#and so basically all that is to say it frustrates me because this person's audience is here BC they believe in her credentials

[shenyaanigans]

maaaan it's a weird vibe when a youtuber with the conceit that they're a licensed clinical therapist actively talks about how they don't accept sponsorships they don't put their full backing behind, and then that same youtuber accepts a supplement sponsorship repackaged as "bedtime hot chocolate"

[alastors-antlers]

Why Alastor is good aroace rep after all, written by an aroace

Hello all! I just want to start off this post by saying that I'm one person who definitely doesn't speak for all aroaces, but I wanted to make a post on this anyway, and maybe some folk would be interested in hearing out another perspective?

I'm not really caught up on everything that's been said over the course of HH's creation - only more recent interviews, since I'm pretty new to the fandom. Apologies if I've missed anything, but also I do not have the time to keep up with all the out-of-canon-material backstory unfortunately. I'm working with what we've got here.

So here's the thing:

Alastor is cruel, he's narcissistic, he doesn't care about anyone except himself, he's a serial killer and a monster.

(That's the argument I've heard - please tell me if that's not really what people are going for lol, in which case I've totally misunderstood?)

The issue with aroace rep when it paints asexual people with those traits is that it aims to dehumanizes them. Sex and love are essential to the human experience, right? So why wouldn't someone be interested? Because they're self-absorbed, and cold, and detached. They don't have the capacity to love others enough to feel romance.

And sure, Alastor is a killer, and a schemer, and prideful, and a monster by hell's standards. But no matter how above it all and stylish and in control and provocative he wants to be, he's a very human character, and his aroace-ness never serves to add to his alienation. You could even say that it makes him seem even more personable.

That's what I think is the key difference.

why he's human

Alastor's whole persona is about control, and he basically straight-up says this. He's controlling what his enemies know, what his public image is like. His goal is to be the Radio Demon -- overlord of Hell, charismatic, Machiavellian, and undefeatable. He's not. Despite that smile plastered over his face (a powerful tool, huh) he's so expressive for someone who's constantly pretending.

You see his exasperation with the Egg Bois and with Charlie's ranting; his nervousness in front of Zestial; his frustration with Lucifer and the petty lengths he goes to to piss off the ruler of Hell.

You see his desperation, making that deal with Charlie. He's surprised by the idea of being vulnerable in front of an enemy like Adam, and so close to danger. He drops the radio filter and the affect out of fear, and runs on broadcast TV to let out panic and anger and bitterness in his hideout, where no one else can see him.

He has a smile that tells us he's genuinely happy to see someone; it's a little wider than his default. You see it with Mimzy's greeting, you see it with Rosie. Rosie, especially, serves to make Alastor more human to the audience. More on this later, but for now, I'm just saying that you can see that he at least seems to respect her greatly. Whatever bond they have, we know that he trusts her to touch him, to share history with him, and with support that he trusts no one else for.

He pretends, but he can't pretend it all away. Loads of these emotions aren't even advantageous for him to show. It isn't necessarily how the typical asexual psychopath acts; he's not emotionless or only capable of anger or brutality.

He's so full of emotion that it leaks through, despite all that he does to avoid it. He's not inhuman and aloof, not really - he's so, so human, even when he tries not to be because he thinks that'll be what keeps him above all the rest. In control, and free from his chains.

(If anyone wants to see images about all this, I'll make a separate post - just let me know.)

(I also have another post, talking about why Alastor is at least a little attached to the hotel's residents too, shown via conversation with Niffty. In what way? different question.)

how the aroace part contributes to that

Now, to be fair, we don't hear much about his aroaceness in canon. It's just not relevant a lot of the time.

In the pilot, Angel's proposition ruffles his feathers so much that Alastor blanks for a moment. It's a joke, sure, but that ace panic face is a pretty popular Alastor moment in the fandom - Alastor, thrown off-balance by a sex joke of all things, after so many years in Hell that he should probably be used to this.

It's a moment that makes him more approachable; his aroaceness shows him unprepared for something someone else does for one of the only real moments in the whole episode.

And the other part: the ace in the hole statement.

Rosie apparently knows Alastor so well that she read that he's aroace. That tells us about their relationship; namely, that it is long-standing and genuine enough that she gleaned a piece of real information from him. It's a casual fact that she knows about him before he even figured it out himself. It lends legitimacy to their bond - this bond that shows us a more comfortable and warm side of Alastor that we don't often see.

If their relationship is purely business, isn't this something pretty frivolous and personal? It's not like he has anything to gain by telling her about his life, but she learned about it somehow. How close are they? That's where it adds a layer of complexity and personality to his character..

thoughts on representation

Overall, Alastor's an interesting character who has a level of depth and care and personality (outside of cruelty) that asexual psychopath tropes lack. Again, the moments where he's being represented as disinterested in sex or romance don't make him seem detached. Again, they don't say "look how hostile toward relationships his behaviour is - how separate he is from our humanity". That's what bad villain ace rep is. That's not what the show's doing.

Also: I'm not saying that we need to lower our standards or anything, but even if you think it's not the best rep, I feel like we should be supporting HH's efforts here. I know that on Tumblr we have a pretty queer-friendly space going, which is honestly an understatement lol but

Aces are incredibly underrepresented in fiction. There's a whole Wikipedia page about asexual characters in media, and it's short as all hell, and even if you consider what's on there you see quite a number of one-off characters who are never mentioned again.

In terms of real life business - before the DSM updated their definition of hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) in 2013, identifying as asexual wasn't even a recognized thing. If you talked to a clinician about your lack of sexual desire, you could be diagnosed with a disorder. Only in the 5th edition do we now have a little exclusion footnote about it.

The concept of asexuality hasn't been explored nearly as much as other queer identities in our scientific research. We get crumbs in terms of mainstream representation and understanding. House M.D. has an episode where House "disproves" us because he's just so smart.

Alastor isn't going to be perfect representation. There's no such thing as perfect representation, and from the moment he was conceptualized, you could see how people would take him poorly. Still, I think he's a net positive.

He isn't a side character or a token ace - he's a core part of the show, whose personality and character motivations we can reasonably presume are going to be explored much more deeply in upcoming season(s). He's loved by the fandom. Right now, given what we know, I trust Vivziepop to write the aroace representation he deserves, because with the way I've heard the cast/directing/etc. talk about him, they're trying to do the aroace community justice, so I wish people would let up just a little on the whole "Alastor is bad rep".

Let's give him a chance, all right?

[ghoulfuckersincorporated]

Thank you for your service to the ghoul fucker community 🫡🤠

You mentioned that you have more headcanons for the Ghoul, can you share them with us? NSFW or SFW it is up to you

SFW Cooper Howard/The Ghoul Headcanons 2

(Follow-up to the SFW Prewar!Coop headcanons I posted here.)

I've said this before, but I firmly believe that this man doesn't sleep. Based on what we've seen about ghouls over the course of the franchise, I think that food, water, and sleep are basically optional; something that helps them feel and run better, but not things they can't survive without. With sleep comes vulnerability, both physical vulnerability and the vulnerability of being subjected to dreams. Cooper doesn't want to dream. His unconscious brain isn't nearly as good at shoving all the unpleasant things he doesn't want to think about down as his conscious brain is. The only true "sleep" he gets is when he's been knocked unconscious, whether that be by some enemy of the Wasteland or by one too many substances. He still will typically pick a spot to stop for 5-6 hours a night, put his feet up, get a little extra intoxicated. Sometimes he rests his eyes and feigns sleep when things feel especially calm.

He is a YAPPER! I've seen so many people theorize that for season 2 Lucy is gonna talk The Ghoul's ear off on their walk to New Vegas...I respectfully disagree. Have you ever met an old man? They never shut the fuck up at the best of times and this one has been without real companionship for so long; now that he's got an audience, he's never without something to say. I mean, the man was fancy waterboarding Lucy and standing there monologuing about some shit he read in the newspaper 200 years ago because he's lonely.

This man will absolutley start falling in love with you if you get ANY of his jokes or weird little references he makes to shit that hasn't existed in forever. Even if that's the first time he has positive feelings towards you, he's officially on that path. It would be a moment of genuine human connection, the kind he hasn't felt in so long. Even if it's innocuous, the poor thing is immediately gonna be a little obsessed with you.

Have fun if he DOES start falling in love with you, because initially it'll make him even more unpleasant than he usually is. He's confused at first, then he's annoyed by it when he realizes what he's feeling. He's gone this long without having to deal with that on top of everything else. Both emotions come with a hearty side of frustration and anger, as well as a general defensiveness you won't be able to wrap your brain around until his (reciprocated) feelings eventually come to light.

Marriage doesn't really exist in the same form he knew before, but if he was serious about you, he'd still wanna marry you. Depending on where you come from, whether you're a vault dweller or not, you might not even fully understand what he's asking when he proposes (which he would definitely still scrounge up a ring for, by the way; it wouldn't feel right to him if he didn't give you one). He takes it just as seriously as he took it the first time, and he's determined to be the husband he knows he's capable of being to you.

Not a headcanon so much as a musing, I suppose, but hear me out: what if the duster he wears is from the first person he ever cannibalized (or something similar)? Much to wonder about.

[whyrobot]

“I hate all the women in this podcast! This shows that the podcast is progressive and says nothing in particular about me as a person”

Notice how I never said the podcast is progressive for having a diverse, well-rounded, and fleshed out cast, nor that I hated all the women in the podcast. I love all of the main cast of characters, that love is just expressed differently based on how their individual journeys go.

What I DID draw attention to was how good Rusty Quill was at writing complex women who had their own motivations and reasoning that the audience would not agree with or relate to. I, personally, don’t understand Daisy’s draw to cruelty and stepping on people deemed “below” her. But I CAN understand that she was actively trying to change her whole outlook on life, and that it took guts to do. I don’t understand Georgie’s loyalties and how they appear to shift with no reason. But I can understand that she has complex feelings towards her ex and wants to keep her life and new girlfriend safe. I don’t understand why Basira gets so caught up on Jon’s morals when hers took a backseat when it came to Daisy abusing people, nor do I understand why she was so quick to jump on Jon for any perceived fault or wrongdoing. But I do understand that her one last connection to her old life was her partner, and that Daisy meant so much to her. I understand that Basira was only alive this long because she was a cautious, rational person, and that she trusted her instincts to guide her, and she saved most of the casts’ lives at least once.

I didn’t even touch on Melanie’s character as I think she gets it pretty rough from most of the fanbase, even though she was being possessed by the slaughter, had her career crash down around her, was signed on as basically a prisoner, and was thrown into this crazy world of Fears and Avatars with zero warning. She then was told of a way out, and she was the only one to have the willpower and stomach to blind herself to be free.

Sasha is a much beloved character who has way too little “screen time” and I wish the narrative had been able to keep her around. She was very smart, capable, and she was a steady force driving the Archives to do their jobs.

Gertrude was the peak Mentor character trope, badass and self-sufficient to a fault. She was allowed to grow old and still be a wonderfully violent character. She wanted results, at any cost.

This is already too long, but if you think that being frustrated at characters’ choices or arguing their logic means that I hate them, then I don’t think this is going to change your mind. But it was nice to reflect on the main women of The Magnus Archives and how they interact with the main story.

[yanaleese]

if ur fine with nsfw asks, could you maybe do some nsfw headcannons for karma? <3

maybe just the basics like dom/sub, how he acts in the bedroom ect ect (can u tell i never send asks HELP 😭)

if not that's perfectly okay! some sfw ones could be cute too, like his favorite way to cuddle or his love language??

anyways im obsessed with him and had to send in an ask 😪 thank u for blessing me with this wonderful man

LMAO no problem! Also Anon I feel you with the obsession...my friend and I were both simping harder than our willpower to do our exams 😭😭😭😭

Also since this is the first NSFW ask I've decided to split this up into separate posts later on+ a little art to tease your weak heart ❤️. Please enjoy reading what's under the cut.

Content warning: FEMALE reader, HARD explicit smut, detailed kinks such as impregnation, overstimulation, all that good stuff. Please note that this is for 17+ audiences only.

"WAIT! KARMA! THE CAMERA-"

CRASH!!!

Karma Sangre - Normal NSFW:

When Karma is calm and collected, he's the one usually in control. But if you want to play the dom in the relationship, he's happy to step down! Just make sure you let him know, otherwise he'll take that as a challenge and his excuse to fuck the living shit out of you.

Usually before things get steamy, he'll be worshipping your body with kisses and teasing you with all kinds of lewd words from A to Z. When he's horny, he's a lot more talkative, which makes both his raspy voice and soft lips a dangerously sexy combination. It gets even worse when his steamy voice presses against your ears, tempting you into giving in to his lustful wishes.

Once he hears you plead in sexual frustration, he'll begin licking and biting his favorite spots - your earlobe, your tits, your neck. He especially goes after the neck, making sure that your collarbone is left with some bloody bites.

After littering your body in saliva and bites, Karma will book a one-way ticket to Pussyland. To him, missing out on stimulating your clit is missing a chance at seeing you squirm, moan and whimper just by his tongue alone. The piercing on his tongue doesn't help either, as it quickens your climax even further.

Satisfied seeing your pussy drenched in his saliva and your cum, he'll kindly rub your entrance slowly, starting with one digit, and eventually his entire hand. Well, that depends on how long you want to play the 'tough girl' act.

If you decide to go down that route, say your prayers, because your pussy is going to be obliterated...with toys. What, did you think disobedient girls like you get cock? Please. If there's one thing Karma can't turn down is a challenge. By turning down Karma, you lose your privileges of being his personal fleshlight. But hey, at least you can be his personal toyfucker instead!

Now if you decide to be docile, and play the "good girl" act, you can kiss your legs, your pussy and your pride goodbye. With that 7-inch erect cock, your folds will be spasming and tightening so much that it'll drive both you and Karma mad. The poor mattress will be creaking constantly as that veiny cock of his pounds fucking deep into pussy, begging to cum straight into your fertile womb.

Whilst you're struggling to take the pleasure, Karma will be busy murmuring in Spanish about how good you feel as he holds your legs over his shoulder, his huge hands rubbing and licking your aroused nipples before burying his moans in it with words like "Te amo" + "Ven conmigo" and so much more; Duolingo would be so proud of you!

When you're both about to climax, he roughly grabs your chin, pulling you in a tongue-twisting kiss. From the kiss alone, you can already feel your eyes rolling to the back of your head, barely registering the warm, gooey liquid dripping from your pussy to your twitching legs.

As you try to recover by taking deep breaths, you're hit with the reality that your amazing, horny boyfriend is (un)fortunately an amazing bodybuilder with more strength and stamina than your body can take.

Staring at him with a mix of lust and horror, you whine and mewl, sounding like a dying cat. Yes, you loved this sneaky bastard - but dear Lord you needed a break.

"Sleep, Mami. You'll need it." He slurs while caressing the top of your head, playing with a strand of hair. You felt your eyes beginning to close, blotches of darkness dotting your vision instantaneously, as if on command. Narrowing your eyes, you swore you could see his eyes peeking out of his bangs, revealing his dazed yet sinister gaze.

"Because it's a going to be a long night for you and me."

<>

To learn more about Karma, go here!

If you want to see more Karma content, head over to my inbox!

And thank you Anon, for sending in this ask ❤️.

ALTERNATE VERSIONS - LIGHT VER. + TATTOO-LESS VER.

[stayteezdreams]

Ateez Scenarios; Comforting you after you mess up while being an MC

Request: Reader is an mc at kcon/music bank and the reader messed up some words/stuttered

Pairings: OT8!Ateez x Gn!Reader (Individual; established relationships)

Requested By: Anonymous

Warnings: Mentions of being embarrassed, public speaking (past-tense), self-doubt, stuttering.

Words: 1.7k

Seonghwa:

Seonghwa noticed when you stumbled over your words, and though he didn't care, and knew others would not care or barely notice either, he knew you would.

As soon as you were done presenting he texted you with a bombardment of messages.

"You did so good!" "You looked amazing!" "Your stage presence was great, I think the audience really enjoyed it!"

"But I messed up so many times :("

"So did the others, but you didn't notice that did you?"

"...no"

"Then don't worry about it, you did great! It was your first time, it didn't have to be perfect."

Even if you still held some embarrassment after it, Seonghwa's words would linger in your mind.

Any time he would feel like you were thinking about it, or if you saw a clip, he would immediately interject with good parts and things about it that he knew you enjoyed or were proud of.

A couple people clipped your mess-ups, and you were afraid you were getting criticized, but Seonghwa pointed out that people were just saying how cute you were and how much more relatable it made you seem.

He wouldn't let you linger on it for too long, always reminding you of the good points, and how well you did throughout the rest of the performances.

Hongjoong:

When you and Hongjoong met up after you were done, he noticed you seemed a bit frustrated.

He listened while you complained about how you did, and all he did was smile at you with a look of adoration.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because you're cute. Also, I didn't notice any of that, and I doubt other's really did as well. You are your biggest critic, you did great, don't worry."

You would pout before a smile would break out. "It really wasn't that bad?"

"No, it wasn't. And if anyone noticed I really doubt they care as much as you do."

He would take you out to eat or get some drinks to comfort you and distract you, knowing that you would still feel bad for a while.

Any time the topic might come up, he would only talk about how well you did, or how good you looked, how others reacted to you.

He didn't want your first time MC-ing to be tainted with your own bad opinions, so he made sure to remind you of all of the great parts instead.

And when you ended up being invited to MC again he would make sure to show you how proud he was of you, and how much he believed in you.

Yunho:

Yunho is your biggest fan. Self-appointed and agreed upon by the others.

Of course he noticed the slip-ups and the stuttering, but he found it adorable and personable.

If you did perfect, you might come off like a robot. Something he made sure to tell you when he noticed how you reacted to seeing your own performance later on.

He teased you a bit when you got embarrassed about it, but he did it in a way that made you kind of like how you messed up.

He told you you were cute, and came off nervous which worked in your benefit. He pointed out comments of fans, and audience members, talking about how you were cute and they hoped you didn't feel bad for messing up.

"You were nervous about it, and you stumbled, but that doesn't mean you failed."

"What if they don't want me to do it again because of it?"

"Then that's a failure on their part and doesn't reflect you at all. You did amazing and you were great."

He'd hug you and kiss your head and comfort you if you still felt bad. Basically babying you until you got more frustrated with him (lovingly) to the point where you couldn't even focus on what was making you upset in the first place.

Yeosang:

When you saw Yeosang after the show, he hugged you and told you about how great you did.

You would smile but he saw that it didn't quite reach your eyes.

To distract yourself, you talked about the bands performance instead trying to avoid the topic.

But Yeosang couldn't shake it from his mind, needing to know why you weren't happy, when you had been so excited before.

When he got you to admit what was wrong he just chuckled. You were confused but he pressed a kiss to your temple and rubbed his hands up and down your arms.

"I didn't even notice, was it really that bad?"

You'd shrug, doubting it for a moment. "I thought so."

He hummed and pulled you into a hug. "I think it feels worse than it is because you noticed it."

To make you feel better he would tell you about times he messed up while Mc-ing and you couldn't help out point out that you never noticed his mess ups either.

"See? We notice our own mistakes more than others' do. I promise you did great. And knowing from experience, even if people notice or point it out, it wont be in a critical or mean way."

You knew this was right, recalling how Atiny would often find the boy's mess-ups adorable or relatable.

Though a rush of embarrassment would wash over you when you thought about your mess-ups, it faded quickly afterwards, as you would remind yourself of Yeosang's words.

San:

When you would stumble or stutter over your words, San felt his chest clench.

He knew that was exactly what you had been nervous about and knew it would kill you inside.

Even if he knew others would find it cute or funny in the best way, just like he did, he knew it would tear you up.

When you saw each other after, your eyes met and you shared a silent conversation as he pulled you into a hug.

"You did great baby." "But I messed up." "So?"

You met his eyes with a pout and he couldn't resist kissing you. "It wasn't that bad, don't worry."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better."

"Yes, I am, but that doesn't make it any less true."

When you later watched back clips San would point out how barely noticeable it was, or how cute or endearing it made you seem.

Even if you got frustrated or embarrassed by it, he would just kiss your cheek and remind you that it was cute, or not as bad as you thought.

You both knew you would get over it, and it wouldn't effect you for too long. But while it did, he made sure to tell you your feelings were valid, but worse simply because you were criticizing yourself.

He also used it as an excuse to give you as many kisses and hugs as he wanted. And you definitely weren't complaining.

Mingi:

Mingi was so focused on how good you looked and how proud of you he was that he didn't even notice you mess up.

Afterwards you had to point out each moment for him to notice.

He seemed unfazed, and that in itself comforted you, making you realize it really wasn't as bad as you thought.

All Mingi did point out was how cute he found you after you stuttered or messed up, since he could see the embarrassment and frustration in your face, even in video.

This would embarrass you more than the stuttering, and eventually you barely even thought of it at all.

When you would be invited to MC again later on, he could sense your anxiety this time and this is when he would really comfort you.

Hype-man Mingi was his new title, and he made sure to give you as much encouragement and love to make sure you weren't so nervous.

It worked, because even if you stuttered or stumbled over your words again, instead of being embarrassed, all you could really think of was how proud Mingi would be of you anyways.

And he was! And he definitely made sure to show it.

Wooyoung:

Wooyoung would hate that you felt embarrassed or frustrated about messaging up your lines.

He tried to comfort you with his normal teasing attitude, but he realized that only made you feel worse, he switched up.

Instead, he kissed your cheek and treated you sweetly. Apologizing for teasing you.

He would then talk about all the times he had messed up on stage or on the radio and how it was normal.

People might talk about it in the moment but it would never last.

And most of the time people usually thought that kind of mistake was cute, or barely acknowledge it at all.

Wooyoung would make you food and cuddle with you on the couch as you re-watched the event. Anytime you'd come on the screen Wooyoung would get giddy and talk about his amazing S/O.

"Look at you! You look so good!" "You're so cute when your shy!" "I wish I was able to watch this in person!"

His genuine reactions to you, and his obvious adoration made you feel ten times better about everything that had happened.

Eventually the teasing would come back, but only once Wooyoung knew you were over it. And it became something you thought back on fondly rather than with embarrassment or frustration.

Jongho:

Jongho would be Mc-ing alongside you, and whenever you stumbled or stuttered, he would very subtly lean closer to you, so his shoulder or arm was against yours.

You knew this was his way of comforting you and your nerves, and it did help.

And anytime your eyes met he would give you his stunning gummy-smile and you couldn't help but feel better.

Your interactions ended up being clipped more than your stuttering, which Jongho teased you about as well, even though he was the reason the moments got clipped.

Anytime you were reminded of your mess-ups, he would remind you of his, or even some of the other hosts and MC's at the event.

"Everyone messes up, don't focus on your own, it's normal." "You did better than you think you did." "You did better than I did."

He was blunt with his comments and comfort, but that helped to come across more meaningful that if he were to comfort you with a softer tone.

When he would read comments about how others shipped the two of you, or how they wanted you two to MC together again he would run over to you and show you or text the screen shots to you with a very proud "Told you so!"

xx End xx

General Taglist: @otsilliak, @brattybunfornct, @bahng-chrizz

Ateez Taglist: @soso59love-blog, @thunderous-wolf

[secretmellowblog]

I hope tumblr doesn’t die because No other social media site is as good for long, thoughtful, nuanced analyses of media. Yeah tumblr is also full of dumb shallow hot takes and shitposts, but you can make dumb shallow hot takes and shitposts anywhere —-there are no other popular social media sites that let you easily format and share long essays on the media you enjoy, and then have conversations around those long essays.

Fandom on all the other big social websites just seems so utterly …shallow. And it’s not because people on other websites aren’t thoughtful or don’t have deep things to say, but because these sites’ formats do not allow for any kind of long nuanced conversations.

Tiktok? Things have to be crammed into a super short video with an attention grabbing headline, and you can’t hyperlink sources. Instagram? Everything has to be in an image format with strict limits on length, and nothing will be shown to your followers anyway because of how Instagram’s algorithm works, and also no hyperlinks. Twitter? Strict character limits, and if you split it into threads it means someone can retweet a part of your essay completely out of context, and also very little freedom with formatting.

It frustrates me so much. If I go into the Tumblr Les Mis fandom I’ll find really compelling long essays on the original novel (including essays being written for the ongoing book club) on the story’s historical context, or the parallels between different characters and their narrative foils, or the way the politics were defanged for certain adaptations, or the way Victor Hugo’s personal life and failings affected the novel. But on tiktok I’ll get the same five shallow stale jokes from 2013 over and over, or maybe the same “DID U KNO THAT IN THE MUSICAL JAVERT AND VALJEAN SING THE SAME LEITMOTIF” style of basic Intro To Les Mis 101 For Babies media analysis (which is what Tiktok considers deep media analysis), or stale “LOL JAVERT ACTS GAY” style jokes as if we’re living in the early 2000s and calling a character gay is still a funny punchline. And it’s impossible to have any kind of deeper thoughtful discussions than “DID U KNOW <x Kool Fact>” or “lol <shallow observational joke>” on tiktok because the platform just isn’t built for building niche communities around in depth conversations. it’s built to churn out bland generic content for as wide an audience as possible, which means pointing out a small detail like an Easter egg and calling it “cool” is deep media analysis, because you cant have longer more in depth conversations without alienating people. And I hate it. Bc like, it’s not because there aren’t smart clever thoughtful people on Tiktok— there are—it’s because Tiktok isn’t built for these conversations, and anyone who wants to have them has to really fight against the things the website encourages or prioritizes!

Or like, if I go into the LOTR fandom on Tumblr, I’ll find tons of extremely long analysis and fanfic, and analysis of queer readings of the story. On Instagram people will still shriek in terror if you suggest the characters are gay, and most of the popular lotr posts are stale memes recycled from like 2007. There’s really no room for thoughtful media analysis, and even if you did create it, instagram’s algorithm would make sure no one saw your post anyway.

And everyone’s going to say “the algorithm shows you what you’ve seen before so maybe it’s your fault ~” or whatever but i do look for things I want! I do! “The algorithm” doesn’t know me or what I want or value or care about beyond this meaningless surface level.

The only thing that was worthwhile about these sites was the great visual art people were creating, but now the websites are overwhelmed with meaningless soulless machine-generated AI glurge, and it sucks. It just really, really sucks.

I’m honestly confused about why people don’t use tumblr….There’s no character limits! You have freedom with post formatting, and can insert images throughout textposts to illustrate specific points you’re making beneath the paragraphs where they’re necessary! You can add hyperlinks, linking to your sources! People can reblog your entire essay and share it, and then add on with commentary that then becomes part of a larger conversation! People can find your stuff through the tagging system! Reblogging means posts stay in circulation for years instead of being dead 30 minutes after they’re uploaded! If you want to have genuinely interesting text conversations about a piece of media, there really isn’t a better social media website for it anywhere.

To be clear, I’m definitely not saying Tumblr media analysis is *always* clever and thoughtful or etc etc. there are shitposts and nonsense here too (plenty of which I’ve created lol.) I’m saying that Tumblr gives people the tools for in-depth insightful analysis to happen. Whether people choose to do it or not is their own decision XD. But the reason lengthy in-depth conversations and book clubs are even possible here is because Tumblr is built for allowing these conversations to happen, in a way other sites simply aren’t.

It’d really suck if it died, because it’d be a huge blow to…being able to easily find long insightful in-depth media analysis written by fans. I currently don’t think there’s anything that could replace it.

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

i think Helaena can be autistic but also a happy and joyful girl , autism ≠ depression. the way the portrayed the only neurodivergent character on screen as unstable, shunned depressed, and with no importance to the plot feel very ableist and weird , but then they're the ones who made the guy with a foot disability a feet fetishist 🫠

Hi OP, finally answering this because the trailer dropped and still the only Helaena shots we have are from her Jaehaerys' funeral. There is also one still photo of her. If you haven't seen it, here she is, apparently sewing the funeral shroud for her little boy:

So it seems like season 2 is going to continue on this trajectory for Helaena as a character who exists in order to suffer beautifully.

Don't get me wrong. I am glad that the show is going to wring the full emotional effect from Blood and Cheese, not just shock value. The audience will feel the real horror of a six year old child brutally murdered in his own home and the psychological torment of Helaena. It should be terrible, it should be devastating, and I hope they do not pull any punches.

What's disappointing about how the show has handled Helaena is that they didn't really put any effort into building up her character before her tragedy. It's all well and good that she likes bugs and she's touch averse, but what are her opinions? Who is she closest to? How did she react to becoming a mother so young? To what extent does she understand her visions? What does she value? She can be happy and cheerful, or she can be frustrated and angry, and hell, she can be depressed too, but I need to know why. It's telling that I can describe the basic internal motivations for each of the male children, including Luke who was a glorified plot device, but I cannot for Helaena. Aegon wants to feel loved, Jace wants to prove he's as worthy as any trueborn heir, Aemond wants what his brother has, Luke wants to be free from his family's expectations. Helaena? Fuck if I know. I guess she wants not to die horribly.

The ableism is an issue. F&B is full of women who were deemed "simple" -- Gael, Daella, Jaehaera-- without being given much else to define them, and HotD adds another (there's something, I think, to the way the "simple" Targaryens are always women and how disability kind of used as a way to remove them from the narrative and shunt them aside, often tragically). And while it's great to see an autistic person represented on screen, the show consistently has an issue with treating representation as characterization. "Autistic girl who likes bugs" is not a personality. Autistic people, (even those with horrifying prophesies I assume), do have hopes and dreams and feelings about things. The one peek we get into Helaena's life is at the in episode 8 when she roasts Aegon and even that scene is open to interpretation (and gets taken wildly out of context). Now, I can read a lot into the actor performances, but ultimately, lines that could have given a glimpse Helaena personality were cut. It's as if they're afraid that if they give her an opinion on anything she would lose that (frankly kind of infantilizing) "pure cinnamon roll too good for this world" "i would die for her" sympathy from people who are not inclined to be sympathetic for her family as a whole.

(And anon, you're right about Larys. And let me say, turning Larys' clubfoot into the punchline of an OnlyFeet joke also does not inspire confidence that they'll handle Aegon II's eventual disability with any sensitivity either, especially when Mushroom's accounts of his last few months are incredibly mean spirited. We need to start that discourse now so they get the memo).

Sadly, I don't think the show really has any intention of course correcting with Helaena in season 2. I imagine at most we'll have her try to warn Aegon and/or Aemond about Blood & Cheese but they won't understand her warning, and then this will be a vehicle to further their guilt and grief. And while we do need to see Aegon's guilt and his grief, I also want to know if Helaena blames herself, if she wishes they'd run away when they had the chance, if she thinks Aegon could have done something, if she is angry at Aemond for killing Luke, if she wants revenge. I do think, with the public funeral for Jaehaerys, they are going to show that the smallfolk are fond of Helaena, and hopefully that will be expanded upon this season and in season 3 because her death is the catalyst for the revolt that sees Rhaenyra driven from the city, and we should understand why her death has such an impact before she actually dies.

[yujeong]

Ok, Ok, I think I need to lay down. Yes, SandRay floored us today. Yes, Khaotung wanted to personally kill me with his acting and First with his huge eyes filled with tears. Yes, whatever the fuck TopMew had going on this episode had me pull my hair in frustration in a good way, because Mew is a hilariously horrible person and Boeing is unhinged. BUT. Listen. BostonNick stole the episode for me. That scene. That fucking scene. Everything that happened before that scene was the perfect set up. Atom setting Boston up. Cheum and co going to his house to shame him and denounce him as their friend. Nick and Dan. Their encounter at Nick's shop. It was all delicious and perfectly executed but it could never prepare me for this. We see Boston looking sad at the distance and Nick coming to him to talk (after he saw Boston's feelings about him through the fucking phone wallpaper pls, I'm not OK). He asks him and Boston is defensive but then Nick insists and Boston, in his need to have someone comfort him FINALLY, says what happened. At first Nick responds by telling him how things are; seems legit, he says, given what you've done. Boston tells him to cut it off but not in his usual way, he's not cruel or rude, he's simply asking to not be shit on rn. Nick listens and apologizes and he means it and I love it.

But Boston feels weird and cannot understand wtf is wrong with him and it's real and I love that he trusted Nick to ask him about it. And Nick's answer is perfect for Boston, because sure, for us, the audience it seems so obvious; of course Boston is doing fucked up shit in his desperation to be loved and accepted, but Boston doesn't know that. No one TOLD him that, no one SHOWED him that.

Boston's answer to that is even better, because he still doesn't understand. And he needs a more valid reason than that.

Nick's answer? Oh, my beautiful nasty little boy. He was so real for it. He needed to gather himself to say it. He needed time to utter those words. "I also did nasty shit to you, Boston" he tells him. "Maybe we belong together" What Boston said next was breathtaking. I love him for that.

He might as well have said "I love you" here. It has the same weight as that phrase. That's why Nick breaks down. That's why he kisses him like that, crying uncontrollably and telling him he missed him too. Because we already knew about Nick's feelings towards Boston. We knew the guy had an obsession turned love towards him. But with Boston it's different. And Nick thought so too before this phrase was uttered, before Boston basically confessed he has feelings for Nick, or more precisely, that Nick is special to Boston. And he proceeds to say it AGAIN, after Nick says it. He says AGAIN how he missed him and he THANKS him for staying by his side with TEARS in his own eyes. They hug while crying together, please, I'm too weak for this. And then they make LOVE. They don't just fuck, they make sweet love to each other while staring at each other's eyes and kissing and being cute and I fucking DIED right there. BostonNick is all I ever wanted and more. I need MORE, please, I can't handle myself. This episode was SO GOOD, I can't DEAL with this.

[gynandromorph]

It's okay not to answer, I know it's broad territory, but I really respect you as an artist and writer. How do you handle people misinterpreting or missing elements of your work, especially when they may still enjoy it and get something out of it? As an artist I'm struggling lately with knowing my work will always inherently be read differently from what I intended as a matter of the human experience, as well as me being autistic complicating my ability to communicate.

An addition to that last ask. I don't know if it's clear what I'm asking so I'll give some examples. A 50 year old man and a 21 year old woman will get different things from a movie due to their lived experiences. As a gentile reader I might miss jewish narrative themes in a piece of work. That doesn't mean it's bad for us to have experienced it, but as an author I find it frustrating when something is missed or misinterpreted, and I don't know how not to be a control freak about it.

i feel you, i have ocpd and being misinterpreted when i agonized and stressed about how to present my wording makes me want to light myself on fire and it's something i'm working on. writers are supposed to expect and account for different perspectives ahead of time, so it always sort of shocks me when i hear interpretations i wouldn't have thought about at all. i know logically i can't predict all outcomes, but it's still surprising anyway!!! but i generally feel a lot of distress about being misinterpreted because i'm afraid it'll label me as A Bad Person, so i think that's where the experience diverges. maybe investigating why you need to or want to control the way your work is interpreted would help as a starting point? i think having a larger audience helps, too... it means more people will misinterpret your work, but it also means you're more likely to have at least One Guy who interprets it just right and makes fireworks go off in your brain, but there's no way to control how big your audience is!

anyway, the ways to control how your work is interpreted, to the degree that you can:

you can make it simpler. the more parts a story has added to its complexity, the more it's going to be misinterpreted.

you can make the intended message more blatant. you can have a character say exactly what you want the audience to think or hear, or something very close to it. don't want a detail missed? make it bigger.

you can reprioritize parts of the story. basically think of a group of interpretations you want the audience to have if you can, and then put them in order of importance. then the story has a hierarchy to lean on wrt artistic decisions.

you can give the story multiple meanings. more targets to hit. if they're mutually exclusive, i find this works better... i like making my stories ambiguous with conflicting interpretations a lot. yeah, people are going to interpret the story wrong, because it was made in a way that will guarantee it is interpreted wrong in some way.

you can layer the meaning so that less literate audience members will at least get SOME of what you intended. basically, close to the previous strategy, but like a hybrid of that and "make it simpler" imo because you're constructing multiple interpretations that are all supposed to lead to one conclusion (like a persuasive essay or something), but can act as an adequate conclusion on their own.

all of these options have obvious qualitative losses. if you have anything in particular that is repeatedly misinterpreted or missed, it's a good idea to think about Why you're making those choices. consciously committing to a higher-risk artistic choice will help you feel more in control of what happens to it once it's done. the way your art is interpreted isn't totally out of your control, you are making decisions that add to or mitigate the risk of misinterpretations, and you can bring those choices to a more conscious awareness to see them and appreciate them. sometimes it'll feel like a begrudging compromise, but it'll still be Your choice ultimately.

on an emotional level... hopefully this makes sense. there's always going to be the piss-on-the-poor scenario and sometimes i just remind myself that some people are not as literate as me, but it's great we were still able to connect through a work that was probably difficult for them!!! it was a privilege to get to grow up with a good education, access to art and technology, strangers who want to look at what i made, and there are times where i take this for granted, and my expectations of readers are actually kind of unreasonable!!! some people are younger than me and say stupid things like i did, but they aren't able to understand things like me yet, and it's important for them to learn by figuring it out on their own!!! i was and will always be That Guy to other artists and other writers, and i want to give other people the same grace as i get. some people have wildly different life experiences compared to mine, and these experiences can be much more nuanced than i could ever imagine, but it's a little gift that they made my world larger by sharing theirs through my art!!! it's terrifying and embarrassing knowing that i don't know much of anything, even about something i have total control over, but the consequences of that aren't always negative. and possibly the saddest but most common way i deal with this is nothing more than accepting that no one is ever going to understand me on the level that i want to be understood. sometimes my frustration has come from a place of miserable alienation, where the need to feel Seen can be quite desperate. i've made art explicitly about Me, and i've made art deliberately hostile towards its audience, art that's said they don't get it and they never will, but they still bothered to try. i made a game that said no one will win here and they still played it with me, and i can appreciate that. in many cases, they actually know more about me than i know about them. but more importantly, it isn't my audience's job to take care of that emotional need -- in fact, as much as art is made out to be a mode of pure self-expression, i don't think they can. it's a reality that i don't like, but i accept it. art made to benefit others is a one-way mirror: you make them feel seen, but they should never see you, because if they see you, the mirror isn't working.

[avelera]

Ugh, popped on Twitter to geek out about the Wheel of Time S2 and immediately find a bunch of WoT dudebro fans complaining that a 15 book series of 800+ pages each isn’t getting the exact word for word adaption that exists inside their heads when they read the books. And let me remind you all, these books were my life, my first fandom, and basically my personality pretty much from when I first read them in 1999 until Robert Jordan died (alas, I read to the end but Brandon Sanderson never quite captured the magic of RJ’s writing for me again, even if I think he did the best job anyone possibly could.)

So let me just say from a place of deep respect and obsession with these books that any hate for the show based on it not being a page for page adaptation is patently insane. Much of Wheel of Time relies on the strengths of prose which are untranslatable to a visual medium. Stuff like how magic (or the One Power) feels to cast makes up a huge proportion of the book. You can externally portray a feeling, sure, but there are still limits.

They forget that Book 1 was written to be standalone and has a ton of inconsistencies with later books that need to be shored up. That means logistical changes which cause necessary alterations almost all of which have actually been massive improvements in my mind. For all my love of Wheel of Time, its pacing is atrocious and I think even RJ would agree that if he could go back with the whole story in mind and edit it to be more streamlined, he absolutely would have. The show HAS to do that or we’d still be in the goddamn Two Rivers with the book pacing.

Centering the first season on the White Tower and Moiraine’s POV makes sense. The book relied on Moiraine being a Gandalf figure that gave information away at the pace of reader reveals, in tiny drips meant to tantalize a slow-paced book’s reader. That would be immensely frustrating for a tv show viewer of a story set in a sprawling fantasy world that needs tons of explanation and world building up front to have any idea what’s going on. Focusing on Moiraine, who has the answers, instead of sticking to the ignorance of the kids isn’t just a good choice it’s very nearly the only choice you can make. The White Tower is one of the most complex and interesting parts of that world. Centering it and introducing it earlier was an incredibly wise choice.

Other smaller choices make sense too if people thought about it for two seconds. Aging up the kids makes sense. They’re teens in the books and it would be incredibly awkward on screen. But once you age them up, it makes sense that at least ONE of them has been married before. Perrin makes SENSE to have been married if he left Two Rivers later. He’s a responsible guy with a good trade and a level head on his shoulders. He’s sweet and caring and mature. Of course he got married, he’s from a small farming community in a medieval-esque world with shorter life expectancies. Furthermore, I love Perrin to death but his obsessive fear of hurting Faile later is frankly ungrounded in anything that isn’t benign misogyny on some level. It doesn’t update and translate well on its own. Giving him Laila, giving him the manner of Laila’s death grounds his later attitudes towards Faile so well I literally gasped when I put it all together.

Other changes like in S2 having Min and Mat meet the way they do in Tar Valon was genius. It matters more that Mat and Min have rapport than that they meet in the same circumstances as the book (and Mat wouldn’t even remember that meeting anyway lol). The rapport set up and the way it showed Mat’s genius and con artistry was brilliant. Showing these characters LIKE each other was incredibly engaging and endearing which is so important because the adaptation has to be enjoyable to non book readers too, especially since the 15, 800+ page books of meandering pacing are pretty much impenetrable to new readers. Book readers simply can’t make up the majority of the audience, there’s not enough of them to sustain a show with any kind of budget which WOT requires. Thus, it needs to be an enjoyable show in its own right, not just a meandering exact adaptation ffs.

I can literally point to any show change and say it was either logical, practical, thematic, or simply genius. Wheel of Time desperately needs an edit to be accessible to modern audiences. What an adaptation prioritizes is always a risk that’s going to be run for a fan of the original material but so far I’ve been wildly impressed by every choice made in how logical or thoughtful and most of all loving it was to the actual important emotions and themes of the book. Any complainers are seriously missing the point of what an adaptation even is.

[lachiennearoo]

It feels sometimes like I'm living in a crazy world. It's so frustrating to me, to feel so much that I am right yet most people I encounter act like I'm insane;

I'll give you guys some context;

As we all know, I'm a huge Deadpool fan. And that means I follow a lot of stuff related to the media.

And recently I made a comment on Threads complimenting the stunt work in the new movie, saying "I'm a pacifist, but the way the action scenes in Deadpool are shot makes violence look sexy as fuck". Y'know just a funny little joke, what have you.

And then... Some person (probably a lady by the way they talked) replied to me and said basically that she watched the movies with her 11 year old kid.

And well y'know, I was concerned. Because all the Deadpool movies are rated R. So they're adult-oriented, made for adult audiences, with nudity and sex and gore and violence and swearing...

And I told her that. And the lady just started getting mad like "oh you don't know me or my family" and "he's very grown up for his age" and "it's just a movie it's not a big deal".

Like... Fuck, man. I've been in the adult industry for years now. I've encountered minors who have been raised on unadulterated violence and sex and all that shit. Kids whose parents didn't think it was a big deal and vehiculated that idea to their children.

And yeah sure, sometimes it doesn't do anything to the kid. But sometimes it does, and then we, the adult content creators, are the ones having to deal with that shit.

Of minors posting comments under our posts, talking about our work, hell I even had some try to get free art or flirt with me, knowing I was an adult and they weren't.

Or minors making their own adult art and sharing it online, and then of course getting mad when told it was dangerous and saying "it's not a big deal" and whatnot.

This is how it starts. Being surrounded by people who enable that behavior. Yes, even if it's "just a movie" and "there are worst things out there".

The risk is real.

I actually made a comparison in the argument with that lady with seatbelts, because with cars, plenty of people will never experience a crash and be fine their own lives, and yet seatbelts are still heavily pushed because they are a safe method in case something happens. And people who scoff at seatbelts and say they're useless are usually looked down upon because they're actively ignoring risks associated to piloting a car without any safety measures.

And that's the same thing here

Oh wait, and it's not over yet

Because THEN, during the argument, the lady brought up an article about how Ryan Reynolds showed his 9yo daughter his new movie (Deadpool 3). And I just... Feel so disappointed.

I assume the lady showed me the article to "prove her point" but instead all it did was just make me feel even worse because not even the fucking lead actor of an adult movie cares about this shit

And it sucks

I'm just... So tired. Of everything...

[crystallinestars]

Wow, it’s such a relief to find people who don’t like Haikaveh either. Was really disappointed when I read Sethos’s voiceline.. I am bisexual and I think that Haikaveh (along with many other pairings) is queerbaiting and some type of fetish. I’ve made a long written analysis on why I think it is and how I think it’s offensive, simply because I find it interesting and enjoy analyzing things. Really love their duo and they’re great parallels but they fit a sibling / platonic soulmate duo better than a romantic one 🤦‍♀️ It’s getting annoying at this point and I wish Hoyoverse would stop, but it earns them attention and money so why would they? Just want to enjoy my favorite character without him being used as an accessory for another. Disappoints me that other gay people don’t notice (or care) that they are being stereotypical themselves and that Hoyoverse is basically using our sexualities for accessories and money. Haven’t looked into the translation thing with Sethos’s voiceline but if it’s true it was more neutral in CN, then that’s interesting. The same Haikaveh defenders will yap about how “CN is the original!1!1!1” but if you bring something like this translation up they lose it. Hoyoverse has never been a “gay representation” company, it’s a queer-baiting one. 🤦‍♀️ But at the same time, I don’t really even care. I’m not a gay person who cares much about my sexuality or others, but things like this are frustrating. Wish there were more people who understand my view on why I think their presentation is harmful.

- 🪷 / 🪽

Hello 🪷/🪽 Anon! (Let me know if you want to go by both emojis or just one) Welcome to our small club of not being into Haikaveh (or most Hoyoverse queer ships).

I agree with you that Kaveh and Haitham have a very sibling/platonic dynamic. In fact, their bickering reminds me a lot of my younger siblings’ bickering, so I view them as brothers, as well. It’s just unfortunate that the fandom rejects any interpretation that’s not romantic.

I also wish Mihoyo would stop, but they’re obsessed with tossing ship crumbs, and only to the most popular ships. As you said, it makes them money, so they have no reason to stop.

There is definitely some queerbaiting in Genshin, but I would say it’s not as bad as in HSR. HSR sometimes made me very uncomfortable with the fetishization of some of their ships, and I wondered if a man wrote it for a straight male audience…

Mihoyo has always had a history of wanting to include same-sex pairings in their games. Honkai Impact 3rd has a confirmed lesbian MC, and also two other female characters who canonically kiss (but due to updated laws in China, they had to remove that scene).

It doesn’t surprise me that they want to do similar things in Genshin and HSR, but they never commit to the ships. They only tease and hint at them, ala “There might be something between these characters, but also not really, but what if…?” and this is pretty much exclusive to same-sex pairings. This teasing and hinting makes the fandom so much worse to be in. Lots of other gacha games don’t do this, but for whatever reason, Mihoyo does.

I suspect some of the employees working on the game may be queer or have a huge interest in BL and GL (though it’s probably a mix of both), which is why they make all these ship crumbs. There’s nothing wrong with having queer relationships in games and other media, but the way they go about it feels… fetishizing, I guess? It doesn’t feel genuine. I can’t quite put my finger on what feels so off about this. You would know about this far more than me since you analyzed this already, so if you have interpretations you want to add, I’ll gladly hear you out.

It sucks because they market their games as being for all audiences, but then do things with a heavy bias for certain ships. It makes it so difficult to enjoy characters the way you want when the developer and fandom constantly shove in your face that your favorite character has an implied relationship or some other such thing.

Regarding the Sethos voiceline… my friend in China, who also dislikes Haikaveh, complained to me about it the other day. She said the original Chinese text felt like it was implying something between Kaveh and Haitham. Of course, that is just her personal interpretation, and some people don’t see a deeper meaning behind the words. However, it goes to show that even the Chinese audience can tell something is up with the voiceline, so it might not be as neutral as we hoped.

I’m all for more media having queer rep, but Mihoyo doesn’t do it right. I really wish I could just play their games without having ship teasing slapped in my face, but alas, they won’t ever change. At this point, it’s better to not play any of their games (though maybe Tears of Themis can stay) and ditch the fandoms for your peace of mind.

[akalikai]

also im about to be real honest here, i completely understand why sam is annoyed/angry.

firstly, if im interpreting this correctly, sam and alice seem to have had issues about alice being controlling in the past, possibly when they were still dating. i'm willing to kind of skim over that because i don't know the details, however i can see that being a reason why they broke up, alice kept hiding things and being a bit controlling for sam's sake, but sam doesn't need that and he doesn't like having someone influence his choices.

let me also preface with: as a control freak i also see why alice comes off a bit controlling. its not out of malice its just that she thinks she can keep everyone safe if they just listen to her. telling sam to ignore all the institute stuff just constantly shooting him down on that is just her way of protecting him because it worked for her. the problem is, they're two different people. alice just doesn't have that same need to know that sam does, which is why sam just isn't able to leave it alone and having alice constantly shut him down hurts.

and i guess thats probably also the difference in dynamic between sam and celia vs sam and alice i think? just with the way they talk to sam, it seems like alice wants sam to agree with her, while celia wants sam to express his own feelings (also just to clarify this is not me saying I dislike alice. she's a character with flaws, and that's good. i can still love her but also see her flaws and talk about them and how it affects herself and her relationships).

additionally, alice has a very strong personality and can sometimes come off a bit pushy and as much as i understand that is her character and a lot of her self-defense mechanism, sam has no context of the dangers. alice and the audience do. so to sam, it would have just felt like she's just unnecessarily beating down on him before alice revealed that she didn't actually think sam was losing it and that he was actually onto something.

the deleting files tho is a huge thing for me personally though i HATE it when people do things behind my back even if its for my own good.

i know she really is just trying to protect him but at the same time, if i were in sam's position, i would be a bit annoyed too. this entire time, she's been making fun of him, telling him off, basically doing whatever she can to make him believe that there is nothing to the magnus institute. and now, shes telling him after all of that, he was actually right about something but she STILL wont tell him everything?

she wants to protect him but she's also so far in denial thinking that if he doesn't know anything he will be safe. and sam and i are similar in the sense that we feel like we NEED to know everything so i feel like i understand his overall frustration

again, this is not any hatred or dislike towards alice, I love her. this is just me noticing a particular character flaw of hers and seeing how it affects her relationship with others and herself.

[snoddie]

Normally I don't discuss big drama topics like this on my quirky little Tumblr blog, but there's something about the whole HBomberGuy plagiarism video that truly fascinates me.

It's the way Internet Historian fans reacted to it.

Illuminaughtii fans were pissed at what she did and viewers were calling her out for years, especially after what she did to her former colleagues. AVGN fans have been dissatisfied with the state of his content for a while now, James Somerton practically betrayed his audience and Filip Miucin is so beloathed that I deadass forgot his name while writing this and thought his name was Patrick.

Basically everyone saw what these creators did and we're collectively either unsurprised or disappointed to say the least. Internet Historian fans however, they were probably the most vitriolic community during this entire event. They were quick to either label the video a hit piece, claim Bomberman was slandering IH, discredited the video because of Bomberman's political views and friendship with HassanAbi (despite a majority of the video going after a left leaning LGBT analyst..) and in general, just kinda meat riding IH.

I don't think Bomberman went about the IH stuff perfectly, I definitely believe he had some hang ups with him due to IH's more...let's just say 'Chud' style of humor and the audience he cultivated. But to say the entire segment or even the whole video was a Historian hit piece is misguided at best and dishonest at worst. Historian might be reserved, but there's no denying that his silence regarding the plagiarism allegations kinda did lead to a snowball effect, people are too familiar with false copyright claims and some were a bit..too eager to bring the Jews into this. Yes he did resolve a lot of this, but there's a level of distrust I feel now, like how I feel with the other examples Bomberman used, if they were willing to do it once, what's stopping them from doing it again just with an even more obscure source? Historian and some of the others don't even have the algorithm breathing down their necks because they upload as frequently as Deltrarune chapters come out, so why not take time to come up with your own shit?

This is why I found the sudden nosedive into politics so...bizarre, because I didn't see this with the other supporters, not even Somerton and he's arguably the most political creator of the group.

If I were to armchair psychology my way into some kinda explanation, I'd probably have one of two reasons:

Internet Historian is a beloved creator who many people consider a trustworthy and extremely creative individual, and hearing him be accused of something scummy can have the most loyal fans feeling a bit wounded and defensive. I was definitely a huge fan of his work before the Bomberman video hit, I probably watched The Fall of 76 ...76 times? So learning it was made by someone willing to pull from someone else's work and pass it off as his own, it kinda stung.

The second (and let's be honest more likely) possibility is that there's political motivation behind it. No one can deny that Historian has appealed to more 'Anti SJW' crowds before, those people tend to be either more right leaning, center leaning or left leaning but don't like the way extremists behave. If you watched any video about Tumblr IH has made, it's quite clear whether intentionally or not what kinda audience he appeals to. Likewise, when the one person IH's audience despises the most (a leftist commentator, male feminist and someone actively criticizing IH) shows up, their instinctual reaction is to cry 'woke libtard getting mad at gigachad meme man'.

The reason all of this frustrates me, and why I even crawled out of my comfort zone of posting random crap and gay Homestuck drawings, is because it's a genuine example of political brainrot and creator dickriding muddying the waters of the discussion being had. Like Bomberman or not (I like his shit but don't always agree with his takes) you have to admit his video opened the floodgates for people actually kinda giving more of a shit about plagiarism online than before, highlighting how easy it is to get away, how there's almost nothing you can do about it law wise unless you're REALLY lucky and how much it can hurt genuinely talented or marginalized people.

And I'd hate for us to just ignore that conversation because you don't wanna admit your favorite funny internet guy might not be the best person.

Here's an unrelated picture of Wurmple eating soup.

[raayllum]

In regards to the post about people occasionally misunderstanding Callum and Viren's flaws, what have you seen people do with there characters that stood out to you as wrong? I only ask cause I'm very much a pantser of stories and write based of what vibes, so I want to know what kind of things to look out for.

Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert but I have been writing/analyzing for a long time, and now in a somewhat professional capacity, so here's just how I personally think of it / what I've personally seen in fandom. I also don't think pantsers are more inclined (from the writing friends I know, they tend to be more intuition based, which can serve you very very well) even if I am definitely a planner.

With all that out of the way, it basically boils down to ignoring all of Viren's virtues / good intentions, and modifying or ignoring Callum's vices and 'bad' intentions i.e. assuming that Viren's motivations are nothing more than being power hungry and selfish, and that Callum's motivations are always pure and good.

One of the things that I think that's really elevated my writing and analysis is digging my heels into like, examining things from a pyschological basis. What this means is looking not only at how a character's flaws or strengths manifest, but figuring out why and where they're stemming from. This is important for like, you can only write a character if you understand where they're coming from, as this process forms the basis for knowing character motivation (and therefore justification).

Because yes, Viren is power hungry and selfish, and we see in 4x02 he kind of knows that, but he's not admitting that or thinking that way for the bulk of the series. That may be how other characters / the audience sees his actions, but how does he see his actions? Understanding how a character can justify/rationalize things to themselves is important if you want to portray them as well rounded. Viren can say something contradictory like "We must be ready to sacrifice, even the things we love" about his family and "I have always been ready to do anything to protect my family, however dangerous, however vile" and have them both be simultaneously true, because most people — or at least, compelling characters — have contradictory notions or conflicts, and it's the war between opposing wants and desires that causes their internal arcs to well, happen.

Same thing for Callum. He doesn't mean to be a jerk to Ezran in either the beginning or ending of S1, we already know how much his little brother means to him and how nurturing he is, usually. But loving someone deeply isn't the same thing as always treating them kindly, as I'm sure most of us know. So Callum blows up, immediately regretting it in 1x02, and remaining far more of a jerk about it in 1x09 until he apologizes. If the takeaway is just that one of Callum's flaws is his temper, that's all well and good (and it very much is) but it fails to consider when and why his temper comes out. (Which, if you're interested on something more in depth, meta on that here.)

For example, for me, a lot (if not the bulk) of Callum's characterization comes back to a Core of wanting to protect/help his loved ones. Which sounds vague, but that's why the specificities are what matters. Callum's temper tends to come out, specifically, when he's frustrated that he can't do anything to help someone he loves, and he either lashes out at the person getting in his way or someone who is (unintentionally) reminding him of that helplessness. Callum's curiosity / ambitious pursuit of magic is also, to me, tied to that same core. He wants magic because he wants agency, and he wants agency because he wants to be helpful / useful.

If you understand why a character is doing something, it leads to being to extrapolate and place them in different / more intense scenarios, but still retain that main core.

For example, Claudia's primary core is to keep her family together. That's not a main motivation in S1, but it's shown in the way she takes care of her family (being Viren's listening ear and trusted with the more important task; trying to cheer up Soren and giving him hot brown morning potion) in ways that they don't really do for her (Soren goes along and helps out with her plans, but there's never an instance of him taking care of her in the same way, even if we still see that he cares and wants to protect her, i.e. doesn't tell her the truth about Viren). Then in S2 it becomes clear that Claudia's main motivation is to keep her family together, and that Core Want stays true even in increasingly insane or worrisome circumstances (S3, S4, S5) as well as explaining some of her more contradictory behaviour. Of course she's going to believe Viren over Soren with the gaslighting the second she's given an option to, because believing her father lets her keep them all together, and believing her brother means losing Viren.

Which is to say, maybe, that most of the mages we've seen in show (with the exception of Lujanne, perhaps, who's built a life among literal solitary ruins for the express purpose of leaving them as ruins) have a Fixer tendency. Magic allows them to fix the issues they see in the world - that's why they chase it.

Viren believes he has to fix the issue of an empty throne and the knife held at humanity's throat, and he's uniquely suited to know how to fix it (hence why he should be king); Claudia leans on her preparedness and perfectionist tendencies because if she's good enough, nothing bad ever has to happen to her family again, right? She can keep them together, she can fix this; Karim wants to fix the issue of humans and losing their way of life, "I will banish that darkness [...] We will be whole again"; and Callum wants to fix issues for his family (the assassination, the fake coup, Rayla's binding, Rayla's family, etc); "And he's my father. It's my duty to help him".

But what fixing looks like, of course, is also a matter of perspective, and that's where you get variety.

But if you look at Viren's desire to fix things - in his case, to ward off weakness - you can understand the through line of his actions. He wants to fix the danger they're in of killing Avizandum and leaving an heir; his desire for more power and knowledge (tools he can use to create solutions and thereby inflate his self importance) tempt him away from killing Zym; he holds onto the egg so that elves and dragons can't 'use it' the way he would. "An empty throne is a beacon of weakness" "[A child king] will make weak choices!" And Viren is man of strength; a man who can get a grip and compartmentalize and repress and do whatever needs to be done to protect humanity. To fix the magical inequality and banish the Xadian threat.

Whereas when you look at our non-mage characters, they tend to have different cores. Rayla and Soren are clear cut Protectors, for better or for worse. Ezran and Janai both continually seek Change and healing. And often times these goals can go hand in hand! Wanting to protect someone can be a Fixer urge (Claudia, Viren, Callum); wanting to fix your mistakes by Protecting someone can also work (3x09 with Soren; Rayla with Zym). But that could be a whole dissection/analysis for another day.

Back to Callum and Viren.

I think sometimes stripping them down to more monstrous or angelic forms comes from people thinking only one thing can motivate a character at a time, even though we as humans obviously have multiple motivations or responses at a time, particularly for villainous characters.

Viren can turn back to help the Queens of Duren because he feels guilty (this was his plan), he wants to help and knows he can make a difference, and because he wants to feel like a hero. Callum can be accepting Rayla unconditionally and be hurt about it and still trying to protect himself a bit in 4x09 by saying "I know" while not going after her; the same action can be growth and regression simultaneously.

When you write a character, you have to approach them from an interior to exterior process - the old phrase "everyone is a hero in their own mind" is certainly true, or rather, "everyone justifies their actions some way or another" - which is largely the opposite of how you view a character as an audience member. Not that the two can't be conflated or overlap, they certainly do (and you do want to be aware of how your characters may or may not come off to well, your audience) but it is a different kind of process.

For example, for Viren, he genuinely believes that what he's doing is what's best for humanity > his own gain. And while he's clearly lying and doing a lot of things out of self importance / convenience, the fact that he Believes the lie means that the lie doesn't really matter, internally, because it's something he either dismisses or doesn't think about at all. And Viren does have admirable traits: loyalty (and I would say most people have conditional loyalty anyway), cleverness/intelligence, ambition, hardworking, globally minded, etc. But a lot of this stems from Wanting To Be Special/Important (his core, arguably, and one I think a lot of people would relate to) and when that doesn't often pan out, he crumbles. Him having an inflated sense of self importance means that he's used to thinking he probably knows better than other people (and gets very frustrated when they don't listen and/or agree with him) and thinking you know better than other people also bodes very well with, if taken to extremes, blatantly dehumanizing them (omg dark magic ideology hi!). He presents as being confident and smooth and knowledgeable, but every time we see him alone/internal he's almost always a hot mess or wracked with guilt/doubt, and he's not very good at adapting to shit, like at all, even if he's great at being cruel/brutal and pragmatic. He's also often times awkward when presented with openly joking/teasing affection, is a guy who waves to little kids, makes dorky jokes with his best friend, and genuinely loved (loves?) his kids once upon a time.

For Callum, a lot of his traits are a double edged sword as well. His attention to detail is born from his curious and observant nature. This allows him to be incredibly nurturing and considerate, but also lets him go for the jugular and what would hurt the most in a fight when his temper gets going. He wants to make his loved ones lives better/easier, but this can sometimes be at the expense of what they need or being overprotective. This can sometimes tie a bit into Viren's own "I know better than you" even if Callum doesn't usually go that far, as he has more self awareness. He has a strong sense of right and wrong but is willing to bend without defense if he thinks the ends justify the means (i.e. never defending his dark magic use, and unlike Claudia, believing/knowing that dark magic is wrong - whereas she doesn't think anything of the sort - but using it and being tempted by it anyway, even if he rejects it in 2x08). His determination is great but can lead to him being obsessive, even if he's also good at knowing his limits / when to yield and fold on things, and will often fold first. While this is great in his relationships and doing relationship repair, it's not so good for his goal setting, as it means he can have a defeatist attitude and then grow frustrated when that "I can't do the thing I want to do / do anything" comes in full swing. This makes him lash out because he hates feeling helpless, particularly when it comes to the people he loves, and all of that circles back to what I've said above, in that he loves his self proclaimed "inner circle" more than "anyone or anything". Just cause he's sweet and goofy and caring doesn't mean he doesn't have teeth (a temper, a ruthless side, etc).

TLDR; characters contain multitudes in their internal psychology and if you can figure out what a character's psychological core is, you'll have a much larger but more cohesive range to write from, emotion / action(s) wise. Feel free to give your happier, more sunshiney characters an edge / claws and fangs (just because someone is nice doesn't mean they're good; external presented attitude is not everything and certainly not necessarily morality) and your edgier, evil characters some redeeming and/or admirable qualities.