soul scarring!! a very crucial part to imperiltale’s being!!! (risk is not a good person)

– Heather Walter, Malice

“You have three seconds to start walking before I carry you across. One.”

Dani froze. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he’d sling her over his shoulder and damn near fly across the unstable bridge with all the confidence of its builders.

“Two.”

Color fled from her face. She readjusted the strap of her pack as she leaned over, noting the height distance between the bridge and the river. Her hands drifted over the tops of the wooden stakes and one foot slid out onto the first board. She could do this on her own. She could—

“Three.”

Broke: Dr Ratio and Alhaitham would get along

Woke: Dr Ratio and Alhaitham would hate each other for being ‘exceptionally arrogant’

Bespoke: Ruan Mei and Dottore are the real crossover academia duo that we should be talking about

I think part of the reason janeway compels me so much is bc i really feel like on any other show she would've been a sympathetic villain at best. like in the last episode I watched she holds a baby while talking about killing it's siblings and it's genuinely only through the thoroughly established context of janeway having to make horrible choices in order to save her crew that we can read that scene as anything but unhinged. and it Does make sense in context bc she's talking about killing adolescent Borg drones to stop them from assimilating hostages, but in most other shows that kind of thing coming from a female character especially would not end up with her being the good guy at the end of the episode.

im thinking about how btvs which aired at a similar time had a whole arc about the pressures of leadership driving buffy to become way too harsh and the consequences of that are she gets kicked out of her own home. avasarala on the expanse does a lot of awful things but being uncompromising and not giving a fuck is like her most notable character trait, she tortures a guy in her first appearance. these narratives have little sympathy for women who do bad things in the name of something greater, either they're punished for it and rejected by those around them or they're characterised as cold and lacking compassion. but janeway for the most part has the full support of her crew and spends the majority of the time being kind and diplomatic, As Well as choosing to sacrifice lives or collaborate with mass murderers when she has to.

and it's conflicting bc although this is almost a one of a kind female character I think part of her existence is due to voyagers unwillingness to challenge the status quo of star trek despite having the perfect premise to do so. everyone wears uniform and adheres to rank despite half the crew being unenlisted terrorists, starfleet is largely unquestioned as an absolute moral good despite the origin of the maquis being designed to undermine and examine that, and the captain is always the hero at the end of the day.

I absolutely LOVE when the protagonist you’re rooting for slowly becomes the villain. (Or was the villain the whole time).

Except the story is being told from “hero’s” perspective, so we still see them as the Good Guy fighting the Bad Guys, and we don’t notice them becoming a villain until perspective shifts, or something Noticeably Bad happens that makes you question the “hero’s” actions and morals.

Makes you wonder WHEN they shifted from being the good guy, or if they’ve ever been the good guy. And makes you question how you didn’t see it until now.

Anyways, I think it would be fun if in LMK-

(problematic) faves PENDING TRAIN, EP 2

I need my villain origin story ASAP.

CHARACTER ART REVEAL

Today’s the day!! I’m finally sharing the artwork that Ashton (@artsyunderstudy ) has done for the main character of my novel, ‘A Survivor’s Revenge’!

Meet Lauren Marie Atkins. A first year university student, trying to cope with everything life throws at her … whilst also dealing with her vigilante shit.

She’s also a chaos gremlin, and I adore her! She’s everything I wish I could be (minus the trauma). She’s brave, she’s sassy, she’s strong, she stands up and fights for what she believes in. She also has the best friendship group, that includes a certain cinnamon roll that even my aro/ace self is jealous of.

Ashton nailed this character art, she is unbelievably talented and I am so blessed to be able to call her a friend!

Check out her handle if you haven’t already, especially if you’re a SnowBaz fan, because her fanart is also off the chart incredible!

And also, maybe keep an eye out for more ASR goodness in the future from her 👀

Yes, main character. Drive away from the predictable and stable sunny beam you call love interest. Push them away and fill the void in your chest with the morally gray character. Drink from their uncertainty and questionable moral compass. Entangle in their labyrinth of confusion and trauma-led emotional state. Fall irrevocably and unbearably in love with the morally gray character and question deeply if their feelings for you are for who you are indeed or just a projection of their own ideals.

Yes, main character. Drive away from the certainty and dullness of an "ideal" love, perfect for a fantasy, puppet show scenario, impossibly idealized to be grounded in reality. Yes, main character, humanity is dualistic in nature, maybe multifaceted and so are their loves and hopes and dreams. Love is tainted by the transitional colors of a more mysterious pallette.

Yes, main character. You had fallen for the morally gray character. You know you wanted this and you cannot escape and neither can we. Thank you, main character. Now we have a plot to actually live for.

after going back to lissandra stuff i keep thinking about her sisters coming back to haunt her again and again, always being reborn, and some incarnations being worse than others, and some lissandra managing to get rid of early on, and then there's ashe and sejuani, both who she had her frost priests try to get rid of, both surviving and becoming great powers on their own

thinking about devo

thinking about how his name was originally the hand of devotion

thinking about how, as a child, he already had the pressure of being a cult religious leader and symbol placed on him

thinking about how he probably heard an audio or watched a movie or read a book where the main character was a self-distinguished frenchman who wasn’t held down by anyone around him and carved his own path

thinking about how he probably practiced the accent to himself, and how easy it would’ve been to adopt a new accent since he hardly talked to anyone else

thinking about how, after being told all he ever was boiled down to the power of his voice, his first ever act of rebellion was changing the way it sounded

thinking about how even after changing his name to devo la main, he still kept a form of “the hand of devotion” in his name because it was all he had to hold on to

thinking about how devo probably really wanted to change his last name to gris at first because amber is everything he wished he could’ve been

thinking about how, if he ever gets traditionally married (this hasn’t been clarified whether or not it remained in ethersea yet), he’ll be more than eager to change his last name to escape from the attachment he still has

thinking about how he still cares for guidance even if he hates it because no matter how awful she was to him, she was still the closest thing he ever had to a mother

thinking about his speech about clinging to hatred because it’s the only thing he knows is only his, but he also knows the feelings he’s not sure if he owns are still there, pecking at him until he cracks

thinking about devo

The Book of Azrael by Amber Nicole

841 pages, published April 26, 2022 - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 This book was everything I ever wanted. Morally gray demon villain female main character damaged good male character who can't control his powers anymore. The action, the banter, the relationship building - chefs kiss! Absolutely can't wait for the next book in the Gods & Monsters series.

WE ACTUALLY POPPIN BOTTLES????????

I'll be honest looking at your woman versions of artemy and daniil makes me feel like I have the plague itself since I start sweating and shaking with lesbian lust. they're soooooo good there are no words for it, thank u for blessing us with your art of them 💓

o7 glad you're liking them...!

i know they're not #much in terms of like character design since i'm just copy and pasting The Usual and then waving a magic wand at them but. well you know. if every game had crazy women in it i would play these games. give me the annoying cynical symbolist yuri where i can see homosexuality peeking through and I Will Now Play Your Game. i will.

I like characters who I can only describe as “involuntary antagonist”. Like, they’re not bad, per se. But you can’t call them good either, because they are forced to be on the bad side by someone else or they don’t have any choice (f.e Max/Electro from “Power of the Sun”, or maybe Joey from “Metal&Ink”, if you wanna go that deep). There is a potential of a nice person; they have good morals; they can, will, but visibly do not want to hurt others. It’s a perfect material for a redemption arc that they so desperately crave in silence.

A character who’s waiting to be redeemed. Maybe they want to make the first step to redemption and becoming a protagonist. But they’re a coward. Or the bad side can give them more than the good side. Maybe the bad side promised them something in return for their obedience.

It’s fascinating to watch a character like that grow, because there can only be two ways this can go. They either get redeemed… or they become an antagonist (maybe even a villain) out of their own will, completely losing hope for redemption or blurring the line between good and evil.