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multifanlol · 1 year

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If your still taking request can you pls do yandere Scott tenorman x reader that is like mikan tsumiki (being a nurse,clumsy,apologizing a lot,ect)

Yes I’m still taking requests don’t be shy to ask :) also sure! It might be a little out of character since we don’t see Scott a lot in the viewers pov but I’ll try-

Tw: If you’ve seen the game you know Mikan herself can be a trigger to some people with similar trauma but incase you didn’t mentions of sexual trauma, falling into inappropriate positions, bullying, etc all that stuff also stalking, overall yandere stuff

Yandere Scott Tenorman x reader who acts like Mikan Tsumuki

Before the chilli incident

When we first met you was completely by accident as he was just talking with his friends about whatever and you bumped into him into one of “those” positions

Wouldn’t lie he would make fun of you a little since his friends are there but then he’d help you up realising how uncomfortable that position must be

Then he realises how pretty you are and he was lovesick right away

Like he doesn’t know what to say then and then and you pretty much start apologising over and over thinking you did something-

He quickly stops you kinda flustered with his friends watching telling you it’s fine and to stop apologising till you run off

Yep he’s obsessed like he keeps on talking about how pretty you are around his friends that it begins to annoy them so they just tell him to take you out

Like my boy wants to but doesn’t know how to approach he doesn’t even know where to find you!

Till his friends tell him your a nurse….

You weren’t exactly a full time one since you were still in school but the way you’d heal wounds and etc were so good in the teachers eyes they offered you a job to work there! You were so good you became the official full time one-

And oh boy does he become your most visited customer

Apparently Scott always seems to have “cramps”, a “twisted” elbo, the flu….

Soon you notice he becomes your only customer, not that you mind it’s nice having a friend but…..

Anyways! When he finds out about your past of being bullied he feels some sort of rising anger in him he’s never felt before…..

Like yeah he’s been really mad before but not THIS mad it feels kinda psychotic really…..

Really

Maybe he’d get you to give them the names……and addresses…..

Sooner or later you notice nobody’s bullying you anymore! That’s great but you also notice people seem to i don’t know…..fear you? Did you do something? You’d ask and they’d practically scram acting like your gonna kill them-

You thought you did something but not to worry, your greatest and only friend Scott Tenorman is here!

He’d comfort you and make all those sad tears go away!

“Don’t be so sad s/o who needs all the friends in the world anyway? You have me and that’s all that matters”

I feel like he’d maybe let you hang around his friends only if he’s there of course and it’d be rare he doesn’t want them to ruin you….your his after all….

Would probably be more gentle and calm with you as to not freak you out but not gonna lie in his opinion seeing you scared some times can be cute…..

Definitely wouldn’t tell you about the whole pubes thing as he wouldn’t wanna let you in on it as it’d be kinda embarrassing in his eyes although he does let you go to the chilli festival to “impress you” or something like that….

Cartman would def find out about you when stalking Scott he’s stalking you so he would just take a few photos of Scott and give them to you i mean who would you believe Scott over an “innocent” little boy?

Your not really sure what to believe honestly with the way you grew up you’d find it maybe…..cute? Scott is your only friend! You don’t wanna lose him

During the chilli festival you watch Scott lose everything embarrassed in front of his friends, his parents dead, his favourite band brutally roasting him, yk he’s kinda going mad

After the chilli incident

Ever since the festival Scott was missing not even you heard of him, you were worried and it’s not like your life got any better, people went back on to bullying you, etc yk it sucked

But you always felt like someone was watching you…..particularly all the ginger kids, like they were meant to keep an eye on you….

You didn’t really want to think much of it but one day while you were sleeping, you woke up in a…..different place

And you felt a presence of someone in the room and noticed a shadow…..coming out was Scott Tenorman! With ginger kids behind him…?

Not to worry! Everything’s gonna be okay, he just had to kidnap you and keep you here to make sure your safe! He’s gonna get revenge on that Eric kid for ruining his life….

He’d become much more possessive and brutal although not exactly brutal to you as in his eyes you can do no wrong although brutal with others especially with his kills

Good luck because i don’t think you’ll ever be seeing the light of sun again, maybe just maybe he’d let you and him go at night but only at night as it’s too risky

I mean can you totally blame him? (Yes you can) he just lost his parents thanks to a little kid (and that kid is Eric Cartman) anything can happen….

Definitely becomes much more clingy and affectionate with you now as before he’d still be embarrassed in front of his friends now he doesn’t care he can give you all the attention you’d desire! If you ever cried he’d feel horrible

“Aw d-don’t cry! Look i know you want to leave but it’s not like you had it good out there anyway! They all hated you, I’m protecting you!”

Whenever he’s thinking of some plan to get back at Cartman and you sadly can’t be there which is rare he get some of the ginger kids he got to watch over you which would be kinda rare although he trusts you won’t leave i mean, not only are you insanely clumsy but do you really wanna go back to your life out there?

Overall he would be a bit of a messy yandere tough with a soft side i guess?

I hope you liked it-if you wanna request anything else it’s open! Bye love y’all! :)

#character x reader #south park #South Park x reader #Scott Tenorman #Scott Tenorman chilli #Scott Tenorman x reader #Yandere Scott Tenorman #Yandere South Park #South park teens

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munchkin1156 · 9 months

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I AM ON HIATUS FOR AN INDIFINITE AMOUNT OF TIME. ✨My Megapost✨

There’s my brother to blame for that, feel free to ask for context, keeping it until I change it back :D

(AFTER ALL THESE YEARS... IT'S FINALLY HERE!!)

. . .

HIIIIII!!!!!!! WELCOME TO MY BLOG AND MY MASTERPOST!! HAVE A COOKIE!!! 🍪

Now that that's out of the way...

Who am I?

❤️My name is Munchkin! I'm your casual g/t enthusiast, and I do writing, art and also some irl stuff making! If you see someone going by the name ✨anon✨ on your blog, offering you cookies, then that's me. I enjoy content, and sometimes do my own! Right now, I'm mainly obsessed with Mcyt g/t (which is either dsmp, or when I come back from hiatus, hermitcraft as well) or oc stuff :D Nice to meet you, viewer/reader!! :D ❤️

What is g/t?

G/t stands for giant/tiny, and it's a community for people who enjoy being (you guessed it) giant or tiny! Usually, it's a form of comfort, feeling the need to protect or be protected, but it can also be used as a kink. That is NSFW G/T. This blog is strictly SFW G/T. I will not hesitate to block you if you do that, for it makes me uncomfortable and I am not okay with it. (Sorry if this description is bad, there are better ones-)

Do I do g/t vore?

Nope! To be clear, I am perfectly fine with the concept and anyone who posts it, (occasionally reading it as long as it's safe) though I am aware some of my followers are not, so I will not be posting/talking about vore on this blog.

Do i take requests, and if so, what kind? (REQUESTS ARE ✨OPEN✨)

Yes. I take writing and art requests, including fake fic titles, prompts, au ideas, headcanons, etc. Do not pressure me to finish your request though, it will not help at all and will make me more stressed. If I am uncomfortable with your request, it will be deleted.

Now, my posts so far... (Stories/art and other posts under cut-, most of this is old writing, again once I'm back I will probably add some more stuff that is new and better! Enjoy!)

. . .

YOU LOOKED UNDER THE CUT!! :0 ENJOY MY CONTENT!!! (if you want to) HAVE A NICE DAY/NIGHT!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

(Note: Most of this work rn i find old and not very good. There will be better stuff eventually...)

My main au!

✨Upon Clouds we Dream...✨

Chapter One and Chapter Two is out, but Chapter Three is non-existent. (yet)

Then there's the other au that I have stuff for, but I'm not sure what it is or where i was going with it and i'm pretty sure it's dead but oh well-

Make new friend's but keep the old

Chapter... One? Chapter... Two? Maybe?

✨MER AU THAT I HAVE SAID NOTHING ABOUT YET✨

Art for it

Becky ask!!! (small infodump)

✨I have fallen (but have faith, for I shall rise once more)✨ (mcyt g/t au)

Pt.1

Brick ask :D

✨Dystopian au✨ (mcyt g/t au)

infodump

Becky ask (technically infodump)

✨Oneshots!✨

He started it!

Horror and HELP

✨Other- (stuff like wips, fake fic titles, art, oc's that i have drawings of, hc's, irl stuff :])✨

Wip game thingy

Munchkin character sheet

It's- a stick figure. In a hamd.

FAKE FIC TITLES

Taming the beast

G/t headcanons (Zombie apocalypse style)

Borrower house no.1 (not very good)

Borrower house no.2 (better)

shitpost (and my first post)

shitpost (not my first post)

shitpost (honestly how many do i have?)

shitpost (another one??)

shitpost (:D)

stuff that freaks me out in g/t #1

stuff that freaks me out in g/t #2

spooder

geeckooo

baaaaaaaat

✨My tumblr fam✨

My Tumblr mom, the wonderful @.I-am-beckyu, my Tumblr aunt's, @.brick-a-doodle-do and @.a-xyz-s.

@.orchid-harmony, @.da3dm, @.krazycat49, @.justarandomsloth and 🕶️ anon are my siblings :D

Aaaaaand that's about it! Will update when I should!

❤️ You made it to the end! ❤️ Great job, dear viewer/reader, have some more cookies! 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

-Your neighborhood Munchkin

…spams bread

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quinloki · 8 months

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hello, sorry if this is too real of an ask if you're not feeling too well recently, but I've been meaning to ask if you have any advice when it comes to tackling really dark topics in fanfics?? I've been meaning to write a darkfic with the Kid pirates main 4 as slasher movie villains (think Jason Voorhees vibes) with a touch of yandere tendencies, so there's not gonna be a lot of comfort/fluff in this fic. this is naturally gonna be hard to write especially when it comes to wanting to write dark and disturbing scenes without wanting to glorify or romanticise abusive behavior or stockholm syndrome, not to mention not wanting to upset or trigger survivors, especially as one myself, so any advice would be lovely. thank you ^-^

I’m going to start this off with what I think should be your most important takeaway from this:

It’s okay to romanticize abuse in fiction.

It’s okay to romanticize horror, murder, etc. etc. in fiction.

Fiction is where we can do the really uncomfortable stuff. Where we can explore the darks part of existing, because it’s good to be able to go “I connect with this and I should consider why.” Or “this brings me comfort, how can I break that down?” Stuff like that.

Sometimes it helps us realize a view or understanding we had that we thought was good is inherently flawed. (I am reminded of viewers being very angry when they realized the character in The Boys they connected with was *not* a good guy and did not get redeemed.)

What we have to be careful about is not condoning such themes in reality.

Horror movies and books go into deep dark territory all the time, but often hobby writers can be held to odd standards by comparison, which gets a bit frustrating at times.

How to avoid that AND present dark fic properly?

On Ao3 and tumblr just tag your story - character death, gore, stalking, Stockholm syndrome, abuse, toxic relationship, dubcon, noncon as applicable, excessive descriptions of blood and gore, etc.

You don’t have to get specific - you don’t have to say who dies/survives. You can admit to “this has a bad end” if you want - I had a webcomic warn me about that and it was NOT kidding.

Some responsibility is on the writer for dark fic, yes, but honestly that’s just in terms of being sure you label it well. Avoiding and heeding those tags is solely on the reader - as long as you didn’t, say, write about disarticulation in exacting detail without warning “excessive descriptions of blood and gore”.

You can put additional warnings in the summary, or even as a heads up before a particularly intense chapter.

And, you’re not going to be perfect. If someone says “hey can you add [x] tag?” Be open to it - but don’t add any and every tag requested - sometimes people can be demanding in tag requests and you have the right to decide where the line really is.

For example someone might ask that you add a tag involving eye-trauma. It’s a squick of mine, people getting injured on, in, around their eyes, and I wouldn’t be upset with a heads up - but I also think it’s covered under warnings of gore.

Someone might ask that you tag a specific character’s death - personally? I wouldn’t. “Character death” is enough. “Slasher/horror” honestly should really be enough cause even though I don’t watch horror movies I have a keen understanding that you do not get attached to characters in a horror story.

As long as you hit the broad strokes, I think that’s enough. The idea is that no one wants to walk into a slasher when they were expecting fluff.

As for taking care of ourselves as writers while we write dark content, that’s harder to give advice on. I really have to be in a steady frame of mind to write dark stuff, but if I know there’s vindication in there somewhere it’s much easier. (There’s a stalker in A Light Touch that gets his due and as someone who has had more than 6, it was cathartic to write.)

But sometimes there’s catharsis in the bad guy winning too. You’ve got to understand those lines for yourself - I can’t really give you advice cause it’s so different for everyone. But listen to yourself.

If it feels like a slog, leave it.

If it’s not getting out of your mind, write it.

You’re not “weird” if you write your darkest shit when you’re happiest, or vice versa. What you need to do is just keep an eye on yourself - there is no world in which you should suffer in order to write “good dark content”.

For better or worse, that’s the best advice I have - I hope it’s helped ^_^

#quin answers #quin muses #writing advice

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eldritchwyrm · 8 months

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finally watched dune (2021). assorted thoughts

i really enjoyed this movie but i'm having serious trouble explaining why. i didn't get the same type of enjoyment out of it that i'm typically looking for in a big-budget sff movie. i wasn't worried about the characters' fate at literally any point. i didn't find it "exciting," i didn't "relate" to anyone, and i wasn't "emotionally invested" in the character relationships. i wasn't even intellectually invested in the adaptation project from a critical perspective. i was drawn in by... something else?

felt like timothée chalamet phoned in all his lines. it was like he was doing a cold read of the script over a zoom call and the vibes were just absolutely flatlining. but i don't actually think that was his fault? i think that was an accurate depiction of the character as given to him?

as far as i can recall this is the first time that a sci fi movie actually gave me a gut-swoop feeling via its portrayal of LARGE SCALE. every other sf movie tries soooo haaaard to get me to care about Identical Giant Spaceship #28489211 Did I Mention It's Big, but this is the first time i actually had a "oh that's BIG" feeling

pretty sure that effect was almost all shot composition. lots of extreme wide shots in which architectural features / space objects formed austere, abstracted shapes

i really liked every shot EXCEPT, ironically enough, the ones that featured dunes (lowercase).

me pointing at a generic sand dune: i've had enough of this guy

related to the sand imagery. i am Aware that dune enacts a complex critique of imperialism over the course of several novels and that the Point is to make you uncomfortable at first. i am still uncomfortable. this is fine. this is the point. but i find the move of "immerse you in white saviorism for a whole novel, then subvert it" a lot easier to handle in book form? the cinematic gaze is very different from the novelistic gaze. it does Things to the portrayal of otherwise very similar plot events. still deciding if i like that

then again it's been so many years since i read the novel... idk

i did feel like maybe i should've seen this on a big screen. and i will probably attempt to see the sequel in theaters? something i have not done of my own volition in many years, even before the pandemic?

whatshername who played jessica was an incredible actor. profoundly weird in exactly the correct way

i was surprised by how little emphasis they gave to the litany; it was present just enough but they didn't Make A Scene of it. i'm guessing that's being saved for the sequel

okay now that i've thought about it more: i think i enjoyed this movie the same way i might appreciate an art film.

so the thing about arthouse films is many of them prioritize reflective, reflexive commentary, often in a brechtian or approximately brechtian mode. often this promotes certain kinds of immersion (an ill-defined term! which we use a lot regardless!), especially the intellectual and aesthetic, at the cost of other kinds of immersion.

there's a certain liveliness of character that can be found in the best "commercial" artworks — the sort of thing that makes people say the characters "jumped off the page". that particular brand of liveliness is much rarer in "literary"/arthouse texts because the particular flavor of reflective mode that's fashionable right now puts up a barrier between that "liveliness" and the reader/viewer/etc.

i don't mean that these texts can't directly engage audience emotion or deliver a gutpunch or whatever -- i'm trying to get at the fact that they exhibit a deep distrust of charm. charm as an affect is contradictory to brechtian detachment. that's not particular to 21st century literary fiction or arthouse film, that's a cultural movement that's been happening in fits and starts in america and britain for a while now?

(this is reminding me i still need to read erin horáková's dissertation)

(damn that's reminding me i need to find her dissertation)

(i could always. ask. but that seems. embarrassing)

anyways these aren't inherent qualities of genre. they're not foundational.

you see plenty of texts that employ "commercial" modes of audience engagement that are later recuperated into the literary canon and treated as literary fiction, even if they weren't originally marketed as such. to kill a mockingbird is a decent example of this

ANYWAYS i'm almost sure i enjoyed dune (2021) as an arthouse film? i found myself wishing i could turn down the character voices into a low murmur so that i could just be whisked through the interplay of light and shadow without being bothered with "plot"

despite my apparent lack of investment in the characters, i thought duncan's death was a great example of a classic trope done right? i just found the whole scene incredibly satisfying, narratively? idk.

i got seriously tired of seeing dreamy wordless visions of zendaya's face tho. so you paid for zendaya to be in this movie. WE GET IT.

#small scream

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11x13kyle · 9 months

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hi feel free to ignore this if you ain't taking asks about this topic anymore. but i feel the need to rant. I saw a post that went something like "If you like one sided kyman you are still a kyman shipper" and I'm like huh???? like.... yes I headcanon Cartman has some fucked up crush on Kyle. no, that doesn't mean I'm rooting for them to get together romantically??? and I'm sure as fuck not comfortable with seeing kyman fanart and fics for personal reasons I do not wish to delve into

but yeah curious to hear your take on this. hope you are having a great summer tho

i’ve seen this take many times and it always pisses me off because it reflects a larger issue to me which is that it feels like many people only know how to analyze media through a “shipping” lens and nothing else. this isn’t to say shipping isn’t fun, it totally is, but it’s frustrating because it means that if you want to talk about other nuanced relationship dynamics there’s an assumption that you’re shipping by default and not just like. observing patterns.

so like with the one-sided kyman/cartman crush thing — i feel like there is a lot in the show that leads me to believe that cartman has some kind of fucked up crush on/obsession with kyle. at the same time, kyman makes me viscerally upset and uncomfortable to see and i have all the tags that feature it filtered for my own peace of mind. and i have been told by people that these two things are contradictory because it’s “still shipping” which makes exactly zero sense to me. the way i see it, shipping is inherently a two way street and has to involve attraction on either side, and it also involves me (the viewer/reader/etc.) enjoying the act of imagining them together. shipping to me does not include looking at a character’s behavior and going “huh. that character seems to have a weird thing for the other character. fucked up!”

and fandom aside, let’s put this in a real life context for a second so i can really just emphasize how silly this take is: imagine some guy has a crush on you and you hate him, absolutely despise him, but you know that he has a crush nonetheless. you tell your friend the objective fact that he has a crush on you and your friend replies “EW! i can’t believe you want to date him!! oh god that’s disgusting, what’s wrong with you???” even though you never even hinted at reciprocating. this would be really odd, right? we all know that one person being attracted to another person doesn’t equal a relationship in reality, why can’t that translate to how we view media? shipping isn’t the be all end all of analysis!

sorry this got long, it will happen again and again. and i am having a great summer, i hope you are too!!!! :]

#asks

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9w1ft · 1 year

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This is probably a controversial thing to say, but I think that Taylor would be better off if Gaylorism didn't exist. It's not about Taylor's music or about Taylor as a person, if it was people in the Gaylor fandom would be discussing why Taylor featured a biography about Picasso in both the regular MV and the lyric MV for an deeply introspective song like Anti-Hero when Pablo Picasso was an extremely vicious abuser of women whose abuse drove one of his muses to commit suicide after he discarded her.

But since Gaylorism isn't about Taylor as a person/musician but almost purely about Taylor as a entertainment object for consumption, of course there's no real discussion of anything deep, let alone discussion on why Taylor idetifies with a monster like Picasso of all people when she's in her dark thoughts.

That would entail treating Taylor like a flawed human being that might just actually genuinely mean what she's shared with us in her most recent discography, which is counterproductive to the main goal of Gaylorism, which generally is enjoying feeling a sense of moral and intellectual superiority over those who do not hold to Gaylorism, which is something that requires Taylor to be a morally pure and incorruptible figure, something that Taylor's tried to use her most recent discography to show us she's most assuredly NOT.

i think it’s a little much to say all that because i have seen/read how much taylor and the idea of taylor being gay means to many gaylors. although i do understand the spirit of what you are saying. i too sometimes wish that taylor was also looked at as a singular complicated figure separate from any perceived roles she could fulfill for the progress of society

i wonder if it’s a sort of attitude or maybe it’s like a certain sense of humor? perpetuated in certain gaylor circles that often positions taylor and her antics, as you say, as an object of entertainment or a stand in for issues greater than herself. and i think that this is encouraged moreso on certain platforms than others. you’ve gotta be quippy and ruthless on twitter and you’ve gotta be perpetually hyping up the next big thing on tiktok, you’ve gotta abide by the social contracts of moderators and viewers on reddit, etc. i feel like tumblr, if only by virtue of its quirks and public obsolescence, can skew towards a more earnest analysis. with non-kaylor gaylors on tumblr i’ve read plenty of thoughtful stuff over the years, it’s just usually that i don’t share the same worldview.

i am 100% in agreement with your final paragraph—we get shades of it in antihero and lavender haze and sweet nothing but for me, dear reader lays it out so plainly and it’s fitting that the song is getting the least plays (dunno about hits different. and sure it’s the last track in the bonus section of a long album but) because i think it represents a general unwillingness on the part of her fans to face truths that might make them feel uncomfortable.

#i know i’ve personally reevaluated my perspective as well. it would be a mistake not to!

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letitrainathousandflames · 2 years

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okay i just got two more asks about Nope (2022) and I know the reading comprehension in this website is piss poor, but y'all really did skip my tags on that last ask huh? the one that said

"Don't send me anymore asks about this film, please, I'm trying to forget it"

[ID: a print of tags reading "animal cruelty m/", "animal death m/", "nope (2022) critical" and "dont send me anymore asks about this film pls im trying to forget it"]

The fact that you guys are insisting on bringing up a topic which i specifically mentioned to have caused me a panic attack is beyond me. That said, I'll answer those under the cut for politeness' sake, any following message on this subject will be deleted, as I do not owe anyone to interact with content that is triggering.

Same goes to anyone else btw, no amount of guilt-tripping should force you to talk/see/interact with topics that make you uncomfortable, especially if the other people are damn aware of your discomfort.

Prints of the asks and my responses under the cut, with plenty of spoilers to the movie and mentions of the triggers above, so reader discretion is advised.

Also, before you decide to call me a "racist white woman" for disliking a black-led movie (like someone whose ask i'm not replying did), remember that a) people are allowed not to like things and b) i'm a brown latina of Black and Native descent so maybe stop assuming everyone is white for two minutes bc thats, honestly, is racist.

oh, and just one more thing:

DON'T SEND ME MORE ASKS ABOUT THIS MOVIE

The animal abuse is in the fact that the horses were consistently used as bait by Jupe. Also, OJ dismounts in order to survive by sacrificing his horse to the creature. Furthermore, and this is only my interpretation at this point, OJ states that any creature with a spirit can be broken, which left me wondering whether he and his father were cruel to their horses while taming them.

I've read a lot on the traditional and horrific way people beat horses to tame them, and while I do hope the character took a humane, kind approach, we can't be sure, and that line didn't sit well with me. The animals also get injured and eaten, which i consider also animal cruelty, with the plot to blame for it, but still.

To give a different example, in Secret Window [spoiler], a dog is cruelly killed off-camera before the owner finds it stabbed and dead. I list that as animal cruelty, even if it's off screen, because an animal is harmed and suffers in the story.

that distinction is important though: i'm not at ALL accusing Peele or the crew of abusing the animals. I'm saying that it is a story full of animal abuse. And for me, an animal lover, to sit through a movie like that and enjoy it, the story would have to be damn goo - which, unfortunately, it wasn't.

the amount of bad movies that got explained away by a scoff and a "oh, you don't get it" is staggering. I'm giving my personal view based on my lifetime of personal experiences and media consumption, and my personal opinion is - it's a bad movie.

It's too long, it's pace is clunky, the characters lack personality (not the actors' fault), the chimp subplot being practically a copy-paste of a real life incident from which the victim is still traumatized and disfigured, the use of animals as disposable tools, the plot holes, the lack of sibling dynamic between the characters, the completely open end, it all lead to me wishing i had stayed home painting my toenails.

Films can be deep. They can be layered. They can have hidden meanings, connections left for the viewer to make, etc. But if they intend to be like that, they have to be a puzzle of which some corners and a few pieces are already in place so that you can think and fit the others in place your own way.

They can't just dump the pieces all over you and say "now, make some sense out of this."

And, again, I am so appalled over the disrespect of using a story as recent as 2009 as a scary plot point for an extremely gorey scene. Peele could've come up with an animal-related tragedy of his own, but instead he chose to copy a horrifying true story, without even disguising it with the constant nods at Oprah's name.

Like, at the end of the day, this is my opinion. I found it bad. Poorly written and lazy. I have the right to this opinion as much as you have a right to yours. But you don't get to call me ignorant or anything just because i didn't enjoy a movie you think is deep.

Because honestly, to me, it's shallow and dull, and a waste of all the effort I made not to leave the theater for those two hours and sixteen minutes that i'm never getting back.

#nope (2022) critical #animal cruelty m/#animal death m/#STOP. TALKING TO ME. ABOUT THIS SHITSHOW.#you can block anonymous askers' IPs on tumblr and by god i'm gonna start blocking y'alls asses #long post/

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writingwithcolor · 3 years

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Desexualized Mammy & Strong Black Woman, too busy for “frivolous love”

“Alyse” (Anon Submission) asked:

My science fiction story includes a black woman (Talia) who raises two children that aren’t her own and takes on two young adults as apprentices. One of the children she is raises has Arabic background and was taken into her home upon his father’s death (his mother’s whereabouts are unknown). She was a close friend of his father and the closest thing he had to a relative. The second child has mixed French-Latinx background and was taken in after becoming shipwrecked with no means by which to contact her people. Talia was the first non-hostile individual she encountered and one of the few who would so openly embrace a stranger. Since Talia is Master Medic (the highest medical authority in her community) she is training two apprentices (think residency) and eventually mentors the second child as well. She was once married and passionately in love but lost her husband to illness. In this setting, some technology we take for granted is inaccessible and violence against their people is commonplace. Most have experienced sudden loss. This particular loss was the catalyst that drove Talia into medicine- a desire to protect her loved ones and prevent others from experiencing similar tragedy. She is usually kind (though businesslike) but sometimes succumbs to a frigid, furious depression when, despite all her knowledge and determination, she can’t save someone.

I worry that her maternal association with the two children (one of whom is an outsider) mires her in the mammy trope. On top of that, she hasn’t pursued romance since the death of her husband. I’ve considered giving her a romantic subplot but there are already so many characters to keep track of. Furthermore, I just can’t see her engaging in the frivolous pursuits of new love when she’s dealing with kids, students, and an extremely taxing career.

In terms of race and culture in this story, practically every character can trace their ancestry back to populations displaced through war. Even Talia’s second child was shipwrecked during a botched evacuation from a military science lab. The people who live here have been isolated for generations and no longer have a real concept of their ancestry. Cultures have blended, new religions have formed, and many of our familiar racial/ethnic issues are forgotten. However, new and different but equally toxic ones have replaced them. In this way, Talia’s blackness doesn’t carry the same associations in her world as it would in ours. However, readers may still make these associations. Do you see any issues with her character that I could amend?

So! You have:

A highly educated Black-coded woman (the highest medical authority in the community)

She raises two kids alone

She also looks after two apprentices

She is widowed (not sure the race of the husband, was he Black?)

Having experienced heartbreaking love, Talia's drive to look after, protect and save people through medicine is a great motivation for the way she is. Her experiencing depression and taking losses seriously is also very human and is dynamic characterization.

However, such characterization with Black women is prone to brush across several tropes. You have a Black woman who gives and protects, but what does she get in return? Who cares for her?

Prioritize your Black character’s happiness

"I’ve considered giving her a romantic subplot but there are already so many characters to keep track of. Furthermore, I just can’t see her engaging in the frivolous pursuits of new love when she’s dealing with kids, students, and an extremely taxing career."

Priorities, priorities. Is love a frivolous pursuit in her eyes, or yours? Because I strongly disagree. You probably don't mean to but you, as the author, having an excuse to NOT give the Black woman romance is showing that you do not think she's worth being loved. TV viewers and stans who are uncomfortable when Black women characters have relationships find similar excuses to explain away not wanting BW in relationships.

"She's too strong and independent for a man/relationship"

"I liked her better alone."

"It'll take away from her character."

“A romance doesn’t feel right for her”

These sorts of statements above are grounded in racialized misogyny.

Relationships do not lessen the woman.

Relationships does not lessen Black women.

Love

Whether that love is romantic, familial, or friendship, it can come in many forms. Give Talia love. Because Black women characters deserve it! Either one or all!

Let her have a loyal best friend, a cat, and a girlfriend. Because why not? And not to downplay the love of children to parents, but please provide her love beyond what she gets on a maternal level from the children she looks after.

The stories that Black women are in today severely lack love for us, so why add to the narrative of Black women being all work and no play, and too [insert excuse here] to be loved?

Of course, you didn't provide all the details from your story, but I'm not seeing much of a balance from the struggle. She is a caretaker, teacher, doctor (or doctor-like figure).

Her position and background in itself is okay. It's the Strong Black Woman being presented with seemingly no commentary that strikes me.

Where is her team to help balance the weight of the world?

Who takes care of her when she's depressed from another loss?

What does she get in return from taking an emotional and physical toll to heal her community?

Do those around her recognize all she does for them and offer their friendship?

When does she get to relax and turn off the need to be everything for everybody?

Fitting love into a book with many characters

There are many books with several characters to keep track of. People tend to manage. Also, I'm sure some of those characters are in and/or out of relationships. Even stories that couldn’t be classified as romances have relationships of some sort. It’s unrealistic to have a ton of characters and none of them be in relationship(s) of some sort. Not when there’s so many forms of it and many sexualities.

Friends, frenemies, enemies, romance, affairs.. Relationships make stories (and life) interesting. By no means do I think adding these dynamics harm your tale. And what’s one more for a hard-working Black woman who sacrifices a lot and clearly deserves a shoulder to lean on? And, if you use an existing character to be that friend, family, or lover, then you won’t need to pencil in another character.

For romance specifically - I think a misconception when it comes to including romance in stories is that they have to somehow take over the story. Romance does not have to bombard the plot nor be described in lavish detail. Not every story is a romance and those sort of details aren’t everyone’s style or things they’re comfortable with. A sentence or two establishing relationships does not take away from the story.And how those relationships look and affections expressed will vary based on the characters, sexuality, etc.

Not every character needs to have a deep level of detail.

“Katie and Lisa, a newly engaged couple, walked into the meeting.”

“Jack and Jamie are a married couple in their 40s.”

“The two met in college. After two months of blissful courtship, they eloped, eager to start their happily ever afters. Twenty years together, they were still blissfully in love and never too far from one another.”

Sentences like the above are enough for some characters. You don’t always need to put in paragraphs worth of relationship-establishing details or plot.

When it comes to the characters whose love you would like to highlight, at least a bit, you still don’t have to go over the top.

Use subtle details.

“As soon as Talia’s back was turned, he gave her a longing look before shaking his head and getting back to the patient.”

“He squeezed her hand before taking hold of the stethoscope.”

“She kissed her wife goodbye before racing out the door.”

“You mean the world to me.” he had said, holding her face. Those words stayed with her all day, making her heavy load light as a sack of feathers.

“She soaked his shirt with her tears and he just held her tight, saying nothing, silently holding her together.”

As for Talia specifically…

Talia having the mindset you described, as love being frivolous and not a priority, is understandable knowing her background (I just don't agree with you as the creator using this as a means to keep her alone. Whether she’s romantically alone or without close friendships). She has lost so much, and continues to experience loss with patients. This can be extremely traumatizing. I gave some examples of being subtle, so perhaps that will help with the burden of feeling a thick subplot of romance doesn’t fit in your story.

And as Talia doesn’t strike me as someone who would go looking for companionship, what if she stumbles upon it without trying? Is there someone on the medical team that can offer her friendship? Someone who admires her and feels the urge to care for her that she feels the same for, or has pushed feelings down for? What happens when she can’t hold those feelings down anymore?

Takeaway

Talia deserves healthy love, even if she doesn’t believe it or feel she has time for it. That love can come in any and many forms, not necessarily romantically required, although it is a plus. A struggle-ridden novel is balanced by love, support and rest for characters that hold the weight of the world. If you do not, evaluate why you want to write Black characters in these struggle roles without at least a social commentary.

~Mod Colette

#Black women #Strong Black Woman #Mammy #relationships #romance #asks

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matchstickdolly · 3 years

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Lucifer 5B: Cutting off Touch to Spite Your Fans

Spoiler warning: This post assumes you've watched all of Lucifer, season 5, part B.

CW: There's plenty I like about season 5, but this is a negative post. I know not everyone is up for negativity about the things they love. I also generally avoid it and (try to) keep my mouth shut about things I don’t like in most spaces. It’s good etiquette. But this is my space, and I have thoughts specifically about purity culture and the treatment of sexuality and trauma in fiction. You’ve been warned!

---

I'm a professional writer (not in TV). I've worked with enough bad clients, editors, and other writers to recognize some hallmark behaviors in how both Fox and Netflix gave Lucifer's writers incredibly difficult, unfair, and frankly weird situations to create through.

Fox did them dirty, interfering and ordering too many eps in S3. Netflix did them dirty, ordering 10 eps for S4 when it clearly needed ~13. Then Netflix ordered 10 "final" eps for S5—then, just kidding(!), 6 more after they'd done their writing for the 10. (What the fuck?) And then Netflix ordered 10 more for a "final-final" S6 after the writers had done their best to tell their whole story in S5. (MORE what the fuck.)

Talk about whiplash for creators, and half of those who consume content don't even care to understand such creative pain.

So, there are problems on multiple fronts. There's much I'll forgive writers, accordingly. I go into most shows expecting plotting/pacing issues. I look, instead, for characters and relationships that will triumph over those issues.

Heart is what the show Lucifer has always had in spades, both in its characters and in the immensely committed, wonderful ways the actors have tried to realize the characters' humor, love, trauma, and—most importantly—struggle to find healing. Yet, when given the opportunity to show health alongside another in a relationship, the writers/directors of 5B chose to remove most sexual humor and physical intimacy from their female lead and bi/pan characters to, I feel, sanitize them and troll fans. What happened?

Well, for one, say hi to showrunner Joe Henderson bragging about how the writers decided to be colossal dicks to the fans who helped secure their jobs:

From CBR's 'Lucifer Showrunner Joe Henderson Dissects Season 5B's Chaos'

Have we not suffered sidelined/repressed female characters, "bury your gays," and, oh, Chloe fucking a serial killer enough? Must we also say hello to neutered relationships once characters find stable love (whether same or opposite sex)? The result of withdrawing more sexual humor and physical intimacy from paired characters is an uncomfortable suggestion that they're reformed by "pure" love—more chaste and aloof, more acceptable in polite society. This is only done to end-game committed relationships.*

The writers seem to think they're edging the viewers, but the reality is they're taking traumatized minority characters who rejoiced in sexual freedom, but lacked and craved an emotional connection, and showing they can't have both, or, if they find both, it will never last. They've taken hypersexual characters and said, here, even they can have the love and commitment they desire, but some physical intimacy, especially sexual intimacy, is what they must trade for it.

There's always one more case, phone call, or coincidence interrupting intimacy. Traumas or deaths deserving emotional and physical comfort go on to receive none or only one aspect. Done sometimes, it's fine. Done always, it's sick. Dan dies, and there's no hugging? Really?†

Don't craft characters who crave a full range of emotional and physical intimacy, only to rob them of related scenes every chance you get. That's not complexity. That's bad writing. To even achieve this in 5B, they must squash banter and sideline their female lead yet again.

What a gift to purity culture, which tells us to be more palatable by bottling and buttoning up. That sex should be taboo, but violence glorified. That there is no heated desire among "Good Women," that sexual minorities of all genders shouldn't experience it much at all.

5A is so good. At the very least, it's on the right path (clearly, since the plot payoff from 5x01 to 5x16 is great). It shows a couple working through difficulties and trauma, toward each other emotionally and physically. It even pokes fun at people who think an established relationship means the death of romantic and sexual appeal (a tired and hugely sexist trope). And then... And then 5B reverses that, pretending established relationships are barely physical during emotional struggle and that the honeymoon phase doesn't exist. It robs characters of joy and comfort through physical intimacy when they need it to move through or push beyond trauma.

It's telling that so many fan wishes for Deckerstar are about healing touch and existing in each other's spaces: amending Chloe's spicy PDA history with Cain, Chloe caring for Lucifer's wings, soft family scenes a la Monopoly night and shared meals, morning-afters, etc. Reasonable fans aren't asking for porn; they're asking for connection and humanity. They're asking for writers not to forget characters (and, yes, including hypersexual characters) on their way from Point A to Point B.

That 5B lacks these things isn't a "tee-hee frustrating" slow burn or a cockblock. It is, in so many scenes, excising from characters a core part of what nearly every human and fictional monster craves. And it's a slap in the face to the "found family" trope. When you remove or tamp down a casual physical intimacy that was previously there, characters and their relationships fall flat, even if only partially. They become blunt weapons creators wield against watchers or readers begging for scraps of warmth.

Minorities shouldn't be killed off with ease, and they shouldn't be stifled with ease, either.‡ And maybe there shouldn't be deep trauma driving a wedge in a romantic relationship if you're not going to explore it through that relationship, too—physical intimacy included.

I'm still reserving some judgment. I loved the family drama and the end. (Although, again, where was the physical intimacy? No intimacy when Chloe or Lucifer return from the dead? Really?) I see where they could do awesome things, and could have done more if not for network BS.

But I no longer trust Lucifer's writers and directors. They thought S5 was the end. And what they gave us of Deckerstar, of the relationship that symbolizes health and healing in their fictional world, is this: cold distance. And they got a kick out of doing it, apparently.

If this is a "love letter" to me as a fan, I'm burning it. I can only hope S6 course corrects. If not, the writers who made these choices shouldn't write sexual minority and/or traumatized characters again. If you don't understand most of us, you should stop fucking using us.

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* If you don't believe me about the differences between casual/short-term relationships and end-game relationships in Lucifer, go back and look at how Lucifer and Maze are with strangers in all the other seasons. Look at Chloe's sex dream, her propositioning of Lucifer in a library, her sex with Pierce in the evidence closet. Look at how much physical intimacy there is between Lucifer and Eve, and then between Eve and Maze (if only as a ploy). Across seasons, there are sex/kink jokes and scenes galore.

Compare this to how these same characters are portrayed when with their end-game loves. Notice the gentle pecks on the lips and the huge general drop in sexual humor between 5A and 5B. How boring. Where's the spice these characters had? Also, give me a damn break. Buttoning up in a relationship is contrary to four and a half seasons of emotional character work that's been communicating security in our relationships is personally freeing.

† I'm not just talking about sexual intimacy in this post, though that is a big part of it because of the characters. 5B lacked crucial found family scenes, too.

Chloe should have been at God's family dinner, but being so would have prevented more ham-fisted angst. Chloe never even has a one-on-one with God, probably because that would demand a straight answer about her miracle status, which I would guess will be used to drive yet another wedge between her and Lucifer next season, but we'll see.

In multiple before- and after-work scenes, there was no reason for Lucifer and Chloe to be apart more, even, than they were in S1 and S2. Monopoly night was in S3, for crying out loud. Most horrifying of all? No one touches Chloe after Dan's death, but Trixie. Meanwhile, Linda, Amenadiel, Ella, Maze, and Lucifer all receive physical comfort. No wonder Chloe's tired of being strong.

‡ If you don't think it's offensive that they stuffed all their wlw content for two hypersexual characters into a few clunky, irrational, and chaste scenes that rushed I love yous, a marriage-like proposal, and the mention of soulmates, I don't know what to tell you other than get off my lawn.

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thequietdiviner · 3 years

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Learning Tarot is complicated

It was exciting but also overwhelming at the beginning.

There are up to 78 cards. Not only that, to be on the same level as those amazing readers on YouTube, I should learn Astrology, Numerology, Pendulum, Mythology, working with Angels and Guides, and other Spiritual stuff like Crystals, Reiki, Kundalini, etc. My God! I feel the pressure already while listing those subjects here.

And meditation? Some say it’s compulsory for anyone working in the spirituality industry. So ridiculous.

I hate it the most. Doesn’t work for me. I felt so uncomfortable doing it. Forget it. I never meditate.

…………

So,

Why was I in the rush?

Because I wasn’t a teen or 20 something when I started learning Tarot. I had to work and other boring duties and chores to do. I had to take good care of my lovely children (meaning, my 3 cats). I had to master it as quickly as possible.

I enrolled in a 10-hour long online Tarot course. But I knew that much wasn’t enough.

I, then, did more Tarot courses, read articles, watched free YouTube tutorials, bought books and e-books, etc., and most importantly, watched tons of YouTube Tarot videos. I wanted to become pros like them so bad: having big beautiful crystals and sage around, owning hundreds of Tarot decks and working well with all of them, giving amazing accurate messages to viewers they haven’t even met.

But, then…I felt exhausted, stressed, confused, and overwhelmed.

Still, I continued to learn.

And, it took me over a year to realize that most of the things I had learned didn’t align with me at all.

And, I am me. I don’t have to become someone like them.

It’s quite painful to realize that those YouTube videos and Instagram posts are nothing but something that put me, and other Tarot beginners in a mental trap that we have to master many spiritual subjects, owning lots of cleansing tools and crystals and candles and tons of decks, and acting mysterious to be called a Tarot reader, a mystic, or whatever. Those things are just a show-off to fool people’s eyes. The truth is, a realistic mature client just wants to receive clear guidance and see where they’re heading. That’s it. They don’t care about those colorful crystals, candles, and other stuff. Those things are just tools to attract young clients or people crazy about fashion and trends. A real authentic reader just needs to dress clean and neat. A tidy desk, 1-2 decks, and something to cleanse the working space. That’s it. They don’t need to try so hard to prove anything.

……………..

I felt so angry and disappointed in myself.

I had wasted so much time, money, and energy on so many videos and courses.

Here’s the lesson I learn about learning:

“Understand who you are and understand what kind of mentor or material you’re learning from”

I’m a detail-oriented, realistic, simple, organized, minimalistic person. I don’t like drama. I want to know what the exact problem is and what the specific solution is. I see things as black and white. It’s a yes or no, no maybe for me. Therefore, I should learn from people who have the same personality and see things as I do.

I’m also a loyal person, which means I’m loyal to a few decks. The other decks keep resting in the cabinet.

I’ve learned that

- I only need 1-3 decks to look into matters, seek guidance and predict the future.

- Oracle Cards deliver beautiful messages, but they’re not necessary. They don’t add much depth to the reading. They just help to relieve the pain in your heart.

- Essential crystals: Clear Quartz, Rose Quartz, Amethyst, Selenite. Amethyst is the most important one for boosting psychic abilities and predicting the future.

- Cleansing tool: Palo Santo. It’s clean, safe and I can take a piece of Palo Santo anywhere without being afraid it may break or make a mess in my bag. Also, it smells good.

So, how do I learn Tarot now?

- I rarely watch Tarot YouTube videos nowadays. The messages seem not to resonate with me much. Besides, I want to hear specific messages, not general all the time.

- I only use 1 Tarot website and 2, 3 Tarot books for reference. I read and re-read the card meanings from those materials.

- Sometimes, I write card meanings for myself. It’s nothing serious. I just look at the cards and write what comes to mind.

- I do readings.

The key point is: Less is More.

#tarot journey #tarot journal

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hindsight-reel · 3 years

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Choices in Adaptation

On average, a short story is anywhere from five thousand to ten thousand words. In terms of time spent reading, this is about twenty minutes to an hour. A short story often centers around a particular event or person.

Now think of a movie: about two hours long on average, with multiple characters and a classic introduction-rising-action-climax-end plot scheme. Not to say short stories do not follow this outline, rather that the medium allows authors to ‘play’ with pacing and style more than a theatre-release movie.

So how does a director (plus script writers, producers, camera operators, film crew, etc.) take a story with less than an hour’s worth of content and create an engaging film for audiences - audiences that will include people who are unfamiliar with the original source material?

“Smooth Talk” (Chopra 1985), based on Joyce Carol Oates’ 1966 “Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?” effectively fleshes out her characters and prolongs the suspense building to the iconic confrontation between young Connie and her stalker, Arnold Friend.

For a ten-page story, with an estimated eighty percent of it being Friend coaxing Connie out of her house, it is a little surprising – and impressive! – that the film writers managed to lengthen it into an hour and half long film. The last thirty minutes of the film contains the main body of the short story, almost word-for-word from the original dialogue, yet now the first page-and-a-half of set up had been expanded in the first hour of the film.

Among the additions, the director, Joyce Chopra, has added a realistic element of a troublesome mother and teenage daughter relationship. “Added” may not be the right word - this tense relationship is included in the story, yet there are many additional scenes that bolster the viewer’s ideas of these characters. In the original text, the story is told entirely from Connie’s internal point of view; in “Smooth Talk”, as a film where the viewer cannot be truly in the character’s mind like the reader could in a book, what were once short lines from Connie on her opinion of her mother become reoccurring scenes of their tension that build on one another until the moment Connie’s mother yells at her for not wanting to attend the lunch with her family.

A notable true addition to the film is the ending. We see Connie return home, where her family is waiting for her, and her worried mother rushes to hug her and apologize. This is an important choice that the director has made. The way the short story ends, Connie getting into the car with Arthur Friend, leaving the reader to wonder what will happen to her – would objectively not be a very effective way to end a film. The general audience, especially those who don’t know the source material, would see this as inconclusive and confusing. Will she be alright? Or will he kill her? This sort of uncertainty is acceptable for short stories, it’s a medium known for odd plots, or even scraps of plots that can feel unfinished to readers, but for a feature film where the audience is paying to be entertained it would leave them feeling too uncomfortable with the implications as they left.

The director also gives a great deal more screen time and character development to Connie’s friends, who aren’t even named in the story. One simple explanation for this choice is that it would just eel too odd if the film somehow managed to show Connie hanging out with friends but never naming them or giving them any story besides “Connie’s friends”. Including them ties the audience further into the movie by reminding them of their time as teenagers having fun and hanging out with friends. It also adds to the sudden dissonance of tone when Friend shows up – until then, the movie had more or less been about teenage girls having fun, flirting with boys, and their usual troubles with parents. The shift in tone from light and fun to fear and dread is much stronger in the movie than in “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” because of the extended time leading up to Arnold Friend’s introduction.

The director balanced these changes quite well so that despite altering characters and scenes, the general tone of the film feels very close to that of the short story overall. Both movie and story are still relatable to this day, no matter the slight changes due to fashion or out-of-date culture.

Bad Day at Black Rock vs Bad Day at Honda

When watching “Bad Day at Black Rock” (1955), the very first notable change that a viewer might notice if they have previously read “Bad Day at Honda” (Breslin) is that the protagonist, John MacCreedy, only has one functional arm in the film. Why would the director make this change? An important aspect of MacCreedy’s character is that he was in the war – one could assume this disability becomes a physical connection to the war for this character. Rather than the ordinary man from “Honda”, this version is mysterious and slightly evasive. In fact, the movie synopsis starts with “…MacCreedy, a one-armed war veteran.” This immediately draws the reader to the character. Now they have questions, and with the next line, “arrives in the small desert town of Black Rock, he's not greeted warmly”, the questions grow. By changing just this small detail about the character, the director has created a sense of mystery about the man.

This mystery grows throughout the film. In “Honda”, the answer to what MacCreedy – Peter MacCreedy here, not John – is in the town for is given rather quickly. A day still passes just as it does in the film, but the tension around MacCreedy never grows too high.

Besides character alterations, the major change for the film is the climactic moment. Unlike in the story, where a fight breaks out in the bar while MacCreedy is up in his hotel room, completely apart from the action, the film follows MacCreedy’s attempt to get out of Bad Rock before Reno Smith kills him for uncovering the story behind Komoko’s death. Here the decision to give him only one functional arm comes back – Reno clearly has the high ground, both literally and in the form of a rifle, while MacCreedy is unarmed and un-armed. Yet proves himself a skilled adversary by single-handedly making a Molotov Cocktail and taking Smith down. The resulting explosion is flashy and violent, perfect for the finale of a movie. This scene is entirely for the cinema – it’s the final confrontation viewers want to see between the two men, watching in suspense for who will ultimately make it out alive. The off-screen barfight from the original text would be rather unsatisfying and boring to film audiences after the build up of suspense in this little town. The director wants to keep the audience with the protagonist, to have a climatic moment happen without him would be a letdown.

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echodrops · 4 years

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I just read your post about shipping and energy and I finished it with an interesting question in mind. A los of the examples you use to defend the theory the "tension" Or energy beetwen the characters have some Interactions that could be consider "Toxic" Así a relationship, but because of that tensión that just make more fans ship it. Emotions of jelaously, hate, self worth bla bla. I would like to know your opinión on Toxic relationships on shipping and the difference (1/2?)

And the difference of how people Accept it depending if the ship is Slash or het. Dont get me wrong. What I try to exploin in My crappy English is that sometimes I have seen shippers calling Toxic and unhealthy het ships (I can give you plenty of examples) but at the same time drowning in feelings about the exact same concept on Slash. It can be domination, bickering, power dinamics etc. Please a dont send this ina negative context its just something I have notice (2/2)

No worries, I got you. I think your point is really valid and there are a lot of discrepancies in how people ship when it comes to het versus slash.

In this case, my answer to this has three different parts to it:

1) I am always very, very cautious about applying the term “toxic” to a fictional relationship because--and I am aware this is not a popular opinion to have on tumblr--I do see a clear distinction between fiction and reality. Can systemic, widespread efforts in media to normalize something have impacts on public perception? Sure. Japan’s thing for twelve-year-old girls in anime is fucked up, my dudes. But in terms of fictional relationships, would any sane person look at things like, say, a psychopathic villain and hero ship and go “Oh man, Sephiroth/Cloud is such relationship goals; can’t wait to find me a serial killer!”? “Yeah dude, I really hope my next girlfriend is a yandere who will stab me sixteen times in non-vital places for fun!” “I can’t wait to engage in armed combat with my evil boyfriend who has enslaved my best friends and won’t give them back unless I let the rest of the world perish!” ...said no real person ever. Lots of things happen in fiction that we--as readers and viewers--can fully appreciate would never be okay in the real world. (And yes, this does extend even to more realistic things like jealousy, bickering, bullying--I like Bakugou as a character, but I’d never be able to tolerate a person who acted like him in real life.)

I wholeheartedly believe that, outside of illegal things which should obviously be reported, each person has responsibility only for their own fandom experience, and I highly encourage people to make full use of the blocking and filtering features available in fandom spaces to avoid any content that makes them feel uncomfortable or any ships they find to be unhealthy.

So: My opinion on toxic ships is that virtually any ship in this world could be perceived as toxic by someone, and that the alternative--a world in which the ONLY ships we’re allowed to write about or draw or even just like are those which are perfectly healthy pure pure love-fests--sounds horrible to me.

2) Very few people ship without an endgame in mind. I can’t think of anyone who looks at two characters who absolutely hate each other and thinks “Wow, I can’t wait to write a 100,000 word fic in which their relationship does not evolve in the slightest and they end the story hating each other exactly as much as they did on Day 1!” JK, maybe I can, I was in the Durarara fandom, after all. When people ship “toxic” relationships, it is almost always with the idea of character growth and change in mind--the idea is “They are not healthy for each other now, but the whole point of my story or art is that they’ll become healthy for each other over time.” The power of love can heallll peopleeee.

Are the characters jealous of each other now, aggressive toward each other now, enemies right now? Obviously in the shipper’s mind, these are challenges that can be overcome in time by the characters learning and developing into better versions of themselves. Perhaps this is an overly optimistic worldview that leads people to make bad choices in real life--awful people in real life rarely change as much for the better as characters in fiction are capable of changing, but that’s the beauty of fiction: it doesn’t show us people as they are, but people as we wish they could be. We want to believe that the toxic pair of characters can find common ground and heal each other. That the people who are jealous of each other will instead come to appreciate each other by the end. That the misunderstandings will be cleared up. That mistakes will be forgiven. People typically aren’t shipping a toxic ship because they love toxicity--they’re shipping that relationship specifically because they see potential beyond that tension.

We typically ship with “happily ever after” in mind, with the understanding that the life is too hard and people too flawed for that road to always be an easy one.

3) I think you are right that there is a discrepancy in the way that people view het ships and slash ships; namely, there is a discrepancy between the way het ships and mlm ships are viewed.

There are probably a lot of long and complicated sociological explanations for this that someone with more research in the field could explain better, but my first thought on this is that the discrepancy is based primarily on how fans understand male and female dynamics versus male and male dynamics.

For example, society is coded strongly to view a man who hits, dominates, or is aggressive to a woman as a very, very bad guy. (Perhaps this is something widespread media depictions have normalized?) Whereas “dude kicks another guy’s ass” has a whole different connotation in modern views. It is certainly a double standard, and part of the reason that so many male victims of abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence, etc. go ignored. Men are viewed as “too strong” to be victims; therefore, even many of the “wokest” fans can accept two male characters having a violent dynamic, when they would never accept that scenario between a male and female character.

That said, I think we also need to recognize that the way female characters are portrayed in media contributes to this problem. A preponderance of female characters in media are limited in what they can do and the situations they are allowed to engage in. As with BNHA, for example, “good” women are not allowed to be violent, jealous (other than over boys), aggressive, etc. Women are simply treated as not eligible for a wide variety of the dynamics that fictional men are written with. A male character having a superiority-inferiority complex over his also-male rival? Not surprising in the least. A male character having a superiority-inferiority complex over a female rival? Pshhh, yeah right. A female character bitterly jealous over a male character’s power, leadership, or skill? Surely she just admires his ability. Through a combination of misogyny and toxic masculinity, the stories themselves tell readers that unhealthy dynamics are commonplace and acceptable when they happen between two males, while “good” female characters should only be a source of healthy, supportive dynamics.

If we’re talking about unintended messages that writers send readers/viewers when it comes to character dynamics, this is definitely one of them!

tl;dr: Writers train their readers to expect and want certain things, but often do so carelessly or while unaware of the ways their own stereotypical societal views and cliche genre conventions will be taken and transformed by fandoms.

#shipping #shipping dynamics #female characters #writing stuff #echo answers asks #longpost

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vanisresources · 4 years

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// Okay so, coming from someone who is used to delve into these darker subjects here’s what I have to say, that could be of help:

This is a complex situation, there’s no easy answer/solution to this. There are workaraounds, however. That hopefully will help everyone out. I’m not looking to tell anyone on how they should go about things, because it’s their blog and people decide what to do with it. And it’s up to me/others, to see whether or not they wish to stick around for the ride.

Kill the idea that you’re an awful person, for wishing to touch on these dark subjects. However, it’s the way you will treat these subjects that matters a lot. So do your research on these things, don’t treat these subjects on a surface level- or that they should. Don’t ever feel pressured to dive into them, if you don’t want to. We are all here to relax, so know/understand your own limitations.

When plotting/discussing these things with someone else, make sure that they are comfortable with it. No means no, don’t try to guilt trip people to follow through it just because you want to.

“Oh but it’s muh blog!” Yeah, it is. I also stand by this point of view. However, would it really hurt to just put up a little warning? Everyone should do their part in making this environment as friendly as possible. Including yourself. This way, you’re ensuring that it’s completely up to the reader/viewer to whether or not read it. It’s not your responsiblity to be looking after every single person that stumbles upon your blog, however you should still do the very minimun.

Understand that, we have absolutely no control over the other person. If you see something that you don’t like, you know is triggering to you, etc. then don’t fucking read it. Just because we are in a community, it doesn’t mean you have to see/like everything that you come across.

It’s okay to hate something, it isn’t okay to harrass people. Bullying, witchhunt & harrassment of any sort, is unjustifiable. Don’t do this crap. Just block the user that is making you uncomfortable, and go on with your day.

#psa

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2ofswords · 4 years

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🔥

I do not think that a backstory - be it tragic or heartfelt in a different way - can make a character sympathetic and it doesn’t matter what the backstory is or even how much you yourself associate with it. The quality of a character can get better or worsen but I do not think that a backstory can be a character’s saving grace and make us feel for them on its own.

Okay, I think I need to elaborate on this one. What I want to say is that the character has to be maybe not sympathetic but at least engaging before the backstory comes into play, otherwise the explanation for their behavior will not work. Of course the backstory can still explain what a character is doing and why but if you want your audience to engage with the character, you cannot just mention him having suffered before the part that we get to read. The reader will simply not engage with this information when they aren’t already hooked in the first place. If we see someone acting like a totally irredeemable dickhead without any sense of humanity and then we see him getting beat up as a child, most people will just role their eyes, even if the thing happening to the character is obviously terrible and even if the behavior might make a bit more sense now. This is – in my opinion – because the character has been introduced as completely unsympathetic and we already do not want to associate with them in the first place. If we see a tragic backstory, we can feel emotionally pressured into feeling for a character we have no connection with. It can feel very forced and cheap – like the author is trying to guilt trip us into engagement with the character – even if the issues in the backstory are very real. If on the other hand we have something that does interest us – maybe some percs in their character, an interesting emotional bond, a contradiction that leaves us with a mystery or an emotional arc/breakdown in the present, an redemption ark in the making, etc. – then this makes us interested in the character and therefore it is more likely that the reader will wonder, what happened with them in the first place and be more affected by the backstory.

This isn’t only the case for evil characters. Sometimes there are instances where a character heavily relies on their tragic backstory and will act (and if it is tragic often suffer and whine) in accordance to it, but if the information about what happened isn’t there yet and the way the character behaves because of their backstory is not engaging in the present that is depicted, there really is no reason for the reader to care. Suffering in itself sure is uncomfortable and will make us know that the character has it bad but in itself it isn’t engaging. And when a character is screaming “I have a reason to behave like this, I promise!” and we see nothing that interests us in their emotional state or how it affects their surrounding, we will just not care. (As long as it isn’t like… a concrete character study. But then I sure as hell hope that the present emotional state is engaging, otherwise this sounds like a terrible character study, so my point still stands!) If your character relies on backstory, you still need to give me a reason to care for this exact backstory in the present. If the backstory is not tied to your storyline - not as an explanation but as something that affects the story and the behavior specifically - or if I am not already interested because your character is so engaging that I want to know more about them in the first place, then it isn’t needed and… I hate to break it to you but the backstory as well as the characters behavior isn’t needed that way and should be rewritten. Backstory should support the story (and the character), not the other way around! Just save the backstory for another project, where it fits, you are wasting it otherwise! (Or you know… it its that good… just write the backstory instead.)

(To be honest, I can think of two exceptions of my own rule: If we have an instance where the actions of a characters backstory and their motivation changes their entire character concept and every single one of their actions, I can see this being a reason to change the entire view of the character. This establishes, that there is a concrete link between present and past retrospectively, even if it wasn’t established at first and we misjudged the character because of this information missing. But tbh I have seen this being pulled of like… one time I think and wouldn’t recommend trying this one either without leaving some good foreshadowing and at least some little actions that don’t seem to align and create intrigue. It’s just being on the safer side and connecting the different knots of your storythreads should be considered good writing anyways. The other exception might be if the backstory is its own entire story. For example having a minor character that was only of slight importance and writing a prequel out of their new perspective. That could be cool and then we get some elaborate reasons to engage and if we read the other story we might feel more for the characters behavior if we weren’t engaged before. But I still hope that you didn’t rely on your readers engaging with the backstory in a book that you will have written half a year later for the first book. This is for minor characters only, where the engagement isn’t that important in the first place or… you know… already present.)

The backstory of a character is usually a payoff you have to build towards. It is not a magical explanation that will suddenly change the viewers entire opinion on a character. Even if it sounds harsh, caring for a character takes some actual investment first and you cannot rely in your audience being interested without giving them a reason to. You should give the audience something to engage with your character first and then you might even have a nice buildup with some intrigue and foreshadowing, if you want to make the backstory a big thing. Only after that it can really hit and then it has the potential to make you feel absolutely miserable. Because you are already empathizing. If the character has no present hooks to already interest and engage you, people will just not bother to spare the mental energy engaging with your character properly, because you haven’t given them a reason to do so. If there is no interesting engagement with the characters in the story itself, a good backstory won’t help them and an ideal backstory will either enlarge and add to the engagement that has been built up in the first place and not try to make it appear or it will have a deliberate use in the present after it has been established that makes the present more interesting directly and therefore is part of the story itself. But on its own it is completely useless and just a waste of effort.

#This is not about any of your characters!#They are backstory heavy but also engaging and interesting on their own!#I just try to make hot takes the person who asks likes #and I thought you might like some writing opinions #tbh these aren't hot takes anymore #this is just:#Phi talks about some stuff and thinks there might be different opinions #I have no idea what people think...#or what is hot right now #kalanadi #ask

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cynical-gamer-media · 4 years

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On Comparing Fictional Characters to ‘Real Life Counterparts’ (and a bit of morality): An Issue with the FE3H Fandom

One of the biggest reasons that causes discourse within the fandom is seeing the fictional world of Fódlan (and everyone that exists in it/around it) as a real event/counterpart that happened. As a result people see characters like Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, etc. as being counterparts to real life examples and thus equating to ‘liking fictional character=liking ‘real life counterpart’.

This is a gross oversimplification, and damaging to everyone who likes/dislikes a character.

Fiction is fiction. Certainly it can take inspirations from reality (in this game’s case: Holy Roman Empire, Emperor Constantine XI, Persian, etc.), but that does not mean that the characters/world are identical to said examples. The character isn’t, say, ‘Winston Churchill in story’; it could be ‘character x takes elements of Winston Churchill, but isn’t exactly like him because it is impossible to know everything of said person’. Of course there are some stories that blatantly make their character a ‘fictional counterpart’ to a real person, which honestly is terrible writing because us as the reader thinks ‘oh, this is Margaret Thatcher... I don’t like that person, therefore I don’t like this character’ or even ‘Who is this person? I heard of them, but I can’t like/dislike the character’.

People love characters because they tell a story. People love characters because it makes them question things. Someone loving Edelgard doesn’t mean they love real life tyrants/dictators like Stalin, Mao, Hitler (and if you do then that’s... beyond problematic...). Are there people who oversimplify loving a character? Absolutely. I’ve seen this with the Lords and other characters in game (and outside FE3H and FE too).

Who tends to be people’s favourite characters? Usually villains. Yet does that make the viewer a terrible person? Not at all. It is like the argument about video games being violent: if player plays a FPS, they must be a psychopath. We know that is not true, otherwise there would be far more violent people out on the streets.

On top of that we as the player/viewer see character(s)’ personal lives, far more so than the likes of real life counterparts (yes, some wrote autobiographies, but there is a thing called ‘unreliable narrator’). I absolutely love how there are multiple routes that perceive character x as either good/bad, because that is how life and history works. There is bias in each route, and I love that a lot about this game. The problem is people take it too seriously in the sense of, again, associating said views/figures to the real world instead of fiction.

Fictional characters should be able to challenge our views and make us uncomfortable. On top of that people are complex individuals. FE3H does a marvellous job showing grey morality, yet a number of fans’ worldview is black/white. There is also this dangerous idea circulating around of ‘if character does bad thing/questionable thing, then that is bad writing’ which is absolutely false.

A main theme of FE3H is grey morality, topped with bias. Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude and Rhea do things that are questionable because they believe they are in the right. Some people may even think ‘if I were in character x’s shoes, I’d do the same’ and simultaneously ‘but, I might not, because they are doing questionable things’. That’s the beauty of FE3H.

Once more stories are made to give us different viewpoints that we, the average person, wouldn’t see in real life. Do you know all the complexities of your coworker? Do you know what your friend is capable of if they were in x situation? Most likely not, which is why fiction is important for us.

Do not confuse these points as ‘you can’t criticise the characters or writing’ because that is not the point. The point is, again, to stop seeing this game as ‘fiction=absolute reality’, and to stop attacking people that like/dislike a character for their character: flaws and all. People should be able to criticise without being attacked, yet people should also not insult the person who likes/dislikes character because of ‘quality x, y, z’.

When people oversimplify morality, and see characters in black/white views, as well as the ‘ultimate representation of real life person x; therefore, you like real life person x’, then you missed the point of FE3H.

#Fire Emblem #Fire Emblem: Three Houses #FE16 #FE3H #Essay #Meta #Text #My Text

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