#I know some things of it like plot points the villain some of the characters...

[tryingtofindmycomputer]

I'm too lazy to finish my wips but I'll let them free otherwise who know how long I would keep them as my skeletons in the closet (they're coming out, they're gay ur honor)

The prompt I came up with is that Shen Yuan plays a dating simulator based on PIDW but for girls and ends up transmigrated in it. (End game ship is scumcum cuz they're my little miaw miaws.)

Yes, Shen Yuan knows! The absolute embarrassment of a righteous cultivator setting that the original novel was, with thousands of beauties to be lost in the flowerbed, is being advertised as a dating sim?! Towards girls?? Unthinkable!

Shen Yuan doesn't see the appeal and wonders if whoever agreed with this was high off their kite! He bought the game anyways.

Don't get him wrong, he's not a masochist. He just wanted to see if he could find out more about the characters between all of the horrendous plot holes.

Who was he kidding? Himself! That absolute trash novel gave birth to the trashiest game ever! No contest for first place when you hold all of the seats at the podium of the horrorlympics.

Shen Yuan tried to find out more about each character because the novel was just a lake of red herrings, even if it still wasn't finished, but all of the cultivators ended up getting killed by Luo Binghe by the time he got even remotely close to romance between any of them.

At first he was okay with it since it was the stallion protagonist conquering his destiny and marrying his destined wife but there were only so many routes you could finish with Luo Binghe without it looking like lazy writing. This monstrosity was the same as the novel! Started out with good plot but ended up making him regret ever thinking the author of the book behind this game could be anything but a suck-up to perverts!

Yue Qingyuan? Dead. Wei Qingwei? Dead. Gongyi Xiao? Dead(??). Ming Fan? Dead. Liu Qingge? Dead... Well, that wasn't Binghe's fault. Shang Qinghua? Dead... That one also wasn't quite Binghe's fault. Mu Qingfang? Who even knows! Alive somewhere despite his sect being literally massacred. Shen Qingqiu? Dead, maybe?? In this point in time?? But he deserved it!

Oh! Don't even mention how he couldn't choose to be a guy! They didn't give him a choice, the hacks!! The beauty (read: amoeba) he was playing always ends up married to that bride snatcher, Luo Binghe!

And there are soooo many papapa scenes! The quality is not even good, where the fuck did all of the budget go except to animate papapa? Who did they even pay? They were scammed! Robbed! Swindled! Shen Yuan is sure people don't bend like that! The moment those scenes appeared? Literal jumpscare.

Shen Yuan found out last minute the game did not have a censoring feature so he was assaulted by Luo Binghe's heavenly pillar. You couldn't imagine the horror in his face at realizing that would enter someone's body. He was beginning to understand why Binghe's wives started to lose their iq the more time they spent in the harem. No space for them when they had to accommodate that thing! Some of them daily too! What are these proportions? Not human and shouldn't be justifiable, absolute bullshit! It's bigger than his forearm!!

The only thing that they did right is commissioning the original artist of the novel and merch to draw the backgrounds and character pictures when they're not... moving. The NPGs basically.

Who even is this fan service directed to?? Whoever tries to watch this will get turned off by the sheer amount of weird illogical poses and unnecessary ads littered everywhere. Sell-offs! Also, how is she, meaning his character, not at a gynecologist or something similar?!

Anyways, after trying all possible routes unfortunately leading to Luo Binghe, he has found a special character! Shen Yuan had found you could date Shen Qingqiu, the scum villain who deserves to be castrated.

Shen Yuan had just started Shen Jiu's love route by becoming a Qing Jing disciple (because why not, it's not real life) but he is sure the guy deserved at least some of the torture he got. Shen Yuan can't even keep count of the amount of times the guy has gotten on his nerves. May that bastard walk on guqins barefoot until he repents!

The game was wrong here too! They characterized him wrong, the antagonist did not even try anything with his character even though Shen Yuan had upgraded all of his beauty's stats to literal succubus-charm-your-pants-off.

He doesn't understand why the scum villain isn't jumping him when his beauty is at blows-your-socks-off levels, he thought the guy was perving on his students but whoever made this game probably didn't read some parts of PIDW or was a scum apologist. Divine retribution to whoever wrote this excuse of a game storyline. Ah, my script!

Probably one of those hare-brained people Shen Yuan wrote whole essays to, scathing them and the villain who should be castrated. The story that is barely found between all of the bad papapa was, after all, to show Luo Binghe's rise to power and inflicting justice against his past bullies and scum shizun! They gave him a ticket to becoming an invincible protag, he gives them a ticket to get their lives ruined. Easy logic.

Shen Yuan kept ranting in his head, too furious to notice the snack he had gotten for himself had already long ago expired.

He ate his pork bun too angrily, too stiff and yet still cursing out the novel and disgustingly named author, and didn't notice until it was too late how his healthy body couldn't take such abuse.

"Dumbfuck author, dumbfuck novel, dumbfuck game!"

These were the last word Shen Yuan could curse before he died.

Who would have thought a strong young man of a wealthy family would die this way after spending so much money on a specific stallion novel. At least he did before the dating game became the one mostly draining his bank account. Even so, it was not even out of natural causes like his own body failing on its own out of old age. No, it just had to be because he didn't notice what he was eating!

Shen Yuan was too angry he felt he could come back from the dead only to haunt the authors of the game, but especially give Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky a heart attack. He would make sure to haunt that hack writer's dreams even if it's the last thing he does.

Into the darkness he went, he couldn't feel anything. He couldn't see anything.

Then, a sudden but clear noise came from somewhere inside the void.

[ Activation code: 'Dumbfuck author, dumbfuck novel, dumbfuck game'. Automatically triggering system. ]

Shen Yuan looked around but could not find where the ai-like voice was coming from. 'System? Like a-'

[ We welcome your entrance into the system. This system is based on the developing concept of 'You can you up, no can no BB'. We hope to provide you with the best experience. It is our sincere hope that during the course of your experience, you can achieve what you desired. To transform a piece of stupid writing in accordance to your wishes into a high-end, impressive, and high-grade classic work (of porn). We pray for your happiness. ]

Amidst the dizziness, Shen Yuan could hear someone, a voice, close to him. It was asking, "...–Shidi! Can you hear me? —

(that's all I have)

[disco-troy]

White Knight and the Art of Ruining Batman - Part 2/3

[Part 1 here]

Characters

If it wasn’t enough for Sean to drop every single theme from a 40 foot cliff, he has to go and run the characters too.

Bruce Wayne

Bruce Wayne in this comic doesn’t care about victims and causes insane amounts of property damage

The worst part is that as bad as Bruce is in this comic, he never properly sees repercussions for his actions. It could have been some sort of statement in the comics if there was change, or even an acknowledgement that Bruce’s reactions are wrong.

Bruce’s blatant disregard for civilian lives makes Dick decide to help the police turn him in. When he makes bridges fall down and collapse on people he gets arrested, but even that is nowhere near a reckoning. Several characters point out he could very easily break out of the prison cell he gets thrown into, and he himself admits he’s just there waiting for the Joker to come to him for help to take down Evil Harley. Then he does exactly that with no apologies and everyone magically forgives him. He basically uses his sojourn in jail to brood.

There are a few pieces and panels that bring back the Bruce we know but those are few and far between. They ring so hollow because none of the themes or actual plot at all reinforces them.

“This isn’t out of a duty to avenge my parents” okay why did you literally want to kill someone for changing your perception of the Wayne legacy.

“I want to leave a safer Gotham that you can be proud of”. Literally how. All you’ve done is beat the shit out of the joker and not respect Babs and Dick. He's not really shown prioritizing saving civilians. The only thing he doesn't to protect Babs and Dick is to keep them off cases but it seems like its more because he doesn't want to work with anyone.

Other than Frank Miller's version, this is the first version of Bruce that I simply can’t bring myself to believe that he fights for his children and for justice.

Harley Quinn and Neo Joker

Everyone knows the story of Harley Quinn. A woman in an abused relationship who falsely thought her abuser cared about her until she broke free from an abusive relationship and - oh

Okay I guess she was right about her abuser caring about her?? I guess it was fine that she was in a toxic relationship for years, because actually deep inside, there was a caring man and she had to find him. That’s what White Knight tells us, even this rhetoric is literally what many abuse victims falsely think about their abuse and leads them to staying with their abuser longer

This is something that continuously gets stated throughout the book.  Even Batman agrees that Harley's role “balancing” the joker was essential.

To reiterate - Batman thinks it's good that Harley stayed in an explicitly toxic relationship where her partner was in love with someone else (Batman) and also a murderer and made her the accessory to her actual crimes because it made the partner in question less violent. Literally reducing Harley's life’s importance to be the emotional regulator of her abuser…

What about the other Harley (later dubbed Neo Joker)? She’s evil. Straight up. She never gets to see the redemption the actual joker gets despite the fact that her background is genuinely chilling

Before she is the second Harley Quinn, she is depressed, cutting herself, working at a bank. Emotionally vulnerable, which is how a lot of people fall into abusive relationships. 

Its a tale as old as time, villain breaks into bank and you are so terrified that you would do anything and pretend to be anyone to live and oh wow now you are dating huh

The text of course insists that the Joker is not at fault for the birth of Neo Joker.

“She could leave at any time”, “She chose to continue to be Harley” The text wants you to take these bits from the narrative and blame Neo Joker for deciding to be Harley Quinn when she's an emotionally vulnerable woman who was terrified of the joker and then treated to the first pieces of kindness she's been treated to. Most victims of domestic abuse can also leave at any time as well. Does that make them responsible for being groomed?

“I know its fucked up that the joker completely rewrote a woman's name and personality but its okay bc she was depressed!!”

Later, when the Joker becomes Jack and becomes "good" this second Harley becomes Neo-Joker and tries to make Jack the Joker again, to belong with her again.

You would think that now that the joker is “cured” he would realize that the second Harley is a victim of his crimes as the joker. Just like how he blames Arkham for making him do more crime, he literally kidnapped and manipulated the second Harley into committing crimes. You would think he would realize this right?

But instead they redirect the faults. The make the second Harley comically evil, even implying her to be abusive in trying to keep the Joker the Joker. The book makes the joker the victim and erases his history of abuse at the expense of a women whose narrative arc is about escaping an abusive relationship. Despite the fact that he was responsible for Harley becoming “Neo Joker” in the first place, there is no sympathy for her.

There is no sympathy for the second Harley/neo Joker. Not from any characters, not from the narrative. We are treated to a horrifying backstory framed to take all fault from the joker, blaming the victim.

White Knight tries so hard to obscure the role of the Joker as an abuser and the Harleys as victims that it does a 180 spin and portrays the second Harley as his abuser and the reason he’s evil, blaming her for not being a perfect victim and emotional regulator like the first Harley. Its evil Harley’s fault Joker was evil 🙂

You heard it here first folks! When you get so traumatized you ruin your sense of identity to become a man’s old girlfriend, it's your fault. She should have been perfect and knew that the guy kidnapping her was a good person all along like the other Harley!

It drives me insane that neither Harley Quinns get the fact that they were in an abusive relationship acknowledged. The first Harley is rewarded for not leaving her abuser. The second Harley is villainized for being a victim.

Not only is this a horrifying portrayal of abusive relationships, it is a betrayal of the fundamental theme that Harley and the Joker have in literally every single piece of media.

Duke Thomas

Let’s start with what White Knight got right. Duke in the comics is a good leader and he was one in this book. That’s it. There is nothing in this Duke’s personality, jokes, general way of life that reminds me of my beloved comic Duke. When most characters in White Knight are out of character there is at least a lacroix taste of what the actual character is hidden somewhere in the book. There is none of this with Duke.

I also feel like in general, comics and many forms of media have an issue with aging up black characters. This happens to Duke in this comic, he’s Bruce's age, a military vet, and built like a tank. Nothing against tank characters but that's not generally Duke's body type either.

An example of a backstory change that Murphy has from the comics is that for some reason Duke’s home is called Backport instead of the Narrows. The Narrows are a fairly important part of Duke’s character in rebirth: it's Jason’s nickname for him and it has its own specific history within the context of Batman that gets touched on a decent amount.

Backport has no personality, so it doesn't make much sense to reinvent the narrows. I think I’ve figured out why he changed it though.

He didn’t know the narrows existed. I’m 95% sure this man has never read a single comic with Duke ever. Like not a single one. He read like the blurb on the back of his cereal box and made up everything else - from art design to personality.

To make this GodAwful joke:

He also makes Duke Joker’s main ally in changing the city.

You are going to strip Duke of his themes and his interesting parts and his symbolism and who he stands for as a hero to give it to THE ANTAGONIST in his story who gets a half assed redemption arc and you’re not even going to do anything interesting with it?!?

Duke says Jack has earned his trust little by little even though they just met, and compares his “rap sheet” and the “rap sheet” of people in the neighborhood, which is, yannow implied to be due to broken windows policing and nonviolence crimes TO THE CRIMES JACK COMMITTED AS THE LITERAL JOKER.

If Sean had read anything with Duke in it, he would definitely know that Duke Does Not Like Cops. He is the only Batfamily member to explicitly say so in the mainline comics, and he does so on many occasions. He does not subscribe to the idea of there being good cops, and he’s suffered at the hands of the system.

Though Duke expresses distrust for cops in the first half of the comic, its mostly because they didn’t let him join, and when they do let him join he’s ecstatic!

He also compares the police to the military. “Duke” may call cops pigs but he agrees that they should be policing like it's a war.

I just don’t understand what this book thinks people generally mean when they say ACAB means like at all or call cops pigs. Duke cannot say “there are no good cops” and also say “we should run the cops like the military” at the same time. Those are fundamentally irreconcilable ideologies.

Its just so jarring! Duke in issue 4: cops r pigs Duke in issue 6: im cop again eheheheh

According to Duke we’ve solved all the problems of Backport because we have black cops now!

changing the system from the inside (: of the super militarized cop group, explicitly stated to be corrupt on page and now with more weapons!!

(I feel anger at the implication every time that all this community needed was one white man to fix anything and also that white man was the joker)

@dukethvmas SAID "ITS ACTUALLY EVIL TO INCLUDE DOES WE ARE ROBIN MEAN NOTHING!!!!!" SO TRUE DON"T PRETEND U KNOW SHIT ABOUT DUKE!!!!!

Barbara Gordon

Babs is written as a quirky basic girl like some version of Batgirl of Burnside on steroids. She is the only one with brain cells in emotional situations.

The rest of the time she’s innocent or dumb as bricks!

She forgets to take her costume off when confronting a man about their meeting in her civilian identity. Do you… Literally 10 year old Barbara Gordon wouldn’t make this mistake.

You want me to believe she's an actual vigilante???? She solves cases and shit????

She goes to a lab and gets surprised when the rats get experimented on. In a lab.

Later in the second book, her identity gets out. It's to get back at Jim Gordon instead of being about her at all even though she is literally also a hero. Instead of responding by fighting back, coming up with a plan, doing literally anything with agency she cries and needs her dad to yell at Bruce for her.

As if the characterization wasn’t bad enough, they decide to recreate the Killing Joke in the comic by having Barbara have a spinal injury. Like a lot of things in this comic it's window dressing. There is no point to it and it further rubs salt in the wound that is that Babs is not allowed to be competent in any sense of the word, and especially not as Oracle

Its short plot you have a scene where she is shot, a scene where (she is pushed!) in a wheelchair at Jim's funeral, a scene of her in rehab but it's just about talking to Bruce about Bruce’s problems and then she's back in the Batgirl suit! It's never about Bab’s story, but about her in relation to Bruce and Jim. 

White Knight takes a storyline that was problematic because it centered man in Barbara’s story and centered men again in Barbara’s story. It took a storyline that was problematic because it erases disability and you erase the disability. 

Dick Grayson

Dick Grayson in White Knight is mostly just an idiot and very volatile.

[I'm out of image space again ::((((( continued in part 3: Dick Grayson and Why was this comic Like This?]

[Part 1 here]

[achillean-knight]

So uhhhhhh It's no secret that I really REALLY love the Final Fantasy franchise (it's my favourite video game series of all time), so you KNOW I got the FF6 Reference in Undertale sooooo---- uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh------- Final Fantasy 6 opera scene Mettaton sprites anyone? UHYGDSHDS I GOT REALLY BORED OK?

For anyone who doesn't know the opera scene, here's both Final Fantasy 6 and Mettaton's HJGHDGFSDH I am not normal about this LMAO

it's so good, I love them both so dearly aaaa

[happypeachsludgeflower]

SVSSS BRAINWAVE JUST HIT! I HAD A THOUGHT ™

An average modern person transmitigates into SVSSS. Mind you, I specifically mean SVSSS and not PIDW. That’s right, our protagonist awakens to find themselves as a NPC in the world of Scum Villain Self Saving System. And they think to themselves upon waking up, “Oh, I’m an NPC in a xianxia novel with a happy ending! Cool!!” and goes about their life being a background nerd geeking out about plants, and monsters, and cultivation in general, and neat flying swords.

But this is a world of sex pollen and wife plots and unfortunately the cure for a lot of diseases is duel cultivation with a heavenly demon, and we all know who that demon is going to end up marrying, so it’s best to mess around with meta cultivation knowledge and prep for the worst case scenario, and honestly, they may as well solve some of the minor issues in the plot while their at it, so they invent some new cultivation techniques from some of those nifty svsss fanfictions they read while alive (I’m specifically thinking of this fic’s explanation of duel cultivation and cauldrons, but other weird cultivation methods could be used from other fanfics and xianxia books), so they can tidy up some things.

For instance, is it really necessary for Zhuzhi-lang to be stuck as a weird snake creature for nearly twenty years? Is it really needed for Yue Qingyuan to have crippled cultivation due to his sword?? Does Tianlang Jun have to be stuck under a mountain and then escape only to slowly die in a decomposing body??

They know they can’t change everything without the system interfering, but small nudges should help right? After all, they’re just a background NPC and Shen Yuan will show up eventually and everyone will fall in love with him and no one will even notice the NPC’s existence even if they had noticed something was up during their miraculous healing and salvation spree.

So they go about fixing those things. They catch Zhuzhi-lang unawares and feed him a sun and dew mushroom seed while he’s confused and do some funky cultivation shenanigans and pat him on the head cause he’s really such a cute weird snake creature and give him some vague warning about not trusting in laws and then fucks off to somewhere else.

I’m still caught up on Metagaming’s concept of duel cultivation transactions where you give and take—like taking something from someone’s cultivation, not just power, and returning something else—and keep getting stuck in a brainrot loop of the NPC taking some bloodmite powers from Zhuzhi-lang when they gave him a fully humanoid form that’s not reliant on Tianlang Jun. So my main idea for how the NPC plots to hold Yue Qingyuan in place is feeding him lesser bloodmites (not full ones because they only took a minor ability and can only hold someone for a few minutes before the bloodmites die), while they hold Yue Qingyuan still long enough to draw some ritual to heal his soul and separate it from Xuan Su. But honestly, I’m sure other ideas could apply here too. My Metagaming brainrot is just too strong right now to think of any.

And Tianlang Jun? Simple. Zhuzhi-lang’s got a humanoid form and can easily get the sun and dew mountain flowers for himself. They can’t stop the man from being imprisoned entirely. The system says no since Luo Binghe needs a dramatic entrance. So while they can’t stop the tragedy, they can put some pieces into play for an early escape, maybe a new plan to get him a better body once’s he’s back, and be a ferry for Su Xiyan’s body to revive her at some point as well.

It’s nice being an unnoticeable NPC, isn’t it? You can do whatever you want and no one’s going to know!!

Except. Someone does notice (as we all could have seen coming). And Shen Qingqiu is suspicious as fuck of this obnoxious Shidi because he notices everyone due to paranoid, and he’s even MORE suspicious of the mysterious character that healed Yue Qingyuan’s soul (and wasn’t that a doozy of a realization to have when Yue Qingyuan burst into his bamboo house one day freaking out because some disguised, powerful cultivator somehow did the impossible after ambushing him and holding him down as they healed his soul, and Shen Qingqiu is still reeling from learning that Yue Qingyuan’s SOUL was damaged trying to save Xiao Jiu and the stubborn asshole never told him because he apparently assumed Xiao Jiu knew there wasn’t a single universe where Qi ge didn’t try to come for him). And so yea, Shen Qingqiu is suspicious as all hell and starts snooping and plotting to catch the mysterious cultivator by combing through Cang Qiong because whoever it is has to have an in at the sect somewhere to know about Yue Qingyuan’s soul.

And that’s not even mentioning how suspicious Zhuzhi-lang and Tianlang Jun are now. They might not have realized what that strange cultivator did when they did it, or understood the cryptic in law mention, but they certainly have some suspicions now that Tianlang Jun was as imprisoned by in law like people, and Zhuzhi-lang kept his humanoid form just fine without Tianlang Jun, and now the hunt is ON for the mysterious benefactor, so they can repay the kindness and find out what the fuck is going on.

The NPC is, of course, oblivious to all of this going on and goes about their merry way thinking they’re being the Best ™ at being lowkey. They are SO good at being inconspicuous!! They deserve an award really!!

And then. Shen Qingqiu doesn’t qi deviate.

Shen Yuan doesn’t show up.

Oh shit, the NPC thinks to themselves as they begin to panic. They even check Shen Qingqiu out themselves to see if it’s Shen Yuan just being really good at acting. Maybe he was a better actor in the book than he gave himself credit for or something?? But no. That’s Shen Qingqiu all right. Shen Yuan is missing in action, and someone has to fix the plot of Cang Qiong is doomed.

Thus begins the NPC’s journey to try and unobtrusively fix PIDW’s child abuse problems (that they’re unaware are already fixed), save Liu Qingge from his qi deviation in Ling Xi Caves, make sure Luo Binghe doesn’t raze the sect to the ground someday and hopefully find him some sort of husband replacement to keep him under control when he does return, possibly dispose of the Huan Hua Palace Master at some point because he’s vile trash, and did I mention there are multiple man hunts for this poor oblivious dude currently on going??

And the most important question for them to solve? Where the fuck did Shen Yuan go??

Hmm I wonder where that man could have gone.

[fixyourwritinghabits]

Enemies to Lovers or the "Give Us Nothing" Trope

This is a particular bane of romantasy, but it's been going on way longer than that in a lot of fiction. You know him, I know him, it's the "super hot bad guy to whom a redemption arc is a joke" trope. The irresistible evil dude. Pretty much one of the main options for a romantic lead these days. This trope is awful, rarely done well, and has been driving me crazy for ages. Let's talk about why!

Subgenres of this trope are The Liar ("I withheld critical information from you for 2/3rds of the plot yet you still want to fuck me") or the One-Dimensional Rogue ("I have the moral convictions of a flea but you'll still get with me over the good guy you've known your whole life"). All of these characters seem interesting on the surface, but there's a handful of factors that cripple them:

Being unwilling to give us a real motive. Why is the hot evil guy evil? What made him go down this road? What do they truly believe and why? If your character has less motivation than a Disney villain, you've got nothing to go on. Gaston has more depth than most of these bozos, and the point of Gaston is that he shallower than a dried puddle!

Being unwilling to actually write romance. These dudes is supposed to like the lead, yet they never really do. The key problem here is that once your mysterious hot lead starts to actually want to be with someone, he stops being so mysterious. Actual character development might expose some flaws or make the dude awkward, and we can't have that.

Not conflicted, not interesting. The bad guy doesn't have any emotional turmoil about what he's doing and why. Or maybe he feels a little bad about lying to the heroine, but goshdarnit, the sex is just so good. There may be trauma driving him, but it's mostly present in the form of a sexy scar or a sad background that'll never be plot relevant, so why bother?

The redemption is a joke. Being willing to do one good thing and then immediately dying isn't redemption. Demanding (or having the romantic lead demand) acceptance immediately after a heel-turn isn't either. Redemption is hard, there's often little room for it in Enemies-to-Lovers, and the story suffers because of it.

I'm not going to say this trope never works, because it absolutely can. This really can be an interesting dynamic if you put your heart into it. In fact, characters that these characters you can look at that do this right include:

Han Solo (aka the Scruffy Rogue, Star Wars)

Listen, Han Solo is always depicted as the ultimate rogue, but he's actually a loser. He was a shitty smuggler who was terrible at his job. His attempts to hit on Leia were laughable. He probably smelled like Wookie most of the time. Han does not start off as a cool, suave character. He thinks he is, and pretty much everyone sees through him.

But Han earns his way by turning back to help the people he barely knows. He uses his own connections to help the rebels, and when that backfires on him, his friends are invested enough to come save his ass because he already risked himself to save theirs. Han starts off a loser and becomes cool by throwing it in with the good guys, even when he'd rather run.

Han works because he lets go of the walls he's built up and allows himself to care and believe in his friends.

Zuko (aka the Actual Redeemed Bad Guy, Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Zuko's bad boy exterior is almost immediately shattered in ATLA. He throws temper tantrums at his uncle. He blows up constantly. Zuko only becomes cool when the narrative changes and we get to know why he is the way he is, but he's still a bad guy. We see him struggle with his anger, and we see him continue to make bad choices. We see his slow journey to something more.

And, most importantly, he almost immediately loses all his cool aura when he joins Team Avatar. He becomes awkward and stilted, because he has to truly humble himself and admit he was wrong. He's no longer the main character of the story, and he has to accept that. He never really regains that cool exterior, but he becomes a more confident, capable person because he's willing to do the right thing.

Zuko works because he's willing to face his trauma, admit his flaws, and work to correct the mistakes he's made.

Catra (aka the REAL Enemies to Lovers, 2018's She-Ra and the Princesses of Power)

All ya'll motherfuckers are sleeping on Catra. A villain who remains a villain for most of the series, Catra is fueled by both ambition and anger. She continues to make bad choices, even when she realizes she's wrong. She continues to hold Adora's defection to the good side against her, even when Catra knows she's not doing the right thing. She's manipulative and cruel, but absolutely genuine.

Catra's going to be the most controversial person I add to this list, but I think she's the most critical in the Enemies to Lovers done right. Her deep, personal connection to her love interest is the driving force in her decisions to remain on the bad side. Her conflicted emotions drive her to the brink, and only when she breaks does she realize she's in the wrong.

Catra works because we always know what her motivations are and why she makes the choices she makes, even when they're the wrong ones.

People not on this list are Draco (who never redeemed himself and that was the fucking point) or Kylo Ren (done in by bad writing). You can fix them in fanfiction and hell, that's what it's there for. But you can't really build off of them for your original work, because the building blocks are wrong. You've got to knuckle down and make your bad guy character have real flaws, face real consequences, and be able to humble themselves, or it's just not going to work.

[seth-whumps]

Any tips for writing the scenes you don't want to write to get to the scenes you do want to write?

Writing When It Sucks: A Quickstart Guide to the Scenes That Hate You Personally

by seth-whumps / sethlost

So, you've got a thousand-word gap between the good scenes, and you've gotta fill it with something. We've all been there—that one sentence in the outline, filling you with irreversible dread—but don’t lose hope. We do have some solutions! I've got three pieces of advice for this situation:

-> Skip The Hard Parts

-> Check Your Variables

-> Change It Up

Long post ahead, folks—you’ve been warned!

Let's start easy, with—

AVOIDANCE

Don't force yourself to write the parts you hate! If it's a scene that's not your thing, just... skip it! If you think it's boring, chances are your readers will feel it, too. If you'd skip it, they'd skip it. Famous authors do this alllllll the time. Don't deny yourself the privilege.

Remember, you don’t have to write chronologically. Write the good parts when you want to write them.

You gotta get to December? Skip to it.

You have a long ass captivity scene you don't want to bore yourself with? Skip it.

Does this scene just inspire you to stop writing forever? SKIP IT.

If it sucks, hit da bricks, as we Tumblrinas say.

Now, I hear you. "But if I do that with every scene that troubles me, I'll have hardly any scenes at all!"

Welcome to writing. It sucks. However, I'll let you in on the best tip I have ever learned from Reddit Dot Com—

CHECK YOUR VARIABLES

Your story, whether big or small, is built from several puzzle pieces! We'll call these your Story Variables. They can include:

Physical:

-> Heroes - your main people!

-> Villains - you’ve gotta have an antagonist somewhere, yknow?

-> Setting/Genre - solarpunk? ancient Arthurian myth? literally just New York City?

-> Locations - home base, headquarters, the villain’s lair, high school, etc

Narrative:

-> Main plot - getting the hero from point A to Z

-> Sideplots - character development, romance, betrayal and redemption arcs

-> Motivations - what do your characters want? what does your setting want?

-> Ending - where is it all going towards?

Audience:

-> Morals/messages - what’s the point of the story? what are you discussing or exploring throughout?

-> Metaphors - what’s the language you’re using to paint a picture?

-> Emotions - and the language you’re using to invoke a feeling?

-> Satisfaction - do you want your audience to feel satisfied? do you not? where and why?

If you're stuck on a scene, you may have an underdeveloped variable, or a missing one altogether. You can fix this by interrogating the absolute hell out of your story. Here's a few questions to get you started:

Do you know your ending? Is this scene guiding you towards it?

What emotions are you trying to portray? Where can you show that in this scene?

Where's your current location? Are you using it as a character in your story?

What drives your heroes? Your villains? How can you make them more obvious?

Are you considering your side plots and character development arcs?

Is this scene contributing to the satisfaction of your story?

You might be saying, "But wait! I'm only writing a little thing! I don't have the time/energy to think about all that!"

That's okay! I hear you. But it's not hopeless. I've still got something to help—

CHANGING IT UP

Hobbyists work in styles. It's hard to develop one, and often it comes from years of practice and study, but there's a way you can streamline it to your advantage. Think of it this way:

-> If you don't like drawing noses, change the way you draw them.

-> If your crocheting tools don't feel right, find ones that suit you.

-> If a chord on the guitar is too difficult, use an alternate fingering.

NEWS FLASH: it's the same for writing.

If something isn't working, you have every ability to do it differently. There's very little right and wrong, here. Don't confine yourself to one generalized "type" of writing--branch out until you find what works for you. Let's start by thinking about what you're struggling on.

Physical movements? Blocking? You might be having trouble visualizing what the scene needs to contain.

Draw the layout of your location. Use random pieces to represent your characters. Play dolls.

Keep it simple. Write exactly what happens, no more and no less.

Another post on Tumblr blew up, advising you to try writing the scene with only dialogue, and adding the actions later.

Emotional weight? Prose? This one's tricky, but I've got some advice regardless.

Change your sentence structure. Focus on the rhythm of the words. Worry less about grammar, and pay attention to the picture, the painting, the music.

Or, in opposition, write it exactly like it is. Come back to prose it up once you've got the scene skeletonized.

What's your moral/metaphor? Thread it throughout. Come back to it often. This'll tie up the story into something cohesive and cinematic.

Organization? The actual, nitty-gritty content of the scene? Think about what the purpose of the scene is, then consider the following.

Start with a bullet point list of everything you want to include. Think of details, interactions, and movements. Spam as many as you can think of, until you've got a substantial list of meat and seasoning you can sprinkle in as necessary.

Check in on your variables. Where does the scene need to end? What's the most convoluted path it could take to get there?

Introduce a new variable. Treat everything like a character in the story. Is the location an old building? Have it collapse. Is the ending too close for comfort? Drive the story in the opposite direction.

Most of all, mess around. Do what comes naturally, and if something isn't working, do it differently until it does. Writing is fun, despite everything about writing--so workshop it until it's fun again.

Whoops! That got very long. I hope this helps at least a bit, and if you've got any questions at all, Anon, feel free to ask! I'm sorry for the wait on this ask, by the way. I wanted to give it justice.

I'd be happy to go more in depth on anything mentioned here. I love talking through my thought processes while writing.

And as a disclaimer, none of what is said here is law. It's just what I've gathered through practice, and through following incredible people. There's no rules! Do what feels right!

Anyway! Thanks for reading, folks. See you in the next one [salutes]

Seth, signing off!

dividers by @/saradika-graphics, link in pinned post

[the-immortal-restless]

A Millennium of Changes

(BETA READ BY @pumpkin-pepperz :) thanks pookie)

Summary: Everyone thought that the new baby Monkey would age like a mortal, after all, they were in the mortal realm and the baby was made in that realm… why would it age differently?

No one expected it to take so long

TLDR:The egg takes 35 celestial months to hatch, which roughly equates to 1,050 years in the mortal realm.

Takes place just after this chapter!

Warning:Heavy Angst(There is also heavy comfort to help don’t worry), Many Major Character Deaths, Transmasculine individual (MK) getting pregnant and giving birth(though it’s not a significant plot point).

This work was written by someone who did not grow up in Chinese culture, and while there are little references to the culture I still want to acknowledge that I am not the most educated on the practices and traditions of said culture.

Notes before the fic(skippable. Skip to *’s): This was based on an idea I had while sick where the egg takes 35 celestial months to grow. And one celestial day is one mortal year. Which I will guide you through the math now.

35 months x approximately 30 days per month = 1,050 days. Converting to Mortal Time is 1,050 years or 12,600 months. They have already completed 9 months in the comic at the time of writing this (may fifth) so that’s 12,591 months or 1,049.25 years. Which is a long time. In the comic it is established that MK is immortal and we already know that Redson is a half celestial, half demon, so of the main group them two are the only one likely to be alive after that long.

Tang is Papa and Pigsy is Dad.

**************************************

”You’ll see- Next time I call you, You’ll finally meet your new sibling… I Promise.”

Those were the last words he heard before his dads went into a deep meditation. It was essentially a magical coma.

MK was worried for his dad, he looked so tired, and his Mama had already passed out. He worried they wouldn’t wake up, but his Baba assured him they would.

MK went home with his Dad and his Papa. His Papa took him for a much needed haircut in the morning, he practically had a mane by now and he wasn’t to keen on having long hair.

MK focused on other relationships. His Dad’s shop was still busy, rightfully so, it was the best noodle shop in town. He still liked listening to his Papa’s wisdom and learning from the scholar. He had therapy with Sandy and his clowder of many cats. He trained with Mei and Redson, outside of hanging out and little dates.

Of course he visited his Baba and Mama every weekend, made sure all the things they had prepared for the baby stayed well taken care of. They’d need it when that baby finally hatched.

But MK started to worry as more and more weeks passed without so much as a sign the baby would hatch.

Eventually the first year passed. His Papa told him that maybe the baby was going to take the full 35 months. That thought both soothed and worried him, almost three years? That’s a long time.

He was worried some new villain would come back, and he wouldn’t have his mentor to help.

He talked to Sandy and he was able to slowly come to terms with that. Telling himself that the baby would be okay and he had a huge support system to help incase something did happen.

He’d focused on living instead of worried. Focus on what can be now, instead of what could’ve been.

He invested his time in growing, learning, becoming someone to be a hero and becoming better and better.

He cooked with Pigsy, the noodle shop had been there since before he was born. He loved cooking with his Dad and he always wanted to continue it. His Dad liked to impart wisdom onto him much like his Papa, (he was beginning to see why they were married) whether it be about trusting his senses over a recipe or some cooking metaphor for life. Things like: “Things are the best when you wait for the perfect time.”

He read more with his Papa, talking about myths and stories. The two of them even ventured outside Chinese Mythos and looked into all kinds of myths and legends. He enjoyed learning and taking in wisdom. Though their time together wasn’t restricted by myths. He also learned things from his Papa about human nature and philosophy. He learned that even though sleep was a vital part of mortal life, it’s still important for Celestial and Immortals because outside of the physical body, the mind benefited greatly from sleep. Sleep allows the mind a break to reset for the next day, to sort all the things you learn into their places and make sure you remember everything.

That’s when he started taking his sleep more seriously. If he was going to be immortal he needed to keep his mind healthy.

He took care of animals with Sandy and went hiking and camping with him, learning about nature and meditation. Sandy also likes to impart wisdom onto him (He was beginning to notice a pattern) about nature and how to learn to value to little beauties in everything.

He played video games with Mei, they always had fun. They also trained both with and without Redson. Though they all trained with and without each other. He focused on spending as much time doing their favorite things: watching movies, shows, playing games. They went to concerts and even tried plays.

He went on dates with Redson. They did picnics occasionally, but they also began cooking together. MK watched him work in the workshop. He and Mei introduced him to shows they thought he’d like. Much to everyone’s surprise and unsurprisingly he took a liking to cooking shows like DBK did.

He even connected with Nezha more, they were both princes and despite Nezha being a bit of a rule-follower, he liked MK’s defiance and rowdy attitude.

It was hard but he managed to live without being consumed by his worry. There were days where he was a bit bed bound with worry and sadness, but his family came and helped him. They all loved MK and MK loved them.

The trouble came when the third year passed. Why weren’t they awake? Why was the egg still unhatched? Why were his parents still so tired looking?

After days of frantic research with the help of MK, Nezha and other people, his Papa found something.

Apparently, sometimes celestial gestation progresses at the rate of the Celestial Realm even if they are in the Mortal Realm. A factor they didn’t know to consider. This information hit everyone like 67 consecutive trains.

The egg would take centuries to hatch… MK would face his immortality without his immortal parents. He would grieve almost everyone around him without his parents. He was… alone.

They couldn’t even undo the spell, because awake or not the baby needed Wukong and Macaque’s power to grow. Not to mention that undoing a spell like this could be dangerous, it would undo on its own when the baby was hatched and the two Celestial Monkeys were healthy. Them being asleep was safer and easier. It was hard but they couldn’t undo the spell that sealed them away

MK cried that day, that week, that month. He was scared, he was terrified. How was he going to survive over a thousand years without his parents?

But he knew mourning was only going to eat at the time. He had more therapy with Sandy. It would take an incredibly long time, but he needed it.

He focused even more on his family. He wanted his to see his life and he wanted to squeeze everything he had into time with them. MK grew closer and closer to his family. He knew by the time his Baba and Mama woke up, the time he spent with his Dad, Papa, Sandy and Mei would be a grain of sand in an an hourglass, but he didn’t care. It was his family.

It felt like centuries already when 7 years passed since they found out, and 10 since his Mama and Baba went to sleep. He hoped that was a good sign. His Dads noodle shop only grew bigger and they made more money. MK even offered to move out to make room for having more guests. MK was basically 34 years old and still living with them but they denied the notion. They said he’d have years to lived outside their house, they wanted him there.

MK didn’t argue.

He and Redson took it slow, but in mortal terms, which might’ve been fast for Demons but Redson nor his family said anything about it. After the first five years of their relationship, they spent a spent together, they both were new to it but it was a night they both enjoyed and never regretted.

After 15 years, they got married. MK knew it might’ve been a little fast. After all his Mama and Baba were engaged for… what 2,000 years before they married? But MK wanted his Dad and Papa to see him get married and Redson agreed that was a good idea. He didn’t mention that his mother had been pestering him for over a decade about getting married and having children with MK.

His Dad and Redson had already spent time together, they were close. But they only got closer when they started cooking together. Now they’d have family cooking nights where MK, Redson, and Pigsy, would cook a big meal and they’d all eat as family. More often than they’d expected, Redson’s family would also come, and DBK would join in cooking.

Those nights were MK’s favorite, his entire family was together.

Somehow in all his packed time with family, he still visited his Mama and Baba at the mountain, while he knew they likely wouldn’t wake up for another ten centuries. He still wanted to visit, talk to them even if they probably couldn’t hear him.

As his family got older, he valued the time more and more. He planned to take over the Noodle Shop. Not out of some obligation or anything. His Dad and Papa had made sure he knew that they wouldn’t be upset if he chose to do something else. He wanted to take on the business. It was his entire life, his first meal, his home. He wanted to live there forever.

MK took care of his parents when they got older. He wanted to, they took him in as a kid and they had a pretty substantial amount of saving to help with these delicate years. Pigsy, despite always talking about having a ‘Noodle Empire’, never bothered to expand. He was content with one shop, one building, one family.

MK hired more trained professionals, of course, to help him as the years passed. He wasn’t a nurse and elderly people had a lot of health concerns that he wasn’t trained to be able to accommodate. But he still did most of it, he learned to do it.

Mei got older too, she got a job as a professional racer. She was happy and MK made sure she practiced safe driving. He wasn’t about to let his best friend die in a fiery crash. That would be cringe of her.

Sandy got older too, and as his own years passed he began to coach MK through that, how to handle grief and understand death without fearing it. How it was natural and how it wasn’t the end. It was only a bridge to new beginnings. Sandy taught MK that life wasn’t about avoiding death, it was about enjoying the time we have. About forming connections and understanding each other. Death was inevitable, yes, but life was also inevitable.

Almost every single creature on earth would make at least one meaningful connection. It was simple math. We are born from someone and that very person is often our first relationship, and earth isn’t even close to being underpopulated. To live a life on earth and not make one single connection was a statistical wonder. It would take effort. Humans especially were inherently social creatures, they hunted in groups in the beginning of the species and now they lived in cities and villages with thriving cultures and family. The purpose of life, Sandy told him, was to give life a purpose.

MK buried Tang first, he was fully human and even though he was younger than Pigsy, demons just simply had a longer lifespan. It was peaceful, without pain or sadness. MK brought Pigsy to the grave to visit everyday, he replace the flowers at the first sign of wilt, lit incense and talked with Pigsy to Tang. It was comforting that they had more confirmation than other mortals often did that there was an afterlife.

MK mourned, Pigsy mourned, everyone mourned. Tang was a good man, he had a heart that was bigger than himself and an intellect to match. He always sought to understand the people around him and see the best in others.

Pigsy didn’t live much long after, he was older than Tang and the two of them were just barely older than Sandy. MK made sure they were buried together. Even if they weren’t alive in those bodies, they had stuck together longer than MK had been alive at that point and he wanted them to stay together long after they departed.

Sandy helped him grieve, though it was made significantly easier with the therapy before the deaths. It was more practice than anything.

MK continued to make human connections. He didn’t let his immortality swallow him. He learned that life was precious and even Redson began to grow friendly with a handful of mortals.

True to his word, MK took over the noodle shop with Redson. It was a family business and Redson had been apart of the family longer than they had been married.

Mei stayed close, she was a well known racer and she was a near expert at it, but she wanted to live in Megapolis. Her family was there, biologically and emotionally. She spent a lot of time with MK and Redson, the three of them were inseparable and even if she couldn’t cook she still had much to offer. She had humor and company and family.

Sandy encouraged MK to continue therapy after his passing, the kid was very stable and had a good support system, but therapy was always a good decision. It helps and it’s better to keep it up, rather than to wait for a catalyst and need more extensive help. Waiting until some breaking point would only make issues worse and take longer to deal with. It’s always a better decision to refine something than wait till it breaks to repair it.

MK mourned when he buried Sandy, of course he did. Sandy was an important figure in his life, he helped him through so much. But he also knew how to continue with himself. Sandy had taught him well.

Redson and Mk took a long time to have kids, not because they couldn’t but because MK had a small fear that he would get stuck in a thousand year rest like his family. But with patience and a heap of therapy, they decided to have one. MK was a little sad his parents couldn’t meet their grandchild but MK knew his parents would rather him be happy than to rush his life just to have them see it.

MK decided on his own that he wanted to carry the child. He didn’t want to follow the egg route, he wanted children but he didn’t want to miss out on a millennia just to have baby. Not that his parents were less for choosing to do that. He knew they wouldn’t have done this on purpose.

So they began to try for a baby, much to Mei’s teasing. It didn’t take long for them to conceive and 9 months later they brought the cutest little boy into the world. Redson and MK ended up naming him a classic name for triumph or victory, Kai. When the baby finally opened his eyes, they were like a mirror image of Redson’s, deep red like dark fire, like the fire he created.

There was some worry among them that Kai would end up creating a second Samadhi Fire like Redson. So they made him a necklace with a pendant carving with a bull and a monkey surrounded by fire. One the back was written three things.

小宝宝(xiǎo bǎobǎo), meaning "little baby."

火焰猴 (huǒyàn hòu), meaning “flaming monkey.”

凯旋 (kǎixuán), meaning “triumph.”

When Kai was born they had a baby shower soon after, it was nice. Life was good for them. They felt at peace, life was going.

MK was still taking care of Flower fruit Mountain, after all, their king was incapacitated, which kinda made him acting leader, then again they were monkeys and they managed to be alright before, but he liked to visit and keep the place nice and clean.

Kai got older, and while he had intense fire power, he hadn’t created a second reality burning fire yet. So they were a bit calmer about the matter. Mei loved the little guy. He was irresistibly cute.

Kai aged slower too, his infancy last almost 5 years. He was a toddler for 10 years. It only grew slower but never old. Before long he was a kid, looking about 8 or 9.

Mei got a bit more time than the rest, she aged slow because of her dragon heritage but she was far from fully draconic. So time did what it does, and Mei passed away. MK and Redson mourned her, that part would never be in question, they buried her with honor, just like the rest. Kai missed her, she was his auntie, Mei took him on motorcycle rides and he watched the old Monkey King movies with her.

Kai was raised knowing the history of his grandparents, he visited Flower Fruit Mountain with his parents and for the first few years of visits he would play with the other cubs and monkeys, eating fruit and roughhousing.

After the first few years, Kai began to stay by his parents, ever curious about what they talked about with two men who probably couldn’t hear them.

After a while he came to realize they talked because they cared. Because even if there was a slight chance that they could hear them, then it was worth it. That’s why he started doing it more, he talked to Mei when they visited her grave and even his other grandparents as well as Sandy. He didn’t meet them, but he wanted them to know him.

Before they knew it, 100 years had passed since Wukong and Macaque went under. Kai was a tween and he was making friends. Both immortal and human. MK and Redson taught him at home, that how both of them knew it and they both turned out okay.

MK and Redson had made friends as well that had also died but they had other families to bury them, he still visited, he cared for them no less. That’s how it continued.

Megapolis grew around them, not big, the city was already pretty good, but trees get bigger and buildings change, even just slightly. They all fell into a bit of a routine, a pleasant one that always seemed to find new ways to keep them from boring to death.

Pigsy’s Noodles continued to remain one of the best restaurants in the city and it stayed a staple of Megapolis. It brought in amazing business and good money.

Demons were becoming more and more integrated into daily life, MK and Redson obviously participated heavily in that, earning a reputation for their acceptance, though to them it was basic decency.

Demons were beginning to become more and more accepting as generations progressed and less of them were driven to crime because of it. They were getting help and proper healthcare instead of being shunned to the corners of society’s shadows. MK found himself acting in a hero role less and less, which he found himself proud of. It meant he did a good job.

By the 9th century, demons were everywhere, they were apart of the culture and everyone grew better because of it. More and more of Megapolis became accessible to everyone, literature became richer and fuller, education and intelligence rates of the schools and districts surrounding them began to rise.

Megapolis was quickly becoming a growing community of vibrant individuals and friends. MK found comfort in the fact that Sandy, his Dad and Papa, would be proud of the world that this was becoming.

MK hadn’t even realized how long it had been since his parents fell asleep growing the egg.

Before long, Kai was an elder teenager, nearly a thousand years old.

MK, Redson and Kai were at the mountain, Red had gone to tidy up the house and make sure everything was ready, even if they thought they weren’t even close to when MK’s parents would wake up. It was still routine. MK was training with Kai, something they had started a hundred odd years ago.

That’s when a bright light came from the mountaintop where Macaque, Wukong and the egg were. MK halted in his step and Kai nearly tackled him before he realized.

Wukong woke with a start, the spell had fallen around them moment ago and Macaque woke up at the same time as him. They both look toward to egg, only to see a little monkey cub in its place.

Their Baby

Wukong and Macaque cried with joy and they both gathered the cub into their arms.

That was until they notice how big the tree near them had gotten, and the vines growing in the rocks, evidence of more age than they expected.

How long had they been out?

That’s when they heard it. A voice, not their sons. Not MK’s but one that called for his Dad.

The boy called for his Papa, urging him to wait for his Dad. He sounded worried but Wukong didn’t care for details. If there was an intruder he needed to protect his cub. He pulled his staff out of his ear. And held it ready.

With a clang, the staff dropped when he saw his own son, his adult son standing there instead of the younger man they remembered him being. Both of their heart sank, tears welled up in their eyes as they realized.

How long has it been, they wanted to ask. But their son, a millennium older and wiser, answered before they could.

One thousand fifty years, he said. The two men were horrified at that answer. They’d been asleep that long? That was a terrifying notion.

Their world only grew harder to believe when a teenager in a red shirt, soon followed by Redson, appeared up the mountain. Redson was shocked and came to MK’s side. Wukong covered his mouth for a moment, slowly connecting the dots that the teenager was his grandson.

Macaque looked worried that their son would hate them for this, that fear melted when MK ran to them and hugged them tightly, careful not to hurt the baby.

Macaque and Wukong hugged their son back and Redson guided his son toward the cuddle pile.

MK rambled about the past millennia to his waking parents for a while before explaining that they had gotten married and had a son. MK looked toward Kai, motioning for him to introduce himself.

“Hello… I’m Kai, I’m your grandson.”

THE END(?)

THE REWRITE IS ACTIVE. Please go read it. I worked for hours on it. Here

Tags: @kyri45 (the creator of the comic that inspired this!) @ainnur @iglowinggemma28 @autism-autobot

[meglosthegreat]

So... everyone pretty much hated Veilguard's "secret ending", right? Beyond speculation about the Executors themselves, I haven't exactly seen anyone excited about its presence, and for that matter, haven't seen many people talking about it at all.

The closest way I can describe my initial reaction to it was an immediate, visceral disgust. I think I remember uttering at my screen something along the lines of "Fuck off! What the fuck?! Are you fucking kidding me???" and ever since then I've wanted to put into words exactly why it made me feel that way.

For the 88% of you (according to Steam achievement statistics) who didn't see this ending due to not picking up three very specific codex entries by complete chance, you can watch it here. In short, the clip depicts a mysterious voice who sounds suspiciously like Matt Mercer talking about how a group of shadowy figures has "balanced, guided, and whispered" over scenes of villains from the previous DA games, implying that these shadowy figures have been at least partially responsible for all of the bad things happening in Thedas, towards some unknown nefarious purpose.

Now obviously, this sucks. This is hamfisted, unimaginative writing that simultaneously retcons and re-contextualizes elements from DA's past that absolutely no one thought needed further explanation, as well as being exactly the kind of irritating sequel-bait tactics that people have largely grown tired of these days. But why does it suck so much? Why did I feel such palpable distaste for this scene?

For starters, it simply reeks of entitlement, and a lack of respect towards Bioware's own past games. Remember those villains you loved and thought were compelling? Well, their own personal, very complex and thought-out motivations were really just the Executors whispering in their ears the whole time! Loghain making a difficult and calculated decision at great personal cost for a greater good he truly believed in? Executors. Bartrand succumbing to his own greed to the point that he betrays his only family and devolves into a tragic husk of himself? Executors. Corypheus and the Magisters breaching the Golden fucking City??? Executors.

Ignore the infuriating lore ramifications for a second and consider: what do all of these things have in common? They're all instances of complex character motivation; of people in this world doing things for their own reasons that ended up having massive ramifications. In short, they're not events that can be explained easily in terms of black and white morality. And from what we've seen in Veilguard, the current dev team has a serious inability to work with any story elements that do not have absolute moral clarity: the Venatori and the Antaam are Evil. The Shadow Dragons and the Crows are Good. Any nuance; any potential questioning of this duality is quickly explained away or snuffed out.

And that's exactly what they're trying to do, retroactively, with the rest of the series. Having a hard time deciding whether Loghain was right or wrong? Well, worry not, the Executors are Evil and if they were guiding him the whole time, then what he did must have been Evil too! Grappling with how the plot of DA2 was about the inevitable tragedy of a series of oppressive systems reaching their natural breaking point? Well, wrestle no further, for if the Executors were involved then Meredith and Bartrand must've been Evil, no question! What the Magisters did was definitely Not Great, and what do you know, there were consequences for it that they and the whole world very much did pay for. But if the Executors were behind it all, then it was someone else's fault, some Evil power reaching in and making them do what they did, rather than their actions being the result of a horrific series of power abuses done by actual people.

Which leads me to where my initial disgust comes in. Because in a world which has always had core themes of power and its many abuses, actions that have consequences, and the idea that there are no true higher beings; every horrible thing that has ever been done was done by people, the simple act of putting shadowy figures behind key moments in history completely debases and neuters all of those themes. The whole point of Dragon Age as a series up until this point has been to illustrate the complex relationships people and societies have with power, choice, and morality. To remove that link - to place an external force between those characters and their choices - is to rob the series of any meaning whatsoever.

There is a staggering difference between the messaging of a game that tells you ordinary people are to blame for society's wrongs and a game that tells you a secret shadowy faction of evil forces are to blame for them. The former invites thought about one's own society; it has the potential to be uncomfortable and difficult to reconcile with. The latter assures its audience of the fantasy it is couched in. It gives the audience a boogeyman to be angry at, and in so doing deflects any potential for introspection. And that, I think, is the real point of the scene in question.

In a time where our media has become inundated with bland, unchallenging liberal politics, the idea of "cozy" stories have become a growing trend. These types of stories often sport a broad rejection of complicated themes, painful emotions, and nuance, preferring instead to provide a "safe" place to escape to. And with that "safe" space comes a directive not to engage in critical thinking about a work, and not to draw any message from that work and apply it to the real world. Yet this is exactly where Bioware seems to be heading nowadays.

Veilguard has already been faced with heavy criticism about playing things overly safe; removing anything that might be potentially uncomfortable for the player. And the end credits scene is no different. Don't think about things too hard, it whispers to you seductively, in Matt Mercer's soothingly Evil voice. See? The Bad Guys were behind everything, all along.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

How to Write a Character

For creative writing to have as deep an impact as possible, you need to give the reader strong characters they can relate to on a personal level.

By borrowing from tried-and-true character archetypes and giving them your personal spin, you can create heroes, villains, and sidekicks that will affect your readers as if they were real people they knew.

Come up with a backstory

Crafting a backstory can help you flesh out an interesting character profile.

“When I’m dealing with characters,” says legal thriller author David Baldacci, “and I’m trying to explain somebody's situation and motivations, you have to look into their past, because [the] past always drives motivations.”

Ask what experiences your character had in elementary school or high school that shaped who they are today. Your character’s backstory can greatly inform your plot.

Develop a character arc

A character must evolve throughout a story.

“The character has to change,” insists crime fiction writer Walter Mosley. “The character doesn’t have to become better. The character doesn’t have to become good. It could be the opposite. He could start good and become bad. He could start off hopeful and end up a pessimist. But he has to be impacted by this world that we’re reading about.”

Plan out your storyline based on your character's goals and how achieving or not achieving them will change them as people. This sort of template can help anchor your narrative.

Do research

If you plan to set your story in a specific locale or period, do enough research to make your characters seem true to life and believable.

“What does it mean, for instance, in the Tudor era to be a male person?” asks Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale. “What does it mean to be a female person? What do those things mean when they’re at different social levels?”

Empathize with your characters

No matter what the type of character you’re developing, try to find some reason you and your reader can relate to their internal conflict.

“You’re living with these people every single day for months at a time—in some cases, years at a time,” says acclaimed children’s author Judy Blume. “You had better feel for them. So, for me, yes, I have great empathy for them.”

When people can empathize with characters, they’re more likely to find them compelling.

Experiment with different approaches

If you usually write characters from a particular point of view (or POV), change things up to challenge yourself.

“Write about someone entirely through the eyes of their friends and family,” suggests journalist Malcolm Gladwell. “So do a profile of someone where you deliberately never talk to the person that you’re profiling.”

There are plenty of ways to craft compelling character descriptions—free yourself up to try new alternatives.

Give your characters flaws

To craft believable characters, you need to give them flaws.

“One, it makes the characters human, just by default, because everybody recognizes that we all have flaws and mistakes,” David says. “But two, it gives you plot elements and plot opportunities because somebody makes a mistake. Why? Because they’re flawed.”

Learn from real people

Pay attention to real people’s mannerisms, personality traits, body language, and physical appearances.

Do research, and be respectful, when you want to write characters with backgrounds that you are not familiar with. Become familiar with different people's cultures, sexual orientations etc.

Talking to people about their experiences will help form your character’s personality.

Let your characters surprise you

Character development can proceed down a host of different avenues.

“Spend a lot of time with your characters and getting to know them,” Judy suggests. “And the way that you get to know them can be different from the way I get to know them. But my way is: They don’t come alive until I write about them, until I put them down on paper.”

As you write, your character’s motivation or perspective might change from what you originally planned.

Play characters off each other

Ask yourself how a secondary character’s personality might thwart the main character’s motivation.

“One of the best ways, as I said, to develop a character is to put that character in relationship to another person,” Walter says. “So as they talk, as they fight, as they work together, we find out more about who they are and what they are.”

The character’s close friends, adversaries, and acquaintances might all have different effects on their behavior.

Take an organic approach

Over the course of the story, be ready for your characters to surprise you as much as the people you know in real life might, too.

Your characters may take on a life of their own.

Avoid static characters by letting yours have their own lives and personalities. Let their stories take you where they lead.

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[alphacentaurinebula]

wot relationship status: it's complicated

I have been agonising over Siuan's death pretty much nonstop, but I have come to a sort of detente with it and I want to share my thoughts in response to some of the common fan responses I've seen.

Was Siuan's death simply for Moiraine's character advancement? No, I really don't think so. Her speech was a beautiful, powerful scene. I have seen fans who feel she was dehumanised and denied dignity and that it was a degrading death. I really don't feel thats what we saw on our screens.

Yes, Siuan was subjected to dehumanising treatment; yes, her killers tried to degrade her and remove her dignity. But she was not bowed; she was not broken. She did not beg for her life, or try to appease her captors, or do anything to suggest that they had succeeded in their attempts to remove her dignity. Instead, she fought back. She stood proud, despite their treatment (treatment that reflected much more on them than it did on her). Her strength and bravery made them into the villains even in their own eyes, and her into a hero and a martyr.

The thing I haven't seen talked about is that she almost won. Deposed, stilled, sentenced to death, she still managed to almost talk the Hall down. She managed to instil fear and doubt in Elaida, a woman who never doubted herself a day in her life. We didn't get to see the Sitters present and their stirrings of doubt (I imagine mainly for production reasons so that they can be cast next season) but we absolutely see it on Elaida's face. The only person unaffected is Alviarin, who can see power slipping through her fingers, who can see that any moment the Hall is going to change its mind, which is why she acts when she does.

I liked that Siuan talked about Moiraine - that was part of her being able to finally tell the truth after all these years, to claim Moiraine publicly as she'd never been allowed to do. Anyone who's spent time being forced to hide a queer relationship will recognise the joy and relief she felt in that moment, which I could certainly see on her face. And I don't think the fact that she spoke of Moiraine, the fact that Moiraine gained a desperate determination from her death, means that her death was simply to serve Moiraine's story. I think to only see Moiraine in her death robs Siuan of the dignity and heroism she displayed, and of the triumph of her character.

But that's my in story world response. Do I think they should have done it? Fuck, no. The writers live in the real world; this show is being watched in the real world. I don't think all queer stories should have to be happy - they shouldn't be limited by previous failures in representation. I don't really feel this is a bury your gays moment, not with so much other queer rep on the show. But we all need happy queer stories. Especially right now, in this moment of dire attack on queer and trans rights. Goodness knows I watched the episode at a terrible time in the UK - literally the day before, a horrific court ruling attacking trans rights was announced, the latest in a series of attacks on trans lives in this country. I needed my happy queer WoT world, and my happy queer WoT fandom.

And whilst there was nothing racial about her death within the world of the show, once again we are living in THIS world, and in this world, it feels problematic at best. (though I stand by my point above that Siuan's role was NOT just to further her white girlfriend's story)

I've seen multiple responses, including from the showrunner, saying that Siuan's plot in the books after the coup was a step down for the character. And whilst sure, I can agree that many elements of her plot are shit - they could simply have changed them. NO ONE needed Gareth Byrne, fuck that entire situation, but the writers could simply have changed that. She could have been in Salidar briefly and then gone off to rescue a doorwayed Moiraine. The writers are the ones making the decisions. They could have made different decisions.

I do think that her death will make Egwene's time in the Tower even more meaningful and triumphant; I do think it will make the Salidar storyline feel more poignant; I do think it will haunt Elaida for the rest of her reign; I do think Siuan as a martyr will add to the narrative tapestry of the rest of the show; I do think they're going to kill Moiraine permanently not doorway her and that this makes more sense with Siuan already dead. I just don't feel any of that is enough reason to lose her from the show.

I also understand the production considerations. I am professionally familiar with tv production - I know how crucial cast availability is, especially with a production this size and with the budgets involved. If it was me, I would simply have had Elaida send her off somewhere to be imprisoned. They could have kept her off screen until she was available/could become relevant to the plot.

Does this mean I don't want to see the "end game" that the writers have planned for Siuan and Moiraine? I ABSOLUTELY want to see it. I want them to make this better. I want my fishwives to have as close to a happy ending as they can get. Life is a dream from which we all must wake, and I want them to have time together in that waking, and for us to see them get it right, to see them happy as they have absolutely earned. Whether the show will manage to get that ending right? I have no idea. But I really want them to. I really want to see it.

So basically - I'm still angry, sad, and very very hurt. But I also don't want this to ruin my love of this show. Sometimes I feel we are the harshest to those who actually try. The show is flawed, but it does have a large and diverse cast, people of colour in many key roles, queer people of all varieties, a mix of talent in front of and behind the camera. It might fail sometimes but at least it tries.

I want the show to continue. I want to see my other favourite characters live their stories. I want to see Egwene come into her own, I want to see Nynaeve be the badass she is, I want to watch Elayne figure out how to do things no one had done in 3000 years, I want to see where they are going with Show Min, I want more of perrin, I want Mat to sleep with a dude, pretty please.

I think I'm most angry that this has stripped a lot of the joy of fandom from me, and caused so much pain to so many people. I wanted to be shouting about WoT from the rooftops at the moment - I wanted to be campaigning for renewal. But whilst it has robbed me of that fervour, I still want to see the show survive and thrive. I do want it to be renewed. And I do want my Siuriane end game.

[loveafterdeath-if]

Yeah, similarly to what another anon said, I was kinda hoping for this to be a story about moving on after losing a lived one, specifically your partner, which I thought was a beautiful and heartbreaking concept, and while we did get that in the first few chapters, it feels like this plot twist kind of defeats the whole point.

Though, unlike the other anon, I personally will probably continue reading because I think you are an amazing writer and because I love Ekissa. The only thing that makes me not sure about continuing is that the situation is a bit awkward, makes me feel a bit uncomfortable, so I was wondering about how you were going to manage it? Because MCs moving on process obviously gets cut short, but for those of us who are gonna romance someone else, we still need to finish that process, and one important thing when moving on from an ex is time apart, especially for one you were grieving not so long ago. Otherwise old feelings, nostalgia and a lot of other emotions get mixed up and that would probably lead to confusion. (Sorry, for the long paragraph, just a bit worried about how this is gonna continue)

It's heavy spoiler territory, but I'll have to address this for anon. And it'll be a long-ass response, so be prepared,

You are right about one thing, the whole plot falls apart if El is alive, doesn't it? And like someone said in the LAD discord "why love after death then". They didn't phrase it exactly like that, but you know what I mean. The plot does start with El, but it won't end with them. Idk how to explain without giving away too much, lol

There are clues that El isn't really dead in the first chapters. The flowers MC receives, and now players know El was the one offering them. The doc and Athiel never talk about death when discussing El. MC doesn't have the right to go to the funeral or even see El's body. Even L being called by Juliet at the beginning will have its importance. They're small details, nothing too obvious, but they're here.

I'll be honest, sometimes when writing Athiel talking with MC, I struggled to remember El wasn't dead because I tried to make it look and feel like El was dead, so I drowned a bit in that department.

The characters might seem like a lot, but each has their own purpose, big or small. Some are a breath of fresh air for MC since they're not caught up in all the drama and can be objective. Others are here because they'll play an important role later. Then there are those who serve as reminders of the past with El (like the neighbors). And some are just like those background characters in anime; you don't even see their features because they're just there to serve a small purpose and keep the intrigue going. They come and go.

Sorry, I'm talking too much. So how I'll manage it, is by—and it's where it's gonna get tricky—make MC aware of it as soon as possible. There will be a reunion between MC and El. The tricky part is showing that El won't remember MC, no matter how much/if the MC tries to jog their memory.

The past El is dead; the memories won't come back, and if any fragments do resurface, El won't feel the love they once had. It's more like a ghost of memories; their body remember, but it's more mechanical than actual feelings. Like an old habit that won't go.

MC will have to grieve the old El anyway, even with them actually alive.

In El's route, it'll be all about falling in love again, getting them out of this toxic relationship with their mother, helping them learn to love themself again, and living with someone who is El but not the El you used to know. They have trauma, the confidence they once had is gone, they're insecure and they're more reserved than before.

Juliet is like, the first villain before introducing the final boss. What I wanted to do was weave two kinda plots in the same book because I didn't want to make two separate books. Love After Death is Love After Death for a reason. The plan is to make the players realize that El wasn't the focus of this book in the first place.

I hope there won't have any inconsistencies in this story, but if you find any plot holes, you're free to let me know, and I'll do my best to improve. It's only with advice and constructive critique that I can do so. I'm sure there are blind spots I won't see right away; I'm only human😭

[theconstantsidekick]

Thunderbolts* ft. Static (2) | b.b

Pairings: Bucky Barnes x Stark!Reader, Tony Stark x Stark!Reader (siblings)

Genre: angsty as heck

Summary: So Bucky's wife, Y/n is intent on overhearing every single conversation he has during this stupid gala... Naturally that leads to less than ideal conversation between the married couple.

(These scenes incorporate y/n, codenamed—Static, into the pre-existing story as a character without making drastic changes to the plot or mythos. All the major plot points from the MCU remain in place with the addition of the reader as Static, who is not only a Stark but also enhanced. Whatever events from the canon aren’t mentioned, take place without much change.)

Warnings: MINOR SPOILERS FOR THUNDERBOLTS* (nothing you haven't seen in the trailers), Cursing

a/n: TIME SKIP BABYYY

Thunderbolts* ft. Static (1) | Thunderbolts* ft. Static (3) | Series Masterlist | Static: Get, Set, Glitch | Captain America: The Winter Soldier (ft. Static) | Static Verse Masterlist

“I know how crazy this is gonna sound—”

Bucky nearly jumps out of his damn skin.

Jesus Christ. He will never get used to how quietly she moves. Like a ghost. A gorgeous, terrifying ghost with excellent timing and no mercy.

She steps out from the corner like she’s materializing from the wall itself—shadow-born and smug about it. Clearly pleased with herself, she keeps going like she didn’t just scare the hell out of him: “But when I saw you talking to Valentina’s assistant?” She glides over to the railing, settling in like she owns the place. “Mel, I think her name is?”

Bucky grits his teeth, trying to rearrange his face into something neutral.

No good. She’s already seen the tell.

She leans casually, falsely, like this is just idle party banter. “The only thing going on in my head was—” she lets out a half-laugh. It’s hollow, theatrical. “This is where the crazy comes in—was that, ‘I hope to God my husband was flirting with that girl.’”

Just the sharp glint of something she won’t name.

And then her smile drops, “Imagine my disappointment when I found out he wasn’t?”

The knife slides in clean.

Bucky doesn’t answer right away. He glances around, mostly for show. No one’s close enough to overhear—he already knew that—but the delay buys him a few seconds.

See, he also already knows that she heard his entire conversation with Congressman Gary about how he’s planning to get Valentina’s assistant to switch sides and hand them some evidence. He also already knows that she knows that Congressman Gary is too much of a shit to try going that route. And now by the looks of it, he also already knows that she eavesdropped his entire conversation with Mel—the aforementioned assistant. 

So yeah, he tries to buy time. He tries his best to delay this obviously doomed conversation for a few seconds longer to have a better ground to stand on. 

Not enough, apparently. Because what comes out of his mouth is a truly idiotic choice.

“Are you spying on me?” he says, with all the authority of a man asking if his pants are on backwards.

Too casual. Too defensive. Too late.

He’s standing like a guy with something to hide—hands shoved into his pockets, shoulders hunched, eyes doing everything but meeting hers. It’s pathetic. If it were anyone else, maybe the bluff would pass. But not her.

Not Y/n.

Her smile sharpens to something almost affectionate in its cruelty. “Kinda part o’ the job profile, dear,” she says, sweet as venom. “Used to be yours too.”

And there’s the hit.

Direct. No blood, but it lands.

He doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t let himself.

But she knows.

Of course she does.

“What is your problem?” Bucky snaps, voice low but tight.

Y/n doesn’t even blink. She tilts her head, mouth pulling into a sharp, sweet mockery of a smile. “My problem, Congressman,” she says, like the title is a slur, “is that the job of having a secret little rendezvous to sway the big bad villain’s right-hand man usually belongs to a super spy.” Her eyes narrow, glittering. “Not a government official with a hero complex.”

He steps in—closer, just enough that the air between them crackles. “She works with Valentina, day in and day out,” he explains, hands raised slightly in front of him, not pleading, not exactly, but close. “She would definitely have access to something that we can use as evidence to get Valentina impeached.”

Y/n doesn’t budge. Doesn’t twitch. She stands with the kind of stillness that says she’s two seconds from throwing a punch or walking away forever—either’s on the table. Her face stays unreadable as she says, “If you wanna bullshit me, babe, you’re gonna have to try a lot harder.”

He throws his hands down by his sides with a scoff, pacing now, like a dog in a too-small cage. “I’m not bullshitting anyone! The investigation on Valentina was a bust!” He runs a hand through his hair, jaw clenched. “There’s nothing on her. The clock’s ticking—if we don’t find something soon, she stays Director of the CIA. And we both know that’s too much power in the wrong hands.” He turns to face her again, pointing slightly for emphasis. “So we need evidence. Of her illegal operations. At O.X.E. And this—Mel—is the only lead we’ve got.”

Y/n doesn’t blink. Doesn’t soften.

“Is that right?” she asks, voice like a challenge tossed across a bar right before a barstool flies.

“Yeah.” He meets it head-on. Chin lifted, shoulders squared.

Then she steps in. Real close. So close he can see the tension in her jaw, the faintest twitch of her left eye—her tell when she’s really mad. And yet, her voice? Smooth. Controlled.

“You know,” she says, almost conversational, “if this actually were just a bit of political sleuthing, I would’ve been real fucking proud.” Her lips curl, a dangerous grin blooming. “Fuck, I might’ve even been a little wet—’cause everyone knows there is nothing hotter than a mid-level government official trying to game the system.”

His heart and brain probably get their signals confused. “Really?” he asks, stupidly, and hates the genuine curiosity that sneaks in.

She stares at him like he just farted in church. “No, Bucky. I’m being sarcastic.”

“Oh.” He tries to recover, straightening, nodding like that somehow smooths over the humiliation.

Let’s move past that, please God. I am begging.

Almost like she reads his mind—because of course she does—she adds, “But I would’ve been proud.”

He freezes.

Just long enough to start letting that warmth creep in.

Then she slices it open. “Except,” she says, stepping just far enough back to twist the knife, “when you gave Mel your card, you weren’t hoping she’d call you with some classified files she stole off Valentina’s desk. No.” Her voice is razor-sharp now. “You were hoping she’d call you with a mission.”

And that? That hits.

Because it may or may not be kinda sorta true.

And it’s not just about the mission.

It’s about what Y/n is really saying.

He misses the game. The danger. The agency.

And maybe—maybe—he misses being the kind of man she would’ve been proud of.

But he can’t say that. Not now.

Motherfucker, he thinks.

Fuck it, he thinks.

If she’s gonna read him like a goddamn paperback, what’s the point in pretending?

So he straightens, pulls his hands out of his pockets like they weigh a thousand pounds. Gathers what little dignity he’s still got left off the floor. 

Breathes once. 

Twice. 

Then swallows.

Audibly.

And says, “And what if I was?” It lands like a grenade tossed under her feet. Her eyes widen, the corner of her mouth twitches—just barely. She wasn’t expecting that. Not from him. “What if I was hoping for her to send me off? What if I was excited about being out on the field?” he shrugs, casual as hell—like it wasn’t a big deal. Who knows? He thinks. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal, he thinks as his pulse slams behind his ears. 

Her posture shifts—chin tilted, arms still crossed, but the grip of her fingers tightens against her biceps. “Then that would mean you miss it,” she says, and her voice has lost all the venom.

Now it’s just… quiet. Precise.

“And what if I do?” He says it low, but steady. Steady matters. He’s not even sure what they’re talking about anymore. The old job. The old him. Them.

But he’s not backing down. Not this time.

“Would that be so bad?”

A long pause.

Then— “Yeah,” she says. And it lands just as hard. “’Cause then what the fuck was the point of running for Congress?”

He flinches. Not visibly—he hopes—but inside it’s like something cracks just a little. Still, he fights through it. “I might have been powerful, but I had no power,” he says, jaw tight, eyes locked on hers. “Now—I can make meaningful change.”

She exhales. Loud and annoyed. Like he’s being deliberately stupid. “Only once you have the votes to pass a bill—Yes! Then you can.” She shakes her head, frustrated. “Come on, man. You ran for a seat in the House of Representatives. People voted and you won. So do the job your constituents elected you for. Listen to what Congressman Gary just said—read the damn packets!” She uncrosses her arms now, stepping closer, her voice rising—not in rage, but in urgency. “Sponsor bills. Propose legislation. Oversee the executive branch—and get the Director of the CIA impeached for doing illegal shit—” 

“That is exactly what I was doing—”

“—with due process!” she snaps, voice cracking from the strain. 

She rubs a hand over her face, smoothing her fingers across her brow, like she’s trying to press the tension out of her skull.

He watches her. Watches the exhaustion settle into her shoulders like it lives there.

“You’re supposed to work within the system, Bucky,” she mutters, softer now, but not gentler. Just… tired. “Otherwise, why do it at all?”

That finally tips something in him. Maybe it’s the fatigue. Or the fact that he still hears her voice in his head even when she’s not in the room. 

Frustrated, he closes the distance between them, now face-to-face, toe-to-toe. “If I have the means and the ability to take Valentina down, am I just supposed to ignore it because it aligns with my job description?”

“Yes,” she replies instantly. No hesitation. No compromise.

He blinks. “Why?”

That’s when she laughs.

A full-body thing. She throws her head back like he’s just delivered the punchline to a long-running joke only she and the cosmos understand. Her eyes shut. Her jaw clenches. And then—“God,” she mutters under her breath, “Tony was right.” His gut twists. She opens her eyes, and the heat is gone now. Replaced by something far more vulnerable somehow and yet extremely distant. Something he can’t quite name. “I really do have a type.” 

The words aren’t meant for him, even though he can clearly hear them—no. They aren’t even meant for herself, honestly. He knows her well enough to know that. No. They are meant for her brother… even if he isn’t around to hear them.

She turns her gaze back to him. Steady. Measured. “Democracy isn’t infallible, Bucky. It’s not perfect or absolute. What it is, is a process. And the only way to fix all its flaws is to keep working at it—not ignore it.” She scoffs then, a short exhale through her nose. “But you can’t see that, obviously.”

His brows knit. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” she says, enunciating each word now, “that you fucking hate institutions, Bucky.” She gestures broadly, like she’s pointing to the air around them. “And hey! I don’t blame you. So do I. Which is why you’re not going to see me running for government anytime soon.”

There’s something bitter in his throat now. He swallows it down like poison. “So what you’re basically saying is that I don’t belong here.”

She looks at him then.

She sighs—not harsh, not heavy. Just a breath between sentences.

“At the risk of sounding like the nagging wife,” she says, tilting her head with a dry little smirk, “you did shoot Kennedy, dear.”

Bucky fucking loses it. “That was not me and you know it! That was the Winter Soldier!”

Y/n loses it just as fast. Her face splits into a wicked grin as she throws her hands up. “Which worked in the focus groups!”

He stares at her, open-mouthed. 

Did she just—?

A callback and a metaphorical punch to the gut? Oh yeah! Assassinations might be the most well-known skillset in her repertoire, but making you sound like the most profound dumbass is her most polished area of expertise.

No matter what he says after this, he’s gonna sound fucking dumb. 

So he says some dumb fucking shit, “That is different, Y/n!”

She cocks her head, arms folding across her chest again. “Really? How?”

“You know how!”

“No, I really don’t,” she replies, flat and smug. “Explain it to me like I’m five.”

He drags a hand down his face, lets out a groan like the words themselves are physically painful. “Jesus Christ.”

The fight that was burning within him just a minute ago is now a singular piss poor flame.

“Why are you doing this?” he asks. Not biting now. Just… tired.

She freezes, just for a second.

They’re at opposite ends of the hallway, two balconies flanking them. Music from the fundraiser below wafts up in muffled bursts, but here it’s quiet. Too quiet. The kind of silence that used to be filled with the weight of her body pressed into his side.

Now? It's just space.

Which, Bucky thinks, is weird seeing as they aren’t standing all that far away from each other. Really, barely 4 feet between them. But considering that there used to be a time when they were practically stitched together at the ends, this is more than enough. 

She looks stunned right now.

She looks…

Had this been a year ago, he would’ve—

What’s the fucking point now?

“Why are you doing this, Y/n?” He asks again. He exhales hard and leans back, shoulder hitting the wall behind him with a soft thud. Hands disappear into his pockets—one of those grounding, practiced stances he’s picked up from her over the years. From watching her lock into her own body before tearing someone else down. He wonders if she notices. 

He tilts his head and half-smiles. It doesn’t reach his eyes. “You preach democracy. You practice law. During the Accords, you told Steve you believed in the power of people. You said that even if the System wasn’t flawless, it was put in place after a lot of struggle so it deserved a chance.”

He shrugs like it’s nothing, like this hasn’t been burning a hole through his chest for months. “Well… here I am—giving it a chance. So what the hell is your problem with that?”

Her arms drop from where they were crossed, her posture shifting like something’s dislodged inside her.

And when she finally does answer, her voice is quiet. Not weaponized. Just honest. “Because it’s not an honest one.”

“Says who?” he replies evenly. He doesn’t get riled. Doesn’t flare. Just says the thing anyone would say. “You? Why? ‘Cause I’m using the experience that I have from my previous job? Since when is that illegal?”

She grits her teeth. “Since your previous job wasn’t exactly legal?”

His brow rises, just slightly. Not defensive—bemused. “And yet, everyone knew exactly what the fuck I did before they voted. I didn’t hide it. Fuck! It was in the damn campaign slogan—Rebuild with Barnes—and I still got elected.” The hit lands perfectly. He steps toward her—not looming, just closing the gap. Voice calm. Controlled. “Which brings me back to the original question… Why the fuck are you doing this?”

She hesitates.

Just a second too long.

Then—like something snaps inside her ribcage—

“Because you broke us up to do it!”

The words hang there, raw and terrible and so, so human.

He blinks.

All night, Bucky’s been pretending to lose his cool.

Okay—fine. Maybe not entirely pretending. But most of it? It was performance. A bit of theater. Playing the part of the “Unhappy Husband” in their usual tango. Hit your cues, raise your voice, storm off left. It was familiar. A routine they knew by heart.

But this? This isn’t part of the act.

This cuts straight through the armor.

He’s moving before he even knows it, closing the space between them in a few sharp strides. There’s heat in his chest and fire curling up his throat, and yeah, he’s vibrating—he can feel it. With rage, sure, but underneath it… it’s just hurt. Barely controlled. Barely contained. Like he’s a wire stretched too thin and waiting to snap.

His jaw tightens hard enough to ache. When he speaks, his voice is low. Cracked around the edges. “It might have happened around the time the campaign began, and I might have been the one who said it—who officially broke it off.” He exhales—loud, sharp, like it stings just coming out. “But you do not get to stand there and act like we weren’t already broken long before that.” 

He shakes his head, laughing—but it’s not a good laugh. It’s the kind of laugh that’s hollowed out from the inside. The kind you use when you don’t know what else to do with your mouth except let it break. 

“And I’m not talking about Marrakesh,” he says, voice rising. “We survived that. Fuck knows how. And fuck knows why, but we did. We clawed our way through it, shoulder to shoulder. You and me against the goddamn world.” He’s losing hold of the reins now. He can hear it in his own voice—can feel it in the way his body shakes like he’s held together by nothing but thread and willpower. “It hurt, Y/n. Fuck, it hurt. But somehow—somehow—we survived it.” His hand flinches like it wants to grab something—her, maybe—but he tucks it back into his side like it’s something dangerous. “Only for you to—”

He stops. Cuts himself off.

“For me to what?” she asks, slowly.

Her voice is soft, but there’s that familiar spark underneath it—defiance, steady and sure. Like she’s not bracing for the answer. Like she already knows it. He exhales hard through his nose, dragging a hand through his hair, trying to scrub the heat out of his skull. Then he steps back, puts some distance between them—not just physically, but so he can collect what little composure he has left. He straightens, squares his shoulders, lifts his chin. When he meets her eyes again, his voice is controlled. Barely.

“Every time you came home from a mission,” he says, “you looked at me like you hated the fact that I was around.” His jaw flexes. “I think you were disgusted with me.”

“Bucky…” Her voice is faint, and her expression says no before the word even forms. But he keeps going. He has to.

“I saw it in your eyes,” he says, cool and certain. He’s not yelling now. Not accusing. Just… laying it down, piece by piece, like a damn autopsy. “I thought maybe it was ‘cause I wasn’t doing enough. Just sitting there, wasting space, moping around the apartment. Every conversation ended with you telling me to get out more. Do something.”

He looks down, shoulders rising and falling in a small shrug. “So I did. I decided to run for Congress.”

When his gaze snaps back up, there’s no hesitation in it. Just memory.

“And when I told you that… you laughed.”

Her grunt is loud and exasperated. “Because I thought you were kidding!”

And damn, that stings more than he expects. Hits right in the ribs.

“Of course you did,” he mutters, the words clipped and quiet through clenched teeth.

Her face falls instantly.

He gives a dry little shake of the head, something between a sigh and a laugh that doesn’t quite land. “How dare I—the Winter Soldier—think I could be anything more, right?” His voice is calm now, deadly calm. “Of course you thought it was a joke.”

He doesn’t wait for a response. He turns on his heel and starts down the stairs, every step punctuated with finality.

But then—

“Did you get a concussion while I was taking a piss?”

Her words are so fucking absurd that Bucky is compelled by some force—resembling God himself—to turn around. Not completely though. No. He turns his head just enough to glance at her over his shoulder, eyebrows raised, eyes squinting.

“…What?”

“I think you can do anything you want to.” She says it like it’s obvious. Like it’s fact. Like gravity or thermodynamics or the Earth being round. Like him being capable was never even in question. As if unlike the fallible nature of democracy, her words are irrefutable.

“What?” he repeats. God, he’s an idiot.

Now he turns fully.

She’s at the top of the staircase. He’s a few steps below, looking up at her like he does at the moon every time he thinks of her—during the sleepless nights which have begun haunting and taunting him now that she isn’t around. Warm gala light halos around her, but even then, she’s brighter. Has always been.

She sighs. “I think you can do anything you want to,” she says again, word for word, not budging an inch on the certainty. Her hands disappear into the pockets of her suit jacket before she continues. “You wanna start a band? I’ve always had a thing for drummers—I’ll buy you a set. You wanna play baseball? I know the guy who coaches the Yankees. I’ll make the call. You wanna discover a new particle? I’ll dig through Tony’s shit, drag out the particle accelerator.” She throws her hands up slightly. “Fuck, Bucky. You can do anything.”

He’s quiet for a beat.

Then climbs two steps—until they’re eye to eye again.

“There’s just one thing I can’t do, right?” he asks. “This. Just not this?”

She doesn’t flinch. “Even this,” she says. “You could be the goddamn President of the United States if you wanted. A good one, too—one I’d actually want to vote for.”

He stares at her.

Completely, utterly lost.

“I don’t under—”

“But you don’t want to,” she cuts him off. Not unkind, just… blunt. Like a truth she’s been holding in her teeth. “You don’t want to be Congressman Barnes.” 

Her eyes drop to the floor. Her shoulders lower with her. 

“There was a point in our lives,” she continues softly, “where I could say you were my own heart. So I hope you won’t think I’m out of line when I say… I think the reason you’re doing all this,” she gestures vaguely around the room—meaning the suits, the speeches, the job, the gala—“is because you feel like you have something to prove.” 

She finally looks at him again. 

The moment’s long and slow. 

“But it’s been a second, since you’ve been my heart,” she says, gently. “So I don’t know what or who needs this proof.”

He just stares.

What the hell is he even supposed to say to that?

“Y/n—”

“And just so you know?” she says, voice tilting upward into something bitter and brittle and still standing. “I saw the way you looked at me too.” She doesn’t pause. Doesn’t let him cut in. “The resentment. The irritation. The way the sound of my voice grated on you like sandpaper on open skin.” She huffs a laugh. “By the end, I think even my breathing pissed you off.”

His chest aches.

Not in the way that heartbreak cuts clean. In the way that regret festers—slow and ugly.

“Maybe we weren’t meant to survive Marrakesh,” she says, half under her breath. Like the words were waiting for this hallway to finally be spoken.

Then she brushes past him. Her shoulder knocks into his—not harshly, not gently either. Just enough.

And she walks down the stairs without looking back.

He doesn’t move. Doesn’t call out. Doesn’t follow.

Can’t.

His fingers twitch at his sides, like they’ve forgotten there’s no hand left to hold.

Like they didn’t get the memo.

A breath. Then another.

God, she’s wrong.

Not all the way. Not completely. Just… where it matters most.

He did have something to prove. Still does, maybe. To the public. To the ghosts. To that version of himself that still wakes up at 3AM choking on gunpowder and guilt.

Of course he wanted to show he could be more than what they made him.

But that wasn’t the whole story.

His jaw tightens as his eyes find the stairwell again, like maybe she’ll reappear. She doesn’t. Of course she doesn’t.

What she missed—what maybe she never really let herself see—is that this whole reinvention, this political theater, this slow, painful march into legitimacy… none of it was for them.

It was for her.

Everything Bucky ever does is for her. He’s not entirely sure it’ll ever be otherwise.

Y/n Stark is his axis. The fixed point. The gravity well he’d gladly orbit for the rest of his life.

She might be the moon, but Bucky has never been anything less than enthusiastic about the idea of rewriting the laws of physics to be the one who revolves around her… he still would.

So when things started to shift—when the house got quieter and the silences got longer, when she stopped laughing at his jokes and started sighing like he was another thing to manage—he hadn’t blamed her.

He’d blamed himself.

Because it was his fucking fault.

He hadn’t hated her voice. He missed how it used to sound when she said his name.

He hadn’t resented her presence. He resented how he’d become someone she couldn’t stand to look at.

But he doesn’t say any of that.

More than that maybe, he can't really bring himself to say any of this anymore—not with the distance that they have created now. It would be funny, he thinks—if it weren’t so morbid, because there was a time where it would’ve taken industrial equipment to separate the two of them from each other, like they were glued together—so close that one could hear the other's thoughts. But now the gap between them is so large that Bucky can't even stop her from walking away. 

The space between them isn’t measured in feet or stairs or square footage anymore.

It’s measured in the things they didn’t say.

And it stretches out like a whole other life.

Read the next part here. Find the Static Verse Masterlist here.

i am having so much fun with this time skip shit! god I'm an asshole i love it!

@mirandastuckinthe80s @rattyfishrock

[kryannoy]

Hello hello!! I Hope your day is good ^^ could I request Sakura and Suo w a reader with ‘nerdier’ interests and collections whos kind of avoided by her/their classmates for it? (Nerdy as in Anime figures, aliens, that kinda stuff!!) I’m not sure if your requests are open or not so if not, my apologies!!

THE "WEIRD" KID IN SCHOOL

genre: fluff, sfw

characters: sakura, suo

a/n: some parts in suo makes me feel contradicting and sad because of how delusional it sounded. the part where they talking about fictional characters when suo himself is fictional 😔

SAKURA HARUKA

Doesn't understand why you like those stuff.

Doesn't understand why you waste your money on figurines and be left in the open that take up space and collect dust.

Doesn't understand why you keep them in the first place.

He would just look at them in confusion with the happy, dancing figurines star back at him.

He doesn't touch them but does take a close look while leaning down with his hands on his knees and ask why.

"Because!" You pause. "Because they look cool and give some vibes to my room."

'Uh huh, yeah, very,' he thought as he looked around your room full of posters of the same kind and a bookshelf full of manga with more trinkets. He doesn't want to sound rude so he decided staying quiet was best. 'Looks just like Kiryu's place.'

After all, who is he to have a say on what your room looked like.

He'll ask you the name of some characters that he somehow has seen before, "Who's this?" He points to a Genshin character as he looks over his shoulder.

"That's Xiao. Did he catch your eye as well?" You grin.

"Not really. He looks the familiar with the one I saw in Kiryu's room."

That was his first experience visiting your room though.

Other days, he'll sit there and listen to you ramble on about a game or anime characters. Or even the newly released episode. Or the plot of an anime or game. Sometimes he'll stuff his face with food, but still pay attention to you, while you waste your saliva.

He'll get confused at first but if you keep talking or following up to the next update, he gets used to it and will comment on his perspective.

One time you watch an action anime with Sakura, he gets frustrated most of the time when the main character gets a hit. Or say the villain is weak if the main character kicks their butt.

DO NOT let him watch ANY anime or show where the main character is weak. It gets to his nerves and you have to hear him complaining instead.

When you're ready to login to a game, he'll ask you, "Are you going to play that game from last time?"

He wants to watch you play the game that you started with him. He wants to know the plot too.

Loves to watch you play Final Fantasy.

Cheers you on beside you during battle and gets frustrated with you when you lose. Breathes a sigh of relief with you when you clear the boss level with a red HP bar.

SUO HAYATO

Does not care if you ramble all day about the things you like.

He loves actually. It's because you have that charm when you talk about them. You're always so passionate and expressive when you talk about the new anime/manga you caught up, or a game you just bought.

He's also another one who happens to be the "Don't look at me with those eyes!" "What eyes?" scenario.

He watches you admiringly as you talk a mile a minute. It's because he knows you don't get to talk about your interests at school that much so he'll lend you his ears.

You showed him a game one time that lets you customize your character. "Look! I made you! You're in the game now," you say as you move the character in a circle and zoom in to his face to give the real Suo a closer look.

He holds back the cuteness aggression he's having.

He was beaming when you proudly showed him your creation. "Wow! You even got the same earrings."

Immediately sits next to you and kisses your temple and then watches you play.

He's still holding back the cuteness aggression when you made the character jump around from how happy you are. He feels so included it touched him.

Definitely watched Link Click and Ne Zha with you. He likes it but laughs even more to see you getting giddy every time the two main characters of Link Click come up on screen.

To be honest, he feels a little jealous to see how in love you are with those two fictional characters or any male characters you fangirl about.

Because you already have him, why let out a pterodactyl scream into the pillow every time the character gets only two seconds of screen time?

But being the mature gentleman he is, he won't be petty. After all, they're not real. And they can't hold you or kiss you like he can. Some of the characters can't even protect you like he can.

"You know, your boyfriend is sitting next to you and holding your hand but you still have the audacity to fangirl about other non-existing guys?" He spoke so softly but the venom pierced through you is unbearable. He only wanted to see your reaction, he doesn't want to hurt any of your feelings.

Now how the heck are you going to answer him?

[jingyichickenwings]

This is less of a Deep Cut and more of a case of schadenfreude, but I love when various members of a creative team are messy in public about their high budget group project. Reality TV for nerds. It speaks to a profound lack of media training or fucks given. You guys realize that future employers can Google you, right? Unintentionally hilarious.

Linke and Yee were told in no uncertain terms that their season 1 storyboard was shit, so they hired Overton, who hired half a dozen actual writers, and they did basically a full overhaul. The script was objectively much better. But this was Linke's baby, and several years later you still see signs that he is Big Mad that he didn't get his way, and that he doesn't know or care about what actually became season 1 canon. I'm sorry that your Jewish stereotype villain didn't get to be a pedophile, I guess? Idk. Yes, yes, I am sure your version of Svengali is really innovative. Maybe someday, buddy.

Meanwhile they start writing season 2 in early 2020, while the season 1 air date isn't until November of 2021. So, they don't have public feedback on the script yet, just, yanno, actual writing professionals. Anyway, according to Overton, they needed to fire the non-management part of the writing team because of the pandemic?! Lmao babygirl you do your best and I respect commitment to the official PR excuse but nobody sensible believes this. Netflix writers average 110k/year, and you needed six or so from season 1. That is not a big part of the overall budget. Also, y'all could have saved money with Zoom meetings.

So the very thing that saved the season 1 script got line-itemed "because of the pandemic". That sounds like an extremely convenient excuse for Linke to be like, no, fuck you all, we are going back to Plan A, the rough draft of season 2 based on his shitty version of season 1. Honey. That ship has sailed. You already lost this argument.

So presumably some combination of Linke/Yee/Riot/Netflix was like, it's important that we have at least one actual grown adult writer on staff. So Overton gets to keep her job.

Now, I want to preface this by saying that season 2 would have been even worse without Overton. That being said, there is a reason they needed a deeper bench of writing staff. Overton and Linke over-connect with the characters Caitlyn and Jayce respectively, to a degree that they frequently forgot to evaluate how other characters would likely behave in certain situations. It led to contrivances, plot holes, etc. There is a lot I could add here but tbh go read any of the meta already out there.

In addition to the Mary Sue type behavior, Overton thought it would be Neat to make the writing more like Avengers, like multiverse time travel fuckery is a shiny beach pebble and not narrative napalm. What in the ADHD was she thinking? Even if they had the run time to world build enough for this, there was nothing in season 1 to even suggest this as an option. And let's be fucking honest, multiverse a lot of why Marvel is on a downward spiral. If Viktor can go to Build-A-Bear Workshop and 3-D print a million Jayces, why should I give a shit about his kill count? He can just be kind, rewind, and try again. Actions are decoupled from consequences.

Anyway, moving back to the topic at hand of the Arcane team. Apparently, Overton, Linke and Yee only half-wrote season 2?! Linke said something about how they "extensively collaborated with Fortiche on the story"? Which, it's not inherently a bad idea to get creative feedback from your art team, but ummm, maybe the writers and Fortiche should have worked to a point of agreement on basic story beats. Based on a lot of what Fortiche has said, the art for season 2 passive aggressively advances what they wanted the writing to be against Linke's wishes. They literally have just been straight up disagreeing with Linke and getting paid for it. Which, to be fair, I respect the sheer pettiness! Linke can't write his own damn show but wants to slow down the very expensive art team? When the actual writers that got fired "because of the pandemic" would have caught a lot of the season 2 issues?

So post airing of season 2, Overton is all about that girlboss copaganda, Linke is having multiple public meltdowns and getting fired by Riot(?), and multiple voice actors and artists at Fortiche are being like "yeah, we actually wanted something else so there are now multiple competing narratives for season 2". Which is hilarious. The way in which the show is messy is the same way in which the creators are messy. These bitches are a cautionary tale about hubris and the need to engage in team-building.

(EDIT MARCH 11: the fired rumors seem to be old/inaccurate, see comments for details)

[yoditopascal]

As a DMC fan who’s currently watching the new anime all I have to say without posting any spoilers is that it’s still worth a watch. It may not be canon to the story of the games and really just takes the characters and some of the lore and sticks them in an alternate universe-ish plot but I think it’s still visually appealing and is trying to be faithful to the lore while still giving us a different story to follow along with. I haven’t finished it yet (I’m only on episode 3 as of rn 😭) but I still think if you’re a Devil May Cry fan you should at least give it a little looksie!

My ONE gripe however is they tried so hard to make Lady so edgy it’s actually backfiring and making me not like her as much (which is sad cuz she’s literally my 2nd favorite character in the game franchise 😭) so I hope she gets a little more tolerable later on but yeah other than that they did SO GOOD with writing the villains in this like the White Rabbit is so cool and just so FINE 🫣

Update: I’m on episode 5 now! I still like it as an AU story (and YES I’ve played the games in the past and watched the old anime back in the day and just recently rebought all of the games again, even the reboot, while they’re all on sale and I still like the show!) I know a lot of people are really bitching about its lore accuracy and I really do get it, yeah it sucks to have a favorite series get adapted the wrong way, and it sucks that they’re really seeming to wanna push this political plot point so hard even though it has nothing to do with dmc itself (I’m talking about the treatment of demons here in comparison to our current irl political climate btw just trying to avoid spoilers for folks who haven’t seen it yet) but overall the show is still pretty entertaining, personally I like it for the most part and still think it’s definitely worth a watch!

That being said people are allowed to disagree with me and dislike things thats fine, everyone is entitled to share how they feel about the show but calling people shitty names just for liking something you don’t doesn’t make you any better for being a “real” DMC fan, it just makes you look like an entitled jackass. You can critique things without being a dick about it to others!

[fixyourwritinghabits]

Does anyone have any tips on writing flashbacks? I'm finding the tense a pain -- "When Jonathan was a boy, he had once run into friends at the local chip shop. "What are you doing here?" Biff had said .... But if not using perfect tense, what's a good way to transition into and out of flashbacks?

I know I've read good ones, but I can't remember how it worked (because it was "invisible")

One big issue with flashbacks is that there are so many ways to do them. That makes juggling when and where to do them a bit tough. However, there's definitely some things to keep in mind:

Some Don'ts

Don't use a flashback right before conveying information the flashback makes essential. The one is a bit confusing, but imagine this - you're in the middle of a confrontation with the big bad. Right before they start fighting, a flashback reveals the villain killed your main character's brother and therefore this is personal! ...Except that information would have been better revealed much earlier in the novel, especially if everyone but the reader knows it.

Don't start a flashback in the middle of an action scene. You could, for example, throw some quick remembrances of something that happened in the past, but if you're interrupting a critical scene to yank the reader back to a multi-page event in the past, you're killing all the tension in the story.

Don't let a flashback take over the main plot. If the flashback is more important than what's happening in the present, you're writing the story from the wrong point of time. You might want to consider shifting the narrative to that time period, and dealing with the "current" plot at a later point in the book or settling for quick, contextualizing flash forwards.

Don't use a flashback to hide things from the audience. The absolute worst way to use a flashback is to make a scene look like it happened in a way that it didn't. If your flashback is deliberately misleading in a way the characters of the story are aware of, don't use it. For example, let's say your MC flashes back to her father's murder. It's framed to look like her uncle did it. But your MC has known all along her mother was the murderer. The flashback isn't a story she's telling, it only exists for the readers, and audience she's not aware of. Even in first-person with an unreliable narrator, a flashback is not a good way to introduce doubt in a story. It makes the reader feel as if they've been cheated.

Some Dos

Use flashbacks to convey something essential to the story. You might have pages of past events that you've cut out of your story. I certainly do. But including them slowed down the pacing and killed the tension, and ultimately, I narrowed it down to what was essential for moving forward the plot. If the flashback tells us nothing about the character, the plot, or the world in relation to either, it's probably not necessary.

Use flashbacks for character-building. Your character is formed by their past. You will need to touch on that past in some ways. A flashback triggered by a painful memory (discovering an old toy, looking at a photograph, etc) might be a way to go about it.

To show how the character got there. Your character stumbles into a bar with a head injury. As they attempt to have a normal conversation, we flash back to the car accident they fled from.

Use flashbacks to highlight but not show the real issue. This is harder to convey, but if your character is trying to avoid the truth of an event, they might often revisit the event (a fight, an argument, a conversation), but not cover all the details. This skews toward hiding things from the reader, so you should be careful about it. However, if the narrator is avoiding the truth, there are ways to do it (flashing back but not covering the whole event, flashing back to pieces of the event, etc).

Use flashbacks to frame what actually happened. Your character tells a story about themselves the whole book, but the flashback reveals what actually happened in a moment that reveals the true nature of their character.

Types of Flashbacks

Mid-scene, short paragraphs. Good for characters struggling with trauma, trying to avoid the truth of something, or looking at an image or thing that jogs their memory.

A few pages of needed context. Your MCs are at a party. They're laughing it up, seemingly having a good time. The next page or so steps back into the fight they had in the car on the way there, and how they spent time fixing their makeup before going inside.

A whole chapter - maybe. As I said above, the longer you spend in a past event, the more likely that is the main story. But if you need the POV of a character from the past, or need to highlight a critical event that you deliberately skipped over when it happened, a chapter might be a good call.

How to determine what kind of flashback you need and where you need it? That depends on where you're at in the story.

Does this flashback convey critical information about your character?

Does this flashback convey critical information about your plot?

Does this flashback add to or fit into the tension of the scenes around it?

Does the flashback slow down or stop the action? (It may be in the wrong place in your story.)

On that note, is your finale flashback-free? (If you're wrapping up the story, you need to have all your cards on the table.)

There's many, many more things we could get into, but that's a decent start. Working in flashbacks is a matter of trial and error at times, so don't shy away from them when drafting. You'll figure it out!