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hunter-sylvester · 3 months

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Hi! I’m the anon who wrote the ask about Hunter’s parental issues and about his attachment to Kevin. Thank you for answering my asks, I absolutely love the way you write and how you explain everything! You’re extremely talented!🫶

I honestly didn’t notice how in love Hunter was with Kevin until I watched the movie a second time. It’s crazy how you can literally see all feeling in Hunter’s eyes when he looks at Kevin. I also loved how you said that their relationship fits a BDSM bratting dynamic, because I totally see it.

[and as someone who has ADHD and deals with RSD on a regular, I completely understand him. It sucks.]

Hey 🤘 [prev ask for context] Yeah I obviously couldn’t be 100% sure they were from the same person but it definitely makes the most sense lol

Thank you so much! I’m really glad you enjoy my rambling thoughts about Hunter as a character <3

If you do like my writing, I’m tempted to sheepishly gesture over to my actual Metal Lords fics over on Ao3 if you haven’t checked them out, even tho it makes me feel like a bit of a dick to do so 😅 (They are mostly locked to registered users, blame AI data scraping. The only Metal Lords fic not locked rn is a tiny ficlet. An Ao3 account is free tho 👀)

In any case, I really appreciate that you pushed me to do a bit of analysis again. Because sometimes I tend to forget that all the stuff that lives in my head as “obvious” isn’t always stuff I’ve said out loud on here lmao

There’s a lot to pull from the film if you’re willing to be a bit mentally ill about it.

And you’re absolutely right about the way he looks at Kevin, I mean, it happened enough for me to make a whole ass gifset of it lmao

Look at him. The boy is smitten. Clueless, of course. But smitten.

Which I credit basically entirely to Adrian Greensmith, as it was a vision he had for the character. I really can’t imagine Hunter having been played by anyone else as he brought so much to the role. (Fun fact, if I remember correctly: Noah Urrea, who plays Clay, originally auditioned for Hunter. No harm but I'm very glad he didn't get that. He makes a good Clay and Hunter just needed to be played by Adrian.)

One of the key things Adrian brought to the role also being, probably accidentally, his anxiety.

"I spent a lot of Metal Lords feeling a bit anxious [...] and in hindsight I wonder if some of that was just a sign that Hunter was quite an anxious character [...] I mean his body's so tense all the time." - Adrian Greensmith.

I shortened that quite a bit so I'm including a slightly longer clip of the interview audio for more context. (I can upload a subtitled video clip if anyone wants that as well as link the video on yt but I'd have to do a bit of a search for that)

Aside: If I had to guess I'd say he's probably referring to Peter Sollett who directed Metal Lords when he mentions a 'Pete'.

And yeah the bratting thing was a little bit of a joke but mostly not a joke. Without going absolutely off the deep end, the mentality behind bratting is something I really see in Hunter.

Evie Lupine has a wonderful video about bratting and why people would be interested in it (and why some people hate it) but a short snippet that always spoke to me from that is the following:

"The motivations behind bratting are pretty varied. I think one of the main ones would be a sense of security and comfort. This is when the acting out is sort of a way to be reassured that even when you, break rules, even when you push at things, the partner that you're with is not going to abandon you." - Evie Lupine

Obviously, with Hunter's fear of abandonment, it's easy to see why this would appeal to him.

He also just...idk he has brat energy - sincerely, a brat.

And Kevin does just play out the counterpart to that. He doesn't always have Hunter under control but he tries to.

And he does mostly act as that safe person to brat against, which again amplifies the impact it has when Hunter starts to think he's actually losing Kevin, destroying that feeling of safety.

Aside: I obviously don't think that these characters, in universe, negotiated for a bratting dynamic. In universe it'd be something that just sort of organically developed within their friendship/relationship. But even more than that it's an archetype of a dynamic that we as the audience can easily read into their interactions if that makes sense.

Can you believe the shit they will accidentally put in movies? lmao

And yeah, I have ADHD as well. And RSD is something that affects me pretty fucking severely. I've only really become more aware of it in the past year or so as my partner has pointed it out more and more.

So it's definitely something that I then noticed more and more in Hunter too.

Obviously this is all just my take on the character, and other people might have totally different interpretations. That's the beauty of art, we all get to find what we need in it and read it in our own ways, influenced by our own life experiences.

Thank you again for asking, Anon 🤘 (if you want to use a nickname or smth to identify that you're the same Anon, let me know. If not, that's totally okay too, but I might not always know it's you)

#this was supposed to be more CASUAL and it kinda is?? just still...long lmao #it's over fucking 800 words again #metal lords #hunter sylvester #answered ask #hunters asks #anon ask #hunterwriteswords #character analysis #adrian greensmith #kevin x hunter #kevin schlieb #my post #gifs

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hearteyesmcgarrett · 8 months

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is it weird to just answer the ask meme questions without actual asks? probably, but i want to yell about fandom shit rn so you can't stop me

A - Ships that you currently like a lot. its obvious that im in a grimm fixation rn, so i have to say nick/monroe as a romantic ship (or nick/monroe/rosalee), and the whole gang as a platonic relationship. For SGA, i'm always a mcshep fan but i honestly enjoy any pairing of AR1. Anyone that has followed me for an extended period of time knows that im a mcdanno (H50) and leverage ot3 truther as well.

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind. hmm, not sure? OH some folks doing the sga kinkmeme have mentioned john/cam and im very intrigued

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will. Rodney/Jennifer :( I love Jennifer, but the writers consistently changed her characterization and that relationship felt forced and weird (SGA)

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t. John/Elizabeth. I'm sorry! maybe its just because im gay af but to me their relationship felt like bffs, not romantic (SGA)

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what? I made that stargate cinnamon roll meme, if that counts

F - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom? ~10 years

G - Have you ever had an OTP? If so, do you remember your first one? Who was in it? i'm a multishipper for sure, but one of the first ships i remember really clearly was eric/ryan from csi miami (circa age like 12)

H - What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)? TV!

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why? I dont know that it was entirely tumblr, but yeah, Voltron. The fandom was truly fucking awful

J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.) uhhhh, like every show tbh. 99% of the shows i watch came from tumblr or online friends

K - What character has your favorite development arc/the best development arc? Eliot Spencer (Leverage)

L - Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. hmm, I guess Adalind counts as a character who isnt one of my faves. She's a complex and interesting character, and its clear that a lot of her decisions come from a place of trauma. After having Diana it really shows that she does want to protect her and keep her safe (grimm)

M - Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend. Ronon (SGA), Hardison (Leverage), Teal'c (SG1), etc

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom 1. men showing emotions!!! (grimm does this well, thankfully) 2. on a similar note: depicting how the shit these characters get up to is traumatizing and how that impacts them long term 3. literally any canon queer rep. can we PLEASE have a show like stargate or grimm where one of the characters (especially a man) is canonically queer? is that so hard???

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of? Forfeit by Rise Against always makes me think of ascended Daniel/Jack (SG1). Oh and ever since i saw a gifset with lyrics from it, Timberwolves at New Jersey by Taking Back Sunday makes me think of John (SGA)

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas). one of these fuckin days i am going to write a baseball SGA AU

Q - A fandom you’ve abandoned and why. As previously mentioned: Voltron because the fan base was toxic and awful

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom? all my favorite fandoms are themed around found family so this is so hard lmao. Nick & Hank (Grimm), Eliot & Harry (Leverage Redemption), Harry & Breanna (LR), Don & Charlie if brothers count (Numb3rs), etc

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon anyone who reads my H50 fics knows that i will fuckin die on the hill that Danny has an anxiety disorder

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? besides anxious danny, I'd say John having ADHD (SGA), and Monroe being bi (Grimm) are two right off the top of my head

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites 1. Steve McGarrett (H50) - he's been through so much shit, but he's still so damn loyal and protective and kind. He's such a good dude who is just traumatized beyond belief. 2. Charlie Eppes (Numb3rs) - besides the fact that i am CONVINCED he has ADHD, he's just so fucking loving and passionate about his work and the people he loves. he balances out the hardness of Don and the gang with the sheer size of his heart 3. Eliot Spencer (Leverage) - basically the same reason as steve. I have a type.

V - Which character do you relate to most? this is tough. probably Daniel (SG1) - esp early seasons - because of similar worldviews and interests and personalities, and Danny (H50) because of similar personalities

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom. MISCOMMUNICATION!! its so frustrating.

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom. im a big ol softie so i love stuff like mutual pining, hurt/comfort, etc.

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms Good Omens is a big one rn lmao. I've read the book but haven't watched the show. Also, Daredevil probably. I watched at least the first season years ago, but haven't seen anything beyond that. I still enjoy seeing people's posts about it and i read fic sometimes

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! im so cranky rn about the lack of depiction of trauma/mental illness/neurodivergence/etc in fandoms where its to be expected. like with Grimm rn, you give Nick PTSD and sensory enhancements but then suddenly forget about them?? that's not how that works! Or why is it always just hinted at that characters are ND? why is it so hard to just be like 'yeah no x has ADHD (or whatever)'? i want to be able to actually have complex/tough/interesting/etc protags that are ALSO neurodiverse. if we're all reading John as having ADHD (SGA) or Parker being autistic (leverage) anyways, why can't these things just be intentionally part of the character

#sorry i just have opinions and wanted to yell into the void about them #ask game

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maya-matlin · 7 months

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Hi! I’d love to hear your view on Julian and Brulian? Like other people have pointed out, he had a whole different personality initially before they decided to lean into his dorky side. But even when they wisely tried to make him adorkable, there’s just something about him I don’t fully love and trust—maybe it’s the actor’s line deliveries, or the way even as an adult he’s so fixated with a group of high schoolers from a school he didn’t even attend (a movie and then a documentary in which he inserts himself lol?!), or just how he he seemed less of a real character than just a love interest for Brooke. And honestly I thought he had more chemistry with Alex! I love the idea of Brooke with a sweet but strong dork, but as much as I like some brulian gifsets, when I actually watch their scenes they just don’t click for me. I hope this makes sense!

I like Julian fine. He wasn't one of my favorite characters, but I thought he mostly fit into later seasons OTH. But I have to admit that there were several occasions where I would compare him to Lucas. It wasn't just within his relationship with Brooke. Julian was friends with Nathan, close with Jamie (even making him his best man!), was involved with both of Lucas's main love interests and like Lucas, created media. Even though Clay was technically Lucas's replacement, Julian was the one primarily serving that role. His characterization was kind of all over the place. Like you said, Julian literally changed personalities based on the season. I'm not sure if it was a deliberate shift in the writing or if Julian's personality changed because of Austin Nichols. I have no insight on this. I haven't watched a single interview with Austin and have zero behind the scenes tea other than he dated Sophia for years.

In terms of weak performances, the worst was by far in season 9 when Julian fell into a dark hole after leaving his son in the hot car. I wasn't at all sold on the angst or Julian's pain. Julian was just selfishly throwing himself into danger and inserting himself into Nathan's kidnapping arc just to make himself feel less guilty. It didn't suit him. This is a perfect example of comparing Julian to Lucas. I completely understand that the Lucas/Dan history meant the two teaming up was highly unlikely, but Chad 100% could have pulled off the tough guy stuff in that context. Then at the very end of the series, Julian essentially replaces Lucas when he writes HIMSELF into the story of Lucas's high school life, stealing the moment where he makes the winning shot at the state championship. I mean, it was probably just Mark Schwahn's petty bullshit, but still.

LOL yeah. Looking back, Julian's introduction was kind of sketchy. To a degree, I think that was intentional. Julian showing up as Peyton's jilted ex was a misdirect. We were meant to think he was going to cause trouble for Lucas and Peyton only for him to end up with Brooke instead. So with that knowledge, it turns out Julian decided to read Lucas's book and, like the entire world apparently, realized it was the greatest story ever told and became personally invested.

You're making complete sense! I feel the same way. I'm aware Julian is a good man and was a loving, devoted husband to Brooke, but I just don't feel it. The actors were doing everything right and the writing was solid, but there's just no passion. It's nice, but it's not particularly exciting. I'm happy for Brooke, but my feelings don't go beyond that. When it comes to Julian/Alex, I pretty much agree. I'm mostly glad they never got together because their friendship was so good and genuine that it didn't need to be muddled up with relationship drama. But at the same time, they pulled me in far more than Brooke and Julian ever did.

My stance is pretty much that it should have been Brucas together with Naley in the final episode. Julian was only in Tree Hill for Brooke. Peyton wanted out of her hometown, even attempting to leave multiple times to go to Jake, and really only came back for Lucas. Both Brooke and Lucas had a lot of love and nostalgia for their small town and seemed truly happy returning to it after college. It just makes sense.

#Anonymous #Ignore my cringy pro Brucas paragraph even though I stand by it

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threebetrayals · 1 year

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KNOWING YOUR PARTNER WELL CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE WRITING TOGETHER A LOT EASIER. ( REPOST DO NOT REBLOG ! )

✿ NAME: grey ✿ PRONOUNS: they/them ✿ PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION: discord’s always infinitely better than tumblr ims, but i actively use both ✿ NAME OF MUSE(S): scaramouche/kunikuzushi/kabukimono/shouki no kami/wanderer wow god he’s got a lot of names for someone with literally no true name. i also have 4 other blogs of muses but i won’t list them all here lmao

✿ EXPERIENCE/HOW LONG (MONTHS / YEARS?): christ. uh. i’m not even sure, but it’s definitely over 10 years. we?? might even be approaching 15 at this point??? i’m fandom grandpa ok

✿ PLATFORMS YOU’VE USED: forums, dreamwidth, little bit of discord, but i’ve always come back to the hellsite that is tumblr.

✿ BEST EXPERIENCE: i don’t have only one, i’ve had a LOT of amazing experiences in rp over the years. discovering the tumblr rp scene with my qp partner, writing all assortment of character dynamics & relationships with said qp partner, creating two ocs entirely for the fictional world he created, meeting some really amazing people who’ve followed me across all number of blogs regardless of fandom & muse (s/o to rook, holly, & reiikon honestly, i do not Deserve), playing in some really great panfandom games back in my time on dreamwidth & getting some character friendships i never thought i needed out of them, and... most recently, losing my mind over kazu/scara with goose because that’s already like, my favourite thing to happen on this blog ok

✿ RP PET PEEVES/DEALBREAKERS: mmm... my big dealbreakers are people who basically spam the dash with stupid levels of ooc (i’m fine with some spam!! but there is a point where i can’t handle it) or, worse, gifset after gifset after gifset. also obligatory drama mention, but i’ve been really fortunate to have avoided a lot of that sort of stuff for several years now.

✿ FLUFF, ANGST OR SMUT: i love writing all three, given the right muses & circumstances! but i’m forever a huge fuckin sucker for angst. i have a type when it comes to muses and it usually involves haunting trauma which i really love to dig into to explore them more as a character. muse/character exploration as a whole is the the biggest draw for me when it comes to rp, and i like to go DEEP.

✿ PLOTS OR MEMES: i love a healthy mix of both!! plots are great for very specific things i want to have play out or explore, and that structure can be really nice. even just some plotted pre-established relationship before jumping into a thread goes a long way for me. memes on the other hand, i adore as well. prompts to respond to will forever be easier than writing a starter with little to nothing to go off of and honestly? i’ve discovered some interesting interactions/aspects of characters i didn’t expect through memes & memes turned into threads.

✿ LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: not to call myself out or anything but i’m gonna go ahead and say both again. long replies will always be my top favourite because lord knows i can get really long-winded while writing. i love exploring a character’s thoughts & feelings in response to things and long replies will always be the best way to delve into those in as much depth as i like. short stuff can be good too though, given sometimes you wanna write but don’t have the energy for paragraph after paragraph lmao. plus?? there’s a lot of fun & silliness that can be had in shorter threads that i’ll never turn down.

✿ BEST TIME TO WRITE: whenever i have the attention span. honestly though, that seems to be evenings for me, maybe with a little afternoon mixed in.

✿ ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S): uhhh... i won’t deny that i tend to pick up muses who i can relate to in some capacity. scara... i wouldn’t say i relate to him a TON, but we do share a sort of... lostness. i used to know what i wanted too, but things fell apart, as they do, and i still feel kinda just. lost in limbo. can also relate to wanting to stomp all over your emotions, so. yeAH LMAO if i’m like him at all, it’s in small ways.

tagged by: the best goose @rosemourne tagging: UHM. i never know who to tag. let’s see... @florafound, @chronal-anomaly, @luckuki, @alatusatlas, @lupusmatra, & anyone who’d like to be tagged?

#“ ━━ ◤ dash meme. ◢#in which even on an ooc meme grey rambles too much #it's just my style ok stop looking at me

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lovecolibri · 2 years

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SaL anon here bestie and, well, I'm sure you've heard the news. Not sure it comes as a surprise, RNM really only ever had one, maybe two, reasons to watch and neither of those was the writing. Honestly I've got mixed feelings on this one, on the one hand I can stop hoping despite all evidence to the contrary that this show won't disappoint me, which is a relief. On the other, the only reason I still bother having hope for it is of course Malex and the incredible Vlamburn chemistry that carried

most of us through the horrors of S2 even (honestly with any other actors in those roles, I'd have been done by 2x02 with no regrets). Also there's the sentimental value in Malex being what kicked off our SaL based screaming in the void. Curious to know your thoughts on this my friend when your up for discussing it but would totally get it if you wanted to put this off till 911 is officially on hiatus. Take care 😗😗.

Hi bestie! I got your first ask about the promo but had to be in the office working all day for the rest of the week covering for someone (and our new boss wants us back in the office full time soon 🙄) so I didn’t get to it right away, and then the cancellation notice came in so I figured it would be in poor taste to drag the show that day, so I was holding on to it.

I also have mixed feelings. I’ve been out of touch with the show since season 3 ended and didn’t keep up with any of the news about season 4 until the promo poster (for ANTS!) dropped the other day with the season synopsis which was...not particularly encouraging (another season of Malex being separated and doing different things? whyyyyyy are they wasting the best dynamic and scene partner chemistry?! WHY?!). I’m with you in that I can finally stop having some hope that the show is going to live up to it’s potential and focus on the actually interesting dynamics and storylines and give characters scenes together that actually make sense.

But also on the other hand, Malex. What a phenomenally heartbreaking and beautiful love story, with actors that actually pull it off! I still see gifsets from season 1 that feel like a gut punch, and moments between them where I feel like I should look away because it’s so intimate. The wealth of amazing fanfic that came out of that love story immediately after the show started is a testament to how magical it was, and even when the writing let them down again and again, Tyler and Vlamis always managed to hold on to that magic. Sometimes it was just by the skin of their teeth, but they kept that flame alive through some pretty horrendous choices on the show’s part.

It’s frustrating and disappointing that a show that truly had the potential to be incredible and interesting and heartfelt was helmed by people and a network more concerned with teen soap drama. It’s frustrating and disappointing that a pretty stellar all around cast with the chops to pull off some ambitious things (that DID pull off some ambitious things!) got stuck with a network and writing better suited for a teen drama. I wish I could say I’m surprised by the cancellation news but honestly after what we got in season 3, I’m not. They wasted the whole first half of the show on a plot that went nowhere and was not needed! The writing for Echo and Malex was all over the place! Malex got together in a very confusing way given the animosity all season until suddenly it was gone. Kyle disappeared for several episodes and no one even mentioned him! Alex wasn’t in most of the finale OR in the big showdowns! The love of his life nearly died and we are TOLD they saw each other but don’t get to see it?! And don’t even get me started on the amount of time and dialog wasted on certain characters that didn’t end up serving any purpose the entire season. It’s frustrating, and sad, knowing what could have been. Knowing that they won’t ever really get a chance to try and fix things and that these characters that deserved so much better won’t ever get it.

And it’s sad because Malex is what brought us together! Ryan and his music could have been written about Alex and Michael and it’s going to be bittersweet to let that go, especially since our alternate 911 is being Like That right now. But no matter what, no matter the missteps the show made, Malex will ALWAYS be special. There are so many stories and avenues to be explored with them that will keep fic writers busy for a long time to come, I’m sure. Vlamburn sparked something so beautiful that shows will be trying to capture and re-create forever. I’m sure in 10 years some cable show looking back on shows and couples from the past will be talking about Malex and what should have been and we all know Vlammy won’t ever shut up about his love for Michael, Alex, Malex, and Tyler.

And, we still have one more season to go! One more season of Malex, one more season of songs to flail over. The feelings about the show may be mixed, but my excitement about your asks will never fail. Cheers to us, bestie, and cheers to our woo wee woo show and the fandom that always came through to fill in the gaps, rewrite/expand the stories, create stunningly beautiful AUs, and magical fanart. That deserves to be celebrated!

#my sweet nonnie friends #sleeping at last anon #roswell nm

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blackstarising · 3 years

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coming back to this post i made again to elaborate - especially as the ted lasso fandom is discussing sam/rebecca and fandom racism in general. there are takes that are important to make that i had failed to previously, but there's also a growing amount of takes that i have to, As A Black Person™, respectfully disagree with.

tl;dr for the essay below sam being infantilized and the sam/rebecca relationship are not the same issue and discussing the former one doesn't mean excusing the latter. and we've reached the glen of the Dark Forest where we sit down and talk about fandom racism.

i should have elaborated this in my last post about sam/rebecca, but i didn't. i'll say it now - i personally don't support sam and rebecca getting together for real. i believe what people are saying is entirely correct, even though sam is an adult legally, he and rebecca are, at the very least, two wildly different stages of life. for americans, he's at the equivalent of being a junior in college. there are things he hasn't gotten the chance to experience and there are areas he needs to grow in. when i was younger, i didn't understand the significance of these age gaps, i just thought it would be fine if it was legal, but as someone who is now a little older than sam in universe, i understand fully. we can't downplay this. whether or not you think sam works for rebecca or not, even despite the gender inversion of the Older Man Younger Woman trope, whether or not he is a legal adult, i don't think at this point in time, their relationship would work. i think it's an interesting narrative device, but i don't want to see it play out in reality.

that being said!

what's worrying me is that two discussions are being conflated here that shouldn't be. sam having agency and being a little more grown™ than he's perceived to be does not suddenly make his relationship with rebecca justified. i had decided to bring it up because sam was being brought into the spotlight again and i was starting to realizing that his infantilization was more common than i felt comfortable with.

sam's infantilization (and i will continue to call it that), is a microaggression. it's is in the range of microaggressions that i would categorize as 'fandom overcompensation'. we have a prominent character of color that exhibits traits that aren't stereotypical, and we don't want to appear racist or stereotypical, so we lean hard in the other direction. they're not aggressive, they're a Sweet Baby, they're not world weary, they're now a little naive. they're not cold and distant, they're so nice and sweet that there's no one that wouldn't want approach them, and yeah, on their face, these new traits are a departure and, on their face, they seem they look really good.

but at a certain point, it reaches an inflection point, and, like the aftertaste of a diet coke, that alleged sweetness veers into something a lot less sweet. it veers into a lack of agency for the character. it veers into an innocence that appears to indicate that the person can't even take care of themselves. it veers into a one-dimensional characterization that doesn't allow for any depth or negative emotion.

it's not kind anymore. it's not a nice departure from negative stereotypes. it's not compensating for anything.

it's patronizing.

it is important that we emphasize that characters of color are more than the toxic stereotypes we lay on them, yes, but we make a mistake in thinking that the solution is overcorrection. for one thing, people of color can usually tell. don't get it twisted, it's actually pretty obvious. for another, it just shifts from one dimension to another. people of color are still supposed to be Only One Character Trait while white people can contain multitudes. ted, who is pretty much as pollyanna as they come, can be at once innocent and naive and deep and troubled and funny and scared. jamie can be a prick and sexy and also lonely and also a victim of abuse. sam, however, even though he was bullied (by jamie, no less), is thousands of miles away from home, and has led a protest on his team, is usually just characterized as human sunshine with much less acknowledgement of any other traits beyond that.

and that's why i cringe when fandom calls sam a Sweet Baby Boy without any sense of irony. is that all we're taking away? after all this time? even for a comedy, sam has received a substantive of screen time over two whole seasons, and we've seen a range of emotions from him. so as a black person it's hurtful that it's boiled down to Sweet Baby Boy.

that's the problem. we need to subvert stereotypes, but more importantly, we need to understand that people of color are not props, or pieces of cardboard for their white counterparts. they are full and actualized and have agency in their own right and they can have other emotions than Angry and Mean or Sweet and Bubbly without any nuance between the two. i think the show actually does a relatively good job of giving sam depth (relatively, always room for improvement, mind you), especially holding it in tension with his youth, but the fandom, i worry, does not.

it's the same reason why finn from star wars started out as the next male protagonist in the sequel trilogy but by the third movie was just running around yelling for REY!! it's the same reason why when people make Phase 4 Is the Phase For Therapy gifsets for the mcu and show wanda maximoff, loki, and bucky barnes crying and being sad but purposefully exclude sam wilson who had an entire show to tell us how difficult his life is, because people find out if pee oh sees are also complex, they'll tell the church.

and the reason why i picked up on this very early on is because i am an organic, certified fresh, 100% homegrown, non-gmo, a little ashy, indigenous sub saharan African black person. the ghanaian tribes i'm descended from have told me so, my black ass parents have told me so, and the nurses at the hospital in [insert asian country here] that started freaking out about how curly my hair was as my mother was mid pushing me out told me so!

and this stuff has real life implications. listen: being patronized as a black person sucks. do you know how many times i was patted on the back for doing quite honestly, the bare minimum in school? do you know how many times i was told how 'well spoken' or 'eloquent' i was because i just happen to have a white accent or use three syllable words? do you know how many times i've been cooed over by white women who couldn't get over how sweet i was just because i wasn't confrontational or rude like they wrongly expected me to be?

that's why they're called microaggressions. it's not a cross on your lawn or having the n-word spat in your face, but it cuts you down little by little until you're completely drained.

so that's the nuance. that's the subversion. the overcompensation is not a good thing. and people of color (and i suspect, even white people) have picked up on, in general, the different ways fandom treats sam and dani and even nate. what all of these discussions are converging on is fandom racism, which is not the diet form of racism, but another place for racism to reveal itself. and yeah, it's uncomfortable. it can seem out of left field. you may want to defend yourself. you may want to explain it away. but let me tap the sign on the proverbial bus:

if you are a white person, or a person of color who is not part of that racial group, even, you do not get to decide what is not racist for someone. full stop. there are no exceptions. there is no exit clause for you. there is no 'but, actually-'. that right wasn't even yours to cede or waive.

(it's also important to note that people of color also have the right to disagree on whether something is racist, but that doesn't necessarily negate the racism - it just means there's more to discuss and they can still leave with different interpretations)

people don't just whip out accusations of racism like a blue eyes white dragon in a yu-gi-oh duel. it's not fun for us. it's not something we like to do to muzzle people we don't want to engage with. and we're not concerned with making someone feel bad or ashamed. we're exposing something painful that we have to live with and, even worse, process literally everything we experience through. we can't turn it off. we can't be 'less sensitive' or 'less nitpicky'. we are literally the primary resources, we are the proverbial wikipedia articles with 3,000 sources when it comes to racism. who else would know more than us?

what 2020 has shown us very clearly is that racism is systemic. it's not always a bunch of Evil White Men rubbing their hands together in a dark room wondering how they're going to use the 'n-word' today. it's systemic. it's the way you call that one neighborhood 'sketchy'. it's how you use 'ratchet' and 'ghetto' when describing something bad. it's how you implicitly the assume the intelligence of your friend of color. it's the way you turned up your nose and your friend's food and bullied them for it in middle school but go to restaurants run by white people who have 'uplifted' it with inauthentic ingredients. it's telling someone how Well Spoken and Eloquent they are even though you've both gone to the same schools and work at the same workplace. it's the way you look down at some people of color for having a different body type than you because they've been redlined to neighborhoods where certain foods and resources are inaccessible, and yet mock up the racial features that appeal to you either through makeup or plastic surgery.

it's how when a person of color behaves badly, they're irredeemable, but a white person performing the same act or something similar is 'having a bad day' or 'isn't normally like this' or 'has room to grow' and we can't 'wait for their redemption arc', and yes, i'm not going to cover it in detail in this post but yes this is very much about nate. other people have also brought up the nuances in his arc and compared them to other white characters so i won't do it here.

these behaviors and reactions aren't planned. they aren't orchestrated. they're quite literally unconscious because they've been lovingly baked into western society for centuries. you can't wake up and be rid of it. whether you intended it or not, it can still be racist.

and it's actually quite hurtful and unfair to imply that concerns about racism in the TL fandom are unfounded or lacking any depth or simply meant to be sensational because you simply don't agree with it. i wish it was different, but it doesn't work that way. i'm not raising this up to 'call out' or shame people, but i'm adding to this discussion because, through how we talk about sam, and even dani and nate, i'm yet again seeing a pattern that has shortchanged people of color and made them feel unwelcome in fandom for far too long.

coach beard said it best: we need to do better.

#ted lasso #sam obisanya #ted lasso spoilers #fandom racism

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when-they-write-stuff · 3 years

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So I actually wrote this! I’ve never written dark!Sterek before, but I saw the gifset and couldn’t help myself. I hope you all enjoy <3

THREE DAYS, FOUR HOURS, AND twenty-two minutes. That’s how long the one they called Mieczysław ‘Stiles’ Stilinski had been separated from his pack.

Three days, four hours, and twenty-two minutes. Stiles realized what happened nine minutes after his pack was taken. Therefore, the hunters were unofficially dead at the countdown of three days, four hours, and thirteen minutes.

To Stiles, though, time blurred. It was a stain of colors, a snarl at the back of his throat, and the faintest ringing in his ears that made him feel like he was losing his mind all over again.

Three days, four hours, and twenty-two minutes. It was the longest Stiles had ever been alone.

He was greeted by gunshots first.

At a first glance, Mieczysław was nothing but a boy. A boy who grew up surrounded by wolves, an emissary to a bunch of wild animals. There were rumors about what rested behind the amber of his eyes, but few people chose to believe them. Because he was scrawny, he was human, and it seemed like easy pickings when a group of hunters chose to go after the crumbling pack.

At a first glance, Mieczysław was nothing but a boy. And that that always been the easiest way to lure in unsuspecting prey.

He was greeted by gunshots first. The screams that followed were a welcome sound he hadn’t heard for far too long.

There was something about the smell of gunpowder in the air, the feeling of blood on his fingertips, and the taste of ash in his mouth that made Stiles feel alive. He could be wrapped in the darkest shadows or walking through the heat of a blazing fire and the smile on his face would never waver. At a first glance, he was nothing but a boy. A weakling. But to the hunter watching him tear through their ranks without even blinking, it was like hell had become a place on Earth.

The hunter’s name was Col Henderson. And he hadn’t wanted to take the job in the first place.

Beacon Hills was a shell of what it used to be. At first, Col hadn’t even believed the rumors were true. The rumors saying there was still a werewolf pack patrolling its borders, that is. He’d been hunting since he was old enough to carry a gun and at this point in his life, he wanted a challenge. Something to make him smile when the beast went down; something to make him feel proud when the light faded from the monster’s eyes.

The Hale pack had been fairly easy to round up. Most of them were feral to the point of being wild animals anyway.

It was the emissary that remained elusive.

“A bunch of mutts,” he told the man at his side, listening to the distant sound of snarling wolves from another part of the compound. “Good for nothing but a bullet between the eyes.”

The hunter only grunted, looking tired. And honestly, Col couldn’t blame him. They were all tired. The emissary had yet to come for his pack and they’d been sitting around all day, waiting for something that didn’t seem to exist.

Until the sun touched the tips of the trees, that is.

That’s when all hell broke loose.

Col first saw him when the compound doors slammed open. He was on his feet in a second, loaded rifle held tightly in his hands. The already dying lights above his head flickered and briefly went out— and when they came back on, a lone figure stood in the compound’s entrance. His head was head tilted slightly and his eyes practically glowed against the faint darkness.

There was a dull spark in them that held nothing but the last remnants of humanity. Humanity that had been clinging to the boy for years now, though that hadn’t mattered for a long time now.

A smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. One that sent a chill down Col’s spine.

“Emissary,” someone breathed. And Col didn’t even realize the word had come from his mouth until amber eyes fixed on where he stood. The boy raised an eyebrow.

“My pack,” he said. “I want them back.”

There was a loud click as the man next to Col loaded his gun. The emissary’s attention immediately snapped to him and Col almost sagged to the floor, suddenly aware of each breath that he had been holding.

“You're going to give my pack back,” the emissary said again, the smile slipping from his lips. He took a step forward and immediately, every gun was trained on him. The boy paused, eyes flashing, but it didn’t seem to be out of fear.

No, there was a new look on his face, replacing the amused one that had been there previously.

It was cold and dangerous. The bags under his eyes seemed to darken, holding the exhaustion of each day that he’d been without his pack. Around him, the shadows grew as the softness of his face hardened.

“No?”

In the distance, one of the wolves yelped. Loudly.

And just like that, the spark of humanity in the emissary’s eyes flicked out.

Col had faced a lot of beasts in the past. He’d gone after born wolves and those newly turned. He’d taken down a dozen packs and faced an alpha that nearly ripped him to shreds. Col told his blissfully ignorant friends that he hunted deer and then went home to a list full of names— one of every monster he’d ever killed.

He’d seen a lot over the years. But nothing added up to the boy that stood in front of him, eyes turning to stone as he caught the sound of his feral pack in the distance.

Once more, the lights overhead blinked out. But this time, they didn't turn back on. In a moment, the silence had turned to gunshots, gunshots turned to screams. And dammit, Col hadn’t even wanted to take this job in the first place.

He stumbled back, pulling his walkie from its clip on his belt.

“Backup! We need backup!”

Static was his answer. Col stumbled blindly through the darkness, trying to get as far away from the screams of his fellow hunters as fast as he could. There were things he’d heard about the Hale pack’s emissary, but he’d never imagined any of them were true. In fact, he'd laughed at 'exaggeration of it all.

The job of an emissary was to keep the pack connected to themselves, to their humanity. Col hadn’t thought much of the feral pack they’d put in chains but this boy seemed to be even less human than all of them combined. Less than the alpha who had nearly bitten Col’s head off, less than the betas who had snapped and snarled the entire way to captivity.

In his panic, Col stumbled over his own feet and fell hard to the ground, his gun skidding somewhere across the floor. Suddenly, the lights flicked on and when he looked over his shoulder, all that was left were bodies.

The one they called Mieczysław ‘Stiles’ Stilinski stood among them. His eyes raked over the entire room, not a single emotion on his face. Then, they snapped to where Col had fallen and that smile from earlier tugged at the corners of his mouth once again.

Col shoved himself up and turned, running faster than he ever had into the depths of the compound.

They had come to Beacon Hills with an even number of eighteen hunters. When Col turned the corner, stumbling to a stop as a dozen guns aimed in his direction, there was some part of him that wondered if even double that would be enough.

“Henderson?”

“Don’t shoot, dammit!”

“What the hell are you doing?”

Behind him, the sound of footsteps echoed off the cement floor. Col’s heart skipped a beat and he slowly turned around.

“You took my pack,” the emissary said, turning the corner. “Now I’m gonna take them back.”

Col retreated back behind the line of guns. The emissary’s gaze traveled over them all and his eyes darkened. He took a step forward, ignoring the tightening of every finger around the trigger.

“It’s doesn’t matter how many of there you are,” he said, words almost a snarl. He moved closer— Col started to tremble. “I’m going to kill every single one of you until I find them. Do you understand me?”

“Stand down, boy!”

“Do you understand me? I’ll burn this whole fucking place down if I have to!”

Someone fired. Sparks flew.

Somewhere in the distance, one of the wolves howled.

It happened too quickly. Col scrambled for his spare pistol and a crackle of electricity filled the air. Something was burning, the smell like a sour acid began to fill his nose. Col's eyes burned, his hands were shaking too hard to get a proper hold on his gun as he scrambled back away from the fighting. It was like a nightmare brought to life and when he managed to make himself look back, the sight that awaited him was even worse.

The emissary’s eyes were brighter than fire. The air around him swam with the shadows and his face was so pale, it was like the blood drained right out. Distant howls collided with the chaos in the air and Col momentarily flashed back to his latest kill— a young omega, newly bitten. She’d looked at him like he was the Grim Reaper and it had made him feel powerful. Being the predator always did.

For the first time in his life, Col Henderson knew what it was like to be the prey.

The emissary flicked his wrist and Col slammed up against the nearest wall, losing all ability to breathe as the boy approached. There was something about him. Something darker than night, colder than death.

“Big bad hunter. Where is my pack?”

Struggling for breath, Col managed to point down the hallway. The boy followed his gaze and then hummed.

“Thank you.”

Three days, four hours, and twenty-two minutes. Stiles had realized what happened to his pack nine minutes after they were taken. Therefore, the hunters were unofficially dead three days, four hours, and thirteen minutes ago.

The clock continued to count— three seconds on the timer. Col looked at the emissary like he was the Grim Reaper.

And at second one, the boy smiled.

An emissary’s main job had always been to keep a pack connected to their humanity. However, as a group of bold hunters learned the hard way after capturing a bunch of feral werewolves known as the Hale pack, the one known as Mieczysław ‘Stiles’ Stilinski, barely had any humanity in himself to begin with.

There was a hum under his breath as he released his pack one by one. The betas first and his alpha right after them, whose eyes glowed red as he barely contained a series of whines. The second the chains were off, clawed fingers latched onto Stiles's arms and sharp fangs skated up the side of his neck. Stiles smiled, tracing bloodstained fingers through Derek’s hair.

“It's okay. I'm here now.”

Warm breaths snuffled against his skin. “That was stupid.”

“I know.”

“And dangerous.”

“But so fun.”

Derek drew back, his attention zeroing in on a darkening red patch right underneath Stiles’s shoulder. “You’re bleeding.”

"Only a little."

"Does it hurt?"

“They took my pack,” Stiles said, a dangerous glow in his eyes. “Isn’t a little agony worth it?”

The red of the alpha’s eyes burned even brighter. Derek growled and pulled him into a hungry kiss— one that promised a much more thorough examination later. The man's lips were a little cracked and Stiles could taste blood. Humming at the back of his throat, he kissed Derek harder.

Three days, four hours, and twenty-two minutes. That’s how long the one they called Mieczysław ‘Stiles’ Stilinski had been separated from his pack. The longest he'd ever been alone.

But he wasn't anymore.

They left the bodies as a warning to anyone who dared cross the Hale pack again.

#sterek #teen wolf #sterek fanfic #teen wolf fanart #dark!sterek #emissary!stiles #alpha!derek #feral!hale pack #gifset #derek hale #stiles stilinski #stiles x derek #outsider pov

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captainpikeachu · 3 years

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I saw this gifset comparing Walker to Steve in a way that obviously is trying to show all the good things that Steve is that Walker is not, yet it is very misleading, ignores context, and even misrepresents scenes and characters, and I just really needed to talk about it, because while yes Walker and Steve have a lot that can be compared with each other, it irks me when people misrepresent the characters to do it.

1. Jumping on a grenade

This comparison I assume is to show that while Steve genuinely jumped on a grenade with his body thinking he would die, Walker is only doing it with a reinforced helmet and treats it as an exercise. I guess that makes Steve more heroic than Walker who is doing fake heroics? But this ignores the very fact that Walker is a three time Medal of Honor recipient, which means very clearly that Walker has genuinely put his life on the line in defense of others. He’s not just doing fake heroics, and using a reinforced helmet is not “fake heroics”, especially when in real life even a reinforced helmet would not ensure the person using it wouldn’t die - a real life Medal of Honor recipient actually died trying to cover a grenade blast with a reinforced helmet and his body

2. Fame, attention, and publicity

This comparison seems to paint the image that Walker is enjoying the fame and publicity and signing all the autographs while Steve is a lonely figure just painting on his own and away from the publicity. But this blatantly ignores the fact that we see Steve signing autographs and holding babies while taking pictures in the First Avenger film. Steve was uncomfortable with the fame, yes, but he eventually accepted that was part of the job. Walker is the same way. Literally seconds before we see him take the field for the interview, he expresses discomfort with all the publicity and attention, he just wants to do his job, like Steve did. We also see him in Episode 4 very clearly uncomfortable with the attention he gets after signing the autograph of a stranger out in public that as soon as the people turn to leave, his face changes to one of exhaustion and frustration, like he’s suffering from a migraine. Steve and Walker actually share very similar views on fame, they didn’t come into this for publicity and glory, they did it because they want to do their job and help people.

3. “I don’t like bullies”

This comparison I assume is to show that while Walker is hostile and a bully with his line telling Sam and Bucky to stay out of his way, Steve doesn’t like bullies and is kind-hearted. Yet this ignores the fact that in Episode 2, it’s actually Sam and Bucky who were hostile while Walker spends almost the entire episode trying to be cooperative and helpful and speak to them with respect even when they pointedly and blatantly disrespect him. If anything, Steve saying he doesn’t like bullies and doesn’t care where they’re from is more like a condemnation on Sam and Bucky than on Walker, because Sam and Bucky were the “bullies” in this situation and Walker was defending himself. Walker says this one line after spending the whole day being insulted and attacked, and he’s the “bully”? That’s a funny way of victim blaming.

4. Government vs. Freedom

This is the only comparison in this gifset that actually is a valid comparison, because Walker is very much an extension of the government he serves and is loyal to that institution, while Steve is a rebel and is loyal to an ideal rather an a government. But even that is something that Steve took a while to really take a stand on, remember the Steve that showed up in the Avengers movie was about following orders, and it took certain circumstances to make him realize that he has to change how he operates in this new environment.

5. Asset vs. Friend

Even ignoring the fact that Walker is actually putting on a public showing to show how important Bucky is to the mission so that the cops can’t deny letting him go, this comparison is very misleading because Walker and Bucky aren’t friends because they literally just met while Steve has been friends with Bucky since childhood, so obviously their views on Bucky would differ. Not to mention Bucky literally just spent most of that episode insulting Walker and questioning his abilities, Bucky is hardly making a good first impression.

-----------------------

Anyways, I’m not saying we can’t compare Steve and Walker, they share a lot of differences and similarities that we should compare. But at least do so honestly instead of being misleading and ignoring the canon and context.

#john walker #steve rogers #captain america #the falcon and the winter soldier #mcu #if we are going to do comparisons #lets do it fairly and with the right set of context and circumstances

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zmediaoutlet · 3 years

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Why do you dislike that scene of Sam and Dean hunting those soldiers? Because you believe they wouldn't be able to take specially trained army soldiers or? I'm sure we're supposed to think that they hunt monsters every day of their lives, humans are easy compare to.

oh, fam. what a hornet’s nest to walk into.

Okay.

So, first: First Blood & Lotus are complete failures of episodes. In writing, execution, believability, filmic decisions. Truly shocking that they got off the storyboard without someone fully laughing out loud and going “great joke!” and then, I don’t know, putting the draft ideas into the urinal in the office bathroom and letting everyone have a go at dissolving them into an ammoniac puddle.

But then they decided to do them. So, unlucky us. So, Lotus is just... risible. Whatever. I don’t have the energy or willpower to think about it. First Blood is so much worse. Aside from how completely fucking stupid the beginning is -- really, this boring-ass montage of who-cares is supposed to be this much of a mental strain to two guys who were in literal hell? -- ugh, I can’t even work up the energy to get as mad at it as it deserves. Blah. So -- stupid, stupid, unbearably stupid premise. Then they escape. Okay, fine. The Billie plot is-- again, unbearably stupid. But then they get out into the woods.

There’s a moment, a bare moment, where it’s the Sam and Dean I recognize. Standing out by that van, being competent in a way that feels grounded. Calling Cas, looking at a map, working together and triangulating their position and figuring stuff out. Grounded. That’s the key word. Sam and Dean were always, always, competent and together and I believed that they could be people because they made decisions and choices that pretty much made sense.

And then.

It’s hard even to put into words what’s so awful, so risible, so deeply embarrassing about the whole... Rambo sequence. First flaw is that they conceived of a Rambo sequence and entirely forgot what the actual movie First Blood is about. It’s not cool. It’s horrible. It’s brutal. Rambo’s hurt and freaked and this isn’t okay, not remotely, not at all. A First Blood reboot done by someone who kind of heard of it once on 4chan and thought “lol that sounds awesome” and never thought about it for more than the time it took me to type this sentence.

Then there’s the awful, awful, awful speech, which was the point of the gifset. Apparently lots of fans thought it was cool. I don’t know what show those fans have been watching. Dean’s liable to drop fake-cool sounding quotes and, you know, it’s not like it was wholly out of character. As my bud is keen to remind me, the double-reference of Cool Hand Luke and Rorschach is very dumb, and it is! It really is! But even the literal writing of it isn’t the main thing that’s wrong with it, even if the speech itself over the stupid walkie-talkie is cringe-worthy bad.

It’s the vibe. That’s what it comes down to. The vibe. An indefinable thing that nevertheless can be VERY wrong when it’s wrong. It was an accumulation of wrong notes, as we marched along through s12, going from okay to bad to what the fuck is going on. The British Men of Letters started neat but became overpowered comic book villains. The Asa Fox funeral where there’s a quirky little universe of hunters, like this is X-Men or something. Lucifer hopping into the President, when a writer with taste would understand that that’s a bridge too far for stakes, and pushes the story into a stupid corner where you have to pretend consequences don’t exist to move past it. And then, and then, and then, you get your two heroes, and you give one of them a gimmicky comic book speech that sounds like he rehearsed it to sound cool in the bathroom for weeks beforehand, and you set them on a fucking cat-and-mouse hunt with the Secret Service, and... what the fuck, was Dabb stoned? Was he eating cheetos off a puddle he’d left between his moobs and playing Spiderman on PS4 and went ‘lol this would sound cool, let’s do that?’ Honestly, I hope so. A thoughtless stupid little digression because ‘hur hur cool’ is better than him actually thinking this through and going, yes, that’s the place I want this story to go. That’s art.

Miserable. And, again, not OOC, not exactly. But there are things you can choose for your characters that feel thoughtful, difficult, adult, and remain in character. Then you can choose things for your characters that feel... like a child’s idea of what maturity is like. A coward’s idea of a brave man. A quivering nerd’s idea of a strong man. The Dean that I see in that scene is just... not the Dean I want, at all. It smacks of the thing that tanked the whole Dabb era. Doing something because for a second it looked kind of cool, until you thought about it at all. Doing something because it was a neat soundbite. Taste out the window; we’re gonna get Dean saying the lamest, most overused, most internet-nerd fake-cool line: you’re trapped out here with us, and I guess because Sam racks his gun and looks faux-grim in the background we’re supposed to take it seriously. I just wanted to turn off the TV.

And then he just kept doing that for three more years. Thank god he didn’t get to ruin the finale, too.

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cloudylotus · 3 years

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#ShowYourProcess

From planning to posting, share your process for making creative content!

To continue supporting content makers, this tag game is meant to show the entire process of making creative content: this can be for any creation.

RULES — When your work is tagged, show the process of its creation from planning to posting, then tag 5 people with a specific link to one of their creative works you’d like to see the process of. Use the tag #showyourprocess so we can find yours!

Thank you for the tag Mimi @yiling-recesses ~ it was so fascinating to see how you plan and organise everything and then the editing process as well! ♥

I was tagged to show my process for my Episode 17 Post which somehow got relatively popular, in comparison to the rest at least, so I’m glad to share the behind the scenes of that post in particular. This is going to be a long ride so buckle up friends. ∑(O_O;)

1. Planning

First of all I have to rewatch the whole entire episode before I can even start on anything. So I usually sit down with pen and paper in hand and ready to pause at any given moment that sparks interest. In case there is a quote that sounds fancy enough to represent the episode I write it down, or when I see a scene or just a certain shot that catches my eyes I screenrecord that certain scene and save it in a folder for that specific episode. Over time I accumulate scenes here and there so I already form a rough idea in my head which scenes would look good together or would make sense together. Sadly this also sometimes leads me to have very few scenes because nothing really inspired me, or I end up with only one quote that I wasn’t even too sure about, but I just make the best out of it. So I basically let the episode itself be the whole drive and inspiration for my edit but I also try to not give away too much in terms of spoilers. So if you were to see it with the knowledge of what’s going on it’s supposed to be hitting a nerve, evoke a memory, or at least make sense, especially given in combination with the quote, but if you were to see this set without the knowledge of what’s happening I’d still like it to be interesting enough without giving away too much of the story. Do I even make sense, mayhaps.

This is usually what I end up with in my folder, sometimes I have about 20 scenes, sometimes 3, so for episode 17 this was a decent amount to work with! [Also please don’t ask why I name the clips like that, they made sense to me in that moment and it works somehow. And yes Wen Qing is the queen and there is nothing to stop her (ﾒ` ﾛ ´) ] Now it’s time to look through the scenes again that I clipped out and begin with the actual gif making. I use Avisynth to rezise all the gifs to either the smaller squares, the “full” square or sometimes the longer rectangle - honestly I usually do these very much based on what I think would look good in my head and just decide based on that, so sometimes I end up making the same gif again just in a different size because I felt it was lacking impact or ended up looking better in another set. Sometimes I end up not using gifs I made at all ┐( ˘_˘ )┌

2. Creating

Now that I have this huge mess of endless gifs and pretty scenes that would work as a background loaded in my Photoshop I start to assemble. Given the fact that I always use the same 540x540 format at least the step of building a base is uncomplicated. The first part of the set I made was the lotus lake scene. The moments that were catching my eyes the most were mainly the close ups of the actual plant. Detailed close ups make my heart go boom boom. So I figured they would pair well with a scene where all three of the siblings were in screen to convey this mood of like ‘happy yunmeng trio being silly in lotus pier yay’, especially given the fact that it’s a fond memory of Wei Wuxian in this oh so painful episode.

So I have the base grid I always work with, the gif of our three beloved plus the two lotus close ups. From here on it’s just very trial and error where the still pictures fit best over the gif and I just tweak around for so long until it looks good. Once I am done with the positioning of everything I slap my watermark on it and my default colouring for these sets. Of course the default coloring action I made never works the way I want it to so I end up messing around with it for half an eternity to make all the different colours work together and look coherent which sometimes leads me to colour one single part individually and adding more filters to the background and what not. This is how it looked like in this particular edit ~

For the other two edits I basically repeated the same process just slightly adjusted to whichever format I use [this is already way longer than needed]. When I make the edits with four gifs in the middle I always have to shorten the gifs beforehand so they have the same amount of frames in order to make the whole thing work to begin with. Usually gifs with the same colour palette or same theme work well together so in this case the food and hands stood out to me [hands always do, always]. So I found the perfect set of gifs to work with that and just added a scene of Wei Wuxian in the background as he fell asleep studying the scripts and Wen Qing came to bring him food, since this is a big part of the episode.

Of course we slap on all the fancy stuff on top afterward and tadaa - it’s a gifset. At last I had the scene of Wen Qing turning her head slightly and I knew from the beginning that I needed to have that scene as a “full” gif as I was just struck with love. I had so many different things I put on top like frames and flowers or tried to put the gif in a certain shape - whatever, it just looked kinda bad - until I found this dragon png and finally had an epiphany. I must confess i didn’t mask out the dragon perfectly to fit behind her but I reached a point of desperation as my creativity of the day left me behind struggling.

3. Posting

Once I am done with all three edits, sometimes only two depending on the amount of clips I saved, I arrange them in Tumblr and check how they look best. This thing alone can take me forever unless I have a set that has a coherent background throughout all of the individual edits so I don’t need to worry about in what order to arrange them. But once I finally decided on that I go back to my notes of quotes and try to decide which one works best in regard to the criteria I mentioned above. In this set the angsty Jiang Cheng had the honor. For finishing touches I add the link to my other episode sets and all the tags to keep things organized and usually ramble a bit about the process or my feelings. That’s what tags are for, right?

Oof so yeah, that’s it. This turned out way longer than anticipated and I already edited this down...whoops.

I would like to tag:

@huigusu - for this painful beauty

@leonzhng - with this incredible masterpiece

@mylastbraincql - because this post makes me feel things

@fengqing - words can’t even describe

@lan-xichens - this set made me cry

No pressure at all to do this if you do not want to or have already done one before! ♥

#showyourprocess #so-- here we go #cql #the untamed #tag games #🌱

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novelconcepts · 4 years

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(1/4)In one of your tags from the gifsets when Jamie walks into the kitchen and Dani first saw her! I just realized how oblivious until now with that narrative “how the au pair felt when she first saw the young woman” I was even oblivious with the way they look at each other. This is a romantic set up! To be honest, at first I thought they would not get along at first, and will come to parts where they’d start a fight one way or another.

(2/4)And then the part where Jamie asks Owen if he thinks Dani is pretty, the way Owen blushes I swear I thought that Owen and Dani were gonna be a couple!! Thanks goodness Owen answers he’s only got eyes for Hannah!! I mean, I started this show with a blank page without knowing if there’s any lgbtq character (I was hoping since we got Theo from HH)

(3/4)This says so much how we often, in media, being disappointed, being called too much as we read between the chemistry of any interaction of two same sex characters! And here’s in Bly, they set us up with that romantic first not-encounter encounter and we had to step back to see if this is intentional or we’re being reading too much again!

(4/4)And then nine episodes later, we got the most heart wrenching true love story of two women! Masterchef kisses!!! Thank you show! I was starting to root for Dani x Jamie interaction after their 1:1 with Jamie tries to calm Dani. What about you, what moment from the show that got you root for them?

So, here's the thing about me: I will always, always ship the ladies together in a show. And, like you said, I’m very accustomed to being let down when showrunners decide that in order for character to be queer, it has to be saying something. Like, they have an allotment of queerness they have to dole out. And to have a story coming in on the heels of a really successful show where we did have a queer character--and a really well fleshed-out one who never felt like she was gay for gay’s sake, but still, a character in the ensemble rather than The Lead--I felt like...in most other shows, that would have qualified as the “allotment”, as it were. “We already gave you Theo, what more could you ask for?”

So Dani turns up in this show and I think, “Okay, she’s a delightful Midwestern 80s girl with some real trials on her shoulders, she clearly lost someone, let’s see where this goes.” And I honestly didn’t think she was going to be anything onscreen, in terms of romantic story. I sort of assumed that if she had lost someone, the crux of her story was going to be about coping with that loss and moving on. Even when they introduced Owen, I didn’t think, “Oh, okay, here’s the romantic co-lead of the story”; they did a really excellent job of having both parties perform that car ride with platonic care. Like, we have the potential to get along really well, we’re likely going to bond, but there were no long camera shots of one watching the other, no sense that he was going to have interest in her or vice versa. They felt like instant friends. So, I thought, “Okay, cool, she could use some friends, she’s probably still going to just have this arc of coming to terms with losing this person.”

And I didn’t know who she’d lost yet, so I did think it could have been anyone. Brother. Father. Friend. I wasn't sure it would matter, I just figured that was going to be the focus.

And then Jamie walks in. And in retrospect, you’re right: this setup for romance was instant. The introduction, the narrator’s line, the way Dani looks up, the quick glance Jamie gives her before promptly pretending not to notice, all of these are textbook filmmaking tricks to Introduce The Love Interest. And Jamie, naturally, is styled like a classic lesbian in every way, so I thought, “Huh. That’s interesting. But they already gave us Theo last time, so...”

Which is deeply unfair. It’s unfair to the creative team, it’s unfair to the story, it’s unfair to me as a viewer, to have that knee-jerk assumption on my shoulders. And I like to think that Bly surprising me as it did will help me not make that I’ve been burned assumption in the future, because...we really have come a long way. But even so, on this first watch, I thought, “That’s interesting. I could ship it. But I don’t think that's the story they’re going to tell”, because I didn’t yet trust the creative team to prioritize queer relationships on the same level as straight ones.

Things continue, and we get all the little clues that, in retrospect, are huge: Jamie thinks Dani is “too pretty” and quite frankly can’t shut up about her. Dani physically brightens when Jamie’s in the room. Jamie reassures Dani that she’s doing well, and does so with the gentlest nudge at flirtation, and Dani swivels her whole body to follow Jamie as she leaves, making sure to catch every last glimpse she can before Jamie disappears into the house. And we’re getting these clues from other characters, too, in the way the kids exchange that look when Jamie’s first introduced, in the way Owen constantly looks to Hannah with every indication that he’s not kidding in the least when he says he only has eyes for her. But I still wasn’t...sure I could trust it.

Which is silly. Because there is nothing, not a single thing, that is subtle about this love story. The music cues, the camera work, the angling of the actresses toward one another in every scene they share. The way Pedretti makes certain Dani looks the easiest in her body and in her smile when it’s Jamie making her laugh. It’s so intentional all the way down, like the entire team was saying, “Here. This is important. This is valuable. And we absolutely refuse to let anyone watch this show and say, oh, we didn’t feel it. It came out of nowhere. Couldn’t they just have been friends?”

Episode 3 went a long way to hammering it home, of course. Between the conversation on the couch about love and possession, where the silence between them stretches on with a sort of comfortable heat, and the way Dani looks at her--and the camera looks at her--when Jamie is asleep on the couch, and that final moment with the hand grab, I realized they were really going for this thing. And obviously by Episode 4, you’re supposed to know what’s up. The gloves are off, the story is fully tilted in this direction, and I think it was around this point that I started to realize who the narrator probably was. Originally, I think I thought she’d be a very grown up Flora; once I realized Jamie was in fact the Romantic Lead of the piece, I went, “Oh. Ohhhh. Oh shit.”

The moral of the story here is, I trust this team now. I trust them to prioritize queer love with just as much “this is normal, guys, get over it” care as straight relationships. And, frankly, it makes me re-evaluate my opinion of the sexuality tackled in Hill House. The first few times I watched that show, I thought, “God, it’s nice that they gave us Theo. She’s flawed, she’s human, she’s funny, and her being gay is non-negotiable.” Now? Now I watch it and think all of that while also thinking, “You know what? Luke could be queer. His response to Joey all the way through really reads more like a friend who wants to help, with nervous confusion in the event that she nudges too close.” And especially after that interview where Victoria Pedretti said she always assumed Nell was queer, and that her ending up with a man didn’t negate that, it just wasn’t really relevant to parse it all out onscreen, I thought, “You know what? She’s right. There is absolutely nothing stopping that from being true.” And that’s how I’ve approached all media since I was a teenager, fair, but the difference is it feels...like these shows agree. That this is why they didn’t announce the LGBT rep ahead of time. That it’s not gonna be “gay for gay’s sake”, that it’s not going to be for drama or to cause a ruckus, but that these stories say, “Hey. This is a real thing. Love looks like this, too. Here: watch this beautiful, poignant, heartbreaking story of two women who love each other more than anything in the world. Watch it, and understand that they are so normal, and that them being gay changes nothing about how they live out their story together.” And I love that.

#the haunting of bly manor #the haunting of bly manor spoilers #the haunting of meta #dani x jamie #have I ever answered a question with a paragraph when I could write an essay? nope!#but genuinely I am so pleased that this was handled in this way #no fuss. no tease. just people saying 'this is the story we're telling and they happen to both be women and that is beautiful'#I love a show that makes me feel silly for NOT believing off the bat it's going to be queer #because I'm so used to shows doing the exact opposite #and telling us we're insane for reading chemistry between two women or two men or nonbinary characters or whatever else #this is so refreshing to have the opposite happen #and to never once feel like they were afraid of what it would look like

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gwynbleiddyn · 3 years

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if you're asking about ships, i'd be remiss not to ask about eivor x vili?

[DEEP BREATH] HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU HAVE--

i don’t know where to start, honestly. i’ve definitely gotten heavily invested in ships before, but nothing quite to the extent of eivor/vili (at least, not since the days of OC/Canon in dragon age and mass effect,,,, lordt) and it continues to live in my mind rent free even months after i’ve finished the game, when most things are lucky to still be rattling around up here after a few DAYS

i do want to point out though that i specifically go feral over m!eivor/vili, as much as i appreciate f!eivor, and the reason for that is simply because the narrative around two men who have openly expressed (or can do so, in eivor’s case) attraction to more than one gender while living in a very tough and specific society just really gets to me. more specifically, i kind of fell in love with how each of them alone can easily be considered classic angry macho vikings or whatever, but the reality is they contain multitudes that are waaaaaay more complex and i EAT THAT SHIT UP BRO.

especially when part of those multitudes contains a whole fuckign slice of “i’ve loved you since before i knew what love was” and “whatever our souls are made of yours and mine are the same” and “in every lifetime i would find you and i would choose you” and holy shit bro. it fucking drives me crazy.

and then on a more canonical note, just seeing how easily they slip into conversation around each other despite not seeing each other for TEN YEARS. “it sometimes seemed you never left. maybe you never did.” ONE HIT KILL RIGHT THERE. imagine being so deeply bound to someone that a whole decade can be undone in a moment because you are so fundamentally in-tune with the person sitting across from you that time is fucking MEANINGLESS. like, they can look at each other and they know what they’re thinking (eivor knowing as soon as sunniva told him there were picts, vili would have gone after them) and how they’re feeling (the entire talk at kinder downfall, eivor knew what vili’s reservations were, but he also kind of figured vili needed tough love to say it out loud - so that’s what he gave him)

THE BANTER. the laughter. THEY SMILE SO MUCH AROUND EACH OTHER. and what’s that thing about you always look at the person you love when you say something funny because you want to make them laugh more than anyone??? THAT’S THEM. and i made a whole gifset about how eivor looks at vili because that shit ruined me, even without mocapped scenes, it was painfully obvious how much love eivor holds for this man.

AND THEN HEMMING. THE FACT HEMMING SIGNED A LETTER WITH VILI’S NAME BECAUSE HE THOUGHT EIVOR WOULD COME TO THEM FASTER IF HE SAW VILI’S NAME FIRST. BRO. “to see you both together again” while he’s on his fuckign DEATHBED. no i fully believe hemming knew he was running out of time and, yes, he wanted eivor’s help in choosing a new jarl, but he also wanted eivor to be there for vili when he’s gone. he didn’t trust anybody else to look after his son like eivor. bro. im gonna lose my mind.

OH AND IT ISNT JUST EIVOR KNOWING WHAT VILI NEEDS ITS VILI KNOWING EIVOR TOO -- well enough to understand that after the fucking mess of hamtunscire and cippenhamm, even when eivor goes to him with that soul-crushing question of “will there come a day where winning will not be enough?” instead of just piling on another pound of earth to the grave eivor seems to be digging himself into, vili’s just like “well you can always fight me if you want to lose” and eivor jokes back, however lamely, and once vili has gotten a smile from him only then does he tell him his thoughts - that he should enjoy this victory, whatever it brings to him. THEN QUOTES THE HAVAMAL BUT THATS ANOTHER TOPIC ENTIRELY--

yes. yes i do like this ship. just a little

send me a ship and i’ll give my honest opinion on it!

#winkyblinkyandstew

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