For the character ask game: Cosette, 2 + 25 👀

Thanks for the ask, even though I'm answering it late! (For this ask meme) #2. Favorite canon thing about this character? My favorite canon thing about Cosette is the way she parallels Jean Valjean-- not just in their traumatic backstories, but also in the way they both often "perform" politeness and kindness. Cosette needs to perform happiness for Jean Valjean in order to convince him to take care of himself, and it's...deeply sad! She has to 'trick' him into not doing self-destructive things by framing it in cheerful lighthearted ways, papering over difficult problems with polite nothings, pretending not to be that frightened or upset, and it's...very sad. And it feels like something that he taught her. The moments when she attempts to stop all the cheerfulness and talk to her father directly always tend to end with Jean Valjean breaking down-- like the moment when she asks "are you angry with me because I am happy?" or her attempts to ask directly about her mother, which both end with Jean Valjean shedding tears and avoiding her questions. There's something very realistic about that failure to communicate. I don't know whether Hugo fully considered this a negative thing-- but I do think he understands the way that children often put on a great performance of happiness in order to help their parents. Cosette is in many ways just Victor Hugo projecting his trauma over the death of his own young daughter onto Jean Valjean and Cosette's relationship, and like. As much as Cosette's writing is often deeply imperfect/ sexist, and as much as I think she should've been given more interiority and agency in the end of the story--- I think you can tell that Hugo did sincerely love his daughter? Cosette doesn't feel like a one-note cloying ingenue to me, but a fictionalized version of a real daughter Victor Hugo sincerely loved. I also think that Child-Cosette in particular is written very well! Lots of authors struggle to write children, but Hugo really captures a lot of the way children think and speak-- young Cosette isn't a cloying innocent ingenue, she's a starving frightened angry child, and it makes her teenage self far more interesting as a contrast. As a random addition: Hugo doesn't go into this, but it's fascinating how Cosette is extremely good at lying. She and Jean Valjean kind of share that talent. Very few people manage to trick Jean Valjean-- Marius fails utterly at pretending he's not in love with Cosette, and falls into all of his traps-- but Cosette manages to hide a secret love affair from him for a very long time. It's interesting how the two of them are very good at lying and concealing things from each other, and I don't fully know what to make of it.

Also my hot take is that anyone who thinks Cosette is a bland one-note ingenue should read Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, and contrast her with Lucie Manette. XD I used to be obsessed with A Tale of Two Cities, but it's basically just "what if Les Mis was bad and all the criticisms about it were actually true?" That novel also features a young ingenue who takes care of her traumatized ex-prisoner father-- but unlike Cosette, Lucie has no interiority or depth, and doesn't feel like anything resembling a real human young girl. All of the interesting things about Cosette- like her naivete/coming of age story, or the way her excessive bubbliness is often an act she puts on for her father's happiness, or her silly funny dialogue, or her own hard past that parallels her father's-- just aren't there. Again, there are lots of places where I think Hugo's writing of Cosette fails; but there's also a lot of interesting details that are easy for people to explore and dig deeper into in fanworks.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

My first impression of this character was that she was Fine, but not very interesting? But the more I got invested in the novel and the fandom, the more I appreciated her as a character! Hugo's writing of her is deeply flawed, and she isn't given enough attention in the ending of the book specifically, but there's enough really compelling stuff there to be a great jumping off point for fanworks. I think I already answered how I see her now in the previous question, but I want to add that I also like that she's nicknamed Madame LaNoir, or the Lady in Black. Goth Cosette is canon! That's very fun to me.

Some sillay doodles!! Qinterwatcher + trans jade-winglet doodles <3 I tend to do these silly (very off model & probably real out of character) jade winglet doodles as warm ups & cool downs after bigger drawings !! They’re fun to do

can i ask.how u guys practice ur creativity <3 how u practice ur imagination or like.. how u experiment with ur art, how u come to ideas and how u develop them.<3 pretty please <3

Atla live action 😐

The argument against Azula getting a redemption arc being “she’s already great as a villain!  why would you want to ruin that?” is one of the most brain-dead takes in the fandom, because completely stagnating her growth as a character just because she worked fantastically as a villain does nothing but actively make her worse now.  Look at Smoke & Shadow.  That’s not the villain y’all are talking about when you talk about Azula, but that’s what you‘ve got.  Not every villain needs a redemption arc, but every villain needs an arc, because that’s how story writing works.  Leaving Azula as she is now is just insulting & does nothing for the overall narrative other than have a ‘crazy evil girl’ to mildly inconvenience the main cast every now and again.

And y’know, since Azula & Zuko’s stories are so closely linked to one another’s, Azula getting her redemption arc with the help of Zuko, who helps her as Iroh helped him - that would also be more growth and progression for Zuko. 

speaking of masks. yall who have masked trolls... how did u come up with the mask designs?

every time i try to make one, it just feels off to me.

also i wrote a novel in the tags about it, but if anyones got some good research sources too, im all ears 👂

people will say like "this marvel scene goes so hard" and it will just be cgi ragdolling with stock explosions

like in general i think MUCH of the mcu is only as good as what a handful of v dedicated fans can churn out, it's a good sandbox, etc. i feel like if u expect groundbreaking shit from the source material you WILL be left disappointed bc s.corsese wasn't kidding when he said those movies aren't art per se but more of a 'lets pack as many seats as possible' kind of deal. they are meant to appeal to as many people as possible and that will leave a lot of it falling flat in it's mad dash to appease everyone. they're fun! they're entertaining! they don't really have to be anything else and you're not special if u dislike them.

but like i'm always SO impressed at how people in the rpc and some fic writers are able to build on that in such neat ways??? like the mcu and the mouse really hands u guys a boiled unseasoned chicken breast 90% of the time and u are like "cool I'm gonna turn this into a 4 course michelin star meal". you ARE braver and have done more for me than any US marine ever could. ily.

Two daysssss until I can try and get old art of mine off the old desktop hard drive dude I am so fucking excited.

having Big Feelings in the tags. you neednt read them, but you should go drink water and stretch your eyes

I wonder if the devs are aware that you can. Very clearly see the cutoff point where they stopped building landscape in southwest Angmar from some of the hills in the North Downs

do you have any pointers on making characters that you love and are proud of 🥺 i know it’s kind of a loaded question but i feel like i just Can’t make a whole being that i love and want to expand on! i’ve started on many ocs before but have inevitably abandoned them

This is a little hard to answer! I dont have many ocs, make one every 7 years, and I don't really have that feeling of Love and Pride for very many of em.

(i also end up abandoning em, see: how only Talon and Al seem to exist right now)

but anyway:

The process that I've found has helped me develop Talon (who I'm gonna use as example bc he's The recent oc and muse) and other ocs is...taking time to develop em as if they're Real Persons.

I joked earlier this year when I was starting to develop him, that he was Acclimating to my Brain, and that I was locking him in a room with my other ocs while I figured him out, but that actually also helped!

Im big on daydreaming so sticking talon in "a room" with other ocs kinda of helped build on all parties, as your brain gets to play with surface level interactions.

As for the real persons bit, I also mean this as Figurative language and not "I actually think my ocs are real people :)" but adjacent to the daydreaming, I let my ocs sort of tell me stuff about themselves as time progresses. Like, when I made Talon I didnt scramble to be able to fill one of those character sheets with facts about him on Day One. I couldn't tell you right now what his Biggest Phobia is or whatever. (But maybe some day he'll let me know!)

I feel like that ⬆️ would burn me out or make me feel restricted to whatever I came up with in such a short amount of time (which is also why I can't really Make ocs or focus on all of em at once) but it's like with real persons, you get used to and learn more about them and grow closer to em the more you spend time with them...!

Over time just picking a scenario and reimagining it has helped more facts and tidbits and quirks and such come to light, along with plucking things from media that inspires me, or funny tumblr posts that remind me of him (or get the gears turning in my brain), even really exaggerated joke posts make my brain eager to apply the non-joke elements to him, as well as interesting personality traits I notice in other, real people! Or traits from myself! Flaws (physical and nonphysical!) Insecurities! Things that make up real people you may love!

-

I realize dis didn't really answer anything but again I don't really know T_T ive just made the one new involved oc this year, for the first time in many years. Ive been "developing" him since april and he's still not a "complete" character (+ maybe never will be) but i Do love and am proud of him. Thats another thing I think, it's Okay if you move on from your attempts. I've had ocs I was once focused on that haven't been seen or thought about in Years. Like who knows, Talon could be put back up on the brain shelf to collect dust in a few months. I think that's fine as long as you had fun with it! I hope you create something that Sticks, even for a little bit!

sitting in the library half watching a lecture half reading a magazine and a line of 5 yr olds in school uniforms came by and came to a stop as their teacher counted everyone and prepped to leave. immediately a group of them surrounded me and within 30 seconds a little boy tapped some paper on my head with printed colour in sheets and claimed he'd drawn them and i said he was very good artist. a little girl asked to play the flute for me and mimicked it with her hands while making noises and i told her she was very good, 3 more started oohing and aahing at the sewing pattern i was looking at in my magazine, one got excited that i pointed out how cool it was that she got so many books out and her friend sadly lamented that she didnt have a library card and couldnt get anything before i managed to corral them into following their teacher who was beginning to walk the kids towards the exit of the building

👁️👁️ do you still play tf2?

👁👁 a little! i don't play much of Live TF2 these days, only because my computer would rather explode than allow me to run it at a good enough framerate, though there's a few settings ive only experimented with recently on other source games.

i deeply love tf2 as what it is still more or less, it's mostly my laptop that's always been a problem is all :(

everytime i think im done ranting i remember something else LMFAO this one is extra long i hit tag limit god mf damn

i think u hafta appreciate the pointlessness of a lot of things to fully appreciate life