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secondstar-acorn · 1 month

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season 2 means the world to me and now that it's over it's time for me to Elaborate (while I SOB how dare you anthony)

it being a more complex and less easily fixable storyline fits because they're teens! it really resonates with my early-20s-ass!!! i love season one it's incredible but their goals being more clearly set out also makes sense! all they really want is to get their kids home. the teens have to save the world and kill willy and reconcile with their parents and and and---

also idk why but in season 1 i really only had one dad that i Latched Onto and that was henry. i love darryl and glenn and ron obviously but henry just hit different for some reason and we're not gonna examine that because then i'll have to schedule a therapy appointment. but this season i have latched on to every single one of the teens. they're all extremely, WILDLY important to me and i'm gonna talk about it (scotty mute your dash)

let's talk about taylor first because i ADORE him. i am so freaking proud of him, y'all. he started off the season asking cassandra who his dad was and he ended the season by realizing that all he needs is his mom! that's a fantastic moment of character development. he cares so much about his friends! he knows who he is and he puts on a confident attitude, but he's still just a scared kid a lot of the time. he's so supportive 24/7 (HELL YEAH MY MAN) and if norm is the glue, taylor is the emotional support glitter on the craft project that is team stunt teens. he brings up the mood! he adds pizzazz! he's not. afraid to shine but he's also kinda fragile! that's my fucking guy!!!

ok moving on to my absolute beloved scary marlowe. i was one of those people who started off not really liking scary and not understanding her Deal but i finally GOT her in halt and catch fireball and from then on i've been obsessed with her. she falls into my favourite category of fictional character which is morally grey woman with insane amounts of power who just desperately wants to be accepted by people (i.e. jean grey, morgana pendragon, etc.) she stares willy in the eye as he dies!!! she tells her bio dad to fuck off and she accepts terry as her dad and remembers her mom is her best friend and GODDD SCARY MARLOWE. she's one of the most performative of the teens but she's also one of the most genuine. she is quick to defend each of her friends and once she's back in, she's BACK IN. she backs up every single one of them whenever they need her support, and her friendship with normal especially is extremely special to me. they're siblings your honour. the thesis of scary marlowe's character (imo) is "what if my friends love me more than i hate me" and that is a POWERFUL ASS choice that beth made. that's every teenager i know!!! that's me in high school!!! she's fucked up and she's imperfect but she is trying and she's learning to forgive herself for caring and i could write more but i'm not gonna because this is already getting so long and we're only halfway through.

okay this one is. god. normal oak. you put an oak in front of me and i start crying immediately. normal is no exception. hermie may be the theatre kid but normal has the theatre kid energy of trying so SO hard for attention and love but never getting the appreciation he wants. every single relationship he has is FUCKED. he lives off of validation and he's never learned to love himself as is. (please fucking god get this kid to samantha stampler he needs to hear that he's enough just as he is). he hasn't been loved by his parents the way he should, he's fighting to meet impossible expectations, he's been inadvertently pitted against his sister since birth, and he starts the season filled with the naive sort of joy that comes from doing No self reflection whatsoever and ends it deeply self-reflective and clearly still dealing with his trauma. but now he has friends who accept and love him no matter what. friends who will pull him onto the dance floor! he's the cheerleader! he's constantly giving out the validation he's wanted his whole life. he is so generous and so kind and so fucking sad and he breaks my heart. i need a campaign exclusively about normal going to college and learning how to live without his parents constantly in his business and learning who he really is and wants to be. he is. god. normal oak swallows garcia has been living with two conflicting philosophies his entire life, from sparrow "love wolf" oak garcia to lark "bring this glock to school" oak garcia. it's no wonder his mom is a centrist because who ELSE could love both of those men. (rebecca and morgan should meet up. side note.) and he chooses love every time!!! WE HAVE TO HELP IT. i love normal. i hope he's gone to therapy in the past twenty years and i hope he sees that he's had the people who care about him and love him all along in the form of his friends. i was normal normal was me and i am so proud of him. because even though everything has sucked shit he keeps pushing through. he's resilient and i love him for that.

and now. the teen who came out of nowhere and stole all the space in my brain. the true surprise of the season for me. LINCOLN LI FUCKING WILSON. god what to say about lincoln. so so much. i am so overcome by emotion whenever i think of lincoln that it is nearly impossible to put it into words. i understand this kid on a spiritual level. he has one goal and one passion his entire life. he loves his dads so much and he defines himself by what he loves and what he's interested in. he's never been confronted with the real world before. and then he is. and suddenly his world is no longer soccer and dads and his small house and fifa. now he is realizing that oh, the world is a little fucked up actually, and oh, the man i idolized for 14-15(???) years is kind of the one who fucked it up. he means the best for me but by sheltering me too much i am woefully unprepared for the world i'm living in and now all of my false hopes and aspirations are crashing down around me and the only way i can deal with that is to not care anymore. he has to shut it all out or he'll actually have to Think about how awful it is. his dad has killed people. he was found on the titanic?? scary, the person he immediately latched onto once he started doubting his dad, betrays him, and then he's floating again. and scary comes back!! and they eventually get married!!! and future lincoln has learned to forgive and understand that maybe, if he can forgive scary and love her and know her for who she really is and accept her even though she killed that guy that one time, maybe he can learn how to do the same for his dad. i'll say it. lincoln is the luke skywalker of this season. he is throwing away that lightsaber. he is saving grant from his self-hatred by choosing to love him at the end of the season. he tries to change himself as a way to get space. he hates hermie but he tries to be there for normal. he's best friends (...)with taylor and he finds his first REAL friend that isn't one of his dads through taylor!!! taylor inspires him to finally rebel and steal that laffy taffy!! high school lets him start to figure out who he is. he's able to forgive his dads. his sense of morality is maybe a little fucked up but he's probably working on it now!! he's absolutely the bitchiest out of all the teens and i love him for that!! he does his dads' taxes??????? he's been forced to handle WAY too much responsibility on literally all fronts and he shuts down to try and cope. he is canonically autistic to ME. the way he thinks about everything is Insane. he's besties with a bunch of dolphins. soccer is his safe place. when he loves something he holds on TIGHT. this is an incredibly long-winded way of saying i love lincoln and i will spend the rest of my life losing my mind over this character.

my point here is i love season 2. it's weird! it's freaky! it's eldritch! it's brightly coloured and also dark as shit!! i love season 2!!!!!!!

and don't get me started on dood because then we'll be here for hours.

#dndads #dungeons and daddies #star rambles #dndads spoilers #taylor swift dndads #scary marlowe #normal oak #lincoln li wilson

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wifegideonnav · 10 months

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VASKA. i need to know your opinions of her

VISPA 🥰

First impression

ok so going in i pretty much knew i was gonna have Opinions on her due to 1) the comparisons to ianthe and 2) her general notoriety. so i kinda tried to hold off on forming an impression until i got more info. honestly i think my biggest first impression was "that is NOT how i thought she would talk" lmaooo

obviously the way she's introduced you kinda go "well she sucks" but i love girls who suck so i was like theres gotta be more here. and i was right.

Impression now

babygirl. lmao. i mean i could literally go on for thousands of words with what i think about her but short version is that she is one of the best written hs characters and an incredible portrayal of a mentally ill teenage girl with an extensive history of being abused. she's my morally grey queen. my "god forbid women do anything" champ. failwoman of all time. yeah!!!!!!!!

Favorite moment

the vriska/(vriska) convo because i love pain. but i also love the entire saga of her going god-tier because lets be honest: letting an old enemy beat you almost to death with her bare robofists and then communicating with your "it's complicated" by mind-controlling him to write messages with your blood, begging him to finish the job is. cool as fuck. also terezi: remem8er. :(

Idea for a story

ok i made a like 3 note post saying this ages ago and never actually expanded on it but: vriska <> rose. i have put SO much thought into this. short version, they have both a lot in common and some pretty interesting foiling. on the surface, they're both fairly rash and destructive which would typically suggest that they would not be good moirails. BUT the ways in which they're destructive etc are fairly opposite: rose simmers, fumes, withdraws, over-intellectualizes, etc, whereas vriska is explosive, up-front, lashing outwards, acting without thinking. so rose pulls vriska back, makes her think, forces her to be introspective, and vriska spurs rose forward, prevents her from getting caught up in her own thoughts, makes her actually act.

i think rose would be very drawn to vriska from a psychology goldmine perspective, and i truly believe that vriska would benefit from having someone to talked to who did not grow up in alternian society, who can validate/explain how fucked up everything was, and especially someone she doesn't have history with, who's also strong enough to see the darkness in her without flinching.

also in the retcon timeline its as canon as anything retcon!meteorstuck that vriska is the reason rose is able to fix her drinking problem. which im fairly sure is something that any troll would view as being pale as fuck. anyway i could go on and on about this but this is already so long and i did say short version 💀

so i just think a meteorstuck fic where all 6 of the crew are forced to go through some actual on-page character development with vriska and rose at the center would be. good.

Unpopular opinion

honestly i dont think i have any super unpopular opinions about her? liking her is already unpopular enough lmao. so i guess i'll go with: shes a lesbian <3

Favorite relationship

vrisrezi. also my favorite relationship of the comic in general. something something soulmates. physically restraining myself from going off about this.

Favorite headcanon

im not sure this entirely counts as a headcanon but i love the idea of her slowly abandoning her spider/8 theme as she gets older and heals. like if you think about it it's pretty fucked up that her entire brand is based on 1) the guardian who would've killed her at any point in her childhood if she didn't do enough murder to satisfy her and/or 2) just the general role she was forced into based on her horrific society

#thanks for sending this omfg #i love the internet you get obsessed with something/a character and people go yes queen tell us more #op #asks #hs

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iamanartichoke · 3 years

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Last night I ventured into the plain old #loki tag for the first time in forever, and of course it was filled with all the trailer reactions, etc, but one thing I kinda zeroed in on was how that “I’d never do it again” clip is being so positively received - by which, I mean that the majority of people seem to genuinely think it’s absolutely hilarious and even looking at it from an objective standpoint, I don’t see why it’s funny?

Like, yes - the “joke” is that Mobius calls Loki out on Loki “betraying” people all the time (not even going to touch how Untrue that is) and Loki is offended. It’s not that I don’t think it’s funny bc I don’t “get the joke.” It’s just that I don’t think anything about the setup of the joke or the delivery of the line is particularly amusing. Certainly not “the height of comedy” and “LMAO” funny.

Even if I agreed that Loki had betrayed everyone (thus giving the joke merit), I don’t think the joke landed where it intended to land. 3/10, nice effort, I see what you were going for, but it didn’t quite work, guys, sorry. That’s my reaction regardless of the meta (or wank, depending on your pov) of whether or not Mobius’s line is even valid.

Now, Once Upon a Time pretty quickly devolved into an overall dumpster fire after season 2ish, but there were genuinely good arcs/moments throughout it (I am apparently the only one on the planet who really enjoyed the Frozen storyline), but season 1 was the pinnacle of that show’s run. And Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin was a huge part of what kept it reasonably decent for several seasons. I have a ton of respect for Robert Carlyle as an actor in general; he’s one of the greats. Always gives 110% to his roles. Would consider him and Tom to be actors of the same caliber.

And I just keep thinking of this moment in Season 1 where Rumple shows up to Belle’s castle and there’s a whole standoff and someone is like, “He [Rumple] is untrustworthy, evil, etc” (I don’t remember the actual line) and Rumple is like,

^^ I think that’s funny as fuck.

The acting choice here is like the perfect balance of “subtle” and “visibly (amusingly) offended.” It’s meant to make you laugh for a few seconds and then continue on. And it’s in-character, bc both the audience and the characters know Rumple is full of it, that he’s kinda gleefully being a villain at this point, and so his being “offended” here is funny on an ironic level of like, “Well, I never!” while knowing full well that the mistrust is deserved.

And I could go into a whole other level of how Rumple isn’t really evil, either, and actually he has a ton in common with Loki as a character, now that I think about it (morally grey, complex, tragic background, etc) - but, the point is, the combination of the narrative (”Rumple’s a villain, he’s being called out on his villainy, and he’s amused by it”) and the subltety of the reaction (”Wow, it’s so rude of you to be 100% correct about my moral character) makes this a solid joke. 10/10, would LOL again, etc.

Contrastingly, the first part of what makes this similar scene in the Loki trailer kinda cringey is that first of all, there’s some kind of cognitive dissonance overall in Loki’s arc, wherein he’s done bad things and people keep framing him as the villain, but then when he’s called out on being the villain, it’s always for things he didn’t actually do. So the context of the joke is a little murky. But then, second of all, his reaction veers away from the subtle and right into the very in-your-face “How dare you imply I’d do something that I’m not even sure I have a history of doing, obviously I’d never do that again!”

If he (Tom, that is) had delivered the line a little less like the class clown and a little more like Rumplestiltskin, I’d go with it. If his response had been something like a totally dry, “Um, that was one time” or something, I’d go with it. If his facial expression had given us any insight into his genuine reaction to the comment, I’d go with it.

^^ I genuinely can’t tell if he’s offended over being called out, offended bc he hasn’t stabbed people in the back, both, neither? Besides “LMAO Loki you little shit,” how is the audience supposed to interpret this?

If someone who thought this joke was great would like to explain what I’m missing here to me, I’d be glad to hear it. I do want to reiterate that I get the idea of the joke, but please feel free to explain to me how it successfully landed for you and what it is I’m missing.

Hi, my name is Charlotte and I like to write hundreds of words analyzing a three-second joke because that is my idea of a good time, nice to meet you.

#a fun compare/contrast exercise if you will #and look i love tom okay #you all know this #i have nothing but 100% respect for him #as both a person and an actor #expressing that i found a particular acting choice kinda cringey #or that i don't always agree with everything he has to say about loki #shouldn't imply that i love or respect him any less #just as a general disclaimer #also the loki tag is fucking wild #i don't think i recognized a single person in there #like i had no idea how many people are in the loki fandom on tumblr who i've never heard of nor interacted with #i'll note that there's a noticeable lack of positive analysis in that tag #by which i mean exploration into how loki's arc is a good one #just 'omg so great 10/10 love it' over and over again #an interesting observation to me #also my sense of humor is admittedly kinda weird #but i like to think it's also pretty varied #i like sarcasm and irony and subtlety #i also laugh my ass off every single time i watch thor throw a ball at a window and it bouncing back and knocking him down #i also snicker internally every time i hear something #that could be a double entendre #i think 'your mom' and 'that's what she said' jokes are hilarious #so idk i just feel like i am coming at this as a person with a decent sense of humor #as opposed to feeling like i'm superior in any way to people who do think this is funny #but anyway i should delete my tumblr bc these posts of mine are getting out of hand i'm sorry #tag rambles #loki #loki on the small screen #tom hiddleston is my favorite unicorn

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daringherring · 4 years

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Actually, Decepticons are the bad guys

@warworldcmdr wrote a very thoughtful response to my "hot take" post the other day and brought up a lot of points that I want to address--some of them good, some of them bad.

I'll start with what I agree with: Yes, it's probably true that a lot of the people writing "very nice and helpful, even to my enemies" Decepticons are young. And even if they're adults, yes, it's valid for people to write what they want, however they like it, whether I enjoy it or not. So yes, although my point was "I'd really prefer not to interact with people who write Decepticons in this way, as it makes me uncomfortable", Dai is probably right to call me out for making the blanket statement that it's "not cool" to write """nice""" Decepticons.

It is also true that Autobots have done some shit, whether individually or as a system. Yeah, Transformers Animated is morally grey as shit, and there are some players in IDW who really make you take a step back and whisper to yourself "what the fuck". It was never my intention to claim that Autobots are entirely pure and innocent actors in any of the Transformers series; arguably in G1 they're the best they get, since they were explicitly written to be the good guys to the Decepticons' bad guys, but in other series boy does shit get muddy. More on that later, but honestly my post was not about Autobots. "Sometimes Autobots are also not great" does not negate the fact that in every (yes, every, once again except for Shattered Glass) continuity the Decepticons have the explicit goal of universal domination.

For the sake of relative brevity, I'm only going to focus on the three continuities Dai brought up: the G1 cartoon, Transformers Animated, and the IDW 1 run (2005-2018).

So, what are G1 Decepticons about? Dai claims that they have "no motive beyond saving their homeworld from an energy crisis", but canonically that's just not the case. The original motive the Decepticons had for starting the war on Cybertron was to rule Cybertron. Then they lost that war, and after a while they started another one... once again, with their entire motive being to rule Cybertron. Prior to the war, there was no energy crisis. That happened because after 5 million years of fighting, they eventually used up all of the planetary resources.

After the Autobots leave Cybertron in search of new energy sources and the Decepticons follow them, Megatron's motivation turns from simply ruling Cybertron, to ruling the entire universe. Seriously. He says it in almost every episode. He wants to conquer the universe, and while yes, part of his strategy is to send fuel back to Cybertron... that's so that the Decepticons can conquer Cybertron once and for all, giving them a secure home base from which to conquer the universe.

Now, most of the G1 cartoon is centered around the fighting between Autobots and Decepticons on Earth, with occasional side trips to Cybertron, so we don't see a lot of what's happening elsewhere. What we do see of other planets is that Megatron and the rest of the Decepticons have no qualms whatsoever about killing or enslaving the sentient alien inhabitants of those worlds. That's just part of their strategy: find a planet with resources, enslave the local population, plunder it for all it's worth. We see this happen repeatedly on Earth, as well as on Saturn's moon Titan and the planet Tlalak.

There's also a whole mess of stuff happening on Monacus, the gambling asteroid, which definitely involves slavery and other forms of exploitation, and it's more than just implied that Megatron is running that entire operation. I’m not even going to get into season 3 because I’m tired and this post is getting too long as it is. Then there's TFA. I'll be the first to admit that the Autobots of Transformers Animated are heavily morally grey; not so much the main cast, Optimus' team on Earth, but the Autobots as a whole... yeah. You could easily make a comparison between Autobot-run Cybertron and post-9/11 America in terms of rampant xenophobia and government surveillance. It's uncomfortable. It's meant to be; that's good writing! But once again, the Decepticons are still the bad guys. I'm just gonna quote straight from tfwiki here: "The Decepticons came to prominence as a sub-faction of the Destrons around 70 million years ago. They advocated the use of the AllSpark to bring Cybertron itself to life, that it might serve as a cosmic juggernaut that would allow the Transformers to return to the era of expansion and colonization of other worlds they had enjoyed nearly 700 million years beforehand. When the Decepticon leader Megazarak was ousted by charismatic rhetorician named Megatron, tensions finally exploded, and the Autobots and Decepticons went to war for possession of the AllSpark." We all know what happened with the AllSpark: the Autobots eventually launched it through a space bridge, and Megatron spent the next 4 million years, plus the entirety of the Animated cartoon, searching for it and plotting to use its power to return to Cybertron and conquer his home planet. So that he can. You know. Turn it into a giant spaceship that he can use to conquer the universe. Once again, there's nothing to do with an energy crisis. In fact, there's nothing in Animated to suggest that there is, or ever has been, an energon crisis. The Decepticons just explicitly want control so that they can go on a galaxies-wide killing and pillaging spree. IDW 2005 is a whole different beast. Like Animated, it's incredibly nuanced in its character portrayals, and there are a lot of shades of grey on both sides. And there's 13 years' worth of regularly produced content available, so it's probably the largest body of Transformers works within a single continuity. There's a LOT to go through. I'm quailing just at the thought of it. G-d, do I not want to go through all of IDW 2005 and point out all the explicit Nazi imagery, calculated genocide, fascist talking points, and etc. I'm not even going to do it in this post. Fuck it, I'll write another essay on the matter at some point if people really want to know why the Decepticons are the bad guys in IDW. Right now, I'll settle for saying that Megatron could not more obviously be an allegory for Hitler, and being an artist before he started publishing inflammatory writings designed to push his world into a bloody conflict does not make him more sympathetic. Being oppressed by an unfair world order does not justify or excuse the invasion and occupation of foreign territory and the massacre of millions of innocent civilians. Seriously. Am I talking about Megatron right now, or Hitler? The Decepticons, or Nazi Germany? One is literally a fictional carbon copy of the other.

And finally, here we have a continuity where the energy crisis contributes to the escalation of the war. You know what it's an exact historical replica of? The Great Depression! Yes, Decepticons and Germans were both starving prior to their armed revolt. And you probably know what I'm about to say: that doesn't make any of what came after okay, or reasonable, or just some understandably angry lashing out! Genocide is genocide, and genocide is always bad. Look. I get that there are "nice" Decepticons in canon. I get that there are also terrible Autobots. That's reflective of real life, too: the Allies were responsible for their share of heinous war crimes during WWII, and there's plenty of documentation out there that actual, literal Nazis were real people too. Anyone can fall for ubiquitous propaganda when it's being served to them day and night by sources they trust. There were a lot of soldiers who were just following orders, a lot of civilians who believed they were doing the right thing by turning in their neighbours and friends for seditious talk, a lot of people who fell into line because they were afraid. There were also a lot of people who genuinely believed in what the Nazis stood for and celebrated their victories every step of the way. Functionally, there is no difference whatsoever in the end results of the true believer's actions, the fearful capitulator's actions, and the loyal soldier's actions. At the end of the day, they're all still Nazis. So, yeah. People can write what they want. But respectfully, if people want to write Decepticons who are really just nice and helpful and wish the war were over and everyone would just get along, UWU, without ever distancing themselves from the Decepticons as a whole and the many atrocities they've perpetuated? I'd rather they wrote that somewhere far away from me.

If you want sources for any of my canon just @ me I guess, I’m too tired right now.

#ooc #this got long but it's still not long enough #i'll probably write something more in depth about idw at some point #with screenshots and shit #i have all these comics i might as well use them for something #but like talking about nazis is exhausting so

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cloudybookash-blog · 5 years

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for the ask-Andromeda, Aquarius, Aries, Corvus, Draco, Gemini, Hydra, Libra, Lyra, Pyxis, Taurus, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Canis Minor, Crux, Indus, Lupus, Puppis, and lastly Virgo-i copied u bc im lazy

Andromeda - Describe your main characters

Z: original a banished princess trope, very VERY fucken angry, too tall for her own good, educated and strong, a little insecure about her place in the world, just wants peace.

J: this bitch old af, old as time in fact, loves *checks notes* Aloe Vera? Created grey morality.

H.H: A lover not a fighter, dummy thicc, forgetful, thinks he knows more than he does.

M.E: responsible, guilt-ridden, takes on more than she should be able to handle but handles it well anyway, REALLY FUCKEN INTELLIGENT.

M: the youngest but the wisest, keeps to herself, is possible just as intelligent as M.E, humble, wants nothing more than to help others.

Aquarius - Who’s your least favorite character to write?

Any of them, y’know, IF I WROTE.

Aries - Share a line that you’re proud of!

Make him run circles and poke himwith a stick. Tire him and find his weak point. Then devour him.

Bro I had to open and read through three different docs just to find this bullshit… I ain’t looking no more. That’s as good as it gets.

Corvus - Who or what is the villain of the story?

Anyone not on my heroes side is The Enemy™.

Draco - Who’s your favorite character to write?

Any of them, y’know, IF I FUCKING WROTE.

Gemini - What inspired you to write this project?

I was asked to join a voluntary, student run writing class in Yr 10. I think I had to write something to ‘introduce’ my style or whatever. It was REALLY shit in the beginning (I wrote in first person, CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT???) I don’t know where the idea originally came from because before that I read a lot of horror and contemporary/mystery so pulling a High Fantasy idea out my ass for the first time to intro myself to a bunch of Yr 11/12′s was whack but I did it. Since then it’s been evolving and morphing into other story ideas I’ve had.

Hydra - Tell us why you love your project.

When I was younger I could see the world a lot clearer, it was so easy to get lost in and even now when I write it, I can just fall forever amongst my creation. That and I created it when I was going through IT, I used the world as my punching bag to get my feelings out and seeing as it got me through so much, I just want to do best by it, is that too sentimental?

Libra - Which relationship dynamic do you enjoy writing the most?

GOD characters do not interact.

lol no, I like writing friendship dynamics? I guess. I enjoy characters that have a history that won’t be explained that have inside jokes , the ‘know what the other is thinking’ type relationships are my favourite… I’m bad at writing though so don’t expect too much.

Lyra - Give us a few songs that fit your project!

Gone Away - SafetySuit

Get Free - What So Not Remix, Major Lazer, Amber Coffman

Can I Exist? - Mission

Understand Me - Abel Miller

Young Forever - Jay-Z, Mr. Hudson

Numb - Linkin Park (probably, haven’t listened to it in a while for my own mental health.

Okay, not a few, and not all of these align with my project but they’re some of the inspiring songs/vibe to write songs.

Pyxis - Are there any major themes or messages you’re writing to show?

I started writing this when I was like 12 so, originally I wanted to portray to ‘The Adults™’ that kids go through the fucking ringer and we’re not just ‘over-reacting, being teenagers etc…’ I think I’ll try to keep that in later drafts, but maybe focus it more on validating teens and kids going/working through trauma.

War is a massive focus, child soldiers as well, pain (obviously) and how there are so many ways to deal with them and not all of them are good/healthy for you.

I’m fucking AMBITIOUS for a bitch who can barely write one (1) sentence nowadays.

Taurus - Tell us why you hate your project.

Despite knowing so much more now about the art of writing and the story’s direction as a whole, in comparison to when I first starting writing this story, I now lack the motivation and/or inspiration to write.

Ursa Major - What scene are you looking forward to writing?

I look forward to writing anything at this point… Pray for my creativity, pls.

Ursa Minor - What’s the setting?

Tall, old jungle that whispers if know how to listen. Mountain ranges that shake violently in their effort to move. Wild grasslands, and flowery clearings that’ll lull you into sleep if you’d only just rest your head for a little while, just a few seconds they swear - you look like you could use a rest, yes.

A world like ours unless you see it, hear it, breath it, or feel it. Smells the same though.

Canis Minor - Share an excerpt of old writing and new writing to see how far you’ve come!

fuckingfuckertyfuck…

Okay… So I went on a depressing ass walk down memory lane and I can tell you with complete confidence that my writing has RECEEDED. The super old stuff is problematic so I’m not sharing it, the plain old stuff is me working through repressed trauma so will also not be sharing it, and despite not being problematic the ‘new’ (ish) stuff is incomprehensible… Okay, that sucked, NEXT!

Crux - Villains or Heroes?

Heroes. I’m just basic, man.

Indus - Are there any characters or stories you miss writing? Tell us about them!

All of them, y’know, BECAUSE I NO LONGER FUCKING WRITE. I remember LOSING DAYS just to write. Anything, everything, jumping around from world to world - finding the warmest patch of sun and following it for 8hrs straight without breaks. Being able to come up with story ideas every other day. I remember seeing stories everywhere, and they sucked, oh hell they were fucking terrible - rip offs of movies and tv shows I’d watched. Nothing ever looked as good and clear on paper as they did in my head - no doubt I was horrible, but I had it at least. I just miss seeing it all so clearly, man.

Lupus - Have you abandoned other WIPs? Tell us about some and why you abandoned them?

A wise woman once said, “what HAVENT i abandoned holy fuck.” and honestly, same.

Puppis - Give us a piece of advice! (about anything)

Just breathe. Take big deep gulps, and hold it for a few seconds, then release. Relax your shoulders. Go pee for god’s sake, I don’t think holding it this long is good for you. Go at your own pace, don’t speed up or slow down for others. Always try to see things from the point of view of others, it’s interesting. And lastly, look after yourself.

Virgo - Describe your favorite tropes.

The duo that dies together, not because they both get caught but because one does and the other refuses to let them die alone. Characters that are super big and buff that struggle with their strength and in the end refuse to allow themselves to succumb to the wishes of others and live out their lives in soft handed kindness. That squad of characters that act like a pack of hooligans. Smart characters that rely on their intelligence over others to see them through problems.

#Constellations #ask game #writing #writers #books #wip #admittedly I was listening to music while answering this and I think it got me depressed mid way through #oops #really liked these questions tho

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fadedtoblue · 6 years

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Ive seen a lot of meta saying Elektra is toxic for Matt, she brings out the darkness inside him...Like Matt didnt have his fair share of problems before Elektra shows up—the dude runs at night and beats up bad guys. Elektra had nothing to do with that & Matt’s a grown ass white man, he can make his own decisions. What am I gonna ask is whats ur opinion on what Elektra needs? People worry about Matt’s mental health & happiness but nobody takes time to analyse El, so what’s ur hot take on that?

Oh this is a GOOD one. I already see myself spending too much time working out my thoughts on it (I apologize!!!) – this is what you get when you actually ask me for my hot take lol.

(Edited while writing to add: yeah, this took way too long! I’m so sorry, it was the damn holiday week. Between cooking, shopping, and entertaining guests at my home most of the week, I maybe spent a total of 10 minutes on Tumblr in the last few days! Basically not much time for thoughtful writing, only quick answers and mindless likes!)

As anyone who follows my blog should know, I have a lot of Feelings™ about Elektra Natchios but even so, I probably tend to deconstruct her character and behaviors more often within the context of her relationship with Matt. Which isn’t wrong or unusual b/c she’s a supporting character in his universe, but damn it, I sure love her enough that I really should write more metas focusing on her needs and perspective, so…thanks for giving me an opportunity to do that Anon :).

Back to El, my darling El. When you hang out around fandom long enough, you’ll inevitably hear the argument pop up that not all bad / villainous characters are meant to be good*. That not every character needs (or deserves) to be redeemed. That some characters are just bad. Are toxic. Are no damn good. And maybe that means I read too much into Elektra’s character and her backstory and how that affects her personality and motivations and relationships. To which I say, nope, I think I read just enough, in fact, maybe even not enough? Maybe it’s because I spent 13 hours last week watching a show about an extremely morally grey anti-hero who racks up a body count that should read as horrifying and see him engage over and over and over again in violence as a way of life but damn it, they make us feel for him. They give us a sense of uneasy hope that he’ll find a way out of it. And even though it’s unlikely he’ll leave the Punisher mantle behind for long, we know that he has people in his circle who will continue to be fiercely loyal to him – Karen, Micro, Curtis, and to a lesser degree, Dinah. I go off on this minor tangent because if someone like that, with such a black and white view of the world can be considered in so many shades of grey but still found to be redeemable in the face of all their sins, why the hell not Elektra Natchios.

*Sure, some characters. I just don’t think Elektra qualifies as one of those characters, like…at all.

I’ll try to not go into too much extra detail on why Elektra is the way she is (I also wrote about that here if you want more of my thoughts) but let’s talk about what she needs, or what I think she needs. To start, I always go back to the scene where Elektra finds out she’s Black Sky and has that heartbreakingly honest moment with Matt:

When you consider the upbringing she’s had – raised as a child soldier, conditioned for violence, then being embedded into a rich and influential family and experiencing the opposite lifestyle? but knowing that it’s not really her home, not really her family, that it’s just another training ground to build up skills she’ll need to better serve the Chaste – is it any surprise that she views love and affection as something conditional? Not something given without strings attached? Or perhaps, even, something that she doesn’t truly deserve? Stick gave her encouragement and affection whenever she was sufficiently vicious and unyielding in a fight. The Natchios’ probably gave her love and affection when she put on the face of an obedient daughter. I’m sure that in a life of being a diplomat’s daughter and debutante, she roped in many a unsuspecting young man into her orbit – for fun, or whatever else, and I’d guess that “love” was empty too.

And then Matthew comes along, and I’m willing to bet he was the first person who didn’t pre-judge her based on her background, her looks, etc. They may have appeared to be opposites on the surface, but it was clear that he knew her and she knew him, in a way that was strangely honest and real? And against all expectations, they could stand as equals – I’m sure it was a feeling that was marvelously new for both of them. Yes, Elektra had a mission, but her mission had nothing to do with her love for him, nor his love for her. If the mission had never existed, I think she would have been perfectly content continuing the way they were, and it was clear she’d allowed herself to revel in it…their future together. Of course, it comes crashing down when she gives him Roscoe Sweeney on a platter and he refuses to kill. For Elektra, there is once again a conditional line drawn in the sand. Elektra the killer cannot have real love, doesn’t deserve real love. And I think this is why she runs away from Matthew, because it validates, yet again, this awful view of herself that she has inside – that being the person she is, she doesn’t deserve real love, much less from him.

So fast forward to closer to present day Elektra. This is a woman who has spent years of her life fighting. Fighting for a mission she thought she believed in. Fighting for respect. For love. For devotion. But the fight has always been in the context of someone else’s war, someone else’s mission. It’s no surprise she always finds herself lacking when the fight is never for her benefit, never on her terms. I imagine she always believed that as long as she did as she was told, she would find what she was looking for…but obviously she learns a hard lesson about this, not just once, but twice. It makes sense that she so violently disavows her connections to both Chaste and Hand – no, it’s not conventional response, but nothing about her life has been conventional. The language she is most familiar with is violence, and therefore it makes sense that her grab at retaking her agency is told through violent action.

But where does this leave her now? I think that for all of shit she’s gone through between DDS2 and Defenders, all of which have undoubtedly left her changed, at her very core she is still looking for the same things. Love. Acceptance. Understanding. It’s not entirely clear where her head is going to be at in a post-Defenders world. She’s spent so much of her life being told what to do and given no choices so I imagine there’s an urge to explore what life looks like on her own terms. Sure, it’s possible she might choose bad over good or whatever, but Elektra has never been a character beyond redemption. Canonically, she isn’t. And so I think she’s still going to be looking for someone who is willing to believe in her her, willing to love her despite all of her flaws, her mistakes, her sins. And I honestly think that even with all the drama and angst they’ve put each other through, the person who can give her that is still Matthew. Matt has his own issues to deal with, yes, but I think in the context of his relationship to Elektra, they’ve consistently proven that even when they are at odds, there is still a bond of love and understanding that can’t be broken and ignored, and given the work he put in to better understand and accept her for who she is by the end of S2 (and still, by the end of Defenders), I think there is a lot of possibility for their future that may not have been there before.

And this is why I always have and always will believe that Matt and Elektra work uniquely well for one another. In their dark, unhealthy moments, it’s a mutually destructive force in both of their lives, but if that same force were channeled into good, into accepting the things about the other that can’t be changed but helping each other be better in the ways that can be fixed, it could be quite freeing for them both. The Defenders proved that they still love each other fiercely and at this point Matt is probably her only tie left to any kind of family, not to mention the only person she knows who would encourage a positive view of life and humanity. And this may be wishful thinking on my part, but I hope he can play a part in supporting her through this new stage of her life because I think what she really needs is not to go through it alone. She deserves to have loyalty and friendship and support, even if it’s just one person to start.

So…yeah. That’s what I think she needs :).

#anonymous #asks #answers #elektra natchios #mattelektra #my thoughts #meta #p talks about stuff

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fierceawakening · 6 years

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(re: grey vs gray) "Usually, it means you need two societies or factions that actually have competing value systems." This is rarely the way things seem to go in fiction that I've read. Usually, what happens is that some piece of information is missing, and the absence of this information frames things in a way that causes a conflict. The obvious example here is the dwarf/troll conflict in Discworld, insofar as it's based on missing information about Koom Valley. /1

Another example is the human/parsh conflict in Sanderson's Stormlight Archive (background spoilers for the same incoming). The humans don't know that they are the invaders their religion condemns, and the parsh don't know that Main Villain switched sides in the conflict and is now running theirs. This sets up something that could be called a value conflict (4000 years ago our ancestors invaded your planet, what do), but it's rooted in the information problem. /2

Anyway, point is, once you've generated the initial conflict from that information problem, you get continued conflict via actors that refuse to (or simply can't) resolve the problem for various reasons. The conflict then becomes one of correcting the misinformation and dealing with the fallout. None of this implicates the fundamental values of the belligerents, though, except insofar as the conflict may have /become/ a value. This is easier for a writer on a couple of levels. /3

First, if you don't have values in conflict, you don't have to worry about signaling to the reader that neither value system is inherently evil. Second, it gives you a clear path to resolving the conflict: undo the misinformation. Third, you get an obvious set of antagonists (the people who reject the new information) without having to ask readers to root for or against one side in the conflict, or have your protagonists definitively take a side in a conflict where there isn't a right answer. /4

You still need setup, obviously, but other parts of writing the story are more straightforward and lend themselves a little better to common themes of stories involving grey/gray conflicts. The thing that needs to be clear, in this case, is what beliefs the character is acting on (and where those beliefs come from), rather than the specific values that lead to their goals. Anyway, my point is mostly just that value conflict is not the only kind of gray vs grey conflict. /5

1. I don’t like Discworld, so don’t assume just because you mention something from it that I know the details of how it works. I don’t, as I’m not a fan. Doesn’t mean I won’t talk to you about it, but does mean you’re going to have to explain what you’re talking about in detail so I know how whatever it is is supposed to work.

2. I don’t disagree that “everyone is missing relevant information such that this conflict wouldn’t be happening if everyone had it” is a way to do gray and gray morality. But my worry about it is that if it’s not done well, it is frustrating in the same way that handing a particular character the Idiot Ball is. Why the hell is a misunderstanding causing ALL OF THIS? Why hasn’t SOMEONE thought of clearing that up or realized there’s something to be researched here? Is it really realistic that no one noticed (or that, conveniently for the story, the one person who did notice got killed off, etc.)?

3. That’s why I prefer values conflicts. Because most value systems are understandable at their core. (Even something like exclusionism, which is accepted in many circles I run in as Almost Always Somehow Unavoidably Shitty, is understandable. People have valid emotional reasons for wanting to preserve their traditions and communities, especially if those communities were originally underground.) So it’s understandable that these societies or characters aren’t going to just Work It Out unless the story carefully demonstrates how they come to understand where one another is coming from.

4. (Why the hell am I still numbering these?) I think we disagree about whether unsolvable conflicts are good or bad to depict. I think they’re good to depict, because as humans we run into them all the goddamn time unless we are in echo chambers, and one thing fiction can help us learn to do is navigate them with compassion and nuanced awareness.

Either 4a or 5, depending on what the hell these numbers are. I’m honestly not sure why one would choose to write Gray And Gray Morality if one wants one of the two sides to be right and the other to be wrong.

I’m probably just failing at imagination here, but I always thought the whole point of GAGM was that it meant you didn’t have to do that.

#Anonymous

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