#and it's like: is the audience supposed to identify with them

[amoresenza]

everyone asking sam r/ockwell about his monologue but not a second spent on my close personal friend lottie le bon's extended discoursing on childhood (as) sexual fantasy that served a similar and maybe even more narratively urgent function on the show. just a little thing called misogyny

[emberwhite]

For five years, I've been trying to tell this story. It's a tale about coming out—to the reader themselves and for a general audience so that more people might better understand it. Not many mainstream readers are willing to pick up a book about a transfem character because of how unrelatable they think it is. For this reason, it's extremely difficult to get a publishing deal for something like this. I take that as a challenge.

I wanted to make something artistic about it. They say the simplest definition of art is transference of feeling from author to reader, and I really wanted to capture what this whole experience has been like for the past 20 years. It's not easy, and it's not supposed to be either. That's what makes it all worth writing. So, how can it be done?

I like Russian literature. I like Dostoevsky. He will give you a character and tell you this person is bad, bad, and bad. Then, as you get into the mind of their character throughout his novel, you slowly start to find similarities between you and them. You might even begin to agree with them. And at one single moment, there you will be saying to yourself, "Oh my god. I AM this person." It's truly great. He understood human psychology, like no other.

I hope to do the same but backwards. I will tell you everything about this character without telling you who this character is. I used no pronouns to describe my character. Instead, I tried to produce this mysterious, unsettling mood around The Drunk. If I can get the reader to relate and identify with this person through workaholism, alcoholism, loneliness, isolation, and addiction, maybe then transfer of feeling can happen. It's a book about not being seen and understood, and I do think that is something universal, especially in this age of tech. It's devastating and the beginning of self-destruction.

The Drunk, The Gambler, and The Lover is now available on Amazon and for order at your local library and bookstore.

(Or you could just leave a comment asking for a free copy.)

[archangeldyke-all]

Any ideas for Sevika boxer AU? Reader being her manager and both of them catching feelings for each other… 👀

EEEEK your drawings are just 🥰😍🌷💖 i'm gonna make this part of the little PT reader/ boxer sev story i've got going on, (part 1 here, part 2 here!)

men and minors dni

"quit lookin' at me like that." you chuckle.

sevika's smirk only grows, and she wraps her arm around your shoulders and pulls you toward her.

ahead of the two of you, silco's ranting into the phone about something. vander's behind you, mumbling strategies into sevika's ear. she's supposed to be focusing. your whole little posse is escorting her to the ring for the biggest fight of her life-- this is the time for her to pay attention.

this is not the time for her to be flirting.

this doesn't stop her, though. "you look good, you're my girl, how am i supposed to be lookin' at you?" she asks. you roll your eyes and gently elbow her. she grunts dramatically-- like she's not about to get the shit kicked out of her by a professional fighter.

"you're supposed to be focusing. i need you paying attention tonight-- need you to promise me you'll go easy on your shoulder." you say. sevika huffs and rolls her eyes like she always does, then she presses a kiss to your head.

"will you stop worrying?" she asks. you chuckle and shake your head no. sevika snorts. "i'll be fine. i've been training for months. i'm gonna go out there, kick some ass, and win."

"damn right you are." vander grunts behind you.

you shake your head. "and what makes you so sure?"

sevika shrugs and kisses your temple. "just gotta good feeling." she whispers.

five rounds, five minutes each.

with a one minute break between each round, this whole thing'll be over in less than half an hour.

it seems like nothing-- but you know from experience that when it's the love of your life getting the shit beat outta her-- it feels like forever.

add on top of that your training to identify strains and damage to the body, the fact that this is sevika's biggest fight yet, and all the pain her arm's been in for these past few weeks-- you're gonna be a nervous wreck tonight.

you kiss sevika goodbye as you enter the roaring arena, taking your spot at the side of the ring, watching vander and silco start to hype her up, massaging her shoulders and reminding her what they've been practicing.

announcers are droning on about her stats, fans are going crazy all around you, but the only thing you can hear is the pounding of your heart in your ears.

vander hands sevika her gloves, smacks her back, then heads over to sit beside you, wrapping his arms around your shoulders. "she's gonna win." he says.

you snort. "what makes you so sure?"

vander chuckles and shrugs. "just got a feelin'."

sevika meets her opponent in the center of the ring. they've fought before, they're friendly outside the ring-- and right now they're chatting idly as they wait for the match to start.

you see sevika's opponent ask her something, followed by sevika's wide grin, and her gesturing out at the crowd to you. you laugh when her opponent waves at you, waving back and then blowing sevika a kiss. she winks.

the ref enters the ring, and sevika's friendly demeanor drops in an instant, her 'fight face' intense and a little scary.

you get tense in your seat as you wait for the bell. and then it rings, and the first round begins.

you're no good at keeping score of who hits where. that's silco's job-- the ref's and vander's. your job is to remember each hit sevika doesn't take properly, each bruise that'll blossom on her skin, each muscle that's strained by her dodges.

you don't notice the good hits she gets in, the spinning kicks she lands, the way the audience and vander beside you erupt into fierce cheers for your girl.

all you notice is the way she falls funny on her ankle, the slight strain in her left swings, the endless kicks she takes to her ribs.

it's hell on earth. you count your lucky stars that sevika fights in a league that requires head protection.

and, just when you think you can't take it anymore-- the bell rings, and the first fight ends.

silco's at sevika's side in an instant, passing her water and dabbing sweat away from her face. you take a deep breath, and vander settles back in his seat beside you from where he'd leapt up in excitement.

"she's doing good." he tells you. you huff.

"it's the first round and her arm's already bothering her."

"yeah, but she's doing really fucking good." you blink over at your friend, taking in the sparkle in his eye. vander's been watching fights for years, he only gets like this when he's witnessing something special. something in your chest lightens a bit, and you relax in your char. "i'm gettin' a beer-- you wanna beer?" vander offers, waving down the vendor walking through the crowds of fans.

you chuckle and shrug, deciding to indulge yourself. the energy in the crowd tonight is electric, vander seems confident in your girl, and she's positively beaming as she chats with silco on the side of the ring-- you can take a break from being sev's PT and be her swooning girlfriend-- just for one round.

you try to watch the second round from vander's perspective. you still flinch each time she takes a roundhouse to the head, but you manage to gasp and laugh along with her fans when she punches her opponent hard enough to send her flying across the ring.

it's hot. sevika's got this cocky smirk on her face, and it only grows each time she dodges a hit or redirects her opponents attacks.

and when the bell rings, the first thing sevika does is lift her gaze to the crowd to find you, sending you a wink, like she could feel your appreciative gaze on her the entire time.

you have to chug the remainder of your cold beer to keep yourself from getting flustered.

vander hands you another beer without asking, and you laugh, cheersing your pastic cup to his.

"she's on fire!" he laughs. "i shoulda fuckin' known she'd fight like this tonight." he says.

you giggle and lean in so vander can hear your words over the roaring crowd. "i get that it's the title fight, but she's fought and won those before! why are you all actin' like tonight's so special... 's she winning more money?" you ask.

vander cackles and shakes his head. "you'll see."

round three starts with sevika taking a nasty blow to her face.

blood starts to decorate the mats-- and sevika shakes her head the same way she always does when her brain's been rattled in her skull. you cringe, and chug your beer. vander hands you his-- knowing how much you hate seeing her take headshots.

"she'll be fine."

"i'm gonna need more fucking beer." you grunt.

sevika manages to get her advantage back by the end of the third round, but by the time she's taking a sip of water beside silco, you've managed to drink four beers.

it hits you all at once-- and when the fourth round begins, you find yourself giggling and squealing like a girl as you watch your girlfriend fight.

most of your anxiety is floating away in a haze of alcohol. you're still worryidly rambling to vander when she takes a nasty hit "fuck, that's gonna bruise nasty," and "oh her poor ankle." but you don't dwell as much, and your enthuasitc praise intersperses your worries. "she's so strong, isn't she?" you sigh dreaimly when she pins her opponent for the tenth time tonight. vander chuckles and nods.

"she sure is."

"she's so pretty." you sigh.

vander laughs. "she's covered in blood and half her face is swollen up."

"i love her so much."

vander laughs, and the fourth round ends. "no more beer for you until the fight's over." he says. you nod, a little dizzy, and wave at sevika where she's catching her breath.

she beckons you to the side of the ring with a crooked finger, and you giggle, easily breaching the circle of security guards that surround the ring-- they all know who you are.

"hi baby." you giggle up at your girlfriend.

"hi, love."

"you're amazing." you sigh, nuzzling into sevika's hand where she cups your cheek. "you're bleeding." you pout, reaching up to swipe some of the blood trailing down her nostril up. sevika snorts.

"vander gave you beer?" she guesses.

"i was basically shitting myself watchin' you get beat up."

"thirty seconds, sev." silco says. she shoots him a thumbs up.

you're vaguely aware of the fact that the jumbotrons in the arena are zoomed in on your sweet exchange with your girlfriend, but you're too focused on her sparkling eyes to care.

"how's your head?" you ask.

"i'm fine." sevika chuckles. you glare at her.

"and your shoulder?"

"i'll be okay. i've got a really good PT." she jokes. you huff and roll your eyes, and silco taps sevika's shoulder. "i gotta go, love. five more minutes, 'n then you're mine." she teases, winking at you before she walks toward the center of the ring.

you have to be pulled out of your haze by one of the security guards gently tapping your shoulder and guiding you back to your seat.

"you two are ridiculous." vander teases when you return to his side. you huff.

"shut up."

"it's adorable."

the fifth round begins, and you let yourself get swept up in the anticipation. fans have been waiting all year for this fight-- some have been following sevika for her whole career-- you're all on the edge of your seats as the last round plays out and determines the title champion.

it's thrilling.

sevika gets a series of good kicks and hits in on her opponent, but then she lunges and pins sev to the mat. there's a struggle, sevika takes a few hits, and then they break apart and manage to get back to their feet.

for a moment, the two fighters dance in a circle around one another, waiting for a moment to lunge.

and then--

sevika back with her bad arm and throws a hit. her opponent ducks, grabs her bad arm, and throws her over her shoulder.

the crowd gasps with you as you all watch sevika get thrown to the ground.

you want to cry she cringes and makes to grab her shoulder before she has to throw her hand up to block a hit.

you want to vomit.

you want to run up to the ring and tell them to stop the fight-- that that was her bad arm, that she won't be able to fight anymore with the pain she's in.

but then, because she's sevika, your girlfriend jumps up from her spot on the ground, and continues the fight with her left arm limp at her side.

and even like that-- with her left arm limp and her shoulder swelling-- sevika makes it through the round.

the moment the fight ends, sevika collapses onto the mat, holding her shoulder and groaning. silco's by her side in an instant. you're there the next.

you vaguely register the crowd's worried chattering-- the announcer's going through sevika's history with her arm-- both still shocked that she managed to finish the round with her arm dislocated.

you grab sevika's face in your hands and guide her to look at you. "i gotta pop your arm back in place, baby. it's gonna hurt like a bitch." you say.

sevika gulps and nods up at you, and you kiss up her tears before arranging your hands to grip her arm properly. she wails in pain as you adjust her, and tears well up in your eyes.

"ladies and gentlemen... the judges have finished their deliberation... and it looks like we have a winner: for the fifth year in the row-- your reigning champion-- SEVIKA--"

the announcers are drowned out by the roar of the crowd and sevika's animalistic growl as you pop her joint back in its socket.

you blink up at silco as sevika catches her breath and starts to move her left arm, unsure if you had heard that correctly. "did she--"

"you fucking won!" vander shouts as he scrambles into the ring beside the three of you. he hovers over sevika where she's still cringing in pain on the ground, and wraps her up in a big hug.

silco helps you stand from the mat, wrapping his arms around you too as confetti starts to spray down on sevika's little posse.

the crowd bursts into cheers, and you asssume it must be because sevika's finally stood from where she collapsed.

but when you turn around to embrace her, you're confused to find her kneeling on the mat, still gripping her left shoulder.

"a-are you okay, baby?" you ask, crouching down to hold her face in your hands. sevika grins up at you, high off adrenaline and a win, and all the worry and stress in your chest evaporate at the sight.

she pulls her hand away from her shoulder and reveals something to you. you blink down at it in confusion-- something small and black and boxy-- and then it hits you.

sevika's kneeling. and holding a box in her hands. and she just won the biggest fight of her life, and there's cameras surrounding you and she's looking up at you like you're the only thing in the world.

"sev--"

"will you marry me?" she asks, grinning. you can't even hear her over the roar of the crowd-- you have to read her lips.

she flips open the little box and reveals a ring to you, and you lunge forward, pinning sevika to the mat for what must be the hundreth time tonight.

she doesn't fight you off though.

instead, she just laughs, wrapping her arms around you and pulling you in for a kiss as you sob and nod down at her.

taglist!

@fyeahnix @lavendersgirl @half-of-a-gay @thesevi0lentdelights @sexysapphicshopowner

@shimtarofstupidity @chuucanchuucan @badbye666 @femme-historian @lia-winther

@ellsss @sevikaspillowprincess @emiliabby @sevikasbeloved @hellorai

@glass-apothecary @macaroni676 @artinvain @k3n-dyll @sevsdollette

@ellieslob @xayn-xd @keikuahh @maneskinwh0re @raphaellearp

@iamastar @sevikitty @claude999 @nhaaauyen

[theflashjaygarrick]

Today I want to talk about Cassandra Cain and the 'silent asian' trope.

From what I have read the silent Asian trope is seemingly a manifestation of the far older 'inscrutable Asian trope in Western culture and fiction. The inscrutable Asian trope positions Asian characters as the perpetual foreign other in comparison to a ''familiar' whiteness or Westernness. They are mercurial, mysterious, and 'exotic', hyper-competent and alluring but cold. Considering the white, Western gaze in which American media is created, these Asian characters are therefore constructed to be as distant and mysterious to the audience as they are to the characters. And it is in this way that Cass, even when she was (largely) silent challenges this trope.

I'm going to be analysing issue #2 of the Batgirl 2000 run. (it'll be a long post so I'm going to put this under a keep reading.

Cass is undoubtedly mysterious to the other (largely white) members of the Batfamily but through Batgirl 2000s the reader is made very aware of who she is. This is achieved through close narrative focus wherein the reader is more mostly supposed to be seeing the world from Cass’s perspective, not her from other peoples perspective.

This disparity between the inner world the audience is privy to and the external impression of her is made explicit in issue #2. We see explicitly that Babs finds Cass unknowable.

Cass’s shrug is snarky and she is smiling and looks pretty pleased with herself. But Barbara cannot understand what she means, and condescendingly berates Cass for not learning language and therefore not being able to talk to her like a ‘normal person’. Here we have a blatant case of the inscrutable Asian trope, but we aren’t meant to be seeing this story through Babs’ eyes. We’re seeing it through Cass’s.

Damon Scott’s art style here emphasises dynamic and clear expression over looking pretty or normal. Thus allows the reader to see the world through Cass’s eyes where the important information is equally communicated through pose and facial expressions. What would be micro expressions becoming macro expressions through Cass’s eyes. See how Babs’ friendly smile contorts into an exaggerated frown one panel apart. See again the smug and satisfied look on Cass’ face that in universe a skilled detective cannot decipher.

the characters in this (of all genders) are allowed to be expressive even when it is not attractive. The close ups are centred around their faces and their bodies in a way meant to convey emotion and unspoken thought, not sex appeal. Like compare this depiction of Babs and Cass to how Oracle is drawn by Ed Benes in birds of prey.

And unlike the inscrutable Asian Cass is allowed to be bold, opinionated, and snarky when silent. She’s allowed to have emotions so clear on her face that the reader can identify them beneath a full face mask. In a world where casting directors are still saying they don’t hire Asian actors because they ‘can’t emote enough’ drawing an Asian woman as one of the most expressive dc heroines is important.

In the rest of this Cass goes to find a missing man who she saved earlier in the issue. Oracle has located him in an abandoned derelict prison and Cass immediately throws herself into the situation. By the time she gets there however the man is already about to die. He’s been beaten too bad for anyone, even a Batgirl, to save him. And when he dies Cass stands there watching as the light leaves his eyes. She becomes brutal, although not murderous. And he when he dies he gives his wife the last letter he ever wrote. He asks this Batgirl to gave his final words to his wife.

Of course Cass does. And sees the tears drying in the widow’s eyes as the woman reads what he said (we don’t know what, Cass does not either). No other well meaning words or gestures can bring the relief and peace to that woman that his letter did. Seeing for the first time what the written word can mean to people Cass goes home to Oracle’s watchtowers and begins to try to learn to write.

And there we are one again introduced to the external perspective that sees Cass as unknowable. Who cannot begin to imagine what about seeing a man die after failing to save him would encourage her write when she never was interested before.

But we know. To the audience she is not inscrutable but instead a traumatised yet perfectly understandable young women. We are walked through her motives. see the world filtered through her point of view. Even with her speaking two words throughout this issue it is hard to call her silent.

[jikooklove9795]

I do believe they’ve been in a long term romantic relationship for a long time. One point that us jikookers tend to avoid (with good reasons, it’s filmed by a saeseng) is the clip of what looks like JK holding a woman seen through a window? What do you think that was about?

Hi arundhati94-blog!

First of all let me make it clear that I'm not going to ignore any of your or others asks regarding Jikook. The only condition to all those sending in the asks is to be polite and respectful towards Jimin, Jungkook or any other members. Otherwise I'm very open to discussions regarding Jikook and will try my best to respond to you guys.

Now let's get into the discussion, shall we? So, do I think that its Jungkook in that video?

NO. I don't.

Why I think its not Jungkook and the video is not of his apartment?

There are many reasons. The first one being the crap quality of the video with the faces of the man and woman in it completely wiped out thus making them unrecognizable. All the phones out there offer a much better quality. So, how come we get a video of this poor quality? How come in other photos which they leaked of him alone in his house the quality is better and the angle is completely different? The second reason is regarding the apartment in the video. The apartment rented by BH is in the ground floor, has a courtyard and is surrounded by a high fence. In the video the wall panel seems to be in different places and the windows are different too. Another difference is the apartment in the video has a vase while Jungkook's apartment has a lamp in that same area but not a vase.

Another thing which is highly suspicious is the timing of the video and the length of it. I have heard the narrative that its a video from Feb 2023 cause the man in the video had bangs and long hair similar to Jungkook during the early months of 2023. So, why keep it in the wraps for almost 7 months if it was originally captured in February? Why not release it straight away? Whatever damage, the people behind this video intended to do to Jungkook will be the same irrespective of the time of its release. Be it in Feb 2023 or before the release of Seven or before 3D or his album. And they only managed to capture a 14s or 15s long video? Where's the before and after clips? Very hard to believe they couldn't capture more.

This video was done intentionally to make the audience believe that it was Jungkook. Hence, the similar but not the exact apartment, the video being so grainy that its impossible to identify the people in it however make it look like the man has a silhouette similar to Jungkook, a doberman. The open curtains get me every time. Cause this was around the time Jungkook complained about being stalked, had a video of him taken at the gym. So, they want us to believe that Jungkook would have his curtains open if there was a "supposed gf" at his apartment??!!

So, that video is either of another couple or intentionally set up by other people to sabotage him. I'm leaning more into the latter option.

I highly doubt its a sasaeng video cause of why they didnt release it immediately after it was captured in Feb 2023 (since they claim its a video from Feb) and cause of how they posted this video and then vanished. There was a tweet on X a few days before the weibo video was released warning the fans about a fake video to sabotage Jungkook and not to believe in it.

We need to remember that they work in an industry which has a dark side ruled by people who are capable of such deeds. I don't wanna share much about this but its not impossible. So, always trust the artist you stan rather than questionable sources.

Now let's talk about Jungkook denying the gf rumors.

He was on Station head when he was getting repetitive messages asking him if he has a gf and this was how he answered them:

Now to those that'll say "but he didnt deny the video, would've been a fling, would've broken up". He already knew what storm was going on and chose to address it. He could have chosen not to. And the Jungkook I have seen so far would have clearly admitted if he had a gf. Cause don't you remember the AHL Jungkook guys??!! He was just starting his career at that time. But he didnt hide that he had a gf before. I still remember that conversation cause of the words he used.

Do you think this Jungkook who was just starting his career who openly talked about his dating experience and how he wanted to get tattoos even though Yoongi asked him not to cause it'll be frowned upon by the fans, will be afraid of admitting he had a gf? I don't think so.

But the crowd was quick to spin more narratives when he denied having a gf. They accused him of being a f**kboy going around sleeping with women. He saw all this and decided to show up a few hours later after denying of having a gf. This time he went head on denying the allegations and even exposing himself to an extent (I was shocked) by posting this TikTok trend:

He captioned it:

So, he chose to do a Tiktok trend which was pretty old by that time and captioned it as "I go the other way".

Those who are gonna say "He just did the trend in the opposite way hence the caption". STOP. Cause we all know its obvious what he meant when he captioned it like that when the singer was mentioning names of girls. He could have done it the opposite way without the caption. And he deleted it after a few minutes after he was sure that those that cared about him got the meaning behind it.

Now he has done something similar like this in 2019 when he was wrongly accused of dating Mijoo.

This was the first time he appeared on a live after the whole circus. It looked like he came there to make that exact statement. It was out of the blue. And the choice of his words were more specific to be exact. Even Hoseok was confused. You can take it however way you want. Either simply like Jungkook complimenting Hoseok or just try to connect the time he opted to say it. A time when he was rumored to be dating a girl. After Jungkook has shown us all where his interest lies in, which is obviously not with a girl but with a boy for whom he wears his heart on his sleeve. I choose to believe the latter option.

You can watch the live here. Jungkook appears at the 24 min mark. Just notice his face and expression when he says "I never thought I would fall for a man". He's letting us know through these small moments. Just read it with the bigger picture taking timing into the context.

Also, let's not forget how he answered this question:

Q: How would you describe yourself in five words?

🐰: I'm still me

This was in Festa 2019. "I'm still me" is a famous line from the gay movie Love, Simon released in 2018. He posted the "I'm still me" artwork too. And the name of his documentary:

Read it along with how he has used songs in his GCFs which are all either gender neutral or with the "he" pronoun.

Named his flower bouquet "Various Loves"

He chose to work with CK. Apart from being a fan of the brand the partnership is special to him cause CK's values resonates with him.

And CK is very LGBTQ+ friendly using LGBTQ+ models. They have partnered with various NGOs in support of LGBTQ+ advocacy, equality and safety.

And the day Jungkook broke the Internet with this:

So, let's listen to what Jungkook says and trust him instead of a blurry video. Cause he has been honest and transparent with us as much as possible. Let's give so much love and support to this boy

Have a nice day arundhati94-blog!

Credits to the owner of the video

[ssaalexblake]

The thirteenth doctor is Really mean when she's angry (and she's angry very frequently) and her shielding her companions from that 95% of the time is her trying her hardest not to take her own issues out on them. It Doesn't always work, sometimes she slips and is cruel to them, but she tries.

Just because she's not quite got that the way to deal with your anger Isn't to bottle it up and then take it out on bad guys and evil aliens when you get the chance, doesn't mean she's not making a genuine effort to Not be a jerk to her friends.

I mean, I know full well that acting nice as pie to them and then finding somebody to take the aggression out on is not a healthy coping mechanism. There is no way on earth that the doctor would ever know this.

And sure, she's also trying her hardest to keep them around and not show them her darker side, but that doesn't mean she's not also trying not to hurt them. She does a lot of shielding them to protect them in different ways.

Fandom really needs to stop acting like we're her companions in s11-12 who don't also get to see behind the curtain into her private moments. I'd forgive the fam for not knowing about some of her rage and meanness because she Is trying hard to keep a lid on it, but We're not them. We get to see her taking this out on bad guys in private. We get to see her alone. We're not supposed to have the same view of her as the fam because we know more about her

She's mean, toothy, angry, callous, trying her damn hardest to shield her friends from these things. She's happy, she wants to help, she adores science, she will put herself in danger for others. She'll try and help still even if she wants to curl up in a ball and cry.

By Flux, Yaz knows her Far better and thirteen knows this and it's why they're in conflict more often. Yaz isn't the type to let things go easily (or at all) and Thirteen is confident that Yaz won't ditch her and for all this relationship seems more contentious, they're on much more equal footing now.

But like, thirteen is a mean angry person, she's not a screamer or a cryer, she'll lose her temper and aim a verbal hit below the belt in a low pitched growl. I forgive the fam for missing this one at first because it was intentional that they did, but the audience is supposed to be able to identify behavioural differences when she's with one group of people and another group. Or just notice in general that she's nasty to people when she loses her temper.

It's not the show's fault the audience didn't pay attention. Or that it thinks women's anger is screaming and crying and that everything else should be disregarded as nothing.

[crustyfloor]

The instrumentation of R7 is so cleverly immersive in the way it portrays Till's unstable emotions because by the end, Blink Gone is supposed to be petrifying and traumatic for Till. The repetitiveness of the lyrics and the many variations of "Blink gone" are like a mantra meant to drive you mad. The music is quite different from the genres we've heard before because it sets the emotional tone. Blink Gone sounds like mainstream party music (that much gives off a different tone that puts an invisible wall between audience and performer, though we have more of the advantage of seeing their emotions in more focus). That being said, Blink Gone's pacing is fast. It naturally allows this round to sound more like an actual competition. The concept and overall feel of Blink Gone is exhausting and quick (blink and you miss it kind of thing)

And I think that is meant to be portrayed in Till's gradual loss of will throughout the whole round, it looks very clear that he's running on adrenaline and ambition as he faces off against Luka, as opposed to R6, he's dropped the resignation and passivity, and is now probably fluctuating between fight or flight the whole time (Or in other words, Hyperarousal. Which you can identify a lot in his skittishness and his sporatic energy and his hyper vigilance and his eventual lack of response). I think it transitions that way because of Till's protective instinct after such a traumatic situation just hours ago, he doesn't do anything else than what comes naturally, and that is to fight (I think maybe there is a clearer notion behind that that we'll see in his introspection one day). Within his performance, he's actively assertive and firing back, that's what makes the coming scene with Till and Luka and their signature instruments so impactful because Till's skills have always been his advantage, but there is definitely something in the way Luka can do it all and interjects Till's performance with his violin, more smoothly and beautifully as opposed to Till's frantic playing, he makes his presence known and fights with Till for the spotlight, after this point you can see Till losing his wind and his energy comes back in brief strokes, his abrupt outburst of energy is impractical (entertaining most likely yes, but it gives a lot of insight into how he's handling the increasing pressure right now)

His stamina could be better because it can be, but Till didn't come into this round in the best state of mind anyway, it is why it's so easy for Luka to break him down

Ruler of my heart and BL gone have many similarities in this sense, in terms of immersion and showing the emotional volatility of Mizi, because this is Luka's technique, he intimidates his opponents, essentially exploiting their fearful adrenaline and whatever else he can bank on that he's observed from them in previous rounds perhaps, his displays easily steal the audience's attention and leaves his opponent fighting a losing game, essentially exploiting their emotional turmoil

The instrumental takes a low and slow turn in the scene where Luka gets close to Till and touches him so that we only know to focus on him while he sings and intentionally triggers Till, causing Till's shock to leave him momentarily shaken, what I really adore about that scene other than the lengths Vivinos went to to show his emotions-

(Like right here, color theory seems to be implemented to show you just how he feels in that moment, cold > warm > hot / freeze > shaken > assertion from the moment he's frozen in fear and right when he jumps back into action)

Alongside that, the way he sounds shaken as much as he is visibly afraid is so good, especially considering what we know he sees when he looks out into the crowd and realizes that everything is out of his control, and the threat of death is looming. That much is enough to prompt him to give himself the kick he needed to snap out of it and come back into action, though you can really see the way after this point, Till loses his energy, and his stage presence in quick succession, and again, (similar to Mizi in ROMH,) he is visibly panicking and desperately trying to get his wind back to no avail, Till's emotional fragility gives at the very moment he's so stressed his nose bleeds and he gives, the stage scene too circles back to what I said before about Blink gone having a suffocating and intimidating vibe, because hearing the crowd repeatedly sings different variations of " oh in a Blink gone forget everything and just enjoy" is like it's compelling Till to just give up at this point when faced with Luka who has the clear advantage, he'd be playing a losing game. (It's also so especially cruel that in this moment he's surrounded by trauma and he's facing it up-front, the fear in the moment froze him like the other instances, and the intensity of the moment is coupled by the way the crowd becomes more persuasive and has a pervasive influence on the way Till shuts down)

And the visual notes would've given the impression that this is where Till will inevitably lose, until instrumentally and visually the whole scene gives pause and redirects your attention and mood to a newfound energy, as soon as Mizi is introduced again, and the center of his vision focuses on her

In this way, you follow Till's train of thought as he sees Mizi and instantly snaps back into it, not the actual performance, but his state of mind is intensely focused on one singular thing, and that is getting to her. That is enough to get him back on his feet. It's also notable that this is one of those instances again where a character is singing to the listener, but they've actually stopped singing in real time on stage

The instrumentation captures the feeling of elation and hope in that moment in the drastic change of tone, (Save for Luka's utmost frustration/exasperations in his lines I love bl8m for showcasing that in his tone) it essentially sways you into thinking "oh, this is the part where he will be saved" because everything in that scene leads you to that perspective, even in the lyrics Till "sings" quite literally about him leaping for the moment, forgetting everything and not wanting to regret missing this chance to escape. Then he gets shot

If you think that sequence of events was rushed/fast-paced, I'd think that was the intention, given the repeated "blink, gone / the clock goes tik tok" because Till was racing against time, dragging himself to Mizi thinking she could save him was his leap of faith moment, and he went for it. And that's just so good to me, how it goes very literal beyond a listener's perspective, and the way the guitar sounds resoundingly low and ominous in the very end, giving off that sense of dread that Mizi feels, and the question of "what..."

[literaryvein-reblogs]

What are ways you can make s big cast of characters and make them feel different from each other?

Writing Notes: Ensemble Cast

Characters don't exist in a vacuum; they interact with each other, sometimes in tropish ways. Ensembles are some of the more common group dynamics you'll find.

In most cases, the protagonist is a defining element of fiction. It is they whom the plot revolves around and, usually, the one the audience is supposed to empathize with most.

However, some shows decide to do something different—there is no one protagonist. The plot and its narrative don't revolve around a single, "most important" main character. Instead, it shares a cast of characters with (almost) equal screentime and importance to the plot. This is called an Ensemble Cast.

This type of narrative is interesting because it highlights the relations between different characters by taking away the importance of a single character.

In addition, it allows the writers to focus on different characters in different episodes freely, without worrying about giving the main character not enough screen time.

On the other hand, it can also result in a work that lacks focus and drive.

Something must unite the events other than the main character.

Most of these works therefore fix on a restricted setting and stick to it like glue.

Some Ensemble Subtropes

Big Bad Ensemble - The story features two or more villains, each of whom has their own distinct agenda and resources. Having multiple main villains can bring new dimensions to the story and make it more complex and less predictable. It can force The Hero to face a range of different challenges. The success or failures of one Big Bad can affect the fortunes of another, as they may have to consider each other in their plans, or might try to profit from another's defeat. The hero might defeat one villain before fighting another, or might regard one as more dangerous or important than the others.

Big, Thin, Short Trio - A group of three people where one is huge, one is skinny and one is short.

Breakfast Club - A gang of misfits whom no-one likes and/or don't like themselves (and perhaps each other by extension) get together, or an elder, often a Zen Survivor, brings them together.

Classical Elements - A team or group of people in which each character is associated with one of the classical elements, the classical elements being a specific subset of the Natural Elements, typically composed of fire, water, earth, or air. So the standard ensemble is a team of four with each person aligned with either fire, water, earth, or air.

Creepy Family - A family that happens to consist of monsters or very strange and sinister people.

Nice, Mean, and In-Between - In certain group dynamics, you will notice three characters with different mannerisms, attitudes, and personalities that are easy to identify with — a character who is nice and gentle, a character who is mean and tough, and the character who is caught in between the two other characters.

Rotating Protagonist - When a series with an Ensemble Cast has each episode focus on a different character. In other words, a series where every episode is a different character's Day in the Limelight.

With a Friend and a Stranger - When introducing characters, you want to keep the overall number of relationships and names to remember to a minimum. This is why many media start off with only a handful of primary characters, often three. There are many common "stock" variations on the genders and relationships of these few characters. One of them is the friend and stranger dynamic. The protagonist will have a best friend, often a childhood friend. This dynamic is easy to show in the limited time you have to hook your audience, and easy to add depth to at a later time. The third character will be a stranger to the protagonist and their friend. Their appearance will often serve to drive the plot, and their unfamiliarity with the characters and location helps justify Exposition.

The Hollywood Formula - follows the interactions of three characters through the Three-Act Structure:

The Protagonist — the person the story is about. He or she is a person who wants a goal. The goal must be something concrete, definable, and achievable. Rather than "I want to be happy" or "I want to be rich", but rather, "I want him to fall in love with me so that I will be happy." "I want to win the game show that I'm going to be on so that I will be rich." "I want to rob the casino of the guy who's dating my ex-girlfriend, so I can be happy and rich."

The Antagonist — the person who places obstacles to the goal in the path of the protagonist. This does not mean the bad guy. The antagonist's goals are in some way opposed to the protagonist, and they are the one who is blocking the protagonist's journey.

The Relationship Character — the person who accompanies the protagonist on their journey. Typically, they are someone who has been there, done that before, and they have wisdom to communicate to the protagonist, and the protagonist isn't hearing it. The theme of the story, what the protagonist needs to understand in order to succeed, is expressed either by or to this character. In many cases, this happens as part of an actual conversation. At the end of the story, this conversation or expression of the theme will be revisited, and the protagonist and this character will reconcile with each other.

The story ends when the protagonist achieves or relinquishes his goal, defeats or is defeated by the antagonist, and reconciles with the relationship character. The closer together these things happen, the more emotional impact the story will have.

Excerpt from this post:

Ensemble of Characters. In summary, most successful sitcoms have this dynamic (and some unsuccessful ones lack some element of it): BOSS – A character in position of power over the striver/protagonist and others – it may be a role or rank or just social status or family seniority. They may have real power or it may just be vested in them by their position but they are inept in some way. STRIVER (PROTAGONIST) – The main comic character with all their flaws and failings. FOIL – The more reasonable normal one (usually also a striver) who has to deal with the main striver. Often protagonist and foil are basically on the same side but they can be rivals. Usually the foil is the one the audience can identify with but sometimes they are less obviously likeable. FOOL – Self-explanatory – the "stupid" or naive and awkward one. Often happy with their lot, they tend to be able to bounce back from the indignities heaped on them.

Writing Tips: Ensemble Casts

With each additional main character you add to your narrative, you’re adding another layer of complexity to your writing process. You don’t want to have extra characters just to have them, after all—each character needs to be unique, compelling, and contribute a story worth telling to the narrative as a whole.

Interview Your Characters - You’re going to sit down and pretend like you’re speaking to your characters. Is it a news interview? A gossip rag interview? A police interrogation? That’s all up to you. The questions you ask? Also up to you! The only important thing is that you answer each question as your character. If you’re stuck trying to create characters for your latest project, or if you have the basics down but you need a little push to help them feel like real, fully fleshed-out people, interview them.

Mix and Match On-Page Pairings - When you have an ensemble cast, some characters will inevitably spend more time with each other than others. When you mix and match your on-page pairings, you give the audience a few things. First, you give them a switch-up—something unexpected and, hopefully, enjoyable to read: a change of pace. Secondly, you give yourself the opportunity to explore parts of your characters that you might not have explored previously. After all, every relationship brings new opportunities to compare and contrast your character’s personality and outlook. Don’t be afraid to change things up as you’re writing and see what comes out of it.

Back Your Characters Into a Corner - Be as brutal to your characters as possible. For better or for worse, people show their truest colors when their back is against the wall. Backing your character into a corner is a convenient way to show your audience exactly what your character is made of. Your readers are also going to be more willing to readily sympathize with a character when they’re in a pickle. Getting a reader to sympathize with one main character is hard. When you put every single one of your characters in a seemingly inescapable situation, you give yourself a better chance of getting readers to connect with your characters, put themselves in their shoes, and really feel for them.

Character Voice - Each character should have a unique way of speaking. This will show up not only in the words they say, but in the things they say, and, by extension, the thought process behind their words. Best case scenario: it should be obvious without dialogue tags which character is speaking.

Diverse Representation - This allows us to challenge stereotypes, break down barriers, and promote inclusivity. Readers are exposed to characters who may share their own experiences or who open their eyes to different ways of life. Our hope is that this broadens readers' horizons, fosters empathy, and promotes a deeper understanding of the world. A diverse ensemble cast provides a platform for exploring social issues and amplifying marginalized voices. By incorporating characters from various walks of life, we can tackle important topics such as race, gender, and sexuality.

Embracing the Power of Perspective - One of the strengths of using an ensemble cast is the ability to present the story through multiple perspectives. This allows readers to connect with each character and understand their unique motivations. Constantly ask yourself, "Whose scene is this? Who has the most at stake here?"

Balancing Storylines - One of the greatest challenges during the plotting process is ensuring that all your characters have a common goal to strive for throughout the story. At the beginning, they are all individuals with their own goals, but mold them into a cohesive group with a shared objective.

Build Interconnecting Character Arcs - Your ensemble cast needs to grow and change together as the story goes on. Your characters should all impact one another in some way. Are they helping one another grow? Are they bad influences, bringing one another to regress? The choice is yours. Only when your characters come together to impact one another deeply and profoundly will you be able to impact your audience in that same way with your ensemble cast as a whole.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Choose which of these tips from different sources work most appropriately for your writing, and which notes & tropes you could use as inspiration.

[heliianth]

on Killua, projection, and spectrophobia

This post is sort of a sequel to this answer I gave an asker, wherein I said that an overarching theme in Killua's ability to situate himself and understand the world around him is constant social categorization. It's also a very direct extension of this post about how he sees Nanika in relation to his own self-perception and the way in which he treats her as a result of projection.

Originally that second post was actually meant to be the ultimate conclusion to this one (i've been sitting on this draft for close to a year atp). So it's a little embarrassing to post this without it as a closer—this feels unfinished as a result—but I'll link it in the relevant section where it should've been read anyway, and you can take it or leave it. If you do read it and see parts I paraphrased or directly copy-pasted from very early points in this meta, that's why lol. I'm lazy and didn't want to rewrite thoughts I had already articulated in my notes app, nor did I want to leave the anon hanging for however long it would take to polish this up.

Eli, this is long as fuck. Why do you care this much?

Well, why does anyone care about anything? I like yapping. This is the yapping website. Take this as your warning that this is going to be LENGTHY, btw

But the main reason I started thinking about this and writing it down so long ago is the pervasive perception within the fandom that Killua is very logical, and that this demeanor of his is a deliberate contrast to Gon’s impulsivity, reliance on instinct, and tendency to operate based on emotion. This makes the audience trust his word even when everything surrounding him is working to tell you he’s an unreliable source of narration, including the aloof overpowered rival-deuteragonist archetype he’s subverting, which people seem to recognize in every other way but this for some reason. His family directly spells out to the audience that he’s way too emotional and volatile to be considered perfect, despite the golden child gambit—

—and while the Zoldycks are all stinky fucking liars as far as whether the audience should trust them or not, I do think they know what they’re talking about in terms of suitability to be an assassin. And Zeno is ostensibly supposed to be the "sane one," regardless of how you feel about that.

Even so, I think that it’s a really easily digestible and also not unpopular view here on tumblr to acknowledge that not only is Killua very often illogical, he’s also not less emotional than Gon just because he tends to analyze more information before making a decision. It’s not a hot take to say that Killua POV Syndrome is the source of a lot of mischaracterization for both of them and their relationship. Still, I rarely see anyone talk about the specific ways in which he’s illogical, identify an underlying pattern between each instance, and connect it to his arc and the very unsubtle metaphors that punctuate it as a whole. So that’s kind of what I’m aiming for here, just to present my ideas in one place so I don’t have to keep chunking them into different responses to asks.

So. 5 topics.

Projection (clarification)

Killua's Reflection

The Outlier: Gon

The In-group

The Mirror: Alluka and Nanika

1. Projection

Projection is a term I think people are well acquainted with, but I still feel the need to define it so we’re all on the same page. It’s been in the periphery of the therapy speak epidemic that’s been happening for a while now, and I want it to be clear what we’re actually talking about.

In it’s most simple form, projection is the process of attributing one’s own traits or emotions to another. This is the most common way I’m going to be using the word, but there are other relevant intricacies:

Originally, it was conceived as a way of ego defense and emotional suppression or denial. For example, the first formally documented case of projection was in a 1895 letter in which Sigmund Freud described a woman who was avoiding confronting feelings of shame by insisting that neighbors were gossiping unjustly behind her back. This form wherein the person projecting recognizes an emotion or action as condemnable in themself but is unwilling to reflect on it, and then attributes that same trait to someone else so it is “safe” to judge, remains the more popular conception of projection. Freud is a whole can of worms and me referencing him is supposed to be more of a history lesson than a concession of legitimacy. And in terms of talking about projection, I do think the type he describes exists and I do think it’s useful for the purposes of this post to use his name in reference to it.

Contemporarily, projection is understood more benignly as being a part of theory of mind (the ability to parse the intentions and mental states of other people separately from one’s own). This type has many different forms which manifest healthily during stages of psychological development or interaction, such as a child learning to perform empathy by recognizing and interpreting familiar experiences or expressions in others. That specific process, however, is more often referred to as mentalization, wherein “…there is little distortion of the other person’s mind because there is no automatic equation of it with the mind of the observer..." though it is still considered a form of projection because it requires using your own experiences to determine that of another.

All of these definitions are relevant because Killua does all three. He imposes his own traits onto other people even if it’s not necessarily warranted, projects the judgement of his shameful aspects onto those around him to avoid confronting them (Freudian), and uses his own experiences to mentalize with targets chosen based on his own self-perception.

2. Killua’s Reflection

I’m sure everyone interested enough in Hunter x Hunter to be reading metas on it already knows about Killua’s shit self-esteem and where it comes from. It’s something that doesn’t really need to be restated. Nonetheless, I feel an aspect of it is necessary for what I want to say.

A lot of Killua’s emotional conflicts within the story stem from a desperate need to disprove what Illumi said to him in the exchange that disqualified him from the first arc's exam.

At this point Killua has actually seen and experienced things that contradict what Illumi is saying. But in this case, even with all of these new experiences and people on his side, Killua finds he can’t disagree with his big brother. After all, it’s backed up by some pretty irrefutable proof—more than Killua has.

For example, Killua’s reaction to Gon being completely unbothered in this conversation…

Alternate translation from the 2011 anime is: "That's weird... People only like me because they can't ever tell whether I'm serious." (Viz is my worst enemy for early HxH and should be yours too)

…corroborates 2 things:

Killua has approached people (outside of the Zoldyck estate) in the past, whether to be friends or to cure boredom

Upon being told about his family, these people either reacted poorly or with disbelief. Then he was ostracized or became disinterested

Killua doesn’t seem too bothered by this all things considered, and that’s because it reinforces his family’s emotional isolation, so it’s expected and he has no reason to think it's abnormal or worry over it. Killua is told he’s incapable of friendship because of who he is and how he was raised, and then every relationship he has ends before it can begin precisely because of those reasons. From his perspective, his family are objectively correct. Every time Killua talks to anyone, he may as well be proving that gravity eventually makes things fall down. He just kept trying because he was that desperate for friends who liked HIM, not his cute kid routine.

What his family have done is effectively created a rigid in-group that defines Killua and his capacity for interaction outside of that group. This has overlap with the typical notion of “out-group bias” which, when you google it, specifically brings up the mechanisms of bigotry. I’m referring to it in the more neutral tone associated with social identity theory, which has to do with socially assigned and defined traits valued via comparison (often moral comparison), and the desire to belong to an identity group that is valued positively by the majority.

The funny thing about the Zoldycks is that they do seem to teach their kids to some extent that murder is wrong and will be perceived as wrong by the out-group. But at the same time, a caveat is created: the reason why the in-group (their family) can and should engage in it is because it is in their nature. Asking Zoldycks not to murder is like asking a cat not to meow; they can do it simultaneously because of the family’s value-specific superiority and their moral inferiority—that they're good at what they do and inherently bad at what everyone else does. “We are the only ones who could ever love or understand you, you don’t need Them.” Not only is it isolating, it’s dehumanizing, and something like this is a classic tactic used to trap people.

Doesn’t work on Killua though! He swings in a counterintuitive direction by wanting acceptance from the out-group instead of withdrawing back to his safe, rejection-free in-group. I think that has to do with the fact that he’s also othered from that in-group in some manner.

Killua is part of the family, yet he’s the golden child. As of present, the entire operation revolves around him. He’s shown blatant favoritism: Illumi and Kikyo are obsessed with him, Zeno justifies preferential treatment when called on it, Silva is very lenient with him, and the butlers we’ve seen seem to all have some preference as well. The rest of his siblings may as well be invisible while he’s around. He’s not just a Zoldyck, he’s the heir. And with the amount of control exerted over him because of it, there’s an easy connection to make that being the family’s pet prodigy had a big hand in crafting Killua’s oppositional personality.

So funnily enough, by singling him out, the Zoldycks kind of guaranteed that Killua would start to suspect that he’s not actually a part of their in-group—fueling his desire to be normal (read: actually belong somewhere) and turn his search outward. Their tradition got too big and began cannibalizing itself. Put a pin in this because we’re returning to it later.

Going back to what Illumi actually said to Killua, during the fourth phase Killua both compares himself with Gon:

…and is absolutely baffled by the fight’s turn:

…which are things Illumi addresses—that one day, Killua will start evaluating Gon as an opponent, and that Gon confuses him. Though he’s using these to gaslight him into doubting his own emotions and desires, what Illumi says is all true to Killua.

Gon does confuse him because, unlike every other social interaction he’s ever had, Gon doesn’t reinforce what his family has said to him. Gon is not considered “the out-group” by Killua; he does not behave in the way Killua has seen and was taught the out-group behaves, so he must not have their same values. Most importantly, he likes Killua for who he is as an individual, not his proficiency at the things valued by his in-group, which makes him feel like an actual person and like he could potentially belong somewhere. Gon is dismantling the mechanisms of Killua’s abuse by… basically just being a silly little guy. And though obviously Killua isn’t aware of that specifically, he does feel it’s effects.

So when Illumi pops up and basically goes “Yeah, all that is a fluke. An outlier. I know how you think, this is what you were just doing, and you’re deluding yourself,” Killua has no argument because Gon is an outlier; the one person that’s not part of the out-group or the in-group.

And then Illumi goes and puts the final nail in the coffin by forcing him to surrender, thereby allowing Gon to die and "proving" him right in that he's incapable of connection. So he does what’s expected of a murderer then goes home.

Of course, Gon storms the castle anyway, but this exchange still haunts Killua. He believes Illumi is still right. There is still the in-group, the outgroup, and Gon.

This is the kind of thinking that Killua brings into every relationship he has and, despite wanting so badly to prove Illumi wrong, he uses these preconceptions in order to side step actually confronting it. Killua doesn’t like thinking about the possibility of Illumi being correct. He doesn’t want to; he gets genuinely upset, sometimes angry, when reminded of it (think his outburst with Nobunaga in Yorknew), and it’s hard for him to engage with the idea when it comes up. But proving Illumi wrong in any substantial manner would mean thinking about it.

Similarly to Gon assigning Killua the role of “the cool-headed one who keeps me in check,” Killua takes Illumi’s evaluations of their relationship and twists them into something he can operate off of. In his head, he’s assigned Gon the role of “the outlier" which Illumi described, but views Gon’s uniqueness optimistically instead of misanthropically. As a result, Killua ends up pouring his self-worth into being useful to Gon. He doesn’t really know how else to get people to want him around, and as long as Gon is around, Illumi is wrong.

Though Killua is doing this in order to prove so, he’s not actually fully rejecting Illumi—it’s very psychologically shallow because the foundation of it still relies on Illumi’s assessments. Doing this lets Killua avoid having to do overwhelming hard work in either self-evaluation or examination of his upbringing—ironically reinforcing what Illumi wants, which is to constantly run away from problems he can’t handle.

When I say Killua is avoiding having to do hard work on reflection, I don’t mean that in a negative way. Actually deconstructing all this would take years of grueling emotional labor to do, and Killua is a child. So instead, he applies this faulty worldview in ways that make him happy, and that’s better than nothing. There’s genuinely no other option for him at this point in the story and it would obviously be silly to condemn him for it.

This is the basis of his projection; a habitual avoidance of confronting difficult emotions or ideas and an application of traits onto people regardless of fitness to reinforce it—loosely Freudian. It’s because of this that the the reoccurring motif of often literal fight or flight is so important to Killua’s character and is so deeply entrenched in his development, beyond the physical prowess to defeat strong opponents or even just growing out of being an assassin. It's a metaphor for him learning to start actually unpacking his abuse.

3. The Outlier: Gon

Because the way he perceives himself has been molded by alienation, Killua has some difficulty mentalizing with people he sees as belonging to an out-group—instead relying on analysis and pattern recognition to mimic that function and compensate. This usually works out for him because he’s a smart kid, but not always, especially when there’s no pre-established pattern (such as that time he thinks himself into a hole during the Greed Island player selection process).

There are a few examples of Killua’s difficulty to mentalize with people he’s already decided are unlike him, but a lot of them can be simultaneously attributed to apathy or practicality, so I don’t want to say anything definitive. In that same vein, Killua also seems to have a rough time getting along with peers and certain authority figures in general, which is a result of many intersecting things, some having to do with projection—for example, I’m reasonably certain his difficulties with older women come from family misogyny and his own disdain for his mother—and some not.

Despite these varying reasons, I feel confident in saying mentalizing with assigned out-groups is something Killua struggles with because Gon, the person he spends most of the series glued at the hip with, is the single biggest example and indication of it.

As mentioned, Gon confuses the hell out of Killua at first. This subsides as the series goes on—he begins to understand Gon very well behaviorally, enough to accurately predict and describe him—but it returns in the Chimera Ant Arc when Gon’s previously reliable patterns start to shift and Killua has no idea how to deal with it. This gulf of dark and light he’s invented between them causes Killua to simultaneously project heavily onto Gon and understand him as someone so alien that he often completely misses Gon’s greater motivations (and cannot actually internalize his affections, though that’s not unique to the ant arc).

His perception of Gon is so wrapped in his perception of himself that arguably one of Killua’s most dramatic and iconic little internal monologues (“you are light”) occurs right after an emotional low point where he’s obviously feeling guilty and wondering whether he’s capable of performing his assigned role in their friendship, then is urged to no longer think about it (avoidance).

To make matters more obvious, Killua’s vocabulary in the “you are light” declaration is even ripped directly out of Illumi’s mouth (眩しすぎて, translated by Viz as “radiant” from Illumi then again as “too bright” during this scene). Killua idolizes Gon as being this brilliant outlier and relies on him as a key part of his psychological avoidance—not at all even considering whether this fundamental idea, which is borrowed from and agrees with Illumi, is wrong on its own.

In the CAA, Killua is constantly having these beliefs he’s trying to dodge nailed in not only by the adults around him but also his own actions. And, when Bisky confronts him with (what he hears as) the possibility that Gon’s mere presence isn’t enough to prove Illumi wrong and Killua will end up essentially killing him regardless, he becomes resigned to the idea that he is unfixable up until he rips that needle out of his brain.

Removing Illumi’s needle results in a high point for his esteem primarily because it forced Killua to actually linger and, again, think about Illumi and his abuse. It was a huge confrontation both physically and mentally, he did it by himself without any of his psychological crutches, and coming out on top built his confidence to the point where his mood/behavior changed enough for Gon to notice. But it didn’t erase his unease about their relationship.

As Killua begins to feel less stable in his self-appointed roles, Gon also starts to break down and starts prioritizing revenge on Pitou. Alone. And this makes Killua also feel less stable in Gon’s role as the outlier. Similarly to the woman who invents gossiping neighbors to avoid addressing shame, Killua invents judgement from his best friend to internally avoid addressing his internalized alienation. He ends up worrying that Gon will ostracize him and assuming the worst, when previously he thought he'd be the only one who wouldn't do that. He becomes hyper-observant of any possible rejection.

And he’s not worried about moral rejection like he used to be! Because when Palm is introduced, it becomes evident that the rejection Killua is worried about is revealed to be his emotional value to Gon. Whether Killua is as important to Gon as Gon is important to Killua—whether his feelings, romantic or otherwise, are reciprocated.

Then with Palm, these insecurities take the form of pretty stereotypical projection in the form of jealousy and cattiness, even after the whole dating thing is finished…

…and leads to his meltdown right in front of her, during which the narrative acknowledges and makes him finally voice these insecurities.

Like, when Gon says “Let’s go,” Killua immediately spirals into worrying what Gon means by it in terms of his value. Whether they are “just teammates” or something more.

And when Gon tells Killua “This has nothing to do with you,” he can verbally acknowledge that Gon is not being deliberately nasty, but it still hits him like a truck anyway. His true understanding of the situation, regardless of what he thinks logically, is that he is being ejected from their friendship—that Killua, who defines his personhood according to the roles assigned by both himself and Gon, is no longer wanted and no longer belongs anywhere.

A sign of disordered or delayed ability to mentalize in a child—appropriately, due to abuse or atypical attachment—is not being able to separate their own reaction from the intentions of their caregiver during a reprimand or some similar interaction. This is relevant in that Killua has placed Gon into a position with an inordinate (and frankly unfair) amount of emotional authority upon which he’s reliant for comfort and affirmation. Killua’s theory of mind is impaired in relation to Gon not only as is normal due to strong emotions, but also his projecting onto what Gon thinks, which is a result of othering himself from him.

4. The In-group

I think the above is… fairly obvious, and also a super unoriginal observation. But it’s made rhetorically useful by it’s converse: the fact that Killua has a really easy time mentalizing with people that are inhuman, whether morally or literally. I’ll rapid-fire a few examples because they’re pretty self-explanatory…

Killua recognizes Hisoka’s intentions because “[he’s] like him”.

More Hisoka parallels, this time including Gon

(I’m convinced a lot of these are with Hisoka because Togashi still wanted us to hang onto the abundance of “Killua will turn heel” red herrings in the early story. Small tangent, but during the exam Togashi loved to separate Killua from Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio in various ways, often physically, in part to encourage the audience to other him so that these red herrings would be extremely prominent even during Heaven’s Arena. But I think a Watsonian analysis is also fitting)

This one is shakier because it’s primarily an ethical debate which Gon and Bisky chime in on as well, but I thought it was good to include as part of a broader pattern since he specifically brings up moral values and how they define in-groups.

Killua empathizes with Ikalgo right after being willing to murder him lmfao. It's notable the way in which he starts checking around this time if the ants/people he's fighting are douchebags or not (do they have the right social identity or not?), which seemingly justifies killing them.

(I think it’s really interesting that the upper page centers Killua’s hands during the setup for a realization about Meruem hurting himself for the sake of a “special someone." It's like Killua's equivalent to Gon's "[You'd hurt yourself] when... you can't forgive yourself.")

The reason why this occurs has to do with the defined social identities created by his family and the immediate biases/prejudices associated with them. Because of how Killua has dehumanized himself in accordance with these traits, he is pre-disposed to extending understanding—whether that be actual compassion or simple insight—toward characters who are othered as monstrous in-universe (and by the audience, where it’s used as a narrative tool by Togashi) because these experiences of being alienated from the vast majority are most familiar and sensical to him.

This becomes pretty obvious to me when you take into account that Killua’s only friends other than Gon, Leorio, and Kurapika—or at least the only other people he actually calls his friends—are chimera ants (and, in the case of Palm, she was very much ostracized even when she was a human including by Killua himself). Characters like these are relatable and make someone part of an in-group, whether he likes it or not.

On that last point, I want to bring up this observation and comment made by him…

…because while this observation from Killua comes about naturally due to Pitou’s behavior during this confrontation, the comment about protecting not being in their nature sticks out to me as somewhat uncharacteristic. It feels distinctly very emotionally charged in the midst of a scene where Killua is deliberately trying to remain calm and impartial for the sake of Gon (exercizing the role Gon gave to him).

Part of this is definitely because Pitou has been symbolized to these kids for what they did to Kite, but Pitou also has a LOT of parallels with Killua as a result of them both being intrinsically intertwined with the questions of nature Togashi brings up in Hunter x Hunter. Killua is “by nature a murderer,” Pitou is “by nature incapable [of this action]”; I believe they are very deliberate foils, so it’s interesting to hear Killua think things about Pitou that Illumi once said to him.

It’s also worthwhile to note that the role Pitou was born into and the role Killua gives himself are essentially the same, Guard, and that Meruem and Gon mean similar things to them (of course, there is the “light that illuminates all”/“you are light” comparison, but more abstractly, both Meruem and Gon represent the Ants’/Killua’s potential for expansion/evolution—in the food chain and in life/purpose respectively—and are protected as such). They also abide by this role with almost the exact same amount of devotion; we see this in the way Pitou crying over being trusted with something so important to Meruem (healing Komugi) is a parallel to how Killua was so impacted by being relied upon for an important task to Gon (holding the dodgeball).

Killua definitely doesn’t consider any similarities consciously the way he does with Hisoka, Ikalgo, or through mentalization with Meruem, but when he is thinking this of Pitou, he’s looking at a narrative foil, which I find telling. I think it’s a very classic case of Freudian projection.

5. The Mirror: Alluka and Nanika

All this brings me to what I want to talk at length about, which I suppose you can already guess because I gave it away in the section heading.

Killua’s relationship with his sisters has always been fascinating to me because they’re probably the only people in the world he would genuinely consider as sharing his precise in-group. Not just the Zoldyck family in-group, but the Killua in-group. And it really effects the way he thinks during the Election Arc.

I’ve tried my best to neatly separate Alluka and Nanika into their own sections, but it’s still going to be sorta all over the place (moreso than this analysis already is) mostly because right now Killua still hasn’t totally figured out that Alluka and Nanika are basically two whole different people. He’s certainly much closer to that than the rest of his family considering he actually makes a distinction between them, but he’s still not treating Nanika like an individual at this point in the story. And that’s super important to the way he projects onto them, so it’s going to be a little messy. Sorry in advance

Alluka

Remember that pin I told you to save for later? Now is later.

Alluka and Nanika sit at the table with Killua in being othered not only by the defined out-group (due to just being a Zoldyck), but by the people who were supposed to be The In-group™ in the first place: his family. Of course, Alluka’s situation is very different and accelerated faster than a racecar the second Nanika stopped being a secret, but evidently she was kept secret for a reason. Killua was already extremely astute even at the age when these events were happening, and probably assessed (accurately) that there would be huge drama if Nanika were ever discovered; he even went so far as to keep hiding things about how her powers worked long after the gig was up. It would be kind of stating the obvious to say someone who does all that isn’t someone who considers his sister(s) normal according to in-group standards. Otherwise there wouldn’t have been a secret at all.

The reason why Killua got along with his sister(s) so well pre-lockup and pre-needle was most likely because he was already being socially separated from his siblings as the family heir. He then took comfort from Alluka in knowing he wasn’t the only “weird” one, even if no one but him knew that yet, and projected onto her (making decisions about Nanika for her that reflect his own wishes—to keep her secret so that no one would treat her differently)

It’s partially this same projection (i say partially because it’s also, like, basic compassion) that makes Killua so mad when Alluka is outright excluded—not just symbolically, but legitimately—from the family.

He himself strives desperately to be “normal”/belong somewhere, and that ‘somewhere’ includes his own family, though at this point he obviously has more complicated emotions about it. He wants to be understood and accepted by them without being smothered—even Illumi, when he tests Killua to make a wish that would kill him, is included in this desire. In Killua’s ideal world, the Zoldycks would be on good terms with each other and act “normal”; a fantasy from a childhood whose corpse he still drags around because he doesn’t recognize that he’s been abused beyond being helicoptered and needled. Alluka herself shares this:

It’s one more thing they have in common. And, like he does when Illumi spoke in his head during Yorknew or when he said he didn’t actually want anything during the Exam, Killua gets angry when this fantasy is denied. He becomes confrontational in a way he usually wouldn’t otherwise.

I feel it’s notable that Killua does not contradict Alluka’s idea that if she were gone, everyone would get along more. Not because I think he believes it, but because I think he also doesn’t know the answer. So instead, he pivots into comforting her another way. And crucially, it’s by using something he can understand: that there is a special outlier who loves her even if she doesn’t belong anywhere, and as long as they’re together she doesn’t have to worry about it.

Cool. All that’s pretty easy to get. But it gets more complicated, because it always does.

When Killua returns for Alluka, he returns because he needs to save Gon. And with Gon comes all the baggage associated with him.

Despite the deconstruction of the dark/light dichotomy with him during the CAA, Killua remains identified with a ‘nonhuman’-aligned in-group only he belongs to, and continues judging himself accordingly. It’s a position that still puts a wall of glass between him and the majority out-group, and leaves him uncomfortably othered in the Zoldyck in-group. Gon was the all-important, miraculous outlier that made him be able to live with it, the one person that made him feel like he belonged somewhere even if it wasn’t on the basis of being in the same moral in-group. The exception to the rule of ostracization. But he knows better now. And while that’s really good progress because it begins to demystify Gon (who deserves to be understood), it leaves him in a very fragile state when confronting his family because that role was a lynchpin for upholding the psychological anti-Illumi safety net he built after the Hunter Exam.

Ultimately, this leaves Killua in a situation where his sisters can uniquely reaffirm this unhealthy superego because he can project onto them in ways he can’t with anyone else.

By saddling himself with the lone responsibility to heal Gon as a way to atone for failing to perform his role—an insecurity magnified by “this has nothing to do with you”—Killua is paralleling Gon’s guilt complex to a degree (as he does throughout the entire story, but it feels especially prominent here). Where they differ is that Gon’s apology and the validation of his emotions Killua will get from that is the relief from guilt he seeks, not the self-destruction Gon does.

In Killua’s head, they both failed their roles in their friendship—Killua didn’t end up being of any use to Gon in the end, and Gon ended up ostracizing Killua—so Killua vows to do his part again as long as Gon does so as well.

In a way, this is him acknowledging both his emotional understanding and his logical understanding of that exchange in the palace—that Gon didn’t mean what he said and did (thereby expecting him to apologize), but it still hurt him (he wants an apology anyway). This apology isn’t about blaming Gon for what he did or even really holding him responsible—which is why he can tease him lightheartedly about it later—it’s more about Killua’s own emotions. He’s standing up for himself! Which is an indication of a maturing theory of mind.

Some people read this panel with an undercurrent of Killua meaning this will be the last time he helps Gon in this way—and I understand where that comes from due to the fact that they separate afterward, and don’t really have an objective counterargument. So take this next part with a grain of salt, but I really don’t think that’s true. Killua isn’t the type to do that… I don’t even think it’s in his brain to separate from Gon right now. This is just Killua deciding that he needs to start laying down boundaries and paying attention to what he really wants in their relationship outside of being useful. It’s an out-loud admission of how deeply he cares, to the point where he can no longer wholly process or justify it as a transaction, as he does with most forms of love for self-evident reasons. It’s the beginnings of him learning about unconditionality. This is a huge step.

So…. where does it sour?

Well, Killua is faced with a similar sort of guilt brought on by role-failure (the role being “big brother”) when he comes to retrieve Alluka…

Whether you believe “Was it because Illumi was manipulating me?” is Togashi giving the audience a hint or this line being pure in-universe speculation, it doesn’t quite matter, because Killua feels the same about it at the end of the day: guilt and shame.

Though he apologizes to Alluka for this and she readily accepts it, it’s obvious these feelings continue to gnaw at him throughout the entire arc. It retroactively chips down the work he did back at the hospital, since they are the same emotion with similar catalysts.

I say this because I feel like you can infer that his guilt over these two separate but similar things bleeds together by the way Killua, when talking to himself, tends to refer to the two ‘savings’ in conjunction. You could totally say I’m onto nothing because one is a result of the other so no shit they’re related, but I think it’s significant to this discussion.

Specifically the last exchange also serves as a way for Killua to verbally reassure Alluka of her importance to him. The fact that he thinks this is necessary also shows to me that, again, he’s still feeling guilty for it, even though Alluka never indicates that she holds it against him. These panels further reaffirm this belief of mine:

…because Killua is planning to permanently put Nanika to sleep so that Alluka can “spend more time with him” (in the words she herself uses when complaining about it), which indicates that, again, it is something he feels horrible for—and that he sees Nanika in a very particular way which assigns fault to her that doesn’t quite exist, but we’ll get to it soon.

What I’m trying to say here is that because saving Alluka is inseparable from saving Gon, so too becomes the magnified things he feels over not being able to do either of these things beforehand. So successfully defending Alluka becomes way for him to relieve this now-compounded guilt and reassure himself that he’s still capable of fulfilling his self-assigned roles. If he can do that, he can still belong somewhere. He’ll still be worthy of love.

To summarize, Killua not only related to Alluka when she was young—making her very easy to project onto—but also the situation calls for Killua to see her as an extension of his best friend, which only rubs salt into the wound and serves to make him more irrational about it since Killua is still seeking redemption and reparation for the breakdown in the CAA.

Considering all the progress Killua has made, this is a relatively hard relapse. It makes sense, though; just look at what’s happening! Illumi has been the main catalyst for all this agonizing, the person whose assessments he’s developed a pathological need to simultaneously prove wrong and also avoid thinking about altogether. Now he’s got to stare that person in the face with everything on the line and tell him to fuck off.

This is the needle yank prelude on steroids for Killua—a magnification of that time when he was constantly teetering on the edge of ditching and clinging to Gon based on how useful he saw himself. Back then, when Bisky pointed out that he was putting Gon in danger, he decided that he had to leave. So, when his brother uses Nanika to put Alluka in danger, Killua decides Nanika has to leave. For a little while, Illumi becomes unconquerable again, and Killua regresses back into running away.

Nanika

This is where I leave you with this post to read as the conclusion. The readmore is actually pretty relevant, whereas it wasn't when I was answering the anon. Underwhelming, I know. Whatever man.

I really am sorry for how long it is. Tumblr yelled at me 5 times about the image limit, I had to improvise. Being super succinct without leaving out everything I want to say is a skill I do not have. Regardless, thanks for reading and hopefully this was at least a little interesting!

[0nsyu-archive]

this is something ive been curious about for a long time and i have yet to see anybody actually talk about it so i thought youd be my best shot at an answer haha. is there a cultural reason as to why most of the characters exclusively refer to each other by their last names, regardless of how long theyve known them/how close they are? like for example nishiki & kiryu or saejima & majima? additionally, considering that the vast majority of the characters are referred to by last name, do you know why it is that a lot of the characters refer to daigo as. well daigo instead of dojima? like even during dead souls where he's still the chairman, when majima isnt referring to him as boss, he'll just call him daigo and wont even bother tacking on an honorific (Which lowkey i feel like is kind of insane considering hes literally the chairman, but i dont know if im supposed to read it that way LOL). any clarification would be much appreciated!

TL;DR: As with all character analysis, it’s most useful to take into account both intradiegetic and extradiagetic explanations. Cultural considerations, practical considerations, and individual character choices are inextricably entwined in-and-out-of-universe.

So… yes and no! Let’s first ignore the characters as they exist in-universe for a moment. In any exchange between characters, there’s one more listener to be accounted for: the audience. All dialogue is a dialogue between the author and the audience, and within this framework the names the characters use for one another exist at the intersection of culture and practical communication.

The name a character uses for another doesn’t only convey what their relationship is, but often also what the relationship between the other character and the audience (typically from the point of view of the protagonist) is meant to be. That’s why there’s reliable overlap between how a character is most often referred to and the name their dialogue is labeled with.

If Kiryu is “Kiryu” to everyone he knows, even those closest to him, he’s “Kiryu” to most of the audience, too. The audience (aside from hearing the subtle “ryu” sound as often as possible) is positioned to view Kiryu exclusively as someone to be respected—but not inherently to view him with affection, like the children, women, friends, and subordinates in Kiryu’s life who are referred to by given names and nicknames. Contrast this with Ichiban, labeled “Kasuga,” and how the people in his life and the audience refer to him.

I say “most of the audience” because some people do call Kiryu “Kazuma” by choice. Some people don’t know how to differentiate between given name and family name, or identify the wrong name as the family name. The author presumes a Japanese audience and the dialogue occurs in that context.

There’s also the subcultures around the works that went on to inspire the series, like ninkyo, v-cinema, and seinen manga. How, for example, have general attitudes towards gender lead to a highly gendered conception of chivalry? When male characters feel an instinctive protectiveness over and affection toward female characters and assume given-name familiarity with female characters they’ve just met, is this chivalry or a form of chauvinism? Are female characters not implicitly given less respect if they’re rarely or never referred to by family name, or not even given a family name? Where does this leave a trans female character like Ako, for whom using only her family name is akin to deadnaming her?

Alongside cultural considerations are the practical ones. What do you do if you have characters who are relatives and share a surname? But between Yuko and Akira Nishikiyama and Yasuko and Taiga Saejima, consider who defaults to given name and why. Consider how they’re introduced to the story and who’s introduced first. Consider their roles in the story and how what we’ve gone over so far may have contributed to their roles. These are all factors.

There’s also parent and child: Makoto and Saya Date, Jin and Ryuji Goda, Jiro and Ichiban Kasuga, and Masumi and Masato Arakawa. Arakawa is an interesting case; in the context of his whole family (Toshio, Yoko, Masumi, Masato), he’s actually referred to as “Masumi” instead. What about much larger families, like the Amon Clan? It’s simplest to refer to them by full name, but if I only say “Amon,” chances are you think of Jo Amon specifically. Why is that?

And last but not least, Sohei, Yayoi, and Daigo Dojima. Once cultural and practical considerations have been factored in, it’s worthwhile to look into individual characters. Luckily in Daigo’s case there actually is a canon, in-universe reason: he prefers to be called “Daigo.” We learn this in RGGO during an interaction with Mine, who previously insisted on calling him “Chairman Dojima.” Mine’s actually not the only one; plenty of people do call him “Dojima,” it’s more so that we spend the most time with characters who either would call him “Daigo” anyway or are aware of his preference.

As for Kiryu and Nishikiyama, I think Kiryu using a nickname for Nishikiyama (“Nishiki”) is perfectly in line with how closeness is typically conveyed, but in Nishikiyama’s case I can only speculate. Whether to use a given name or adopting a nickname is down to the individual; it signals closeness, in real life and in fiction, but changes nothing about the underlying relationship. Actors Yasukaze Motomiya and Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi and their characters (childhood friends) will sometimes use formal honorifics with each other in such a playful way that it comes across just as affectionate as a nickname, so you have to take it case-by-case.

It’s possible Sunflower was less family-oriented than Morning Glory—if we’re to view characters through the protagonist, the Morning Glory kids are all part of Kiryu’s family, but not all the Sunflower kids were. It’s possible Sunflower put more emphasis on the families the kids came from, perhaps due to Kazama’s guilt over killing their parents. It’s possible they were too old (or playing at being too old) to introduce themselves to each other by given name, or grew out of it. It’s also possible Yakuza’s writing simply didn’t take into account children tend to use given names with each other but Yakuza 3’s writing did.

Still, it’s worth examining: what does Kiryu using Nishikiyama’s nickname while Nishikiyama uses Kiryu’s family name suggest about the level of respect they have for each other and the distance between them?

Majima and Saejima are, on the other hand, most likely to have just been too old to be using given names with each other when they met. In Majima’s case, given he can be and often is overly-familiar, disrespectfully so, it’s more interesting to me that he isn’t when it comes to Saejima.

Finally, there’s also something to be said about how the characters have a tendency to hang on to past impressions of the people in their lives. The Arakawa Family, for example, and how their circumstances have changed beyond recognition but they’ll still call each other Boss, Captain, Young Master, Ichi, Mitsu. I think there are echoes of that sentiment among a lot of characters, past and present.

I have a lot of thoughts on names and titles and honorifics, but I’ll leave it there to (somewhat) stay within the scope of the original ask. I hope at least some of this has been helpful to you, and you’re welcome to ask for further clarification on anything at all.

[jelloapocalypse]

I admittedly haven't watched your stream playthrough of TGAA games, mostly because I was playing through them with my fiancé very slowly, but we just finished them and I was curious what your opinion on them was? My fiancé and I enjoyed them but we both felt like they were pretty... Tame, compared to mainline AA. Like, there wasn't really any insane twists that shook the characters to their cores, everything wrapped up so neatly for everyone, it felt too easy, in a way? Also the big bad was wayyyyy too predictable.

I'd recommend checking out these amazing animatics that Infamouslydorky did of our playthrough!

My feelings re: The Great Ace Attorney games are sort of complicated, so this answer's going to be kind of long. I'll keep it spoiler-free, though.

I think they have the best main cast of any AA game. The music, character designs, and quality of life are basically the best they've ever been. That's really cool. I really love a lot of the one-off characters too. Enoch Drebber, Pat and Rollie, and the little plague mask coroner girl are huge stand-outs for me.

However, I think Shu Takumi has a lot of... foibles as a writer, and the way they manifest in these games is more evident and more obnoxious than basically anything else he's ever made.

I've played every game he's ever made and I can tell you that Shu Takumi writes the mysteries and twists in his stories first before anything else. I think he has a great sense of when he wants the twists to hit for the audience and he's great at figuring out where a twist will hit in a case... but he's remarkably bad at making character motivations match up to the story he's trying to tell.

In particular, he's awful at giving characters reasons not to tell each other things. 90% of a time your protagonist in a Shu Takumi game will ask a completely reasonable question to an ally, and the ally will avoid answering simply because it's not time for the player to know the answer yet. This is an issue in every game he's ever made. Even his best game Ghost Tric, is plagued by this. i.e. The way Lynne refuses to tell you her goals even though you're a literal ghost who's saved her life 3+ times in the same evening. Like, what do you have to lose, Lynne? Do you think this ghost is going to leak your goals to the police? No, it's just in service of delaying information so the player gets that information when it really hits. My friend circle has some to refer to characters in video games not telling you information for no reason as "Shu Takumi-ing".

Because most AA games are really silly, this isn't usually a gamebreaking issue. Why isn't your ally telling you information that would allow you to help them? Well, they're stupid, that's why. This is a game where you get possessed by dead people to get evidence and cross-examine a parrot. It's not serious. Everyone's a little bit on the stupid spectrum.

That's not really the case with TGAA. The games still have silly moments, but the characters are very explicitly smart. Kazuma is meant to be a legal prodigy on an exchange program. Susato is incredibly well-read and her father is a well-traveled and well-respected man of the law himself. Iris is a genius. Sholmes is whacky, but he's supposed to be cannier than he lets on.

Because of that, it's really noticeable when Shu Takumi doesn't know how to delay information or elegantly set up an interpersonal conflict. His fallback is always to have a character drink The Stupid Juice. For Case X, this character is suddenly stupid and does stuff they'd never do. For Case Y, it's someone else.

When you're dealing with Larry Butz and Lotta Hart, you come to expect that sort of thing. The inconsistency is part of their character. But when Susato can't identify her own father sleeping on the couch because... I dunno, I guess she landed on her head when she fell out of bed this morning, what the hell are we doing here, gang? Why are we doing this? Some people in our chat were like "This is a joke". I don't know. Is it? it really a joke if it takes 20 minutes of real gameplay to SOLVE THE MYSTERY instead of walking over and look at him, like any rational person would do?

I also can't go into too many details about this without spoiling things, but I really really hate the core overarching plot of this duology. I would bet almost all the money in my bank account that Shu Takumi didn't have the details of the second game 100% ironed out by the time he wrote the first. They don't lead into each other at all and so many characters' actions need to be unfathomably stupid for everything to work out the way it does. It kind of makes me retroactively dislike a lot of the cast. Especially Sholmes.

Also the assistant Van Zieks gets in the 2nd game is unfathomably bad. Everything about that setup and how that character acts is my least favorite thing about the game and maybe my least favorite thing that ever happens in the entire franchise. It makes me SO angry.

The games are still pretty good though.

[aliciavance4228]

I've been thinking about this for a while... the Trojan War took place about at least one century after Perseus killed Medusa. He was dead, which means that his image probably already started to become distant and vague, and he began to be viewed as a legend rather than a person. He founded Mycenae on top of that and became the ancestor of many other heroes or important figures, thus building an entire legacy.

I cannot help but wonder wheter or not the people from that mythological timeline idealized him and viewed him as a symbol of greatness and masculinity, as the ultimate image of a hero that must be achieved above anything else. After all, Alexander the Great idealized the shit out of Achilles and wanted to become like him as well, without understanding him to begin with.

Speaking of Achilles though, one major aspect that should be pointed out is the misinterpretation of said heroic image. I bet people would've talked about Perseus as the demigod son of Zeus who gloriously fought Medusa and then eventually became king, but don't go too much into details and point out that he did everything in order to save his mother from an unwanted marriage above it all. Most of the original heroes had noble purposes, and sought justice above wealth, glory or fame at the time when they achieved their greatest deeds. Achilles, on the other hand, found meaning in his role as a warrior and felt purposeless whenever this role was questioned. He became easily vulnerable when his pride was crushed and did a lot of reckless things out of ego rather than strenght. He wasn't able to seek anything meaningful beyond fame and glory, which should technically make people realize that the real tragedy of this man was the emptiness of his character.

So I'm wondering wheter or not Achilles heard stories and legends about Perseus back when he was little, but instead of understanding him he only took the heroic image of Perseus, whom he then romanticized to the point of not only loving, but also identifying with it, thus misinterpreting the real meaning behind it instead of asking himself how did Perseus remained one of the few heroes who had a happy ending in the first place.

It becomes even more interesting once you go deeper into their different philosophies and perceptions on their actions. For instance, this is a line from Euripides' Andromeda:

In other words, Perseus had a "Karma" type of mentality: Both good and bad luck are consequences of your previous actions. And this type of mentality specifically, as simply as it may seem, actually means a lot considering the fact that all the people Perseus harmed deserved it in one way or another. And most of the heroes who haven't considered the consequences of their own actions, including Achilles, are those who ended up having a tragic ending.

And yet the way they two are perceived by the modern people speaks to itself. Perseus is generally presented as this flawless, unidimensional Mary Sue-kind of hero who is here to save the entire world, which is perhaps part of the reason why a lot of people with a surfface-level of knowledge in Greek Mythology developed an unnecessary hatred towards him, due to his non-relatability. Achilles, on the other hand, ended up being admired less for his warrior persona and more for his complexity (and bisexuality) that are highlighted in pieces of Media such as The Song of Achilles. However, this approach that is supposed to be more nuanced leads to Achilles having his flaws getting glamorized, and ultimately encourages a romanticized perception on his destructive behaviors. He ends up becoming a toxic idol, whereas Perseus becomes an unachievable pattern of heroism. What both of them have in common though is misinterpretation: possibly of Perseus' character by Achilles, but surely of both of their characters by the modern audience.

[showtoonzfan]

Helluva Boss and Hazbin Hotel is concerningly a trojan horse of white feminism. White feminism identifies with white patriarchy and strives to find a place of power within it, whether or not they acknowledge white men would never see them as equals. This type of feminism enforces the same patriarchal values that hold them down.

On both shows, the male characters are favored, the actions of the shitty male characters are justified to be right and that they are to be sympathized with little to no regard to their victims that are made to be at fault for being being imperfect at reacting at the abuse they receive.

And what is most perplexing to me as an outsider, is that Medrano is supposed to be a victim of abuse by some guy, and yet identifies and upholds her abusive male characters. In her attempt to humanize them, she disregards the weight of their actions. Her actions with her ex-employees and ex-friends show that the victim became the abuser to regain a sense of power, which is typically what white feminism is.

I know I shouldn't be psycho-analyzing her as a distant observer, but I'm tired of people mystifying a suffering deer with fungal-mutated horns and not thinking there's something wrong with it and that it needs help.

No you’re completely right. Vivienne has shown for many years that she isn’t a girls girl. On the outside she’s tried to paint herself as pro feminism and that she cares about other women, when in reality she’s transphobic, has put other women down, and has slut shamed them in her work. She’s basically that obnoxious girl in middle school that acts like she’s a girls girl but in reality is constantly and desperately seeking male validation, like how she once made a tweet questioning why she hasn’t been acknowledged for being a famous female content creator in a world dominated by men even though there were many other female content creators before her that were already rising to the top. I never came out of watching or reading something she made and thought “she hates men”, cause she doesn’t. She hates women and it shows in how she writes them and uses them. Her males are allowed to be 3 dimensional yet 90% of her females are one note. Viv also caters to the male audience who lusts over her female characters and I don’t need to explain that one.

Meanwhile she hasn’t got a single favorite or popular female character. There’s a reason why for years she’s said her favorites are Alastor and Angel and how she loves writing Adam, hell…she confirmed Adam is her favorite HH character. She doesn’t care about her female characters and only her males, whom she can find enjoyment in, either woobifying or sexualizing them. I think it kinda tells you something when you learn that Val is supposed to be based on her abuser yet she constantly likes tweets by Val apologists and sexy/silly fanart of him.

Meanwhile (as everyone has been saying), her content is for white queers/white fujoshi’s, no one else. She tries so hard for some reason to act like she’s new and progressive, challenging the world that’s been dominated by white people and their bland perspectives, but she hasn’t really added anything new to the table, and the way her fandom (and she herself at this point) treats black people is fucking nuts.

[phillystrega]

To Be Gorgeous, To Be Seen 3/5

Yeah I don’t know, for some reason I double dipped this week. I’m caught up now so next chapter won’t come until next week. Like it’s SUPPOSED to.

Anyway, in this chapter: casual homophobia from the FDA, krispie treat abuse, and Buck’s betrayed by his own tendency to deep dive into documentaries.

Part One | Part Two | Part Three on AO3 or below

When the federal rules changed around blood donation, Buck remembered making a note of it briefly and then moving on with his day. It wasn’t that he didn’t care, it was just that blood drives at the 118 were Hen and Chim’s thing and Buck didn’t usually have to worry much about the rules surrounding them. His role on blood drive days was limited to helping set up tables for sign in sheets or picking up post blood draw snacks at Costco.

But now, he was an out bisexual firefighter, and suddenly he needed to review the rules around blood donation. So he looked them up, read them, read them again–and then he got angry–a kind of angry that lingered, simmering in the background for days until suddenly it was blood drive day and Buck was setting up the snack station with maybe more force than individually wrapped rice krispie treats deserved.

“Are you off refined sugar again?” Chim asked.

“What? No.”

“Well then unless Snap, Crackle, and Pop insulted your sister, I don’t think they deserve such rough treatment.”

Buck stared down at his hand and realized he’d unconsciously closed his fist around one of the krispie treats. The package stayed shut but what was in there was now definitely squished into a ball.

Eddie walked up to them then, as Buck was hiding the mangled krispie treat at the bottom of the pile, and said, “You two signed up yet?”

“Yup,” Chimney said at the same time Buck growled out, “absolutely not.”

And then Chim and Eddie were both looking at him, their heads cocked in confusion.

“They changed the rules, Buck, you can donate,” Bobby called over from where he’d been silently organizing sign in sheets and Buck had fully forgotten he was over there, one day he was going to put a bell on Cap and it’d be worth the latrine duty he got afterwards.

“Oh I know,” Buck said pointedly because he was now annoyed and mildly embarrassed that he had a small audience. “I know all about the rule change, particularly the part where only monogamous bisexual and gay men can donate.”

“Uh,” Chim exchanged a look with Eddie who seemed as lost as he was. “Are you and Tommy open? Because if so, you know, you do you, but that is way more than I need to know about my brother in law.”

“What? No.” Buck scoffed. “One boyfriend is all I can handle right now, thanks. Our schedules are complicated enough as it is.” They only got time together through sheer force of will and a shared google sheets doc that Buck put together at the start of every week to identify overlapping free time.

“Okay then, I admit,” Bobby said slowly. “Not sure what the problem here is.”

“The problem is that they only ask gay and bisexual men to be monogamous,” Buck said, waving his arms around as his voice increased in volume. “They don’t ask STRAIGHT guys if they’ve been loyal to their partner or confirm they’re not poly first.”

Eddie was looking down at one of the guidance sheets like he was seeing it for the first time and said, “huh.”

“And, I mean, maybe I’m monogamous but I sleep with other people, right?” He had soared past waving his arms and was now actively flailing a bit–for emphasis, it was necessary. “As long as it’s been negotiated with my partner and everyone is safe then it’s fine but I guess NOT for the FDA, who tests blood ANYWAY–”

“Okay,” Hen said as she darted into the scene from the side and gently began to herd Buck further into the fire station and, most importantly, away from the public. “Why don’t we go inside–”

“I guess only gay and bi men can be giant sluts,” Buck said, “I thought I was straight for YEARS and I had so much sex so I can attest that is NOT true–”

“Yup, I hear you, let’s go,” Hen said, practically leaning her shoulder into Buck’s sternum to shove him the extra few feet towards the locker room.

“Okay that got a little loud,” Buck admitted once they were inside.

“It did,” Hen said.

“But I was NOT wrong.”

“You were not.”

Buck stared at Hen for a minute before he sighed and crumpled into a seat on the empty bench. “Thank you,” Buck said.

Hen shrugged and leaned against the closed lockers. “I’m not a gay or bi man, I can’t tell you how to feel about this, you should feel any way you need to feel about it.” She smirked. “Just maybe, you know, feel those things AWAY from the poor blood drive volunteers.”

Buck groaned in frustration and dragged his hands through his hair. “Sometimes I just…I learn these things and I get angry.” He let out a dark laugh. “And then I feel stupid for not, you know, knowing about them before. So then I get more angry.”

Hen sat down next to him, her knee bumping against his. “You know now, Buck. Save your anger for the feds where it belongs.”

Buck huffed out a laugh. “Yeah.”

They say in silence for a minute before Hen rocked sideways, bumping her shoulder against his. “So…can’t help but notice the specific example you brought up out there.”

“Yeah, uh,” he cleared his throat a little awkwardly. “Tommy and I talked recently about how if I wanted to have sex with someone else, it’d be fine because our relationship is our relationship and whatever works for us is what’s most important.” And it had only been a week since their talk, Buck hadn’t had the chance to follow through on anything. Truthfully he wasn’t even sure he wanted to, he mostly just liked fantasizing about it with Tommy, but the blood drive rules felt like a hard smack from reality that flattened him for a bit.

“Historically our identities and relationships haven’t fit neatly or nicely into the boxes the government or polite society give us,” Hen said, shrugging. “Doesn’t make us wrong.”

“Even when it means I can’t donate blood?” Buck gestured behind them to the set up that continued without them.

“Buck,” Hen said dryly. “You’re O negative.”

“Okay, and?”

“We’re hardly running low on universal donor blood.” She gave him a ‘there, there’ pat on the head and he tipped himself sideways to accept the mildly mocking affection.

“But there’s a shortage,” he whined.

“Then donate today and if you ever decide to have some, uh, extra fun with Tommy,” Hen said, clearly amused by Buck’s pink cheeks. “You’ll skip donation day and the world will not fall apart around us, I promise.”

“Yeah, okay,” Buck grumbled halfheartedly. After a few more moments of silence he added, “don’t feel like you have to stay in here with me.”

“Oh I don’t, I’m just killing time,” Hen said cheerfully.

Buck frowned. “Til what?”

There was a knock on the doorway to the locker room and Buck looked up to see Tommy there, leaning into the room carefully, like he was worried about interrupting.

“Til that,” Hen said, popping up to her feet. “I have a blood drive to help run, I’m tagging in the specialist.”

“Specialist?” Buck said, confused. He watched Hen pat Tommy on the shoulder and slide past him out the door.

“Evan specialist,” Tommy said. “I guess I qualify now.” He sat down carefully next to Buck on the bench and he must’ve rushed through his routine leaving Harbor because he was wearing jeans and non-work shoes but had on one of the t-shirts Buck knew he saved for wearing under flight suits and his hair was still damp from the shower.

“Hey, that is a highly sought after speciality,” Buck said. “It takes hours to get certified.”

“I am happy to put in the time,” Tommy said, leaning over to press a quick kiss to Buck’s temple.

Buck sighed. “You didn’t have to come here.”

“Well, Eddie texted me,” Tommy said. “And then Bobby texted me. And then Howie–”

“Jesus,” Buck groaned.

“He, as far as I know, has not texted me,” Tommy said.

“No, just everyone else on my team,” Buck said, rolling his eyes. He looked in the general area of the rest of the crew and watched as Chimney and Eddie, who had clearly been watching them but trying to look like they weren't, moved at the same time to appear busy with other things and knocked over a box of pamphlets on organ donation.

Tommy huffed out a small laugh. “Howie’s text said pretty firmly that he thought this was a ‘guy loving thing’ and my presence was needed.”

“I don’t even know how to respond to that,” Buck muttered.

“Yeah I’m trying not to think about it too much,” Tommy admitted. He wrapped his arm around Buck’s back, his thumb rubbing at the curve of Buck’s shoulder. “What’s going on?”

“I may have…gotten a little shouty,” Buck admits, waving at the blood drive going on outside. “Medical history of homophobia, the FDA…etc.”

Tommy hummed. “Evan.”

“Yeah?”

“Were you, by any chance…spending your down time during shift watching documentaries?”

Buck suddenly was looking everywhere but at Tommy. “I watch a lot of documentaries.”

“Right, but were these documentaries by any chance about the gay community in the 80s?”

Buck winced. “Maybe?”

“Evan–”

“I know, I know, I promised no more mainlining movies about the AIDS epidemic, but I thought Paris Was Burning was more about dance moves!”

“That’s some seriously heavy subject matter to get lost in for…hours on end.”

“Right but don’t you think I should know this?”

“Sure, but as a firefighter you should also know it’s better to drink from the water fountain than the firehose,” Tommy said knowingly. “I’m just saying, I can see why you weren’t in the best mood for the casual homophobia of the blood drive today.”

Buck groaned and pitched forward to bury his head in his hands. The blood drive rules, the FDA, the conversation he’d had with Tommy, the documentaries, even the savior sibling thing, he had to admit–it all sort of pulled together to create a chum of anger and fear and joy and frustration. He heaved out a heavy sigh, just so tired of himself and the weight of his feelings. “This is embarrassing, isn’t it.”

“No, no,” Tommy said immediately, his big hand coming up to rub comfortingly across Buck’s back. “It’s a lot to learn about the community and yourself, and I mean, you just got a little shouty at a blood drive, I alienated my only nice coworkers and punched at least one bartender.”

Buck squinted at him for a moment before he said, “so when you said you met your ex Alex in a bar fight…”

“Yeah, not my greatest moment,” Tommy said flatly. “This…realigning your concept of yourself and your place in the world shit is a lot. In so many ways you’ve been amazing at it. You’re allowed to struggle with it from time to time too.”

“Yeah?” Buck sat up and leaned into Tommy, wrapping his arm around Tommy’s middle and encouraging Tommy to settle his arm around Buck’s shoulders.

“Yeah,” Tommy said and he pressed another kiss to Buck’s temple. “In fact, being a bit of a mess is practically a cultural must-have, so…”

“Oh great,” Buck said, laughing. At least that was one way he could align with the community–through being a disaster. It was strangely comforting.

“Listen,” Tommy said softly. “You’re already clocked out for the day, the blood drive was volunteer stuff. Why don’t we skip it. Go home. Order some food.” When Buck frowned Tommy quickly added, “You can put on that movie about Mars–”

Buck’s eyes widened. “The Martian?”

“Sure.”

“Andy Weir really studied orbital mechanics to write the book, Tommy, the scientific detail is amazing,” Buck said in a rush. “NASA was so inspired by it they published a whole study on human health hazards related to a prolonged mission to Mars’ surface.”

“I’m going to assume you mean health hazards other than trying to exist on a planet with no oxygen.”

“Not no oxygen, just extremely low oxygen, like, 0.13%,” Buck said, fully aware that he was flailing again, but it was a more enthusiastic, excited flail than a sad and confused sort of flail, so that was a win.

“If you say so,” Tommy said. He smiled, shook his head, and stood up so he could open Buck’s locker and begin to pull his things out of it, handing them one by one to Buck with a sappy indulgent grin.

“Wait,” Buck gasped suddenly, and Tommy froze mid-reach towards Buck’s overnight bag. “Have I ever told you about carbon dioxide snow?”

[necrotic-nephilim]

Nightwing: Brothers In Blood is such a fucking hilarious comic for DickJay content, given the bulk of the plot is Jason deciding to dress up as Nightwing and kill people which, Dick predictably is not fond of, as a concept.

There's so much in that arc that makes me unwell. Dick straight up saying he wishes Jason had died. The way they instantly banter when they run into each other before Dick gets mad at Jason for dressing up as Nightwing, then Jason begs Dick to work with him.

But what I think gets me the most is the outright confirmation of how even now, Jason still has a serious case of hero worship for Dick and just wants to be like him and get his approval.

nightwing (1996) #120

There's such a complex Jason has over Dick and it makes me Unwell. Jason identifying with Dick, wanting his attention, his approval. His love, even. I mean, later on when Jason gets kidnapped, in his mind he hallucinates Dick talking to him and it outright confirms he wants Dick to save him and Jason has a doomsday spiral about Dick not saving him, through his mental image of Dick.

nightwing (1996) #121

Jason wants Dick in his life, there's so much unrequited love and weirdness between them. They're so not normal about each other. Later on he sends Dick a note saying he just wishes they could be family again and I think it's so unhinged of Jason. Dressing up as Dick, just because of how much he loves and respects Dick. So much potential in that.

Also aside from all of that complex this comic is also hilarious for the bit it has where Dick accidentally takes a job as a model and has to dress up as Nightwing, specifically Jason!Nightwing because of the sex appeal Cheyenne (the woman Dick is seeing) thinks it has. And when he's on the runway and sees Jason in the audience he just jumps at Jason, in front of everyone, to beat the shit out of him, while dressed as Nightwing. Which the public thinks is a planned stunt to bank on the weird Sexy Rivalry between the two Nightwings currently running around. It's the most unhinged thing and I think it's so funny. Dick's sort-of-girlfriend makes him dress up as Nightwing!Jason because she thinks it's hot and it'll sell, then Dick beats Jason up in front of everyone, still dressed as Nightwing (specifically Jason), and it reads as a sexy performance modeling piece.

nightwing (1996) #120

Imagine being so weirdly homoerotic about your sort of kind of brother figure that you can't hesitate fighting him when you're supposed to be modeling and everyone thinks the tension is so good it's a part of the show. These two cannot leave each other alone with their weird tangled feelings for each other. I love it dearly.

[dhruvkumaar]

Novels are not movies.

Visual media has taken on the world by storm. It’s the next big thing in the evolution of humanity, maybe. It’s quite certainly changed the way we entertain ourselves. And with the recent spread of short-form content, visual media has also become cheap, disposable, and easily accessible to the masses—perfect recipe to make a product famous.

Alright, I’ve been a little too dramatic, lol. But for real, I’m one of those who’s severely addicted to Instagram Reels. Whenever I’m done scrolling, I feel like I’ve completely wasted my time—I could have read a novel, watched a movie, or caught up with my favorite mangas. But instead of all those ways to relax—and believe me (pwlease) that I only open Insta to relax, when I’m free—I just waste my time.

I love my novels and manga, mind ya, so when I catch myself wasting precious time that I could have instead used to consume them, I cuss myself. And then I go scroll some more Insta, because I’m an absolute idiot.

Anyway, back to the topic. Visual media has absolutely taken over our lives. I won’t go into the debate of whether this is a good thing or not, but we all can agree that it’s an undeniable fact. Video is everywhere.

Because—and lemme repeat myself—it’s cheap, disposable, and easily accessible today.

And because of such exposure to video storytelling, beginning authors forget that novels are not a visual medium. Yep, here goes my rant.

***

#01 - The Problem

The problem is simple—these kids have too much access to their smartphones. And these smartphones are filled with videos, like a dustbin with its lid hanging on because of all that garbage overfilling it. (Damn, I sound like a boomer.)

And therefore, when these new authors begin writing, they can’t help but imagine a sort of movie or a TV show as their story. And that’s where the problem is—novels are not supposed to be movies.

Movies are a visual media. That means they’re composed of pictures. Images. But guess what novels are composed of?

Text. Words.

It seems pretty basic. I mean, everybody knows this distinction. But what they don't know, however, are the implications of this distinction.

Personally, I began writing with film-novels too. And those novels are bad. Genuinely. I cringe at the fact that I could even mail editors and believe they’d accept them. Good thing they never did.

What’s a film-novel, though? Well, the idea is pretty clear—it’s a novel, but imagined in the form of a film. So, it’s like a film, but in text.

It’s like you’ve written the film as a novel, instead of writing it as a screenplay or something, maybe.

But you’d ask me—why? Why is it even a mistake? Everybody has a different writing style. And to that, I’d tell you one thing—the audience. The audience is different. The media is different. You can’t expect a cinephile to read your book. And since it’s not like a professional novel, a (Googles the correct term) bibliophile certainly won't.

So, who’s gonna read your story?

No one—because it’s neither a film, nor a novel. It’s a film-novel, an illogical mix of the two.

Everyone drinks water, and everyone likes ice-cream. But you can't… No, I’m not even completing that sentence. Ew.

Anyway, you get the idea, lol.

***

#02 - Identify

So, what does a film-novel even look like?

And for that, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you,

The lean figure was standing on the other side of the railing three floors up on the ground of the school building where children below were shouting and kicking football upon each other, wearing white football jerseys. The figures, as they ran all over the ground, seemed very small as I looked at them. The goalkeeper of the right side, who was just beneath my white shoe, kicked the ball so hard that it flew in air and went directly to the other foot of mine. The other players shouted “Whoaaa!” as they saw the ball flying. But suddenly, two of them looked upwards and saw me. One of them pointed towards me and then shouted, “Hey, who’s he?!” All the other players started walking towards that boy who was in the middle of the field with their heads tilted up above on me. Another one shouted, “Hey! What’cha doin’, eh?!” My narrow eyes, which had dark spots beneath them, looked at the boys from behind my spectacles. I then moved my head a little up and saw my shiny gakuran jacket fluttered by my shiny yellow colored buttons as the wind started blowing from my left side. I was able to feel the wind dancing upon my soft skin as I closed my eyes and turned my head upwards. I took a deep breath, and then exhaled it out with my mouth. I then again took a breath. This time, when I exhaled it out with my mouth, I was able to feel the saliva of my mouth upon my lips. I tilted my head and turned towards my arm, which was trembling a little. Both of my hands were still holding the railing of the school’s rooftop. I then turned left and then looked on my other arm. “Hey! Get down!” One of the persons from beneath shouted. I turned my narrowed eyes towards the ground, the teachers, a large gang of footballers and students, and some even workers had gathered in a circle. I turned my head towards the front. I looked at a couple of brown colored and blue-green colored houses in front of me, which stood high and mighty. Beneath them was the clear blue sky.

A wall of text!

Warning: you don’t really need to read all of it. But you probably did, lol.

Anyway, it’s the opening scene from one of my first novels. And, as much as I hate to say this—it’s pretty sh*t. It has a lot of problems—no paragraph divisions, for example, as well as a lot of grammatical mistakes too. But the biggest problem with the text is that it’s just images.

Reading this text, I dare you to highlight one single sentence that might tell you anything about the narrator.

The narrator is narrating the motions, not the emotions.

(Damn, that was a dope line to say, man.)

The narrator is only telling you about the images and actions and dialogues and thoughts. Even though it’s in first-person POV, you feel distant from the narrator. And, even in third-person POV, authors are supposed to make sure the distance between the narrator and the reader remains at a minimum.

That’s how you get a film-novel—that’s filled with scene-descriptions, actions, and dialogues. There’s no narrations in it. The readers don’t know the thoughts of these characters.

***

#03 - Is it really a problem, though?

Well, you might ask me—is it really such a big problem?

Heck yeah.

The reason is pretty simple, actually—no one wants to read a film-novel. These novels are filled with only descriptions and actions—that’s too much of mental effort. these novels make their readers keep on imagining stuff, and no reader wants to do that.

Because it’s easier to look at pictures than to imagine them based on text. And that’s why your film-novels won’t work.

See, you need to understand this—novels are different than film. Sure, novels are a form of storytelling too, and they do include visual effort, such as descriptions, action, and all that. But, all that is not the main selling point of a novel.

The main selling point of a novel is the emotions. Emotions captured in words, in situations—caught in context like a butterfly in a child’s hand. Films can display emotions, but novels put those emotions into words.

Narration is what forms the greatest part of a novel. Narration is where a novel actually shines. Narration is what the readers come to read.

And, as you could guess, films don’t narrate. Consider this,

And rain made him feel like crying. He gulped down, trying to keep the lump of his throat in check. He couldn’t cry in the middle of so many other kids. They’ll ask questions, and what will he say to them, huh?

He was sorry.

For what?

For everything he did. And for everything he didn’t.

The day had just begun. It’d be long before it ends, y’know. He just couldn't wait for it to end. There was no lifting up his mood. Not until tomorrow.

How do you display this in a film? The answer—you can't. However hard you try, you can't.

Such narrations are where the art of novels shine. Such narrations are what differentiates a novel from a visual media.

***

#04 - Is it really a problem, though? (pt.ii)

All this talk constantly reminds me of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. It’s a literary achievement and really experimental in a lot of stuff that it does. For example, the novel has no dashes or apostrophes—and it’s not like these punctuation marks were not needed, they’re just not used. So, you’d find a lot of grammatical mistakes throughout the text.

And also, one thing that McCarthy ignored—and that’s relevant to the discussion we’re having—is that there’s literally zero narration. Zero.

McCarthy adopts a style that’s similar to a third-person POV, and is kinda like how I used to write when I was little—just with paragraphs and better scene-descriptions and action-descriptions. A lot better, as you can observe if you read his work.

Anyway, he didn’t have any narrative elements in his text. So the readers don’t really know what these characters are thinking or planning to do. They just know that these characters are somehow surviving.

I don’t wanna give away most of the plot of the novel, but the basic premise of the novel is that there’s a father-son duo who’s been caught in this apocalypse-type situation, and are traveling down the road to the south part of the country to escape the harsh winters that the north experiences. The novel doesn’t reveal a lot—the readers don’t know the names of these characters, the thoughts of the characters are hidden most of the time, and you don’t know what actually happened that most of humanity is dead and society is completely gone.

Now, McCarthy did it for a reason. A scarcity of punctuation marks reflects a form of scarcity in the scenery around them. Because most of it is, well, gone. Humanity is gone, and stuff is decaying. You don’t find fresh food anymore. Scavenge all you want—one day, all the canned food will expire, and there will be nothing to eat. Except fruits and veggies, that need to be grown somewhere. And nobody likes the latter, honestly.

And the scene-descriptions are so tough to read. They’re an actual pain. I have had a really hard time deciphering most of it, because the vocab is too high, and probably the sentences do not flow into each other easily. I can’t say anything about the sentences if I don’t understand them, y’know.

But, man, maybe that’s how it’s supposed to be. Maybe that’s why McCarthy wrote the descriptions in this way—to symbolize the mental stress that the characters go through as they experience this world, this form of reality that they were not meant to be in.

And maybe the novel is so lacking in narrations because the characters’ minds have gone numb. They’re forgetting language. With almost zero human interaction most of the time, they are forgetting how to think and interact in words. You lose the skills you don’t really use anymore, y’know. And these guys are so obviously depressed, so they don’t think about the world. They are used to the sad reality they live in. No point in complaining how bad the food is if that’s all you’re gonna eat all your life.

So, a scarcity of narrations tell you a lot about the story and its characters. It reflects something, it symbolizes something. The Road is a masterfully crafted piece of prose, please don’t get inspired to write in this style just because. This style won’t work on most of the stories.

Yeah, just because he wrote like this means you can too. Let me tell you, dear reader, that all of what we call rules are meant to be broken. Nothing is absolute. But here’s the catch—you can’t break the rules just because you don’t know how to apply them.

Authors need to learn these rules, because that’s what constitutes most of the written prose. That’s what forms the basics of the craft. So, learn them, understand them, and know how to use them. And then make a conscious decision not to use them.

See, these rules are like tools or weapons in your arsenal. And you need to keep your arsenal ready for everything. And then, you can decide which weapon to use, when to use it, and how to use it. Because you don’t know what sort of idea hits your head next and you’d suddenly need some of them.

***

#04 - Solution

So, how to make sure your novel actually comes off as a novel and not a film-novel? Unfortunately, the answer to that question… is that I don't know.

I know this sounds so absurd, but it is what it is. As someone who’s so recently started studying prose, I know this problem exists, but I still don’t know how to fix it. You could say I know my novels are film-novels, and I’m trying to fix it. But I, personally, am having a lot of trouble with it.

However, one way I can recommend is to write from your character’s POV, not your POV. You probably imagined your story as a film, but that’s now how you’re supposed to write it. Get into your characters’ head, see what they’re seeing, and write that.

But it’s tough. For me, at least. I always find myself going back to my old ways, and I think I need to re-write almost all of my scene-descriptions and actions because of it.

Lol, how ironic.

***

Conclusion

Yeah, and that’s it. I hope you liked this blog. Sorry I hadn’t posted in along while, I was going through a writers’ block. Stuff is happening these days, y’know.

Anyway, I’ll see you again in a couple of days, with something new. Bye-byee!