#with a good story and compelling characters
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Here's an exercise to apply to your story: pick any scene and build up its stakes.
Most scenes should have at least a tiny bit of tension. Not every scene has to drip with artificial melodrama, but if the audience doesn't see a good reason to care about what's happening, they probably won't.
Using this 3-part exercise I just made up, just with a few quick bullet lists, you can dissect that scene's stakes and make them mean something.
PART 1: THE TELLING
Take a moment to focus on the stakes in your scene. What's the worst that could happen? List them.
Here's the rule: if a stake is obvious, don't count it.
Wrong: "If he kills me, I die."
Wrong: "If the villain fails to get the artefact, he fails."
Wrong: "If I lose this match, I lose."
Sure, yeah. But what ELSE?
Correct: "If I die, there'll be no one to protect my family."
Correct: "If I don't get this magical artefact before the hero stops me, my plans to take over the world will be sabotaged."
Correct: "If I lose this match, I'll never make it to the championships and show the world what I can do."
The stronger these stakes are, the better (within reason). "So-and-so might die" isn't a compelling (as it could be) narrative stake even in stories where people do die.
Even in low-stakes stories, the characters care about those low stakes. If it's important to them that they impress that client or get that job, tell us WHY they care. Is it their lifelong dream, or the promise they made to their dying mother, or the job that'll take them away from a horrible living situation? Will failure embarrass them in front of their crush?
PART 2: THE SHOWING
Now you know what could go bad, let the audience feel it. Just take things that matter and tweak them so that they're tangible.
"If I don't join the fight, my friend might die!" -> Show us an enemy raising a sword about to strike their friend down if the character doesn't rush in to save them NOW.
"If I drop out, I'll be a bad daughter!" -> Show us her parents bragging about their kid's academic performance and telling her they're happy they have a good kid with a bright future instead of some "no-good delinquent."
"If I don't pay by next week the bank's gonna take our house!" -> Show us the character begging for just a few more days, show their reaction to overhearing someone talking about buying the house from the bank to bulldoze the property. Show what the house means to them and how they made it their home.
PART 3: THE HAPPENING
Remember, a bullet seems a whole lot deadlier when it doesn't literally miss every time. But it would be strange if every scifi involved the whole planet blowing up, right? Or if the main characters all died? So, you have to show us you're not kidding by employing a secret third thing. Here's the trick to this: divide up the stakes into pieces and make one of the pieces happen.
If the protag's team is in actual danger, just one of them can die. Maybe even someone "essential" -- the climax will be boosted from the team overcoming this setback, the story becoming more clutch and unpredictable to the audience.
A marriage on the rocks? Show that their previously happy kid is suddenly hiding things from them and failing in school.
The city in danger? Show us buildings being knocked over.
Hell, the protag themselves in danger? They've got a leg they might not be using.
If a stake can't be split down like this, it might be better to have the bulldozers show up at the house during the climax. Maybe even let the house fall.
After this exercise, your scene should now feel a whole lot more weighty, whether it's a job application or a final battle to the death. Again, not every scene needs tension and it can go too far and become silly, but I hope this exercise helps you the way it helps me.
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Elriels are not forcing Elain to be tied to Azriel. The author did that for us.
Sarah made Elain friends with Nuala and Cerridwen, spies that work with Azriel.
Sarah wrote that Elain and Az are both good mannered. She made them interact with each other during their first meeting, just as Nesta and Cassian did.
Sarah wrote that Elain would cling to Az for peace and quiet. She made Feyre think about how handsome they would be together.
Sarah made Az be the only person who understood and listened to Elain when she was trapped in the murky realm.
Sarah made Feyre wonder why Elain and Lucien are mates instead of Elain and Azriel.
Sarah made Elain’s rescue from Hybern romantically coded by using phrases like “devoured the sight of him”, “cradled to his chest”, and ending the scene with a kiss on the cheek.
Sarah made Elain be the sole person Az has ever gave Truth Teller to.
Sarah used “light and dark” to describe them together (very beautifully and not at all in a negative light).
Sarah likened the steam flowing behind Elain to Azriel’s shadows.
Sarah made Elain’s gift and joke light up Az’s eyes and make him laugh in a way Feyre has never seen before.
Sarah made Elain and Az stay up together to talk while everyone else went to bed.
If Sarah decided to end this connection in ACOSF, she could’ve done so, but instead she continued to tie these two characters together.
Sarah wrote that Elain had Az beat for secret keeping.
Sarah made Azriel’s shadows prepare to strike Nesta after she upset Elain.
Sarah made Nesta wonder if Elain is getting stealth training from Az or the twins.
Sarah had Nesta notice a charged glance between Elain and Az.
Sarah made Nesta realize Az’s secret, his feelings for Elain.
Sarah placed obstacles between Elain and Az to keep them apart, obstacles necessary for a compelling love story to occur.
Elriels are not forcing anything. The author has tied Elain and Az together again and again since ACOMAF. Denying that is only doing a disservice to yourself and the narrative created by the author.
What is forced is this idea that Elain and Lucien are a perfect match. That Lucien is the embodiment of light. That Gwyn is a spy. That Elain is miserable in the Night Court. That Az’s shadows are scared of Elain. That Gwyn and Az are mates. At this point, that is all fanon and speculation.
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hi, i’ve been gone from the choices fandom but now i want to get back into it. can you tell me which books that have come out over the past couple of years i should read and rec some people to follow who’re still active in the fandom? i’m asking you because i trust your opinions haha
Okay, I take your trust very seriously, so this is about to get very detailed lol
I’m going to divide the books I recommend into two tiers:
Tier I - Books that are must reads: 1. Blades of Light and Shadow, book 2: Depending on how long you’ve been gone, you’ve probably already played the first book. The second one is emotional and frustrating and amazing, and ultimately a good continuation of the story. I can’t wait for book 3!
2. Crimes of Passion: It’s a murder mystery with compelling characters that are extremely lovable, and the dynamic between the two main characters is exactly the kind of dynamic I love in every iteration. The mystery itself is better in the second book than it is in the first (of course, these are all just my opinions) and I have high hopes for both what the characters’ arc is going to be in book 3 and what the mystery is going to be.
3. Immortal Desires: I don’t know if you like stories about vampires (like Twilight), but even if you don’t, you’ll probably still love this book. It has a mystery in both books too and has two of my favourite love interests. Book 2 is currently releasing on Fridays and I look forward to it every week!
Tier II - Books with parts that could’ve been better/were unsatisfactory, but that are still 100% worth reading: 1. Murder at Homecoming: This is a personal favourite of mine! I think mystery is a genre that Choices does really well, and this book is one of their most diverse and inclusive. All of the LIs are bi (like, they actually say it and have conversations about it). This book would be a must read for me if it weren’t for the fact that one of the biggest mysteries is left unsolved.
2. Kindred: This book is so fun! I love the bond between the sisters, they’re all complex characters and Kaine is one of my favourite love interests as well.
3. Guinevere: I don’t usually like historical fiction and fantasy, but this book is an exception to that. If you love Liam and Drake from TRR, this book has characters who are similar to them and have similar dynamics with the MC!
I answered an ask a while ago about which people I’d recommend following, which you can find here. That list has a lot of people that aren’t really active anymore, but I’d recommend following them anyway because they have amazing fanfiction/art that you should check out, or are just really good people. The only people on that list that are still at least somewhat active are @saivilo (whom I adore), @noahmrshall (who makes stunning edits) and @brightpinkpeppercorn (who is so nice!) I’d also recommend following these people who aren’t on that list: @lover-also-fighter-also (they’re active, post about different Choices books, and seem really cool), @moominofthevalley (they’re active, and post mainly about Crimes of Passion, so of course I follow them lol. They’re also very friendly), @aria-ashryver (they’re active, post mainly about Immortal Desires, and seem very sweet!), @mvalentine (they’re pretty active, post about different Choices books and seem super fun), @raleighcarrera (they’re kind of active, and write the most beautiful fic), and @argylemnwrites (they’re kind of active, and write Drake x MC fic that’s so in-character it’ll be forever ingrained in my brain).
I’m sure I’m forgetting some people, but those are the ones I can think of right now!
#I love giving recommendations so I hope you enjoy these books and find some good people to follow💕#ask#anonymous
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On Repeat - OC Tag Stuff
I was tagged by @acidheaddd to do this and AH thank you I've been mulling over this A LOT and it really made me think hard on my OCs and their stories. Credits to @elderwisp(a cool guy) for the idea.
OK! Onto the LORE
Ai [FSU -BigKlit]
1 shot, 2 shot, 3 shot, 4
Fuck it up, I wanna see the bodies hit the floor
5 shot, 6 shot, 7 shot, 8
We don't give a fuck, we burning down the whole place
Fuck shit up, I wanna fuck shit up, I wanna fuck shit up
Rage, rage, rage. That's definitely a word to describe this guy. Ai is very aggressive due to good old trauma~* but despite his violent tendencies he's full of highly energized spite and fun, so this song encapsulates his personality pretty accurately with its fast pace and aggressive lyrics. A fist with a bright shining smile to accompany it.
Marisol [Holy Weather -Civil Twilight]
It’s not too late to go home
Passion is this weight on my shoulders
So why did you follow me into this den
When all the bluest stars paint your name
In a sky of black
You must go back
Are you lost little soul? Marisol is a bit of a wanderer, who lets her curiosity dictate her actions. But where that curiosity leads her is full of a darkness that beckons her soul to light her path. She is constantly told to turn back by many colorful characters, despite this, she persists. There is a particular entity who crosses paths with her soul and is unable to escape her tenacity. This song with its regretful lyrics and soft instrumentals, parallel the dynamic of her affect on those around her especially the one that holds her soul closest to theirs and the consequences that happen because of it.
Isaiah [Daydreaming -Radiohead]
Beyond the point
Of no return
Of no return
Then it's too late
The damage is done
The damage is done
This goes
Beyond me
Beyond you
Liminal. Inhuman. Existence. Isaiah, if that is his true identity, is an individual full of whimsical mysteries and questions. What happens when a person dies, and who will lead us into the afterlife? Will the reaper come to aid us in our desperate confusion upon our passing? Where will you go? This song, compels the listener to wander and be lured by its ethereal instrumentals and the darkness that looms around it, much like how the darkness and uncertainty of death lingers among the living.
Jasper [You Don't Own Me -Tamino]
You may keep me hеre
You seem to know just how
To pin me to the ground
Each timе you come around
Take away my home
Obscuring what I am
And plague me all night long
And lay claim to freedom's song
What good is greed if you don't possess yourself? Even the strongest can fall folly to abusive, parasitic relationships. Jasper, even in his conception was never meant to enjoy the freedom of individuality. Being a prisoner inside his own body and shackled by family ties and a predatory lover that only wishes to possess him, his autonomy is never of his own volition. Still, his soul persists, fighting and gnashing at every opportunity to break free from those that hold him captive. This song is one of rebelling to that which wants to possess and control you, which bears a haunting resemblance to Jasper's own struggles.
Anabelle [Do You Feel Real -Sevdaliza]
I thought I'd heal from you
Or you'd escaped from me
Maybe I'm too scared to forget you
I just can't remember how it feels like to function without
Absorbed in total free fall
It's a waste of time
It's not that serious
My void is one that comforts and cures a loneliness that it causes. What do you do when the only thing that comforts you is the presence of evil? When that is all that you are used to? Anabelle was born spreading death and misery wherever she went. But why? Is it the shadow that follows her and protects her as everything else withers away? Accompanied by low and drawn out instrumentals, the lyrics of this song perpetuate a relationship that is parasitic and addictive in nature, one that you thought you overcame but it persists. Anabelle craves love from the living and dreads the darkness that lingers and keeps her isolated. Still, she is plagued by her need to have it close or else her loneliness will destroy her.
Ira [Daisy -Brand New]
I'm a mountain that has been moved
I'm a river that is all dried up
I'm an ocean nothing floats on
I'm a sky that nothing wants to fly in
I'm a sun that doesn't burn hot
I'm a moon that never shows its face
I'm a mouth that doesn't smile
I'm a word that no one ever wants to say
I am nothing. I crave to become everything. Ira is an anomaly. He exists but in a plane that no living creature can exist, all he knows, he knows from a dream that connects to his. She is beautiful, living, while he is nothing. Envy feeds his hunger, but nothing ever happens. HE shouldn't exist, yet he does. A paradox, much like the message of this song. The dream persists and reminds him that he should exist. But why is he here and not there? Maybe she can help him become real, and not a dream.
_________________________________
AND that's it for that lol! I have way more characters that I have music for (but i don't have official finalized sim versions of them) so i just included these guys for now, I could include my Envidia story characters but i felt like this post is pretty long as it is sajkfa my bad. LOL all my song choices are existential/depressing save for Ai, because he's built different lol.
#oc: ai#oc: marisol#oc: isaiah#oc: jasper#oc: anabelle#oc: ira#ts4#ts4: sim#tag game#SIDENOTE: fucking TOOL is amazing but posing sims is still a big pain in the ass in game#i cry#anyway this was a lot of fun thanks again for the tag!
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hii Yokan! i miss you!😭
how are you? how is work?? I hope everything is going well<3
rn there's a little Comic Con in my city, and it really did help my mood!! (even tho I throwed up 6 times and fainted during the morning of the first day due to the heat and lack of iron🥲) 2 days down, 2 more to go 🙏
ANYWAYS! I know you've been going through a writer's block lately, and I read a post that said something about asking/commenting about the fictions to help the "stucked" autor, SO!
I've been re-reading TW III (shocking, I know) and those little hints about married!kc are just 😭😭 my heart melts, really, although... I was never really sure you'd get them married, mostly due to Care's speech to Cami about how Klaus supposedly sees weddings, and because I remember you saying that you weren't planning on giving them an actual marriage, but rather the closest thing next to it. I checked to comments to see other thoughts, and I saw one of you reply saying that you were completely against married!kc at the start, but then you were slowing changing your mind about it...
so, what was it that made you say "fuck it, I'm gonna ring the bells"?? is it because many people asked you to do it, so you are throwing us a bone, or is it something else?? I'm really interest on hearing the process of your change of heart <3
have a good one, friend <3 love you xoxo
I don't know if I am eloquent enough or if my train of thought makes much sense, but I will try 😂
Also grab a chair because this will be a long one. Be careful what you ask me, I do not know how to shut the fuck up 🙃
Objectively, I still think Klaus is not the marrying kind (in canon context, at least). That man has been alive for a thousand years. He's the vampire of vampires, one who sees humans as a lower species. He's used to getting what he wants by conquering and subjugating because he can. Why would he ever submit himself to an inherently human institution that, throughout history, has served as a tool for various types of social, political and religious control? The ceremony itself doesn't mean anything to him. He probably thinks it's ridiculous and performative, not to mention extremely frail. You can just change your mind and get a divorce, or the good old spouse murder, and then what? What's even the point?
(Just to be clear: I'm not personally preaching against weddings and marriages here btw, it's just how I think Klaus might have seen it.)
If you look at it from the sentimental side, Klaus spent almost a thousand years saying that love is a sign of weakness, a character flaw. He carried his siblings, the only people he genuinely cared about, inside coffins because he didn't trust them enough not to leave him, betray him or end up captured and killed by one of his enemies. Now, why would he want to marry someone, thus exposing yet another vulnerability to be exploited?
Having said that 😂
When we first see Klaus in TVD he's trying to surround himself with a whole new OP supernatural species that will have no choice but to stand with him. They will protect him, they will go to war for him, do whatever he asks them to and they will never leave (or that's what he thought, anyway) because they don't have a choice. That is the only way Klaus knows how to trust people: by completely removing their capacity to challenge him. That's how paranoid he is.
But as the story progresses, and especially with The Wolf in particular because it takes their relationship much further than the show, Klaus realizes there is more than one way to earn people's trust. I feel like that's one of the pillars of his relationship with Caroline. He could've just compelled her (in TVD, not TW because she's a witch), but he never did because he wanted more from her than obedience. All of the things he liked about her - her personality, her honesty, her fire, her loyalty - would've been essentially erased or made meaningless if he'd compelled her. Which puts her in direct opposition to how he related to his hybrids, right? He pretends to be fine with people who have no choice but to follow him, but what he really craves is more real than that. He surrounds himself with people who will worship the ground he walks on after some forged "gratitude" for releasing them of their curse, but he is fascinated by how gutsy Caroline is to look him in the eye and tell him the things that no one else will dare to. What he really seeks but doesn't have the courage to admit is that he wants someone who will choose to be with him. And that's the difficult part, because it can't be conquered or taken, it has to be earned.
Klaus comes from a place of paranoia and extreme distrust of everything and everyone around him, especially after Mikael in New Orleans, and he feels very isolated and alone. He tells Stefan about that, right? The loneliness of immortality. When The Wolf starts, in spite of how he and Caroline were having a bit of a thing before it, he's not sure she would want to stay with him. Actually, he thinks the first chance she gets, she's gonna bail. It's why he's mad when he thinks she wants to terminate the pregnancy. It's not about the baby (it's never about the baby), he couldn't care less about the damn baby at that point, it's the fact that he thinks she's trying to get rid of him, as if that pregnancy is the one thing that is holding them together at that point and so if she's no longer pregnant, she doesn't have to be with him. What I'm very inarticulately trying to say is that his initial approach to Caroline being pregnant is the same he had with his hybrids, as if the baby is a version of a sire bond. It's crazy and dysfunctional, yes, but it's how Klaus rationalizes it, how he thinks he gets to keep people around him - either through daggering them or giving them no choice.
Slowly, Klaus internalizes the fact that Caroline is choosing him. She tells him that a few times throughout the story, and even when he's hallucinating her at the beginning of TW4, because that's something that she has said before and that has stuck with him for reason. She could've left him at any point, but she didn't because she wants to be with him. It's a choice that she has made not because he forced her to, but because she's in love with him. She protects him, she fights for him, she walks through hellfire for him because she wants to, not because she must. He has earned her trust and her love and her loyalty. And that is something that is new for Klaus in his one thousand years of life, at least at this magnitude and with this much clarity and certitude.
So I think when I started writing TW3, which was them in their domestic era, it started to feel like something Klaus might actually do. Not just because it obviously does mean something to Caroline and he would basically do anything for her (even though she never asks for it, which in itself is something, because Caroline comes from relationships that made her feel so insecure and unsafe that she would've held on to a ring like a lifeline, but with Klaus she simply does not need hard evidence to feel safe and reassured, she knows how Klaus feels about her, she's very comfortable in their relationship, she knows that what offers her means a lot more than a thousand weddings to other people ever would - even though she does still love a good wedding lol), but because it suddenly makes sense to him. Not the big party, or the tradition of it, or making it official or anything of the sort, but as a way to externalize what he feels. There is a symbolism to it that while not ideal, it might be the closest to thing to expressing just how devoted he is to her and how she is, pure and simple, eternity for him. When that comes from someone who has lived for as long he has, and who has been as cynical as he was for as long as he was, it does mean something, even if nothing else does.
There is a territorial factor to it as well, of course. 😌 He's a very possessive man and so he wants everyone to know Caroline is his, and it's why it first came to him during the thing with Jackson, but it's more than just that. If it was just about that, he wouldn't do it. He is at a point where he no longer has any doubts about how Caroline feels for him (although there will be a little something something on that front at the beginning of TW4, just because they've been apart for so long, but it will be quickly dispelled).
The most sacred thing for Klaus was the vow he took with his siblings when they fled Viking Falls. They stuck together through everything because of that. He knows the value of a vow and a promise. And he wants a version of that with Caroline. It's the first time in his life when he contemplates genuinely offering that to someone other than his family. There are a million ways he could go about it, probably, but he knows asking her to marry him is the one that will be most representative to her, because of the age where she was born and how she grew up, etc.
And so that is why I decided that Klaus was going to buy a ring even though I crossed my heart and hoped to die a million times for years when people asked me about that. 😂 I just think it's the natural course this story has taken. It's long enough that it eventually made sense to me that he might do it.
Does any of that make sense???? I don't know! I just typed my stream of thought and hoped for the best and now I'm afraid to read it again, so apologies if it's just crazy words.
Now if only I can get back to writing and actually get to that part. 🥲 Pray for me 🙏
THANKS FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK! 🙃 Here have a pretty married Klaroline gif.
#yokan answers#rosedforbes#BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK ME#klaroline#the wolf universe#if only i could actually write SIGH
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Trying to analyze why I often find messy soap opera romantic drama more palatable than actually, like, objectively better written capital-r Romance in fiction.
I think part of it is just the presence of dramatic tension - in a genre where it's basically ironclad metaphysical law that the main couple gets together in the end (and people get fascinatingly angry at the idea of this not being the case), it's just incredibly difficult to get invested in them as the motor of a story. (My reflexive 'root for the underdog' instinct is both deeply ingrained and broad enough to include themes and plot structures). (This is I assume the exact reason why love triangles were invented).
But like compounding that is the...teleology? Which, stupid word (artificially constructed narrative, of course it's written to achieve a particular end). Moral arc, maybe - it's also just seems implicit in the genre (even the 'dark romance' types with mafia dons or bloodthirsty werewolves or whatever, at least that I see anyone ever talk about) that the central couple getting together is necessarily a good thing, the culmination of their character development and the climax of their lives (...double entendre unintended). No one writes (or at least recs) books about the immensely compelling trashfire of a relationship that turned half your twenties into a black hole and ended in tears, or whatever.
The comparison people always draw is, like, heroes journey narratives where the farmboy becomes immensely powerful and kicks the dark lord off a cliff, sweeps the princess off her feet and saves the day and like - those are boring as shit too! But like, it's easy enough to find stuff that tries to subvert or play with that or at least make it horrifying or alienating or self-destructive enough to be interesting.
#musing#entirely talking out of my ass based entirely on my incredibly subjective and non-representitive experiences here
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I just finished my third Mad Love ending, and I’m ready to make a mini report 🫡:
Ikevil’s writing is really good! I felt like each had a very different feel to them, but they were all compelling. Are these three starting routes my favorite characters? No. Did their routes make me love them regardless? Absolutely. I’m excited to read every event story I can get my hands on.
As far as routes, I’d say:
William 8/10 (blind love is likely a smidgen better), Harrison 8/10 (unsure which ending is better since mad love is pretty nice), and Liam 10/10 for mad ending, I reeeally loved it 🥰
Elbie and Victor becoming my favorites was not on my ikevil bingo card, yet here we are 😅 I think Ellis is now in third… the competition is intense, lemme tell ya
Aaanywho, just wanted to give props to the writers in a way they won’t uh… actually see 😮💨
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First i want to say that i love your rwby analysys, but i just discovered your blog, so can you explain to me why you hate Ozpin so much? Like, every minor thing he does and says must have some malicious intention behind it, but everything Salem does is part of a big plan that means that she's not actually evil?
ooh it’s been a while since we had one of these! 1. i think perhaps a closer read of my salem analysis is called for, because you’ll notice that i am, er, not shy about noting that salem is evil and this is in fact a central tenet of my reading of the narrative; i just don’t think she’s a one-note genocidal lunatic and it is extremely obvious that the narrative is heading in a "the brothers were and are wrong, and salem wants them gone" direction; 2. oz is second in my heart only to salem and cinder, which sort of speaks for itself in terms of "this character did bad things!" not being remotely a bad thing in my book, 3. and speaking of cinder, i get exactly as cranky about uwuified fanon sad wet rag ozpin who’s never done a thing wrong as i do uwufied fanon poor wittle cindy who doesn’t want to hurt people but salem makes her do it for exactly the same reason, which is that it strips out everything that makes these characters narratively and emotionally compelling in favor of mashing them into gutless marshmallow pod people for the sake of… i don’t know, making them neat and bland and easily digestible, i guess? uwu?
4. this is an ozlem house
5. i don’t think ozma has ever acted with malicious intention; rather, he’s been coerced into this situation where his faith in his god, his intense desire to do the right thing, and his terror of what will happen if he fails or disobeys—in combination with a divine curse that is literally designed to prevent him from being able to change or break free, because he has a reflection of himself monitoring his thoughts and actions all the time—are at war with his true desire (he wants to be with salem) and his conscience (he knows that salem was right about what is necessary to fulfill his task, that uniting the whole world under one creed is impossible except by genocidal conquest, and he cannot bring himself to do it because it’s wrong). he’s trying very hard to do the right thing in a situation where he genuinely believes his only options are to commit genocide for his god or sacrifice the whole world for his love and he is desperate to figure out a third option that does not end with "rocks fall everybody dies;" thence the lies and manipulation and all the miserable moral sacrifices he’s ever made.
6. the reason this is an ozlem house, in the sense that my reading of the narrative in its entirety is predicated on the ozlem reconciliation, is that salem and ozma are two sides of a coin: she is doing terrible things in pursuit of a world where the gods aren’t holding a knife to remnant’s throat and he has done terrible things for the sake of the same. their conflict isn’t evil-vs-good, but apostate-vs-zealot; salem believes the gods can and must be defied and ozma believes her defiance is doomed to failure. salem tells him that in order to unite the world he needs to spread his word and crush all who deny him; as the king of vale, ozma uses the divine relic of destruction to lay waste to not only his enemies but even his own allies, thus he forges the vytal accords that established the united global order in which the story takes place. he’s a better person than she is—because she’s been living in exile for thousands of years and her capacity for caring about other people has withered away to almost nothing as a consequence—but they are in every sense equals.
7. the narrative is overtly not on ozpin’s side? he has a whole atonement arc about it in atlas—& this is why i made the comparison to uwuified fanon cinder earlier, because the framing with regard to ozpin is very emphatically clear that he does a lot of things that are not good, and are in fact pretty sinister and in some cases (amber, pyrrha) outright evil, and he has to make the choice and put in real meaningful effort to be better. i don’t think there’s anything to be gained from ignoring what is plainly in the text of the story, especially when rwby is categorically disinterested in sorting its characters into neat little good-or-bad boxes. there’s no such thing as pure evil—that’s been the explicit textual conceit since volume one—and the implied converse is that there’s no such thing as pure good, either. (which is a conceit that ozlem exemplifies.)
8. i threw a fucking PARTY when we found out salem razed vale, i get the vapors every time i think about what sort of narrative escalation we can expect in V10 given that something as huge as razing vale can happen off screen to set the stakes for vacuo. not that i don’t also adore characters who are good or who (like oz in v7-8) grow and change to become better, because i do, but i really can’t emphasize enough how much i Do Not hate fictional characters on the basis of them doing awful things. what i want from a character is for them to be interesting, which ozpin is. what you’re perceiving as me hating on him is me dissecting him under a microscope because i love him to bits.
9. the ozlem screeds will continue until morale improves
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top 5 dick & bruce fic recs + comic recs?? (you don’t have to do both though!)
batman/nightwing: bloodborne (2002)
comic of all time, truly. one of my fav characterizations for dick. he's a complex, hyper-competent and intense character. he's never gonna recover from his devotion to bruce. whacky comic shenanigans, some absolutely heartbreaking narration from dick, really insanely well done details about dick and bruce's dynamic- all the things that go unsaid between them, all the things that can remain unsaid because they know each other so, so well.
batman: dark victory (1999)
dick doesn't appear till issue #8, i think but it's one of my fav origin stories for robin. dick is a grieving, angry kid trying to make sense of this new world around him as an orphan and you can see why bruce thought he could help him. and he does! some amazing parallelism, great art, stellar dialogue. also, just the whole comic itself (even the issues without dick) are a great introduction to gotham and its rogues and how exactly batman serves as the city's protector. selina is fantastic in it, too.
let them live!: unpublished tales from the DC vault (2021) #2
this is a one-shot story that is mostly nightwing-centric but his competence and confidence are really well-written here. i'm putting it here because the moments between bruce and dick (even tho they're on comms) are great. bruce is both batman and father, torn between coordinating/ strategizing with nightwing and being torn by his worry for dick. you can see why people think dick and bruce are cut from the same cloth but you can also see exactly why dick is the only thing that bruce thinks he did right.
year one: batman/scarecrow (2005)
this is a mini-series with dick in his early robin years. the dynamic between them is absolutely great. dick offers exceptional support and empathy to bruce, but there's also elements of playfulness and light-heartedness. there's some great detective work going on, the plot keeps you pulled in and you're able to understand why dick and bruce are so insane about each other. dick understands bruce so, so well even this early on. also has one of my favourite quotes from dick about batman. "you...really that scared of me?" "yeah. in a god-fearing kind of way." father figures as gods you will always be famous to me. although this is a very subpar origin story for scarecrow but also, he's a sub-par rogue to me anyway lol
batman (1940) #615
this is unfortunately in the middle of the loeb's hush arc so it's a bit of a slog to get through but this particular issue has a great dynamic for dick and bruce. mostly dialogue and narration centric tho, dick and bruce are in a good place in terms of their relationship and it shows! also just how much dick means to bruce even if he can never say it.
honourable mentions to teen titans spotlight (1986) #14, robin (1993) #13, batman (1940) #590, detective comics (1937) #725, the entire batman: bruce wayne- murderer/fugitive arc (2002) and robin: year one (2000) for some of their best moments as well
also, fic recs- there's toooo many but anything by @dustorange, @nighhtwing and @bluegarners is a delight to read, you should check out all their works on ao3!!!
and if you're looking for the most compelling, devastating dick grayson characterization ever,,,, that makes you feel unhinged, then i'd recommend persephone's in hell.
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horrible children who are. so so mean to each other
#tlt#the locked tomb#my art#precanon griddlehark dynamic is SO funny. the way they are just no-holds-barred absolutely AWFUL to each other.#the fact that harrow made fun of gideon for saying 'i love you' over her dead mother's grave so gideon nearly choked her to death#and then when gideon recalls this story in gtn she's just like 'yeah lol we were wild kids'#also remember when gideon responded to harrow being kind of bossy with 'your parents must have been so relieved to die' like#imagine saying that knowing full well her parents killed themselves in front of her when she was ten!!!! insane!!#there's no sense of going 'too far' between them. they casually hit what would be considered by most ppl to be 'too far' and then keep going#anyway i don't usually go in for characters-being-kids-together stuff but i will admit that childhood gid+harrow#following each other around absolutely terrorizing each other because they're desperate for each other's attention but also full of#hatred and vitriol#does compel me#like...2 very lonely very traumatized children with only each other for company. what will they do? ENDLESSLY TORTURE EACH OTHER!!!#and yet they are each other's emotional support person. its so good.
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psa that the day there are no jgy stans left on tumblr dot com is the day i am dead
but rest assured i'll go to my grave exactly as i lived: obnoxiously proclaiming to everyone within earshot how great lianfang-zun is. narratively, metaphorically, spiritually. sexually, too, like why limit myself. i like to keep my options open
#the spirit of su minshan possessed me for a minute there but like. i'm fine with it#jin guangyao#he did crimes??? good for him 😌#editing this post to add that while the tone here is clearly joking#i really am fundamentally still engaged with this fandom#and with this book#almost exlcusively because of my enjoyment of jgy#even xiyao is secondary for me like i love it and i'm ride or die for it obvs#but jgy as a character is the main draw for me. and he would have me by the throat even if there was no zewu-jun#(tho i think jgy's life would be more depressing for his absence obviously)#but he is just. /clenches my fists!!!#THE most compelling character in the story and i cannot stop thinking about him!! cannot will not!!#who else in this book has his range? who else can be the doe-eyed idealist AND the spy with blood on his hands who ends a war?#who else is two different greek tragedies and at least two separate shakespearean tragedies rolled into one antagonist#an antagonist who but for the POV of the novel could very easily have been the protagonist#whose moral event horizon is so deeply entwined with his own trauma and abuse that there is no way to meaningfully separate#the violence he does to others from the systemic violence that was done to him for his whole life?#who else in this book manages to get five separate sect leaders utterly obsessed with him no matter how you choose#to interpret that obsession?#no one!!! that's who!!#ain't no one else in the jianghu doing it like lianfang-zun and that's just a goddamn fact
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hey why s2 got the messiest worstest terrible awful fucked up compelling tangled dirty filthy complex nasty ass family drama ever. mianite was killed by his father using his mother's sword. how fucked up is that. hey do you know how fucked up that is. hey. hey wake up h
#mianite#mianitefa#mianite the character#ianite#dianite#mcyt#my art#i hate extrapollating compelling narratives of a chara bc every one of these clown dont realize how good of a story it actually is.#also s2 ianite was a bitchass coward but yall arent ready for that conversation yet#and before you even START i do not hate her she kept running away from her problems and when she DIED she did the same fucking thing oh my#HEY WHEN THE MOST HONEST GOD OF S2 IS THE GOD OF CHAOS? HEY? HEY WHAT? FUCKING. HUH? THE ONE WHO INVENTED ECONOMY? THAT BITCH?#full believer that alyssa countrybat would NOT fuck w/ s2 ia for obvious reasons but WILL fuck w/ s1 ianite bc at least s1 would tell her#she burnt down her fucking home village.#WHAT DO YOU MEAN S2 IANITE TAUGHT ALYSSA HOW TO SHOOT A BOW AND GENERAL KICKASSERY#i OBJECTIVELY refuse.
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TOKREV CHARABOOK 3 & 4: RAN’S PROFILE
TRANSLATION NOTES:
ABOUT HIS LIKES—'Mont Blanc' in this case should most likely be referring to the dessert. It could also be the luxury brand, but assuming from the way 'Mont Blanc' is used in Rindou's profile about his story with Ran, the dessert feels more appropriate in context.
ABOUT HIS DREAM—Apparently, the original text, "外タレ" can mean either 'foreign talent' (がいタレ), which means a Japanese who is a celebrity overseas (or vice versa), or 'outside celebrity' (そとタレ), which means a celebrity (or influential person) who is famous due to their connections and relations to celebrities, like a socialite. Both work in Ran's context, though I personally feel that the second one (outside talent) is more appropriate for him. Nonetheless, 'foreign talent' is the more commonly-used meaning in the Japanese language.
Tokkō-Fuku (特攻服) = Gang uniforms worn by Japanese biker gangs (Bōsōzoku).
TR CHARABOOK 3 TRANSLATION MASTERLIST
#This translation is overdue by EONS but at least I made it in time for the S3 hype!!!#Ran's 'day in the life story' got me a little confused about who exactly is the 'charisma' and what 'charisma' actually means in context#but I think I got it (??)#Apparently 'charisma' can also mean a skilled / talented thing or person#basically someone who is really compelling because of their good traits#and I suppose the stylist in question is the 'charisma of Harajuku' because of their skills and charm#Anyway Ran needs to get his head out of his ass!!!#tokyo revengers#tokyo revengers character book#haitani ran#also i included the CB4 profile because the information is pretty much the same but with more visuals!!#Haitani Rindou
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i apologize for mithrunposting incessantly but honestly if any of you expected better of me you shouldn't have
anyway i get it and some of the failguy jokes are funny. i can tell that nothing i've run into is even malicious. but also it would be really cool and awesome if there were simply less posts calling a disabled person a failure or baby or a dog or whatever for needing accommodation or extra help, especially when like. hey did you know the source material very on purpose did not do anything remotely like that. critical thinking question: could there be some reasons these phrases are not great, potentially
#*#mithrun#dungeon meshi#people are being weird about laois and falin wrt autism also but this is a separate issue#the downside of rep outside of like Average Action Movie Protagonist#which is to say. rep at all. as we would think of it.#is that you get to see not in-group folks talk about those characters. also.#and sometimes. people have. let us say. unexamined. or unacknowledged. biases. perhaps prejudices. at times.#ANYWAY#DISABLED PEOPLE HOWEVER DISABLED ARE NOT INFANTS OR ANIMALS. THANK YOU.#ALSO JUST FOR THE RECORD NOT THAT IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE TO MY POINT#BUT MITHRUN IS SAID IN THE STORY TO BE FAIRLY SELF SUFFICIENT OUTSIDE OF DUNGEON CRAWLING.#his intelligence and strength stats are both extremely high. hey. hey. hey guys. what about him compels you to portray him#as weak or bumbling or unintelligent. quickly.#edit:#like look. if your whole joke is just ''ooooh he's so fucked up. he's so fucked up he's basically a goofy dog''. think about some things.#talking about/including a character's disability: 👍✅#exclusively talking about how fucked up it makes them/how fucked up it is to be disabled: 😕❌#double anyway. fucking. please for the love of god if nothing else. understand that real life disabled people see how you talk about#and portray those with disabilities. and sometimes! it does not feel good. thank you.#this isn't no fun alloweding. just THINK before you say shit PLEASE.#the only character ive seen get called a dog as much as mithrun is fucking laois. which. yk? ykwim here? would u call chilchuck a pursedog.#would that be fucked up‚ maybe. can you tell me why. are you reading me.#ok. i'm done. just. god. negative sims interaction bubble. JUST THINK ABOUT IT THATS ALL.#''its funny to ship mithrun with beautiful people bc he looks so fucked up now haha'' PLEASE CAN ANYONE HEAR ME.#actually i have more to say. rbing this. god. God.
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y'all don't like hearing this but sanitization of media and attempting to make every story full of perfect representation and the most wholesome themes set back storytelling and diversity in media by decades
#txt#'oh no two girls kissing?? WITH TONGUE??'#'is that a SEXY TRANS CHARACTER?'#'i'm not watching this show did you know the creator has a NS/FW BLOG'#ironically by wanting good representation you're shooting down any attempt of making the most compelling and personal stories#that is full of RELATABLE experiences#just by the nonsensical need to have the one and only PERFECT representation
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Ik the internet has collectively decided liking Hamilton is cringe bc ppl were writing real person fic, making founding father self inserts, and because anything that gets a big enough following must be mercilessly shunned after 6-12 months but like, I got surprise tickets to a matinee today as a bday gift and it really IS that good?
Like. I'm not USamerican. I'm not sitting here like "oh yes this is absolutely historically accurate and this is how everything went down and how these ppl were irl". Its a story. A historical adaptation. But it's a Damn Good Story. It's thematically compelling. It's emotionally resonant. It's about hunger and imagining death and ambition, about that desperation that drives you towards elusive satisfaction, about legacy and memory and the construction and telling of narratives, it's about UNEARNED GRACE and impossible forgiveness.
Like it really IS a good story, and as someone who only know these people as /characters/ and not historical figures, they're compelling characters? Their arcs are interesting? Hamilton and Burr as foils is so good? Washington as a model of leadership and of regret? Of legacy earned and unearned? ELIZA??MY EVERYTHING?? She's not a "main" character but the narrative hinges on her, when Hamilton is stripped bare of his ambition he thinks of her. She controls and saves the narrative, ultimately. It comes down to Eliza as the centre of it all, best of wives and best of women truly.
The music is a bop, the choreography fun, the set design simple but effective. Like? I get things that have a massive teen fandom can be annoying, and taking it as Historical Fact would be stupid. But as a story???? It really is that good?
Also we had an understudy as Hamilton and he was v young with such a soft higher voice and it REALLY worked esp in act 1 with the whole young scrappy hungry thing. He was also shorter than Eliza which imo. Perfect. Tiny man among a cast of largely very tall men and a few very tall women.
#who else is giving me martyrdom fantasies and ambitious unending hunger and legacy and history and narrative#And the UNEARNED GRACE OF IT ALL#forgiveness? can you imagine?#LIKE. IT REALLY GENUINELY IS GOOD. AND I ENJOY IT IMMENSELY#its a fuckin GOOD story#maybe i am just able to be like. completely separate from the historical aspects bc i am not american#like yeah the real goerge washington owned slaves. evil vile.#but hamilton Goerges is like. a character. they r not the same. he is a compelling portrait of leadership and regret.#one last time makes me cry. i wanna sit under my own vine and fig tree. like damn ok u got me#the hamilton burr foil is obvs contructed for thr show. but its GOOD its NARRATIVELY COMPELLING like.#anyway. i have been really uhhh ******** lately#but this was. this was good.#live theatre in general is just good for me. its just so expensive so i rarely go#but man. the arts. the arts. THIS is why we live and work
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