#character info and plot points and such

[wow-an-unfunny-joke]

Would anybody be interested in my BSD Highschool Au? I'm planning on writing a fic for it, but rn I'm just trying to work out all the smaller details (like figuring out normal names for the Flags and also how tf soccer works)

It's an au where they all still have abilities and go to a high school specifically for kids with abilities. I think it's neat!

[cherry-pop-elf]

TO THE KRAVEN SIMPS EXCITED FOR HIS MOVIE!

And people who just need a Kraven The Hunter run down/Information lore

As a certified Kraven know it all from his comics I am here to help give yall some advice/run down/and how to start your journey into his comics and lore! Well, at least the MAIN Kraven. Damn those comics and their multiverse!

Don’t be shy in asking me questions either, of course until DEC: 13th check my #Belladonna Rambles or #Life Update to see what I mean

Alright let’s start now!

Kravens Last Hunt

YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK

This shit here? PEAK! It as PEAK AS PEAK GETS! You really get to study and analyze what makes Kraven tick, how his family impacted him, and just the over all headspace the master hunter is. Treat this as much of an origin story as anything else. Warning though it gets dark and ENDS Dark. It is BEYOND important you read this. You HAVE to read this. It’s a defining comic story that causes a chain reaction for everything after. If you only read one comic book ever? MAKE IT THIS! If you only read one Kraven comic MAKE IT THIS! I can say how important this comic is. YOU NEED TO READ THIS COMIC

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl

A great comic series in general, but here we get to also see a story line of Kraven following into a Vigilante hood instead of staying a Villian. There’s a court arce and everything. It’s a far more light hearted story line, with amazing fun that is really enjoyable. It’s also SUPER GOOD for people NEW to comics as a whole! Very light hearted, silly, and impactful. It’ll also help get you familiar with a lot of marvel characters without it being suffocating! You also get some good insight on Kraven from a far more modern and gentler angle. Squirrel Girl is PEAK. You’ll love this I promise

The Amazing Spider-Man # 15

This is his debute, so obviously gotta read that. It surprisingly shows how there’s alot of details that haven’t changed. Such as he still has his half brother. It’s always so cool to see where they started and how they developed now

GET KRAVEN

This is actually a story about one of his KIDS. Alyosha! It’s a really interesting comic as it’s about one of his sons, and said son is a movie producer no less. It’s quite the adventure. It also leads to a good transition to the next topic-!

The Family

Ight so, given how comics are time lines can get messy. Like “Oh this Kraven is THIS kid actually and that Kraven is another time line so-“ Since Kraven is a TITLE more so then a NAME. So lots of stories about ‘Kraven’ are sometimes about his kids in general. Comics can be confusing I know, so imma help you guys with knowing bullet point facts to help keep you grounded. I got you

Sasha

The wife of Kraven. Mother to their (four MAIN) children. Aleksandra She doesn’t really become prevalent until after The Last Hunt. Can’t spoil it but she kinda goes bat shit insane and became a horror beyond measures after the incident. Oh she can be a roller coaster.

Grim

Vladimir is the eldest, and followed his father’s foot steps the closes. Even had a run in with Spider man. Unfortunately he became a victim of his mother’s insanity, and was mercy killed by his father. His father knew this was worse than hell, and wanted to do what an every good father does. Take care of his baby

Alyosha

Second son, and honestly the most wasted. His arc as a Hollywood star is super short and soon he’s just “another Kraven” which is lame. Him being a successful movie producer/actor what have you is honestly rather important, given his uncle is a failed actor. Lots of wasted potential, so I’m shining light on him. He deserves it

Nedrocci

Another victim of “another Kraven” and his role is so small that there isn’t even much detail to begin with. Hence the lack of image. His only real arc is trying to kill his older brother Alyosha and failing. Then his uncle, the chameleon, ended up killing him. Shame. Just another Kraven and meat to grind

Ana

Anastasia, named after his mother, is the baby and daddy’s girl. Also she seems to be the only person writers remember whenever doing some kind of family story for the Kravinoff’s. Writers forget her siblings and keep making throw away characters to be her brothers. Anyway! Like her siblings her major story line doesn’t really started after The Last Hunt. Like I said, that book is KEY to Kraven. She’s very capable and independent and followed her fathers foot steps all the same

Dimitri

Dimitri Smerdyakov is Sergei’s half brother. Like many villains the origin story often gets changed for the time lines but over all his important arc is he’s always trying to impress Sergei. To prove his worth to the Kravinoff name. Even had a moment where he nearly killed iron man, to show he’s the deadlier brother. As you can tell the family is very messy

Calypso

Yeah she’s your stereotypical Voodoo Priestess. Even sacrificed her younger sister for more power. Yeah this didn’t quite age well. She is rather important because she is a love interest or his, but was extremely toxic and abusive. Men can be abused to. She is also someone who was a major factor in the climax of The Last Hunt. She took joy in what happened even. Yeah she’s…..She is an abusive woman that really damaged Kraven. A important note that men can be abused to, and that despite being so big and strong he can very well be a victim to.

Key Facts/Points

His super human abilities come from potions he’s made from herbs. So yall complaining about how he got his super powers in the movie gotta remember comics didn’t have much flavor either. Literally magic potions and voodoo magic. Like come on

His mother died due to mental illness. Aka Took Her Own Life. It’s always kept vague, but it’s made more clear what it was through The Last Hunt and what happened to Kraven

He becomes an Anti-Hero/Vigilante through Squirrel Girl. He goes by the name “Kraven The Hunter of Hunters” like that shit goes hard don’t lie

He’s a Russian immigrant that escaped Russia around the February Revolution. (It varies often but it’s always escaping Russia in a downfall) Aka before the fall of Russia into communism. So he’s OLD old, and has quite the love hate for his roots

He has mental illnesses. Not like just in general. Like it’s not stated but it’s very much implied he’s suffering from extreme depression that lead to suicidal ideations

He is a big game hunter and is highly respectful of nature and its order. He respects nature and it respects him. He believes in a proper fight with animals, and understands they’re important. By proxy that def means he believes in trans rights and LGBTQ+ concepts so slay Ally! Stay mad dude bros ((fun fact. Lionesses have been shown to grow their own manes and take leadership of prides. Lions can literally say “I’m trans now” and do it. So go my children. Give us trans Kraven headcanons!))

He’s one of Spider-Man’s main villains. He’s been in nearly every cartoon there has been, and was a founding member of The Sinister Six. Safe to assume Chameleon replaced him when he took his anti-hero arc

Yes. It was stated he was based on “The Most Dangerous Game” Hence the Russian and x y z. You aren’t crazy for seeing those connections

The Kravinoff name is from a Noble class blood line. Very rich, aristocrats, rich people life. Until Russia’s downfall arc, so Kraven has money. Depending on the plot device of course

He has arachnophobia, which leads to another motivation to kill spider man. Not only is he the ultimate prey, but it’ll also be him concurring his fears

I hope this all helps. Remember, this is just a base line. There are so many versions of him. His videogame counterpart part, Spider Man 2, is very different and has his own arc and story line. Much like how so many comics have different time lines and universes.

But that’s what makes it beautiful and fun. It’s endless frankly Kraven can be whatever YOU want, because in a way it is canon. It’s just simply not spoken, but still true

If you have any questions for like specific Kravens or just advice on how Kraven would act or such don’t be shy and ask. I plan to do a headcanon list soon and get more information out there to help people new to him understand him

Hope this helps! Thank you for reading! Means a-lot you took the time to! Thank you, and have a happy comic book reading!

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

god save me i must work on the info doc before i sleep tonight …. TAT

[rimmerslustmonster]

I really wanted to love Arcane but after watching all of it I still find the majority of it really unfulfilling. Like, the animation really is gorgeous (as in, I literally think it's the prettiest/most smoothly animated show I've ever seen in my life and the action sequences especially were incredible) and I found basically all of the characters and their relationships initially really compelling but ultimately it just felt really empty to me.

So many characters' decisions/motivations (not all--there are a handful of obvious choices) seemed to shift aimlessly depending on what music video the creators wanted to make at the time, and the fact that the vast majority of characters actions feels reactionary to whatever outside force (the arcane/hex tech/black rose/whatever) they decided to invoke at the time was really annoying to me. Reactionary character choices aren't inherently bad, but when you have certain characters that everyone in the show plays up as strategic geniuses or powerhouses or whatever and then they also end up just kind of drifting along with whatever is thrown in to get them to end up wherever they ultimately need to be like dust motes and they don't end up being the actuators of basically anything at all in the end it's just fucking irritating tbh. (Especially thinking of season 2 Ambessa here--so much of what she found/achieved was basically by chance and it didn't feel like a coherent effort of her own that actually ended up getting her anywhere and maybe that's a commentary on the opportunistic nature of power or something but it still sucked imo because of how often everyone talked about what a great strategist she is and how dangerous/formidable she was in her own right and she just kind of wasn't in the end because the things she consciously put such a big investment in immediately fell apart for her so it was like... what was the fucking point? she could've been so much fucking better).

It felt like half the stuff that happened didn't happen in service of some overarching message or story but to fulfill vibes and the drama of it. Which again isn't inherently bad but there was just so much of it. Too many things felt like they fell into place 'just so' despite nothing the characters doing as individuals really feeling like it earned them that place. I do think they managed to pull a decent amount of it together in the end, but frankly it's only out of spite I ended up watching the final episode anyway, and you really shouldn't be counting on viewers to do that.

Anyway. Ultimately I guess it's just not for me I think, and the parts of it I did like (style, animation, themes, certain characters) didn't make trying to internally patch the parts I didn't (what felt to me like inconsistent characterization, mishandling themes/messages) to make it work for me feel like it worth the effort so in the end I really can't be bothered to care about it beyond just finishing the series and that makes me kinda sad.

As a show it was fine. The finale did a pretty good job of wrapping some things up mostly satisfyingly enough but damn it was hard to get there.

[icewindandboringhorror]

I'm so heavily anti-advertising that all pitches sound goofy silly to me/I can never take them seriously, so I have no idea how I'll manage to to advertise my game even if I do finally finish it soon-ish lol...

[taraxippos]

I've got big opinions on dream sequences in writing. Which is mostly that they really shouldn't be there like 90% of the time because they grind the narrative to a halt, but I think they CAN have value. It's just that they tend to be executed in a way that's kind of pointless.

It's mostly that a lot of writers have the sequences be literal 1:1 depictions of the character's anxieties or feelings, or otherwise the absolute most on the nose symbolism possible. And it's not like dreams are NEVER like that, but why bother stopping the narrative to include a full sequence that essentially just repeats information the reader already knows?

If it's established that Character A is scared that Character B will get murdered by Jeff the Killer, and then A has an entire dream sequence of B getting Jeff the Killed and A wakes up sweating like 'Noooooooooo I do not want that to happen noooooo' it's jsut like. Yeah I knew that already?

[jamiethebeeart]

Sketches

[bidokja]

only on episode 3 of the untamed but my fav characters (aside from the obvious wwx numero uno) so far are lan xichen (so sweetie 🥺💖), jiang cheng (YOU HAVE SO MANY ISSUES i just know hes gonna break me), and wen ning (SO BABY...HOLDS HIM SO GENTLE...)

[sideblogdotjpeg]

having such awful bad memory is a curse bcus everytime i go on the wiki to reference a characters age or something i am always devastated by the little character snippets i forgot abt. swag was kidnapped and experimented on specifically bcus he was so loyal and paetina wanted to replicate that loyalty in her soldiers.... throws up

[pandoratheprocrasticreator]

idk im glad they didn't give us any actual details about caleb and evelyn beyond belos's memories and like. fifty-sixth-hand information from masha's story so audience members not paying attention would at least know who they are.

whatever nitty gritty details the audience comes up with on their own for what happened to these two would be infinitely more satisfying to them than what the show would have been able to depict in a flashback. especially working within what's appropriate for children's television.

caleb the person isn't important to the story anymore. the MEMORY of caleb, which belos has never let himself get over in 400 years, is the important thing. and you don't need to know much about caleb for that to work. and while i loved the parallels between the wittebanes and hunter and luz, as well as the clawthornes being a descendent of evelyn, i'm glad they never confirmed it, and it remains situational irony purely for the audience.

hunter's only connection with caleb is his DNA, which also ties back to belos's feelings. him befriending luz is something they did of their own volition. it's not because hunter is fated to play out every beat of caleb's life by virtue of being his clone. similarly, while i love a good hunter clawthorne, dell taking hunter as an apprentice and eda showing care towards him in s2 are because eda is kind to children and hunter independently had passion for palisman carving. it's not because they found out they were related, because the whole show is about found family.

having flashbacks to the real caleb and evelyn wouldn't have contributed anything to the story aside from fanservice. what matters is how belos feels about them. belos's ego and the desperation to be acknowledged by his puritan community and God aside, the idea of caleb haunts his every action. not the actual ghost of caleb-i've already discussed here why the idea of caleb's ghost literally haunting belos would be a poor writing decision. belos knew the person his brother actually was, killed him, and imagined a perfect version of him that he chased after for the next 350 years.

the tragedy is that the perfect version of caleb is unattainable, and now belos can never get the real caleb back. he refuses to acknowledge that caleb may have been flawed before the influence of evelyn. to phillip, everything he thinks is wrong about caleb is because he was corrupted by the boiling isles, and that's part of the reason he starts on a quest to kill all the witches. it's also why he makes so many grimwalkers. he desperately misses that ideal version of caleb, so he makes copies of caleb and plays family with them.

and belos loathes the grimwalkers. he kills them because he hates the magic they were made with. because he hates being reminded of his brother and what happened to him. and of course, he hates the grimwalkers for not meeting his expectations of what his "ideal" caleb would have been like. it's a fluid expectation that belos, subconsciously or not, changes as he goes, all in order to take out his anger on innocent children. he seems to recognize his enjoyment of harming the grimwalkers, though it's unknown if he understands the reason-which is that the "perfect" caleb will never exist, and likely never did. phillip's brother is gone forever, and it's all his fault.

and idk maybe in the writers minds caleb was a perfect brother and baby phillip was just a possessive little shit. or maybe it's the opposite and caleb messed up a lot in communicating with phillip on his relationship with evelyn. maybe evelyn was a perfectly nice girl who was perfectly supportive of caleb and phillip's choices or maybe she hated phillip and the other humans and did convince caleb to leave it all behind. it's a fascinating piece of backstory and i love seeing fanworks that talk about it! but anything more about caleb and evelyn that the creators add in canon would give actual context to their situation that we don't need! their story has been over for 350 years and dont affect any of the other characters beyond how it affects phillip!

nothing more about these two can be said that will contribute more to belos's character that isn't already conveyed with the barebones material we got in the show. this story isn't about "forbidden love," this is about how phillip was confronted with the fact that his brother found happiness outside of him, and that someone he's been taught since childhood to hate may not be all bad. it's about how he plugged his fingers in his ears in response to this and went on a 350 year long killing spree to prove to himself that he can never be in the wrong.

basically, i wouldn't go so far as to call caleb and evelyn's backstory "purposefully unexplained," but i definitely think the story is a lot stronger as it is than it would be if they did explain it all. not every detail of a story needs to have a word of god answer as to how it all went down. sometimes adding in unnecessary detail for completionism's sake just distracts from the point you're actually trying to convey. while there are a lot of things that i wished the show could have explored in more detail had it not been shortened, caleb and evelyn's story is not one of them.

[torgawl]

a bit obsessed with the idea of kusakabe dying as a form of sacrifice to specifically protect/save somebody else. it's consistent enough with the theme of the past generation achieving no meaningful feats against significant threats but it's also ironic enough that someone without a technique and who claims their philosophy is primarily self-sacrificial - although he tends to stay from his own ideals in critical moments, proving he's not only brave when necessary but he does have a sense of responsabilty and guilt - ultimately redeems themselves through death resulting in the achievement of something his colleagues have failed to do. not that i'm wishing for him to die, i hope he doesn't. but it would also make a clear-cut distinction between him and a character like mei mei, who narratively serves a very similar purpose (besides her being a foil to nanami). to have someone be awarded by their selfishness just for it to not be worth much within a world and system that runs and sustains itself due to the sorcerer's labour power, whose only means of subsistence is to sell themselves away. a class of people who is doomed no matter what path they choose to take, as long as they do not break free from their duties and as long as the system doesn't collapse. a death that could serve as a symbol of punishment towards solidarity and altruism but a win for revolution.

[famewolf]

if im being honest and allowing myself to vent a bit about it ... another red flag was when the DM went 'wow i love the detail of your backstory but idk what i can do with it tho ):'

[msbuckzo]

@hzbinsouled sauntered on in! ; ♡ for ozzie ! send ♡ to see what my muse thinks of yours / still accepting!

●●●●○ | ATTRACTION ●●●○○ | AFFECTION ●●●●○ | INTEREST ●●○○○ | LOYALTY ●●○○○ | TRUST

LOW | ●●●●● | HIGH

[areyouwho-ithinkyouare]

okok i’m doing prep for d&d later and they’re arriving in a new town so i’m working on that community and ohhhhhh my god i think this is my favourite npc i’ve ever created i hope they dont ignore her or kill her bcus i want 2 be her more than once pleaase

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

✨ HOW TO ACTUALLY START A BOOK

(no ✨vibes✨, just structure, stakes, and first-sentence sweat)

hello writer friends 💌 so you opened a doc. you sat down. you cracked your knuckles. maybe you even made a playlist or moodboard. and then… you stared at the blinking cursor like it personally insulted your entire bloodline.

here’s your intervention. this post is for when you want to write chapter one, but all you have is aesthetic, maybe a plot bunny, maybe a world idea, maybe nothing at all. here’s how to actually start a book, from structure to sentence one.

—

🌶️ STEP 1: THE SPICE BASE ~ “WHAT’S CHANGING?”

start with this question:

what changes in the protagonist’s life in the first 5–10 pages?

doesn’t have to be earth-shattering. they could get a letter, lose a job, run late, break a rule, wake up hungover in the wrong house. what matters is disruption. the opening of your book should mark a shift. if their day starts normal, it shouldn’t end that way.

🏁 opening chapters are about motion. forward movement. tension. momentum. if nothing is changing, your story isn’t starting, you’re just doing a prequel.

—

⚙️ STEP 2: THE CRUNCHY BITS - CHOOSE AN ENTRY POINT

there are 3 classic places to start a novel. each one works if you’re intentional:

The Day Everything Changes most popular. you drop us in right before or during the inciting incident. clean, fast, efficient.

pro: immediate stakes con: harder to sneak in worldbuilding or character grounding

The Calm Before the Storm starts slightly earlier. show the character’s “normal” life, then break it. useful if the change won’t make sense without context.

pro: space to introduce your character’s routine/flaws con: risky if it drags or feels like setup

The Aftermath drop us in after the big event and fill in gaps as we go. works well for thrillers, mysteries, or emotionally heavy plots.

pro: instant drama con: requires precision to avoid confusion

���� pick one. commit. don’t blend them or you’ll write three intros at once and cry.

—

🧠 STEP 3: CHARACTER FIRST, ALWAYS

readers don’t care about your setting, your magic system, or your cool mafia politics unless they’re anchored in someone.

in the first scene, we need to know:

what this person wants

what’s bothering them (externally or internally)

one trait they lead with (bold, anxious, calculating, naive, etc.)

that’s it. just one want, one tension, one vibe. no bios. no monologues. no “they weren’t like other girls” essays. put them in a situation and show how they act.

—

⛓️ STEP 4: OPEN WITH FRICTION

first scenes should create questions, not answer them.

there should be tension between:

what the character wants vs. what they’re getting

what’s happening vs. what they expected

what’s being said vs. what’s being felt

you don’t need a gunshot or a car crash (unless you want one). you need conflict. tension = momentum = readers keep reading.

—

✏️ STEP 5: WRITE THE FIRST SENTENCE - THEN IGNORE IT

okay. now you write it.

no pressure. you’re not tattooing it on your soul. this isn’t the final line on the final page. you just need something.

tricks that work:

start in the middle of an action

start with a contradiction

start with something unexpected, funny, or sharp

start with a small lie or a weird detail

💬 examples:

“The body was exactly where she’d left it - rude.” “He was already two hours late to his own kidnapping.” “There was blood on the welcome mat. Again.” “They said don’t open the door. She opened it anyway.”

once you’ve got it? keep going. don’t revise yet. don’t edit. just build momentum.

you can come back and make it ✨iconic✨ later.

—

📦 BONUS: WHAT NOT TO DO IN YOUR OPENING

don’t start with a dream

don’t info-dump lore in paragraph one

don’t give me three pages of your OC making toast

don’t try to sound like a Victorian cryptid unless it’s on purpose

don’t introduce 7 named characters in one scene

don’t start with a quote unless you are 800% sure it slaps

be weird. be sharp. be specific. aim for interest, not perfection.

—

🏁 TL;DR (but make it ✨useful✨)

something in your MC’s life should change immediately

pick a structural entry point and stick to it

give us a person, not a setting

friction = good

first lines are disposable, just make them interesting

and if you needed a sign to just start the damn book, this is it.

💌 love, -rin t.

P.S. I made a free mini eBook about the 5 biggest mistakes writers make in the first 10 pages 👀 you can grab it here for FREE:

[ceramicbeetle]

i can’t stop thinking about this weird little storm chaser AU my brain dreamed up where bill&ted are the POV characters but crucially not the main characters but the problem is that I truly don’t know anything about storms and I worry I’m not smart enough to understand if I do start researching LOL