#I just love interesting and complex characters okay??

[tozettastone]

Hm, let me reword; are there characters from the series you love to write but have a comparatively different level of interest in how they're actually portrayed in the source material? I.e. the akatuski who were both introduced and killed early tend to be more of an echo of a character than something that reads as a person

Oh yeah, I see! Thank you for rephrasing this. Okay.

Well, characters like Kakuzu and Hidan (and actually a lot of the cast) are very flat¹ characters in canon. They are also very often flat characters in fanfiction, even when they are major characters — Kakuzu is the money guy, Hidan is the religion weirdo (often referred to as "the miser" and "the zealot," haha) and rarely is this expanded upon.

I write a bit about characters who are like this, and one of the things I like about it is the process of extrapolating a rounder character from the few characteristics of a one-dimensional villain, without just losing all of their villainy. They should still be bad guys. I like to write bad guys.

But, it's also hard for a character to be only a terrible horrible villain when you think a bit more about what they're like in their interpersonal relationships, what they care about, what their preferences are, and just... in regular situations. That's why my Kakuzu and Hidan tags on this blog (...and my kakuhida and hidakaku tags, too, which are interchangeable but somehow never consistent) are full of random comments about this kind of characterisation exercise.

I usually do this extrapolation by looking at characters' attitudes and behaviours in canon, inferring their motives, and then thinking about how those motives might be expanded on so they can be expressed in the broader setting! I have mixed success — sometimes people don't like my characterisation and, much more importantly, sometimes I look back on my characterisation and don't like it either (as one of my recent Deidara posts attests 💀).

In that vein, sometimes I do make villain characters like these seem a lot nicer than they are in canon, just by virtue of writing scenes where they, like, have to have a normal conversation...? But if you're trying to take a flat canon character and reverse engineer it into a rounder one, you have to kinda accept that they will be less, like, unalloyed one-note violence and evil, I guess. Like, at some point they are just going to have to eat lunch without having a little massacre first.

So... That's the comments I have about that process.

I think there are a lot of characters like this in Naruto because a lot of the broad cast can have pretty flat characters. I feel this way about everyone from Orochimaru to Tobirama to Hidan, hahaha. So I wouldn't necessarily single anyone out. I guess the least flat characters I write about would include characters like Sakura, who exhibit a more complex mix of personality traits, motives, desires, preferences, feelings, etc., in canon.

---

One footnote:

1. A quick comment on flatness vs roundness, for anyone who hasn't heard those terms used like this before. Characters, settings, "plot" events, and so on, are all elements of a story. A character is the element that delivers the impression of a "person" to the reader/viewer. They are usually successful to a greater or lesser degree.

One way of thinking about characters is that they can fall on a spectrum between "flat" and "round." When one calls a character "flat," it means that they don't have the depth of personality that makes them very good at being a "person." They are usually one-note and simple. "Round," characters, by contrast, are usually a bit deeper. They usually have complex motives and desires and give a more complete impression of personhood to the audience.

This doesn't mean flat characters are bad characters, it just means that they serve a purpose that doesn't require lingering over the complex mix of characteristics that depicting personhood might otherwise require.

[forrestsaysdumbshit]

Y’all

Okay, I’m gonna be completely honest here.

What the fuck is up with the mha fandom.

I make edits, so that means I have to search and download photos of the characters.

I make a lot of mha edits, because my sibling love mha, and wanted me to make mha edits.

So I searched for images, and like a LOT of them were very suggestive and weird.

Like, most of the characters are MINORS, and I’m seeing Katsuki Bakugou shirtless and in a provacative pose. What. The. Actual. FUCK

THEY ARE MINORS!!!!!!!!

And it’s not just the fanart and images, it’s the way that the fandom views the characters.

Most of the fandom is OBSESSED with shipping everyone, and there’s CONSTANT fights about it.

Like, I write fanfiction for ships, but I never sexualize anyone, and I focus more on their feelings and experience throughout life, and really just their character. Because they are SO MUCH MORE than just their powers and relationships. They have likes and dislikes, thoughts and emotions, past memories and trauma that shape who they are as a character. Each character is so complex and interesting and unique in their own way, and it’s weird and saddening to see people from the fandom who only sexualize and objectify these characters.

Now I know that all fandoms have people like this, but the mha has a LOT of them.

And it’s weird because the target audience is like preteens and 13 yr olds.

And honestly, for me, it’s really uncomfortable seeing all that stuff.

Like bro, I’m just trying to make an edit for my siblings, I do NOT need to be seeing that stuff.

Anyways, that’s my rant for today I guess.

Sorry about that, been hyperfixating on mha and demon slayer at the same time, so they just live rent free in my head right now

Aight, bye chat ✌️

[sonik-kun]

I can't be the only person who thinks that Jiang Cheng isn't actually that "rude" or "angry" for that matter?

Like sure, growing up, he was a bit grumpy. But then again, what teenager isn't? Regardless, he often remembered his manners, especially around elders. Even after the 13 year gap, he still maintains his manners and proper decorum despite the rumours suggesting otherwise (and antis for that matter).

The wording in these two scenes just don't strike me as someone who is rude and irrational. How else would he maintain relations with other sects and keep his people happy and thriving if he truly was rude and hard to work with? You could argue he earned respect by fear, but I too doubt that giving how people find it so easy to chat shit about him both behind his back and so blatantly too without fearing any consequences.

I don't know. I just dont buy it one bit, and I do think the rumours are merely exaggerations because of this.

As for his anger, I think it's pretty reasonable to see why he is angry. Every scene he blows up in, it is in response to traumatic events. A reaction, I'd argue most of us would have. It isn't fair to judge a person when they're at their worst. I know we are led to believe that he's been angry since childhood, but even then, the anger in question is once again valid, take for example the scene where we see his dogs taken away from him. They were described as his only friends. And change is a scary thing for children. Although not ideal, it's pretty unreasonable not to expect a child to get upset at the thought of their family pet being taken away from them.

I just think the criticisms of Jiang Cheng are too harsh, when in actual fact, he probably has the most human emotions out of everyone in the entire story. Which in part is the reason why I grew rather attached to his character. He wasn't perfect. He is heavily flawed. And yet somehow manages to be the most relatable character, a point I've seen many people make throughout the fandom. To me, that explains why he's the best written. The depth and mystery surrounding the character and what he had gotten up to after Wei Wuxians' death, whether the rumours are true, etc, just make him all the more intriguing to me.

I would love it if MXTX decided to do a spin-off on his perspective. I think it would be a good story in the making with all the material she could work with. But alas, that's wishful thinking. And we as fans can only speculate on these mysteries and fill the gaps in ourselves.

[deimcs]

You don't unsettle me, you know that. (x,x)

[celtrist]

Random headcanon I probably like too much is the idea that Rosie never really swears, or at the least she swears even less than Alastor.

Like, she could if she wanted to, and she's not aghast when people do. She just doesn't. There's something about a cannibal lowkey drawing a line at profanity that gets me giggling.

Alastor makes sense he swears, he's from the south so he probably picked up on that sort of talk even with the transatlantic accent. Obviously he's learned to filter swearing and profanities out for radio, but like to imagine another reason he doesn't swear that much was Rosie rubbing off in him (the irony that his swearing decreased in Hell more than Louisiana is... accurate actually)

While not my favorite relationship, I really do love Rosie's and Alastor’s close-knit relationship and can't wait to see them interact more with season 2. They've also been described as having a relationship similar to Mary Poppins and Jack, so curious if they'll establish them as mentors and protege to a degree or at least just have Alastor always looking happy/in awe at Rosie.

[cuntmand]

this was kinda the worst episode out of the entire series tbh simply because of the pacing. i liked the episode, but it was all over the place. they tried to tie in all the lose ends in 50 minutes, and that just wasn’t possible. louis being imprisoned, then released, losing his mind, recovering, AND burning down the theater and killing santiago, all in the span of like 5 minutes, the whole louis/lestat/armand scene, daniel exposing armand, loumand divorcing (that was so underwhelming, esp after 2x05, like, i needed these bitches to have a proper verbal argument, i needed them to be AT EACH OTHER’S THROATS), armand turning daniel (offscreen, cause they didn’t have time to get into all that, cause like… no way it was that simple lol there were too many devil’s minion hints throughout both seasons), louis flying to nola, reuniting with lestat (they have far too long and complex a history for it to be resolved so quickly, it would’ve been far more meaningful had it been done right), daniel publishing his book (compiling, writing, editing, publishing it AND selling 4-5 million copies must have taken a lot of time, so time jump, i guess?)… just by typing this out, it’s too much, way too much to cover in a single episode. the hectic pace left me unsatisfied and it also left a lot of room for plot holes (no more unreliable narrators now, cause the interview is done). idk i think they really should’ve split this into two episodes, at least. one of the things that i really admired about this show was the pace. in season 1, they managed to cover 3 decades in the span of only 7 episodes, while simultaneously showing us what was happening in dubai in 2022, and it never felt rushed. season 2’s pacing was still amazing and satisfying, up until this episode. idk man… i hope this doesn’t happen again, cause it really left a bitter taste in my mouth, and it was the finale, so my expectations were high.

[callixton]

rocking back & forth trying to be normal abt the way people talk abt bsi i am going crazyyy........ there is critique to be had but people's full disengagement from anything else the story has to offer or attempt to reconcile its intent with its execution makes my head blow up. bc i don't think they actually understand its intent. or themes. which is crazy bc personally i think the bioshock series hits you over the head with what it's going for even if it doesn't always get it right. like i do not know how much i can emphasize that the point was not centrism. that was a mistake in execution. i literally cannot think of another mainstream game that comes anywhere close to confronting america's history and flaws-inherent-in-its-founding head-on the way infinite does.

also i DO think a lot of my reaction comes out of playing if before the original series and therefore not having the expectation that it's a 'choices matter' game (which. it's sort of barely in the gameplay in the original but i do understand it's in the text) and also the themes of it are very up my alley! arguably much more than the original! but i don't think that's an excuse for every audience member being unable to engage with a new game and world on its own terms

[jjoelswatch]

Always amuses me (read: exhausts me) when people are surprised and angry when Star Wars creators refer to Thrawn as a villain and act like it’s the end of the world because the creators don’t “get” the character.

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Song of the Huntress

historical fantasy set in 8th century Britain

follows three characters:

a woman who has spent centuries leading the wild hunt & reaping souls after being tricked into it, who disguises herself as a human to enter the kingdom

the queen of Wessex who never lives up to the demands of the court, despite leading their people in battle - and after a battlefield defeat they turn against her

and her husband, the king, deals with magic and political upheaval as his brother tries to usurp him and conflict arises between new and old religions

bi woman MC, lesbian MC, ace man MC

[red-moon-at-night]

I keep thinking about yonah meaning dove in hebrew and the idea of kotoko viewing herself as a symbol of peace and salvation....... I'm so *crosses one leg over the other and leans on the table with my elbows, cupping my chin with my hands and batting my eyelashes* it's just so intriguing y’know

[samarecharm]

Random question about the “they should make persona for people who like good games” post. Do people think the persona series is that bad? I know they aren’t perfect but I wouldn’t call them bad games.

I had a wholeass essay written out before i realized im too tired to make it sound coherent. AND my only experience is p 4 and 5, so my opinion on it means jack shit. All i can say is that the most recent titles suffer from bad writing. (And repetitive gameplay, but thats a different issue). Be it poorly written characters and dialogue, or poorly written interactions and plot, it is hard to take some of the stuff in the more recent games at face value. One could argue that that just means the game is subpar, not necessarily bad, but thats subjective; bad means different things to different people. And i say this as someone who thinks this game is Not the best but still found it incredibly engaging and entertaining.

[nerdy-hyperfixations]

Sorry to be a hater but this is how I’ve been feeling recently

[musical-chick-13]

See, I think the thing about deranged, toxic relationships in fiction, is that everyone involved has to actively choose to walk into or keep coming back to this relationship. That's the interesting part for me. What would make someone, against every single ounce of reason, decide that being in a relationship like that is genuinely worth it for them? Why would someone willingly put themselves in that situation? What has to be going on in their psyche? What do they get (or think they get) out of it?

If the toxicity is one-sided or one party is completely railroaded into the relationship at every turn until they finally cave, or there's some outside force trapping both of them in the relationship and they don't actually want to be there, that's not particular interesting to me, personally.

(Obviously, other people can disagree with this; people have a wide variety of opinions and ways they engage with fiction, which is good, actually. I'm simply talking about my own thoughts.)

[steelycunt]

ridi im sorry i need to rant and i think youll get it 😭 like not to be a bitch but this fandom kinda going off the rails and annoying the shit out of me https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRbYASpf/ everybody in the comments unironically loving it,,, i mean wtvr ship who you want but its kinda getting delusional like ppl are just operating on thin air and pretty fancasts atp and i do Not understand or emotionally connect with any of it. at least w wolfstar theres so much material and foundation to explore but what is all the rest of this?? just hot celebrity fancasts and crack. to be fair part of me respects taking a terfs canon material and making everybody gay but the way it seems to be so oversaturating fics and the fandom that characters dont even feel like their original selves .. atp its all just surface level OCs

hello! yes! i'll be honest talking about things like this always make me a little nervous, and i feel obligated to preface anything i say with a disclaimer that none of it really matters, nothing i say matters, and you should do what you like, because--who cares. i am not an authority on--anything, frankly. my opinion holds no more weight than the next guy's, and all i'm doing here is giving it, so. essentially what im saying is--people are perfectly entitled to disagree with me, but people are not entitled to be mean to me about it xx

having said that. it is my personal opinion that s x barty is one of the worst fucking things i have ever heard lol. who even is barty who is that guy. why would s be interested in him at all. i do not understand it it does not make sense to me. from where are we sourcing the character traits and personality that we are giving barty that would ever endear sirius to him, because it objectively cannot be canon.

overall i do not get the new interest in barty + evan + pandora (+ regulus, but we won't go there)...at all, other than guessing that people were bored with the marauders and wanted a new version of them (and new celebrities to fancast) while simultaneously changing next to nothing about them other than superimposing them onto the first slytherin side characters they could rustle up. i expect ive become a bit of a broken record in regards to my dislike of the popular meow-meow-ification + complete absolution of regulus as a character in order to make him a loveable oc (just as i think erasing all the negative traits that r/s have in order to make them more likeable is just as boring), and all of that applies to those other guys as well (with the slight difference that they are, somehow, even less interesting and significant than regulus in canon), so i won't get into that too much. but i think what you say about having no emotional connection to any of it is exactly right lol--it is a sort of shift? i guess? in the fandom that is simply of no interest to me. they are characters that i just have no emotional investment in and admittedly struggle a little to understand why other people do. i am emotionally invested in, like, five characters overall (and even out of those--there's only two i'm really here for innit xx) and i personally cannot extend that investment to a creepy little side character who is mentioned maybe twice in the entire series.

and that is okay! i do not need to understand it. i don't want to say it annoys me because honestly--i don't go there, its nothing to do with me. if i dont like it i just wont interact with it, and the fact that it doesn't interest me has no bearing on what other people are into or want to do, and i couldn't give less of a shit what people do with the canon material, which is largely garbage anyway. take the bits you want from it, play around with those and ignore the rest. in that respect we are all doing exactly the same thing. but yeah i think s x barty is genuinely awful lol. hate it. very terrible. he's already got a loser werewolf boyfriend and he loves him so so much. leave him alone.

[alternativeulster]

swiftie mutuals please know that i still love you i just cant help but be a hater

[glindyupland]

I just think it’s silly that so many people complain about Villain Amaya as “wasted potential” and that “we were robbed” like-

My pals, post canon fan fiction is right there. The desire to free her husband is right there. Either by touching an evil book while being too eager to remember the obsidian oil, or being possessed by contact (ie what she believes is true loves kiss) when trying to reason with him in the dungeon.

We don’t need a rewrite, we can have a continuation. Both can be true. Amaya is a complex character, she can handle it.