#but it's just so wildly out of character to me for andrew to treat aaron like shit for no reason beyond Being Cruel | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

palmett-hoes · 3 years

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Do you have any fan casts or strong takes/feelings on the foxes’ appearances? Fandom tends to use the same Pinterest models, which feels wrong to me.

i do in fact! i've actually been meaning to make a post about how i choose to write all of the foxes' ethnicities anyway

but yes i absolutely agree that the typical pinterest model types u generally see on edits is not how i see any of them. nor is reece king or froy gutierrez or lucky blue smith one of my FCs for anyone

for a lot of them i don't necessarily have a single specific FC so much as i have like,, a general impression of features that i will see on various different people, who all may look wildly different from each other or who may not even look how i see the character as a whole but do have a specific feature i associate with them. mostly it boils down to the Energy i get tbh and that's just a Feeling i cant even explain

fun fact im a tiny bit face blind so that might account for some of why i'm so all-over about this

may as well go chronologically. some of them i definitely have more thoughts on than others

1. Dan

ethnicity: Afro Native (Sioux)

features: medium dark skin. buzzcut, killer fade. she often styles it in waves. she's very butch, wears a lot of basketball and cargo shorts, tank tops and flannels and jerseys, hiking boots. skinny but muscular, with a very rectangular body shape. defined jaw. probably like 5'4 or 5'5

FC/Energy: sometimes i get some dan energy out of janelle monae but more butch. lotta dan energy out of samira wiley. lashana lynch

2. Kevin

ethnicity: a lot of things tbd, but he's pretty multi-ethnic. i like the idea of kayleigh being half- or a quarter-japanese in addition to irish because it gives her more of a reason to go to japan for her undergrad. wymack is from d.c. which is a majority black city for its actual residents, but i also like the idea of him being Pasifika/Hawaiian. HOWEVER - and this is pretty important to my read of kevin's character - he's white passing, and has been mostly treated as a white guy who tans his whole life, like occasionally asked if he's italian maybe. learning that his father was a Distinctly Not White Man was a big shock to him.

kristin kreuk, lindsay price, phoebe cates, and marie digby are all half-asian actresses i base kayleigh on

i suppose i base his story partially on broadway actress carol channing, who revealed publically that she was a quarter black when she was like 80 years old. though maybe wentworth miller, a biracial actor who knows his father is black but also doesn't know him, is more accurate to kevin's story. then keanu reeves is a white passing actor with asian ancestry

also none of these people look anything like how i picture kevin lol. kevin is just like,, a guy. handsome ig. but kind of in a CW character kind of way

actually

kevin looks exactly like young jason momoa

3. Andrew

ethnicity: kayin/karen from myanmar

features: fat and muscular, very wide and heavy. this blog is basically all andrew body type refs. medium-olive skin, has a bit of a greyish tinge that makes him look a bit eerie or unhealthy. deep set, droopy eyes; looks so tired. flat face with a low-bridged nose. crooked teeth, especially his canines. natural hair black-ish but he bleaches it light blond. has the beginnings of martial artist punching callouses in his knuckles

FC/Energy: holy shit the characters i feel have Andrew Energy are all over the place. pedro pascal. babe ruth (yes fr). oddjob (harold sakata) from goldfinger. the jinn (mousa kraish) from american gods. gaear grimsrud (peter stormare) from fargo. takeshi kovacs (joel kinnaman) from altered carbon. and i wanna be clear, it's these characters specifically, and generally NOT the actors outside of that specific role. except pedro ❤️

4. Matt

ethnicity: cuban

appearance: matt has more of an Energy than specific features to me rn. that energy is Warm. he has that Warm bro jock dude energy. kind of a marvel hero build, hunky and muscular. very rectangular face. has this haircut:

5. Aaron

i get to cut myself some slack and not go AS in depth about aaron because he and andrew are identical twins

ethnicity: kayin/karen from myanmar

appearance: similar build to andrew, less confident and casual posture and body language. less apathetically murderous and more emotive expressions. better teeth bc his mom took him to the dentist. yes also bleaches his hair

celebrities: probably a lot like the difference between the characters and the actors. andrew is the characters and aaron is how the actors actually look. idk ive never looked at someone and thought 'hey! looks like aaron!'

6. Seth

ethnicity: have been going with half-vietnamese. considering looking into various south asian possibilities like pakistani

appearance: string bean build. that's all i have to offer

7. Allison

ethnicity: allison's very up in the air for me. she and seth are the two foxes i feel fine with being white, but im committing to having no white foxes sooo. i would say i generally see her as either half-middle eastern or chinese

appearance: plus sized and hourglass shaped. heart shaped face. taller, like 5'8 or 5'9. she has a pretty fraught history with her appearance and her parents payed for/pressured her into getting a nose job to have a 'prettier' nose. she also bleaches her hair blonde. she gets it done at a salon tho the twinyards do it in their bathroom

FC/Energy: elle king and nadia aboulhosn are my main inspos for her, esp body type but nadia esp in Vibes

8. Nicky

ethnicity: multi-ethnic. his mother is southern mexican Indigenous, possibly oaxacan. his father is mixed white/kayin

appearance: definitely takes after his mother while his father is white passing. dark brown skin, warm undertones. slightly stocky build. tall ovular head and thin aquiline nose. he's kind of just,, the opposite of the twins ig, so like their facial features look very different, which is a big part of why people don't make the connection between him and the twins alongside the difference in their skin tones, heights, and builds. nicky's build and features are very vertically-oriented, with a tall head, narrow-set eyes, thin nose with a high bridge, etc. the twins are horizontally-orienged, with broad, flat faces, wide-set eyes, wide noses with a low bridge, etc.

FC/Energy: yalitza aparicio, not a guy but one of the few Mexican Indigenous stars in the film industry and i really like her features for nicky. she's oaxacan

9. Renee

ethnicity: Black. african american

appearance: plus sized, circular/apple body shape. round face. dark skin. microlocs to a bit past her chin, bleached white and dyed at the ends. she and allison go to the salon together. femme but plain style, a lot of blouses and long skirts, practical shoes. knuckle callouses. about 5'6

FC/Energy: dominique fishback. tracie thoms, esp in RENT. gabourey sidibe. nicole byer, but not in Energy. brandy, for some reason, probably bc i think she has very serene Energy and is a little bit otherworldly. like if brandy played arwen or galadriel from lotr it would make perfect sense to me, and that's the Renee Energy™️

10. Neil

ethnicity: mixed. Black/Jewish on both sides. his father is polish ashkenazi and afro-brazilian. his mother is Black British and algerian jewish

appearance: very... sharp. like sharp all over. does that make sense? sharp features, sharp face shape, sharp angles to his body. he's got what i vaguely think of as a 'basketball build' not meaning tall but meaning very rangy and angular and lean. all limbs. seth has a similar build. lighter brown skin. he has waardenburg syndrome which is actually where he gets he gets his eye color, and his eyes are very large and widely spaced as well. freckles freckles freckles. freckles everywhere. 4a hair but at least during canon it's not very healthy and thus the curls aren't well-defined. he grows it out long enough to tie back and starts taking better care of it in post-canon. wonky, slightly crooked teeth, with a gap between the fronts

FC/Energy: now neil i actually have a ton for. mostly models which im a lil ashamed of bc i do try to draw more from athletes. alton mason is a main body type ref. mugsy bogues is good to see what i mean about the basketball build without the height. here're the boys: cykeem white, luka sabbat, désiré mia, Leo Hoyte-Egan, dylan hasselbaink, this beautiful stock photo model i've never been able to track down

i think about him every. goddamn. day.

in terms of like,, real ppl and not models: corbin bleu, especially during Jump In. figure skater elladj balde. rayan "ray ray" lopez from mindless behavior. A$AP Rocky a lil bit, maybe i just like his hairstyle idk

two more models i think are important: carissa pinkston and ralph souffrant

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fallingin-like · 4 years

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november 3

my cousins by @filteredred

see which other fics i’m reviewing this month! / my review request post!

this wonderful fic delves into tilda’s decision to give up the twins and how it was influenced by luther and maria. told from maria’s perspective, we get a better look at the rational behind what happened and, of course, we get to see kid!nicky and baby!twinyards.

first off, i really like the idea of this fic. it’s unique and i don’t think i’ve read anything exploring the cousins when they were really really young. it’s especially interesting to see this from maria’s perspective because it gives a better idea of the motivations behind the decisions made and how she rationalizes it all. it doesn’t justify any of the things that these characters did, but we get a better understanding of the situation they were in and why they they did these things. i think maria was the best person to use because she’s just trying to do her best, but she has to juggle trying to keep luther from being too angry, raising nicky, and a tilda who fluctuates wildly between being somewhat reasonable to absolutely terrible. it puts things into perspective for me and somehow it makes me empathize with them more. dealing with twins must be so overwhelming, maria, luther, and tilda are really in over their heads. even for a couple who have made the decision to have kids and have support from family/friends and are financially stable this is a really difficult time because everything is just so new. i must admit, i’ve never really thought about the hemmicks or tilda, just dismissed them as bad when in reality, people are complex, multi-faceted creatures that are all just trying to get through life in the way they have learned how. (although i really cannot stand drake. he is one that i just can’t get over and i guess that’s because he’s such a flat character in this series, we really don’t know much about him for this reason. and also, some people really just do bad things. anywAy)

parts that i really enjoyed in particular:

the contrast between luther and tilda, it’s really interesting seeing them interact because we know that they’re siblings and so they were raised in similar households but are almost opposites. it feels contrasting compared to andrew and aaron, who were twins and so similar in certain ways, but never lived together.

”i don’t think it was like that. i think she planned to build a life with him, and it hurt when she found out he’d been lying to her. and then he left.” excuse me how dare you make me feel things for tilda minyard. to see her in this light, with her behaviour as a way of covering up or denying the fact that she was hurt and pretending nothing is wrong and it’s not a big deal really reminds me of the twins. they seem to have inherited this coping mechanism and the instinct to distance themselves from other people to protect themselves.

”you cannot treat everything that you consider an imperfection with shame and judgment” you go maria!! also it’s really frustrating to see luther’s inability to see the good in people!!!

”i think nicholas reminds you of tilda. he talks too fast and too much and too loud. he laughs and sings and loves bright, bright things. he obeys you, but does not bend to your will” and “i see you trying to fit nicholas into your vision of perfection, just like your father did to you and tilda. i’m afraid you will push him away from us. i cannot lose my only son” i LOVE this take on the situation, i didn’t previously make the connection and wow it just fits so well

I LOVE HOW YOU WRITE NICKY!! he is just a bundle of joy and happiness and wonderful things. so enthusiastic and excited for everything, it makes it harder knowing what happens to him in the future and how that changes his behaviour. he is so cute and realistic with his view on the world. the bit about the diapers is absolutely adorable

”’what are some things that are orange?’…’pumpkins!’ nicky yelled. ‘kittens and foxes and the oranges from my breakfast!’” oh nicky is so precious and i love that he chose orange.

”remember when you played with bubbles and tried not to let them pop? touch them softly, just like that” wow i love that!

i love chapter 6 where we see maria and tilda bonding and getting along

”that lady is a VERY BIG DARK BROWN EGG!” and “you have lots of rings, you must be RICH!” oH MY GOODNESS NICKY!! hahaha this was so funny and exactly what a child would say and it’s even better knowing it is nicky.

i can’t quite put the last few chapters on my list because they were just too heartbreaking. i had grown so hopeful and it was just so sad to see that after all that, the decision was still made to give up the boys, and later to take back aaron. and oh oh, to think that they believed that the boys would never know they were twins. you ended this so well and it was so complete. this whole fic is very well written and entertaining. i would love to read a million more pages of the younger nicky you have here, learning and loving and growing. thank you so much for writing this fic, it’s amazing.

#my cousins #aftg fic review #raelle writes

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palmett-hoes · 4 years

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How do you feel about the Korean twinyards hc?

i like it fine, certainly more than white minyards, and i think it would establish a deeper layer of conflict between andrew and riko that could be interesting to explore

Uneasy Subconscious by maydaykevin on ao3 has the twins as korean. it's one of the few fics i've read that really uses the idea of the foxes as POC and delves into racial dynamics. i especially appreciate that each chapter follows a different fox, and they all get their own storyline as part of an interconnected plot. it's a good fic and i highly recommend checking it out, though cw for alcohol, some kissing/heavy petting, some internalized homophobia, and racist language (ch.6, racist gets knocked out cold)

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that being said, korean isn't really my favorite headcanon for the twins.

(this first bit is gonna be purely my personal opinions and take on the character. i'm not getting into any systematic analysis yet.)

to be clear, i don't see kpop idols as representative of all koreans. HOWEVER i do think there's a pretty good chance that a korean interpretation of the twins (especially written by a white person) would take a lot of inspiration from kpop idols, considering their worldwide popularity makes them accessible touchstones of Korean culture to most people, and because they often have bleach blond hair. so while i don't necessarily have anything against the twins as Korean, i just don’t imagine andrew looking anything like an idol. i see him as fat and muscular and not conventionally attractive, and that’s just not the way big name idols look.

one of my favorite andrew FCs is Toshiyuki “Harold” Sakata, an olympic weightlifter and professional wrestler most famous for playing Oddjob in the James Bond movie Goldfinger.

now to me, Sakata is basically the perfect andrew, (although i don't hc andrew as Japanese). in terms of presence and physicality, he's boxy, powerful, blank, and intimidating. i also do think he's handsome, but not in a conventional way, if that makes sense

idk i just want to establish a concrete reference point for when i discuss people's appearances, and i absolutely love Sakata

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now for the bits that aren't entirely my personal taste

this would be very different coming from a korean person, or really any asian person in general, because then it would come from a place of personal experience and understanding. however, i am white, and with that i need to do a lot of research and introspection if i want to write characters of color meaningfully

some of that is addressing internal biases about the ethnicity that you're headcanoning a character, like whether or not there are overt or harmful stereotypes you're playing into by writing andrew as korean. (i don't really think there are). but another thing to consider is 'why korean?' specifically 'why korean?' over any other asian ethnicity

it's a bit tricky to describe because by no means is any asian ethnicity overrepresented in western media, but what is represented focuses largely on light skinned east asians, mostly Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. asia is a massive and incredibly diverse continent, and i think for white people (especially, though not exclusively) looking to diversify your writing, it’s a good idea to do a little more general research first. Ethnicities from South, South-East, and Central Asia are all wildly underrepresented as well.

Is there something particular about Korean culture or Korean history that you feel resonates with the twins’ story? then i'd love to see them interpreted as korean!! but if not then consider learning more about other asian cultures, especially if (like me) you're deliberately looking to write meaningful diversity of underrepresented people.

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and then there’s the question of how to actually write the twins as korean. we know enough about their family that it doesn’t work to just make a quick change and include some Korean cultural reference points. there are a lot of things to consider. (i’m using Korean here because it’s the ask, but these questions and considerations apply for writing the twins as any ethnicity)

first off. who’s korean? i’m assuming for most people it would be the twins’ dad while tilda is white, making the twins mixed. did aaron have a relationship with his father at all? does he even know who his father is? does he even know he’s Korean? culture is built and taught and experienced, it’s not something you’re born knowing. you need to have a backstory for aaron and the twins’ parents to figure out the amount of Korean influence aaron would have. can he speak the language? did he grow up eating the food? does he celebrate the holidays? did he grow up around other Korean people? deciding yes or no to any of these doesn’t make him any more or less Korean, but it does influence his characterization and his story. culture goes hand and hand with community. if aaron was a mixed kid raised completely by a white mother then it doesn’t make sense for him to speak the language or any of the other traditional hallmarks of Korean identity. he’s still Korean, but what that means to him - if it means anything to him - is very different

but what if it’s not just the twins’ father? names like ‘Hemmick’ and ‘Minyard’ obviously aren’t traditionally Korean names, but it may be worth figuring out a backstory for them anyway. there could still be a Korean story there to be told

and then there’s andrew. andrew given up at birth and raised from day 1 in the foster care system would have absolutely no conception of his ethnicity at all. he wouldn’t even know he was Korean. there are a lot of decisions you have to make to write this. is andrew white passing? in which case he wouldn’t even know he’s asian until aaron tells him so, which could be a huge shock to him. if he’s not white passing then what does he look like? this could affect the way he was treated growing up. a lot of mixed asian kids look very ethnically ambiguous. if so, andrew could have been treated similarly ambiguously, and could form an identity that is more fluid and based heavily on the person perceiving him. if he looks like his asian parent(s) then he could have been treated as an asian person, but he would have no connections to a specific ethnic culture, and this would be very apparent to a kid who is treated as an asian person. there is no pan-asian culture in the way that there’s a Black culture or a Latino culture. National and ethnic identities are more separate and defined because asia wasn’t displaced by european colonialism in the same way that Africa and the Americas were. if andrew sees himself as asian this lack of a specific connection could be very obvious to him. if he doesn’t see himself as asian this could be less so. but any way you write andrew, as any ethnicity, you’re going to have to consider this lack of knowledge about himself as being hugely influential on the development of his identity.

edit: i got an anon informing me that some of my wording up above comes off as rather dismissive and generalizing of Black and Latino culture. it wasn't my intention but it's badly worded and can certainly be read that way, and for that i'm sorry. i go more in depth on the problem and what i actually meant in the post

#txt #andrew minyard #aaron minyard #my posts

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