#backstory exploration

[pippinoftheshire]

An excerpt from the new WIP in my brain that's rattling it's chains:

For Tonight I Sleep On a Bed of Nails (working title)

He’s been sent back to prison several times over his ten years at the CIA. Each visit more brutal than the last. By year four, his final release back into the arms of his handler, Solo had learned to bite his tongue and keep his head down. Learned to hide the bruises under long sleeves, and to cover the dark smudges under his eyes with concealer.

He remembers that one evening, sitting in Sander’s office, as the man had briefed him on the mission. Recalls sitting in silence, lending his ear and nothing else. The looks of satisfaction on Sander’s face had been enough to lift bile into Solo’s throat, but he was well-schooled enough by then. He kept his face blank, almost bored, hands folded in his lap.

Sanders finished, leaning back, crossing his arms over his chest. His eyes were always so shrewd. As if they could spot every scheme before Solo had thought of them himself. “You’re awfully quiet.”

Solo plucked a speck of lint off his slacks, voice neutral. “I thought that was what you were trying to achieve, sir.”

“It was.” Sanders looks like he’s trying to smell a rat. “I take it this means you’ve learned your lesson?”

Solo feels something break in his throat when he nods, once. It tastes like the charred ashes of… well, freedom, he supposes, for good this time. It’s his freedom that has died. Flickered out like the final spark in a fireplace, dampened by the rain. He’s been fettered, like a wild dog, barbed wire snare twisting when Sanders smiles.

“Glad we straightened that out.”

[girl4music]

I love how Season 3 of ‘Station 19’ is just showing us all the main character’s backstories. This is what I’m talking about when it comes to character representation and development. Show us who these people are as well as who they’re not anymore. How they’ve grew, how they’ve evolved, transitioned through their adolescence to the wonderfully complex and dynamic people that they are today. How they’ve been influenced by their past and their youth. All their mistakes, all their conditions, all their flaws, and all their traumas. That’s what I want to see in TV shows. A proper exploration of characterization in everything. The positive and the negative so I can see that they’re well-rounded individuals that deserve my attention.

This is how it should be done every time, all the time. Forget about plot because the plot should be wrapped around the characters. Never the other way around.

If you do it the other way around you force things to happen that don’t have any logical reason to happen. Focus on characterization helps you use themes and narrative plot points with substance behind them.

For example, because we know Travis Montgomery is gay and has been married and has lost his husband while on duty, he has a resistance to the system and his bitterness fuels his need to help people who are going through the same or similar emotions he does.

They make the narrative relate to him and his story so the narrative itself for that specific episode resonates even more than it would if that was not ever explored. You feel something from the main narrative because of Travis’ ties to it through his character backstory.

Characterization writing is crucial to any lasting story. Not enough TV show creators/runners are utilizing the characterization to tell the story of the show itself. They’re moving on from it too quickly because they believe getting to the plot beats is more important.

But what is the point of the plot if there’s nothing there that relates to or resonates with the audience? You’re missing the bigger picture of the whole show because you want to hurry up with telling the story. But you can’t tell a truly compelling story without proper characterization exploration. It doesn’t work.

Exploring main character backstories and relationships or even just one-off character interactions are very important to storytelling and I honestly believe that the TV art/entertainment industry has lost the plot because they focus too much on the plot and not enough on characterization.

Everything becomes a mess and nothing gets a successful and satisfying endgame because of it.

Don’t put the plot first. Don’t make it the focus.

Put characterization central to everything else and I promise you that the plot will practically write itself.

Tie themes to characters. Tie narratives to characters. Show us who the characters are and who they’re not.

Let the characterization drive the whole show.

[internutter]

Free Fanfic Idea to a Loving Home

I've been messing with idea, but IDK when I'll have time to write it so feed well, my lovelies.

It could be continuity-breaking or non continuity breaking. Depends on how you take it. Keep in mind that this nerd STILL hasn't played past act 1 [my latest Tav is contemplating destroying the Zhents who are about to blow the shit out of a place btw] Anyway. Plot points under the cut.

Have you heard about Resurrectionists? [I'm a writer, I research random crap for fun] They're people who used to make a living by digging up corpses for anatomists back in the bad old days. When people learned about medicine by taking dead bodies to pieces. Charming.

Altering this for the Fantasy Realms(tm), the Resurrectionists would be way more likely to dig up relatively fresh corpses for Necromancers. Likely for less than wholesome reasons.

See where I'm going with this? No?

Criminal types dig up Astarion just before he wakes up as a spawn for the moneys [or maybe for revenge because Magistrate]

Astarion wakes up as the guy in the grave picks him up

Omnomnom for Astarion

Scare the crap out of the grave robbers because funny

Cazador turns up one minute too late

[Up to you part] Either Astarion's actually awake or he's been Sleep Nomming

Cazador does some Mind Mojo to make it like Astarion doesn't remember that good Intelligent Creature Blood(tm)

BUT... as a direct result, Astarion is way more willful than his sibling spawn

To counter this, Cazador settles on the "brilliant plan" of making Astarion afraid of thinking about rebellion

Astarion still finds ways to resist ANYWAY

And we know how it ends in blood :D

Do as you whist with this. Just... let me know if you do :) Thanks :)

[luposlipaphobya]

Falling in love with an outer god

(Just wanted to imagine what it’d look like if Mel took a draconic form in front of Lazuli. I guess it’d be more voidy and nightmarish in game cause of the Fallen Aasimar of the Awful Deep thing, but let’s just say that Mel could also be related to a golden dragon who was also Pelor’s favorite so… 👀 I wanted to try a fairytale/medieval vibe here, kinda happy with how it turned out! Melisande belongs to @the-nothing-maker ❤️)

[lyoneve]

The new crew member on Hornigold’s ship gets real flirty when he drinks and Izzy has finally stopped pretending to be annoyed by it

Young!edizzy anyone? 👀

[theninerealmsbakery]

Headcanons for the Lin Kuei Bros as kids

When Kuai Liang was born, Bi-han took one look at his newborn brother and asked his parents why the baby was so ugly (Bi-han's brutal honesty came in at a young age)

When Kuai Liang was little, he wanted to do everything like Bi-han did - he wanted to eat the same things, wear the same clothes, and couldn't wait to get his ice powers so he could be exactly like his brother

Bi-han started to manifest his ice powers at a very young age. When Bi-han was just a toddler, he accidentally froze the door of his nursery shut

Kuai Liang's powers took longer to come in, when he was 5 or so. He set soe curtains on fire. When he found out he had fire powers instead of ice like Bi-han, he cried for hours, because he wanted to be just like his brother

Bi-han and Kuai Liang were 12 and 10 respectively when Tomas was kidnapped adopted and became their brother

Kuai Liang was delighted, because now he was the older brother instead of the baby of the family

The first year or two in the Lin Kuei were especially hard for Tomas, as he had witness the deaths of his family, being kidnapped by the people who killed his family and then being raised in a totally different environment, in a completely different language. Due to this, his trauma was never fully addressed (not that the Lin Kuei would know how to address trauma anyway)

Tomas 100% was a leash child. He was always running everywhere, always finding places to hide in. Bi-han remembers when they were kids, having to rescue Tomas from the roof, because he would constantly climb up there but didn't know how to get back down

They are the kind of brothers that, when they had any kind of disagreement, will literally beat the shit out of each other, then act like the disagreement never happened in the first place

When Bi-han reached his mid-teens, he was given separate training from Kaui Liang and Tomas, because he was the heir to the Grandmaster title. His training was especially cruel and grueling and he experienced things that no teenager should have at his age. This difference in experiences put some distance between him and his brothers and created a lot of resentment towards his father who forced him to endure so much. Though to protect his brothers, he will never tell them what their father put him through.

[juniemunie]

"Why am I still doing this?"

"Don't you get it?"

"This is all just a show... and we're playing parts~"

[velvetjune]

I’ve replayed enough Control to not be surprised, but I’ll never forget how magical it was to first uncover small details like the previous director, Northmoor, being in the power plant, all the security cameras following wherever you go, Ahti responding to Jesse’s thoughts, or the book club papers corresponding to deaths you come across in the game

[whumpypepsigal]

Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024) s01e06 “I didn't mean to hurt you.”

[soaked-ghost]

it's the annual infodumping post!! yahoo!! have ink when he was slightly younger. also concept for how he actually hears the creators (with a little radio)

[angy-grrr]

SJ's internal changes (I recall it was the editor in chief, someone really influential) happening JUST at the same time it was announced the epilogue would be 5 chapters (same week) + the ending not bringing up huge plot points (where the other villains are, why theres no actual Himiko corpse and instead we got Ochako's grief over that assumption, what happened to Dabi, what was the All Might vestige, why the bkdk handhold was off screen when its a big deal for them, who is Deku's dad, etc), letting them linger in the air while trying to make an okay ending + that strange two week break because of "schedule conflicts" + choosing to end BNHA under even more pressure even tho its one of the most important manga in SJ + Horikoshi talking about the ending days after the official release and bringing up how grateful he is for being able to work in SJ, as in past tense (like he is grateful he worked here, but isnt happening again; I say this bc I expected him to say something around the lines of "I hope im able to create something good here again soon!", considering we already know he has another manga project, if I remember correctly)

Thinking about it.

Thinking about how he could let it as it is, or try to pick it up and confirm the things that do matter to his story.

Btw, im not talking about the handhold as a shipper -it was genuinely important for them, as it symbolizes both their new mutual understanding and an acceptance as the new All Might duo thanks to their respective heroisms. It wouldn't be weird to add it in the epilogue, especially considering so many characters hold hands in non romanitc ways, so to choose not to when its arguably the most important one... Idk, it felt really weird as it was the only thing I was sure would get sooner or later.

[kartsie]

Todd brain rot (and Sheila too I guess)

[scrimblyscrorblo]

Had an idea for a Poe drawing, since he’s canonically a military grade sniper I wondered when he would’ve entered the military.

Its implied his Guild arc is mostly spent writing his book, and his early twenties were spent with detective work as seen in the flashback to the detective competition.

Thus, he was in the army presumably in his teen years, 15 and up.

And ofc my doodle of it as a little Polaroid with a Kate Bush reference. He couldn’t have his eyes covered and therefore had shorter bangs

Also, bsd takes place 2013 esk and Poe is 28, he would’ve been 15 in the year 2000 and born 1985.

[sincerely-sofie]

(Seeing @i-never-forgot’s tags on this post and now I’m posting this thing much earlier than planned because it’s too funny to me alldhdldhdlehedljsshsjsshsk—)

I was joking with @the-real-obby about an audio clip that always makes me imagine how the Dark Crater fight would have gone if Twig was 2% more concussed than she is in canon, and then i got this gem of a quote that inspired the following doodle:

[audliminal]

It's barely the end of the first day of school, and three faculty members are dead. Nobody knows much yet, but supposedly the six freshman who all managed to get detention on the very first day of school were involved and, if the rumors are to be believed, two of them actually died. In a dumb fight in the cafeteria against some animated corn. Kipperlily rolls her eyes when she hears it. They're clearly a bunch of losers who are going to either drop out or get someone killed before the year is out, but that's not really her problem, is it?

Still, just to be on the safe side, maybe their party should spend some time in the woods behind the school, and get some practice in with rats and things before they find themselves involved in a fight like those dumb detention kids did.

It's a month into the school year, and Kipperlily's starting to get the hang of things. She's feeling comfortable in a fight now, they've been killing rats and twig gremlins in the Far Haven Woods as often as they can manage, and they're getting really good at it. They even have a name now, the High 5 Heroes, chosen by Kipperlily herself, of course.

Meanwhile, Kipperlily's pretty sure the kids from detention actually killed someone, though nobody seems to be talking about it. Kipperlily doesn't care what anyone says, she's heard multiple people say they saw members of their group talking to Penelope Sam and Johnny spells, and then the day after Johnny Spells gets killed in a fucking car chase, the rich kid, who's literally the son of a pirate, has a mysterious new motorcycle? It's all far too suspicious.

It's the week after winter break, and Kipperlily is stuck in the stupid guidance councilor's office, talking about her dumb feelings. Unlike the Bad Kids (and what kind of stupid name is that), who apparently had an adventure dropped in their lap within minutes of the first school day ending, Kipperlily has been waiting months and still nothing has popped up. Plus Oisin and Ivy keep joking about changing their party name to the Rat Grinders.

It's dumb. Who would want a party name that's based on some joke? Besides, she already chose the name. So why on earth would they change it now? At least Lucy seems to agree with her about it.

It's just days after prom, and Kipperlily is sick of everything. The stupid Bad Kids apparently crashed prom and literally defeated Kalvaxus, Emperor of the Red Waste. It's honestly bullshit. A dumb group of kids that couldn't even make it through one day of school without getting one third of their party killed, and they're being credited with saving the entire continent? Kipperlily's been digging into the Bad Kids' history with every moment of her free time, trying to figure out how a bunch of dumb untrained kids managed something so huge. And she thinks she might have cracked it.

Kristen Applebees is literally Helio's Chosen One, and apparently Adaine Abernant is the new Oracle of the Elves. Kipperlily doesn't know what Fig, Fabian, or Gorgug's deals are yet, but if rumors are to be believed, then Riz Gukgak's dad was eaten by the very same Kalvaxus. Clearly the entire reason the Bad Kids are succeeding is because of their personal histories.

And to make matters worse, Oisin and Ivy managed to get the rest of the party to go along with the stupid Rat Grinders name. and Mary Ann didn't even have a reason for it! The only one who voted with her was Lucy. So now they've got a dumb name and no real adventuring prospects, and all the while, a bunch of kids who skip classes and get arrested are somehow getting perfect grades with no effort.

It's sophomore year and everything is terrible. The Rat Grinders meet every day to kill rats in the woods and it's dumb and boring, and not even a little bit difficult anymore, and she has to go to weekly councilor sessions with Jawbone, who's an ally of her rival adventuring party, which. Aguefort already clearly likes them, and even before he was resurrected they had managed to get two of their allies positions in the school. Which has to be an unfair advantage. And now Fig's dad is the vice principal rather than the lunch lad. It's really no wonder they never seem to get in trouble for skipping classes or any of their other bullshit.

At least she can use their connection with Jawbone to her advantage. Every meeting with him, she mines him for new information on the Bad Kids, who have been doing absolutely nothing so far this year.

It's sophomore year and The Rat Grinders are going to finally get their chance! Porter and Jace have approached her with the opportunity of a lifetime! Porter even said she shows a lot of promise! He doesn't even seem to take issue with his anger, and he says that he's going to help her become an amazing adventurer. All she has to do is accept this weird little rage star thing and start worshipping some dead god of rage. Kipperlily honestly isn't that much into religion, but this is the first interesting thing to happen to her all day. She's already working to convince Lucy to change her god.

It's sophomore year and even as Kipperlily is finally making progress, the Bad Kids are still showing her up. Somehow, they ended up fighting the Nightmare King himself, defeating him and somehow in the process, Kristen Applebees managed to ressurect a dead god of her own. It's bullshit and literally the only reason they manage to get back in time for the end of spring break is the direct intervention of the principal again. Plus now Fig has somehow managed to become an Archdevil and start dating Principal Aguefort's daughter. As if she wasn't already a rockstar.

It's sophomore year and Kipperlily's going to make the Rat Grinders the best adventuring party at Aguefort, even if it kills her.

It's junior year and the Bad Kids seemed determined to ruin her life. It's bullshit. They literally didn't even know who she was before this year, and they seem determined to ruin everything she's working towards. On the first day of school, they all collectively decided that Kristen was going to run for school president, seemingly as a bit, the exact second that they find out she's running. And immediately on meeting her they made fun of her fucking name for literally no reason.

It's junior year and everything's going to plan. Kristen's been expelled, and the Bad Kids are taking The Last Stand, and they've got the perfect opportunity to get rid of all the Bad Kids for good. And yet somehow Kristen fucking Applebees manages to ruin their fucking plans perfectly, spotting her out before she can succeed in killing the proctor and Buddy. Instead she has to kill Buddy and let Oisin take her away before the Bad Kids can do anything. So of course the Bad Kids get a literal perfect score on The Last Stand, and now they've all aced their classes for the whole year.

It's junior year and they're summoning a dead god. It's junior year and they find out as they're casting the spell, that the name they'd gotten was fucking wrong. It's junior year and despite all their preparations the Bad Kids have managed to get to the gymnasium with all their stupid fucking votes. It's junior year and Kipperlily is at least going to kill Riz. It's junior year and Riz literally dives into lava.

It's junior year and Kipperlily's going to kill Riz. He thinks he's hiding, but she can see him, and she's going to have to close with him, but this is her opportunity, and then she's in the air, and he's got her in a hold person spell, and she's falling, and she's in the lava, and it's so hot, and it burns, and then it's all gone.

It's junior year and Kipperlily is dead. It's junior year and she's in a world of crystal spines and lava, and in the reflections of the crystals, Kipperlily can see everything. She sees herself in those wretched meetings with jawbone, kicking at the leg of the chair, and she can see Jawbone asking her every fucking time, what can she do to become a better adventurer. As if it was ever in her control. As if she ever could have done anything. As if it wasn't all about her backstory the whole time. As if she weren't the boring daughter of two boring people. As if she had ever had a chance.

"Did you ever try?" She hears a voice ask. And then Ankarna is there. The god that she tried so hard to kill. "Did you ever really try to become a better adventurer, or did you just wait for it to happen to you?"

"I did everything I could!" Kipperlily insists. "It's unfair, why should they get all the advantages?"

"Were they really ever advantages? Or did you just decide they were?"

"You think those idiots deserved their success? All they ever do is screw around!"

"That is not what I have seen of them. Nor have I seen any better of you. Of course, you did your schoolwork and you did it to the letter, but when did you ever challenge yourself? When did you ever take a risk? When did you ever seek out a task that was more than what you felt certain you would succeed at? Would you have even have the courage to take part in Porter's plan if he had not personally trained you, ensured that you were all as powerful as possible? You insist that the Bad Kids are only successful because of their tragic history, but what of Gorgug? There is not one thing in his past that drives him and yet he has succeeded at doing things no one else has ever managed." Ankarna stares long and hard at her, and then she is gone and Kipperlily is alone again. With nothing in her death but her own thoughts to keep her company.

[logicalbookthief]

One thing I really wish we had time to expand on in the show is Kazuki’s relationship with Kyu.

Originally, I speculated that in this episode we might see a bit of role reversal from the start of their relationship where Rei would be taking care of Kazuki in the aftermath of their loss. You know who actually filled this role, though?

Kyutaro.

He tells Kazuki, literally, “I’m not comfortable giving you a job that will put you in danger when you’re in this state of mind.” Basically halting those self-destructive impulses in their tracks.

Knowing that Kazuki needs the money, Kyu hands over the funds that Karin refused, which he kept, seemingly for Kazuki if he ever needed.

However, when Kazuki demands he hand it all over at once, Kyutaro refuses, well aware that Kazuki will spend it other self-destructive habits (drinking, gambling) if upset and left to his own devices.

Mom, indeed. This reads to me almost like a older/little brother relationship?

We have no idea how old Kazuki was when he got involved in this business, only that it was before he met/lost Yuzuko, so he was younger than 23. If we assume he was with her for at least a few years, he could’ve still been a teenager (18/19) when he started as a contract killer. Has Kyutaro known him all that time?

He has definitely known Kazuki since Yuzuko, as he was familiar with Karin and knows exactly what happened to his family. Has he watched this same self-destructive spiral happen before? Hence why he’s not comfortable with sending Kazuki out on a dangerous job?

And the fact that when Rei calls Kazuki to warn that Miri is in danger, who does Kazuki immediately turn to for help? Kyutaro.

He checks in with him while driving, too, like hello?? Thank you for acknowledging the wound because yeah, I bet it did hurt like hell when he was shot and someone stuck their finger in the wound.

And this response. Caring enough about protecting Kazuki even when Kazuki himself is already sinking into feelings of guilt and inadequacy.

Anyway, Kyutaro is the hypocrite in this episode because he was the most vocal in saying that you shouldn’t get attached in this sort of business, not unless you’re willing to see it through. Well, guess who was attached long before the series started and is going to see it through now, sir.