#[as an example]

[ween-kitchens]

mildly frustrated at how many 'we need to talk about lizzie more' posts ive seen and the distinct lack of actual posts of art or writing about lizzie that ive seen cross my dash

like guys i thought we wanted to talk about lizzie and not the fandom's problems when is that happening

[longsightmyth]

I move that we create a new romance genre

It's not forbidden. But it's inconvenient as hell.

[raayllum]

Been thinking recently about the idea in fandom that boils down to, usually, "the Character that Changes the most being deemed 'the most complex'" and that character development (i.e. character change) being held up as The Golden Standard of a Good Character and...

I fundamentally disagree, but first, a little bit more explanation about what I mean

Very often shows and movies, when being recommended on tumblr, are sold on the basis of having enjoyable/in-depth characters. Often times this also means conflating enjoyable with likeable, but that's a discussion post for another day. And even more often, it means there are characters who are seen as Deep because of how radically they change over the course of a story.

Lots of times, this falls into two camps:

Characters change radically, but early on in the story, and remain largely the same past that point of change (think anytime in a first season) until the end of the story

People recommending shows based on characters having traditional redemption arcs (enemy or bully to friend / good guy / love interest)

Now, I'm not saying that 1) character change can't be deep or 2) that character growth is bad. Neither of those things are true, even subjectively. What I am saying is that 1) character change / a character changing is not the same as automatically being a good, interesting, or well written character and 2) character growth is not the be-all-end-all of character writing. Yes, there can be problems with characters be overly stagnant, but typically that's only an issue if 1) a work is serialized and concerned with character development and they don't change at all, 2) a character never adjusts (rightly or wrongly) according to their mistakes, or 3) all of the above but they're a main character.

However, assuming that Character A has to be radically different at the beginning of a story in terms of their personality/values/etc. as they are at the end of the story is just... not how it works, necessarily. This is, I think, one of the reasons why antagonists who get redemption arcs tend to be more popular than heroes who had good values the whole time, because there's more opportunity to point and go "look, they've changed! they act on and have basic compassion now!" Which, fair enough, but again: other types of characters are fine too.

Particularly for characters fandom tends to have the hardest time with: paragons.

Paragons are characters who are usually the central hero, pretty morally if not entirely moral upstanding, and because they already start out in a place of "always doing the right thing," they rarely radically change by the end of the story. Instead, paragons are used to progress theme/messaging and inspire other characters around them to change (a good example might be Buddy from the Christmas movie Elf and to a lesser extent - as he's more transformative as a character - Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender, who's there to return childhood to his friends as an ideal and carry on Air Nomad values).

And for TDP, that's Ezran.

He's the youngest in the main cast and by far the most measured. While Callum and Rayla are off fighting, he keeps a level head. He assumes responsiblity largely without guilt, holds other people accountable most often without being cruel, he's kind and deeply compassionate, he shows regular empathy for his enemies even when he has to treat them like enemies, he loves his father but does not idealize him, he is king without craving power, he's trusting and honest and while he has his flaws (overly optimistic, his passivity, sometimes struggles to consider other people's emotions, naivety, etc), they - as of yet - are not overly connected to his sense of morality (which is a distinct difference compared to the rest of the main cast).

Now, TDP is less concerned with the theme of Childhood compared to something like ATLA, but Ezran being a child (again, in a way the rest of the cast is not) is also very important. Ezran, and Callum to a lesser extent, is the embodiment of the concept that children aren't born with hatred in their hearts; it's learned, or earned, through experience, society, and suffering. And as Ezran spells out for us in 4x03, he has suffered and been hurt - and he believes in breaking the cycle and believing in hope for a better future anyway.

Ezran's steadfast reflection of the series' core theme of "true strength - to break the cycle - is found in vulnerability, in forgiveness, in love" in both word and action does make him the closest thing to a paragon in the series. He's the one who finds the egg; he's the one who forgives Rayla and Soren; he's the one who still tries to help Claudia; he's the peacemaker, the literal bridge between peoples and species in spite of witnessing so many of their worst crimes/actions.

In both arcs, there tended to be a trio of characters who rapidly change, and a trio of characters who are more, comparatively, stagnated. Early S1 Rayla, Callum, and Soren are radically different in a ton of ways than they are even at the beginning of S3, but especially by the end. On the other hand, Viren - post 1x03 at least - Claudia and Ezran are far more consistent in arc 1; their circumstances change, but their viewpoints and realities and choices are largely the same from season to season - they just keep doubling down. This doesn't mean they don't change at all, but they don't radically transform - they just become more of what they already are.

I'd say that in arc 2, things have switched up, with Callum, Rayla, and Viren being the three who are radically transformed (thus far) with Soren, Claudia, and Ezran still being in the more stagnated corner. (For more notes on Claudia and Ezran's shared passivity, check out this pre-S4 meta.)

Ezran starts out the series as a good hearted, slightly mischevious little boy who loves his family and believes that people can be good. The point of the series is not to change these parts of him. It's to demonstrate the difficulties - losing both his parents, taking on the kingship, struggling to make the right choices, keeping his friends together, caring about peace and sentiment in a world that increasingly does not - of maintaining those positive traits, again, in a world that is determined to test those ideals and attributes.

Ezran is not here to be transformed by the storm, the same way his friends and some of his companions are. He is here to demonstrate the strength and necessity in weathering the storm so that the world cannot make you cold, or uncaring, or violent, even when those paths and emotions would be much easier to go down.

Good character development isn't about changing your character; it's about changing your audience's understanding and perspective of your character. Sometimes that means the character is also changing simultaneously, but that's far from a requirement for a character to be interesting. Like most things in writing, what it really boils down to is execution.

And I could go on about why I think people gravitate towards characters who start off evil (often part of imperialist empires or older, institutionally backed systems) and learn that the evil was wrong actually (and sometimes not even that) but that's a meta for another day, and this one is long enough.

TLDR; Ezran, like a few other characters in the show - antagonists and protagonists alike - is not meant to be a radically transformative, even though he very much has grown and changed. Instead, he's meant to exemplify the importance of not losing your sense of self in an increasingly cruel or difficult world, and what parts we should arguably try our best to hold onto as well.

[matchaizuku]

i really love the “limelight hero x underground hero” dynamic in bnha ships, it just so interesting…

[thoughtfulfangirling]

One of the things that has me so invested in The Locked Tomb series is that it's got such a vibrant and active fandom. I just want to take a moment to appreciate the fact that some thick, not technically YA novels with no current visual adaptation has the fandom it does. I'm proud of all of you. That's really fucking cool. And FUN!

[luimagines]

I'm talking like... if I were to set up a patreon, mailing list or something for monthly chapters until it's complete, would you guys be interested in that?

I'd naturally have to change it all to actually fit out of LoZ and such but I'll be keeping the main ideas the same. You would likely be able to tell who's who if you've gotten context clues from the boys themselves. XD

And this is for King! Dragon! Time. Not the other one.

[dailyayao]

[armed-saphire]

does anyone know of a website where you can log how many of several things are in a whole of things and it gives you some sort of percentage or pie chart of how much of each variable there is in the group of variables

[whitleyschn33]

Not reblogging because I don't want to derail their posts, but Kitkat's and Burgers' discussion of clothing in RWBY makes me really want to see Edna Mode: Remnant Edition. I want to see how unique fashion can be created using materials designed to actually withstand abuse and work with the Semblances/fighting styles of the user ala The Incredibles so bad. Add in the devastatingly-underutilized concepts of "all of our tools and equipment are conduits for Aura" (which would include their uniforms/clothing) and "embedding Dust into clothing is an age-old technique", and a character's choice of fashion could be just as much about function as it is form and actually aid them in their fights.

[aimasup]

Wait did being into tech erase Valentino of his latino identity or did I miss something? Why does have only American accent now? 🥺

OH let me clarify! ( °□°) ՞ ՞ Veeswap Valentino is still Hispanic he just has an American Accent! He does not have the ability to change between different accents anymore. Unfortunately, his programming language is more fluent than his (very bad) Spanish

This is something that Veeswap Velvette, who is both black and hispanic, can do now instead. I just wanted to swap their accents but their ethnicities stay (mostly) the same!

[castoff-comic]

Sorry if you’ve answered this before but I’m a new reader as of a couple days ago, is Frankie inspired by Frankenstein’s creature or am I just making parallels because of the name and because he happens to look a lot like how I draw the creature? Either way I love him 10/10 would be his friend in real life and lie on the floor thinking about pancakes with him

tbh the Frankie = Frankenstein's monster thing was entirely an accident

I named him after the guy from one piece u_u

[papermonkeyism]

you asked how to design clothing a while ago and while I'm no pro I thought I'd give my two cents. First things first, how do they go on/come off? Especially with different digits or fancy headgear likes horns, frills, etc. Or back ornamentation like wings. You can't just throw on a shirt like humans do. And what's easy to reach/do? Buttons or laces on the front are good, but what if the digits don't allow for those tiny, complicated motions? Or the range of reach to get them all? Pants and other lower garments have similar issues, you can't just cut a hole in for a tail and call it good. What alterations would need to be made to make it easy to get them on and off? To prevent them interfering with bathroom time excessively or emoting with extra appendages? If you have sharp claws how do they avoid ripping the "pants" on the way on and off? A lot of the times things that wrap around or drape over are better off for making whole new outfits than trying to modify other outfits. Various skirts, dresses, togas, and some types of tunics are good to look at for bases. You also have to consider what the race considers indecent. Junk out fine but nipples can't show? Bare ass okay but the knees have to be covered? Human ideals? And what's legal in the setting regarding modesty? Do they have different rules for different races or just say "this is a human/dwarf/elf/orc/whatever village, you have to follow our ideas of modesty!"? And with fur involved are certain haircuts preferred over others? What about shedding season vs non-shedding? Winter vs summer coat? Do those change the modesty rules? What about how the clothing will fit/be affected? (buttons would absolutely get clogged and tangled with thick, fluffy fur, same for zips or velcro if those are invented in your world.)

These are all excellent and well thought out points, thank you!

I do have some vague ideas of how to work the ... what's the word... the original(?) tribal(?) clothing for the dragon people of Arcanth's kind, but considering Arcanth themself was raised by dwarves pretty much from when they were still a baby, that's a good list of what to keep in mind when designing the modifications.

(The other Termrean, Xaranthras also mostly wears somewhat "human" clothing while on the job, as he's had to deal with species based prejudices at one point in the past, and has opted to dress in a more "civilized" manner to be treated like a person rather than a primitive beast. The two won't be the only ones of their kind to show up in the story, based on my preliminary plotting, but they're the ones to be present from the start.)

Though, I do find it sorta hilarious that I find it easier to wrap my head around clothing the non-human monster people, and am struggling way more in trying to figure out how to clothe the "human" peoples of the setting. :'D

It's not supposed to be Earth, I can't just go copy-pasting actual real life cultures in it without understanding what I'm copying, even the actual humans of the setting arent 1-to-1 matches ethnically to how real life Earth is, it's a different world (not to mention the elves/dwarves/orcs and then there's the whole goblin situation going on, doing its own thing).

And I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing.

Fabric is a thing, yes. People dress in it. How?

[mister-e-muss]

The worst part of being on Tumblr is having to type in every possible acronym or abbreviation if even one of your fandoms is for something with more than two words in it’s name.

[ghostypetrainer]

(taps the sign that reads 'the twins aren't canonicaly autistic anyways so trying to argue that them being written as certain tropes is ableist is barking up the wrong tree to begin with' because of some people really need to remember this)

[silverfoxlou]

The thing is,

Fans do not comprehend that being private means that he can have a whole relationship, doing things that people in relationships do, and no one would have a clue. Fans keep implying that while it’d be private, somehow they’d have some insight into knowing he’s not single. Which is extra hilarious to me. Fans also don’t know that a select few people can witness things in real life and never say a word. Being a huge fan of an artist for so many years does tear down rational thinking. They really can’t seem to accept that unless we see Louis with our eyes, we have /no/ clue what he’s doing. The ones who run into him naturally in his private life and keep it a secret know quite well that we don’t know this man outside of being a celebrity.

Mhhmmm

[daisywords]

I do tend to like the trope of "one or both characters faking or being disingenuous about their role in a relationship but ending up being shaped by it anyway"—and yes "fake dating" and all its variants are included in that! but! that is not the end-all-be-all; the possibilities here are endless. for example:

fake mentor/mentee

fake siblings

fake bodyguard/person they are protecting

fake parent/child

fake prisoner/guard

fake royalty/servant

fake rivals

fake divorced

even just. fake friends please I love fake friends