re in. Is that something that could help? Making a list for each character or something? Would love to hear your thoughts thank you! <3

hi! first of all i’m so flattered you asked! to be clear, i am a very slow writer too lmao and i’m relatively new to prose writing, and though in very confident in my understanding of what makes a good story (W screenwriting), i am still figuring out my outlining process. but hey! let’s learn together.

sorry in advance for how long this is. i love talking.

so i basically figure everything out in the outline and write after i feel very good about it. if you have a strong foundation, everything gets a hell of a lot easier. t kind of sounds like your process might be similar to mine, so i’m just gonna explain what i'm doing for my current project.

my key document is my “bible.” i split it up into a couple different sections using page breaks (page breaks my best friend ily page breaks):

pitch/word vomit summary

scene ideas

outline

notes

ok so wtf does that mean.

1. pitch/word vomit summary — explain your concept. bc i've got a film/tv background, im starting off with my logline. (e.g. "after robin learns will is gay, they have a heart to heart in an abandoned video store about insecurity and feeling alone. they learn they're not." sometimes i'll follow that up with a note to myself like, "this fic isn't robin finding out, this is what happens after. starts with her already knowing. will pov, focus on his perception of robin changing. subtly reference toward feelings about mike, dont come out (haha) and say it") then, i write as MUCH of the concept down as i can, like i'm explaining it to a friend. (sometimes i copy and paste rants from dms directly into the document). it can be totally out of order, non-sensical, contradictory. just get as many of your ideas down as possible. you want to be able to come back to this and be like, oh i totally forgot about that. vague chapter summaries, personal notes about themes, whatever you want. i have a list of beats that you find in romantic dramas for inspiration and a paragraph abt ways i want to parallel/subvert s3 of st. just. go ham. 2. scene ideas — this is pretty self explanatory. i take some of the stuff i have in the p/s and flesh it out, or put down new ideas. this is where i'm writing out dialogue in bullet points, or what i want them to be Really Saying. (e.g. "mike: [panics bc he feels seen, tries to flip it back on (redacted) and fails] ") this is for when i can see stuff more clearly or i get out of the shower with a whole exchange in my head. gonna be out of order, a little all over the place. 3. outline — so. this is where you start piecing it together. put the bullet points in order. figure out objective of each scene and what needs to happen to accomplish that goal. figure out pacing, what needs to happen when. this step is where im looking at dialogue and thinking "why does mike say that? why does he feel that way? what needs to happen to get him to this point emotionally?" or looking at scenes and thinking "these are two scenes with people arguing back to back. lets make sure they feel different and give the characters different tactics to get what they want (byler argument where mike is avoiding will vs max argument where max is avoiding lucas. i could use this to highlight similarities and differences in the relationships, but having two scenes with the same tactics back to back might feel repetitive. maybe i move the scenes farther apart or change circumstances. maybe mike and will are having a veiled argument while theyre with a group of friends in a public space and max and lucas' argument is outside max's house.) also asking if conflicts are resolved too quickly, if the miscommunications feel too convenient, if characters disappear or are only around as plot devices. write. troubleshoot. repeat. 4. random notes — everything else that doesnt fit. for me this is literally just taylor swift lyrics (writing the fic vaguely off of a Specific Song that SHOULD BE STREAMED MORE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE anyway) and links to posts i use as character reference to make sure im staying true to the characters. (remembering will said "i was being a total jerk to el, i deserved it," AND "you're ruining everything, and for what!"/"i wasn't moping!")

i want it to be clear im doing all of this at the same time. im jumping around and pulling new ideas and rearranging as stuff changes. i think the thing that's really hard is that i want to be able to sit down, write the outline, and then move on. but for us scatterbrained writers, you're gonna have to re-outline and readjust like. a thousand times. and that's okay. that's good! it feels tedious as hell but the story is so much better for it.

take your time. let yourself be slow. keep finding holes in your story and fill the world in as you fix them.

here are some more questions i ask myself to make the story better:

What are you trying to accomplish over the course of the story? What is it about? (for the will&robin fic, it was something about feeling seen for the first time.) When you get lost in your story or aren't sure why a scene feels stale, come back to this. is the scene furthering that goal?

What is changing internally for each of your main characters? (yes theyre dating by the end but like. what do they learn.)

Are the side characters people or props? (will pov scene of a party-wide picnic where everyone's talking but will is focused on mike's hands.... where is max's head at in the scene? you don't have to have a super long backstory and she doesn't have to be a big part of the plot, but if she's saying something, figure out why she's saying it. if will is having a heart to heart with el, understand why el is responding the way she is. the scene's goal may be to get will through a breakthrough, but el's circumstances will change in the scene too. figure out how this conversation lands with her. oh, and remember the adults are people too!)

Why is this character saying this/why are they responding this way? (this should answer your "where do i start?" question. start in that random spot and figure out A) why they are there and B) why they are reacting the way they do (see last bullet point).

side note: some of the best advice i ever got was "enter the scene late, exit early." skip the prologue. try starting from that random spot. if it feels like something's missing, figure out exactly what that something is, and go from there

Do the stakes feel high enough?

What do i need to set up to make sure this scene/beat is satisfying as possible? (are will and mike going to have a big argument? oh, so we have to show tension before.... BAM you have another scene to write and your outline is fuller)

i could go on a lot longer but. basically.

i edit while i write. i'm someone who needs a very fucking strong outline and a very fucking clear idea of the story before i can start writing it. i'm putting probably 70-80% of the leg work in at the start so i can focus on making the prose (or script, most of the time) the best it can be.

THAT BEING SAID, this is just the way i do it and i have like. a fic and a half published. im taking my sweet time bc im creatively burned out and this is for fun first and foremost. like i said. i am a Very Slow Writer.

i highly, highly recommend hitting up the ask boxes of writers like @/strangeswift, @/wiseatom, @/astrobei, or @/andiwriteordie. no guarantees on responses bc they are busy ppl with busy lives but i really do think theyre some of the best writers out here right now, and im not just saying that bc they're my friends. abby (strangeswift) and i have been each other's sounding board through a lot of projects and she's almost done with one of her first Big Fics, so its worth asking her about that.

i hope this helps! ah!!

#seriously THANK YOU SO MUCH for asking i feel underqualified but i love talking about writing and writing processes #jesus christ this is 1.4k words #also if anyone seeing this is interested in having a beta reader for story notes hmu lol #outlining

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semi-sketchy · 7 months

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For an update (mostly) meant to flesh out the Ancients/The End, they still seem not all that memorable or compelling from what little I've seen. They're just as much as plot devices masquerading as (bland) characters as Sage still is. The plot EXPECTS me to care, but I just cannot because the lore/exposition in this game is soooo dull when it's not wholly confusing. And I gotta ask, is any of it gonna matter in future games? Does anyone really approve of this shite whilst still bemoaning how unnecessarily convoluted Shadow's backstory was? That for a supposed big threat, it all still took place on some small-scale remote islands? This stuff should begging for a retcon. Guess that'll be up to me. Hint: Fairy dust made it all seem real to both the heroes and Eggman. And the Kocos are Accidental Antagonists to have put them through all of it because they don't remember their true history on the islands...

The question of which ending is canon is up for debate, but personally I think this one is going to cause more problems long-term. I literally started yelling at the side story when Sage said the Ancients had satellites that are still functional.

Tens of thousands of years old, still orbiting, functional, and NO ONE HAS NOTICED THEM? This is the world that had a SPACE COLONY 50 YEARS AGO and they NEVER asked what these old satellites were?? Like man, if we discovered ancient satellites circling our planet, there would be some paranormal podcasts talking about this "unknown" and obscure fact, but here no one has noticed?

Also extremely disappointed they did nothing to expand on The End. If anything, this is regression from base game because it's missing that pretentious speech. I wanted to know WHY this consumer of worlds was specifically chasing the Ancients. If it's just supposed to be symbolic, then that was completely lost on me.

I'm with you on the not being able to care part. I'm not bonded to these characters and the short cutscenes around the trials doesn't change anything about the pilots. It's just "WE DIED TO CONTAIN THIS THING AND YOU SET IT FREE-- oh you passed my brute strength trial. K guess you're a good guy." Sonic gets some sass with the King Koco, but it also feels...off. It's not his normal disrespect towards authority.

To go on another tangent, the opening cutscene bothers me.

Sonic isn't the person to give a "rally the troops" speech. Although, how this scene was written made that direction the ONLY way it could've gone.

I think of the Last Story cutscene from Heroes. Sonic just listens.

When he says he'll fight Metal Overlord, it's Tails and Knuckles that pop up to say "we're going to help you!" and Shadow that says they'll buy them time.

Sonic doesn't ask anything from anybody, he just graciously accepts their help. Compare how this was written to sticking Sonic in a place where he's the one who has to explain what's going on and tell others what he needs.

It's a case where the plot moves the characters and not the characters moving the plot, which is the perfect storm for OOC moments. That is exactly what happened with Eggman when they decided Sage was a good idea.

Sage just regurgitates random info about rocks and other stuff no one asked about, like there was ONE LINE where she sounded kinda different which made me think it would've been so good if Sage was more like GLaDOS. I want her to have more sick burns. But no, innocent child because Eggman "needs" a daughter and Sonic has to have a reason to help the girl that's been trying to kill him the whole game.

I don't understand how anyone can call this "peak" because it's just so self-important and straight-faced serious, it's at the point of monotony. It breaks what I like about these characters to wrap them up in a "serious story" blanket whilst failing to properly build up the threat.

I hope they reevaluate their choices and this isn't really the standard moving forward because it's so stupid it hurts. And that's just the story/lore.

#ask #sonic frontiers #sonic frontiers spoilers #the final horizon

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mindibindi · 8 months

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SEX EDUCATION FINAL SEASON: If There Was Orgasm, Then I Missed It.... 🍆💦🍑🍌👅🍌🍒🔥😏

The final season was good. It was not great. It was not everything I wanted it to be. It would’ve been a satisfying enough season if it had not been the last. And I acknowledge that it’s difficult to write a satisfying final season to such a popular, ground-breaking show. That said, here are few thoughts on the final season of “Sex Education”. Some came. Most didn't. Not Moordale: It took guts to do away with the old school and transplant the characters into a new environment. This was an interesting experiment which centred what had previously been marginalised and drove the progressive politics of the show further forward than they perhaps could’ve done in their old, more traditional, more repressed surroundings. (I liked that Otis and Maeve revisted Moordale Secondary tho). All the new characters were great, but then this show has always done a great job of finding interesting actors that seem to bring a level of freshness to their roles. Well done to the casting director. Props for the popular kids being two trans cuties who are having sex and issues in their sex life. Seeing Eric in his queer element was great. There was better disability inclusion, but the writing felt a little clunky and preachy at times, as this show is wont. And obviously we lost a few characters in the shuffle. Lily was the one I missed most. She would have loved Cavendish.

Aimee and Ruby: In terms of the young cast, the most satisfying storylines for me were Aimee’s and Ruby’s. When Aimee and Isaac began to connect, I was like: Yes, go there, do THAT. Maeve coming round in the end and realising that they're family was nice. Loved Aimee getting closure with her jeans thru art. Also liked the further fleshing out of Ruby’s backstory and her journey towards gaining popularity through being kind(er).

Eric: My least fave storyline was Eric’s whole religious epiphany thing. I liked that he found a fellow christian with whom he could share his conflicted feelings about being both queer and god-loving, but I’m not into organised religion or religion of any kind really (as is my right after being raised in it). I don’t believe in god so I don’t believe in divine signs. I don’t think they broke the reality of the show as such, but they were a bit obtuse and boring. I think when Eric spoke in church, his mum should’ve said she loved him as he is, his sisters (who've been supportive in the past) should have done the same, and they should have all left the church together. I think them all coming to the fundraiser later was super trite. It looked like a hasty way to wrap up that storyline after Eric left to rescue Cal. I also think that religions in general have to do way more than make placating noises, so having Eric enter into one was not my idea of a happy ending for him.

I think a better storyline for Eric, based on his history of being pulled in different directions by attractions to more than one person, would have been to discover polyamory. We had one polyamorous couple in the mix this season but it was mentioned once and they appeared together maybe twice. I think it would have been more in tune with the show for Eric to realise that traditional monogamy didn’t suit him and start seeking partners that would celebrate him in exploring ethical non-monogamy. Then we could have had an inside look at how that works for poly peeps, how people navigate less traditional sex and relationship models, what comes up for them mentally, emotionally, sexually, socially etc. In my opinion, the religion stuff just closes down possibility for this character, puts him in a box that the show admits is problematic. I would have preferred to see him open up to more possibility than any church can provide.

Adam and Fam: I liked the whole move into horses thing, liked that he became a teacher like his dad. It felt a little not-fleshed-out tho. It felt like the start of a new life for him, but just the start, with a long way still to go, which is kind of fine. That character does have a lot to learn and heal and these things take time. It would’ve been good to see him interact with some kids, maybe see how he treats a young boy differently to his father (maybe horse girl coulda had a son?). I’m not entirely sure about rehabilitating bullies/abusive parents. In my experience, it doesn’t happen but I recognise that this show is working with ideals, with the question: “what if we did sex and relationships better?” As such, I think they did a beautiful job of reconnecting father and son. It helps that both actors are so good at playing awkward masculinity. One awkward hug does not solve years of abuse and neglect but it was a start, I suppose. Horse girl was nice enough. When Adam admitted to being bisexual, I kinda wanted her to say: “Oh yeah, me too.” Because otherwise, she was just kinda there, emblematic of possibility. Adam should’ve moved into the farmhouse as a boarder, and Maureen should have moved some new boyfriend in. The parents should NOT have got back together. Hard nope. Some relationships end, and this was one that should’ve. Maureen should have continued her sexual exploration, maybe got into burlesque or BDSM. The dad should have had a hot affair with the art teacher (who should’ve been less of a ridiculous middle-aged man-eating woman cliche), or better yet, the home ec teacher. Bring food into sex.

Cal: Gender dysphoria distress is not something I have personal experience with so I would be interested to hear what people who do thought of this storyline. I was up for it but, if I’m honest, I can’t say I’m any more enlightened on what it feels like or what I should do for someone in similar circumstances. Though I like them, I think this is in part due to a lack of range in the actor playing Cal. I can say that the scene where they are by the ravine feeling suicidal meant a lot to me personally, cos I do have experience with that. (Jackson shoulda figured out where they were sooner tho).

Jackson: Didn’t love Jackson or Viv’s storylines. Jackson’s whole history was established way back and I NEVER appreciate when shows walk that back and go: “oh no it actually happened this way.” His whole swimming thing was cos Hannah Waddingham’s character was anxious about them having a connection but if he is the result of a previous relationship and her partner was already pregnant when they met then that changes that whole dynamic. Her insecurity makes more sense, is more intense, if having a child is a decision his mums take on together. Great to explore a scenario in which Jackson seeks out his biological roots but I don’t think he needed the extra trauma of two lying mums and an uncaring biological father. They should’ve stuck with the original context, there was enough shit there to sort out. Nice to see HWad’s in the mix, even if she only had two lines (but she’s super busy and big now so that’s probs why). I notice that all the previous acrimony between the mums has disappeared. So no therapy. No Jackson dealing with divorce. And no Hannah Waddingham having an affair with Gillian Anderson. So yeah, pretty disappointing all round.

Viv: Friendships are important but I kinda thought Jackson and Viv would’ve made a good couple…? Viv’s storyline was good for a teachable moment on coercion but not much else. Also I don’t think the boyfriend needed to grab her so hard. It doesn’t need to be hard to be scary and wrong.

Maeve: I liked how they brought Maeve home then sent her back, which was absolutely the right thing for her. Dan Levy was great and, again, the scene where she confronts him about being gate-keepery meant a lot to me personally, as a low-SES student at University. The stuff with the brother was all v. well-written and acted, although they seemed to forget about lil sis pretty quickly. Liked everyone showing up for the funeral, esp. the old Moordale teachers. The song was a def. highlight of the season. We also got some closure for Maeve/Isaac and Eric/Adam. Otis was, of course, a dick throughout but awkward lovable dickhead is kinda his brand. The climactic sex scene with Otis and Maeve was okay. Top marks for playing Jeff Buckley who was a big part of my high school experience. I wasn't as weirded out by it as I thought I might be (mostly cos I remember Asa Butterfeild from "Ashes to Ashes"). But jeez, for a show on sex, they don’t give a lot of time to foreplay, do they? IMPORTANT PSA for het dudes of all ages: DO NOT expect to be inside a girl/woman 10 seconds after kissing her. Maeve interacting with Jean was another highlight, but I would’ve liked a final call/text between Otis and Maeve, rather than leaving them both staring out windows thinking of the other. (On the other hand, totally get people who were for an Otis/Ruby endgame).

Jean: Okay, so I like this show as a whole but one of the major reasons I watch is for The Gillian. Jean Milburn is another in a long line of her iconic characters. So on the positive side: I actually liked the sister storyline. I have a sister and that felt appropriately intimate/infuriating. And they finally cast someone who actually could conceivably be related to Gillian Anderson (unlike “The Great”, “Crisis” and even Melissa in “The X Files”). GA has very unusual facial features but these two looked alike, got the dynamic right, and the backstory illuminated Jean a little more for us. I kinda missed overconfident, fashionable Jean, but hey, when you have Gillian Anderson, you’re gonna use her, right? I don’t know postpartum depression but I know depression and that felt real to me. Beautiful job, as always from GA. The relationship with Otis followed a similar rocky trajectory to other seasons and was as well-played as always by both, even if it yielded little in the way of growth. It did annoy me that Otis was like: “we need help” but then he barely acknowledged Joy when they were in the same room. My brother has just had a baby and whenever anyone walks in the room, it is ALL ABOUT the baby: talking to the baby, talking about the baby, holding the baby, playing with the baby…. So I was like: Otis! Pick up the baby! Cuddle your sister! (Being ignored in favour of the baby could also have heightened mum’s PPD. And how about modelling a young man participating, even minimally, in child-rearing, dear show??). The radio/podcast stuff was fine. As an Aussie, I was delighted to see Hannah Gadsby in the mix. People may not know this but she is a comedian, not an actor, so I loved seeing her do such a great job. Loved seeing her interact with Gillian so much, and looking fab too. Gillian also looked gorgeous, even while falling apart, and more so as her medication started to kick in. I say this just cos I like seeing women onscreen looking their age.

The biggest disappointment here was the disappearance of Jakob and the disintegration of that relationship (which had a lot more going for it than Adam’s parents). I don’t know if the actor was unavailable or if this was just the direction they chose but I missed both Jakob and Ola. If they were going to write them out tho, I do think it was better to have them gone before the show began. I didn’t wanna see that breakdown. They’d already introduced some elements into this relationship that weren’t necessary, imo. I don’t think they needed to make Jakob’s dead wife unfaithful. I think illness, death, single dadhood and late-in-life love is quite enough to deal with, esp. considering the limited screen time they had. I also don’t think they needed the overly hasty move-in, which seemed to me like a totally rookie mistake for a sex and relationships therapist to make. Of course that was not going to work! Otis and Ola being needlessly stroppy was likewise unhelpful for what could have been a joyous, sexy mature-aged romance. They placed all these unnecessary stresses on this relationship in order to force it to fail, the final stress being the paternity of Jean’s child, which, if they hadn’t introduced Jakob’s dead wife’s unfaithfulness might not have been such a huge deal, he might have been able to stick around and raise a child not biologically his (he already had two of those). I personally didn’t like what it did to his character either, since he initially seemed like such an open, honest, easy, considerate, responsible, mature, big-hearted kind of man. Was this their idea of giving him layers? Why did they have to turn the ONE good grown man in the show into a petty, bitter, suspicious little coward?

There was so much potential in the Jean/Jakob relationship and the problem with introducing so many new elements in a final season is that you risk not wrapping up some of the core elements you began with. Like Eric, Jean’s final season doesn’t really match her trajectory throughout the series. When we met her, she was having a lovely time having lots of casual sex but no relationships. Which is fine, except that her reasons for doing so were more to do with hurt and avoidance than with pure sexual expression and honest personal preference. She was still reacting to the disintegration of her marriage and the infidelity/promiscuity of her ex-husband (so to have her left for supposed infidelity/promiscuity seems again needlessly cruel). She was afraid of further heartbreak and, thru her relationship with Jakob, began to overcome that fear. While the PPD and Joanne storylines were solid, illuminating and enjoyable, they did not contribute to resolving the core issue Jean initially presented with. With Jakob, Jean was starting to ask herself: ‘’how do I trust again after being devastated by the infidelity of my son’s father?”, “how do I let go when I can’t control every outcome, aspect and possibility?”, “how do I live with someone again after living alone for so long?” Oddly enough separate residences never seemed to occur to anyone on this super progressive, groundbreaking show. Or you know, Ola could have gone off to college and Otis found some opportunity in America, leaving Jean and Jakob to try again in a different context, with different skills and a different spirit. (But personally I would have gone with separate residences for a time).

You could say that Jean’s issues were partially addressed in her relationship with Jo but we all know that familial and intimate relationships are different. Related but different. Jean’s issue was how to combine intimacy, trust, sex, romance and relationship. That can’t be resolved with a sister or a son. It can only be resolved with a romantic/sexual/life partner. Even if Jakob left for a while, I would have liked to see him come back (I wasn’t sure whether he would but it looked increasingly unlikely as the season continued). Otis or Jo could have called him. Or he coulda heard Jean on the radio. In the end, it looked like Jo and Motorcycle Man were going to be a thing so they coulda made a v. weird parenting foursome (which also would’ve helped alleviate Jean’s depression and workload! Look at that!). Now how’s that for an alternative family model? Why have one parent when you can have four (esp. when two of you have already raised kids)? That would have been great for Jean and Jakob (who get a little more time to themselves) and for Jo and Motorcycle Man (who may need some more responsible parents around). It would be good for Ola (who NAMED Joy, let’s not forget) and her sister, and also for Joy to have some loving siblings, since her big bro won’t pick her up and cuddle her.

#sex education #sex ed s4 #spoilers #season finale #gillian anderson #jean milburn #jean x jakob #asa butterfield #otis milburn #ncuti gatwa #eric effiong #emma mackey #maeve wiley #hannah waddingham #kedar williams stirling #dan levy #and a bunch of other people

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