#and the long development time means i've had time to figure out what the core of the concept *is* | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ineffablydelighted · 8 months

Text

[How exploring the Ineffable Husbands' dynamic in Good Omens can help us figure out what the show/book is all about, Part 1/?]

Also called: This human has, apparently, too much time on her hands and will be trying to Effable the Ineffable for [...] hours.

Ah, Hello! 👋

I'm ineffably delighted to meet you all! 😇

Let's cut to the chase and bear with me as we try together to analyze further the subject of the day:

Aziraphale is in love with Crowley and I am pretty sure he is aware of that fact BUT

[yes, there is a "but", do not erase me from the Book of Life just yet, let me explain first, homie 🥺]

I do not believe he can comprehend WHY he is just yet, and what that would mean for him in terms of... well... EVERYTHING he ever stood for.

It will also be the perfect roots to answer the biggest question yet :

What is Good Omens all about, exactly?

[Yeah, it's a tough one. When I say "bear with me", I really insist on the fact that it will be LONG. I will try my best to make it fun to read and to allow some "natural breaks" but know that I would appreciate your unshared attention if you're willing to give it to me. 😇]

Although, would you have the chance to ask him about it (probably looking at a cup of tea as we would all do in Earthy fashion), Aziraphale would have somewhat of an answer to give you, probably in the range of:

"Because, deep down, Crowley is the nicest being I've ever known."

Is it false? No, Crowley IS nice. Swaggeringly nice, occasionally unhinged, but still. Nice.

And that is somewhat the core of the... "problem" for our soon-to-be Supreme Archangel [Yep, the pain is still fresh, thanks for asking, you're welcome for reminding you 😭👍] because, as much as Crowley learned nuances due to past experiences (Falling being, most likely, the most traumatic one,) Aziraphale remains bound to think in absolutes. And everything relates to THIS perfect meme right there:

[Whoever you are, person/entity who has done that, you have forever my utmost gratitude and respect]

I'm far from bringing anything new to the table here, but to Aziraphale, Crowley should NOT have fallen in the first place. Because of how nice he is. Crowley IS an angel, to him. In fact, I'll go even further by stating that, to Aziraphale,

Crowley is more of an Angel than ANY Angel in the "Main Office."

Let's present our other contestants, shall we?

When he ruled, Gabriel was an absolute a** and had an ego the size of, idk, at least A DOZEN GALAXIES. He made Aziraphale feel like... well... poop most of the time they interacted.

That is why, in S2 when Gabriel/Jim tells him "I love you", Aziraphale, even being and considering himself a "creature of love", happens to be utterly unable to either reciprocate or take the compliment. At this moment, later enhanced when he reminds himself of the Job case, he realizes he is able to feel, if not hatred, NOT love NOR admiration for somebody he should somewhat consider a role model.

That is very important for Aziraphale's present and future character development, especially considering Gabriel/Jim's own fate, so please keep that in mind.

Michael? Oh God, Same if not worse: too condescending and ambitious in the wrong way to inspire anything nice to anybody.

Sandalphon just does what they are told but can totally throw a punch if necessary.

Uriel is mostly cold, occasionally cruel, and can also be physically threatening.

[I love the actress, though. Gloria Obianyo deserves a Ph.D. in Resting Bitch Facing for her performance in Good Omens alone and I'm here for it.]

S2 Saraqael seems to be more layered but has also been hurtful to Aziraphale (especially when she ironized that he couldn't possibly be the 25-Lazarii-magnitude-miracle caster).

Overall, S1 Aziraphale refers to the "Main Office" Angels as "BAD ANGELS!" after their hostile encounter. We could see from his face he would have wanted to use harsher words but couldn't get past his forgiving, decent nature.

Before we talk any furfur-ther [Am I proud of this so-called pun? A-BSOLUTELEH 😎🤭], let's add a really important stone/layer to our favorite Angel's thinking: to him, it is simple maths:

GOOD = RIGHT, BAD = WRONG

And let's save it for later, shall we?

[Killgrave dear is just here to remind you you can take a break anytime to drink a glass of Talisker if you'd like, or, more so, if HE'd like. Also because that character is THE best David Tennant role on television - 10th Doctor being the worthy third, I let you guess which character is our second now - and I might have wanted to use this gif just to be able to say that, who knows? *whispers* Mysssteryyyy...]

Anyway.

To a being like Aziraphale, who mostly thinks in dichotomy, being an Angel requires one main requirement: being GOOD.

[Buy a farrrrrm and be good! Not just "pretendy" good but. properly. GOOD! - NO, I couldn't find the gif and YES, I'm mad about it, but since I'm also unable to make one myself, I'll just shut it.]

That is why he refers to the Main Office Archangels as simply being BAD.

At that moment, they had been mean to him, threatening, and, by doing so, they became somewhat active in Hell's Armageddon project. Making them "bad" angels, but, more so:

Bad at BEING Angels.

Aziraphale, on the other hand, is, at heart, the penultimate goody-two-shoes: he does feel bad about himself whenever he does something bad/wrong such as lying (it has started to change, and I'll nuance that statement another time, but you get the grip).

He is constantly scared he might fall whenever he somewhat defies God's will or the idea he built in his head of what an Angel should be(have).

But have you paid attention to how his "Angelmates" NEVER seem to CARE about their own displays of, let's say "unconventional characteristics" for what should be the highest "Representatives of the sole concept of Good"?

Have you ever seen Gabriel or Michael being self-conscious about their narcissism and condescending tendencies? Uriel about their coldness? Saraqael about their sarcastic nature? Any of them about their use of violence? Of course not! They seem to be perfectly fine with it!

They own their characteristics, good AND bad.

Aziraphale does not.

Aziraphale is... soft. Even if he, at times, expresses regrets to be just that, he also applies it to his Angelic nature.

You know who else is soft?

Crowley.

Crowley is soft because he cannot kill children and takes it upon himself to LITERALLY DEFY BOTH GOD AND SATAN'S WILL TO SAVE SAID CHILDREN, including two annoying ones [especially the one who DARED to hit on Aziraphale but that is a topic for another day]

[MASSIVE Bildad the Shuhite fangirl here, consider yourselves warned.]

Crowley is soft because he cannot even kill GOATS.

Defying both God's and Satan's will to save kids? Yeah, eventually, okay.

Defying God's and Satan's will to save goats? Man, that's so effingly. more. powerful.

[Oh, look! A bird flying, normal thingy, nothing to see here, buh-bye!]

Crowley is soft because he proposes/"tempts" Aziraphale to "eat a spot of lunch", especially whenever his Angel experiences stress.

We have barely seen him eat, which might indicate he does not have such a strong taste for it personally. He only goes to the Ritz to enjoy Aziraphale's company and to watch him happily eat scrumptious, comforting foods.

[Okay, also because it morphed into a proper kink at some point but that is NOT today's subject, so stop trying to make me deviate from it! 😣]

Oh, and, before you bring that up, no, the alcohol motive is not relevant since he can, in all probability have a glass of Talisker in ANY sort of pub/restaurant in London.

[As a proper peated whisky lover who happens to be French, let me tell you this is NOT the case in my country and I'm super duper jealous of you, lads.]

Crowley is soft because he takes care of both Gabriel and Aziraphale's bookshop, even if it is clear he loathes the first and expressingly said he would not be a bookseller "even at gunpoint."

And, by "taking care of", know that I MEAN IT: he kept an eye on Jim, didn't wake him up when he heard him snore, answered any question he had, no matter how seemingly stupid they were [Even if Crowley, of all beings, cannot be anything but a raging "There is no stupid question, only stupid answers" representative] and offered him hot cocoa. As for the Booksho-P[uhhhhh *exhales in asthma*], he attempted to repair Jim's messy ordering twice and meticulously rearranged the place after ✨the Ball✨

[What do you mean, "he also Killgraved him into jumping out of the window?" HE ALSO STOPPED HIM FROM DOING SO, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. #NotBiasedInTheSlghtestIndividual]

Crowley is soft because he shares his Bentley with Aziraphale. Which is a VERY. BIG. DEAL. considering it was, at the time, HIS LAST ONE AND ONLY PRIZED POSSESSION.

[Should I mention that the Bentley FALLS IN LOVE with Aziraphale or is debating on whether or not that falls into the Oedipian complex territory off-topic? Yes, I'll see myself out.]

Crowley is soft because he rescues Aziraphale on countless occasions, even though, 99% of the time, that is pretty much unnecessary.

For real, guys: if Aziraphale had been discorporated in the course of his 6000+ years on Earth at any other given moment BUT on the eve of THE WAR with a capital "W", nobody in Heaven would have flinched.

[I do have a theory, though: maybe being re-incorporated takes quite a long time, which would have meant too many years apart from each other, hence the growing Damsel in Distress kink in Aziraphale, idk THAT IS NOT TODAY's SUBJECT, OKAY?!]

Also, Crowley is soft because "doing that makes him so happy".

Do you know who is supposedly "so happy" to save living things, aka GOD'S CREATIONS? Angels.

Crowley is soft because he rescues Aziraphale even when it is ACTUALLY ENDANGERING for both of them

He risked: his life, his pretty comfortable position "he carved out for himself", both his Earthy and Infernal homes sort of speak, AND EVEN HIS CAR to save his Angel's bottom/help him out in the direst situations (like stopping time to stop SATAN HIMSELF.)

[Also his past/present/future existence altogether, but the Bentley is more important, as I'm sure we'll all agree.]

[That is a Class A Protective/Helpful Husband, right there.]

Crowley is soft because he encourages Aziraphale to follow his passion for ✨prestidigitation✨

Even though he is pretty... amateurish at it. Not only does he encourage him, but he also HELPS him when he accepts to be his dashing assistant on stage.

[Yes, he does tell S1 Aziraphale to stop doing magic because he "has no idea how demeaning that is" but I'm pretty sure it was BECAUSE of S2 1941's events. Also, #WeStan1941Crowley here.]

Crowley is soft because he works pretty hard to make two humans he barely knows fall in love.

Yes, he also does it to cover his and Aziraphale's 25-Lazarii-magnitude-miracle lie BUT don't tell me his amazed expression when he thought he was about to witness Nina and Maggie actually falling for each other was not the purest, sincerest of all.

Finally, even if I could come up with more examples,

Crowley is soft because he saved Aziraphale's books JUST because he KNEW and CARED that Aziraphale CARED about said books.

That also, in Michael Sheen's very own opinion [as stated by Neil Gaiman in S1 GO DVD commentary], shared by many fans, and myself very much included, marks the moment

Aziraphale falls in love with Crowley.

[I DARE you to tell me THIS is NOT THE LOOK OF LOVE PERSONIFIED, go on, fight meh.]

So. WHY did it happen at that moment in particular? Well, because, first of all:

As a proper Jane Austen fan, Aziraphale is a slow burner.

Also, to him, an actual Angel, love is everywhere, so differentiating one love from another might be more difficult for somebody who can feel it whether or not it is even their own.

BUT [have you started getting used to my "but"s yet or should I harass you some more?] Let's go back in time to see how every previous encounter (that we know of) led to that pinnacle, shall we?

[Oh and, YES, this sort of essay will be long, and NO, I had no idea how much it would be when I started writing it, and still haven't, tbh 🤷‍♀️]

During part 2, we will also dive a little bit deeper into what Good Omens is all about.

[Yeah... I figured we would all need a break at this point.]

More on that later, then!

Hope I kept your interest at a reasonable peak. See you soon, Angels ❤

Need help to find the rest of this analysis? I've got you covered! Follow me, Angel 😇

Previous - Beginning (you're here) - Next

#Ineffable Husbands #Good Omens analysis #Good Omens #Good Omens S2 #Aziraphale in love #Good Omens theory #Aziraphale #Crowley #Aziracrow #Effable the Ineffable #Philosophy #Good Omens is a philosophical essay disguised as comedic/satyric/romantic Fiction and I am here to prove it #A maniac woke up one morning and decided to overanalyze everything about her current favorite thing #even though that will not help her control her hyperfixation in the slightest #also too many hashtags but you know I have issues already

74 notes · View notes

decepti-thots · 1 year

Note

Prowl for the ask meme? (Obvs)

one aspect about them i love: The thing about Prowl is that I mostly love writing him. I didn't really develop a reputation as The Prowl Person until I accidentally discovered he is the most fun to write. So: what do I love writing about him. I really enjoy the fact that Prowl is someone who simultaneously isolates himself and wants people to still have connections with him, and the friction that comes out of it. The thing that stands out to me most is how genuinely devastated he is when he realises, in exRiD, that Bumblebee could not tell when he wasn't himself- that realisation that he has pushed everyone away so effectively that he has become alien to them. I think of Prowl as someone who has spent a very, very long time breaking himself down to force himself into a new shape, and that jarring realisation that he has succeeded so well he is no longer recognisable as the person he thought he was- that no core of him necessarily remains that people can still see underneath- is fascinating to me. The same when Optimus talks about how Prowl has a long list of people he feels have betrayed him, too. He wants to be free of attachments but when those people leave, he feels it as a loss, because on some level he still wants that. It's such a mess. And that it's a self-directed and unasked for self destruction makes it more interesting.

one aspect i wish more people understood about them: Prowl is not telling the truth about himself. He is not someone who makes decisions fully logically and divorced from his emotions. He is not a Shockwave; I've said it before, but a lot of what he does makes more sense if you understand him as a very strange kind of sentimental, even. And frankly, he's not even the smartest person in the room half the time. (Not with some of the rooms he's in; I mean, he is smart, but he's also still often overestimating himself in relation to others.) Prowl is unreliable as a judge of himself, and anyone who takes him at face value just because he also lies in his own head is wrong to do so. When he claims he did what needed to be done and which noone else is willing to do, that is not a claim that should be accepted at face value!

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character: Prowl did not like his pre-war job as a cop. Oh, he liked parts of it. But mostly he felt it was an obligation and that you should perform your obligations regardless of if you like them or not. He liked finding patterns in things, and doing forensics, and being meticulous about the more abstract parts of his work, and he hated all the parts where it intersected with colleagues and people and politics and the rest; he would have been a good scientist, probably, in another life. He overcompensated for this by being very vicious about people like Whirl who tried to actually leave and go find something better. He's here still forcing himself to do this thing he doesn't want to, they should all put up with it too. For the "greater good". (His idea of what counts as doing 'good' being uhhh. Untrustworthy, here.) He did, however, once take that exam for potential alt mode exemption, without telling anyone. He failed it.

one character i love seeing them interact with: I love his and Arcee's relationship in exRiD. They are such fascinating foils. Arcee is many things, but she is self aware. She's got a limited sense of her own identity, but what she has she knows about herself. And then there's Prowl, who has increasingly lost any sense of who the fuck he even is anymore. Arcee refuses to let him obfuscate; she does the dirty work and makes him acknowledge that's what it is. And then she's the one who does notice he's not himself! Immediately! Prowl is so uncomfortable around her, and refuses to let her in, and it's probably one of the stupidest things he does. Because she's the only person in a position to help him climb out of the hole he's dug himself into, since she herself has had to figure out how the hell you come back from the sort of life that is pretty much impossible to just apologise for.

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more: god I would have killed for more Prowl-Kup interactions. I wish we knew more about that relationship. The whole thing of what Prowl did to him with the mind control is so... like. It's so much. Just a whole lot. What would a conversation after that even have LOOKED like. And then at the same time, they have that connection in the form of Prowl giving him Springer, which clearly meant so much to Kup. You have the fact Prowl winds up going through something very similar to what he put Kup through and being completely fucked up by it. I wish there'd been a place for just like. One conversation on neutral ground after... everything. I wanna see if there's anything salvagable or if it's just horrible bitterness all the way down. Why the FUCK did they kill Kup off in a crossover again. >:(

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character: Prowl finds Verity on Earth post-Unicron and they have a talk about what happened to Springer. Enough time has passed that she's willing to meet with him, and also he managed to rally his common sense for five seconds for once and did ask first, like someone with manners. It's not a very pleasant conversation for him, honestly, but it does mean that he finally finds out just what happened, not just to Springer but to Tarantulas and Impactor as well.

#ask meme

108 notes · View notes

godlesshasideas · 4 months

Text

Writing about Disabilities: Chronic Pain

When writing about anything you are not personally familiar with, research is your best friend. Don't use this post as a catch all and think it's all you need to write characters with chronic pain. This is far from all the information about it, but it's a starting point.

Here's some basic information that I have found and I've also included some of my own experience since I have chronic pain.

Information regarding Chronic Pain

First thing's first, what is chronic pain? According to John Hopkins Medicine, the difference between chronic pain and regular pain is that chronic pain is long-lasting (anywhere from months to years). Chronic pain doesn't stay the same level (0-10) for everyone; also, majority of people with chronic pain don't realize that the normal amount of pain is 0. It can be continuous or it could switch from 0 to 10 to 6 to 3 to 9 to 7 and so on so forth...

There are various types of pain as well: muscle, joint, headaches/migraines, and nerve. You can have one or you can have all of them. Personally, I have all four. The first three for me are chronic and the nerve pain is from a recent surgery. They all have different causes and I know some of them. For example, my migraines are genetic and very common in my family. The joint and muscle pain probably caused multiple things but I know for sure it's caused by the scoliosis I've had for over a decade. My entire body was developing unevenly. So my joints are weakened and different muscle groups developed unevenly (especially my back and core).

Here's some clinical resources for the different kinds of pain that just cover the basics:

Muscle related: Myalgia | John Hopkins, Muscle Pain | Cleveland Clinic

Joint related: Arthralgia | John Hopkins, Joint Pain | Mayo Clinic, Joint Pain | Cleveland Clinic

Migraine related: Migraines | Mayo Clinic, Migraines | NIH.gov

Nerve related: Neuralgia | Health Direct

Something worth doing in your research is to find blogs, vlogs, or influencers that have personal experience with chronic pain. Don't overstep and reach out to them about research for the character you're writing. If they are open to questions, feel free to just remember to be respectful. Otherwise, read or listen to their experiences and research more until you think you have a grasp of it. If you are unsure of something, you have a search engine at your finger times, use it! Remember to cross analyze information though because just because it says it one place online doesn't mean it's true in all cases.

Things to Consider about the character you're writing:

How long have they had chronic pain? Just because it's chronic, doesn't mean they've had it all their life. If they've had it for a while, they might be good at hiding their pain or masking. They also may be more aware of their body and their limits (ex. they know they can't walk more than x miles before being in pain). They probably have already figured out some treatments that help them manage the pain like pain killers or hot/cold therapy. If they only recently developed it, they're pain may be more visible (ex. they can't sit still because of pin and needles). They'll probably more vocal in their complaints of it as well.

What is causing their pain? Don't give your chronic pain just to give them something. Do they have an autoimmune illness or some form of invisible illness? Do they have something kidney stones? Do they have an illness that has flare-ups? If you're writing fantasy, did someone curse them with never ending pain? You don't have to flat out state it to the reader if you don't want to. You're allowed to make it unknown but as the author, make sure there is a reason you are writing a character like this. Make sure it has a role in the story you're telling. If you are writing chronic pain that's connected to a specific illness, remember to also research that illness. Chronic pain is usually a symptom not a diagnosis. If you look my own medical chart, it says I have a history of chronic pain and it's lists the kinds of pain. The only thing that is a diagnosis of pain is migraines (but those can also be a symptom it depends on the person).

**Once again, always do more research. Do not use this post as all you need. Anytime you write something or create a character that has something you aren't familiar with, you need to take the time to learn about it. Research Research Research!

#godless has writing prompts #writing advice #writers on tumblr #writeblr #writing #disability representation #writing disabilities #chronic pain #writing research #writing resources

14 notes · View notes

filzmonster · 1 month

Note

If I may, this brainrot has been eating away at me, I just need to hear someone else's opinion! ✨️

At what point did you start shipping Gil and Break? What made you go, "yes, that's it!"?

What do you like most about them? I beg, share as much as you can about your thoughts on them! I need to hear it all! 😭🙏

fuck yes of course you may! Thank you so much for asking! *cracks knuckles* I've been waiting my whole life for an opportunity like this, so let's dive right into it!!

So to answer your first question - how I came to shipping them - let me start by saying that it took me a while. Tbh at first I didn't really pay a lot of attention to Break and all the cryptic things he was spewing (I have no excuse for this except that at the time I was obsessed with another manga that had a similar clown-ish character, so Break, at first, felt a little bit too much like a copy of that character for me to really be intrigued by Break).

Also, I was very much blown away by the platonic ... whatever that thing is ... between Gilbert and Oz, so I didn't really put on the shipping glasses for a very long time.

I watched the entire anime without developing any ships.

Then I started the manga and by then I was already so very, very, very deeply invested in everything, so this time around when I got to the specific moment that made my brain go oh, there was nothing stopping it from going oh.

It started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this? a look ...

... and solidified itself with

1.) Break caring about the fact that Gilbert supposedly forced himself to act like he was still his friend after his past got revealed

and

2.) Gilbert caring about the fact that apparently the last ten years, in which he saw Break as someone he wanted to be trusted by, meant less to Break than they meant to himself.

(I could write an entire seperate post about what it means that Gilbert wants Break to trust him and the parallels to his entire "I want to be needed" issues because Gilbert is always more focused on being the person that "is needed/trusted/wanted/etc." by the people in his life, rather than being the one needing/trusting/wanting/etc. the other person - if that makes any sense. ANYWAY --)

There was no stopping myself after that.

My brain just went oh, this is very angsty from a platonic "my friend doesn't trust me as much as I trust him" perspective - let's make it EVEN MORE angsty by changing it to "my lover doesn't trust me" and the rest is history.

After that, I went back and looked at their other recent and significant interaction:

What was, up until then, a very significant scene for Gilbert (and for me - I was shook, and still am by this scene everytime I read it tbh) in relation to his issues regarding Oz and being left behind/no longer needed, re-wrote itself in my head into something Break said to Gilbert, a piece of very important advice, something said to Gilbert by someone who understood and even shared his desire to serve a Master, someone who already went through the exact thing Gilbert was scared of going through - losing his Master - and tried to help him, tried to push him in the right direction.

Break was the first person who looked at Gilbert and said "I want to fix him".

He saw what Oz couldn't see, which as how desperate and messed up Gilbert had become with the appearance of Alice in Oz' life, and understood.

This kind of understanding is what, in my eyes, is at the core of this entire ship.

Then the gang went to the ruins of Sablier and honestly, I ate that shit up:

This showed that, even though they understood each other, there was still some kind of power imbalance between them.

At this point in the story, Gilbert was still very much Not Aware of how messed up he truly was. Break, on the contrary, figured out that there's some other, far shadier stuff going on.

Break was admittedly smarter than Gilbert and tried to guide and help him. I love that he shows he cares like that, by slowly but not at all gently pushing Gilbert towards confronting his issues. He is definitely being a teensy-tiny bit manipulative about it, but who doesn't like a little bit of toxicity with their fictional ship??

Uuuuhhhhh after Sablier, the Isla Yura/Headhunter arc happened and while at that shitshow of a party, they had a lot of very nice interactions between them - alas, listing all of them in detail would make this already escalating post waaaaaaay too long, so here's the shortlist:

They confront Elliot together, and Gilbert manages to land a hit on Break

Gilbert realizes that Break is blind, all while Vincent is trying to lure him away so that he doesn't go to help Break

Gilbert's little flashback to probably the first advice Break ever gave him: get your priorities straight

Break sort of gives up the fight against Fang and Lilly

Gilbert shows up and kicks him in the back, going all "I'm his left eye" while also saying: you're my priority, too, you idiot.

Gilberts fixes up Break's wounds and then scolds him for not asking for help even though there are people he can and should ask for help - and isn't that a fantastic parallel to the very first scene I brought up in this post? How this entire thing, for me, started with Gilbert asking, desperately "Why don't you trust me?" and now we're here, with Gilbert, again, asking "Why don't you trust me?" Only this time Break doesn't meet him with the silent air of someone who sees himself as superior, more experienced, but answers his question with a request, finally accepting him as an equal: "please help me."

And then .... AND THEN ... it gets even better:

Listen. LISTEN.

Mere moments ago in the manga it was established that Break is utterly unable to fall in line with someone, unable to work in a team, unable to be a partner. He even repeats it himself: Sharon calls me Mr. One-Man-Show.

But here's Gilbert and he says: I don't care. Do whatever you want, I'll meet you halfway. I'll keep up with you. Let me show you, let me prove myself to you. I'll have your back. Trust me to have your back.

And Break does.

And then a lot of shit went down and it's all very, very tragic.

And then this happens:

And I realize that this is not The Most Important Thing in that chapter and that what happens right after is way more important than this little panel, but I want to talk about the perspective used here for a moment.

This is shown from a frontal perspective. We see Gilbert standing in front of Oz from an outsider's POV, someone who looks at them, someone who sees Gilbert stepping in front of Oz.

This is an important scene and an important perspective in more ways than one, so bear with me for a second, please, as I go off on a little tanget.

See, this scene is very reminiscent of a later scene:

A later scene that is shown from Oz' perspective. Because this time it is important that Oz sees Gilbert stepping in front of him, protecting him despite everything. This scene is for Oz.

The scene prior to that wasn't for Oz.

It was a little bit for us, as readers, foreshadowing that Gilbert, finally fully aware of all his memories, still choses Oz. It is the promise to us that Gilbert will pick Oz' side and ultimately safe him.

It was, truly, for Break.

Break, whose first priority was to get himself between Gilbert and Oz the moment he realized the truth about Gilbert.

Break, who wanted to protect Oz from Gilbert, who wanted to protect Gilbert from Gilbert himself.

Break, who saw, and realized and had faith without even knowing the whole truth.

Now look at all of that and tell me how I was supposed to NOT ship them.

Also, feel free to tell me why YOU ship them :)

Alright, now that I've spent ... an atrocious amount of length on this post to tell you when & why I started to ship them, let's move on to your second question: what do I like most about them?

Weeeeeelllllllll ... a lot of that is already answered between the lines of the "how this ship came to be" elaboration, so I'll start with a short little summary:

there are a lot of parallels between Break's past and Gilbert's present that allow them to understand each other in this very specific way no one else probably can

they push each other to grow/be better (with Break pushing Gilbert to confront his issues and Gilbert calling Break out when he's being a stubborn idiot and refusing help)

they support each other through their lowest points, again and again.

the fact that Gilbert accepted Break, truly, for who he is. That he looked at Break and went "this guy's weird and creepy, but I'm still going to work with him, I'm still learning how to cook for him, I'm still going to try to listen to his advice even though I don't really understand it yet, I'm still going to be his left eye and stand by his side and build a relationship with him that is built on trust, and I'm still going to look at him as a priority"

the fact that Break looked at Gilbert and went "I see you, I'll help you. I'll use you, sure, but even after you've lost your usefulness to me, I'll still help you figure yourself out. I accept you as my equal, please help me. I'll act like I don't care about you, but I do, oh lord, I do. And I'm so relieved that you chose well. I always knew you could do it."

Also, the thing is - I'm a Gilbert girly, so obviously I care about him and his relationships the most.

And for the most part of the manga, the most important relationship, after his relationship to Oz, is his relationship to Break.

Sure, there are Alice and Vincent and Elliot, and even Sharon and Reim and Oscar.

But the one who keeps showing up in all his most important scenes, the ones that deal with his issues, his struggles, his choices - is Break.

And not just that, they keep showing up in each other's important scenes that don't focus on them at first.

E.g., Gilbert is there when Break asks Oz "Where are you?", a question that will haunt Oz for a long time.

Gilbert is there after Lutwidge academy, when Oz and Break have another moment together, and vice versa Break witnesses another key moment between Oz and Gilbert.

Break is there when Gilbert chases after Zai Vessalius in the ruins of Sablier. Gilbert is there when Break wakes up blind.

Break is there when Gilbert regains his memories, and he's there when Gilbert choses a side; and he's there, always there, when Gilbert is confronted with his relationship with Oz. He's even indirectly there when Gilbert gets inspired by Sharon who wants to become stronger so that she can stay by Break's side.

They play a big role in each other's lives even when they aren't directly part of a main event.

Almost like they keep thinking of each other

They grow from "let's use each other for our own benefits" to "I'll risk everything for you". They inspire each other to be better.

They understand each other. Break gets a side of Gilbert that Oz, Gilbert's most important relationship, and even though he grew and learned to understand Gilbert better in the end, will never really get.

Likewise, Gilbert manages to cement himself in Break's life as someone he can trust and rely on, something that comes very hard to Mr. One-Man-Show. I'd even argue that not even Oz managed to become an equal for Break in the end, since Break's last thoughts towards Oz are still "I have to support and guide him", and Oz can't offer him any real solace - that position, ultimately, falls to Reim and Sharon. We're totally ignoring that Break and Gilbert do not really share a last, significant scene, just go along with me please

Anyway.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that their understanding of each other is the most important thing for me. That they are able to have this relationship outside of their other important relationships (Oz & Alice and Sharon & Reim respectively). That they help each other to grow and even teach each other how to better their other relationships.

They have such a big, positive, meaningful influence on each other without ever really trying. It's like they see no other choice but to be there for each other when one of them needs the other.

I love them, your honor.

Alrightttttt, with all of that said .... I think I'm done for now?

Feel free to add your own thoughts and tell me

a) How you came to ship them and why

and

b) What you like most about them and why

Again, thank you very much for asking!! This deep dive really did a lot for my general well being and showed me that while apparently I still know a lot about Pandora Hearts by heart, it may still be time for another re-read soon :)

Also, it's been sooooo long since I've had an opportunity to talk about Break/Gilbert and it was a lot of fun!!! I'm really grateful for that and I can't wait to hear your thoughts on them! <3

#lana7779 #asks #pandora hearts #gilbert nightray #xerxes break #breakbert #random rambling #gilbert baskerville #whups this definitely escalated #sorry not sorry #thank you for asking #this was so much fun!!!!#also it is waaaaaaaay past my bedtime and i really should go to sleep #please share your thoughts too i'm really looking forward to discussing them with you!!!

8 notes · View notes

dashielldeveron · 4 months

Note

hello!! i cannot put into words how obsessed with your writing i am! i’m sure you get this all the time but everything from the dialogue to the plot development to the character dynamics is absolutely insane. Seriously if i could write even half as well my ego would be so high it’s a miracle that you are so humble. Your soulmate series is genuinely the best series i’ve ever read on any site! I don’t know if this is odd to say but you write every character like they genuinely are your soulmate. If you said that you know them personally and intimately i would fully believe you. Obviously i have no clue what you do for a living but if it’s not writing you should 100% consider it because the world would be so much better off with more of your work.

I am so devastatingly interested in the shigarki route that you’re writing. His character arc is so interesting and he’s so complex that i’m buzzing with excitement to see what angle you approach while writing for him. Actually with the latest manga chapters, it’s so interesting how the core villains of the series have been denied humanity in some way by the general public and how that’s contributed to how they view themselves and the world (Shigarki especially). You captured that turmoil soo fucking well with Dabi’s route. I just know Shigarki’s chapter is gonna be what kills me.

Please take care of yourself!

!!!!!

>/////< ohhhhhh you are so very kind!!! it really means a lot to me that you would type all of this out to let me know!!!! especially that enormous compliment that it feels like i know the characters, geez!!! i am weaving all of your kind words into a tapestry to hang on my wall so that i can see it and feel all warm.

shigaraki rambling under the cut :)

goddd yes shigaraki is such a little weirdo and i've been so conflicted about where to go with him!!! he's difficult to write, esp. bc fanon and canon are very different; a lot of fanon grounds his behaviour when he's still incel-blue-hair-immature-gamer guy, and he's.............not even really mean? esp. not to the league??? rude, yes, but AFO has trained him to think of himself as an authoritative figure of respect, so of course when dabi is shit-talking tomura like he's just some guy, tomura is gonna get upset about that. he's mostly........pretty polite. eerily calm. not easily scared or startled.

but like. if you read a shigaraki fic, it's expected that he's gonna throw you around or steal your underwear, or something. so i'm nervous that some people are gonna read his route and think he doesn't sound like himself!!! and maybe he doesn't, but i tried v hard; i've reread a bunch of the manga and rewatched some of the anime to take notes about his dialogue and inflection, but i get nervous that bc he's not matching with popular fanon stuff that people are gonna be like "this is just [other character] in a shigaraki hat." but i try. shigaraki is a tough dude to write.

i've been reading shigaraki as being objectified (not in a sexy sense but in a literal sense) in the manga for a long time, so it's validating and awful to see all of these characters just fucking announce that shigaraki is a thing. feels weird, especially bc so much of the manga has been moving towards a message of a kinder humanity, even though i'm not certain hori is pulling that off as clearly as it could be. i worry, but shig is gonna come back to being tenko at the end, i think. i hope this comes across in his route!!!!

and ohhhhhh you had better take care of yourself!!! bc if shigaraki's route is gonna kill you, your funeral will be tonight!!!! (bad metaphor aside: shig's route is gonna be posted tonight, provided my beta reader gets back to me soon.)

thaaaaaaaaank you so much for enjoying my silly fic!!!! i hope the rest of it meets your expectations!!!!! xx.

#dash it all

7 notes · View notes

eirian · 7 months

Text

oc spotlight: patoto (villainverse)

oh man ok. villainverse patoto. probably one of my favorite ocs ive ever made tbh

he started out as a joke almost, a sort of "what if?" au sorta deal. what if patoto was a villainous saiyan? it sounded like such a fun concept i just had to explore it. and then i came up with this design

which was just SO cool to me i couldnt stop thinking about it. and then before i knew it he became his own character--a patoto from a parallel universe where he was a ruthless warrior, totally opposite from his mainverse counterpart

he developed so fast from there. i gave him a companion that ended up being kinpa, and he developed into kinpa's bodyguard. i gave him a rival that ended up being calabris. i gave him a complicated relationship with his parents, one of which he thought was dead for most of his life (his armor is actually based off of hers to remember her by). his universe grew and his story basically wrote itself i was so obsessed with him and still am

here's his current ref showing how much he's grown

even today im still giving him more development and story! as of right now in the timeline (post-mirrors and post-facets), he has a child with his partner kinpa and his family has grown from just him to a group of six including himself! he's learned to have friends and open his heart to others, and he's gotten so strong im so proud of him.

mirrors would have never existed had i not ran with his concept like i did. his character and story contrasting with mainverse patoto's is just so fun and awesome to me and i've always had fun with it and i feel like i'll continue to have fun with it as well!!

i could honestly keep going about some specific details abt him like his relationship with kinpa and zumeg (both of them) and his father and his kid and. yknow what i will LOL

his relationship with kinpa started as just a bodyguard situation but OF COURSE that developed into an actual partnership bc i love that shit. he was this cold and frankly mean guy that wanted nothing to do with kinpa or being his bodyguard--he hated it. but after getting trapped on earth in a parallel universe, he learned to open up to the idea of having at least one friend and letting himself care about someone for the first time since he was a child.

as for his parents...thats complicated lol. (facets spoilers ahead !!!) his mother zumeg was presumed dead when she didnt return from a battle when he was just a boy, and his father left some time before that, so he was basically raised in an orphanage into adulthood (or at least until he could join the army). he met the mainverse zumeg and that shook him to his core bc she was not only so different but she still cared about him and reminded him what it was like to be loved by his own mother. it wasnt until way later, many many years later, that he decided he wanted to find his father and find out why he left them. after getting that clarification, he chose to give his father a second chance at being part of his life--more for himself than his father, really--and then not long after that he discovered his mother was actually alive, just under someone's control. he saved her, and suddenly he had a family again.

i havent quite developed his story with his kid just yet, but so far what i figure is that he isnt experienced with children at all so he does have a hard time balancing the tough parenting act and the gentle, kind parenting. snake (his son) does feel a pressure to be as great as his father, since he's heard the stories of how he saved the universe before and how he continues to fight and reach new heights. patoto is a little awkward at handling this and has a hard time showing that he's proud of his son and that sort of causes a little tension between them but it eventually works out

basically i love villainverse patoto. a lot. i would die for him actually

#oc spotlight

14 notes · View notes

card-queen · 11 months

Text

Story Craft: Character Basics

Ahoy and welcome. Characters won the poll so I'll start my guide by going over how I go about creating and developing characters. Before I begin, I'll be using my own characters as examples. Not because they're especially good or shining examples of this or that, but simply because I created them and I 100% know how and why I created them. So if you go through this and think "um, that doesn't sound very interesting" then first of all, 'WOW OK RUDE MEAN AND CRUEL ALSO', but second of all (and much more importantly), that's good and I encourage you to keep a hold of those feelings. Stories and crafting stories are completely to taste and one person's fine is another person's too much. Stories all about capturing and recapturing feelings, so if something doesn't hit the mark then it's good to take a look and figure out where it went wrong, where you might have gone or if the whole thing wasn't to your taste at all.

And now...

Characters!

Everyone loves characters and has favourites, least favourites and enjoys dreaming up new scenarios or even alternate universes to put them in! Crack open a how-to book and they'll probably have a more mechanical view of characters as tools of the plot, designed to elicit reactions and progress events... or something else really dry and with all the joy of a tier list for cutlery. The truth is that characters ARE made with a mechanical use in mind... but they're also the beating heart of the story and the world. And there is a lot of fun to be had in really hammering out the technical aspects of characters, and I'm here to show you!

Part 1: The Basics

Characters should contain three components: Personality, Purpose and Perspective.

Personality is who they are, how they make us feel and how they get on with other characters. This is the most readily understood aspect of characters and often what people create for their early OCs or ones that don't have a story. This is where you'd put their personality basics, MBTI, enneagram, etc.

Purpose is what they do in their story, what roles they perform and what themes they embody. This is the most mechanical aspect that all the books want you to understand. This is where you'd put their archetype or tropes you associate with them.

Perspective is their place in the world and their role in society. This is kind of a middle-ground between personality and purpose as both their actions and attitude can be shaped by their place in the world, obligations or upbringing, but by give it a category of its own, we can have more fun and ensure that every character has a healthy amount of entertainment potential.

A quick word on 'theme' that I've learned over time. Don't stress out too much if you haven't figured out the key theme(s) of your story, it's something that comes with time and work. I've found that people talking about theme often end up making it sound more like a preachy underlying message that permeates your work and I can't help but feel that, despite their efforts to say 'don't make it preachy'... it's gonna come across as preachy more times than not. For me, theme is something that ends up being core to your main character's struggle and it's something that a lot of other characters and story elements can have their own angle on, deepen the issues or show a path towards growth. I didn't figure out my theme until I was going through all the things going on with my main character and noticed that a lot of characters have deep issues with these things too. These things come with time, just keep at it and remember to give yourself time away from work to give yourself fresh eyes!

It'll make sense more later as I use things in conjunction with each other, but to keep things simple and streamlined, I'll be using a basic trait system to describe a few aspects of each character -- I don't want to be here too long going into intricate backstories or the elevated nuance of each characters perspective. Ain't no one got time for that! Now... Bring out the ragamuffins...

(Cas, Conoric, Gwynnen, Hughwen, Sarabonney)

I'll just go over my main character, Cas, and hopefully show you how he fits in my world, story and works (or clashes) with the others characters.

Personality Team Player. Cas is a born leader who gets along with people. He's open-minded, hardworking and willing to see the merit in anyone. Cunning. He has a keen eye for reading people and situations, picking up on subtext which he uses to get what he needs. Determined. Cas can take determination to an unhealthy degree, misusing his body and own needs just to get a task down. Self-Reliant. While a team player at heart, he's unwilling to put too much on others and ends up taking on took much himself. Purpose Criminal Minded Hero. Cas has a mind shaped by his time as a sneak thief and street-level spy which he uses to solve crimes and help others within his community. While it gets results, his methods do not align with the strict moral values of some of his peers & superiors. Loyal to Ethelia. While Cas is not keen to weigh in on any discussions about the ruling of his country, he is actively against the rebels. Price of Honesty. Cas is TORN by his desire to just be honest all the time and his fears over what happens when he's too open. He's been nothing but honest about his childhood ties and all it's gotten him is more trouble and judgement. Thoughts on the Past. Cas tries to distance himself from everything that has happened, doing his best to forget and move on. Despite this, all of his motivations are driven by his obsession with his past. Perspective Authority Figure. Cas is seen by many as a respectable person to go to for help and wears his duties with pride. Criminal Past. Cas was once affiliated with a criminal brotherhood and despite his best efforts, that stain still colours his image. Ethelian Commoner. Cas had a relatively standard upbringing for Ethelia, (ignoring his time in the gang), with the same devotions and job prospects as others around him. His scope of the world and other perspectives is quite limited but he's eager to keep up and learn.

...okay, that should do for now. Here's the neat part:

This is a neat little visualisation of all the points I just went over about Mr Cas, with some alternatives for the personality points I went over. The personality points have a negative interpretation of that positive trait, which typically comes from them over-doing it. The negative aspect should be something that is key to how your character thinks. Determined being overdone into Workaholic makes sense. Cunning being overdone into Secretive isn't so straightforward. It plays on Cas' natural desire to see the best in people and be a Team Player, so rather than start trouble, he just keeps his mouth shut. Thinks of all of these little traits as Attack Points. They a weapons in the character's arsenal, designed to help other characters and show them growth, to exploit other characters' weaknesses and provoke conflict or meaningful change.

They can be simple, like this:

Cas' good nature and willingness to find the right way to understand and work with people makes it easy for his brother, Conoric to open up and come out of his shell. The two share a mutual understanding of how the other works and are able to work in completely opposite ways but towards the same goal.

But they can also get a little more complex, like this:

This is ostensibly a conflict between Cas and Gwynnen about Hughwen. Both Cas and Gwynnen see eye to eye, as both men are authority figures of sorts and both a loyal to Ethelia, so their conflict will always be civilised and handled with conversation and respect. Ultimately this conflict is about Hughwen's.... hmm... level of trustworthiness. His first impression is rancid, he's the only survivor of an attack and he has a very guarded manner that makes him look like a liar... and being accused by people in authority activates ACAB mode in him were he starts being snide, snippy and putting words in peoples mouths just to look and feel that extra bit persecuted. Cas naturally wants to believe in Hughwen and when Hughwen gets more defensive and leans into his idea that everyone is out to get him, it makes him look more like a black sheep underdog and makes Cas EXTRA want to stand by Hughwen. Gwynnen takes a more level-headed but letter-of-the-law approach, asking the logical questions but analysing and scrunitising every answer. If it doesn't match up with other stories or the evidence he's found, Gwynnen starts getting sceptical and asking more and more questions, which puts Hughwen's back up and activates Defiance Mode. Cas and Gwynnen oppose the other on the criminal background vs nobility background. Cas may accuse Gwynnen of not understanding how people outside of restricted society work and how people might hide their smaller crimes to avoid judgement. Gwynnen may accuse Cas of seeing himself in everyone with criminal or shady instincts, wanting too hard to see the best in everyone.

If you were to visualise all of your character interactions, it might be too big and too wordy but keeping the points of conflict in mind may help you develop characters and their interactions more thoroughly. Seeing where a character's weakness is and how it can be exploited or overcome is fun. Flipping and corrupting positive traits and aspects into negative, detrimental traits is fun. Finding how characters can get along and how they can clash in ways that go beyond "you are rich and I am poor, so I hate you, but we both like chess, so I guess you are not all bad" is SO MUCH FUN.

Get out there and have so fun. We'll be back whenever I can formulate what I want to say to talk about MBTI and Enneagram later.

In the meantime, if you have any questions or want to give me lots and lots of praise, then my Asks are VERY open.

UNTIL NEXT TIME!

Happy creating!

Want more writing advice? Check out this post!

#story talk #about characters #character dynamics #let's have some fun

13 notes · View notes

faithfromanewperspective · 4 months

Text

a letter to my (new) boss (i'll never send)

it's important for me to process this here so. i know i've got that work 24/7 in my veins and i know i've got that need in me to change this city and to change the world. make this city nurturing, and feed the whole world and i can't help but constantly feel i'm getting distracted from it and traumatised from that distraction, being forced to do stuff that felt off course. what is on course? do i still remember it? what is the dream? why do i keep feeling caught up in other people's dreams, and dare i say, their idols? a vision of myself i cannot be?

i keep thinking it's like gender dysphoria and but actually. actually it is it's like. i'm sick of my whole life being told to climb up these ladders yknow? this whole structure that was constructed by the patriachy and isn't my gender at all. empowerment of women or whatever shouldn't mean we have to be that. should mean we get to be valued for who we are, whatever that is, instead of being forced into this box that some people won't even acknowledge the existence of (and that is the invalidating, repeatedly traumatising thing).

and that's why i love working in this field that facilitates the change of the industry. but to be bridging this gap requires sacrificing who i really am and the true iteration of the vision i have and i'm stretching myself, pretending what's hurtful isn't hurtful but still trying to steer the whole world away from what's normalised and in there, i feel so lost. I fought to do this project because it felt like finding myself. and it has been, to some extent. but what it has done is opened up floodgates. made me have to face things that are easier left unsaid. it's led me to face the dysphoria that has stayed under the surface for so long.

and i've realised who i am, and also realised, i don't think anyone realises and in some ways it's for the best because i can almost guarantee that in a lot of ways people are not going to like it. the right people will. in fact, i can think of a few who will. i'm almost feeling like i can bring it to the table. almost. but my art is always going to be a reflection of who i am. yes, even linkedin articles. even this bougie course. it's all kind of terrifying, really, because i belong precisely because i don't belong. it's that disparity that's keeping me employed and the way i call everyone else into line because the perspective i bring is outside of the boxes we can see when the boxes are moving too far out of what might be broadly acceptable, encroaching on and stepping on the feet of the invisible and vulnerable, or worse. i speak for the trees. i speak for the punks and the addicts and those who are oblivious to the whole grind. how i sometimes wish i could be.

but i once watercolour painted a wall hanging for an old friend and creative muse that said 'learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist' and that's kind of how i've lived my entire life.

i find it ironic, sometimes, when people look at the have-nots of various backgrounds with different stories who often seem not to be trying under capitalism and think they feel entitled to things without working for them. i know people who think that to various degrees with various caveats and i don't even fight them anymore. no, i intend to do something so much greater. because i've figured it out

i've figured out that I'm the imaginary picture they have of these people they know nothing about, but the other way around. i have this core, and i mean CORE belief that's as fundemental to me as gender (and i get emotional thinking about it, like i don't think it's going to change, self destructive as it is, it's baked into me like DNA and at almost 23 my brain is nearly finished developing. it's stuck) that I'm put here on earth to work hard and provide for everyone else. i've memeposted about it but it's true. i've tortured myself over the lack of success I've had here and come back a million times to the fact that i don't have to, i'm held safe by supernatural hands from that one time a god put on DNA and became a meat suit and made some enemies who then killed it and called it a victory.

i know i don't need to for me and i know i don't need to prove anything and i know i know i know but the strongest sense of gender euphoria i've ever felt is when i fully surrender to both that and this feeling i have that iwanttoiwanttoiwantto. i feel like it's my role in the diversity and it's the big dream i've had since i was an age i could count on my fingers and toes without thumbs. social role or gender, right? this is incorporating some of the themes of womanhood and going global with them, provisioning and nurturing, and i don't care about logistics or what is fair i won't let anyone take this away from me, even though i see in their eyes they often want to try.

it's not even necessarily feminine. it could be masculine if you like. the opposite of toxic masculinity i guess? i know i get gender envy from some who embody this idea. but it's me and i know that and it might be a belief, a dumb one i will admit it, in that i need freedom to live it out. but it goes deeper than that.

and i have to say i've approached this with an attitude of utmost surrender. i have no way of guaranteeing this is going to work but i know i feel good when i'm following the same intuition that lit this passion in me and i know things go wrong when i try to suppress it. i know in order to be my best me i have to be fully me.

and i feel like i need to get comfortable and confident in these shoes before i expose myself too much to things that freeze the flow state of my brain and have power over me that they try to use to mold me into someone i'm not. someone who makes better financial decisions or hangs out with better people or has a more reliable sleep schedule or whose concept of equity isn't so complicated or who can enjoy hedonist things a little.

but don't you get it? it's when i get this out of my system at the same rate it goes in that i'm happiest. least self-destructive. i can celebrate with whatever joys i please within a liberated liberator's moral code and i can actually be present in the moment instead of trying to stem a tide that might give me that fulfilment i've been chasing for my whole life. i'm hesitant to say it's God talking to me except for the fact that i should relax. i don't know for sure, no one does, but what if it is? what if sometimes the counterintuitive best thing to do is just let me be deranged? because when i'm liberated this is as deranged as i get. just trust me, please.

and when you trust me i'll show up to those corporate events in a classy dress and block heels and i'll charm those investors or whatever they are (i won't let them know that i've forgotten their role as soon as they said it) and I'll have them seeing just a seed of my perspective, the one i've collected from thousands of stories i've sought out and will continue to until i represent millions. billions. i'll negotiate and cut to the heart of it in meetings, just let me grow and i can learn to do that. i know my skillset. i'll do admin organisational stuff and make a system for it. i'll finish my drinks and complete your jokes, don't you see who i could be? don't you see who i am? i'm the same me when i work in impact investing as when i work in special education and when i work in conservation and when i work in consulting and i work in urban design and i work in manufacturing and i work in hairdressing and when i'm a mother. i'll defeat your systems and i'll climb ladders horizontally like the monkey bars i slayed on as a child and i'll do it classily. i promise. i'll spend my whole life giving and i'll have fun doing it.

that's the dream isn't it?

#corporate punk #letter to my boss #sustainability #vision board #gender #the werid number of topics i've touched on here. but the important fact is i'm learning to be myself #personal mental health tag

2 notes · View notes

creation-help · 1 year

Note

so i have a problem….

for a long time i’ve been able to create characters out of pretty much nothing, from a picture or a simple reading alone. of course, i don’t go any further than setting up their physical appearance and completely forgetting about them in just a few hours, but the rare times i don’t forget about them, i try to make an entire character out them and make them feel real.

so far i’ve been able to do this with one character that i’ve been working on and building her up for years and she’s technically my only oc, but everytime i start to come up with a new character from this new place and these new things that aren’t related to her or her story, i’m afraid that they as a character is not going to be as fleshed out or as interesting as she is. i don’t have any backstory ideas for any other characters and i don’t hers to outshine everyone else’s.

can i fix this? if so, how?

thank you

While I can't exactly pinpoint what might be the core issue I can see what you're struggling with and I do have advice for it. And I'm sorry if this response comes too late but I figure this is something many artists can struggle with.

If I've understood correctly it's not due to a lack of inspiration, yes? Since you said you've been able to make ocs out of very small prompts or ideas (if the issue is lack of inspiration though, my biggest piece of advice is to simply seek out more, and new inspiration! The mind can stagnate and freshening up helps. Get new medias and look into what inspires others, get new life experiences and possibly dip your toes into other hobbies? It doesn't have to be major, anything to shake it up in there!)

Seems to have to do with attachment, generally speaking. While there's nothing wrong with wanting to focus on just one story/character, it'll become sucky if you, well don't want that. From my perspective, I think you just need to give new characters time to grow into themselves. I know that may sound odd but I'll elaborate. Sometimes when you make a new character you'll fall in love with them immediately and run off to do shenanigans with them. Sometimes, you make a character and, they just exist now. You may dislike something about them or be unsatisfied with them, or just not..~Feel~ for them, ykno? Or maybe none of those things apply. Maybe the character is just fine. So my first piece of advice is to let them grow. I recommend specifically taking a moment, or few, to focus on this new character Only. It may be hard but I do really recommend it. It can be just short moments like drawing them once, or a few times more, or listening to music and trying to pick out songs you think would vibe with this character, and really get imagining, ykno? At these beginning stages you can really have many "Ooh what if-" moments in developing a character! It's fun! Just find your preferred way of Getting Into™ a character

If you can't bring yourself to give them the spotlight now, worry not. Let them exist for a bit, but make sure that you have them somewhere you won't forget! Maybe write a synopsis of them somewhere or draw them, whatever helps. And let them simmer. You can totally come back to a character later to add more to them, or even revamp them completely! They are dough at your hands. Some dough needs more kneading and some needs to rest and rise, you feel? I actually had a story that took at least one year of existing for me to really get cozy and up close with it. I wasn't disinterested before, it just needed time to grow and I needed time to get more familiar with it, and it's characters. Consider the fact that you may just be rusty. And that's okay! If you haven't created something entirely new in a while, that happens. Push on, even if it's clumsy at first, bc you will get there! Just let yourself get back into the groove of making new stuff again.

My other advice is to make them interesting to you. "Well duh?", but what I mean is that if you're not vibing with the character you have now, make them something you'd vibe with. Literally you can make them into whatever! They don't necessarily need to be relatable to you for you to want to explore them, but if it helps to add a bit of yourself into the character then do that! Lame backstory? Spice it up! Flat personality? Scrungle it a bit. Boring design? Go wack. You get my point. Make them into something you'd be interested in working with.

Something that helps for me personally, is also, sharing them! If I get to talk about and really get into some character while explaining it to someone else that can easily put me in the mindset of thinking about and getting more fond of the character. You can also totally ask for advice, input, reviews or opinions from other people! Or just share the new character.

Summary:

1. Give em time. And a bit of love and care

2. Make it fun and interesting for yourself!

3. The rubber ducky method (I volunteer if you want to come share your new ocs here!)

And: Sometimes a character won't take off. You can't bring yourself to get invested in them or add them anywhere. That's okay. You can just dump them and start over. It's your story and your character and you decide what goes

#Help #Your ocs #(maybe?)#artist inspiration #artist motivation #Ocs #Oc creation #Oc help #I really hope this helped!!#I found this a very interesting ask and I wanted to craft the reply well and properly

20 notes · View notes

inkabelledesigns · 2 years

Text

Loraine Celeste (Custom Doll, July 2022)

Base Doll: Freddie Facilier from Descendants

Clothing Pattern: (I modified it slightly to have longer sleeves and a tiered skirt.)

Normally I will wait until my camera photos are spruced up on the computer, but I can't contain myself (meaning you'll be seeing a lot more of Loraine when I do get to share her full photoshoot). This is all just stuff from my phone. Meet Loraine Celeste, my third attempt at making this character in doll form! XD

Loraine is formerly a ballerina doll that wanted a taste for what else the world has to offer, so she secretly switched places with a nutcracker soldier, Auran Dulce, to see what his stance in life had to offer. While she still hasn't figured out where she belongs in the world, Loraine is an adventurous spirit that has so much love for the world and all its wonders. She travels across the kingdom of Equinox in search of where she's meant to be, and in the process, she makes many new friends.

Her doll was a process, I've attempted to make her before, but it just never turned out right before now, and part of it was that I didn't understand her character. She needed to be free like the wind, and that meant giving her room to explore, so her design changed to be more functional for that, something bright with some flow that also can blend in somewhat. I also wanted her to match Auran in having facial detailing. He has a scar that's filled in with gold, much like the process of kintsugi. Meanwhile she has a rose painted on the opposite side of her face, a symbol of the fact that while she is beautiful, she is a force to be reckoned with, a wild part of nature that has thorns amidst her grace and elegance. Loraine is tough, but she is also gentle and kind when the occasion calls for it. The rose has become an important symbol in developing her, and thus I wanted to photograph her with my mom's rose bushes. Aren't they lovely? My mom has done such a good job taking care of them.

Loraine is one of a group of dolls I've finished since my dad passed away, and it feels fitting somehow. I haven't worked on dolls in a long time, not since April, since Dad was sick and I just, didn't have the heart or energy for it. But something my dad wanted was for me (and all of my siblings) to be happy finding my path in life. And the truth is, I haven't really found that yet. I don't know what will make me happy, but Loraine's story is part of my process for figuring it out. As she goes on her adventures, I'm going to go on mine, we're gonna figure it out together. And with Auran by her side or sending her letters as she travels, I know she'll figure it out, just as I'm figuring it out. Everyone needs a friend like that. It's been my dream for ages to go and write a published fantasy novel, and I'm considering shifting gears to find a place in the publishing industry as a job to gain experience before I go and share this story with the world. I dunno how it'll work out, but that's what I told my dad the last time we got to talk about this. Telling stories is a core part of who I am, I would feel incomplete without them, so I'm gonna find a place in the world where I can do that. The Chronicles of Equinox are something I care a lot about, I love these characters and they light up my life. I want to make it real somehow.

#chronicles of equinox #auran dulce #loraine celeste #nutcrackers #oc #original characters #doll customization #custom doll #doll custom #ooak #ooakdoll #doll repaint #doll photography #doll photoshoot

45 notes · View notes

wutheringmights · 1 year

Note

I've just found Call Them Brothers and I am so in love with the way you write Warriors, Time, and Wind. The characterizations are all fascinating and they all feel like real, breathing people and it's super impressive. They're definitely my favorite characterizations I've found in any lu fic and I just wanted to say thank you for giving such complex characters such a fascinating and cathartic story.

Also, the way you have crafted the plot together and connected so many different narrative threads into what I can only describe as a gorgeous tapestry is absolutely masterful. You are truly composing one of the greatest and most well put together stories I've ever read. As a writer myself, I feel like I'm learning so much about how to use stylistic choices to better support plot threads. I absolutely adore CTB so thank you very much.

If it's alright, can I ask how you manage all the various plot threads and especially all the political intrigue?

I hope you have a lovely day/evening and thank you so much for Call Them Brothers

Thank you so much! You're really kind and I'm so happy you like CTB so far!! This story has been a big experiment of just throwing stylistic spaghetti at the wall and seeing what happens, so I'm glad you're enjoying it.

I am a proud preacher of the importance of character drama in a story. Any genre or idea or world is carried by the writing for the characters. I have spent a long time honing in on how to write character dramas.

I say that because all of the various plot threads, even the political intrigue ones, are at their core about two or more characters at odds with each other.

Every plot line about the war can be broken down into what Warriors's relationships are with other people, like Spirit, Lincoln, Zelda, Impa, Anders, and more. Typically, each character is a mouthpiece for a specific stance that Warriors opposes. Let them clash, and what is essentially a story about a bunch of people trying to figure out how to fight a war becomes 10 times more intriguing.

I know I wrote a very long post some time about about how I came up with some of the world building stuff concerning the politics, but I can't find it. Here is a quick summary of what I probably said:

Don't be afraid to just use real world politics in your story; my Hyrule is brimming with a lot of the classic Americanisms

Focus on cause and effect; if character X does something, then it should have a ripple effect

Look at other stories about the topic you're writing on; I was pretty familiar with literature and movies about war before writing this story, which certainly helped me in writing about a war

Get everyone's perspectives; I find that a lot of political intrigue focuses on the upper classes, which is why I think the story becomes richer when you look at how all these policies affect the people

For the copious amounts of plot threads... I'm not even sure, pal. All I know is that I established that certain characters are going through stuff and as I write the story, they kind of just do things on their own.

I can talk more about how the present day and the past are worked together:

For purposes of character development and plotting, I considered the past and the present two different stories; thinking them as the same one makes it more complicated than it needs be

I picked a point in both plots where the events had to happen in the same chapter, then paced CTB around it

The past is more thoroughly planned out in the present so that I could reference one in the other without worrying about inconsistencies

Everyone already knows how the past ends, as it ends in the present. That means the two sides of the story will have different types of tension: one where the reader sees the train wreck but can't stop it and one where the reader doesn't know when the crash is happening; understanding they have different types of tension and intrigue and leaning into it will help the plots match up

Everything beyond that I just kinda wing it. Truthfully, I can tell where in the story I shoe'd in a convenient plot point to help move things along. I don't think many people notice where the plot is weak since I try to make everything come off as being on purpose.

So that's my last bit of advice: be confident, especially if this is a genre you're not used to or a project that you think you're not prepared for. Readers can tell when you're scared. I swear that if you just commit and show no fear, your story will appear more put together than it is.

#not to tease the end of act 4 again but those two plot points I shaped the story's pacing around so that they could be in the same chapter?#that's the end of act 4 babey #anyway anon sorry i can't find my longer post about this #genuinely all you need is character drama and confidence and you'll be good #me rambling #ask #anonymous #lu ctb #frankie gives advice #<-could have sworn that was my advice tag but whatever

6 notes · View notes

nellie-elizabeth · 2 years

Text

Roswell, New Mexico: Kiss From a Rose (4x06)

Sick Michael is kind of the most precious thing I've ever seen lol.

Cons:

I don't really know what to make of Bonnie as a character. I'm extremely torn. I was excited to find out that her kiss with Michael had ulterior motives, but now we find out that those motives were her trying to help him, not hurt him. She hits that "born sexy yesterday" trope for me, where she's this wide-eyed innocent excited for someone to teach her about the world, but she's also super dangerous. It's tired, it's lazy, and I don't like how she's just willing to follow whoever happens to be nice to her at any given time. On the other hand, I do like that they're kind of keeping us guessing with her character. So I don't know.

Everything with Eduardo and his daughter felt like a waste of time to me. As we move further and further through this season, I'm realizing how much these side characters and new characters are eating up the screen time I'd rather be spending with our core cast. Anatsa was like that, and the new trio, especially Bonnie, get so much attention, and Eduardo with his family drama, Shivani with her sick daughter and semi-estranged wife... I don't know. I wish they'd known when they were making this season that it would be their last. Maybe they would have tightened the scope and focused on the things we're already invested in.

It's weird, because honestly I feel like the character who is getting the most good attention in this final season, and has the most interesting character stuff happening with him, is Michael. And Michael is my absolute fave, so of course I'm happy to get to see him explore his identity and his past... but at the same time, all this amazing character development for Michael just sheds an even brighter light on Alex's absence. I wish he could be there for Michael to do some processing with. I wish we could have seen him there for Michael in that moment when he learned his powers were gone. So many missed opportunities. I just really hope the payoff is good, for Alex's return...

Max is making me so angry! Honestly, after the last couple episodes when the drama between him and Liz seemed to be "I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop", I was actually excited to see that Max's powers were putting Liz in danger. This is a concrete issue that they need to work through. It's appropriately angsty, you've got the handprint binding them so they can feel each other's emotions... all good stuff. And then Max goes and gets a kiss from Bonnie to remove his powers? Just like that? That's a huge decision that doesn't only affect him! Michael is powerless too, and now they're down two aliens as they try and figure out what to do about Tezca and Clyde and all that. It's just so stupid that Max would do this. These are our final episodes with these characters, I really wanted to believe that Max had grown and changed and had started to learn his lessons, but he just keeps making the same mistakes. It's not fun to watch anymore. Echo is a ship I really enjoy, but this season has been super aggravating for both of them. Liz is doing her best, but she seems less alive as a character to me lately, since her only role seems to be worrying about the future of her relationship.

Pros:

This wasn't a bad episode, by any means, and I certainly enjoyed it a lot more than I did last week's installment. I think part of it is that I've given up hope of seeing Alex until episode eight at the earliest, so I was a lot more Zen about him not being there.

To start with, Michael's arc this season really is the strongest, most consistent thing we have going on! He's grown so much as a character over the years. I love the moment when he wants to go with Max to talk to Bonnie, since he promised he'd protect her. And how even after learning what she did, he ultimately can't entirely hate her for it. He's learning so much about who he is, and it's complicated to let go of the things you've held onto for so long, while also trying to feel grounded in your present choices. I love how they're grappling with that!

Also, he's just super, super adorable all snuffly and curled up on the couch under a blanket. Seriously melted my heart. Missing Alex, grumpy about his powers... too sweet. Liz was so worried about him, promising to solve everything with science right away. And Maria makes him soup and commiserates with him over losing their alien powers, and Dallas comes by to check on him and get his advice... I'm just very warm and fuzzy about Michael having this whole support system. Sure, I could complain about the people who didn't get to react or know about Michael being sick in any way, including Sanders, Isobel, and of course, Alex, but I can also appreciate what we did get to see. I know people probably didn't like the Maria stuff in this episode but I honestly found it super sweet that she was there to take care of him and talk things over with him. Justice for their friendship, please!

I loved Liz being a bad-ass, and having faith in Max, and doing all the right things: speaking of characters who have really grown throughout the show. She is, in my opinion, handling everything really well. It's just Max who's freakin' blowing it for the both of them. I loved the handprint stuff, too, the way Liz and Max were navigating how they were feeling through being able to experience each other's emotions... Liz being understandably scared that Max's powers would continue to be a dangerous problem, but also wanting to reassure Max that she's in this for the long haul and isn't going anywhere... all great stuff! Until that stupid ending, and now next week they're going to have to fight about Max being an idiot! Again!

And then there's the Kyle and the Isobel of it all! As I said previously, I was really displeased with how things went between them last week, so I was ready to still be disappointed, but I actually really liked the angst here! Kyle is so happy and feels so settled after their night together, but Isobel immediately opens with "oh no, did I ruin our friendship?" And of course Kyle plays along. If they'd left things there, I still would have been annoyed. But instead, Kyle, after having a talk with Eduardo about regrets, decides to lay it all on the line. He tells Isobel he's in love with her, and she says... that she doesn't know what to say.

I loved how Kyle tried to be calm about this, tried to say that she could take all the time she wanted, but Isobel, quite reasonably, doesn't want Kyle waiting around for something that Isobel can't promise will ever happen. The way their relationship is structured, with Kyle pining away and Isobel not being aware of her own feelings, actually really works for me, in terms of a good romance story, and also with these particular characters. Kyle and Eduardo are off on a road trip, so he'll have some time to process, and I'm willing to bet that Isobel is going to be thinking quite a lot about Kyle while he's gone! I have high hopes for what we'll get between these two by the end of the season.

Dallas gets to learn a bit more about his dad, and discovers that there could be hidden messages in the bible his dad gave to him when he was briefly awake in the 1940's. I like that we're continuing to develop Dallas more and more; of all the new characters who arrived in season three/four, Dallas is the one I'm really happy about having around. It was sweet that Isobel rushed back to help him access his memories, even if I'm annoyed that nobody bothered telling her that Michael was sick and powerless! Yeesh.

So that's where I'll stop for now. I really, really hope that the next couple of weeks give us some forward motion on the Alex situation. I don't want that to be the only thing I care about. It's not the only thing I care about. But it sure is the thing I care about the most, and I'm not going to lie about that...

7.5/10

#review #roswell new mexico #roswell new mexico review

10 notes · View notes

tw1stedthicket · 1 day

Text

Sorry if this is rather deep for my tumblr, but I feel like I gotta acknowledge how much of standing on my own two feet as an adult is heavily because of efforts to re-parent myself. I'm having to develop my own 'person' for the first time -- yes, it was always there, but it was like a baby bird that couldn't fly. There was nothing broken or faulty, but it was struggling to grow past a certain point without someone taking compassion and patience on it to give it what it needed. I have had to figure out who the fuck I actually am. What actually matters to me, what that looks like, and who I want to be. I am having to restrain the overactive judging part of me all too eager to jump to not having self worth, all too prone to shame, all too susceptible to projecting impatience with other people even over minor annoyance or upsetness, and struggling to accept it from others or myself, or feel indignant when other people push past me at work that I never stand up to. I feel like I'm learning what "benefit of the doubt" and "assuming the good" actually means, and God! So much shit I'm unlearning about failure and what that means for me, about not carrying myself in a small way, about drawing boundaries with people and myself and what is owed to me and what I owe to them, and about the way people do actually tend to forgive, do tend to extend mercy, do empathize with the feeling of yearning, of honest to god earnestness at our cores. We want to be loved. I'm learning how people are, and it's been such a long time coming to even stand.up. To face the day and not succumb to fear, and take baby steps toward the vulnerability of optimism, here again not too late now that I know my life is my own to live and nobody else's unhappiness to bear. The courage of acceptance, despite the possibility of rejection and abandonment, and I just couldn't have gotten to this point without learning what I have the last six years.

Lessons learned like, "Relationships require trust that people do not intend to hurt you, and if there are issues they will communicate it if they care about you, and if you care about them, you need to not build up resentment and actually communicate with them and trust them." Things like, "You're not on such a spotlight that performance is required of you. The only thing 'asked' is to be human. People don't actually care that much to notice and trip you up over perceived failings or unmet expectations, just show up wherever you are, be you, and let it go because it doesn't actually matter that much." Things like, "The validation of other people is your only lifeline when you feel empty inside, and that's okay while you are building it. But you will forever feel empty unless you learn to inhabit the space inside you and reach out to it in kindness, because the only place and person you are left with is you, and you will forever be capable of being ruined by the abandonment of others until you accept that you are, in fact, not a creature to have mercy on, but an entire, fleshed out human being worthy of everything you desire, and you do have a lot of acceptance and beauty around you already. You have to learn to treat yourself with love, like a friend, like the human you are, like you are on your own side, to keep going and not burn out. The center you crave of finally feeling safe, and safe enough to rest, has to be built from a foundation of love inside you. You are a safe place to lie down in. You see what you wish others did, and that's enough, and when you connect with others, it is as two people recognizing how together we are in our own lives, like neighbors in our gardens rising with the day to lovingly water our flowers & give a friendly laugh to. That means do what you love, own it, forgive yourself every time, be patient like you're still learning, and trust yourself that you are doing the right thing."

So much of my life is built around the anxiety of unlovability. And I've dug so much and know so much about perfectionism, people-pleasing, spirituality, co-dependecy, anxious attachment, etc. But it all kinda revolves around a fear of aloneness and inevitable abandonment, where unconditional love, kindness, warmth, understanding, patience, forgiveness, trust, listening, remembering, etc. is what is healing me. It feels like it's finally being delivered by me, someone who finally grew up enough to be able to give it. To be the stronger person to get down on the level of a child and extend compassion. I don't know if this is how it is for anyone else. That the source of unconditional love is arriving to them from a bigger, older figure after all - them, in the future. I've spent years trying to get it from my parents, even past the point of trying but still confusingly wondering how, even still indignantly upset that it still isn't there, and I admit I am still miles away from not being triggered damn near every time I come home. But I recognize it now as an adult witnessing another adult, somebody who sees the little kid in me and says "How could you do that to them?" and will step in with responsibility. I feel grief, just as I always have before I even knew its name, but at least now there's somebody else in me too - or I am somebody else altogether than I was then, and that person knows now that it's mean. It's mean to be mean to myself and leave me all alone, not having help, or trust, or warmth, or acceptance. And there is a great kindness at least now, imperfect but there, that I deserve better from myself. I can't change or fix anybody else, but I can be kind to myself at the end of the day. I can believe in myself like child me praying to a God much kinder - all the faith I need is in myself, trying to be built on every noticeable act of kindness that I am alive each day to see the beauty in it. Even on days I wish I wasn't, there are rainbows. The older me says hey, there must've been rain, wasn't there? That means puddles. Do you wanna go find 'em?

#recovery #healing #self-love

0 notes

glassmarcus · 3 months

Text

Picross^3

*Played throughout all of 2023, Written in December 2023

It’s Picross, but in 3D. Hal Laboratories 100% understood the assignment here because this is as exact as a 3D evolution can get. Those developers are just good at converting 2D mechanics into 3D ones if Kirby and the Forgotten Land is anything to go by. Picross 3D is 1 dimension more complicated, 1 dimension more satisfying, and at times, 1 dimension more frustrating.

The same core concepts of Picross are present. Each row follows its own rules of where squares can exist. By overlapping the rules between adjacent intersecting columns, you can figure out the nature of the puzzle little by little. Here there is just an extra axis applied, but you still end up only comparing columns and rows. You just end up doing it more times because you are essentially doing multiple Nonograms stacked on top of each and next to each other. The rules for the columns and rows are a bit stricter though, as having only a number of blocks as a rule would be too vague for it to work. Instead there are limits on how many segments of blocks are allowed. The point is, you're multiplying the amount of shit you keep track of by the depth added in Picross 3D. It feels wild at first, but solving some of these were the most satisfying Picross experiences I've had.

The reason for this isn't just the increased complexity, but the very nature of 3D. Nonograms always try to be some picture. But unless the silhouette of the image is strong, you won't have a clue what some of them are until they are colored in at the end. I never had that issue in Picross 3D while I've had that happen in even the best Picross games. I always knew what the art piece at the end was before the reveal because there is no abstraction of what the shape is. In 3D you are not painting, you are sculpting. You are given a large block to chip away at rather than constructing something from scratch. Form is the most important part of the product, so it is always clear.

The change from painting to sculpting also helps better describe the core of what I find Picross to be: Exclusion. In Picross, you find what can't possibly be colored in, so you know what has to be colored in. In 3D, you find what has to be intact so you can figure out what to get rid of. In both scenarios you are chipping away at impossibilities, but in 3D it's far more literal and completely skips the beginning phase in normal Picross of trying to place the initial building blocks yourself. You are pretty much doing the same thing, but it feels more direct here.

Now it being direct does not mean it's faster to get through these. Not all. In fact that's my main issue with Picross 3D. Things take too long to do, not because it's more complicated, but because you end up spending most of your time rotating and dissecting the initial block. I started to get Kid Icarus Uprising wrist pain playing through some of these time trials. The best advice I can give when playing this game is to not even attempt to get high ranks on these puzzles. It's veeeeery easy to mis-click a block and lose your perfect streak and trying to rotate your sculpture too fast will break either your DS screen or your hand. Also, don't be like me. Once you feel like you have mastered the logic of this game, stop and go to bed. Don't continue out of obligation. These later levels take 30+ minutes and there's a lot of them. Like even more than Mario Super Picross. Not quite as much as Hatsune Miku: Logic Paint S though. This game has a lot of content, so taking a break and coming back is recommended.

Honestly….I kinda want to play this game in VR. This is coming from someone who has sandbagged Virtual Reality at every turn. 99% of the time I’d rather just have a screen and a controller. But this left over 1% is where I think Picross 3D might fall into. I require intimate interaction with this 3 dimensional object and VR might be the best way to allow for that.

I can see myself returning for the sequel, but not going as hard with it as I did this game. But for now, I'll just stick with regular Picross. It's not as stimulating, but I sure can do a lot of them in the time it takes to do one 3D one.

#picross 3D

0 notes