#and some of them have such a complex backstory that it would take ages to explain

[cosmogyros]

The unfortunate thing about being me as a writer is that I need – not want, NEED – all my characters to have incredibly advanced complex real-life-level deep relationships with each other. And there is simply no way to do that except through the passage of time. Real, can't-be-sped-up time. You gotta let your characters bounce around in your head interacting for literally years and observe them getting to know each other better and better over time, and take notes. That's it.

[thisisnotthenerd]

hot take: c3 should have been primarily set in issylra instead of marquet

the fact that marquet was flavorful set dressing that the cast really didn’t engage with nonwithstanding

issylra has the benefit of a couple of things that would have enhanced the plot of c3 as i see it:

vasselheim, the dawn cradle, the city of gods. a big city with lots of connections, the grim verity wanted info there, it would be interesting to juxtapose largely godless people against a city of gods

hishari. more deep engagement with ashton’s backstory and potentially communing with the earth titan earlier rather than shardgate and the retracing of mistakes

the nature worship that pervades. an example of something that would survive the gods after they left, if they were to leave. the tension between them and the worshippers of the deities of exandria would have illustrated some more of the complexity of faith on exandria

ria’doin. i think it would have been more interesting if they were able to place it while coming back from ruidus.

ivaadel; ludinus’ hometown. a look even further back that might have made his info dumped backstory more interesting.

pyrah; both for the ashari connection and for the fact that since it’s connected to the fire plane where they still could have met planerider ryn

lots of untreaded ground but also a lot of beloved npcs. there are ways to work in connections to vox machina in particular while still having lots of ground to cover.

it’s the origin of many of the flying cities from the age of arcanum; these could have been explored and contrasted with avalir during exu calamity

i would have preferred to see an exploration of marquet during the party split, with one half going to uthodurn and the other maybe going to the hellcatch & bassuras.

full disclaimer: i’m not white. and i do like the parts of marquet that i’ve seen.

i’m not intending to speak for feelings the cast may have had, but i noticed a hesitancy to engage with the setting of marquet in the way that they engaged with more traditionally european-fantasy settings (tal’dorei & wildemount). and when they were on issylra during c3, they engaged more with the setting than they did in marquet.

i can appreciate the attempt, but i would rather have seen engagement with the setting as an aspect of the story, instead of lovingly rendered set dressing. some may say it’s an ambitious choice to step out of your comfort zone with regard to the worldbuilding; that choice falls flat if the worldbuilding is projections on the wall and the story goes in circles on the table.

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

Writing YA books about Faes/Faeries: Holly Black and Sarah J. Maas

I’ve started to notice this trend and discussions on how some hardcore SJM fans didn't enjoy The Cruel Prince, whereas the Cruel Prince fans tend to be critical of SJM’s work.

Some of it can be blamed on tiktokification of reading, essentially wanting to just read porn, which would be fine, if people would admit to it instead of shitting on good YA books and making them unpopular, which results in publishing of more mediocre smut with problematic undertones with no consistent plot, which in turn dumbs down the audience. There's no need to turn an entire age category of books into Wattpad fanfics.

I’ve seen ACOTAR fans on tiktok (before I deleted tiktok) say they “didn’t get” Cruel Prince or had to DNF because it was “boring” and "too much politics, no smut”. I had heard all of that before I read either Holly Black's or SJM's work so here's an objective take because I'm not a hardcore fan of either of them.

If you think The Cruel Prince has a lot of politics, you have been tiktokified or don't remember a book that wasn't romance or YA to begin with, so please go read one. It's good for you to broaden your horizons. It doesn't have a lot of politics even for YA. But I will say this: the pacing was slow and the romance was practically nonexistent. You'll have to really look into details and speculate. I wasn't digging it at first at all. I had to come back and reread it again after finishing the trilogy. I fell in love with Jude x Cardan only during the second reread. The Cruel Prince trilogy is not for smut seekers.

However, what some fans don't realize is that unlike SJM, Holly Black doesn't excuse Cardan's or Jude's actions to make them look like great people and leaders or forces the narrative and other characters' pov's to do that. Holly actually writes Fae as what they're supposed to be - actual different creatures from humans with different ways of thinking and feeling. I read somewhere that humans have black vs white morality they navigate, while the fair folk have orange vs blue morality. It's not the same for them, and yet, ones who are actually evil are easily distinguishable. Holly manages to pull that off beautifully. The writing in that regard is masterful. I would also say that Jude and Taryn have adapted to and adopted orange vs blue morality in their own ways. Which translates in them seeking security in the world that's not designed for them, as well as their ambitions.

SJM, on the other hand, writes Fae as way too powerful, constantly horny, conventionally hot people. There is no orange vs blue or even grey morality, they're just selfish people with victim complexes. Their backstories serve as an excuse, not as an explanation. Everyone yaps about how powerful they are but always need their asses saved. PTSD is written unrealistically and the author only whips it out when she needs it. Characters' grand gestures of growth feel shallow since they always go back on their words or ignore the actual root of problems. Faerie folklore is not properly explored, random mythology is tossed in, plot bends backwards to make the perfect ending for protagonists...I would call it porn with plot except the smut isn't even good.

SJM also can't write politics, so instead she feeds her readers propaganda so they won't question the rulers' incompetence and incapacity to make a change in centuries. The whole thing feels like a parody of making fun of filthy rich people. It would be at least somewhat clever if it was.

Lastly, a shout-out to Margaret Rogerson for writing the best and loveliest way I've seen about what it's like to give up humanity to become Fae and grapple with remaining humane in her book An Enchantment of Ravens. Fair warning though, the book is pure fluff, no smut.

[directdogman]

What kind of class would the cast of Dialtown be in DnD? (Ie, Druid, Rouge, Paladin… etc)

Oh, I did a whole DnD Dialtown thing ages ago that conveniently mentions some classes in it with some rewritten backstories for the characters in this new universe. I'll paste it below (preamble is important for the character descriptions, so sorry for the lore:)

The story is set in a fictional landmass, with parts of it based on a fucked up Alaska, parts resembling the Swiss Alps, a desert zone and nuked carnival wastes. In the present era, an evil empire rules over the whole map, ran by an evil necromancer, Callum Crown. Him and his partner, Milton, took over the entire continent in a bloody conquest together that ended with Crown dropping an arcane nuke on the clown territory, ending the war, but turning Milt against him, leading to a civil war, in which Crown destroyed Milt.

Crown has a phone head made from scraps of the metals of the heroes who've failed to vanquish him, and has a lich body, which he reinforces with the same metal he used to build his head, gaining a gradual suit of armor in order to stop himself from physically falling apart. He has a powerful arcane gauntlet which he uses to cast devastating spells. His undead empire sells death to people with a snazzy sales pitch. Basically, you sign a waiver that gives you benefits within his empire while you're alive, but once you die, your corpse is resurrected to serve Crown until your remains degrade beyond use.

The plot of the game is that Crown is trying to unravel reality to remove an ancient arcane law of magic from the fabric of reality as old as life itself: necromancy cannot resurrect a life that has taken itself. Crown, despite presiding over the whole world and everything in it, cannot bear the loss of his friend, Milt, who he beat in the civil war, which ended with Milt drinking poison before Crown could reach his throne room in the final assault of milt's base.

Crown would tell you that he wishes to resurrect Milt so he can finally have Milt answer for his betrayal, but in reality, he just really misses Milt. To revive Milt, because he specifically took his own life, would require the fabric of reality be altered... something that could potentially end the world. Gingi is a non-human monster (not considered a person, starts the game as a low level enemy) who gets caught up in a complex socioeconomic conflict/conspiracy by being in the wrong place at the wrong time and has to travel with a band of companions in order to resolve the conflict and eventually, once powerful entities begin to take notice of you, in order to survive.

The plot involves Crown's pursuit of the final piece of the puzzle: gaining the ability to rewrite universal law, and eventually, Gingi either has to choose to help him achieve this power, prevent the power from being accessed by anyone, or taking it and using it however they decide to. Basically, Crown wants to rewrite universal law because he can't accept that he owns everything, is all powerful, but cannot revive one specific person.

Now onto the companions with classes mentioned:

Randy Jade: You meet him in one of the cities in Crown's empire. He approaches you to ask you for a cigarette, and if you give him one, he then asks you for a lighter too. He explains that he had a string of jobs in Crown's empire, but kept screwing them up and getting fired, and at this point, he's stealing to eat.

If you recruit him, Randy will fight for you. Randy's a rogue, uses small blades (starting item are some house keys he found poking out through his knuckle), he's a glass cannon (good DPS, low health) and is politically neutral.

Oliver Swift: He's a traveling bard/performer who's going on a journey to raise enough money so his old mentor, Mr Dickens, can gift a sword to a young hero in his village and order him to go forth and vanquish Callum Crown (a yearly tradition for the village that always ends with crown getting another scrap of metal for his head/armor)

If you agree to give him a share of the loot to send home, he will join the party. He attacks with blunt weapons (metal lute, wrench). Ironically, despite Randy being the rogue, Oliver has the better lockpicking skill. Politically, he dislikes Crown, and without a high speech skill, will leave the party if you align with Crown.

Karen Dunn: A bureaucrat in Crown's empire. A talented mage, she works in Crown's deathdealers headquarters. She's the person at the line for mages looking to sell their souls to Crown. She really doesn't care for this job, allowing the player to convince her to ditch it + join the party. Karen uses fire magic offensively but starts with a few healing spells too.

Karen is politically neutral, though she has a personal distaste for Crown's empire as an employer.

Bigfoot: Can be admitted into the party. He's a melee tank, but has a few forest magic spells that buff himself and other party members, giving him support capabilities. Bigfoot will become frightened and leave the party during some cutscenes when loud noises/conflict occurs, if you do not equip earmuffs onto him.

Norm Allen: A former sheriff (now fugitive) in the annexed desert territory. Formerly an avid supporter of the order that Crown brought, and one of Crown's enforcers in his home town of [desert zone], Norm is hellbent on putting a bullet in Crown's head and dismantling his empire.

If you become friendly with Norm, you find out that the thing that Norm specifically bolted from Crown over... was the overreach of justice, and selling tyranny to his people as justice. Norm's a tank. His defense stat is middling, but his attack accuracy is locked at 100%, which is valuable in bad weather conditions or if the team gets blinded.

Norm will turn on the player if they do anything BUT prevent universal power from entering anyone's hands.

Mingus: Mingus is Crown's key enforcer/assassin. At the start of the game, she's trying to track down and execute Norm for betraying Crown, and as the plot progresses, eventually targets the player.

A stealthy cat woman, she strikes from the shadows, always, and usually after wetting the tips of her claws with a devastating poison. The poison she uses has no known antidote.

Politically, she's a fanatic, found abandoned as a kitten by Callum Crown many cycles ago. While Crown is cold with her, speaking to her like a tool, he keeps her in his service with his false promise to rewrite reality so other people like Mingus and to erase her abandonment from the timeline. Mingus secretly pines for his approval/kindness above all else, believing that helping Crown achieve her goals is the only way she'll ever feel loved. She's a potential late-game companion, being recruitable during the lategame, if you're doing Crown's ending.

There's more, but that's the gist of it. Hope this was interesting!

[gold-rhine]

so i finally watched the nod krai livestream, and it has some talk about nod krai, inspirations, factions, etc, the usual stuff, but the interesting part to me was about narrative reasons behind adding nod krai at all and also strategic change in storytelling direction

so, they said that basically they realized that they have shitton of unexplored lore and a lot of plotlines and character arcs that were planted in all the regions, but not advanced bc hoyo were rushing things. so they decided to take time and dedicate the nod krai timeline to "tying up loose threads". which is huge win , they should have been doing it long ago, but better later than never i guess. this also means mond quest is not a fluke, but a part of this direction and i think lantern rite that explored hu tao's backstory also fits

also, they said that they are reevaluating their methods of presenting lore, that long descriptions hidden in books are inaccessible to most players, and and they want to instead give players lore through gameplay experiences, and also they want to clarify their lore bc they see a lot of batshit theories. HUGE WIN, I'VE BEEN SAYING FOR AGES THEY NEED TO DO THIS. the dark souls method of storytelling doesn't even work for dark souls, the youtube DS\elden ring lore videos industrial complex is clear indication - like 95% players are not engaged in game, they either ignore it altogether or watch youtube videos with conspiracy theories. the puzzling together lore and plot from hidden descriptions is valid storytelling method, but not for all games. i love sunless sea, cultist simulator, book of hours where main gameplay is doing conspiracy board from cryptic texts and metaphors, and even more narrative oriented games like disco elysium and planescape torment can pull it off bc text is already the main gameplay medium in these games, but genshin is just completely different genre and they are not using the medium to its advantage with long text lore dumps in random shit.

also, they said they want to move away from sequestering stories into world quests and character quests, and have overarching interconnected main narrative. which is a tentative W depending on execution. isolating lore in story quests and so this lore not being able to to be used in main quests is a long time problem. in fontaine its excellent world quests would simply be fun to be included, but natlan id say suffers enormously from locking all saurian and dragon related lore in world quests. both archon quests and world quests end up feeling shallow. what the fuck was that abyss pyro dragon fight out of nowhere. but if they turn it into long ass boring blah blah sessions like hsr's amphoreues then no thank you. really will depend on execution.

they also said they want to explore things that only genshin can do, like having characters be present in the world and tell stories through interactions with them. previously they couldn't do that bc devices couldn't handle it, but now its possible. the traveler tales event was their first experiment with that. if you've been there, you know i LOVED that event, the way they weaved several interconnected narratives from casual quick encounters, explored characters' relationships, including the ones i never knew i needed to see, like cloud retainer and razor. or gave depth to previously only hinted things, like i always assumed qiqi and yao yao were hanging together bc they are two liyue kid characters, but their plotline really opened it up and the finale was so bittersweet and touching, and all that for characters i frankly never gave a fuck about.

but that type of storytelling will depend hugely on execution, you need to have a very firm handle of the narrative direction, pacing, sense of what is enough set up and when pay it off. if they do it right, this will be a BANGER, but with bad execution it might end up worse than traditional boring quests. idk we'll see

[arceus-insanity]

Why Did Teen & Tween Girls Love Creepypastas so Much?

The creepypasta fandom was my first fandom, it introduced me to fandom when I was 13 and every once in a blue moon, I check in on it. But why was it so popular amongst young girls? Part of it is that the line between ‘canon’ and fandom was made of tissue paper with a ton of holes. It allowed a feeling of engagement and belonging as anyone could add to the lore, and there was a possibility of your story or character taking off.

But after seeing the endless anti-writing advice of WhY dOeS eVeRy ViLlIaN nEeD tO bE cOmPlEx! No Tragic villains! We only want evil for the sake of being evil! I’ve been thinking about how all the creepypastas have sympathetic backstories, more of the creepypasta characters have tragic backstories than murderers.

Now I’m all for evil characters who are just asshats like Jack Horner (Dreamworks Puss in Boots 2), or the classic Disney villains, but so many spout this ‘advice’ without getting into why evil for the sake of being evil villains are good, or the pitfalls of tragic or complex villains, hence why I’m calling it anti-writing advice.

So why did tragic creepypasta characters work so well?

For starters and addressing one of the most dissed aspects, is the story quality, while with anyone writing or adding to the fandom quality varied to extreme degrees, most of them including one of the most well-known (Jeff the Killer 2011) was shit. These stories weren’t popular because they were well written, they were popular because they were engaging. They are like campfire stories, their value wasn’t based on quality but on the ideas they had. 

Now Teen girls and tweens are shamed for everything (See all the criticism Turning Red got for being ‘cringey’), they are dealing with the lack of respect a child gets and the expectations of an adult (to simplify). It’s also a common age for us to be discovering the darker elements of the world, assuming we haven’t experienced them ourselves yet. Many are dealing with bullies, or dealing with being catcalled or worse (a lot of the girl creepypasta’s were sexually assaulted, or betrayed by their partners). But I think a huge part of it is these characters let us live out our rage through them (to an extreme) (I recommend watching this short video on what I’m talking about, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Ea8fwetA8). One of the criticisms I’ve seen for Encanto is how peacefully the movie has Mirabel treat Alma after everything. Part of that was to allow viewers to live out the idyllic ending that many people who relate to Mirabel in her mistreatment by her family and community where their (for lack of a better word) abusers realize they were wrong and change. The group levelling this criticism or writing and/ or reading many of the fics on ao3 want to enjoy the other confronting your abuser fantasy, the revenge route, whether that be violent or not.

Jeff the Killer; Woods (2011) Vs Hodek (2008)

Now him and Slenderman being the most famous creepypasta’s out there, Jeff’s story is known for how shit it is. The famous 2011 Woods version isn’t going to win any rewards for its writing, but it’s not the original, so why is it the famous one, especially as I heard the OG was better, or at least more realistic? Well, I read the original, watched the video, the wiki and the official DeviantArt summary for it, and wondered how the Hell is this better written or more realistic, maybe by a molecule. It was harder to follow along how Jeff Hodek became a killer. But more than that, he was boring and what could have made him a ‘relatable’ (read understandable or even interesting) character was only in the summary and didn’t have any focus on it.

Meanwhile Woods, in the main confrontations in his story, didn’t start them. First, it was some violent kids going after him and his brother and not being prepared for someone who could and would fight back, albeit very violently. This is followed by the adults (his parents and the police) only listening to one side of the story and refusing to do any further investigation, which Liu purposely takes the blame for getting taken to juvie. His mom forces him to attend some random little kid's birthday party so she can fit in even after the prior events, where those bullies then show up to attack him again. Jeff wins again but arrives at the hospital with his signature white skin. And when he gets home and ends up killing his parents, it's after his mom says “get the gun”, after finding him mutilating himself in the bathroom, not call the doctor, or authorities, kill him that's the call. The only time he starts an incident is at the end of the story, and the start which takes place after so he’s on the run in this, and how far the violence goes isn't shown in those instances. Is this some badly written power fantasy bullshit, yes, but it’s interesting, it’s engaging, and Jeff can be used as a way to vent rage with a needed amount of distance

Eyeless Jack: Everyone Gets Backstories

Eyeless Jack is a perfect example of how every popular creepypasta character had a tragic past because he did not come with one. In his original story, he’s just a scary monster who breaks into someone’s home, steals an organ and the next night kills someone in that house. There are some interesting aspects, such as his surgical knowledge and the evidence that Eyeless Jack eats people, but most he seems to be a cross between a slasher and a monster. Then someone else gave him a backstory. It had him as a medical student that a cult sacrificed to some god turning him into Eyeless Jack. And for the most part everyone accepted that as Jack’s backstory, to the point his wiki had to include it

Carrying This over to The League of Villains (My Hero Academia)

Now years after the fact and a couple of fandoms later, I finally give in and read My Hero Academia. Now the fan content that pushed me into the series were major Midoriya fans and of Class 1A. And the Fics I first sought out reflected this, but it did not stay that way. I ended up becoming a massive fan of the League of Villains, and my opinion of Deku, 1A, the Heroes, and their supporters soured more and more over time. I found that the LoV weren’t the system failing but working exactly as intended, as not only were we shown the humanity (& backstories) of the League, but the ‘heroes’ constantly making disturbing decisions and doubling down.

A huge part of why I got into the series was because the early arcs seemed to present themselves as not just being a hero story but a story that challenged the toxic elements of not just its society but others as well. But as it went on not only did the protagonists fail to live up to that, but so much of the later arcs reframe the beginning arcs for the worse. The League however delivered on what drew me to this series, there were other elements, like the smaller cast allowed there to be some actual focus & development on the characters in the short moments we got with them.

While we were constantly with the heroes, we were constantly being introduced to new characters, and focusing on the supposed ‘greatness’ of an abusive monster, and spoiled abusive brat. The solutions the hero side showed were painfully superficial, avoided dealing with any of the root issues caused by their ‘wonderful’ hero society, doubling down to hell & back and more often than not just plain stupid & ignorant.

Why I Can’t Like the ‘Good’ Victims

Part of what inspired this post was another post (It’s been months since I saw it so this isn’t an exact quote) saying that Dabi (Touya Todoroki and one of the main members of the League) was the rage of eldest daughter syndrome. Not Fuyumi, his younger sister by less than a year, and very blatantly parentified, Dabi.

Why? For starters, while Fuyumi’s intro page says she resents her abusive father, her actions paint a very different story. In practice, she’s the most eager to be a loving daughter, and constantly supports him, even against her younger brother Natsuo who doesn’t want to forgive him.

Rei is even worse for this, telling Fuyumi and Natsuo that she forgives the man who abused her to the point of a mental breakdown the first time we meet her, because he sent her a flower. And is seen at the end pushing his wheelchair around, so his caretaker.

Did I forget to mention that Touya was believed dead, at age 13, as the result of that thing’s ‘parenting’, read abuse and grooming

I want to like them, there are so many characters in this series that I want to like but I just can’t force myself to after reading this series. Because as a blatant of an example(s) the Todoroki family is, they aren’t unique.

This whole series demands that everyone be good victims, and shows that a good victim must not only be silent on their mistreatment, never act out in even the slightest way, but should support their abuser, the reward of which is going back to the same circumstances that enabled this to begin with.

[sins0fthefather]

Wrath.

Jeff the Killer HCs:

General HCs:

Full Name: Jeffrey Alexander Woods (Only responds to Jeff though. Best case scenario if you call him his full name is he’ll ignore you, worst case scenario is him flipping his shit on you)

Age: 22-25 (Based on where in the story a character study/fic takes place)

Birthday: September 22 (Older than Liu by 2 years)

Wasian— Father is Chinese, mother is a born n’ raised Texan

Biromantic, Demisexual

Has autism, C-PTSD, BPD (contributor to his auditory hallucinations), NPD, ASPD, and BDD

Right Handed

6’1 (185~ cm)

Covered in burn scars, most noticeably on his chest, forearms, and back

He uses white facepaint, it makes his face’s silhouette look “cleaner” in his eyes

His cuts have healed up for the most part, although he’ll have moments where he relapses and cuts at them again. The ends will also sometimes tear if he does something like laugh too hard.

Very touchy with other people, but he despises being touched first. He prefers to initiate physical contact- both because of the control aspect of it and because of his general distrust of others.

His sense of humor waxes and wanes from extreme condescension to the most morbid sentences you’ve ever heard. Half of the time it doesn’t even sound like a joke.

Reckless driver, cursed with terrible road rage

Smokes cigarettes, his brand of choice is Marlboro

Drinks vodka straight as if it were water

I feel like his favorite band would be Tool or Slipknot. His music taste is just metal and dad rock.

Was brought up in a Catholic school for most of his life, although he obviously doesn’t keep up with the practice anymore. This is a big catalyst for why he develops a god complex however since he “has authority over life and death”— something unique only to gods from what he was taught.

Very observant of the people around him. He memorizes speech patterns, demeanors, even the way people walk. He’s gotten to the point where he can read people and their intentions well before they’re explicitly stated, making it much easier for him to spot a lie. However this also makes it much easier for him to tell when he’s truly pushing somebody’s buttons, and there’s nothing he loves more than pushing people past their limit.

Always stealing glances of himself in any mirror he walks past

He’s an opportunistic killer. Limiting himself to patterns clashes with the creativity and the thrill of the moment to him. However, there are specific elements of a kill he will often repeat if the mood strikes him. An example of this would be often including strangulation (albeit usually not the direct cause of death) to reflect his acquired need for control in all moments of his life. Sometimes he will also pose bodies in a “prayer” position to call back that god complex I mentioned.

He doesn’t always kill people immediately. If someone catches his eye, usually because he finds them beautiful in some aspect, he’ll take it a step further. He has no problem with being patient when the situation arises for it- stalking the person, learning their habits and schedules, the whole shebang. He’ll then slowly start to ruin said person’s life, isolating them through the slaughter of those closest to them and destroying any sense of peace and security they once had. He’s the sound that goes -bump- in the night. He’ll toy with his food until he eventually grows bored, disposing them like all the rest. After all, how dare someone else try to be beautiful in his presence- a punishment of the highest order is necessary.

His anger can be very… explosive. He doesn’t stick around very long for enough people besides victims to see it, but it can be as unpredictable as his own kills. It’s worse when he’s silent in his anger however, since with the former you at least have enough of a warning to brace yourself.

Backstory-Centric HCs:

(TW: csa, murder, mutilation, religious trauma, general stuff)

Takes place in college. Jeff is 22 at the start while Liu is 20.

Instead of being a one-off instance, Jeff and Liu have been subjected to bullying/borderline harassment since middle school. This builds up Jeff’s gradual distrust of others and leads to him shutting himself off from his peers.

Most of said bullying revolved around their mixed race situation. It only got worse as Jeff shut himself off and Liu became a people pleaser.

The two didn’t even have peace at home, since their parents were sexually abusive and excused it through their religion. It was “all apart of god’s love” as they said. This + the bullying leads Liu to develop DID and kickstarts Jeff’s resentment towards their parents. It also led Jeff to develop a twisted belief on what love and beauty is since god apparently “favored” the beauty of his parent’s form of “love.”

On one particular instance of bullying/harassment, a small group of people he grew up with planned on jumping and mugging Jeff behind a bar. Things escalated when Jeff retaliated in self defense, beating his aggressors with a nearby pipe found laying against a dumpster. He didn’t leave unscathed however, since one of the attackers dropped a lighter into the flammable materials (alcohol, trash, etc) that had been scattered in the fight, planning on making everyone go down in that moment. Jeff managed to survive (albeit with severe burns along his body) after being found by an employee who went to go check out the noise/smell of smoke, but the others succumbed to their wounds.

While in a heavy state of shock and psychosis (paired with being drugged up out the wazoo at the hospital) his usual unchecked auditory hallucinations worsened, leading his mind to trick him into believing this situation was a sign from god- that he was supposed to survive while his tormentors burned. Paired with his already twisted concepts of love and beauty, he began to believe that his burns were part of god’s plan to make him more beautiful- because he was favored.

This only gets worse when he’s released from the hospital’s custody due to a neglect in checking his mental state. After being sent home with his family and therefore being thrown back into the abusive environment he hoped to escape when going to college he ends up experiencing a psychotic break, mutilating himself in the process.

When his parents catch him, they attack him. In their eyes he had disgraced them, no longer upholding the “beauty” of heaven that they enforced. He ends up killing them in self defense, but furthers it by mutilating their bodies in an act of defiance induced by his break. He believes he’s outdone god in this moment, deluding himself into thinking he’s on the same level (or even better) than god.

While overcome by his psychotic break, he ends up severely wounding Liu after he wakes up to check out the noise. It becomes a conspiracy on if Liu survived or not since his body was never found by authorities.

The reason why Jeff continues on his spree after these instances is the feel of control he gets. After being forced into submission by those around him for so long, he finally feels a stable sense of power over those he deems as less than him.

He ends up wandering throughout the states after this, hopping from town to town. He never stays in one place for long, although sometimes he’ll revisit his home town to give the urban legend fanatics something to fear again.

[nightwonder7]

i want to bite ur ocs

(i want to know about them <- interested)

AAAaaaaaahhh you have no idea how happy it makes me to hear that you're interested in my OCs! ;W;

I'll give a run-down of the ones I posted recently. Their names are Cyril Iwo Davinski and Angelica Sage Thornwood, and their story takes place somewhere in the late 1800s.

Angelica lost her parents at a very young age, but was adopted by a priest, who was also an exorcist/demon hunter. It was from him she learned the art of exorcism and how to fight demons. This was motivated by the fact that she had been tormented by a demonic entity from early childhood and she wanted to learn how to defeat them. Angelica grew up to be a strong, young woman who would take on cases caused by demons, though developed a bit of a hero complex with a desire to "save people from evil".

Cyril was raised by his mother, who owned a small antique shop. One day an artifact containing a demon soul entered the shop, and at eight years old, Cyril managed to get cursed by it and become a host for the demon; two souls residing in one body. From that day forward, Cyril would transform into this demon whenever he was overtaken by fear or anxiety. The demon would be in control of his body during these events, often hunting for prey. They tried everything to vanquish the demon, but their bond seemed unbreakable. One day as a young man, something horrible happened that forced him to flee from his hometown and start a new life.

Cyril eventually opened his own antique shop elsewhere and would use his fascination in history and the occult to find a way to lift his curse.

Things get complicated when reports of frequent monster attacks in his town reaches a certain exorcist who is intent on finding the culprit and vanquish it for good.

-----------------

That's pretty much the gist of their backstories. I could've said more things about them, but then it would've become too long pfffff I also have some other OCs as well, but I assumed these were the ones you were referring to ^^; Anyways, I'm always open for OC questions!

[winnterreise]

hello! please, if its no trouble (i 100% understand if im asking too much, i know itd be a bit of work >_<) would you ever be willing to write an analysis of reiji? at least a summary? i adore DL and have for years, but ive never been able to quite understand his character and why he does what he does! (i am a tripletologist lmao i focus on them) i adore your blog and the way you discuss reiji! id love to hear from someone like you what reiji is all about and what makes him tick :) only if its okay though! youre extremely cool!

-resident guy who loves character analysis

Hi! Of course! Take my words with a grain of salt though because it’s always easier to understand a character when you’ve had similar experiences.. I’m a very lazy and unenthusiastic person so I hope you’ll understand🧍I adore characters like Reiji because of how drastically different they are from me. Unfortunately I cannot afford to write a full analysis as of now because I haven’t gone through all the games yet! The amount of reading and note taking I’d have to do (outside of the two games I already played) would probably be like writing an academic paper… I’d love to dig deeper but unless I’m super free and motivated please don’t set your expectations to high for me! That being said I’ll try to summarize my thoughts here.

I feel that he grew up to be the way he is because fate was simply just that unfair to him. It’s no surprise that one will develop some sort of coping mechanism if they failed to receive proper care and support when they were younger. In Reiji’s case, I feel like he’s had a competitive personality since the very beginning, and that he isn’t that type to simply sulk because life isn’t treating him well, but he’d strive to become the best he can so that Beatrix might at least cast a glance at him. Because of that, he’s set out the same sort of expectation for everyone else around him.

And then there’s Shu who received so much attention but is also put under tremendous pressure. I won’t go into detail about him, but he has his reasons for wanting to escape from what is thrown at him, too. I don’t blame either of them for turning out the way they did, but Reiji did have to live his life in resentment for Shu, an uncomfortable reminder of how little his mother seemed to care for him. A lot of this is just surface level, though. When it comes to family, especially vampires whose true ages remain a mystery, there is no singular emotion that can sum up the nature of their bonds. My guess is that Reiji doesn’t exactly ‘hate’ Shu so much that he wishes genuine death upon him, or else he’d probably attempted a long time ago. Shu might be a bit of a lost cause to him, wasted potential, one who threw away and did not cherish anything that was given to him.

Now imagine harbouring all of these negative emotions for your entire life while unconsciously having an inferiority complex, becoming obsessed with your own worth and abilities just to prove a point that you are someone that matters. This is probably also the reason why he appears so strict with Yui. There’s definitely some sense of projection. He’s ridiculously disciplined and expects the same level of dedication from everyone else, expecting them to prove their worth as he tried or still tries to do. I feel that he didn’t allow himself to display any weakness, and so despised it when he sees signs of that in others. His way of caring for others I expect would also be twisted in a some way. He genuinely believed that discipline, control, and constant self-improvement is important to survival. It’s all he’s ever known, probably.

Lastly, someone did a wonderful character study a while ago. It’s much more elaborate than what I have here. I really like their take on him.

https://narihira.tumblr.com/post/63820496449/a-sakamaki-reiji-manifesto-character-study

[taragreenfield]

do you think the story would’ve worked better ( or at least made more sense ) if the Sun Summoner had been Fjerdan instead of Ravkan ??

Here’s my reasoning : throughout the series, Alina constantly questions the Darkling, the other Grisha, and pretty much anyone in power. While some of that is definitely justified, it starts to feel a bit off considering her background. She’s Ravkan, raised in a country that, despite its issues, still reveres the Grisha to some extent at least more than the surrounding nations do… The Grisha might not be universally loved, but they’re institutionalized, accepted within the Second Army, and given a place in Ravkan society.

So Alina’s persistent distance, her suspicion, and her resistance to connecting with other Grisha at the Little Palace feel emotionally true in some ways but narratively, they sometimes lack weight. The books try to explain this with her and Mal’s background ( how they grew up isolated in an orphanage, then joined the military, and so on ) but that’s a pretty fragile justification in my opinion. Her inability to trust, open up, or feel at home among her own people doesn’t always add up. Especially when we consider that she’s supposed to be one of them.

If Alina had been Fjerdan, her distrust and resistance would feel more grounded and complex.

A Fjerdan woman suddenly discovered she was a Grisha, let alone the Sun Summoner, that internal and external conflict would have been so much more compelling. Her mistrust, her moral and emotional struggle, even her resistance to the Darkling’s charisma and the Grisha hierarchy would have made perfect sense.

And from a storytelling perspective, this would’ve opened up so many more layers of political tension, religious trauma, and cultural conflict. It would’ve made the idea of a Grisha “Messiah” rising from Fjerda ( essentially the heart of anti-Grisha ideology ) so much more powerful and complex. Plus her dynamic with the Darkling would have been filled with even more angst, ideological clash and drama.

I’ve asked a couple of other accounts this question, but haven’t gotten any responses yet, and I’m really curious to hear what others think. Would love your take on it !! xx

Hi, anon!

That's certainly an interesting question.

So, one of my issues with Alina is that her backstory is very scarce and vague. She's supposed to be an orphan, not rich, not noble, but she somehow lands a job as a cartographer in the army despite not being any good at drawing maps. You'd expect a lowly orphan kid to be peeling potatoes and scrubbing floors, but no, she apparently got herself a fairly fancy job. She also manifests the behaviour of an entitled, sheltered kid (her scowling at herring, generally sneering at everything and everyone during the first chapters, or her horrified reaction to an animal being killed and eaten). Don't tell me a kid raised in the countryside of the 19th-century pseudo-Russia wasn't familiar with the concept of killing animals for food.

Her orphanage also seems very shady, they are apparently taught how to eat snails? What's even shadier, if Alina arrives at the orphanage at the age of 8, how come she doesn't remember almost anything prior to that? Yes, she even mentions that "memories are the luxury not meant for Keramzin orphans", so I suppose they somehow forced the kids to forget their previous life, but how? And for what? You can't just drop a creepy line like that and never elaborate. We also learn that at the orphanage they were taught a lot of puritan bullshit and were brainwashed "to be grateful". What were they taught about Grisha? Alina mentions a rumour spread by a serf about Darklings being born without souls, and then she said Ana Kuya kicked that serf out and told them it's a stupid superstition. So I guess they were not instilling the belief about Grisha being monsters in the kids? Unclear.

Another problem: the lack of ideology. Alina has no convictions, no principles, no understanding of the sociopolitical situation, and no ability to think about the consequences of her actions. She's running around like a headless chicken, parrotting whatever Baghra tells her, listening to Mal, Nikolai, the Apparat or whoever else is willing to fuel her pre-existing biases. When she argues with Aleksander, her main "counterarguments" are "It's not fair!" and "You are a monster!", which are...not great, to put it lightly. She just doesn't seem to care about anything or anyone but herself and Mal.

So, could those issues be fixed by her being Fjerdan? Well, some moments would certainly make more sense. For example, her persistent inclination to twist everything Aleksander says and does into something malicious and horrifying and the subconscious dehumanization of him and other Grisha would make more sense if those beliefs were drilled into her by Fjerdan anti-Grisha propaganda. Her suppressing her powers because it's actually deathly dangerous for her as a Fjerdan to be found (and because she was taught it's something monstrous) instead of the incessant "what about Maaaaaaal????" also would be better for her characterization. Her running away from the Little Palace because of the internal moral conflict instead of Baghra telling her that Aleksander is a big bad shadow wizard who wants to destroy the world with no proof whatsoever would also be much more interesting to explore. Because "deep in my heart I knew she was right" is just lazy.

Anyway, Fjerdan or not, she should have been given a coherent backstory, a convincing basis for her biases and preconceptions, and actual political motivation and agency. But I like the idea of her being from a hostile nation. In the hands of a competent author who isn't afraid to make their main character get their entire worldview challenged and is competent enough to write out this conflict and transformation with all subsequent political, ideological, religious, and interpersonal implications, that could have been a great story.

Thanks for the ask!

[necrotic-nephilim]

for the recent ask game, i’m really curious about your take on 7 + 8 :P

for the choose violence ask game!

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how the fandom acts about them?

i'll be so honest: Jason Todd. i know there's a lot of argument of "who has the worst fans" and i think that question is flawed and impossible to answer, but i will say Jason fans irked me so deeply. because i read mostly 90s era Batfam, i admittedly didn't have a lot of exposure to Jason for a while, expect for his New-52 runs i'd read years ago. and since i never liked him based on those runs, i could not understand *what* his fans liked about him, or where they got some of their headcanons/ideas from. i've never been more baffled. it ranges from "oh i don't agree but you do you, i guess?" to "what character are you talking about i am BAFFLED". and it soured me on Jason for so long that i actually hate read *most* of his pre-Flashpoint appearances just to understand what on earth people liked about him. and now i can say, i love him dearly, but i can also say, i still don't know what character his fans are talking about sometimes. and i hate the fanon version of Jason who feels almost, Deadpool-ified? with this self-aware slapstick humor but a sad soft interior but also sassy and will kill a man it's just. it feels very hollow to me and it has made me almost tempted to block his character tag more than once over the years bc sometimes certain takes make it difficult to even like him. i just have to tune it out or yell about it for hours.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

i'm going to get particularly saucy with this one: that Dick Grayson has Eldest Daughter Syndrome. or more generally, that he was parentified. not a single ounce of Dick's backstory indicates him as being parentified. to be parentified you have to be a child taking care of other children either emotionally or physically because your parents are not fulfilling that role. and Dick was *never* a child at the time that another child was under Bruce's care. he has been an adult for the entirety he has known every other Batkid. and even then, the *only* one he was something you could akin to being a parent figure to was Damian, and Dick *chose* that. Dick was a grown-ass man in his late 20s who had the facilities and capacity to make the decision to be Damian's primary caretaker. he's never been parental toward any of the other Batkids, nor has Bruce ever forced upon him the role of having to raise them. did Bruce do a sort of questionable job with Dick? yeah. but i would argue Bruce did the best job with Dick of all the Batkids, and even if he was shitty with Dick, he couldn't parentify Dick bc there was no one for Dick to be parenting. and Dick wasn't parenting Bruce either. they just had a normal relationship of loving and caring for each other.

as for Eldest Daughter Syndrome i just.. i Do Not Like calling any male character "female coded" or "female rage coded" or "eldest daughter coded" because they're *not*. especially not in *this* medium. these are male characters, created by men, written by men 90% of the time, and written to be *male power fantasies*. nothing about Dick or Jason or any Batboy is female-coded bc they exist to be badass men. just because they show emotion and have complex relationships with Bruce doesn't make them suddenly women. Dick shows his anger in a very destructive, stereotypically "masculine" way. even if we strip it of gender, Dick doesn't exhibit most traits of Eldest Daughter Syndrome. he easily makes relationships with people his age, he has no issues telling Bruce no, he did not have caretaking responsibilities forced onto him by Bruce, he's not even really hyperindependent. Dick has a support system outside of the Bats, the fandom just ignores it. does Dick force caretaking responsibilities onto himself sometimes? can he be an overachiever? absolutely. but these are internal complexes that just come with making a character a superhero, it's a complex they all have. if i have to hear one more fan call him Eldest Daughter Syndrome-core or say he's a victim of parentification, i think I'll explode a little bit.

[cameoliob]

y-you have a waterbending jedi OC??? pls more info pls

But of course 😌😌

This is Aryx:

and he is THE gifted kid crashout

Some facts about bro:

He's an OC that I have had FOREVER (since I was 13!!) but I Star Wars-ified him like a year and a half ago, and he was very much inspired by-- buckle up for this-- Bolin (LOK), Deadpool, and Chandler Bing

When I first made him he was actually a wizards apprentice in a fantasy world that i made tf up

He's a natural blonde but keeps dying his hair black because most of his wanted posters are of him with blonde hair

Sleeps like a rock. Once he's out he is OOUUUUTTT

So close to losing it

Tea person

He was born in 30 BBY (two years younger than Cal Kestis!) and inducted to the jedi order when he was only five years old.

That's the short version, but if you want some more backstory infooo (you want to look under the cut sooooo bad (jedi mind tricking you) (it's working))

Now I want you to imagine a child so naturally in-tune with the force who is constantly wanting to explore his connection with it in order to understand all of its complexities.

Now I want you to imagine that same child except he has the most insane case of ADHD you have ever seen in your entire life.

Now, Aryx exelled in his classes much faster than a great many of his peers, his abilities with the force progressing quicker than anyone could have expected, but his affinity for doing whatever he wanted whenever he wanted needed to be kept in check for him to be able to grow into a respectful jedi knight; after much debate, he became a padawan at the ripe age of 10.

It was a controversial choice to say the least, seeing that the jedi were in the throughs of the clone wars, and the boy was so young, but his skills had surpassed those of his peers, and the council decided it best for him to undergo one-on-one instruction with a master in order to best hone his skills and behavior.

Turns out that this was a fantastic decision. His master provided him a level of structure that the youngling classes couldn't, and he had the opprotunity to get all of his little-kid energy out of the battle feild (shout out child soldiers). His padawanship lasted for just over a year until uhhhh

When Order 66 came though, Aryx and his master were stationed on a forested planet in the mid rim on a patrol with a squad of clones. He'd ran up the path, searching for local critters when he recived the comm from his master begging him to run. He did not listen, and ran back to her, having no idea the gravity of what had happened. By the time he got there the clones had already won out, and Aryx's master was gone.

That's when he decided that yeah, running actually sounds like a fantastic idea

So he fled into the dense forest, the squad of clones not far behind. Somewhere along the way, a metal loop on his lightsaber snagged on a tree branch, tethering Aryx in place so suddenly that his face got slammed into a rock on the ground (that's how he has his scars!!). He fumbled with the thing for a painfully long moment before he realized that the branch was coated in thick, spikey bark that tore up his palms. The squad was getting closer, he didnt have time to deal with this; he unhooked his saber from his belt and left it there, opting to bolt further into the woods.

Eventually he came to a river. The water was exeedingly violent where they crashed against the rocks, and the cliff on the opposite side too far and too high to leap to. Aryx was trapped.

As the clones encroached on his position he realized that leaving his saber behind was a TERRIBLE idea, but it was too late to dwell on that. He had three options; 1, jump into this agressive ass river and just see where it would take him, 2, run back towards his saber and hope that he wouldn't run into the clones on the way, or 3, stand his ground and fight using the force

The time it took for him to make that desision had run out; he sensed the clones before he saw them.

Aryx decided, in a moment of complete panic (as an adult he claims that he was perfectly calm and that this was a desigsion made in a moment of level-headed, unfiltered genius, but he is lying) he had the thought that, if the force effects things... and water is a thing... then maybe he could use the force to redirect the water on the other side of the river-bank to create a space large enough for him to jump to, and from there he could use manipulate the water into a sheild to protect him from blasterfire while he scaled the cliff.

So that is exactly what he did.

He managed to find his way to a neighboring system where he just kind of hung out for a few years until he realized-- at the crisp age of 16-- that literally nothing (except for the law but like who gaf about that) was stopping him from wreaking mild havoc on imperials just cause he wants to, ANNNNDDDD water would be the perfect weapon; it's unnoticable, it's effective and it's not like bending water is a normal Jedi thing to do, these imps would have not a SINGLE idea about what hit em

So being a pain in the ass is his unnofficial hobby for like 6 years until he gets forcefully induced into a found family with these losers ↓

(From left to right: Dyron Ki'oa (Aryx's lil rival turned lil bf), Naveen Ki'oa (Dyrons little brother), Enajj Tane, Amida Lin, Sola Genoa (Phee Genoa's little sister tehehehe))

(Theres a whole plot with the found family thing but we do NAWT have time to get into that rn)

Anyways that's the end of the yap sesh have these Aryx drawings as a treat

[jasper-unofficial]

new siwaj is genuinely so good at the romcom genre (with a dash of something like slice of life here and there), so good at showing humour and domesticity and intimacy and cute fluffy romance. fully unparalleled in those departments. and i think so far perfect 10 liners manages to stay within the bounds of the genre the best.

putting aside some of new's earlier works and focusing on two generally amazing romcoms that he has made in recent years that i absolutely adore - 'a boss and a babe' and 'we are' - there was pretty much only one issue with both of them: they tried to bite off more (complicated and heavy topics) than they (as romcom series) could chew. the way abaab handled the abuse storyline was just bad and it might as well not have brought up the question of the relationship's power dynamic cause it didn't have anything substantial to say about it. don't get me started on the way child abandonment is waved off in 'we are'. and i honestly think these more serious topics were eventually dealt with so flippantly not because new is incapable of handling such serious topics at all (see: until we meet again) but because seriously handling them in this case would take us too far away from the romcom genre. they are simply something it is inherently unequipped to deal with.

meanwhile, perfect 10 liners (at least, so far - fingers crossed for the rest of the series) has been really good at presenting human characters with a backstory that is significant and effective in establishing conflict but also pretty normal, not entirely world-shattering, or uniquely heavy. having a shitty ex or divorced parents are things that do absolutely have a serious negative impact on people, but they are also very common and it is exactly because of how ordinary and easily digestible they are that they can be dealt with fairly quickly and painlessly, not requiring too much nuance and in-depth discussion. what i'm saying is they are not like your first love being a survivor who killed herself or your boyfriend being sent away and abandoned at age five. you know what i mean? they are perfect conflict set-ups but are also not too much for a romcom to handle.

because at the end of the day the romcom genre is like the dessert of media. it's awesome, it gives us a sugar rush and, to some (me, it's me, i'm talking about myself), it is the best part of the meal. but it cannot handle the same amount of density the main course can. it is mostly lighthearted and largely uncomplicated by definition and it should stay that way. (part of the reason why i think romcoms have been struggling with this is because there has been a trend of people wishing to feel constantly intellectual just for the sake of it and thinking complexity and heavy themes are the only acceptable things in media, but that's like... a whole other essay).

and, although i know a lot also depends on the screenwriter(s) and the source material, with the way conflict has been presented and wielded in perfect 10 liners, i really think new is finally fully getting to that point where he knows exactly what this kind of series should look like, what his own strengths are, and how to mix the two.

at this point, at least to me, new siwaj is the king of the bl romcom genre. and, as someone who has been watching straight romcoms his whole life and has always loved the genre but yearned to see himself in it, i am eternally grateful to new for finally making that dream come true.

[lykegenia]

So something has been bugging me for a while now about A and N’s backstories, and while I know not everyone will be as pedantic as me, as someone who loves history and has done a lot of writing, I feel that if you’re going to write a story about vampires and give them a specific time and date of origin, then there should be a certain level of research that goes into making that background authentic. I'm not saying that Mishka didn’t do any research. It just seems that in order to keep the vibe of a happy, mellow fantasy some of the less savoury aspects of A and N’s upbringings have been left out, and it's a shame. To be honest, it feels a bit disingenuous, and it feels like an opportunity got wasted.

Let me explain (long post got long, it's 2am)

Let's take A first, since the problem is simpler here.

A is the child of a Norman lord and an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman, born in the first generation after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. A says that these were turbulent times but that their parents had a happy marriage. Which. While I’m sure a lot of unions in that time period made the best of it, I can’t help but feel this description strips away a lot of the context of what was going on at that point in history - and removes some of the complexity about A’s thoughts on love and relationships.

Basically, after he took control of the throne, William the Conqueror stripped many Anglo-Saxon lords of their lands and titles so he could give them to his Norman buddies instead - with the added bonus that it left the Anglo-Saxons without the means to raise armies against him. The sisters, daughters, and widows of the dispossessed Anglo-Saxons were then forced to marry these new Norman lords to legitimise their power, not infrequently after all of their male relatives had been slaughtered. It’s not as if Anglo-Saxon women weren’t used to being used as political chess pieces, but the years after the conquest were brutal. It’s why William had to build so many castles. The point that I’m trying to make is that even if A’s mother was content enough in her daily life, due to the power imbalance between her and her husband, it's very likely she had little choice in the matter. She may have seen a lot of her family killed for political reasons, with the knowledge that – in an age where women had very little protection outside of their paternal household – she might be next if she made too much of a fuss.

It would be fascinating to see what effect that tension has had on A 900 years later, or even to get an acknowledgement of how much times have changed, but we don’t. We don't see how their early years affected them, how they view relationships formed naturally instead of via political contracts. And I really, really wish we did. There is so much potential there.

But A is not the one keeping me up past 2 in the morning. It’s N, and the utter detachment their backstory seems to have from the period in history they lived in as a human. And it all stems from the fact that they came from the English nobility in the late 1600s.

See, the bulk of the problem is that English inheritance law at the time heavily favoured primogeniture, where a man’s wealth would go to his first-born son. Some dispensation was made for widows and other children, but the estates, assets, and most of the money had a very clear destination.

For one thing, this makes it kinda weird that N’s stepfather would have needed an heir before he could inherit, because except in extreme circumstances everything would have gone to him anyway. Don't get me wrong, this isn't the worst part of the problem, it’s just annoying when there are more plausible reasons for him marrying a woman already pregnant with another man’s child (old family friend wanting to save her from disgrace, needed the dowry to pay off gambling debts, there was a longstanding betrothal between them that would have been tricky to get out of, etc.).

No, the bigger problem with N’s backstory vs primogeniture is firstly that at the time the English aristocracy was racist af (still is tbh) and given his pretty obvious mixed-race heritage, no court would have agreed that Nate was a legitimate son (this is for a very special reason that we will be coming back to). I say Nate specifically here because primogeniture requires the eldest legitimate son. Nat wouldn’t have inherited at all, as women in that period passed from the guardianship of their father (or other male blood relative) into that of their husband after marriage, and only gained any kind of independence with widowhood. If N had been an only child, maybe they would have been treated as a special case, but unfortunately Milton exists: the eldest legitimate son who by law will inherit everything.

Now here’s the thing. Your average aristocrat in the 17th century is very obsessed with lineage and keeping the family line unbroken. He would not, therefore, send his legitimate heir to sea to be shot at or drowned before he can carry on the family name – that joy instead goes to any other sons who need their own profession, because again, they will get very little. Nat would have had a dowry, but would never have been expected to make her own living, so I'm going to focuson Nate for this next bit.

In Book 3, if you unlock his tragic backstory Nate tells you he joined the Royal Navy after Milton went missing so that he could go look for him. And, well. This is where his backstory as Mishka tells it completely falls apart. For two reasons:

1. Even in the modern day, you can’t ‘just’ join the Navy, and you certainly can’t just jump straight to being a lieutenant – it takes years of training and after a certain age they won’t take you because they won’t be able to mould you easily enough into a useful tool. For most of the Navy's history, the process was even more involved. It wasn’t an office job you could just rock up to and then quit if you felt like it, it was a lifetime commitment. Boys destined to be officers would be sent to sea as early as 12 to learn shipboard life, starting at the bottom and moving up the ranks. These were gained by passing exams and by purchasing a commission – which is why you generally had to come from wealth to be an officer at all. Once you get to lieutenant you're responsible for a lot of people, and might be tasked with commanding any captured ships alongside the daily running of yours - it was not an easy job.

2. Even as a lieutenant (one rank below Captain, with varying levels of seniority) it’s not like you can just go where you want. In the 1720s British colonies already existed in India, the Caribbean, and up the entire eastern seaboard of North America and into Canada, and the Navy was tasked with protecting merchant shipping along these seaways (and one trade in particular that we’ll be getting to, don’t worry). Nate could have ended up practically anywhere in the burgeoning empire. He would not have been able to choose whom he served under, and would not have been able to demand his superior officer go against orders from the admirality to chase down one lone vessel because he thinks another one of the admirals might be a bit dodgy. It could not have happened.

Besides these impracticalities, there’s a far easier way for the child of a wealthy man to get to a specific point on the far side of the globe to look for their lost sibling, which is the route I assume Nat took sine she couldn’t have joined the Navy (yes she could have snuck in but she’s specifically in a dress in the B2 mirror scene so). All they'd have to do would be to charter a ship and tell the captain where to go, which is the plot of Treasure Island. It's quicker, less fuss, with less chance of things going wrong. It's even possible in the age of mercantilism that the Sewells had some merchant vessels among their holdings that could be diverted for the task. Why go through the hassle of joining the Navy and potentially ending up on the wrong side of the world when you can just hire a ship directly?

If Nate does have to be in the Navy (and let’s face it, it’s worth it just for the uniform) then it's far more plausible is that, as the illegitimate son who would not inherit because of racism etc, he got sent to the Navy as a boy and rose through the ranks to become a lieutenant. When he got news of Milton’s disappearance not far from where he was stationed, he begged his captain to go investigate in case whatever happened turned out to be the symptom of a bigger problem. Like pirates.

I like this version better not just because it makes more sense, or because it keeps Nate’s situation re: inheritance closer to Nat’s and therefore makes their stories more equal, but also because it adds a delicious amount of guilt to Nate’s need to find his brother. We know his entire crew died looking for answers, because he was selfish – that’s roughly 100-400 lives lost because of him, and we know that sort of thing eats at him.

So that's one side of the story, but if Milton wasn’t in the Navy, what was he doing on the other side of the Atlantic in the first place? Well, this is where we come to the biggest elephant in the room regarding N’s backstory as a member of the 17th century English aristocracy and potentially as a naval officer: the Atlantic Slave Trade. If you are wealthy in 17th century Britain it's more than likely that your wealth comes either from the trade itself, or from the products made with the labour of enslaved people. If you are wealthy, you want to protect your assets from attack by pirates or foreign powers so you don't become less wealthy, and that is what the Navy is for.

Regardless of N’s own views on slavery at the time – and any subsequent changes in opinion – it’s likely their family owned or had shares in slave plantations in the Americas. As distasteful as it is, it makes far more sense that Milton was on a trip to check the family’s holdings when his ship - specifically a merchant vessel - went missing. From a pirate perspective, a merchant ship would make a much better target than a Navy vessel, being slower, more likely to have valuable cargo, and less likely to have marines or a well-trained broadside.

It's not surprising that Mishka left out the subject of the slave trade given her tendency to skirt around darker subjects and general blindspot for racial politics, but it is nuance that, if it was there, would create a more grounded and coherent backstory for N that doesn’t have quite so many holes. Like with A being the child of an invader and his war bride, we could get some deeper thoughts from N about their place in the world - How do they feel to have grown up so privileged when others who looked like them were regarded as literal property? How did they feel being part of the system that made it happen? Did it inform their compassionate nature? Is it still a source of guilt or someithng they've tried to make up for?

I'm not sure where I was going with all of this. It's late, my sleep pattern is fucked. The tl;dr is that giving the vampires' backstories historical context would make them feel more multifaceted and would give opportunities for character growth that are instead missed because of a desire for a more sanitized version of the past.

[kustas]

im interested 👀 pleaseeeee share your coustas ideas <3

also @ the mud slums thing so true......i cant believe we got 0.25 seconds of the most interesting and thematically relevant plotpoint to make room for cop backstory #1 and cop backstory #2

the slum dwellers having their memories conveniently erased actually made me wonder if part of the reason she turned him into a tree is because the secret of magic spreading among unknowings would be inevitable if he had agency and i imagine she wants to stall that issue until later in the story

my idea is as such: Coustas getting brought to Qifrey's atelier would be a miserable experience for him, as he'd find himself alone (it's unlikely Dagda would be able to follow, and depending on his state he might have to be left behind while badly wounded), in an environment that's unlike anything he's experienced and forced to face with his inferiority complex. We see in the story he's extremely callous about his past, hes keenly aware of his place at the bottom of the social ladder and is quick to react when reminded about it by external factors. In the atelier he'd find himself, like Coco once was, surrounded by kids his age who already master the stuff they're studying, with the added difficulty of having just started to read. I also believe the level of comfort witches live would stir his resentment towards them even more - this is a kid for whom "don't starve" was the major preoccupation, whereas witches live with a bunch of magical contraptions for daily comfort and convenience. We already know well his bitterness at how witches refuse to use magic for saving lives, I don't believe he'd take easily to whatever fancy stuff they have like the eternal stew or running drinking water.

I'd also like to bring up something of a real life issue that's echoed in fandom spaces around adoption. When people online say they want him to join the atelier, it's to mean, a caring mentor, a safe space to live and an education would be good for him to have. But in the story, he already has had Dagda educate him and care for him, he just happens to be poor (and likely inexperienced). Coustas mentions multiple times how high he thinks of Dagda, so while their living conditions weren't amazing it's not fair to call their little family a problem. Fact is, in real life, a lot of people can have kids, and limiting who's allowed to have children is the first step in a very slippery slope regarding individual freedom. "Adopting" Coustas into comfort (...nvm that he's already been adopted) as an idea echoes to me the barely hidden politic of "poor people should not have kids for their own good" that comes with the pressure if not obligation some vulnerable groups face regarding having to give away their own children to the government. We already have an instance of Coustas being, for the lack of a better word, confiscated from Dagda in the chapters at the riverside incident, where Lulucy threatens to take or not take him to get Dagda off her. In my opinion it's one of the most casual background chilling implications moments of the series and I'd like to riff on that a bit more

Coustas and his old man bring up the idea you can make your own family and show an example of a happy one that doesn't fit the mold we're used to for that. Even if that aspect got shanked by the new chapters confirming that Coustas holds dear calling Dagda his father, the rest is still present. They're not a conventional pair but they make things work. I don't wanna get too political on the anime blog but I believe irl that the conventional family structure is evil, that preventing people from having kids based on arbitrary criteria "for their own good" is evil, and that kids are honestly treated like shit by society in terms of not having agency so this all informs how I'm writing the little guy.

[kalinara]

A long time ago, for a former blog, I did a write up of one of my favorite random little X-Men stories, specifically the backup story from Classic X-Men #41-42.

Since, nowadays, it's a lot easier for all of us to go and read random old issues, I thought it would be fun to showcase this story again.

So what's the appeal, you may wonder? Why is this going to be my first (and probably not only) deep dive into a particular comic book story for this blog?

Well, it's a backstory issue. I enjoy backstory issues. And it involves my favorite character. And there's something that newer fans, who may have gotten into the X-Men through other media, like the movies or cartoons (welcome! By the way! 616 is a trip!) may not know, and that is:

Scott Summers's backstory is fucking batshit. And this is one tiny peek into it! Enjoy!

(Warnings for spoilers for a story that came out when I was three years old.)

So what DO we know about Scott Summers's backstory before we start?

We know that, at one point, Scott had parents and one (?) brother. Eventually that total gets a little murky. But at some point, when Scott was about 8-10 years old (retelling vary), they were on a nice little plane trip. things kind of went to hell. Parents were "killed", kids went out the plane with one parachute, the parachute caught fire, and the kids fell. Alex bounced, Scott didn't.

Eventually, Scott ends up in the "care" of a dude named Jack Winters. Jack is pretty awful, using him to commit crimes, and in general is an abusive dick. I have a tag for him, if you want specific examples. Our good pal, Charles Xavier saved Scott from that guy, and well, the rest of the story is known.

This story takes place in between, and the big twist is kind of revealed from the Marvel Unlimited summary, as well as one of my tags to this post. Oops. Oh well.

Anyway, welcome to the "State Home for Foundlings" in Omaha, Nebraska. And even Claremont kind of snarks about the name:

One funny thing about poor Scott's origin is that the orphanage that makes up a big part of it was an outdated concept even as far back as 1986. It's only become more so as the rolling timeline continues on.

I love that we get a nod to that here. Let's just say, though, that there's a reason that it still works when we transplant the events of this story and others to 2007-ish*

(Insert your own time scale here. I chose 2007 because whenever anyone at Marvel is asked about Scott's age, they usually give 27-28 as a bench mark. Does that make sense? No. But that's comics for you. Sixty real life years, twelve in universe years. Huh, for once it divides evenly. I'm going to enjoy that.)

Anyway, we start out with a fight. Initially, it's between a kid called Toby and a kid called Nate. Funny coincidence that name. But our Scott is a hero at heart.

Sadly, he isn't much of a fighter. But I appreciate Toby's read of Scott having a "suicide complex." Kid, you have no idea.

So funny thing about the staff of this orphanage, I'm not sure how many of them actually...exist. You'll see what I mean later.

But we do get to meet one that almost certainly does exist, the new orphanage doctor, Robyn Hanover:

I love her, if only for her use of the phrase "sweet science of pugilism." And that she calls him a "brave young paladin."

Potential fanfic fodder here: might Robyn's profession and particular linguistic quirks have led a young Scott to be more comfortable with Hank early on? Or less?

She does know at least some of the story though, but this bit is rather interesting:

Toby thinks Nate's a creep. Even Scott doesn't like him that much. So what IS Nate like?

We might find out. But not yet, because Scott's got to have a pretty horrible nightmare:

Something interesting about Nate in THIS version of the origin story that's a little lost in some of the other peeks into the Orphanage days, is that this Nate is smaller than Scott, and blond.

It's maybe worth thinking about how, in this nightmare, this smaller, blond child is begging not to be dropped. And it's interesting how one of those faces in the fire is a man with a mustache.

We might want to come back to this in a bit.

So this is Nate. Hi Nate.

One cool thing about Marvel Unlimited, if you decide to splurge for it, is that you can actually zoom in on panels.

This is the first panel, zoomed in close. Neat, huh?

So anyway, Dr. Hanover, being a doctor, is not so inclined to take a ten year old's word for his roommate's condition:

So as an older adult reading this, I find myself noticing things I didn't necessarily notice before.

Like the homophobic tone of Toby's insults toward Nate, in particular. "Sittin' in a tree", "sissy boys". What exactly is Toby accusing Nate of?

So what IS the deal with Nate? This next part might explain it. And then raise a whole lot of questions.

So, that observation that Dr. Hanover had before? About Nate acting like he ran the place? YEAH.

It's probably worth noting that initially, Mr. Sinister's backstory hadn't been established yet. The whole Victorian scientist who spent time among the Nazis and was genetically obsessed with mutantkind and did scary scientific experiments in the basement wasn't what Claremont initially had in mind.

IIRC, Claremont's idea for Mr. Sinister was that roommate Nate was the real thing, an immortal who aged very slowly, and the cartoonish Mr. Sinister was his psychic projection. It's worth noting that even in this version, Nate was chronologically supposed to be an adult, fixated on a twelve year old boy.

And when we take Toby's taunts into account, it's still very strongly...allegorical. Shall we say.

That said, the Victorian Scientist DELIBERATELY disguising as a ten year old boy so he can be Scott Summers's roommate does make it even worse. That said, it provides a really nice explanation as to why "Nate" looks like Alex.

(Reminder: this is the guy that Xavier put on the Krakoan Council. And stood by at least once while Sinister said creepy shit to his "son".)

Anyway, Dr. Hanover is intrigued by Scott and decides to do some investigating. She learns the following backstory:

Scott was brought here four years ago.

He'd been in the hospital for a skull fracture, and spent a year in a coma.

He's never been adopted, because he's got brain damage. We're told it's a "combined effect" of the injury, plus exposure from being out on the prairie in the middle of a blizzard. This leads to my favorite panel ever:

Of course, you should have guessed. I love comics. I really do.

This is when we meet Mr. Pearson, the chief administrator of the orphanage. And I'm not entirely sure how he fits with Claremont's original idea for Mr. Sinister. Since it's pretty clear that this guy is ALSO Mr. Sinister.

I'm not going to show the whole page, but here's some choice bits.

So yeah, Mr. Pearson does not approve of Dr. Hanover's everything, it seems. And he particularly does not like that she's "focusing [her] interest on one child ... to the possible detriment of his fellows".

He gives a speech on not playing favorites, noting that the charges should be treated equally, and that he thinks of the staff and children as family.

Dr. Hanover rightfully thinks he's creepy.

Anyway, I love Dr. Hanover, because she listens to the creepy asshole tell her that she should not focus interest on one particular child and responds to it by immediately asking said child to help her set up her office.

And they even get to bond a little:

Of course, she's a pilot too!

Scott, right now, is pretty cynical about his ability to fly and confesses his pretty terrible headaches. Because optic blasts kind of suck, even before you actually have them. Again.

But they're interrupted by drama. Remember bully Toby?

He's on the roof. Nate, in the crowd outside, doesn't think this is a big loss. Scott disagrees and runs up the fire escape.

Dr. Hanover tries to talk to Nate, and it does not make things LESS creepy.

Not to excuse bullying, or homophobia, but you ever get the sense that Toby might have had a point. Because this shit is fucking creepy. Back away from the twelve year old, Essex.

So it's time for Scott to get a new trauma:

It's funny, but sometimes I think you could actually make a convincing argument that Scott Summers has some kind of very low level precognitive ability. This is somewhat similar to the fire dream above. (Another example might be the dream-execution in Fall of the House of X. Ever notice the presiding judge, sitting with Orchis issues before he joins up?)

Anyway, Dr. Hanover and Scott share a moment on the roof, while the ambulance takes Toby's body away. Scott's rather understandably upset.

Dr. Hanover's a fun protagonist because she doesn't know what the audience does. But she's starting to put some things together:

I like the lowkey horror of this cliffhanger. You're in danger, Doc.

There is an interesting note here though. Scott's apparently confided in her about his nightmares: flames, fallings, and dropping someone whose life depends on you.

We know what that means, but she doesn't. Why wouldn't Scott TELL her about it though, if he trusts her enough to tell her about the nightmares themselves?

-

So the story continues in #42. (The main, reprinted story, by the way, is the Dark Phoenix Saga. Just worth noting.)

We start this one out with a much happier twelve-year-old Scott. He's at the Sage Air Force base, with friends of hers: Rick and Trish Bogart.

We learn that Scott can identify WWII planes on sight, like the DeHavilland Mosquito. Rick and Trish show off another old plane that Rick flew in HIS war. Presumably Vietnam, but if we're rolling time-lining the story, they could mean the Persian Gulf, or even Afghanistan.

One of the reasons I've never minded the rolling timeline is the unique perspective it gives us about history. Have you ever thought about how easy it is to update certain storyline beats? A man in his thirties fought in a war when he was a little younger. Which war? Does it really matter?

There's always a war.

But let's ditch the bleakness for some trauma.

See, the airshow is going really well, and Dr. Hanover's friends are pretty awesome. Rick, who flew in the show, is immediately very friendly and offers Scott a ride in the plane. Scott is initially enthused but freezes up.

And then the skydiving part of the show starts. Parachuters who use smoke for a special effect. And well, Scott's got some issues with burning parachutes.

I love how no one in the crowd seems to care about the screaming child in their midst. Nebraskans are cold, man.

But it's really interesting that Dr. Hanover doesn't know who "Alex" is, isn't it?

How does that work? She's read his file. And Alex was in the crash too, adopted out when Scott was in a coma. There SHOULD be records. Unless you're in an orphanage run by a weird obsessed telepath, anyway.

It's also worth noting that Rick Bogart took special attention to the kid raving about roman candles and burning canopies and is starting to wonder.

Back at the Orphanage, Nate continues to be creepy:

Mostly I included these panels for the art. I love the creepy shadows, and Nate's face at the bottom. This is a horror comic, after all.

Dr. Hanover, by the way, still flies occasionally, and she tells Trish Bogart about Nate.

Unlike a certain bald professor, Dr. Hanover admits she's in over her head. She's a physician, not a psychiatrist. But Scott apparently really wanted to come back to the air field.

Per Trish, Rick's excited too. Apparently he loves kids. Scott's apparently with him, while the girls fly together.

I mentioned before, one of the things I love about this story is getting these outside characters putting clues and observations together. Here, it's Rick Bogart. He's talking with another air force guy, both noting that Scott apparently has a knack for preflight procedure.

And here, we get maybe some explanation as to why Scott hasn't confided anything about his backstory.

That's a little suspicious, isn't it?

Inconsistent memories make sense with Scott's medical condition, but why would he suddenly forget that he was just talking about them? It's almost like SOMEONE is fucking around up there.

Later, Dr. Hanover is violating HIPAA laws by filling her friends in on Scott's medical state. There's one bit that solves a bit of a long-running mystery throughout most of Scott's origin stories.

It's always kind of a running question as to wear Scott got the glasses he has when he's on the streets, and then with Jack. At one point, Jack claims he'd gotten them for him. (Maybe he'd gotten him a replacement pair?)

This at least gives us a basis for the knowledge. I always wonder how common ruby quartz actually is in the Marvel universe.

I do like the line about glasses being "isolating". It's funny to remember that, in the 80s, glasses weren't as common or unremarkable as they are now. I can remember so many YA books or sitcom plots of the pretty girl suddenly needing glasses and her social life was in PERIL. Nowadays, it's just sexy librarian vibes.

Also, we get proof that the records DO mention a brother. But apparently not by name. Why is Alex's NAME sealed?

Another notable thing about this scene is that Rick's been doing some digging, based on some of Scott's statements. Blackbird pilots are rare. Scott's dad was a NASA applicant, and Scott mentioned the cold.

Rick thinks he can find out where Scott came from. And well, even if not...

I love how they're wearing sunglasses indoors. Scott, we've found your people.

Let's pretend the story ends here, for a moment. A poor kid in a creepy place finds a family of sunglasses-wearers who love him, while Dr. Hanover gets to help a lot of other kids.

Or, maybe not.

So what happens now?

That, basically. Dr. Hanover is a zombie. The Bogarts are dead. And Scott remains trapped in Nate's hellish little game.

I love his smirk in that lower left panel there.

But maybe it's not entirely hopeless, as Scott is not an idiot. He resolves to get the fuck out of here as soon as he can. Aw, don't worry kid, you'll make it out...

You've got a lot more trauma ahead of you. You're just getting started.

But at least we get to end the comic with some panels that I've showcased before:

This is one of those sequences that really only works with the idea that the Phoenix is, indeed, a part of Jean Grey.

I'm really glad that they went back to that idea. Because otherwise, we'd all have to deal with the idea that this spectral entity is also possibly a pedophile.

Hey, a fun note to leave you on. Remember how Scott's kid is also named Nathan?

Yep. It's probably best that Cable never find out where his name actually comes from...