#writing character agency

[writingwithfolklore]

Character Agency

Your characters should have agency. That means they have the power to influence what’s happening around them. We talked a bit about agency last time, revolving around how many female characters get agency stripped away from them. But overall, agency is important for any character to make them active participants in their own stories and feel necessary to the plot.

              So here’s how you enable your characters agency:

1. They make active decisions

Okay this is the obvious one in theory, but still manages to sneak by in stories undetected. An active character with agency makes things happen through their decisions, instead of just their reactions. Take these two examples of a scene plan:

John is walking home when he is caught by a sudden storm. Looking to hide from the rain, he ducks under the cover of a bus shelter. Inside is Mya, and they strike up a conversation about their shared sucky situation.

Vs.

John is walking home when he is caught by a sudden storm. Luckily he brought an umbrella in his bag, and draws it out. Then, he sees Mya getting drenched by the rain ahead of him. He jogs to her, offering to share the umbrella. They strike up a conversation.

In the second example John isn’t just reacting but making a choice that’s changed something in the world. He may just happen to run into Mya, but it was his decision to run up to her, to offer her his umbrella. This action is a great indicator of his personality—he’s kind, trusting, and thoughtful even towards strangers.

That’s the most important part. A character who just reacts to everything doesn’t show off any personality, whereas action lets you demonstrate who your character is at their core (especially in difficult situations that call for difficult decisions).

2. Their actions have consequences

Similarly, the decisions your active character makes aren’t really decisions if they don’t impact any part of their world. For good or for bad, every decision your character makes should have a consequence. This could be shown through their relationships with others, their environment, or even their own mental, physical, or spiritual state.

If we’re going from the example above, John sharing his umbrella with Mya maybe starts their friendship, but her jealous, toxic boyfriend sees them through his window, making her and now his life difficult.

It’s a decision that has multiple consequences throughout his life—a new friendship, and also a new enemy. And Mya is also facing consequences—from her decision to walk with him, and his decision to offer her the umbrella.

Make sense? How do you ensure your character has agency?

#writing #creative writing #writers #writing community #screenwriting #writing inspiration #books #filmmaking #film #writing advice #character agency #main characters #side characters #active characters #active vs passive characters

[t1sunfortunate]

I truly do think one of the largest pitfalls among the "media consumption is my passion" crowd is the tendency to treat characters as human beings with agency rather than narrative tools manipulated by the author

#as soon as you start assigning agency to characters any criticism of the series comes under strawman fallacy arguments #about how humans make irrational choices not always understood by others etc etc etc #thus insulating the author and the work from any sort of meaningful criticism or analysis #i think current popular advice on character writing overemphasizes relatability and likability at the expense of narrative relevance #it certainly isn't hurtful to do exercises where you think about their coffee order or favourite animal or preferred toilet paper brand #but none of that matters in the end if you have no idea what purpose a character is supposed to serve in a literary sense

[electricpurrs]

tex red vs blue is insanely transgender but im the only one who sees it that way because im crazy in the head.

what if there was a past version of yourself. a woman, a wife, a mother, with long hair and a sweet smile. and she died long ago. and you are her. but you are not her. you're nothing like her, but the people who knew her desperately want you to be her, want to preserve the memory they have in their minds of the woman they loved through you. but you never asked to be her, never asked to carry the burden of someone else's expectation of who or what you should be. you have a new name. you prefer to go by this one. people remark on how weird it is that it's a guy's name. sometimes the people who loved [the past version of] you call you by your old name. they are not referring to you when they say it. you live in the shadows of someone who's long gone, and you're something different now, but you don't feel like you're ever allowed to define yourself on your own terms, to be your own person, to control your own life, because you exist solely through the memories people had of you. and the longer she has been gone for, the more desperately people try to get her back, the less you resemble her and the less you know who you are, or if you ever even got to be anything at all. what i mean is that transition could have saved him

#🧃 #rvb #red vs blue #DONT ask me why i got up in a cold sweat at 7 am with thoughts on tex red vs blue. i miss her so bad #anyways i do think if anyone in rvb could ever be actually trans coded (which nobody is because theyre created by fucking rooster teeth) #its gotta be tex #but because i know a trans subtext couldnt ever possibly be intentional i also think tex is a fascinating subject on the #''dead wife'' trope and the way stories like this treat female characters #and how tex's existence somehow seems surprisingly self aware as she actively rejects being the Dead Wife #and its brought to attention how existing solely as the angst memories men had of their dead wives #actively denies her of agency as a person inside the narrative #but also more generally denies dead wife characters agency in any narrative theyre written on #tex's struggles as a character inside her narrative are also the struggles of fridged/killed off female characters outside their narratives #on a meta textual level by being written by men in male centered stories who dont allow the women they write to exist as people #tex is a fascinating character and i am fucking furious she exists in a that stupid ass show. ill save you girl. ill take you out of there

[shorthaltsjester]

free my complex female character, she did the same thing as complex male characters but the fandom takes Any analysis of her actions/choices/motivations that doesn’t strip her of all of her agency in bad faith and claims that only misogynists would dare to critique the things that they’ve noticed in her character because she’s a woman, completely ignoring the over-presence of discourse about similarly traited male characters in their fandom.

#exhausted by people categorizing CRITIQUE. not even genuine hate just literally basic analysis of imogen’s character #as a) hate at all but b) misogynistic simply because… they assume the person like caleb and percy uncritically like #i love imogen and i love her because she’s riddled with complexity that gives reason for her to be unlikeable #the shit ashton says makes me want to tear out my hair and i could write analysis on why but they’re still one of my favourite characters #i enjoy caleb but watching him infuriated me because of his self interest which is a coherent trait of his but is a tiring one #similarly with percy of love his pretentious Smartest In The Room shit but sometimes it meant he treated others more poorly than necessary #but i’m not unpacking all of that just so i have some fandom mandated right to say that i think there’s an aspect of a female character #that is imperfect in the human sense #because like. i will continue to call imogen’s self interested until the world burns and the moon shatters. because she is. #the only reason her choice to do good is compelling at all is because the choice to do otherwise is so tangible #it isn’t a Mistake or Fault that she’s self interested. it’s by design #like. she reaches towards the storm in curiosity in her sleep. but then she fights back when she’s awake #that’s it #that’s the dynamic. that’s what’s compelling #but no ur right fandom. let’s instead all agree that imogen is actually just intrinsically good #and take away all agency and complexity and humanity from her #and instead slap a sticker of Morally Good and enjoy the caricature of her where she’s made to fit into the imagine of #the latest aesthetic ad for diarrhoea medication #imogen temult #critical role #inspired as always by dumbass twitter posts that i’m subjected to because of school n work #the worst part is i do like the laudna n imogen dynamic in the stagnancy where it is but so much of that fandom is so clear in their erosion #of both characters actuality to suit the picture of Ship Tropes #like fuckin. so much of imogen’s fanart in imodna making her fat which as a fat person great love to see it #not so much when it’s clearly to make her short n stout against laundas tall n lanky. #anyway

[osmundpriestt]

Just saying…………. If you guys are liking Dead Boy Detective Agency………………………

#it’s a queer show does that help #the writing is phenomenal and the characters are 3D????? #it’s only eighteen episodes #Dirk Gently is really good 😭😭 #dirk gently #dirk gentlys holistic detective agency #dghda #dead boy detectives #dead boy detective agency

[4lph4kidz]

been pondering this one for a while and i'm not sure where i stand on it myself so i want to know what people think about this, so (assuming there's no good way to represent hal as an artificial intelligence /non-human entity/extension of dirk):

feel free to share thoughts in the tags & replies!

#ignore the typo in the question. i'm sick. #on my week off. which is fun. #anyway i have thoughts on this as a twin. i wouldn't be opposed to making them twins but it's a Very Different Kind of Conflict #being a twin does mean constantly being compared when ur growing up which does things to ur sense of self but not like That #to clarify i would only count the third option as hal being a distinct personality or seperate character. something with agency #as opposed to exploring dirk's self expression and self hatred through different avenues a la detective pony. bc that's not a Hal #if that makes sense #didn't make 'why are you writing no-sburb aus' an option because i feel like thats a bit mean but tbh its a difficult conflict to translate

[obsidianstrawberrymilk]

Idk the way people perceive the Agency's morality really bothers me lmao. Like yall there's a reason they're the 'evening' and not the 'day' (given the metaphor w the Mafia as the night under the tripartite pact)

#someone should prompt me to write an analysis abt each agency members individual morality bc none of them r simple #tbh the character w the simplest morality in the series is probably chuuya #not that hes a moral character hes still mafia its just easy to see his moral code #bsd #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #fukuzawa yukichi #ranpo edogawa #yosano akiko #kunikida doppo #dazai osamu #kenji miyazawa #junichiro tanizaki #naomi tanizaki #atsushi nakajima #kyouka izumi

[thefiresofpompeii]

i hope ruby gets a well-that’s-alright-then-style notdeath. on the one hand it will make haters mad because oh no not another companion with an impermanent end (and i like to see haters mad) on the other it would require creativity to depict this in a new way + i love all the implications i love the dark fairytale quality of these companion exits i love my un-undead schrodinger’s women

with the way the legend of ruby sunday is titled… legends aren’t usually told about living people. legends are stories of the bygone past, of an age long since over, fictionalised and overgrown with folklore like barnacles sticking to an abandoned shell. there is such a thing as a living legend, but they’re exceedingly rare. the unmistakeable raven’s call in the 73 yards teaser, the trailer’s cut to fifteen crying alone after promising to cherry he’d protect her daughter… the foreshadowing is clear as day…

and yet. there’s one massive HOWEVER. ruby appears in s15: millie’s been spotted on set filming it. which leads me to believe — the doctor isn’t one to take the time travel route and revisit companions that in his future are genuinely dead. that would hurt too much, it would cause unnecessary trauma and could break the timeline. that must mean ruby stays alive in some way. ish. she’s alive and a legend and a mystery. girl-ballad girl-song girl-paradox

here she is, fading out.

p.s.: thesis statement on moffatgirls from the tags i left on somebody else’s post about charley pollard.. well it belongs here since it’s basically the semiotic hurricane swirling around ruby at the moment :)

#on a personal level what interests me about these characters is precisely what gets them labeled as being subject to #misogynistic writing by pop-feminist video-essayists. as an autistic girl* (*ish) however; i find female characters that #aren’t quite ‘normal people’; women who represent an idea or concept or are a puzzle to be solved or a manic pixie dream girl to be #more and in a way far more interesting than a girl-next-door-type universally relatable protagonist #they make for more nuanced stories with more symbolism and more layers of interpretation usually. why should there be realism in a #fantastical narrative? similarly i like characters that are haunting the narrative or dead before it began (big locked tomb fan if you #didn’t know) and like. not to be tvtropes but the lost lenore archetype. dead woman who spurs the hero on to recklessness or revenge. #i identify with that dead girl. the laura palmers of the world. set the story in motion without #necessarily having agency. maybe it’s something to do with my #constant background radiation of passive suicidality. in a fun whimsical way :) i would never kill myself but i don’t want to be a real #person. i want to be objectified but not necessarily in a k*nky s*xual way (that too) in a princess in a tower way #the ultimate femme fantasy innit? there’s something about it. hashtag problematic hashtag conforming to gender roles #10000 tags be upon ye #ruby sunday #millie gibson #doctor who #dw #steven moffat #clara oswald #fifteen #fifteenth doctor #twelveclara #amy pond #charley pollard #river song #donna noble #ncuti gatwa #doctor who meta #jamie.txt #haunting

[daydreamalley]

A “so you’ve had to deal with Dazai” support group starts. They have to move it every week cuz Dazai constantly wants to listen in. He also tries to bring popcorn too. Chuuya has the idea to get dummies that look like Dazai to beat up (so life like!). Kunikida loves it. Totally not practice for the real thing. Atsushi and Sigma feel bad about how good it actually feels to punch it. Fukuzawa is surprisingly eager. Akutagawa refuses to punch it.

Until Chuuya has a better idea. They start setting traps for Dazai at the meetings, like they're trying to catch the goddamn Road Runner, except they catch him like every time. Dazai is content to hang in the net with what’s left of his snacks and watch the meeting. Until Chuuya gets a big stick (“wow it’s even bigger than you” Dazai calls) and decides Dazai is gonna be a pinata. Chaos ensues, Dazai escapes, cuz as much as they catch him he always escapes. Safe to say the support group ain’t working great. 

They make a support group for the support group. But because Dazai has been witness to so many meetings, he’s allowed to be there too. This turns into couple’s therapy for Dazai and Chuuya (or honestly whoever you ship Dazai with). 

And then he came at me with a stick

We know Dazai, we were all there

I honestly felt so attacked

You were in a net and tried sneaking into a place you shouldn’t be. You wanted to get caught, so you can’t blame me for seizing an opportunity.

No, actually I can blame you. I mean, what have I ever done to you

Excuse me?!?!!

Now now, I’m sure you guys have done a lot for each other over the years

Yeah, like punch me

How about abandonment?

My jaw still aches from that punch

Want me to refresh your memory on it?

We’re never getting the deposit back on this place, are we?

Next up, the “I had to witness Soukoku” Support group. Dazai and Chuuya are not invited. 

#I can't write crack fanfic so here's the idea anyway #Dazai being the horrible nuisance he always is #bsd #bungo stray dogs #my ramblings #bungou stray dogs #armed detective agency #and many more characters #we could get the whole ensemble in here but I don't wanna tag that #bsd dazai #skk #bsd chuuya

[rayes-rain]

Fans who dunk on kataang as a ship because Katara was written flatly post OG series really grind my gears. As if her marrying Aang and having a family with him was the root cause of the LoK writers sidelining her when her peers still got to be way more invloved in the story.

I will be the first to admit that Katara's initial goals and characterization got quite lost post OG series. In a way, she was only reduced to a healer and her accomplishments outside of mothering children with Aang and banning bloodbending are not shared with the audience. For the first season of LoK, I think this is fine. This is not Katara's story anymore and her speech to Korra at the beginning of the season is her passing the torch to the next Avatar to have her own adventures. Katara at that point is basically a nice cameo. We're not supposed to think that this sliver of her life which Korra sees is all that's important about her.

This does not hold water in future seasons when it's revealed that Toph and Zuko are still alive and both have more active roles in the plot, whereas Katara did not have an active role in plot lines she should have been more involved with (water tribe civil war, for example). To some fans, this reduces the little that we do see of Katara's character in LoK to only being those parts, rather than just pieces of a more realized elder from the perspective of someone younger (Korra) who doesn't know her whole story.

The way that people blame her marrying Aang on the way her overall character was handled is so baffling to me. Do these fans honestly think she would have escaped that fate for certain if she had married Zuko or someone else, or stayed single?

#atla #lok #avatar the last airbender #legend of korra #katara #kataang #lok writers: *can't continue to write a complex female character consistently* #some fans: IT'S HER FICTIONAL HUSBAND'S FAULT #truly baffling #this post kind of has two theses my bad #tldr: the lok writers would have sidelined katara regardless of her canon endgame ship. pleae do not blame aang he has no agency

[bougiebutchbitch]

every time I see a take that flattens Ed's character into this boring perfect angel who can do no wrong and has 0 agency because literally every choice he makes is determined by the actions of white men, I add another sentence to my stories where he's a sympathetic, complex and multifaceted trauma victim - but also an abuser who made terrible mistakes of his own volition, who seriously hurt people he cares about and left them traumatised, who feels crushed beneath the terrifying hypermasculine persona he built for himself (which he is still figuring out how to escape/incorporate into his new self/define himself around). A desperate, affection-starved, suicidal man who struggles hugely with his mental health, who deserves a loving support system (just not from his victims unless they want to be a part of it), who can grow and change and do better, who can work on himself and explore himself and find love and happiness.

but y'know, maybe I'm the one who 'hates his character' lmaoooo

#ed teach #blackbeard #ofmd #our flag means death #ed teach critical #<<tagging that JUST for the folks who hate any interpretation of his character that DOESN'T lack agency lmao #the edcourse #:) #I WANTED A PROPER CHARACTER-LED REDEMPTION ARC FOR ED AND I WILL WRITE IT MYSELF IF I HAVE TO #some of you so obviously want a story about a dude who has Never Done Any Wrong Ever and I'm sorry but. you're in the wrong fandom lol. #me taking certain gentlebeard stans by the hand: so you agree that izzy did bad shit in S1 and therefore he had a redemption arc? yes? #and that this made people on the whole enjoy his character even more? #now perhaps you can understand why some ed fans are so annoyed that ed did bad shit in S2 and DIDN'T get a redemption arc?

[writingwithfolklore]

Do well by your female characters

              Back in film school you wouldn't believe the amount of scripts I read from my (mostly male) classmates that featured the same character; a kind, helpful woman reflective of the male protagonist who showed up when he needed her to offer warm words and support, allowing him to overcome obstacles and go for what he needs.

              I hope she doesn’t sound familiar to you.

              One of them was a coworker, another a train station attendant, another the best friend who lived next door—it didn’t matter, they were all the same character, uninvolved in their own lives, created to help a man get to his goal. Let’s be wary of this trope, and stop robbing our female characters of their own agency. We can do this in a few ways:

1. They aren’t convenient

One confusing fault of the female characters I read in my peers’ scripts was that she was always around right where the protagonist needed her to be. It didn’t matter if he was having a crisis in the alleyway, or by the museum, or in his own house, she’d show up like she’d been summoned.

She needed a place to be—a life outside of him. A job, school, hobbies. Sometimes when he needs her—she shouldn’t be there.

2. They have an actual personality

While being warm, kind, supportive, and empathetic are all admirable traits people do have, I’ve never met a real person where that’s all they were. Like building any character, she needs flaws, interests, something to her that isn’t just for other people’s benefit. Consider what traits she has that aren’t just ways she serves others.

Allow her something just for her. Something selfish.

3. They have and work towards a goal

Related to her not being convenient—she’s got her own thing going on. Like any other character, she has goals and objectives, motivations, something to work towards. As much as she supports the protagonist, she also takes from him to fulfill her own goal.

Give her wins, disappointments, a little something going on. Something to gain from her interactions with him.

              What else bothers you about common female character tropes? Or what did I miss?

#writing #creative writing #writers #writing community #screenwriting #writing inspiration #books #filmmaking #film #writing advice #female characters #writing female characters #mary sue trope #character agency

[supremechancellorrex]

I've been thinking about what the Bad Batch means to me these past few weeks and things just don't quite sit right. When I started watching the Clone Wars, it felt like a lot of love and care had been poured into the project. The clones had unique personalities built from the ground up, with even minor characters getting quirks. Hevy only appeared in two episodes, yet is so loved. Hardcase is missed despite only really appearing in one arc because of expert character crafting and real, actual effort with the writing.

The point of the Clone War was that the clones were individuals, they had agency and they could have an impact on their lives and others. Referred to as 'property', with no representation or rights, they are slave soldiers in function, who are biologically identical although at times with slight variation, but their personalities and motivations matter and have weight. This is why Fives nearly ruins Palpatine's plans. This is why Rex is able to resist the inhibitor chip in Order 66 and help save Ahsoka.

This is why I'm not sure I can forgive the Bad Batch.

Spitting on Grandpa

When the Bad Batch started, I was initially quite excited because it was advertised as a sequel to the Clone Wars. The first episode opens up with the title 'The Clone Wars' fading into the Bad Batch, but the show is anything but because the 'regs', as normal clones have been dubbed, don't matter now. Instead, the only characters with agency are a special group of clones who mostly don't look like the clones based on Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) or even scientifically fit the basic definition of what a 'clone' is.

How is this not meant to be insulting for TCW and the Clone Fandom? I watch normal clones like Commander Wilco get shot in the face. I watch Mayday choke and die for Crosshair's development. I watch Rex play second fiddle to the Bad Batch on screen, the man and leader who used to always say "I'm always first, kid" and take the reins. I watch Cody appear for an episode only to not appear again this season and have no impact on the narrative other than Crosshair's development. Can 'regs' no longer change the world? Do the 'boring', 'regular' slave soldiers have no impact anymore?

Echo: "The fate of all the clones is now sealed because of us."

When it comes to normal clones impacting the narrative, the closest we get is Rex's resistance network, which features actual clones actually doing something. Yet apparently an episode about the Bad Batch discovering an island paradise world and battling a tsunami deserves more screen time than seeing how the 'regs' set that one up. Even this plot point is less about finally saving Howzer and normal clones like him, and more about Echo not being with the Bad Batch and further setting up the plot regarding Tech and Crosshair. The normal clones remain non-entities outside of the Bad Batch's development, they have no agency beyond this.

This is why we see stock reg clone characters bully the Bad Batch in the Season 1 opening, because despite them all being slaves under the thumb of fascism and the fact normal clones treated Ninety-Nine (the beloved hunchback clone from TCW Season 3) fine, it's the Bad Batch's plight that only matters now, their persecuted perspective on being special and better than the regs, regs that are now treated as old news, an afterthought. The world feels small, and inexcusably less richer than it was.

Essentially, we're no longer allowed to see what the reg clones motivations are, why there are reg clones that actually, canonically, dislike the Bad Batch as opposed to Ninety-Nine. People like to speculate, but on screen we are not shown or told in TBB. We're also not shown why all the named clones from Howzer, Mayday, Fireball, Gregor and Nemec to Cut, Cody and Rex never had issues with the differences other than they're the good regs I guess. Hell, even Cody and Mayday's remaining squad say nothing of Crosshair's mutations, not even one catty comment.

Conclusion

So, what does this mean? The Bad Batch steals the clones' agency and makes it their own. They wear the clone identity, but refuse to help normal 'reg slave' clones that look like actual clones in favour of focusing on themselves and their 'more important' personal problems. The Bad Batch are special not because of who they are or that they've worked hard, but because they look different from other clones, because they're just more capable and have special abilities. It's not who you are that counts, it's what you are.

And, now, I even see fans doing what TCW told us not to, disregarding normal clones, 'explaining' why the Bad Batch are fine to leave the reg clones to die because they called them "The Sad Batch" one time. Somehow the Bad Batch undoes all of TCW's work, stripping the clones of their agency and making them into just victims sleepwalking into extinction as we wait for the Bad Batch to consider trying to actively save them.

Echo: "The fate of all the clones is now sealed because of us."

And, then the rest of TBB go cave exploring and holidaying on Pabu. This series might as well be about natborns.

#the clone wars #captain rex #the clones #clone rights #star wars tcw #clone troopers #character writing #character agency #tbb echo #star wars #tbb season 2 #tbb critical #anti tbb

[daenystheedreamer]

the Dead Wife/Mother in childbed before the story habit of grrm’s is my least favourite cos it’s just so casually sexist and contradictory to the main novels. wives in asoiaf have SO much agency and influence whether it be cersei and cat, or even background characters like dorna swyft’s effect on kevan, or the stokeworth women. why is jorah’s first wife, jon arryn’s first two wives, lyarra stark, why did they have no effect beyond their ability to procreate? yes, jorah’s can be explained by his own pathology vis a vis lynesse and daenerys, and the fact the arryn’s have no heirs is a plot point, but these are just the first three that popped into my head. there’s SO many. i can understand how male characters dont care to remember women, how women are erased from history, how they aren’t given the same opportunities as men. i understand this is feudalism, this is the HEIGHT of patriarchy. yet why is the unnamed princess of dorne even unnamed? she was the ruler of dorne during robert’s rebellion, the mother of doran, oberyn and elia. she SHOULD be remembered, she SHOULD have more influence than being remembered as a handmaiden to rhaella. it’s ridiculous! it’s laziness! scream! 

#asoiaf #it just totally contradicts one of my biggest COMPLIMENTS to grrm's writing - that all characters are humans with agency #that they all have thoughts and motivations and goals. did lyarra have no opinions on rickard's southron ambitions? #no its simply too annoying writing her into the narrative. she needs to die in childbirth before she can effect her children.

[nyaagolor]

Started a fic based on this post by @transpoettryinghisbest -- it's all about the WAA testing the limits of the "anything" in their name

#ace attorney #wright anything agency #vex writing #mod vex #apollo justice #athena cykes #phoenix wright #trucy wright #they're all the main characters in it so they get tags

[novelconcepts]

Staunch hater of men but travis is just my skrunkly little guy. Love how sad he is. Love how tragic he is. He’s just one of the girls and he loves it.

Travis is so good, largely because, if this show had been made in the 90s, he WOULD have been a girl. He and Javi both would have been the lone girls in a sea of boy soccer players. Travis is the love interest; Javi would have been the archetypical annoying little sister. And because YJ likes to play with gender dynamics and flip the scripts, they both still play out as you’d expect the Sole Girls in a male-dominated story to do. Travis’ whole arc is about learning to navigate outside of what society tells him to be—and, other than that, he’s there to be Nat’s love interest. Even as an adult, in Natalie’s memory sequences, he gets the Dead Wife lighting and soft framing in bed. He even gets, as a friend pointed out, fridged to further her story. When the girls get progressively more violent, Travis is the victim, or he’s told to take Javi out of the room. He starts off as a shitty boy, as is befitting of 1996 culture, and he gets to unlearn that which does not serve the hive. He is tragic. He is doomed from the start. He is learning to be soft in a situation where softness gets you killed. He is the representative of sibling dynamics in the wild, and now he’s the answer to the question: are you still a big brother when your younger brother is gone? He’s fucking devastating.

I just really love that the only three men in the wilderness are the gay coach, the complicated love interest, and the sacrificial lamb. Those are all positions usually reserved for women, and I love YJ for flipping it around.

#ask #yellowjackets #yj meta #travis martinez #people are always allowed their own opinions but I flinch a little when people just hate Travis because he’s a dude #does he do shitty things? yes! of course! literally who among these kids doesn’t? #but he goes through so much trauma and he ultimately has very little agency over his situation #he is the definition of not being able to save your family #he’s so so sad and I feel a deep unease about writing off all his character represents and suffers just because he’s a dude #that just doesn’t sit right with me