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#there's some character interpretations I don't share there. like i said i don't think either of them would cry that easily
carlyraejepsans · 2 months
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saw your most recent post about really good fics that contain uncomfortable kinks and i immediately thought "ah, biscia must be reading the mpreg soriel fic" and almost left a reply talking about it but i stopped myself because i realized that would be an insane assumption to make. needless to say i felt so vindicated when i saw you link it in an earlier post.
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like. HELLO?
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HELLO???????
#answered asks#''I fear nothing good ever comes of it when it does'' is straight up SEARED into my brain as the toriel line of all time I've ever read#there's some character interpretations I don't share there. like i said i don't think either of them would cry that easily#and while the different conception (badumtss) of sex/gender in various monsters was interesting#i felt like it didn't quite deal with the ramifications of not strictly binary reproductions on social perception of gender like I could've#eg the part about boss monsters being closer to humans in how it works and thus having a different concept of mom/dad compared to skeletons#was pretty nice. but if you establish that skeletons work like ghosts but distinguish she/he ''for some reason'' even though all of them#can bear kids. and then you make a comment about ''the child possibly growing into a woman considering the shape of the pelvis'' it's like#why??????? why. whywhywhy. why would that be a factor. even hypothesizing a certain physical dimorphism. WHY pick the one tied to pregnancy#the ONE ASPECT that you decided was shared between both ''male'' and ''female'' skeletons#it's also like. objectively an argument that is leveraged to hurt and deny trans people irl so it was just. unbelievably uncomfortable#this is what we mean with mpreg and transphobia btw#not that the concept is inherently transphobic or hurtful to trans people#but that that kind of alternative biological worldbuilding implies an alternative social conception of gender role for the characters#that a lot of authors just. straight up miss. because their view of the world is still very cis/perisexist#BUT!!!!!!!!!!#it was still over all a very good fic. I'd rec it to pll not into that for the initial 2 chapters alone
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mysillyside · 4 months
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I wish some ppl understood that when I say stuff like "L and Near are autistic" or "Light Yagami is not straight", I'm not saying these things because I believe the creator of Death Note intended them to be read this way, in fact I think he'd be against this interpretation completely, but ultimately those are the characters he wrote, intentionally or not.
A detached random example so you'd get what I mean: If you write a female character, who for example, can grow facial hair, it would be correct to say said character is either transfem or has PCOS, even if the creator never intended or realized that the aformentioned groups of women exist when writing the character.
I wish people understood that this applies to queer/neurodivergent/etc. readings of characters in general.
Like yes, I know Ohba wrote Light completely disinterested in women because he wanted to showcase Light's god complex, that Light is so detached from an average man that he wouldn't even indulge in romantic love or sexual desires, as it's below him. I know this is the intent, but when you write a man who repeatedly shows a clear lack of attraction to women throughout the entire story, you wrote a queer man (ace or gay, but definitely not straight).
With Near and L, I know Ohba wanted to write two eccentric genius type characters, but he gave them so many traits that are common with people on the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum- that he accidentally wrote two neurodivergent characters.
Intent doesn't matter, it matters what you wrote in the text.
And ultimately, no matter what the author says, when you create art meant to be consumed by an audience, that work becomes shared with every single person impacted by it. Your word is final when it comes to the intended vision, but it is not the only reading that matters. As long as someone is able to make a concrete argument for their interpretation of a work, even if it's completely different than the authorial intent, it still holds meaning and value, although it's a different type of media analysis. (Especially in cases such as this when the text itself supports this reading, even though it's unintentional)
Anyhow sorry for the rant, I was on Death Note Reddit and saw people being dumb about ppl making a queer reading of Light's character or an autistic reading of L and Near and wanted to ramble about how they fundementally misunderstand why ppl say these things. Like we know Ohba didn't intend it, we just don't care!
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for-a-longlongtime · 3 months
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JOIN US for the Triple Frontier 5th Anniversary Write-A-Thon!
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Hosted by @romanarose and @for-a-longlongtime
Hello everyone!
March 13th 2024 will be the 5 year anniversary of Triple Frontier, a movie that was underrated but very precious to us all. Whether Frankie Fridays rock your world, you're a Benny kinda-person, you've got a thing for Santi, or are counting everything all the time just like Will - there are so many of us.
Charlie Hunnam announced recently that there is potential for a sequel; he is trying to get it in production and has signed on as a producer. Do we want this? HELL. YEAH. Let's be real, we've probably all thought about how that would go. So @romanarose and I wanted to drum up a little extra excitement all over the place and spread some love for this movie that many of us have watched so many times! (Probably every week. I have no shame admitting this.)
Here's what's happening
It's super simple: create a fanfic of Triple Frontier, any way you like and with any characters you want. Most people will be inclined to write a story, but we always greatly welcome other artistic interpretations. We've listed some content rules below just to make sure it's fun and accessible for everybody, so please check it out. This is for both art and fanfiction. We encourage you to utilize Twitter or Instagram if you’d like to share either, and #triplefrontier or #triplefrontier2019 on any site you post on! Even if you don't plan to participate, please feel free to share this (or other) posts.
Please note you do NOT have to write a 'sequel' to TF; any fic with any Triple Frontier character will do, in pretty much any situation. A 500 word ficlet will be awesome, as will a 20K story, a painting or digital art be!
🏳‍🌈 We are highly encouraging LGBT themes and for you to think outside of x f!reader. 🏳‍🌈 
👉 If you are writing reader insert, we strongly encourage you to encompass a broad scope of readers if you aren't going to specify the demographic. 👈 (FYI, @idolatrybarbie made a great, important post about the need of inclusive reader inserts a couple of months ago.)
All fics that fall under the rules are encouraged, so if you write Santiago Garcia x afab!f!reader, that’s great! But we’d like to take this time to encourage gay/bi pairings, trans readers, gender neutral characters or readers, or even trans interpretations of the boys. Branch out!
🚨 When you post, PLEASE tag @triplefrontier-anniversary on Tumblr and we will reblog it there. We also may reblog onto our main. Please follow that page to see what other people are writing! In the tags, please tag it triple frontier write a thon, just to make everything easily found.
If you want to post art that Tumblr doesn’t allow things like nude art, link the content in a Tumblr post, like a Twitter link, and we’ll reblog that!
If you exclusively write on AO3 or Wattpad or other, you can either make a link on a Tumblr post and tag us. Or message @romanarose privately and they’ll get this set up for you so we can reblog.
Triple Frontier Write-A-Thon Rules
We will run from March 1st to March 14th. Fics and art posted before or after will not be counted - we're trying to keep things manageabel!
This is not a dark event, sorry! Some of us enjoy dark content but wanted to keep this particular event mostly non-dark. That being said, we will allow dub con in the context of mild alcohol use, power dynamics etc. Nothing cooercive, anything sexual should be done with consent. Mostly we are looking to avoid non-con/violence. If you have questions, don’t be afraid to reach out to us!
All participants must be 18+, although smut is not required
No incest, including Millercest. No underage content, no grooming, no - do we really need to list it all here? Again, this is not a dark fic thing.
We have the right to exclude any fic that makes us uncomfortable. It’s our event.
However, we will NOT be excluding people for personal biases, unless it encroaches on our boundaries. This event is to promote Triple Frontier, not about us.
LGBTQ+ characters and themes are highly encouraged, not required. Any fandom thrives when it's inclusive, so we want to explicitely welcome and encourage authors to be themselves and write what they want! Or perhaps even try something new, if so far you've only written P boys x f!reader/OFC.
Tom is allowed. We’re not gonna tell you not to include him if that’s what your little heart desires. However, we highly encourage that your work includes at least one of the usual four guys.
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(We don't know WHY you would want this but but FINE. If you must...)
We hope everyone has fun and that this will drum up some more Triple Frontier fics! It's just a fun little thing we want to do in order to celebrate all of you as authors, artists and the movie/characters that have made such an impact on many of us.
Once we start reblogging your entries at @triplefrontier-anniversary starting March 1st, remember to reblog and comment to support artists!
Please come to @romanarose or me with any questions!
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PS: Just to make sure there's no confusion - this write-a-thon is explicitely about the Triple Frontier characters, so there's no RPF.
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gracieryder · 1 month
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Hey all!
If you're seeing this post, it's likely you saw another post of mine yesterday regarding @pururing and their art.
It's led to a lot of discussion around art and perception and culture. This artist is Korean and is portraying a Korean character. They're pulling from their experiences as best they can in doing so. You can read here about how their history and culture affects their art and the choices they make.
The character in question is played by real people, however, with Chinese parents, and many people took issue with her skin being portrayed in the art as even lighter than Maddie's and approached them to discuss it. Some of that can be seen publicly on their blog. Some of it took place in private DMs.
When discussing it, things were said and misinterpreted as this artist saying that not only is Jee lighter than her parents, but she's going to get lighter as she gets older. You can see an entire discussion about that here by reading this thread.
I want to publicly apologize to that artist for this. We should have given them more grace and asked for clarification instead of taking it in the worst way possible and then sharing that interpretation. I was wrong.
I don't think any common ground is going to be reached between either side regarding perception and how Jee should be colored, however. And I discuss that a bit more here.
I advise everyone who saw yesterday's post or is seeing today's to make their own minds up with all of the information available to you.
And for the love of everything, no matter what decision you make, do NOT attack this artist! Leave them alone!
If you choose to disengage, do so quietly with the block button or with filters, and if you choose not to, that's entirely up to you.
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stellasolaris · 10 months
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Why Stella should not have been rebranded as the Fairy of the Shining Sun
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After nearly a year, I have finally decided to write a second part to my previous post in which I said I was not a fan of the writers rebranding Stella as the Fairy of the Shining Sun.
To start, let's first take a look at her family background. Her parents are the King and Queen of Solaria—the proverbial sun and the moon. It is apparent from their distinct color palettes and the origins of their names that they represent the sun and the moon. Stella, with her original title as the Fairy of the Sun and the Moon, naturally has qualities and powers from both her parents. To take away her moon powers would be a disservice to her character, as it means taking a piece of her identity away.
While I subscribe to the idea of her having access to solar and lunar powers, I don't mind her lunar powers being secondary to her sun powers. Here's why.
Her moon-based spells, which she rarely uses, tend to be more defensive and tamer than her sun-based spells. (3.14, 3.26) For someone like her, who is bold and daring, and prefers offensive tactics over defensive ones, it makes sense that she would lean more toward using her combative solar powers. (1.21) It's what comes naturally to her.
Her relationship with her father, despite the neglectful behavior of both her parents, appears affectionate. (3.19) I like to think her strong connection with her father and home planet is in part why she prefers and is more in tune with using her solar powers than her lunar powers.
There is some debate over whether or not she should have a secondary power, with some suggesting that she would be too powerful if she had two powers. I disagree.
Her powers make narrative sense when you think of them from the standpoint of light rather than separate celestial bodies. In technical terms, moonlight is reflected sunlight. These two are not separate. In a way, her solar and lunar powers are essentially the same, just in different fonts.
It would be logical for her powers to be influenced by the level of light in her surroundings, allowing her to draw either from solar or lunar energy. We already know from canon that she becomes weak and powerless in the absence of sunlight. (2.04) In such situations, her lunar powers could become activated. This limits her abilities and prevents her from becoming too powerful.
Recall that one of the motifs regarding her character development is the use of mirrors. It serves as a symbol of her personal growth and self-awareness, particularly in seasons two and three. In 2.21, she earns a mirror-shaped pendant for being vulnerable and sharing her feelings of loneliness. In 3.04, she breaks her curse by realizing her beauty isn't skin deep. Every time she reflects on her life and grows as a person, there is a reflective item (the lake, the pendant) present. If we consider that the moon reflects the sun and acts like a mirror, we can interpret her mirror-based spells to have an indirect relation to her lunar abilities.
To be fair, her mirror spells could easily have a category of their own as the moon is not exactly like a mirror in its reflectivity power; the moon only reflects about 3–12% of the sunlight, while a mirror typically reflects anything between 70%–99.9%. However, based on the fact that the sun produces its light, whereas the moon and mirror do not, we can conclude that her mirror spells are more likely to fall under the moon category than the sun category.
From a narrative standpoint, it seems the writers had no idea what to do with her lunar side. It's likely why they changed her title and erased almost every trace of her lunar side, including the blue accents in her transformation outfits. It's a shame because there are so many ways they could have explored her moon powers in the later seasons, but no; instead, we get the displeasure of witnessing her turning into a toddler, putting fairy animals in silly costumes, and wearing an atrocious salad dress to the stage for everyone in the audience to mock. Which, for the record, she would absolutely never wear.
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elvain · 22 days
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marvel's boys: from sidekicks to heroes
i've been seeing a lot of talk about my friend ray's post about the mentor/sidekick relationship in marvel as compared to DC (this post is specifically in regards to the movie portrayal of said relationships). find the post here. the discussion around this post has inspired some thoughts in me, so i thought i'd share them below.
steve and bucky's relationship as mentor/sidekick originates in the golden age as part of the "child sidekick/hero" craze phenomenon at the time. kids wanted to know they could contribute to the war effort in these years, that they could also make a difference when their fathers and brothers went to war. so the child sidekick was invented and at marvel, that was bucky barnes + toro raymond.
but even in the silver age, we maintained a younger sidekick mentality: rick jones, janet van dyne (until she turned out be old enough to marry hank pym), and i would even include flash thompson's brief stint as a fake spider-man in this category. but, yes, all these "sidekick" scenarios eventually winded down. but i don't think it's because marvel decided sidekicks weren't a worthy trend anymore. far from it.
i think DC's interpretation of the mentor/sidekick relationship becomes more paternal/familial whereas marvel's becomes centered around guilt and trauma (rick jones, primarily). i wouldn't say marvel hated sidekicks after the golden age; they just become heroes on their own (peter parker, the original x-men, nova, etc.) rather than relying on a mentor-esque figure. i think DC has clung to the paternal side of this trend more and maintained it - it's worked for them, so great. but marvel i think dived the other way which was also great.
i know about the "spider-man killed teen sidekicks by being both a young person and the main hero" take as well and i have some thoughts on that, too, if you'll bear with me.
i think it isn't that we started hating sidekicks. i think we realized that, after the golden age, the kids weren't just kids anymore. there is a genre of kid who was too young to fight in ww2 but who still dealt with that trauma and that kid was reading these comics, sending in letters, collecting stamps, etc. comic mags in the golden age used to be FULL of things like "if you see any war planes over your city, report it to the nearest military office!" or "you can collect scrap metal and donate it to the war effort, just like timmy here!" and after the events of pearl harbor, every timely comic had a big stamp on them, demanding that we "remember pearl harbour".
now its 1962 and that kid is 15 and he kinda doesn't NEED his dad as much cause he's either dead or he's been away for years fighting in the war. this kid needs to be his own hero. [gestures to peter parker, richard rider, steve rogers even if you count the origin story] like it isn't that spider-man killed the sidekicks - it's that he lost his father figure (ben parker) and now had to be his own hero and i think that would've resonated a LOT with kids of that era who had gone through a similar loss.
i think it shows in rick jones too - the reason rick just never REALLY "sidekicked" is because he was a reflection of the young boys/girls at the time who suddenly had no parents or elder figures bc of the wars. now they had to deal with it on their own and thats why he didn't stick it out with steve and why he became bruce's friend instead of the hulk's sidekick, cause he just didn't need that mentor and that protection anymore after what he (as a representation of kids from the after-war years) had gone through.
it isn't that the sidekicks died. it's that they were forced to grow up.
if you're interested in thoughts like this, i have some posts on my rarely used wordpress blog. The Golden Age: overview: how i started reading the Golden Age comics. The Golden Age: I: characters i thought i knew, but did not. The Golden Age II: think of the women and children!
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raayllum · 7 months
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Loyalty and Love :: A Miyana Meta
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In S4 and S5, one of the most interesting side characters introduced, upon further reflection, has definitely been General Miyana of the Six Horns. Although mostly there to be a trusted confidant and sounding board for Karim, in S5 she's allowed to be a lot more active and interplay a lot more with themes the show is steadily more explicitly exploring in regards to love and loyalty, which is what I'm gonna talk about today.
So without further ado, let's get into it.
The first time we see Miyana is in the tent with Karim for Janai and Amaya's initial engagement announcement / celebration.
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It is worth noting, I believe, that Karim initially didn't want to tell Janai about is concerns over her marriage, but Janai urged him to be honest with her about what was bothering him. (Talk about a catalyst for unwanted consequences). Given that Karim is clearly close to Amaya to have seen her effect on Amaya ("Well sister, it can finally be said: you have met your match... Janai, I have nothing to criticize about Amaya. I love Amaya! She is strong and funny, and she makes you happy") as well as for Amaya to consider the marriage merely "officially" making him her little brother. Miyana and Karim might've shared similar reservations and worries about the humans' continued, growing presence in 'New' Aurea, but we simply don't know enough to say; perhaps she brought muttering from the other Six Horns to him, and that was the initial seed (or the other way around).
When the incident with the architect and the Soul flame candle happens, though, Karim starts to lose his impatience.
K: This is the problem! Like all the other humans, even your wife-to-be thinks this is a joke. [...] You know what must be done. Call a Tribunal of the Six Horns.
And this is also where we start to see the political implications of Miyana and Karim's relationship. But first, a few assumptions:
Miyana is close enough to the queen to be sent to report news to her, something we see only Kazi and Gren do to either Amaya or Janai (5x07)
Janai trusts Miyana with the Sun Seed and is comfortable operating on a first name basis (5x07), particularly in Amaya's absence
Miyana leads the lineup of the Six Horns, likely indicating either senior-ship or authority among the group
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Karim and Miyana have likely been together for a while, but are seemingly not wed. Janai refers to him as "kid brother" which indicates a more prominent age gap between the siblings (anywhere from 7-10 years in my experience) and does not mention Miyana when she says, "I'm supposed to criticize your love life, not the other way around" (4x02)
Either Karim and Miyana have kept their relationship entirely secret, or Janai knows but does not disapprove, and assumes she still has Miyana's loyalty due to her continued presence at camp even after Karim's exile / not helping him when he asked in 4x09. I personally lean toward her not knowing due to their late night scheduled rendezvous, but you can interpret it both ways
Either way, they clearly care about keeping their relationship secret as when he goes to her quarters in 4x08, Miyana says, "What are you doing? We shouldn't be seen together" (showing that they are both politically minded enough to be willing to stay a secret for no other apparent reason, too).
Given that Janai and Miyana have both worked as prominent generals and her close relationship with Kairm, Miyana has likely known the Sunfire royal family for some time (possibly since childhood)
Miyana is not the first to cast judgement, either, at the trial's end, with everyone else changing their fire first. (This could indicate the opposite of what leading the line did, and that she is in reality the lowest of the Six Horns, or could not be custom at all - who knows?)
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After all, we know the outcome Karim wants - punishment and "justice" and that by calling the Horns, he will likely get what he wants, as he knows Miyana will likely side with his choice as well. This is supported in canon since the Horns likewise unanimously vote that Lucia is guilty even with Amaya's testimony; it is singularly Janai's decision of what she is being sentenced to that spares her.
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It's implied that when Karim left the tribunal angrily, he was waiting at the wall to meet Miyana when Janai intercepted him, given that it's his and Miyana's meeting spot later than episode, and she playfully chides him for being late.
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Miyana doesn't seem particularly upset herself about anything that happened at the Tribunal, even if Janai certainly didn't go with what sentencing Miyana had had in mind when choosing guilty as a verdict. She also doesn't seem super shocked that Karim is going to well, conspire to go against his sister (which is treason) but to be fair, she is mostly there to 1) establish that they're in a relationship and 2) so Karim has an excuse to say his thoughts out loud so the audience can hear them. You can, however, also read this very laid back reaction as one of well - future loyalty, as we'll soon see, but also perhaps a sign of caution, which is Miyana's most valuable trait in contrast to Karim's more impatient nature. And if the previous implications are right - Miyana and Karim both putting their political power over being open about their relationship, it would make sense that they must politically agree / have values that align beyond just "your values should match up when someone is your partner" y'know?
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"These things take time." This is, of course, the last thing Karim wants to hear after learning about Janai's 100+ year plan to restore their people's peace and security, a day that neither them nor their potential children will leave to see, so he doubles down accordingly.
Miyana being more cautious/patience makes sense, too, given that she's not nearly as irate about Janai and Amaya doing well, anything, at this point as he is.
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Miyana's emphasis on "Did he win?" (a focus on securing victory and hedging your bets/choices correctly) over Karim's "He did, but the point of the story is not who won. The duel stopped the war" and stopped the clash between siblings, which is ultimately what Karim wants. He never thinks that Janai will accept the duel, but that she will abdicate, leave with her wife, and they can both get exactly what they wanted, particularly since as Janai said, "I never wanted to be queen" (4x02) a perspective that has changed because of the Tribunal he urged her to call and because of her growing bond with Amaya (4x08).
So by this point in the story, we know that:
Miyana is close to the royal family
She cares about her own political values and power enough to be willing to hide her and Karim's relationship for their mutual political gain, particularly in situations like the Tribunal
She's caring, patient, and less irritable than her partner
She's cautious and plays the long game - not stepping in to help Karim in 4x09 when she sees the tide has already turned against him, knowing she'd be more valuable remaining at camp until she can make her own play
She thinks through more of the angles (such as questioning what will happen if Janai accepts the duel, which Karim never really considers as an option)
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S5 doesn't really give us any new information - it just doubles down on all of these, but allows her to do so independently without Karim's own pushing. Rather, Pharos arriving and almost implicating her serves to tell her what Karim wants, even if she doesn't know why yet.
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This 'demand' tells us more about Karim in some ways than it does Miyana. It shows that he misses her, it indicates that he trusts her still which this episode later proves, and it's a way to give her an excuse to see him again, which we know he desperately wants (but we're gonna talk a lot more about their final scene, just you wait) that she may not be able to take without causing suspicion otherwise.
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It's also why he cries when she does show up in 5x09, because when she didn't in 5x08, he thought she'd truly betrayed him and changed sides (hence why he was maybe more angry at Janai and Amaya than he previously ever had been before, given what he'd 'lost' to them), believing retrospectively that his love had truly forsaken him.
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But she hadn't. Because she betrayed Janai instead.
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Karim isn't in a particularly good place at the end of season four, either, with losing his duel (but having his life spared) and his political machinations and future for his people blowing up in his face. But he's in an undeniably worse one (at first) in 5x09, having tried to legitimately kill his sister (which wasn't the initial plan in 4x09) and failed, enlisting a dubious assassin who also abandoned him when it suited her, getting his ass kicked by Amaya, his plan to heal Sol Regem and get his aid indefinitely stalled without the sun seed, losing the love of his life, and losing his mother's ring, to boot.
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It is quite literally only because of Miyana that absolutely anything gets turned around and even before Miyana reveals that she's absolutely changed the game in his favour, Karim is still emotional and overjoyed to see her (and we start to see their, let's say Parallels, come to light...)
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Amaya: You abandoned him. You broke his heart.
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Callum: Well, some things have changed, but not everything: I would do anything for you.
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Opeli: Don't you want to know what she was up to? Why she did all this? Callum: If she didn't tell me, she has a good reason. [...] Rayla, I was wrong. I waited too long. I hope you know—
In spite of less than ideal appearances, in spite of perceived or actual abandonment, in spite of apparent indifference, they've stayed loyal to one another through everything. As they clarify tearfully to themselves, Miyana's Love for him is Synonymous with her Loyalty. They are one and the same.
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You might say that she would Do Anything for him. Even when quite literally everyone and anything else turns against him, she is in his corner - and makes all the difference. I dunno about you, but I kinda have to respect it.
Which, okay, yeah Miyana is loyal to Karim because she loves him. Duh. Why does this matter thematically? How does this develop one of the other major explorations / notions of the season? Well...
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(Cut lines from Finnegrin's Wake) Finnegrin to Callum: Seems to me that love's got a tighter grip on you than those chains round your wrists. So I'll do you a favour and set you free.
A slave to your loyalties.
Your loyalty? My love.
Interesting, don't you think?
TLDR; Miyana's love and loyalty to Kairm helps reinforce the "in the name of love" motivation that we increasingly see the main cast be embroiled in over the course of Arc 2, for better or for worse, with interesting implications for her history with the Sunfire Royal Family, and possible reaffirmation setup for Callum and Rayla moving forward.
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bcbdrums · 2 months
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I saw the Reddit drama. Please explain why Drakgo is a more interesting ship than KimRon.
first, thanks for the ask! second, whoaaaaaaa i wouldn't presume to label one ship more interesting than another. some people will find ships interesting, others won't.
i'll give a diff example. in my other current hyperfixation, soul eater, my friend adores Ship A while i'm all about Ship B. her ship IS interesting to me! i think those chars are the most shippable in the show, they're basically canon w/o PDA, and they are deeply complex both as individual chars and as a couple.
they're just... not the ones i'm hyperfixated on. doesn't make them uninteresting.
what makes a person's brain and heart grab onto one ship and not another? who can say.
a lack of personal interest in a ship does not make it objectively uninteresting, or worse... and a ship having way more attention than another in fandom doesn't objectively make that ship more interesting, or better.
CAN a person make canonical objective arguments for or against ships? certainly.
let's just grab characters from KP to use as example. Bonnie and Brick. canonically a couple for more than one episode! we do not get a lot of canon info onscreen for them, so most of the interest in them would have to come from fan creations. compare to Kim and Ron, who have infinitely more screentime together, infinitely more individual character development than Bonnie and Brick both as individuals and as a couple...
one could argue that Kim/Ron is more interesting than Brick/Bonnie. there's more to grab from the canon at least. but if a person wants to draw/write/talk at length about Brick/Bonnie? why not!
no reason to be hating on any ship. if it's not your ship, then just...don't engage?? especially if you're against said ship.
now me, personally, i find Drakgo more interesting than Kim/Ron. (altho recent convo with @creatorping got my Kim/Ron juices flowing again). Drakgo just appeal to me more as characters, with their gritty backgrounds, a lot more unknowns to explore, the challenge of two villains developing a mutual trusting relationship so they can have a happily ever after... that just grabs my mind and heart more than the perfect girl and her adorkable boyfriend. it doesn't mean Kim and Ron aren't interesting, cuz ohhhhh they are! mostly post-canon for me because...who ARE they, after high school?? who is Kim other than the student who saves the world? what's she gonna do with her life? and what is Ron gonna do? he absolutely can't go to the same college as her, and she can't ditch a good opportunity to go to a community college with him... my hang-up has always been that Kim wasn't given enough individual development onscreen to do anything interesting with her post-canon. but aforementioned convo with Ping changed my mind, heheh. 😏
in any case, the point... one ship isn't more or less interesting. one ship isn't better or worse than another. it's us, the viewer, who either will or won't be interested.
so as i've always said.... ship and let ship. don't like? don't interact. don't hate on someone else's ships or headcanons or POVs... (reddit...)
and, that's not the same thing as discourse. discussing characters, discussing points of view, interpretations... sharing various headcanons... with willing parties who want to enter into that conversation! THAT is a major part of fandom! but it's all in how one goes about it. and! should people come to disagree about interpretations of characters, also fine!
i think the issue arises when people start to act like... my interpretation is correct OR, my interpretation is the only valid one. when people get up on that horse, that's where the problems arise... it can be tough if you feel like you're the only person WITH a certain POV, but... again, if the folks you're chatting with aren't into it, then find other people. i'm in that boat with some soul eater headcanons, but, that's okay. i don't need to convince everyone else in the fandom in order rto enjoy my thoughts. i'll still talk about them, but, not with the idea of telling anyone my view is the only view. that's the antithesis of what fandom is about. i'll talk about them because i enjoy talking about them, to like-minded folk, and on my own blog which is what a blog is for.
and, idk why it shows up so often in the KP fandom, especially the Drakgo side, that people can't simply say "hey i have this headcanon!" and someone respond with "oh that's neat!" and just. happily co-exist. everyone creating their things, sharing their things. and people will like what they like, as they always have, in every fandom. and if they don't like someone's idea, that's fine too!
but it's not worth fighting about?? it never is! it's just not that important. it's fandom. it's fun. it's our escape. if one feels SO strongly against a concept, or ship, or whatever.... then you don't interact with it. you don't make it your mission to disprove the other person. you don't actively seek out opportunities to hate on a point of view you dislike. that's not how fandom is supposed to be. find your people, and chill with them.
let's all be positive in the various fandom spaces.
i hadn't intended that to be such a rant, but...well, there you have it. sorry it probably was not what you wanted to hear, but yeah. thanks again for the ask!!
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arcadekitten · 21 days
Note
Hi! I've been seeing people ask some lore based and future game based questions wanted to ask some myself cause I LOVE the lore of all your games and how so many tie into each other, if any aren't too spoilery I'd love to know some of these! (SPOILERS FOR A FEW GAMES AHEAD 🥹)
1. For MNE are either Allie or Enide planned on returning in future games?
2. What terms are Enide and Reginald on? Based on the vibes of Enides note it seemed like she was in love with Reginald but he obviously doesn't feel the same, and it seems like with Enide's actions she'd be willing to go pretty far (like her actions in MNE) to get with Reginald based on the note.
3. So I know you've said Rune in Crowscare and Blackout Hospital are the same, I saw the pictures in his office but I just wanted to confirm are they still his kids in Blackout Hospital?
4. Is the creature in the basement in INMIMB be revealed or show up again? Or have they maybe been revealed without us realizing maybe?
Thank you so much in advance for listening I have a silly amount of theories on your characters universe so thought I'd ask some questions! >:D
I think so! ---
I think Enide is very pushy in trying to get Reginald to give her a chance, but she also isn't going to force anything when she realizes he really just isn't interested in her. I feel like the wording "in love" is a little intense though! She just has a crush on him right now. She sees Reginald as a friend but Reginald sees her as more of an acquaintance ---
They are the same character but not exactly the same timeline. Ryo is still Rune's son and always will be wherever they appear! Rune doesn't really consider Ingram a son but does see him as a sort of extended family and cares about him very much ---
I don't think so, INMIMB was purposely designed to be a very interpretive game and I don't want to take away from that! I know some people like to share my old concept art about what the monsters would have looked like, but that is NOT CANON and only remains as part of the bones of what was once a different story.
Thanks so much for enjoying the games, it really does mean so much to me! ♡
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ot3 · 1 year
Note
Ok, now after all that Phoenix dad asks, i can't help but share my own unnecessary opinion. I feel like the rapport between Beanix and Trucy is too good for him to be a shitty parent, but the game strongly implies he has alcohol problem. Like no matter how I squint at the source material Beanix is alcoholic. And it's really hard to imagine him being a great dad if he' s spending their meager funds on "grape juice". ( Although with his life at this period I would really wish that at least he did the parenting gig right)
oh man i have been getting a lot of asks on this subject over the past coupe days and mostly avoided answering them because i just sort of more or less said my piece on the matter and didn't want to keep dragging out the same points but this take. is a really insidious one imo. and i feel like you've unwittingly touched on The Elephant In The Room regarding this entire discussion.
I don't think you really meant any harm by this and i hesitate to ascribe any real-world politics to people based on how they interact with fiction, but it's really difficult to see people talk about addiction in fiction this way and imagine they would have more sympathy for real addicts.
Someone being an addict does not de facto make them a bad parent. Someone being poor does not de facto make them a bad parent. I would also argue that someone being too poor to fully provide for their children doesn't de facto make them a bad parent either, because poverty - especially child poverty - is a structural problem and not an individual one.
But I digress, that's not really relevant, because there's absolutely nothing in ace attorney 4 that suggests that the wright's financial problems are caused by phoenix's drinking! Nor is there anything that suggests his drinking has caused him to in any way mistreat Trucy. Anything we see that could be loosely interpreted as neglectful parenting, such as bringing Trucy to poker games or leaving for long stretches to work on the jurist system, can be linked to their financial situation. And you're immediately correlating between the financial stuff and the addiction. Not illogically, but what you have to remember is that alcoholism is often a symptom of poverty, rather than the other way around.
Addiction is obviously very bad even if its not at the point where it's causing your entire life to fall apart! But phoenix is clearly functional and competent during the events of aa4, so i think to act like struggling with addiction is in and of itself enough to negate all of the good parenting he does is just suuuper shitty.
There's really a lot of bizarre distaste for anything resembling Addiction and Poverty amongst ace attorney fans, I've seen really nasty sentiment from people wrt aa4 that, once you cut through what they're actually saying, boils down to 'implying phoenix could ever be an alcoholic made him a fundamentally less good/less likeable character' and man. i just think that really sucks.
especially considering the fact that shu takumi has been pretty open about the fact that 1. he writes phoenix with a lot of Himself in there and 2. he's had, to say the least, a somewhat involved relationship with alcohol. He talks about drinking through work extensively in a pretty cavalier way. I don't expect everyone to know these details but i think anyone who has ever laughed about how shu takumi wrote most of JFA drunk needs to stop and wonder why they think making phoenix an alcoholic crosses some sort of moral line. Along those lines, I also feel similarly uncomfortable when people try to insist non stop that 'its just grape juice, there's no way it was supposed to be implying anything, it's just a joke.' it just feels super disrespectful to try and ignore the narrative implications here coming from a creator who has struggled with alcohol because you think it somehow taints the wholesomeness of a character he based off of himself.
i would urge you and everyone else who has had similar thoughts to please just sort of take a moment and re-asses the opinions you have on this subject and see if you're not just voicing some pretty harmful kneejerk responses to seeing alcoholism depicted or alluded to in ways you're not really used to. Because this just is not the take in any way, shape, or form.
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princelylove · 2 months
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Your highness,
You made me think about Risotto Nero and I've went and re read what you had already written about him (which was really fun and lovely, as always) but I've noticed we never really got a proper analysis of him.
As I've said before, I am a sucker for random details and I was wondering if you would kindly share with us some of your headcannons on him, maybe less popular ideas or underrated aspects of him.
Just like with Leone, I feel like he's a very misunderstood, mistreated character and I'm dying to read more about *your* vision of him.
I will humbly take whatever you wish to share with us (me <3)
Heart <3
I’ll be writing for him when I add to my body interpretations, as la squadra esecuzioni is up next, but Risotto needs some more attention, specifically. I agree that he’s incredibly mistreated- that’s the price you pay when you’re that handsome. 
Risotto is quite the stalker. I think of him as the knight in shining armor type, your very own white knight obsessed with protecting you, but being with him directly means involving you in his work, so… from the shadows is fine. 
Risotto knows how to pay attention to the details, he’s a romantic in that sense. He’s very careful not to leave any trace- of course, besides from his ‘gifts.’ It’s nothing flashy, in fact, if you aren’t very perceptive, you won’t notice them at all. The dishes are done. There isn’t any dust. The contents of the refrigerator are all safe, and aren’t expired. Things to that effect. 
After Sorbet & Gelato died, he asked his unit to all move in together, but he isn’t very social, so… he just kind of locks himself in his office all day. They’re safe, and fed, and not miserable (hopefully), so it’s all fine. There’s no need for him to intervene. Prosciutto came a little late, but all’s well. (I should go into the group dynamic more.) 
He talks very slowly, and has a habit of mumbling. His voice is fairly deep, deeper than Leone’s, but it isn’t raspy. While the vowels themselves are clear, he makes his voice as ‘small’ as he can. Risotto doesn’t want to frighten off small, timid creatures. Nevermind the fact that there isn’t a timid soul in that apartment. The most mouselike individual is Pesci, or technically Illuso since he hides in his own world all day, and there’s no reason to speak like that to either of them.
Risotto doesn’t really talk that much, he prefers to sit back (not really, he’s always tense) and listen carefully. He nitpicks his words, although most of it is improv. His quick thinking has kept him his position as capo, and although he heavily dislikes his job, it comes easily to him. 
Metallica isn’t sentient, but he pretends it is, for amusement. He gets lonely easily, his ‘little friends’ keep him sane when the boss sends him on seven hits back to back.
Risotto strikes me as the type of man to have a lot of patience, but eventually, he'll snap. He's the protective type, plagued by 'what-if's and genuine threats to your safety. You can be mad at him, or have whatever feelings you need to have, just know that he won't let you go.
Whatever behavior you exhibit after he kidnaps you is fine. He'll suck it up and bear it until your shoulders stop tensing at his footsteps. Heavy, clear footsteps that don't drag or approach too quickly. He considered using his stand to take care of your needs, you cannot be frightened if you don't know he's there, but it's better if you associate him with safety. It's better if you have a familiar face, too.
You stay in his office, but you're free to wander all around his apartment. A large room that has his bed on one side, and his desk on the other. The bed does not fit him. It's yours until you'll allow him to share it with you.
Once you've adjusted to him... he'll shove his face into you and just breathe in as much of you as he can, before he has to go.
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olderthannetfic · 8 months
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Hi, Olderthannetfic - I'm just sort of reaching out through the blogosphere to see if anyone in the larger proship community has any suggestions for where a community could move if not on discord. (CW for discussion of underage content and Black Butler Spoilers)
So I run a discord server for Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji) but I'm also in several writing discords including one that caters to dead dove content creators. Today they posted some rule changes, due to changes in Discord's community guidelines. Any illustrations for nsfw of obviously underage characters are now banned, and written content has to be vague and not state ages of underage participants. That prompted me to read through it: And, I gotta say, its pretty bad: https://discord.com/safety/child-safety-policy-explainer Hoping the community can offer some insight on what to do since the policy is incredibly broad. Either a new platform, or what we could even reasonably do beyond our current system of gating the server heavily to avoid issues like reporting/brigading. The meat of the policy is right here, for those who want to read it:
You may not post or share the following types of content, such as [sensitive language content warning]
Portrayals of minors engaging in sex acts, or in sexually explicit or suggestive poses
Sexual comments about or desires for real or fictitious minors
Links to websites containing material that sexualizes minors
Photos or videos of non-nude minors in a sexualized or fetishistic context
Statements expressing intent to obtain materials of child abuse or engage in child sexual abuse
Promotion, encouragement or normalization of pedophilia or sexual attraction to children
Photos, videos, or drawings of nude or sexualized minors, such as “lolicon” or “shotacon”
Photos, videos or illustrations of naked or sexualized anthropomorphized minors (sometimes referred to as “cub porn”)
Also of note from their guidelines: > Given the high-harm nature of this content, we will also consider off-platform evidence as explained in our Off-Platform Behaviors Policy when reviewing content under this policy.
This is pretty horrifying for me, since under these terms, even if we weren't writing smutty fanfiction and laughing about silly nsfw headcannons, discussion even of the source material of Kuro would be completely off limits. I mean, this is a panel from the arc that was recently announced to be animated for release in 2024:
Tumblr media
I think even on tumblr just mentioning that this looks like an intro to a porno would be flagged.
This is particularly frustrating since this is a series that is literally sold at like, Barnes and Noble. It's one of the most popular mangas in the world. Even the numerous, incredibly obnoxious antis who run this fandom on tiktok/reddit/twitter and don't ship the "evil" Sebaciel like I do would probably be forbidden from even discussing many of the canon elements under these terms, including: * The many plot points in several arcs during which it is implied that an adult character is sexually attracted to Ciel (I was going to list them all but this honestly happens at least once per arc) * Discussion of Ciel's trauma - the inciting incident of the manga (also portrayed in flashbacks) where he is sexually assaulted alongside his brother * The Green Witch Arc plot where Sieglinde interprets the situation to be that Sebastian/Ciel have invited her to a three way to take her virginity. * The many canon depictions of Ciel in various states of undress that are clearly intended to be titillating in some manner. I mean... "Photos or videos of non-nude minors in a sexualized or fetishistic context" is basically just. The entire series. In fact, even just linking to where you could read or purchase this manga legally at Barnes and Noble could technically be considered a violation under these guidelines considering how incredibly broad they are. Much has already been said on your blog and elsewhere about how this type of policy harms queer people and CSA survivors (both terms I identify with) and how censorship like this also targets books like Speak (incidentally one of my favorite books from when i was younger) so I won't rehash that here but... its disappointing to say the least.
I assume that most of this is just covering their ass due to legislation and/or the usual pressure from payment processors. Its also possible I'm overreacting entirely and this is a paranoid reading of this policy. Nonetheless, I'd appreciate any insight you or the community might have on what our options might be.
Sorry for the massive ask in your inbox :P Just don't know what we'd do if the worst happened and we got reported.
--
A lot hinges on how many of those instances of "minors" they think imply "real or fictitious" and how many they're interpreting as real only. They're explicitly banning some types of fictitious material like loli/shota and cub porn, but they aren't explicit about all of the items on this list.
Will discord use these rules punitively against shit they shouldn't without warning? Almost certainly yes. But as for why they're making them, it's because discord is apparently one of the current favorite places for the distribution of actual abuse images of actual children, and they need to cover their asses.
Still, it's worth exploring your options early.
If you want to host explicit shota fan art, you're looking at a very limited selection of sites. I think a lot of people went to certain Mastodon instances.
If you want to discuss Black Butler in peace... IDK... Maybe check out how Bobaboard is doing? It's going to depend on what features you need. The more you're just making a community on someone else's site, the less liability you personally have. The more you're running your own thing, the more you have to be in charge of legal compliance stuff.
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Note
I am writing in third person limited and swapping between 3 different characters at the start. My problem is when two of the characters team up and share most of the scenes together. How do I decide which POV to choose?
I don't want to abandom either POV, because I like writing the thoughts of both of them, and because there are still some scenes where they are seperate, but I also don't want to switch between the two when they're together. Any suggestions?
Thank you so much!
Stuck Choosing Between POVs in a Scene
Unless you're writing in third-person omniscient (where all POVs are available at once), you definitely don't want to switch between two POVs in one scene. In third-person limited/close, the narrator is limited to one character POV at a time and can only switch to a new POV character after a scene break or in a new chapter. Otherwise, you fall into what's known as "head hopping" which tends to confuse the reader and give them a bit of literary whiplash.
That said, when you have two POV characters with valuable perspectives in a scene, you really only have two choices:
1 - Choose Between Them - Choosing one POV over the other in a scene isn't "abandoning" the other POV. That character will still be part of the scene, and there are many other ways you can explore their thoughts and feelings even if they're not the POV character in the scene. For example, you use body language (posture, facial expressions, and gestures) to hint to the reader how the non-POV character is feeling. If the POV character knows them well enough, they may use these cues to mentally interpret what the other character might be thinking or feeling. You can also have the other character tell the POV character what they're thinking and feeling. You can also have the POV character overhear them express those thoughts and feelings to another character, have that other character share what this character told them, or have the POV character discover this information in some way--like by reading it in a journal entry they weren't meant to see.
2 - Split the Scene in Half and Give Each POV Part of the Scene - As long as you use a scene break to separate the two POV sections, you can use POV #1 for the first half of the scene, and POV #2 for the second half. This way, they're still in the same place/moment/activity/situation, but we see the first half of it in one POV and the second half in the other. That way, you get a chance to explore both POVs as far as what they think and feel about what's going on. You aren't going to rehash the action--it will still play out from beginning to end of the scene--but it gives you an opportunity to explore the second POV character's thoughts after already having explored the first. Then, you can use some of the suggestions in item #1 above to help with anything else you want to convey about the first POV character.
Happy writing!
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mxopifex · 7 months
Text
A Fanfic Writer's Guide to Writing Fanart Prompts
So it came up while chatting with some other members of a fandom gift exchange that some of the writers felt less comfortable writing prompts for recieving fanart gifts and I thought I'd try and make a guide to help out since I do both fanart and fanfic.
The stumbling blocks as I understood them were: 1) not knowing what you like in fanart, 2) not knowing how to articulate what you like (which is probably more related to the first item than you think), and 3) worrying that all your prompts are too narrative. Imma do my best to address those, but if you have other questions feel free to drop me a line. I want to help.
I call this a guide, but it's more of a series of questions to ask yourself than a how to, or rather this is a how to think about and understand what you want to ask for type guide. A good prompt doesn't need to (and maybe shouldn't) touch on every issue I bring up here. The goal is to make the person who is making your gift feel confident that they can make something you like, not to tell them exactly what to do.
What to do if you are worried that you make all your prompts too narrative heavy:
First, relax. Fanart often carries a narrative component. You can reasonably prompt something that might involve a bit of visual storytelling. That said, the amount of story you can get in a single image is much smaller than the amount you can pack into even a modest 1k short story. Imagine a single scene you might like to see; the kind you love when it pops up in a fic. "I'd like to see the blorbos on a beach vacation" or "I'd like to see character A treating character B's wounds." You can further abstract this to things like "a cozy domestic scene" or "being flirty."
Some Prompt Prompts for if you are feeling stuck on what to ask for
Tropes! Many tropes work in a fanart setting. The ones that don't are the ones that need a bit more narrative behind them to make sense. It might be tricky to convey Fake Dating with a single image, but Hurt/Comfort or Only One Bed is very doable.
AUs! Want to let the artist play dress up with the blorbos? See what they'd look like as the socialite guests in a 1920s Agatha Christy style murder mystery? or just ask for something more general like a fairy tale setting or modern au.
Set the mood! What's the vibe you like best about this character or coupling? Do you want something dark and broody? More lighthearted and comedic? Tender and romantic?
Style! While I don't advise requesting something in the vein of a specific artist's style (the person making your gift has their own style) talking about styles of art that you like can help them understand what's visually appealing to you. So mentioning like "a moody film noir type setting" or "overwrought flowery romance like in shojo manga" isn't horrible, as long as you leave the artist room to bring their own sensibilities into the picture.
Poses! Want that bridal carry? Sharing an umbrella? Something that emphasizes a height difference? Don't go too hog wild with details "and their left pinky at a thirty degree angle..." but if you wanna see someone getting dipped on the dance floor, go ahead and ask for it.
Two final thoughts. First, just like with fic prompts you want to have a couple different ones in your ask. Every artist has things they feel more or less comfortable with, and giving a few options helps to make sure that there's at least one that they can work with. Particularly if you have a more complex prompt, it would be good to also have one that's simpler or more open to interpretation. Second, check in with yourself to see if you have any art specific DNWs.Maybe you can handle written descriptions of blood but not visual depictions or maybe the character has that one outfit that you think is butt ugly. Either way make sure you are clear about it in your prompt.
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commsroom · 6 months
Note
I'm really glad for all the love you've put into w359 fanworks. every time I see you post about it, my heart glows a little.
I'd originally felt that way while listening to the show, and your interpretation & vision feels so tightly knit to the source material. you even go farther in your explicit discussions about hera, her autonomy, her emotional depth, her treatment by other characters, and her arc as a trans allegory
totally understand why you might feel embarrassed, but I wanted you to know: thank you 💜
oh, that's so sweet of you to say!! i'm honored you think so.
i genuinely think there's a case to be made that eiffel/hera is as canon as the parameters for romance in wolf 359 allow it to be. like: gabriel urbina's policy was always "never confirm or deny 'on-screen' romance unless absolutely necessary" and from the AMAs we know they at least discussed it with regard to eiffel and hera, though we'll never know how that conversation went. it's not really a secret that sarah shachat and zach valenti, at least, viewed it that way. i still think about zach saying (paraphrased) that he thinks his non-answer is an answer, because if he didn't ship them, he could just say so.
and that's kind of how i feel about eiffel/hera within canon. like. anybody at all familiar with shows the wolf 359 writers like (especially things like btvs and farscape) can tell you there are plenty of scenes that mirror and meta-textually reference scenes from other shows. both gabriel urbina and sarah shachat were huge fans of the new doctor who, and whatever you believe the intent was, i find it hard to believe they didn't at least know they were evoking "if it's my last chance to say it, rose tyler, i-" with "and hera. hera, i-" it's what isn't said, the fact it has to be left unsaid, that speaks the loudest.
and anyway, talking about hera and romance / sexuality is especially interesting to me because it's not a given for her. it's not assumed to be something she should want or can have, and the way that intersects with her canon disability and with readings of her as a trans woman re: autonomy and desirability is very interesting (and very personal) to me, especially in the broader context of stories about AI women. but that's a topic for another post.
it's not a new observation by any means, but i think there can be a tendency to treat romance as separate from character analysis, and that's always sat poorly with me. romance isn't unique in either a good or a bad way, it's just... one type of relationship people can have. i think a lot about the unique approach wolf 359 has to romance because, while i understand why a lot of people would find the lack of romantic subplots refreshing, the characters aren't written to be intentionally disinterested in sex or romance (in some cases, textually... the opposite, even), so much as the writing carefully skirts around it. and... i don't know! there's something fascinating there.
obviously, i think you can recognize what's important about eiffel and hera's relationship (that it's the most equal one hera has ever had, that he has no real hierarchy over her or expectations for her other than companionship, how they share values and mutually support each other, etc.) without needing that to be romantic. and i think you can even acknowledge there's some degree of romantic intent without being invested like i am or "shipping" them. but i do think there's some intent there, and i think the the themes of the show can be expanded in some interesting ways to explore that beyond the intentional ambiguity of it. if you want to.
i would also never deny having an emotional bias here!! complete objectivity is never possible because we always bring parts of ourselves to our interpretations of art, and that's only amplified by how close to my heart wolf 359 is as a story. but i do really want to communicate, to the best of my ability, how much love i have for the show and how much thought i put into it. and i definitely don't mind being known for my love of eiffel/hera; they're my favorite characters from anything ever, both individually and together. but i do get kinda embarrassed when i talk about them too much, because it's not that i don't have plenty of thoughts about every other character and aspect of the show, it's just... that they are close to my heart in a particular way. anyway. i really appreciate it, thank you!!
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merakiui · 1 year
Note
Hi hi, I love love love the way you write for jade and I would love to hear what kind of personality you have in mind when writting for him??
I seem to be struggling to do him justice with my interpretation and I would love to hear your thought process. TT
Much love!! ♡
Hello!! I'm so happy to hear you like my portrayal of Jade! I will share my thought process below. Forgive me for rambling. orz
Whenever I write him, I always envision the >:3c face because I feel like that sums up Jade's sly, smart-ass personality very well. He is quite the scheming devil who will play dumb if it's fun or entertaining, even though he most definitely already knows. He likes to be a very subtle pain, or he'll build up to it with little, seemingly insignificant things until it all comes crashing down on you at once. <3
That aside, Jade is such a complex character with a very interesting psychology! I always imagine him as being leaner than Floyd, whereas Floyd is bulkier/more broad-shouldered, and that perhaps when Jade was young he was the runt of the lot. It is said the twins chose each other when they hatched, so sometimes I like to think Jade chose Floyd in order to offset his own weaknesses and survive because runts don't often survive in the sea. Both of them are strong, although I think Floyd has more raw strength, and what Jade lacks in strength he makes up for with sharp wit and intelligence.
I like to keep a few things in mind when I'm writing Jade: body language, banter, and his upbringing in the sea. Body language is important because it's either very telling or very deceptive with him, and you can play off of both to make him seem oddly genuine or scarily evasive. In the game, he tends to cover his mouth a lot with his hand and he always stands so still and straight. He's also always smiling, and I love characters who can smile while saying the most horrendous things! Jade must always look polite, sound polite, be polite. It's the gentleman façade! Even when he's ruining your life, he will still be so polite. The type of man who appears perfect husband material, but then you look beyond the carefully crafted veneer and it is much deeper and darker.
Banter is another important facet to Jade because oh does he adore banter. I think the best reference of banter between Jade and a darling are the chapters in DRU because that's where the most banter can be found (but there's also some banter in the alpha Floyd story where Jade is being annoying about the jacket and the pastry just to get fun reactions from darling). Jade likes to annoy and push every button he can. Sometimes you'll think he does it just to get the most volatile reactions; other times it's because things have been too peaceful and quiet and Jade likes a little mischief every now and then. Banter with Jade is fun because he's so willing to engage in it. Even lighthearted arguments with him might spiral into nonsensical banter.
As for his upbringing in the sea, I just like to incorporate his being a merman whenever I can, even if it's little glimpses of his views as an ocean dweller. He is a predator, so naturally he would have that mindset even if he's temporarily human. He is also very calculated and patient. So patient!! As long as it's beneficial in some way or very entertaining, he will wait as long as he must. Though Floyd has noted that morays are cowards, so there are parts of Jade that are not as forward as others. I imagine this is why he can be so patient and wait long times because it's best to plan and observe instead of jumping in so rashly. I like to classify him as a persistence predator. Whether he wears you down with brutal mind games or the threat of Floyd or one of Azul's contracts or even with his own intimidating presence, he will delight in the waiting game.
He also has a bit of a mean streak. Like Floyd, Jade can be a bully. But unlike Floyd, Jade is an excellent actor. He's good at veiling his true emotions and intentions. His bullying of you could be lighthearted (little teasing remarks that truly aren't meant to cut deep rather than just sting enough to get a fun reaction) or something like cornering you in the desolate hallways to playfully intimidate you, momentarily allowing you to see beyond his respectful façade just to see you squirm. Of course if you have a problem with his behavior you're more than welcome to bring it up with Azul or Floyd. They won't help, and even if they did you'd certainly be gaslit to the deepest trench and back. <3 Jade has a way with words, smooth as sea glass, but those words often function as double-edged blades. Sometimes they cut; sometimes they're too dull. You'll never know what he's really thinking because he keeps the truth close to his chest like it's a winning deck of cards; even true meanings are veiled in his words, but you're never given enough time to dissect them because he keeps you on your toes.
He's also a glutton! Jade likes to eat a lot, and he eats big portions as well. I haven't really written about that facet of Jade much, but you will see a lot of it in DRU for...um;;;; obvious reasons... ^^;;; but little details like that make him unexpectedly cute. Like his fascination and love of mushrooms and hiking. It's cute and fun! Even big, scary eel has gentle hobbies (even if said hobbies include looking for the most potent mushrooms with dubious effects).
Additionally, I like to think his view of love is different from that of the standard human definition. I like to imagine Jade has very few reserves of love (most are for his family, some close friends, and even himself and his interests), so when he is able to love something he loves it wholeheartedly. Both twins are the same in this regard; when they love, they love. You'll just never know at first because Jade hides it well, but when you begin to pick up on aspects of his personality you'll begin to see his love for you is not as subtle as it once was. Essentially, you just need to get accustomed to Jade and all of his tricks to get to the real Jade who lies beneath. It's like licking a lollipop to get to the nougat lol. All of those candied layers will melt away eventually; you just need to bond with him more and he needs to trust you enough to know that it's worth showing you that deck of cards he keeps close, even if it's only for a quick peek.
Jade likes unpredictability and spontaneity. Life just wouldn't be fun if it was mundane and routine. He lives to be a nuisance. But a subtle nuisance! He still has to be sweet and polite, after all. :)
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