#this is GOOD WRITING
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One thing I’m really looking forward to seeing is how they convince Percy not to join Luke. Up until the end of episode 4, Percy doesn’t have any faith in his dad or the other gods. He resents them all for abandoning their kids and doesn’t like their excuses. He is disgusted by how Athena treats Annabeth. He detests the whole claiming system and that the gods can just choose to claim them if they feel like it. And he is also being actively targeted by Zeus. What will be the turning point for him to not join Luke?
#like episode 5 and six may have to turn this all around#bc right now it’s looking like we’re headed for dark percy#this is GOOD WRITING#FINALLY A GOOD ADAPTATION#percy jackson#luke castellan#annabeth chase#percy jackon and the olympians#percy jackson the lightning thief#pjo#pjo tv#percy series#percabeth#pjo tv show#walker scobell#the olympians#athena#poseidon#bee speaks
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Cho Yeong and So-I – Narrative Foils
So I was thinking about this a lot yesterday but ended up just going to bed. I hope I can do my thoughts from last night justice.
What I think is really interesting is that the writers have subtly made a comparison throughout the show between Cho Yeong and So-I. They are each other's foils.
Now here me out.
Cho Yeong and So-i have both been handed terrible lots in life. We know a lot more about Cho Yeong's than So-i's (cause duh she's the main character), but we know enough about So-i's background to surmise what her upbringing was like for the most part.
There's no mention of So-i's parents by her EVER while every other character has mentioned their parent or parents at least once, leading us to believe that So-i may never have known her parents and is most likely an orphan from an age younger than Yeong.
We also know that she's from Sari Village, same as Mudeok, which from the flashbacks we see, doesn't look like a very nice place to live or a place inhabited by very well-off people. Her only close relation in Sari Village was Mudeok/Jin Buyeon, which I think is very telling of how she interacts with people. She doesn't form deep connections with people because she's focused on self-preservation. She doesn't become close to anyone in case she has to betray or con them to survive. Since she's no one's top priority, she's made herself her own at whatever cost. This attitude is super prevalent when she's going through all the steps to become Jin Buyeon, especially the scene where Jin Mu is launching shards of pottery at her and she refuses to even flinch, even when there's one like millimeters from her eye. She's got that grit of survival that goes beyond anything most people are capable of, I would say.
She has been a swindler/thief for years to survive, and again has no notable connections aside from Mudeok/Jin Buyeon.
This girl is well and truly on her own.
We can parallel this to Cho Yeong/Naksu. Naksu was orphaned at a young age as well, and has gone through hell to survive. She grew up basically entirely alone in Danhyangeok, raised herself, and trained herself to be ruthless all so that she could survive and even possibly get her revenge. She cast away all niceties and gentleness she may have had so that she can be strong enough to take care of herself. She too was her own top priority no matter what happens.
Cho Yeong also only had one notable connection while growing up, and that was Seo Yul. Seo Yul was her one friend in her teenage years that she was able to make, that she was able to be kind and gentle with because she couldn't afford to be like that with anyone else.
Where Yeong and So-i differ is this:
So-i, growing up through great hardship and having to rely entirely on herself to survive cast away all moral beliefs and principles in order to stay alive. She doesn't hesitate to kill who she needs to to survive, and even goes so far as to try to kill Mudeok not once but TWICE just to stay alive and stay Jin Buyeon. She has basically discarded most of her humanity in consideration of 'me, me, me, I have to stay alive'. Even later in season 2, she runs a gambling den and can be seen willingly torturing people and lowkey getting a kick out of it with no qualms. Even further, she was prepared to just send off Jin Buyeon/Naksu to Jin Mu with no worries, even going so far as to lock her in a room with knock-out gas. A bit crazy and heartless if you ask me.
Cho Yeong/Naksu however has NOT done that. As much as she has a reputation as a dangerous assassin who makes heads roll wherever she goes, we're told firstly that Naksu was known to never have harmed civilians or innocents. Additionally, when she found out that Yul was from the Seo family, one of the families behind the 'murder' of her father, she 1000% could have killed him or harmed him in some way. She could have justified it to herself under the guise of revenge, but she didn't. She pushes him away and basically lets him go with nothing more than a broken heart. Because she knows despite all the hurt that Yul is not to blame for what happened to her dad, that he is innocent in all that, and that he has been ineffably kind to her.
Furthermore, we have multiple instances in season 1 where Mudeok thinks about just killing Jang Uk and getting rid of him. She thinks she can do it, or at least she tries to convince herself. But every time she has a chance to or it would actually BENEFIT her own survival –like when that mage Gil-ju was like bring him to me or else I'll have you killed–she can't bring herself to do it. She even protects him quite a bit. We see her kindness as well in the way that she reassures Seo Yul many times, despite the very real risk that it could blow her cover, that she - Naksu - was okay in Danhyangeok, that it wasn't too rough for her even though she's under no obligation to.
The real climax for Naksu was when she was stuck in the ice stone with Jang Uk, Seo Yul, and the others. She could get all her powers back, shift souls with ANYONE she wanted at the drop of a hat, if she just let them all die. Should be simple for a cut-throat assassin right? She keeps telling herself she'll do it, trying to convince herself really. But she keeps stalling. She serves the crown prince and those goons that call themselves mages, she goes into the kitchen and decides to make Jang Uk the noodles that he loves, she tries to give the prince some honey cookies to lessen the guilt that she admits is consuming her with the thought of forsaking them all just for her own power. And in the end, she can't do it. She's been kidding herself. She goes crazy when she thought that Jang Uk died, and sets her sword aside not just for Jang Uk (though yeah she could never kill him we know that) but for all the people trapped in the barrier with her that are largely innocent (except So-i), that she cares about, and that she cannot justify to herself killing just for her own power gain.
This is why Cho Yeong/Naksu is great as a character and truly strong. She had a hard life yeah, and that skewed her morals, definitely. But she has not forsaken kindness or humanity like So-i did in the face of hardship. She tries to be all unfeeling and ruthless, but even back when she didn't even know Jang Uk that well, like when the soul-shifting detector dog (I forgot what it's called, my bad) had its sights set on her, she told him to step away from her, basically to protect himself and abandon her, which is totally contrary to the ruthless persona she tries to put on.
While So-i has abandoned any morals or principles EXCEPT when it comes to Seo Yul, Naksu hasn't. She is still capable of being kind and putting others before herself. How many times has she told Uk that if it comes down to it he should abandon her and protect himself?
Even in Season 2 when she finally remembers who she is, she puts Uk first and is ready to sacrifice her own happiness to do the right thing.
In this way, So-i and Cho Yeong are each other's narrative foils, both exemplifying the path and choices one can make in the face of hardship. You don't just become a bad person in the face of hardship, you choose to. And that's what is being shown to us.
I mean you can argue that Naksu ended up having more good people around her than So-i did, but also not really. So-i had Mudeok at a time when Naksu had nobody. Did So-i get in with the wrong people when she came to Daeho? Absolutely, but she also had more control over the situation than someone in her position would and was unnecessarily cruel at times.
Holding onto your morals/humanity in the face of adversity IS a choice, and that's what the comparison of So-i and Cho Yeong demonstrates.
I have more to say about So-i but that will be it's own post. I just wanted to put this out there before words failed me completely.
Let me know your thoughts!
#alchemy of souls#alchemy of souls: light and shadow#Narrative foils#this is good writing#go Hong sisters#Naksu#Cho Yeong#Mudeok#Jin Buyeon#So-i#Seo Yul#Jang Uk#jang uk x naksu#Meena's thoughts#Meena's rambles#Meena's posts
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If ever there was a perfect piece of media, it's Black Sails.
The queer rep! The poly rep! The fully believable character motivations and development! The open and unashamed worship of partners and their prowess! Honestly the delightfully snarky dialogue is totally secondary to LITERALLY EVERYTHING ELSE.
The way Jack swells with pride while watching Anne fight. The way hardened fighters have no issue expressing their love for their friends. There is no separation between masculinity and emotion. Flint is allowed to grieve, though he doesn't allow himself to. Silver is encouraged to lean on the men after he loses his leg, although again he refuses to. He opens up about his trauma and fear, and is never punished or mocked for it. Flint tells him about his gay lover, and Silver never judges the relationship itself, never makes an issue of their queerness, only focuses on the disturbing pattern of people who care about Flint coming to untimely ends.
The women are strong and competent and while those who don't know them are sexist assholes, the ones who do always know better than to underestimate them (with the notable exception of poor Charles, but he never doubts Eleanor's strength or intellect, he's just blinded by his love for her into thinking he can trust her). Whenever their gender is made an issue, it's clearly framed as someone being a total asshole, not somehow being right. Pirate crews are stronger for having Anne Bonny among them. Whatever side Eleanor decides to align herself with at the time often has a distinct advantage, or at least are saved a humiliating sweeping defeat thanks to her knowledge. Max is amazing. Cunning and shrewd but never letting the world she lives in - that she's often running - harden her. She loves deeply and it never weakens her. She's allowed by the narrative to not only be highly intelligent and devious, but to also be hurt and cry and be a person.
No character is perfect. None of them are painted as The Infallible Good Guy. They're all flawed and have questionable at best morals and they're all selfish and driven by different things and they're all so human.
The show didn't end abruptly with no resolution or drag on too long and become stale and boring. It was a perfect prequel to Treasure Island that established all the players involved and how they got to where they were, and it did so over time, not clumsily dumping a whole backstory on us all at once.
Superb writing and acting. Absolutely delicious.
#black sails#i fucking love this show#amazing#this is good writing#fucking awesome writing#we need more like this#less cookie cutter marvel bullshit#more well thought out and well executed stories#get on it you cowards
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"True story: the story above is not based on a true story, but you already know those horror stories set in our guileless town."
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today im driving myself crazy over the blatant foreshadowing of that basketball player in the earthquake episodes with the crush injury to his leg begging hen and chim and bobby to do anything to save it because basketball is his life and his father figure of a coach staying there and holding his hand and—
#sami rambles#god its just not subtle in the slightest and it makes me want to go lie down in a swamp.#this is good writing#911 show#911 fox#evan buckley#bobby nash#hen wilson#chimney han
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Just finished watching Andor the other day and there’s one thing I can’t get over (spoilers)
No one trying to find Cassian in episode 10 gave a single shit about the other people on Ferrix.
The ISB saw them as a nuisance at best, a necessary allowance to draw Cassian out. Syril thinks he’s better than the people around him, so he probably saw them the same way. Luthen didn’t think of them at all. Didn’t care that his connection to Bix lead to her getting captured, only cared that he could hide in the crowd.
Cassian cared. He couldn’t attend his own mother’s funeral, but he used it to rescue his friend, knowing Brasso and B2 and everyone would give her the funeral she deserved.
But I don’t think any of them expected that the people of Ferrix would use the funeral, just like the Empire was doing, to incite a riot. They used her funeral the way Maarva would’ve wanted them to and used her brick to bash in the Empire’s head.
No one expected the riot because no one cared. No one was listening. They didn’t realize killing a man to send a message would cause his child to want revenge in the form of a bomb, that panicking with riot shields and snipers when the procession grew too large would send the message that they were afraid. Power doesn’t panic.
So the Rix Road Riot was as inevitable as it was unexpected.
It is exactly the message that Andor, the show, is sending. Ordinary people, not Jedi, not Force-destined saviors, not even the main character of the show, can stop the Empire. It’s ordinary people, the kind of people the Empire doesn’t even notice, the kind that they don’t look down at while stepping all over them, the kind that love more than they fear, THOSE kind of people cause the most damage.
The Empire never sees them coming, no matter how many times it happens - in Rebels, in Andor, in Rogue One, in a New Hope. That’s their fatal flaw. That’s why they were always going to lose.
I’m so normal about this show by the way
#this is what Star Wars is about#this is good writing#their struggles are doomed not to matter until they do#i eat that shit up#andor series#maarva andor#cassian andor#star wars#misc movie review
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Expanding a thought from a conversation this morning:
In general, I think "Is X out-of-character?" is not a terribly useful question for a writer. It shuts down possibility, and interesting directions you could take a character.
A better question, I believe, is "What would it take for Character to do X?" What extremity would she find herself in, where X starts to look like a good idea? What loyalties or fears leave him with X as his only option? THAT'S where a potentially interesting story lies.
In practice, I find that you can often justify much more from a character than you initially dreamed you could: some of my best stories come from "What might drive Character to do [thing he would never do]?" As long as you make it clear to the reader what the hell pushed your character to this point, you've got the seed of a compelling story on your hands.
#writing#writing advice#my writing#I think 'ooc' is a bogeyman that casts too big a shadow for fanfic writers#stop thinking 'is this ooc?'#and start thinking 'have I given this character a good enough reason to do the thing?'
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Aziraphale shielding Crowley from water
and Crowley shielding Aziraphale from fire
#good omens#ineffable husbands#lini writes#sitting here waiting for another version of this since I like things in threes#it is past midnight and i seeing things#third eye wide open
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If you want to write a dumb little story with a dumb little plot and ridiculously silly characters. No one's stopping you. Genuinely, no one should be allowed to stop you. Write that dumb story with your whole heart and don't hold back.
#look I've deleted fics that made me feel awful#There's a time and a place#A good idea will come back to you again#But some things should be given time to settle#writeblr#writing tips#writing#writer advice#writers on tumblr
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the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"
just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible
#due to the Great Data Decay academics write viciously argumentative articles on which episodes aired in what order#at conferences professors have known to engage in physically violent altercations whilst debating the air date number of household viewers#90% of the couch gags have been lost and there is a billion dollar trade in counterfeit “lost copies”#serious note: i'll be honest i always assumed it was english imperialism that made shakespeare so inescapable in the 19th/20th cent#like his writing should have become obscure at the same level of his contemporaries#but british imperialists needed an ENGLISH LANGUAGE (and BRITISH) writer to venerate#and shakespeare wrote so many damn things that there was a humongous body of work just sitting there waiting to be culturally exploited...#i know it didn't happen like this but i imagine a English Parliament House Committee Member For The Education Of The Masses or something#cartoonishly stumbling over a dusty cobwebbed crate labelled the Complete Works of Shakespeare#and going 'Eureka! this shall make excellent propoganda for fabricating a national identity in a time of great social unrest.#it will be a cornerstone of our elitist educational institutions for centuries to come! long live our decaying empire!'#'what good fortune that this used to be accessible and entertaining to mainstream illiterate audience members...#..but now we can strip that away and make it a difficult & alienating foundation of a Classical Education! just like the latin language :)'#anyway maybe there's no such thing as the 'greatest writer of x language' in ANY language?#maybe there are just different styles and yes levels of expertise and skill but also a high degree of subjectivity#and variance in the way that we as individuals and members of different cultures/time periods experience any work of media#and that's okay! and should be acknowledged!!! and allow us to give ourselves permission to broaden our horizons#and explore the stories of marginalized/underappreciated creators#instead of worshiping the List of Top 10 Best (aka Most Famous) Whatevers Of All Time/A Certain Time Period#anyways things are famous for a reason and that reason has little to do with innate “value”#and much more to do with how it plays into the interests of powerful institutions motivated to influence our shared cultural narratives#so i'm not saying 'stop teaching shakespeare'. but like...maybe classrooms should stop using it as busy work that (by accident or designs)#happens to alienate a large number of students who could otherwise be engaging critically with works that feel more relevant to their world#(by merit of not being 4 centuries old or lacking necessary historical context or requiring untaught translation skills)#and yeah...MAYBE our educational institutions could spend less time/money on shakespeare critical analysis and more on...#...any of thousands of underfunded areas of literary research i literally (pun!) don't know where to begin#oh and p.s. the modern publishing world is in shambles and it would be neat if schoolwork could include modern works?#beautiful complicated socially relevant works of literature are published every year. it's not just the 'classics' that have value#and actually modern publications are probably an easier way for students to learn the basics. since lesson plans don't have to include the#important historical/cultural context many teens need for 20+ year old media (which is older than their entire lived experience fyi)
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I wish we had more female characters like Eleanor Shellstrop. One of the most unlikable people you've ever met. Read a Buzzfeed article on most rude things you can do on a daily basis and decided to use that as a list of goals. Makes everyone's day worse just by being there. Dropped a margarita mix on the ground and tried to pick it up, only to get hit by a row of shopping carts which pushed her into the road where she was hit by a boner pill delivery truck, killing her instantly. Cannot keep a romantic partner despite being bisexual. Had a terrible childhood but will die before she gets therapy. Best employee at a scam company. Just the worst but also can't help but root for her to improve.
Absolute loser. Girl-failure. Bad at almost everything. Literally perfect female character.
#eleanor shellstrop#you know i was thinking about how we hold female characters to such high standards#and severely criticize bitchy female characters while praising asshole male characters#and then i remembered eleanor and realized that she is the perfect example of how to write an asshole woman that the audience likes#the worse she is the more i'm drawn to her (and honestly same for tahani)#we need more cringe-fail women who nobody likes (for good reason)#the good place#female characters#writing women#girl failure#girl loser#she's so mean#i love her#my favorite#fucking asshole#iconic#the good place eleanor#tgp#tgp eleanor#kristen bell
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#original comic#webcomic#we go together#artists on tumblr#greek legend#damon & pythias#slightly different this time in that Dionysius I of Syracuse was an Actual person 😂#but i heard about this in breadsword's video essay on the legend of sinbad and it was so good I had to write smth with it#also i thought the plot of the legend of sinbad was the smartest shit when I was a kid lol#indie comics
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I made another thing.
With apologies to Neil Gaiman.
#tv writing#wga strong#wgawest#wga west#wga strike#support the wga#i stand with the wga#sag aftra#good omens#neil gaiman
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"Because being alone is hard, except when it is easier and better than everything else you have found so far."
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changes and trends in horror-genre films are linked to the anxieties of the culture in its time and place. Vampires are the manifestation of grappling with sexuality; aliens, of foreign influence. Horror from the Cold War is about apathy and annihilation; classic Japanese horror is characterised by “nature’s revenge”; psychological horror plays with anxieties that absorbed its audience, like pregnancy/abortion, mental illness, femininity. Some horror presses on the bruise of being trapped in a situation with upsetting tasks to complete, especially ones that compromise you as a person - reflecting the horrors and anxieties of capitalism etc etc etc. Cosmic horror is slightly out of fashion because our culture is more comfortable with, even wistful for, “the unknown.” Monster horror now has to be aware of itself, as a contingent of people now live in the freedom and comfort of saying “I would willingly, gladly, even preferentially fuck that monster.” But I don’t know much about films or genres: that ground has been covered by cleverer people.
I don’t actually like horror or movies. What interests me at the moment is how horror of the 2020s has an element of perception and paying attention.
Multiple movies in one year discussed monsters that killed you if you perceived them. There are monsters you can’t look at; monsters that kill you instantly if you get their attention. Monsters where you have to be silent, look down, hold still: pray that they pass over you. M Zombies have changed from a hand-waved virus that covers extras in splashy gore, to insidious spores. A disaster film is called Don’t Look Up, a horror film is called Nope. Even trashy nun horror sets up strange premises of keeping your eyes fixed on something as the devil GETS you.
No idea if this is anything. (I haven’t seen any of these things because, unfortunately, I hate them.) Someone who understands better than me could say something clever here, and I hope they do.
But the thing I’m thinking about is what this will look like to the future, as the Victorian sex vampires and Cold War anxieties look to us. I think they’ll have a little sympathy, but they probably won’t. You poor little prey animals, the kids will say, you were awfully afraid of facing up to things, weren’t you?
#this is the sort of observation I make here that people#go off and write their thesis about#so while I’m not expecting to be the first or cleverest person to say this#if you do use it as a springboard#tell me if you get a good grade ok?#I’ll be tremendously proud of you#like if you take a shitpost and use it to craft deep attentive thought on something important#I just think that’s probably the most noble use of a human brain#it makes me want to take off my hat and slam it to the ground in inexpressible emotion#it’s a cowboy hat btw#and I say something like GOLDURN IT THAT KID SURE HAS DELIVERED.#ok so don’t deny me this#especially if you correct me after a long research journey#GOLDURN IT THE KID IS RIGHT!
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not just ‘he would not fucking say that’ but ‘he would not, under torture, admit that’
#he is not in touch enough with his feelings to say that! he will say anything BUT that!#that thing about characters getting a good grade in therapy etc etc#writing
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