#A mix between my headcanon and the fans' general perception of the characters

[c0njidraws]

Sitting there making goo-goo eyes at each other

[bigskydreaming]

#when i read about tim i often kind of come to the idea that he's relatively self centered#and that can be both a flaw and a strength#but he doesn't often consider other people's feelings and circumstances#like when dick made damian robin he didn't really consider the situation from anyone else's view#or in his origin story#he doesn't seem to consider how dick would feel about hearing how tim was affected by dick's parents' death#or with the spyral situation#or in regards to him earning robin#and its pretty consistent in fandom characterization even if a lot of writers don't seem to be aware of it#its interesting cause i think its something i think he has in common with bruce#its honestly a surprisingly consistent thing from what i see#and it can be a strength to#it can absolutely lead to some confidence and self actualization#as well as being able commit to fixing something and working hard at it#because you believe you can and don't think anyone else can/will do it via @emenerd

Y’know, what’s interesting to me about these points is the fact that like.....Tim having tendencies towards self-centeredness is actually something that COMPLETELY makes sense and can be quite sympathetic in light of his backstory of having neglectful parents.

In an age of armchair diagnosticians eager to label anyone who expresses a controversial viewpoint while centering themselves as an example, as like, having a narcissistic personality disorder (and with the loaded implication that this makes them a bad person even if its true, instead of just....having a disorder, yay weaponizable ableism) like, it can be important to add in distinctions that even tendencies that share overlap with a lot of things born of entitlement, etc....aren’t always necessarily proof of that.

For instance, in Tim’s case, an overemphasis on himself and his own position in situations and arguments can very reasonably be attributed as a coping mechanism he developed in an attempt to acknowledge and address self-esteem issues he sees himself as having, DUE to parental neglect.

Its not that he thinks he’s the most important person in the room, necessarily, its that he spent so many years not even being considered a person in the room, that now he OVERCOMPENSATES on his own behalf, in an attempt to remind himself that no, his opinion and feelings and situations do matter.....and because he like most of the Bat-characters has a tendency towards hyper-fixating on a problem they’re trying to address, this can also understandably create a kind of tunnel vision. Where he’s so busy focusing on what he’s diagnosed as an actual issue he has that he’s trying to address or make up for, in order to build up his self-esteem....that he neglects to keep everyone around him equally centered in his interactions with them, and remember that like, they have their own issues and ignoring that to focus entirely on his own runs the risk of negatively impacting them in the exact same way he’s still learning to cope with having been negatively impacted in his development as a child.

None of this makes him a bad person, or is stuff that can’t be addressed and developed just by paying the appropriate attention to it and his interactions.

SO the issue I tend to more often have....

Is with how often in fandom and fanon we hear references to Tim’s neglect and emotional abuse and how this impacted him.....much in the same way we see Jason and Cass and Damian and Dick’s various forms of abuse and the developmental impact it had on them....

BUT there tends to then be a disconnect, IMO, because that acknowledgment of the WHAT of Tim’s neglect and abuse and the HOW it hurt him.....isn’t often followed up by an examination/awareness of how it also SHAPED him.....at least, not compared to how discussions/fics about say, Jason’s abuse tend to point out the latter as much as the former.

And this is a big part of my gripe with the ways abuse is centered and tackled as a topic in fics and fandom discussions, because its so often capitalized upon as a defense or shield for a character from criticism, stuff like that.....without ever actually EXPLORING the topic itself, or the FULLNESS of the impact it can have.

But only in regards to some characters.

What I mean is like....we see a lot of focus on Jason’s childhood abuse, yeah? And this often is then connected through headcanons, meta and fics to various aspects of Jason’s characterization as a teenager, and as an adult as well.....with a tendency towards anger or violence, abrasive personality, etc. Don’t get me wrong, its usually presented as such in a SYMPATHETIC light, especially when raised by fans of Jason themselves.....but his abuse is very much present and centered in fics and discussions as something that not only impacted him and made him suffer, but something that actually shaped him to varying degrees as well....with a lot of focus then in fics of him as an adult, like, paid to him going to therapy and unpacking his childhood abuse in an effort to WORK on these aspects of himself that make his present day life harder or less healthy than he’d like it to be. The issue of how his abuse lent itself to various behaviorisms is raised in order to address various byproducts of his abuse as FLAWS that he seeks to eliminate, in order to make himself happier and make himself someone that people want to be around more.

And again, don’t get me wrong - for the most part, this is a GOOD thing. The caveat here is just a personal dislike I have for how often these narratives smack of a kind of saviorism, and act like it was only through the grace of Bruce and becoming part of the Batfam that Jason’s ever afforded the opportunity to better himself as a person. I dislike the hell out of this because it not only pairs all too well with a lot of classist shit, it feeds into the singular narrative we’re so often presented with by media about abused kids: the myth of the victim being destined to become a victimizer, it all being an inevitable cycle. The reason this myth is so easily perpetuated is the exact reason I’m so critical of the saviorism in a lot of abused-Jason fics.....people can very easily fall into the trap of assuming that abused kids are likely to grow up to be abusers because they never have anyone to TEACH them that abuse is wrong, or to lead by healthy example. 

The harm of this perception is that it kinda throws under the bus every kid who never lucks out and gets a Bruce Wayne style savior swooping in to not only save them from their abusive environs, but TEACH them that they deserved better and that abuse is wrong. 

Because its like, uh, the thing is, plenty of abused kids who never get a personal mentor or savior figure are fully capable of figuring out for themselves that they deserve better and that people hurting them is wrong, because it makes them feel bad and they don’t like that? 

Many abused kids don’t grow up in a media vacuum where they simply have no access to glimpses of lives different from their own.....we see kids having happier, healthier family lives on TV or in books and are able to figure out that society overall thinks that’s what family is SUPPOSED to look like, and its ours that is the aberration? 

The very fact that we’re taught or have it instilled in us by abusive parents that like, we’re not to bring up instances or examples of our abuse to teachers or friends, that its a SECRET, is like, usually a dead giveaway that there’s something WRONG with it that we’re being instructed - and enforced with abusive consequences - to keep from alerting others to....like, this is basically a blaring siren to a lot of us that no, what’s happening to us ISN’T normal and acceptable, and that’s literally WHY the parent we’re afraid of is so insistent on us keeping the facts of it hidden? 

And so like, tons of abused kids figure out for ourselves the difference between right or wrong, based off nothing more than our own feelings about things and a desire to not be like the people who make us feel miserable - like, never underestimate the power of spite to like, keep a kid from growing up doing the same thing to others that was done to them, lol. 

But point being, lots of kids never get a Bruce Wayne figure to take them away from their abuse and also teach them that they never deserved it and how not to pass the hurt forward by doing the same things to others. And its kinda condescending as fuck that we so often see narratives that take it as so obvious it barely merits commenting on, that like, ‘of COURSE abused kids grow up to become abusers if they don’t have someone else step in and show them a better way’....mmm, no. Fuck that. But you get what I mean.

So like, its a mixed bag. Its a good thing, to see Jason-centric stories that show him addressing his childhood and seeking just a more fuller, happier, healthier life for himself. Its a less great thing to see this narrative presented as all encompassing, with it never being raised that no, Jason actually could figure out he deserved better and how to treat people in ways he’d want to be treated even without a billionaire guardian angel.....NOT because the narrative wherein someone helps an abused kid figure out what was wrong about how they were treated is like, NEVER valid....but rather it just becomes a problem when looked at as a data point against the larger tapestry of fandom-wide works....and noticing that this specific narrative is pretty much the ONLY one raised or treated as valid. With it just being ASSUMED to be the natural course of events and characters, rather than just....the direction society overall has their perceptions of abuse steered towards due to a singular and constantly reinforced abuse narrative shown to us in media.

And the way this all plays back into my point about Tim and what took me down this road in general.....

Is that disconnect I was talking about, lies specifically in HOW Tim is often acknowledged and regarded as an abuse survivor due to his emotional abuse and neglect......with this abuse and its impact on HIM often taking center stage, much the way Jason’s abuse and its impact takes center stage in his narratives.....

BUT with a key difference being that while a lot of Jason’s narratives go on to denote the specific ways his abuse helped SHAPE him and his interactions with others, and raise and address the ways in which he can better himself and his relationships by unpacking all of this openly....

Most of the stories about Tim’s abuse/neglect tend to just STOP at the awareness of its existence and impact on him. Never taking it that one step further to examine how those specific forms of abuse could have additionally SHAPED him....in ways that sometimes negatively impact those around him and his own loved ones, even if this is completely unintentional on his part. The difference, the disconnect, lies solely in how rarely its ever acknowledged that Tim’s own upbringing can and does play directly into how he interacts with people later on in life.....and in ways that he’s fully capable of addressing and bettering himself so as to be happier and healthier just in his own life, and in his relationships, as someone others want to be around.

Aaaaand once you actually examine or consider WHY there’s this discrepancy between the full ramifications of Tim’s abuse and that which various siblings of his underwent, when there’s full agreement that what he did go through absolutely can be termed abusive as well....like, its the implications of what about Tim makes him more naturally resistant or whatever to being shaped by his abuse in ways that have actual negative impact on others in his life, whereas the same isn’t true of say, Jason.....that’s when the red flags start to go up for me, and the unintended subtext starts to get Less Than Stellar, IMO.

Anyway. Just food for thought on the subject of Tim, his upbringing, the various impacts this had on not JUST him but also on how he interacts with others, and ways in which all of this compares and contrasts with how the subject of abuse is raised and depicted in regards to other Batkids.

[forest-of-stories]

Fanfic Writer’s Year in Review!

I was tagged by @letterblade! <333

The following post will focus stories that I posted in their entirety on AO3 in 2018, and so will not include my X-Men: Evolution WIP Ordinary Town (which I started posting in 2017 and will probably finish this year), or most of the scenes in my Knight and Mage AU (although they total almost 5,000 words, which is Not Too Shabby).

Also, I’m skipping a couple of questions about character and pairing breakdowns.  Spoiler: while I wrote in a few different fandoms last year, I probably wrote more about one character and pairing than all of the others combined.

The stories...

Black Lightning:

Overridden (110 words)

Doctor Who

Three Heads Are Better (180 words)

Gravity Falls:

Like Something From A Dream (635 words)

Odd Twins Out (640 words)

Most Likely To Stay Weird (160 words)

Following Ghosts (1,020 words)

Tell You Anything (500 words)

Seen And Not Heard (2,940 words)

Only One Step Away (200 words)

Star Wars:

Treading Water (380 words)

Your Own Heart As Signal (500 words)

Light Me Up Again (415 words)

Mark My Words (600 words)

Secrets Silenced By The Shame (515 words)

Thank You For Sharing (310 words)

Fold Your Wings (165 words)

Stranger Things:

Missing Girls (560 words)

Tortall:

And We Are Left Standing (340 words)

Set Alight (400 words)

Wrapped In Darkness (465 words)

To See A Friend Go Down in Flames (1,000 words)

Those Seasons Made Up And Undone (1,815 words)

Moves and Countermoves (1,060 words)

We Were Meant To Be Sparks of Light (335 words)

Dreams Of The Spider (1,135 words)

Merciless Kisses (435 words)

If Your Strife Strikes At Your Sleep (670 words)

Sealed With A Spell (185 words)

The Cold Is Closing In (2,072 words)

In Winter Light (608 words)

Great Minds Together (240 words)

And I Start To Drown (1,895 words)

Only The Finest (185 words)

Captive Listener (240 words)

Flight of Curiosity (535 words)

Out Of The Rain (200 words)

As I Burn Up In Your Presence (2,412 words)

Total Fics: 37 Total Words:  c. 30,000

Specifics…

Best/worst title?

Best title:  Excluding the ones that come from songs (which is many of them)? I’m pretty happy with “Flight of Curiosity” and “Mark My Words,” both of which contain puns/double meanings while also – I think – saying something about the characters or tone of the stories.

Worst title: “In Winter Light” is serviceable, but I think I could have done better, and consequently ended up with one less title that included some variation on the word “light.”

Best/worst first line?

Best first line:  The shape of Arram’s mind is as familiar as the long, lean body that trembles beneath Ozorne’s hands.  (”Great Minds Together”) 

Really, what’s better than a sexy mindmeld between mage boyfriends who will one day be enemies? Nothing, that’s what.

Worst first line:  Alex sometimes feels more than a little bit dazed after talking to his knight-master, and so it takes him a moment to react – a moment that could have cost his life in a fight – when another familiar voice calls his name. (”And I Start To Drown”)

I’ve written a few first lines that tried to establish too much in one go, and that’s definitely one of them.

Best/worst last line?

Best last line: Much later, lying sore and spent in the darkness, Alex still isn’t sure whether he’s been punished or forgiven. (”Merciless Kisses”)

I think that does a good job of conveying something that I hope is apparent throughout my Tortall Trash Fire fics: that Alex almost but doesn’t quite realize how bad Roger is for him.

Worst last line: Alex turns another page, still uneasy, but certain that Roger will know what to do. He always knows. (”Those Seasons Made Up and Undone”)

I’m proud of that story, for the most part, but that line didn’t wrap it up as elegantly as I would have liked.

General questions…

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

I can rarely predict these things.  My total number of works is higher than it’s been in past years, but some of those works are really, really tiny.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

Tortall, without question.  I read and reread the Song of the Lioness books when I was younger, but another fan’s incidental comment about Alex motivated me to take another look at them.  And even when I realized how much the implications about his relationship with Roger (which mostly unfolds behind the scenes) pushed all of my buttons, I’m not sure I could have predicted that I’d be writing so much about it.

I am also not a huge fan of Rey/Kylo (though I totally understand why some people are!), so “Thank You For Sharing” was also decidedly unexpected, though I don’t plan to write them doing anything more than fantasizing about each other.

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

Probably “The Cold Is Closing In.”  There’s a lot of unexplored potential in Alex’s relationship with his own squire, and it’s always fun to write a character that understands a lot less than the reader (especially if someone else is manipulating their perceptions).

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

I was bemused to find out that “Secrets Silenced By The Shame” had the most kudos, especially since it was a Dead Dove ficlet written for a kink meme, focusing on the pain and anguish of a character about whom I have very mixed feelings, and I hid it behind an “Anonymous Creator” byline until very recently. Story most underappreciated by the universe?

I would have liked to see “Following Ghosts” get some more love, especially since the Gravity Falls fandom seems pretty fond of Wendy (as well we should be).

I always have a hard time answering this question, and it’s even trickier when thinking about the past year, since my most recent primary fandom is not what I would call a hotbed of activity, at least on AO3.  (They have a message board that is somewhat busier, but I haven’t investigated it much.)

Story that could have been better?

“Set Alight” could have worked better as part of a longer work (I can even guess at which one), but I was still very much testing those fannish waters at that point, so I can sort of understand why I was like, “Throw it at the wall and see if it sticks.”

Sexiest story?

I’m very happy with the third section of “Those Seasons Made Up and Undone,” which I think is Hot Wrong all over the place, but “As I Burn Up In Your Presence” had more sexy (and also Wrong) bits, and I’m pretty happy with those, too.

Saddest story?

Everything about Alex’s downward spiral is saddening to me. “To See a Friend Go Down in Flames” gives an outsider perspective on that spiral, so maybe that one.  “Missing Girls” and “Secrets Silenced by the Shame” are also meant to evoke a lot of pity and horror for the characters, and “Your Own Heart as Signal” is very much about grief, so maybe those.

Most fun?

“Most Likely to Stay Weird” (Waddles for Most Valuable Pig!). Story with single sweetest moment?

Either Kali giving Eleven calming visions in “Missing Girls” or the OT3 snuggles in “Flight of Curiosity.”

Hardest story to write?

I had never tried anything like the structure of “Seen And Not Heard,” and it took a fair amount of trial and error before I figured how to organize the sections and transition between them.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

“Merciless Kisses” (it helped that I had a really good set of prompts), or “Moves and Countermoves” (I often cackle when writing Roger, but probably never more than when he was trying to get under Myles’ skin).

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

The need for a fifth POV in “To See A Friend Go Down in Flames” gave rise to some very persistent headcanons about Geoffrey, a character who gets little to no canon characterization.  Also, although my Thoughts About Kylo Ren would probably derail this post more than any of us want or need, I sure did write a lot about his feelings last year.

Most overdue story?

“Following Ghosts” and “Seen And Not Heard” are both based on ideas that I’d referenced in previous works and wanted to follow up on ever since.  On the other hand, I’ve wanted to write the exact scenario in “Three Heads Are Better” for roughly a dozen years.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

I think I learned a little bit more about how to set and contextualize a scene from the structure of “Seen And Not Heard,” which was, again, a pretty big risk.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

The first ones that come to mind are: wrap up this round of H/C Bingo, whip another “You Cannot Save Him With Your Love, Geoffrey” story into shape, and finally finish Ordinary Town.  More or less in that order.

I’ll tag @ellekess and anybody else who wants to do it!

[peppermint-shamrock]

On Mischaracterization and Backlash

tl;dr Peppermint bitches about prevalent fanon that she doesn’t like.

This is primarily going to be talking about Atem and Yuugi, since I’m more invested in them than say, Kaiba or Malik, but I would say this issue occurs with pretty much all of the major/popular characters. I’m also sure this applies to the spinoffs as well, but I will only be talking about the original in this post. Of course, I think this is a general problem, and I would encourage reflection on it in regards to other characters/series too.

Fanon, Headcanon, and Mischaracterization

Most of you are probably familiar with these terms, but for the sake of clarity, I’ll define these terms as I understand them and will be using them in this post.

Headcanon - An individual’s belief or interpretation of a character, event, etc., that is neither contradicted nor confirmed by canon (although it can have hints towards it).

“Headcanon” - a common misuse of headcanon, in which the belief/interpretation is clearly contradicted by canon - no amount of freedom of interpretation can get around the fact that it’s just plain incorrect.

Fanon - When a headcanon or “headcanon” is prevalent and shared by significant numbers of fans, and is often popular enough to even be confused with or taken to be canon by those fans.

Mischaracterization - when a character is represented in a way inconsistent with their personality/actions in canon. This is often expressed as exaggeration of traits the character does possess in canon, but taken to an extreme and reductive degree, where other aspects of their character are downplayed/ignored, to be inaccurate. However, it can also be expressed as traits the character does NOT possess in canon at all.

Mischaracterization can be part of fanon and “headcanons”, but doesn’t have to be. In some cases, mischaracterization can be done deliberately (such as for a crackfic/humor or role reversals), with the understanding that it is not plausible in canon.

Just to be clear - there’s nothing inherently “bad” about these things. However, they can certainly be incorrect, and it annoys me when things that are incorrect are taken as canon - not even “up for debate” but taken as absolute fact.

Characterization and Mischaracterization in YGO

Characterization is a complicated issue in YGO, because canon is complicated in YGO. We have the manga canon, we have the Toei anime canon, we have the DM anime canon, we have the dubbed anime canon, we have the movies, we have R, we have the video games, we have Capsule Monsters...granted, not all of this is considered canon, but it does influence people’s perceptions of characters.

So, characterization can be different between the different canons, and what would be mischaracterization in one canon may, in fact, be accurate to another canon. It is also the case that most of the major characters change and grow over time, making their early characterization much different than their late characterization - Atem in the manga is perhaps the most obvious example. Often, fans will mix the characterizations (or what they believe to be the characterization) from different canons and different times, which can create some muddy mischaracterization problems. After all, Atem issuing harsh penalty games is not out of character for the early manga, but post-Duelist Kingdom, it would be inaccurate to portray him inflicting those. Yuugi threatening Kaiba is canon to the DSOD dub, but would be out of character to portray him doing so outside of the dub context.

Regardless, there are some things that are inaccurate no matter which canon you go by.

I won’t pretend to be an expert in fandom history - I never watched this show as a kid, so I’m a latecomer to the fandom. However, the Internet never forgets, as they say, so I’ve had some exposure to the remnants of old fandom, and from this, I’ve identified three rough “eras” of mischaracterization: “young”, “abridged”, and “backlash”. These roughly occurred in that order, and I say roughly because you can still find all of these in modern fandom, and likely “backlash” existed even in the early days, just not to the extent I see it in recent fandom. Perhaps a “fandom old” could give more insight into this or narrow down these areas, but these are my personal observations.

“Young” Fandom Mischaracterization:

The “traditional” mischaracterization. The kind that mostly everyone complains about these days, at least in my corner of Tumblr. I call this “young” because it came out of the days of fandom before I got here, and also because it seems to come from young (as in young teens) fans more than others. It still persists to this day, but is nowhere near as popular as it once was.

This is the kind of mischaracterization that gives us Anzu bashing, where she’s made into an evil and manipulative person who doesn’t care about her friends. She becomes completely unrecognizable, as the only thing she shares with her canon self is an attraction to Atem, which is twisted into something evil.

This is the kind of mischaracterization that gives us the yami/hikari fanon, which is little more than a euphemism for seme/uke - essentially making characters into bad yaoi stereotypes. Atem, Kaiba, Yami Malik, and Yami Bakura are characterized as extremely suave, sexy, powerful, dominant, aggressive, controlling, protective, etc, in a way that makes them hardly distinguishable from one another. Yuugi, Jounouchi, Malik, and Bakura are characterized as cute, innocent, powerless, submissive, helpless, passive, etc, again in a way that makes them hardly distinguishable from one another. Their unique personalities are stripped away.

Often Atem is made cruel and abusive towards Yuugi, Yami Malik is made hyperactive towards Malik, and Yami Bakura is made to be gruff but caring towards Bakura.

In modern fandom, at least Tumblr fandom, it’s pretty well accepted now that these things are mischaracterizations, as Atem is recognized to be an awkward lost soul who cares very deeply about his friends, especially Yuugi, Yami Bakura is recognized as having no idea what he’s doing, and also abusive towards his host, Yami Malik is recognized as the manifestation of of Malik’s trauma and therefore distinct from Yami Bakura and Atem, and Anzu is recognized as someone who cares about and supports her friends. Because of this, I don’t really have to complain about this one much, although I will confess that most of these things annoy me enough to cause me to immediately lose interest in a fanfic.

“Abridged” Fandom Mischaracterization

Mischaracterization done for humor. I call this type of characterization “abridged” because that is probably the most obvious case of this. However, this can encompass more than just the abridged series characterizations - in fact, the one that particularly bothers me the most didn’t come from YGOTAS at all. But it is the spirit of humor that ties these mischaracterizations together.

Aside from YGOTAS, this gives us my personal unfavorite, Atem as an idiot that doesn’t understand modern technology or modern culture/slang, or doesn’t understand anything except dueling. I’ve talked about this plenty, but this is completely inconsistent with canon, as Atem uses technology on a regular basis, has all of Yuugi’s memories, and even believed himself to be Yuugi for some time. There is no reason why he shouldn’t understand everything that Yuugi would.

Related to this is a characterization of Atem where he will inflict penalty games/send people or things to the Shadow Realm/murder at the drop of a hat. Again, he knows how to work a toaster, he’s not going to banish it to hell. He’s also not going to inflict a penalty game on someone for cutting in line or otherwise mildly inconveniencing him/Yuugi - most of the penalty games were the result of Yuugi or friends getting badly hurt.

We’d be here all day if I listed everything, but those two particularly stick out to me as annoying. With this mischaracterization, I do feel bad about getting so annoyed by it sometimes, because in a way, it seems less legitimate to get annoyed when it’s clearly done for humor. But personally, I think the issue for me is not the humor, it’s when it’s taken as canon so often that even when clearly a joke, it rubs me the wrong way. And it IS taken as canon - I have seen posts comparing “fanon” (usually the above “young” mischaracterization) with “canon” (this “abridged” mischaracterization, usually). Neither is accurate, yet one is accepted that way. This also brings me to the final category:

“Backlash” fandom mischaracterization:

Because a lot of people have realized that the first type of mischaracterization is just that, mischaracterization, in recent times there’s been a backlash against it. An example is as I’ve referenced above, contrasting “fanon” with supposed “canon”. As well as just a general shift in the characterization in new fanworks.

However, this backlash doesn’t represent characters as accurately as it purports to. For this reason, this type of mischaracterization is starting to get on my nerves the most - because it is held up in contrast to the obvious, “young” mischaracterization, it is given false credence. But is equally as inaccurate...perhaps even more so in some cases.

This type of mischaracterization gives us reversals - switching who gets the bad yaoi stereotypes (i.e., making Yuugi the “seme” and Atem the “uke”). This is again more of a younger fandom thing and an earlier part of the backlash, but is still present.

Particularly there seems to be this push to make Atem completely awkward and Yuugi completely smooth...a reversal of “young” characterization where Atem is smooth and suave while Yuugi is innocent and blushing. But both are inaccurate characterizations - they’re both awkward teenagers. Yuugi’s only “experience” with sex is watching blurred out porn videos. He’s not going to be some ultra-dominant sex god who completely takes control in bed. He’s gonna be just as awkward as any teenager with his first time.

I know. That’s not sexy. People want sexy so they need to have some sort of dominant and controlling character involved. At least, that’s my assumption behind why this sort of characterization is so prevalent either as Atem or as Yuugi. I’ve even seen this characterization for Yuugi apply to other ships too (like peach). I don’t think it’s any more accurate there.

There’s also a tendency towards a cruel abusive Yuugi. Again, this is a backlash against innocent angel Yuugi, and may also be a backlash to cruel abusive Atem (although why one of them must be cruel is beyond me). Lately scrolling through fanfic, summaries and tags are full of “Yuugi is a jerk”, “Yuugi is an asshole”, “Yuugi is a killer/criminal/etc”. I’m honestly getting really tired of the trend. No, Yuugi is not some perfect innocent angel, but he’s not an asshole, he’s not cruel, he’s not any of those things. He’s not perfect, but he is an exceptionally good and kind person.

Conclusion:

As I said above, there’s nothing “bad” about these things (although there’s certainly a lot wrong). And I am not saying that people can’t or shouldn’t write mischaracterizations such as these or any others. After all, just because something doesn’t appeal to me personally doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t exist.

But I will complain about it. And I do want to ask people to stop acting like these things are canon.

And quite honestly...I can understand how things get exaggerated sometimes. Especially for humor. And sometimes more subtle aspects of a character can be forgotten about. But completely contrary characterizations...I don’t understand how those become so prevalent. You like these characters, right? That’s why you write them, that’s why you write about them. Did you not fall in love with them for their canon personalities? Where then is the appeal in completely changing their personalities and relationship dynamics? If that other sort of personality/relationship dynamic appeals to you, why did you fall for this one in the first place?

I don’t know. For me, I like the characters for who they are in canon and I don’t want them to be something completely different. Same with relationship dynamics.

[beyondthetemples]

{{ Mun: Portrayal Meme

1. Do you like how you portray your muse? I mean, it’s all subjective, but from my perspective, I do like how I portray her, yes. c: Gentle but fierce in the right moment (which hasn’t been explored much on this blog, but is absolutely a part of who she is). I manage to condense her worlds of thought into words, and I portray a wide variety of reactions and situations and emotions, and even now and then, the RP goes on long enough to even EXPLORE it more!

That’s the only downfall of my portrayal though. It’s hard for me to move a scene past the introductory stages, just because it’s hard for me to write sometimes, so a lot of threads only get into Phase 1 and 2 of story, and never gets to the climax much, let alone a resolution. :P And because it’s hard for me to move a scene there, it’s hard to get Dove to a climactic and resolving place as well.

2. Do you think you do your muse justice? For the most part, yeah. I feel like, due to the halting stop-and-go nature of Tumblr rps, it's really hard to move her past the point she's at. (That's why I ultimately decided to stop using a default timeline where Dove had just found the Titans, and decided to bump her up to the point after DDD and The Final Journey where she'd had her first unofficial "mission" and had already joined the team in their heroics. Plus, there's a lot more potential for Action Plots now that Dove (I don't think I'm leveraging that potential for her growth very much, though... hmmm.)

3. Do you portray your muse differently to the general fandom? Obviously, Dove is my baby, so nobody else portrays her, exactly. There are a lot of fan characters with the barest concept being similar to Dove, though. Of course, I found out after I created a character to be Raven's sister, that was actually a very common trope in TT fanfiction circa 2006. Even the name "Dove" for fancharacters wasn't totally unique, I'd learn later. But my Dove is the only one I've found that's anything like her.

The vast majority of Raven-sibling OCs tend to do dark magic, wear dark clothes, have a temper, and oftentimes have some kind of royalty or Chosen One thing going on. On the other hand, Dove's power is telepathy, she’s garbed in a white dress much more suited to her Azarathean heritage, and she’s so painfully shy, you wouldn’t know she’s a superhero until you see her in the moment of Actual Action. The canon of the comics re: Azarath also informed Dove’s character quite a bit, so there’s a lot of spirituality in her-- even if she completely sucks at magic and meditation (the former, basically forever, but at least she gets better at meditation...) And that’s another thing; Dove’s stories (and RPs?) start her off much earlier in the developement of her powers. She doesn’t know how to control them yet, because her mother never figured out how, and Dove’s place among the team is very much that of a student or little siblings tagging along for the ride, moreso than the “Chosen One” type of story.

4. What aspects of your muse do you most want to explore? Her growth through her relationships!

5. Are you looking to write any particular relationships with your muse? I mean, I'm willing to explore a romantic relationship with her and Caleb so obviously I'm excited for that! But also the platonic relationships, friends, acquaintances, maybe a few enemies. People she might be able to help, being a hero in more pacifistic ways.

6. Is your muse canon-divergent? How? Why? Dove was painstakingly developed specifically with canon in mind! (Mostly the comics, because it was adamantly stated that Trigon went after Raven so hard because she was THE ONLY child of his to survive! That's why Dove was kept a secret, kept hidden-- from the Watsonian perspective, it was because Dove's mother didn't want them to treat her child the way they treated Raven. But the Doylist explanation, the meta reason, boils down to the fact that Trigon, canonically, isn't supposed to have any other children, at all. and that canonical fact is why the "Sons of Trigon" storyline makes me SO ANGRY, but that's a rant for another time.

7. Is there a controversy or fandom disagreement revolving around your muse that has changed how you portray them? (I mean, she's an OC, kinda hard to have controversy when I only ever interact with like 5 people tops. 8F)

8. Do you use narrative text differently between muses, or does your writing stay the same style for everybody? Oh yes! My writing style changes dramatically based on mood and the character that's "narrating" the scene. ~ Dove's are usually very considerate, careful contemplation, so she tends to get a lot of words, and she's very quiet, so there's very little dialogue. ~ Kary's tends to be more "scoffy" and judgemental, physically and verbally expressive, and if she's contemplating, it's emotionally reactive. ~ Srentha is both bubbly and analytical, so his narrations tend to be eager and optimistic with a curious thought usually followed by a ton of questions or conclusions. ~ I haven't quite figured out what Leyla's style is yet, probably a mixed bag of contemplation and expression? ~ For grounded and perceptive Raven, I write brief and stark sentences, quick and to the point. (With the occasional thoughtful paragraph, because she's snarky, but she also has a lot going on internally.)

9. What thread types (e.g. angst, fluff) do you think portrays your character at their most genuine? Angst, horror, and hurt/comfort especially! For me, writing about Dove isn't about agonizing over her suffering, it's about how she heals from it and comes back stronger. It's about the people she's with who are willing to help her. It's about the COMFORT, not necessarily the hurt for me. (Though I'm always down for some delicious drama. As long as we can show them Being Better Afterwards, too.)

10. Are there any crossovers you’d be especially interested in writing? Dove on the Infinity Train? Whoooo boy, that could get interesting super fast! (So many opportunities for worldbuilding and character development!)

11. Do you write drabbles/headcanons for your character? Do you discuss them OOC, away from Tumblr? I talk about Dove all the time, okay. I don't think I have a single friend who doesn't know about Dove. Even my family knows about Dove.

12. Do you think your muse would act differently if they had interacted with different characters in the past? OH yeah. One of Dove's biggest struggles is social anxiety born from never interacting with anyone except her mother (and secretly Srentha every now and again). If Dove's situation was any different, she'd have much more confidence in social situations, and she'd be more at ease and more verbal. She'd show her calm, "zen" side to a lot more people.

13. Do you have any plans for the future of your muse? Would you like to see them grow a certain way? Shipping with Caleb will already fulfill one of my curiosities. But I'd really like to write about her Getting Over Her Fears in battle. She doubts herself and hesitates, which is a terrible thing to do in the heat of battle. She doubts her abilities and either tries way too hard and blows things up, or doubts her control and tries to do something way too lightly which becomes totally ineffective. I'd LOVE for her to interact with muses that have the kinds of minds that can become psychological horror with Dove, considering she's a telepath! I got a taste of that once with an old friend's OC, and it was so FASINATING! Intriguing! Dove didn't know what to do with herself! I think in general, just putting Dove in a New Situation and making her figure out how to cope (or: how to GET OUT ALIVE!) sounds PHENOMENAL.

14. Do you wish you had a better grasp on a certain aspect of your muse? I've been writing with Dove endlessly since 2005. And a few years before then, there are action-figure-based stories I was playing through with her. So what I'm saying is, there's not much I don't already know about her, and well enough to babble about for a collegiate-length essay if you let me! The only thing that's not explored Especially Much is Dove when she's in a romantic mindset. And that's largely because I'm aro, so I don't... really know how to write about that. Oops.

15. If you could start your blog again with a clean slate, what would you do differently with your muse? Would you change any of their base principles? Dove's base principles are firmly rooted in the character I wanted to explore, so everything about her core concept stays! The only thing I'd change is that maybe I'd write more further down in her timeline, instead of making every single rp a story about Dove struggling even to interact. Sometimes it worked to the story's advantage. But most of the time, it just made interactions feel like I was playing the same thing over and over. I wish I'd known about pre-established relationships being a thing earlier on, then I feel like some much more interesting stories could have been written! (And that, my friends, is why I write with her post-TFJ, as an active-duty Teen Titan, and not just a meek houseguest. With rare exceptions, but Hero Dove is the default!)