#esp if you don't have people who are reading your work behind the scenes and giving feedback or if you're just trying to get to the next

[tithe2hell]

an amusing thing to me about the Yuri vs yaoi forever war fandom struggle discourse is that for the f/f fans mad about yaoi popularity and making lots of extremely funny (to me) Song-of-Roland-esque posts that make it sound like "we are going to WAR against the evil man-centering fujos terrorizing and colonizing our yuriship spaces!!!" Is that I never see the loudest trumpeters actually go to "war" or do any work organizing or strategizing to "win" their cause.

The only tactic they have is trying to do a "win hearts and minds by telling yaoi shippers they should feel Bad for Centering Men and being "dick-obsessed" (hmmm!) and "interrogate your kinks"-ass rhetoric (double hmmm!!!) which ok, let's take that at face value....that's a purely INTERNAL process. You're asking someone to sit down and Correct Their Thoughts and Soul, with hopefully ending towards the End Product of "After they've been Corrected, they will make More Content I Like, and the Big Number or AO3 stat will go up and surpass the Content I don't Like"

Which ok fine...but very hilariously ineffective, a very passive activism. Vague steps to take (be aware!!) It doesn't even really make or give people any steps to reach the supposed goal of Surpassing in Number for the Sake of the Number. The loudest ppl who seem to freak out whenever the stats number is down, I never see working to build connections of support and love for the people who make the stuff you want.

Like even framing as a matter of representation for real life women and wlw, we've had discussions for ages re: media industry how the conditions of ppl who create behind the scenes so that they have freedom of expression and control of their stories is essential to having "good representation." Even if the marginalized ppl in general end up making stuff that is maybe "gross" or "trashy" or Sexual in a Way You don't Like*, that support of the actual real creators and enthusiasts is what's important.

For fujos, I feel most of us are used to getting shit on so we don't really care what people say and will continue to toil in the posting mines make what we make, even if it's rare and gross so someone trying to simply make an Hearts and Minds "war" move is not very effective. We have our own work to do, the work (of play) is what makes things meaningful, bc if is done for its own sake. The best f/f fans and creators I've seen, the ones I see be lambasted for being "weird and gross" are the ones who are passionate and who commission and discuss and have relationships, don't need to bother with the Hearts and Mind because they are building castles and fortifications And making discoveries themselves, rather than worrying what other ppl think of them or if their ships or themselves are "approvable" or defined by a general public. The tactics that fujos use to boost and celebrate THEIR rarepairs etc are certainly not exclusive.

When I think Abt cool projects and esp stuff that has contributed to say, communities and celebration of media and creatives especially re: f/f fandom stuff, I think of stuff like Empty Movement and their massive decades-long archiving of utena materials, of people making zines and creative works around ships I wouldn't even consider until I see the cool ideas, or my friends who review and write and talk extensively about the novels and works they are reading both to reflect their tastes and raise interest. That builds foundations and connections between people . That is how you fight. That is how you wage your proper war...it does not have to be fruitless...

*I have maintained that if people REALLY wanted their numbers to go up they'd support the people making siscon and momdaughter stuff bc there's a sheer lack esp of the latter...a big part of yaoisms popularity is bc everyone loves Dadson, which imo is basically a very big fantasy even for heteros and pops up gratuitously in like every mainstream movie ever. Now that we are getting really mom generational trauma narratives it's time for momdaughter to shine. But unfortunately every time I check up on a false loud war trumpeter wondering where all the femslash is they're also recoiling with disgust about incest And agegap and other problematic tropes so like maybe they really don't care about the Number Going Up-just acceptability, and of things they personally can relate to? One can never know.

[stardust-falling]

《 If you like my creations, please consider supporting me on ko-fi or joining my Patreon 》

……

坠星落尘 (Zhuixing Luochen)/ 坠星 (Zhuixing)

Adult, He/They/他, ENG/中文/ESP OK!

Bluesky || AO3 || Patreon

……

Reading: 六爻 Liu Yao (priest) & 天官赐福 Tian Guan Ci Fu (revised, MXTX)

Watching: 长月烬明 Til the End of the Moon

Playing: Genshin Impact (Caught Up)

Writing: Ghosts of the Heart (original), SVLPO Season 2 (svsss, coming soon!)

TAGS

zhuixing writing: my fics & original stories-- update posts, behind-the-scenes posts, etc.

ghosts of the heart: posts about my original danmei novel, serialization beginning feb. 2024

zhuixing art: my artwork

zhuixing svsss: my svsss posts. meta, headcanons, au ideas, and ramblings.

坠星是谁?: things about me. dash games, uquiz results, etc.

library: reference & educational reblogs, chinese culture, art, & other topics-- go here if you want to learn something new!

wardrobe: clothing information & images. mostly hanfu

art gallery: reblogged art

cool rocks: rock collection

pretty moths: moth image, gif, & video collection

good news: record of good things that have happened in the world, to combat the pessimism

……

Zionists, TERFS, antisemites, sinophobes, and other unapologetic bigots blocked on sight.

Anon hate will result in instant block without response.

Invasive asks about personal details will be deleted without response and the sender blocked if it continues. My privacy is important to me.

Pro-ship as in I don't care what you ship and you shouldn't care what I ship. Same with reading/writing, tropes, kinks, or whatever else. You don't know my life, I don't know yours, so it's not my place or your place to judge. If you don't like that I don't care what people do with fictional characters then feel free to block me.

I tag all ships, so if you just don't like a ship that I post about but are a reasonable person who isn't going to start accusing someone on the internet of real and serious crimes and don't care about following someone you don't fully agree with then you can feel safe blocking the ship name and it won't show up on your feed.

Don't send me fanfic of my original works! I will not read it during serialization, and I will not comment on it after serialization.

I don't usually post nsfw, but when I do it is tagged "zhuixing adds chili peppers" so please block that tag if you are a minor or do not want to see nsfw!

I've had a whole lot of trauma my entire life and living in this world is hard, so sometimes I will post rant/vent type posts. If you don't want to see these, block the tag "zhuixing cuts onions".

Any discussion of real-world happenings will be tagged "zhuixing posts current events" so block this tag if that sort of thing bothers you.

More about me and my writing below the cut…

……

MORE ABOUT ME AS A PERSON

I'm a queer & chronically ill full-time writer, part-time artist. Originally a city kid from central/northern China, currently living in the USA. Feel free to send me a message if you want to say hi! I'm fairly shy but I do my best to respond.

This blog is mostly scum villain right now, but I'll occasionally post about other fandoms too! The main things I enjoy are MXTX's other books, Tai Sui, Genshin Impact, Tolkien's Legendarium, Star Wars (especially TOR), and the Elder Scrolls.

I'm also writing an original xianxia/danmei novel, 《Ghosts of the Heart》 so please check out my patreon to read that, the first few chapters will be free for anyone to read & begin releasing in Feb 2024.

I'm really interested in language learning/linguistics study, Chinese culture, and hanfu construction & style, as well as a long-standing interest in pretty and cool rocks.

Please don't treat me as a consummate cultural authority! I love sharing things about my culture, but I have been isolated from it for over a decade until just recently, so I am still learning/relearning quite a bit and may make a mistake from time to time. Please be gentle if correcting me-- my lack of connection to my native culture is something I can be quite sensitive about.

我来自中国河南省，我也喜欢闲话我的故乡。我不会说中文很好，因为我多年前来美国了，不过我想要练习说我的母语。如果你想要，你就可以问我问题或发送消息！

……

MORE ABOUT ME AS AN AUTHOR

My writing pace fluctuates. I'm chronically ill and currently having to work retail on and off until my writing career builds up enough support to be my primary source of income. Working retail massively drains my energy, so until I make enough to support myself on patreon, speed of chapter releases won't be especially fast. I do try to post something, whether original or fanfiction early-access, on patreon at least once a week. If you like my writing and can afford to become a patron, please consider it. Every new patron helps me get closer to being able to write more & higher-quality work!

I don't read fanfiction of my original works until serialization is complete. This is primarily for legal reasons, to protect myself, but also to keep from being swayed during serialization by the prevalent ideas in the fandom. I also won't comment on fanfiction of my original works irt characterization or canonicity once serialization is finished. I'm personally more interested in seeing what the fandom comes up with and don't care to correct them. But if you make fanart please send it to me to see! I love that so much!

I believe that the current attitudes around copyright and "intellectual property" are BS. Art is meant to be shared and to grow in a community, and strict IP regulations prevent that growth. Part of the reason why I am so set on self-publishing via patreon instead of going with traditional publishing is so that I can create my own Transformative and Derivative Works policy (currently, the policy is a WIP but I will link it here once it is finished). As a long-time fanwork creator, I fully understand the amount of work and effort and care that goes into creating fanworks, and wish to take a different approach to the legitimacy of such works, allowing for a network of free creation rather than increasing restrictions with IP and trademarks, so I am working to draft a policy that will allow for free creation and expansion without compromising the integrity of the original work. If any independent creators wish to use some or all of my TDW policy, they are entirely free and encouraged to do so, as I would love to see a world where creators are not so constrained by strict copyright and IP culture, and where stories belong to both the listener and the teller as they have for thousands of years.

[kassandras-one-braincell]

hey! just wanted to say your writing is god tier and it's seriously incredible to be able to read each and every piece you put out, no matter what it is it's a delight and look forward to it everytime! now, i hope this segue doesn't sound out of the blue or that there's an expectation for it because of what i just said but i've been a silent reader, being new to tumblr and all, and was wondering if you had any tips or advice for someone just starting out? especially someone wanting to write? 

Hi love! I'm by no means a professional but I'm happy to try and help (once I wipe the tears from my eyes at your kind words fdjfgfdjgdf thank you) 💗

For the tumblr side of things, just make sure the basic elements of your blog are customised and that you have an indicator on who you're comfortable interacting with in your bio.

And I know I don't do this myself but I have noticed that people seem to gravitate towards posts with a splash of colour present, so if you're posting some writing, maybe find a colourful text divider .png (not .jpg, so the quality doesn't degrade upon compression) to give your post a little more lustre when people are scrolling.

Tumblr's UI for post creation is pretty atrocious, esp regarding extended writing, so type everything up in a word processor then transfer it over to the platform.

For writing, don't be afraid to pace yourself with the planning or prose itself. If you find yourself questioning if you're writing too much, the answer is usually no! Never be afraid to expand on your ideas or deviate from your initial plan in a way that feels natural!

Intros and endings are the hardest - I seriously struggle with the latter myself. You can always start on the main body, leave gaps where you get stuck, then return to the trickier parts and find a way of piecing them together to reinstate the flow of the piece.

This next thing is setting dependent, but give some thought to whether the words you're using, particularly in dialogue, exist in the context of your setting. E.g. if it's a romantic piece taking place 1000 odd years ago, the colloquialism "babe" didn't exist, so if you're writing pet names, take to a term that's a little more historically plausible, like "darling". It will make the writing feel more believable and immersive.

Online thesauruses are really useful for synonyms, but the ones they cough up don't necessarily mean the same thing as the word you typed in to begin with, so double-check when you're not certain on the new word's meaning.

If you're writing reader-insert, keep pre-determined physical attributes to a minimum. In romantic contexts, remember that cardiovascular reactions like blushing show up differently on people with different melanin levels. Writing "your cheeks flushed pink" would isolate a large proportion of POC readers, so instead focus on the feeling of blushing: "your cheeks flooded with warmth"

Don't set yourself a deadline. Enjoy the process, and let the words happen when they want to. If you feel frustrated with a segment, return to it later. Nobody but you can see what goes on behind-the-scenes.

Finally, try not to be too self-critical. That's the hardest part, but people aren't reading your work to be a critic - they're reading it for joy and escapism. Have some pride in what you produce!

[tenelkadjowrites]

i know i gave up on hongmullet, but it served. hwa's red era was so short and unexpected, feels like a fever dream, i often forget it happened then i see a photo or a video and suddenly i remember 😳

twitter is really the worst, tik tok too tho i don't use it. tumblr has its flaws but i've been her for ages, it's my swamp at this point, i won't leave. it also doesn't have a lot of minors and no offense but i don't wanna see opinions of 16 year olds and i definitely don't wanna interact with them and see them simp 🙅🏼‍♀️

ohhhh i used to be a proof reader so i get you! i also wrote articles people requested so it wasn't very fulfilling. taking requests feels like too much pressure and it's unnecessary when you have enough ideas on your own and you have to meet so many expectations, some requests are very specific and detailed too

understandable about not sharing a lot of personal things on this blog, and you have another tumblr account correct? makes sense you wanna keep this one more, hmm let's say professional. like me on twt i kept my hwa account strictly seonghwa related, barely stated my opinions cause that wasn't the purpose of it, also didn't want people to say shit since the account gained quite a lot of followers. i was being myself on my main.

interesting point about not listing fic influences etc, i never thought about it this way! personally i like when writers share some behind the scenes, but i like to read them after i read the fic so it's just a bonus

omg 3 parts? gotta buckle up for that

i also don't use tiktok cuz i have adhd and i know it'll be a time sink of which i won't come back from lol. and yeah, tumblr is just my ideal place right now, i don't wanna interact with minors especially given what i write so i prefer it here vs twitter where, esp kpop side of things, feel like it is full of minors.

and yes, absolutely nothing against requests but i just try to write what i want when i want to write it and i worry by doing requests my work might not be as good? if it's an idea i feel like i have to write, then it shifts back more to that job feeling than a passion project and i worry it'll be bad. i like the freedom of this blog and of writing whatever i would like to write.

yes, i have a main tumblr at @hologramhoneymoon - i just reblog a lot of stuff on there, kpop stuff, movie stuff, things that hit a spot in my brain that i like, etc. i like having this blog separate from that so i can keep this just for the fics and have the other one for my messy, chaotic way of reblogging lol. and that way if ppl really don't wanna see that stuff and just want fics, they don't have to worry about their dashes being clogged up with random stuff. it keeps a sort of barrier up between myself and this blog in which i oftentimes think of myself as a little ghost or cloud that runs it. i post my stuff, i answer or talk to anyone who chimes in, and i leave.

if you ever have any specific fic questions, i can answer them, it isn't a problem - i just am super shy and don't wanna assume ppl care or burst any meaning a reader might have put on the fic from their own heart/brain if that makes sense? so i'd answer them but i'd just put them behind a cut so ppl can skip them if they want and also because i love the false sense of control i feel putting things behind a cut like i am ~hiding lol.

i'm hoping to post part two sometime later this week cuz i am still wrapping up part three and have to edit part two lol.

[ren-c-leyn]

Happy STS, Ren^^ First I would like to ask for writing update on your projects, esp Dark princess wip, your dnd campaign, Forgotten gods and Shackles. :D

Second I would like to know what scene from the currently published Shackles of time chapters was the most meaningful to you?

@writingonesdreams

Happy STS to you too, Dreams ^^ I hope you're having a good one.

I'll be answering in reverse order, hope you don't mind @writingonesdreams ^^ The second answer was just the shorter and more coherent one, as my updates are a bunch of incoherent screaming at the moment lol.

Here is your read more, as is tradition.

The most meaningful to me is a toss up among the 15 chapters that are up.

Something about The Time Keeper's office scene in chapter 4 is still sticking with me, and it's gotten even more meaningful as I've continued writing the story. The symbols of the long career that was torn away, the stories behind those objects of adventurers taken with people who are no longer with them, the beautiful impression mixed with the unspoken sadness. Then there was the mask. I believe that line was 'it was not the only thing to be broken that day, just the symbol of it all.' That, that slaps way, way harder now that I've written The Guild Masters' Meeting arc. It hit hard when I wrote it the first time, but rereading it after that arc hard felt like past me kicked current me in the gut. It was a perfect, unintended set up. Like I knew the history of it when I wrote it, but I didn't know what the future would hold and it just... yeah. Yeah that scene makes me feel proud and happy and sad all at once. It resonates with me in the way that holding the stuffed unicorn my late grandmother gave me when I was a kid does now. That sense of loss and comfort all in one.

The contender is from the end of part 2 of The Guild Masters' Meeting arc, when Wyndulin is talking to his old friend, Myria. And it hits similar notes, but is much heavier on the melancholic tone as these two legends both show just how closely they mirror each other and Wyndulin is slowly coming to the conclusion that he's watching the end. The end of a legend, the end of an era, perhaps the end of everything, and Myria is not the same as she was then. She's older, more fragile, exhausted, but she still won't stop. Won't step down. He admires her and grieves her in the same breath, just as she appreciates and is frustrated with him and The Time Keeper. It's... it's hard to explain, but if you want to understand I recommend reading it when you get the chance. And when you finish with that scene, go back and reread that scene from chapter 4. But I recommend doing it on a day when you can handle some heavy angst ^^'

Your weekly updates:

There's no new updates on Forgotten Gods or The Dark Princess of Aconitum this week. I paused the rewrite in favor of working on The Shackles of Time's anniversary event since it's taking most of my creativity, and I'm letting the magic system for dark princess stew for awhile in the back of my mind. Sometimes I come up with better ways to handle things or see drawbacks that I hadn't originally expected when I give a concept some time to marinate.

I think the next thing I'm going to consider one Dark Princess while I'm finishing up solidifying the magic system is how the assassination of the elf prince was done. I've already gotten the political ramifications of it done and out of the way, as well as whose behind it, but I never did decide how he was killed ^^' a bit of an oversight on my part, I suppose, but there's a lot of things I'm juggling. So, I'm playing around with a few ideas. Some practical, some inspired by history, and some that are totally over the top and dramatic.

I may get really ambitious and actually name the characters, as not even the MC has a proper name yet ^^;

In my DnD campaign I've finished setting up the big bad's goals and what they need to do to achieve them. These things will be happening in the background, and the players have the potential to mess up those plans, speed them up, or ignore them. I'll be keeping track as the game progresses. It turned into a big undertaking. I need to finish designing some things for it, but for the most part that end of things is solidified.

I've also started marking down important locations on the world map and drawing kingdom/country boarders as well as the migration paths of the floating islands. (Yes, I have yet another world with floating islands lol)

I've also written down 10 moral quandaries for the players to answer in character to go along with their alignments as a sort of guidelines for how their characters would react. Among them is a version of the Trolley problem, so I'm looking forward to seeing how they respond to those. Though, I admit I nearly gave myself an existential crisis while looking up example moral quandaries to base the questions off of. Some of them were... yeah. Tough calls, to say the least, tough calls.

We also set up some homebrew and table rules. I also finished my 20+ god pantheon (which took forever but I survived) for the world and the players have picked their patron gods, which is great since since two of the three characters are going into levels of cleric, and you kinda need a patron god for cleric. So, we're inching closer to being able to play. I have everyone's backstories and am thinking of fun and evil ways I can bring them into play throughout the game.

Unfortunately, everyone's work schedules have changed, again, so our session 0 and character building sessions are going to be postponed and the game is getting pushed back. But it just gives me more time to fiddle with things in the world, look up more Dming tips, name things. Naming things is so hard, and scheduling people for a dnd game is even harder >.<

As far as The Shackles of Time goes, I have enough chapters banked up to get through October, even with the posted chapters doubling to 4 for that month, I just need to finish rewriting and scheduling them :D I'm not quite finished with the Stormy Road ahead arc, but I am getting there. It'll probably make up all of October and probably November's 2 posts. There's also a chance it'll continue into December. It's much longer than I originally planned for, but a lot of heavy stuff came to light and demanded my attention lol. I've also thought up a good starting point for the next mini arc, right down to the character introductions, so once I get there it should be smooth sailing.

Also, my rough drafts document is over 60,000 words long, which means the published versions are probably somewhere around 70,000 words long, if not longer. There's a full book worth of content available to be read, and I can. not. believe. it. I can't! This is so wild that I am shocked and dazed. The impulse project I spent exactly 3 days planning ahead of time has not only survived a year, but thrived! :D I'm so proud of The Shackles of Time and myself. My adorable, little adventure trio and all of their weird friends makes my heart happy and the words flow <3 Though my favorite chapter is still chapter 4, I think The Guild Masters' Meeting is my favorite arc. So much sad Wyndulin and a group of badasses sitting in dead silence out of shock and terror, I love it <3

Speaking of, I am currently working on more content for the big Anniversary event. My housemates and my writing partner have all demanded I keep them updated with my progress, they love the bonus content that much, so I am confident that I'm doing something right with the cool stuff I'm cooking up here >:D Progress is slow, as I expected, since these are very involved... and also I recently got Stardew Valley and have a hard time putting it down. That game is scary addicting, but so much fun.

I think that's about it? Nothing else is jumping to mind. If you have more specific questions about any of it, ask any time. You know how I like to ramble ;p

Thanks for stopping in, I hope you have a lovely day/evening.

[sunshinexlollipops]

Hello! Hope not to bug you, I just read acw for the first time and WOW. It was by far the most beautiful, intricate work I've ever read in my life. Really, you are a novelist. I noticed that it hadn't been posted in about 3 years and I was wondering if it was orphaned? Just curious, no hate! Absolutely love your works, thank you!

help there anon!

sorry my notifs always get fucking eaten on this app and I'm inept too which doesn't help, bUT I just wanted to say that in general, ACW isn't abandoned!

I know it's been a hot minute since I have written anything but I've had a lot go on since the start of 2020, as you can imagine. not only in the world but personal life. and it just carried over into 2021. and 2022. and now into 2023. however, I am A LOT better now than I was at the start.

not trying to personally dump because there's just too much to summarize on this app, and some things I'm just not comfy sharing, but I got diagnosed with things like ADHD and depression, and not only am I working on treatment/management with my psych and therapist, altogether it's been a process of adaptation after knowing why my brain do what it do.

slowly I've been getting back into creating. bc I didn't. for all the time I was gone, I didn't produce really...anything. writing, art— nada. I've made some good progress esp since late 2022 when I started to come back to some things, but it used to be I wouldn't even read fic, watch movies/shows, engage with things... I was basically in a massive depressive episode. so I've been slowly reconnecting with art and in turn just that side of me.

I'm sure people who follow me/pay it mind (and it's okay if you don't lol) have seen recently I've been making and posting art I've made since I got back from LA a little bit ago.

I haven't drawn or been artistic like that in a long while. and while I've created things here and there, it was usually for someone else/social things I was doing. I struggled even with that, so it probs happened altogether less than 10 times over the last few years... this is the first I've just been creating and enjoying myself since then.

there's a lot that is still changing for me. and there's some major things shifting behind the scenes for me still that are playing out. I still intend to finish ACW, I'm just having to handle myself, and overall, I'm coming back into what used to feel like second nature.

so apologies for the wait. in a way, I kind of have been stuck with y'all during the hiatus. I got as much out of it as y'all did, lol. but I'm hoping with this continued improvement, and once things settle a bit more on my end, that writing will come back to me more and more. I've been able to do things here and there, so I'm hopeful.

also, another issue is google. my old acct ran out of space so anything I have made is completely locked up. I can't even EDIT my old docs. it's bad. I've tried to free shit up but it's like google replaces what I delete somehow and I'm always at my limit. so that's been a hassle in and of itself and I am working around that too.

fingers crossed this ship finally leaves the harbor I've docked it at for some time. I love ACW. I see what y'all write. and I know I don't often respond to comments but I read them. I see them. and I'm honored my story has had the impact and love that it has. ACW legit is one of my most beloved works by both myself and its readers. so thank you for that.

but I hope everyone does know that even if it may take me a while, I plan to come back and complete it once I'm properly able! and thank you for your understanding and patience w me. 💕

[psych---ologically-deranged]

Psychfacts & commentary 1x01

The "they spelled it wrong on mine" bloodthirsty tattoo was bc the makeup department accidentally spelled the car-breaker one's tattoo bloodthristy, which is where shawn's "they spelled it wrong on mine" line came from.

"sweet" was an improv.

"But everything funny you hear is what I wrote" (they don't have captions so I can't hear as well & the voices all sound kind of swimmy sometimes, esp with other noises or through a screen, yay deaf+adhd, so I can't tell who is talking.)

Improvises just to entertain the ppl behind the camera XD

Ooh the interview was the audition scene for omundson (& the director said "nah" to half the stuff he liked abt it XD)

Steve franks: writer, director, producer, creator, music, main cast member, yes he plays both lassie & lucinda

I agree, hearing the background. Chris says "psych" too, love that.

That stubble is... James Roday Rodriguez was very intent on having stubble, the network was very intent on Not. & won that battle!

"He has this thing where he gets the makeup lady to stand on set in view of everybody & pretend to shave him, so it's kind of like air shaving" (it's just like wrestling & you realize the razor is 6-8" away from his face)

Sage Brock is great & he was supposed to only be here for this ep or this scene, but when he raised his hand, they said that's the guy & kept him on

Dang it was 3c here!? That's cold!

One of the prisoners should also raise his hand XD

the foot wiggle, which JRr came up with that day! Huh! He came up w a physical thing for every psychic thing!

Oh yeah, look look look, editing is an art!

may 3 the wedding is dule hill's bday XD

MY MAN RAISED HIS HAND FOR 4 MINUTES?

That's acting! Soft cuddly person playing an angry dude? Love it

magic finger was an improv XD. I love how all the good stuff was written, but then the stuff in between is there too.

Pouring rain? If you listen very closely you can hear the rain on the tarp.

Nobody ever mentions she is pregnant & they actually added a line (bc she was pregnant during the audition tape) but then they cut it out because ss "you're.........." kv 'In charge.' was honestly less funny than just not acknowledging it & I think it's great too, people get preggo somtimes. Script was made, & they just decided, they don't need to acknowledge the pregnancy.

"Her improv was being pregnant"

The windowsill?

He decided to eat XD "nobody was bothered by it but me!"

He ate but they just cut around it

Gus just has his bible on the jurassic temperature windowsill XD, occasionally look over & read a psalm.

"But you're not getting your coat." (improv)

The circle XD. Always ended up adding something fantastic

Forensics guys. Gus? Why do you like that? (Lenny face)

They shoot 40% of their beach stuff in whiterock BC.

This whole oceanfront drive, nice, but why so many fish/chip places.

Wow you can see their breath!

Watch the palm trees, you'll see them everywhere bc they are not real. Only had six.

I like how most of the characters share a name with people irl. Lassiter is from a friend of Franks'.

Heck yeah! Stage Swing sets!

He can Never be caught as a psychic. The only way they'll know is if I tell them.

When he pulls him aside, that wasn't written but it was exactly what they needed & saw in their visions. This is a good pilot.

Canada <3

Oh the mccallum girl was trying to be Lucinda but they liked her so they made her katarina too! Steve franks: bring her back bring her back, put her in another episode, she's great we like her (but by the end of it shawn sends her dad to prison) "couples have tough times, we can make this work, your dad WAS guilty it's ok!"

"At a halloween party dressed as a cat"

Whoever drew that sketch <3

This scene was in the pitch

My man is six foot eight! The tallest person I've ever met was a 6'7" woman (altho she did have a tie with another guy I ignore that fact). Teeny drama room, in a couch 4 feet away & this guy is on his feet acting out his mind, what he thought through.

Twin peaks fans <3

Dulé in b/w takes *running to the coats off frame*

The seatbelt was good, they made it WORK.

The sound design <3 <3 <3 as a deaf musician... yeah

"like shawn is in there baking a cake or someting, & he's just making coffee. Though making a cake is smth he;d be doing"

Oof filming at 2 in the morning on thanksgiving.

Blocking <3

Why would shawn be there in the middle of the night? He apparently hooked up with Kat mccallum, spent time in her room, & then went to gus at 4am.

...??? They chose their actors from the pot they received, & then... got JRr & DH together at JRr's house the weekend before filming???

WHERE'S THE PINEAPPLE

Dule, hands on the dashboard while the cop is there in the car wasn't script, "that's just what you do"

Henry doing his thing, henry style. He was laughing at the end but they were able to cut it!

Lunson lake?

Matt <3

the fog XD

sports illustrated binoculars

"Just Auburn?"

Yes you so need to punctuate scenes!

I like how they have sunglasses.

Named after my sister in law & brother in law <3

The same palm tree

Billy Camp! Hay fever! Line cook! Workin the grill! Hold the chicken higher! Higher!

(practicing the surprised face)

There is a 2h version of the pilot? Gimme!

Doolittle?

Swat team on the funny little comedy

"Oh they weren't real?"

"the dog did kind of look vicious cause it kept going for james' face"

'idk who is in charge of dog face blood. Makeup?' (it was like he dipped his head in a bucket of blood)

Dog runs right into the crime scene

Suddenly shock all the children watching

Pardon me. Ladies. Gentlemen. *runs out screaming*

JRr puts his head down. *an eighth of a second later everyone was laughing*

His screams woul turn into michael jackson songs XD

"this police station is in what like to call the Haunted Insane Asylum" Actually a lot of prison scenes are filmed in dementia wards & mental hospitals bc they have similar layout, even occasionally in schools. Institutional buildings, yk? (it is what inspired scary sherry)

Annie built her own ouija board & they went to the basement in the underbelly & no lihts in the wing?

heck yeah pansies

strawberry festival? No cinnamon! They have arguments that last 20 years!

I do give up, all the time, but only when the moment is right

Aw, I love family. He doesn't believe in santa...??? & tell children that???? whwat???? I mean I grew up without santa. The way the commenters say "He doesn't believe in lying, & since he doesn't believe in santa claus (i don't know why) he says that" & they treat him like he's crazy for not believing in santa.

The head turn XD

Fake sky & a fake palm tree & a fake roof, but a real motorcycle. (I can't believe I watched so much of the show without knowing shawn had a motorbike. It was more important in the first season)

Can't front in front of your father

Ok so in s8 he says he paid insurance when he bought his bike eight years ago, but we all thought he had his bike forever, like in the psych teen shorts where he fails the exam & says he'll just drive a motorcycle (you still need to be licensed, in fact, a different licence) but it is a different bike, or at least that is how it looks.

The "I'm not ounting the one in your pocket" was added on set bc henry put on a hat when he left the house & is not wearing it in the restaurant. Yes, all the bloggers WOULD be mad. I'm blogging right now! "It's for the bloggers!" You're so right besties.

The hat scene was not supposed to be seen ,it was just backstory, but they added it to the script & I am happy for that.

Yes, everyone DID love the flashback, it IS fortunate! Thank you!

I can't hear what they are saying! Weasle Sloan & Jackie Dungeoness?

Shawn's apartment is directly below the barbeque place (at least the set)

You brought your newbrn 9w old, to vancouver! Your kid has canadian citizenship? Good for you bro XD

Oh all that graffitti? Yeah that's vancouver.

Yeah it IS so cold.

Kelly Catering, warm turkey cranberry stuffing sandwiches in the freezing cold. Warm thanksgiving dinner on wheat bread.

This is the action aspect of our show *shawn running ditzily, stealing a bag*

(one whose name I forget bc they don't have it in captions): Dule really really attacked james, absolutely linebackered him. Is linebackered a word?

Just... sixty feet away

This man plays The Heavy in Canada???

How psychouts started: they get stuck in the car together, they always just start singing songs, but um. They would sing about what they did the night before to a michael jackson song. Right they would be in the car with their mics on & we'd be fifty yards away under a tarp in the rain & they probably forgot that we could hear them & they'd start chatting & they'd start harmonizing with each other. It's very sweet. Romantic.

XD wanted to buy a 48c jacket but his price threshhold was too low. My man threatened him with a hanger

Jumps into the car thru the window. Stunt guys!

friends selling each other out, as they do

All eight dollars were my money. I;ve heard it IS illegal to have money shown fully onscreen. "If it is then it's fake money I happen ot have"

My man was accidentally sitting on the folder

that's a real gun & she's firing real rounds /j

JRr *not wearing ear gear* (& never flinched)

They went back & re-edited it for her dad who was a gun nut

this guy CAN do these htings, he's just a goof. He had to fight the network to get that.

My man's a good shot.

*looking to the side* marketing moments

Two page episode wrapups flawlessly? Incredible.

We see bodies but not murder

poor stunt actor hitting his head on the table, weather below 0, looks more & more painful every time, & then the table BROKE

SF, taking really dramatic moment & mixing it with comedy

Shawn knows exactly where to go "put on the fan & flush" if you're going to throw up in the murderer's house

SF I've always wanted someone to call the cops on themselves

spet the morning getting the snow off the grass

Tim likes any time you allow him to pull his gun or manhandle a suspect

Holding him up. Like a two year old not wanting to go into his car seat.

Pregnant, 2am, smoking & drinking /j, bungee jumping /j

Hooray editing

"I wish I knew" lassie will never believe him

Ah the palm scenes

Oh no I'd love to see this with the focus group? "Oh god! My dad! I may be out of a job & in jail"

Rest your teamug on your tummy

Does vick believe him? You never sort of know

She's already hiring him again!

Was the scene with dad in the og script?

His dad is thinking about accepting him. He has the newspaper.

The shows are so often about the cool car. night rider? kit? super cool. hill street blues. supernatural. Magnum PI. This one has the blueberry.

PSYCH NOT SIKE FUCKING THANK YOU

Fizadribble? SF: Making up drug names is impossible because no matter what name you make up, it actually exists as a drug & is registered to somebody. (antidepressants or tolkein)

Yayyyyyy

[earthtooz]

ok so, i thought i was done talking about 'kiss me' in the tags but apparently I AM NOT

(also it might be my the first time in your inbox so hi! :))

first of all, the way you wrote the kissing scenes was SO GOOD. I said it in the tags but writing it in a way that is descriptive enough to let the reader know what's going on, but not too much to take the momentum out of it is a task i have yet to master, but you did it so well!

I'm also always a sucker for the whole - oh well if we don't want to be discovered i guess we just HAVE to make out as a cover -wait why is this kind of good and WHY is my heart beating so fast? -

the kiss behind the ear was also a personal favourite (and the hand kiss with eye contact?! the sluttiest thing a regency era man can do, abut it works WONDERFULLY well in this context)

i also really like that you didn't make the insecurity about the way the character looked in general, bit rather about how the outfit looked on them!

i hope you have a good day!

#i tried looking up when handkisses became a thing but couldnt find any concrete dates idk if regency era is correct SORRY

HELP, PLS CONTINUE, I AM ENABLING U IN UR RAMBLES !!!

(also, hi!! welcome to my inbox :D hope u had a lovely time typing up this ask!) i'm going to put a read more for this post bc it's gonna be rly long and i don't wanna block up ppl's dashes more than i already do <3

THANK YOU!!!!!!!! ugh your reassurance that i had a good balance of emotional and descriptive blurbs is really gratifying because u know what i spent majority of my time doing. PANICKING IF I WAS GOING TOO OVERBOARD ON THE DESCRIPTION OR EMOTION?!??!?! i also spent a good time pondering my word choice so the fact that you can read it clearly and it's not a bother makes me vvvv relieved.

YES the first kiss- imma be honest i had NO idea why i got the inclination to start a damn fic like that but hey, i did, and nothing could stop me ig. the kiss behind the ear was personal, i have to agree bc it... was really personal for me... it was for me okay... i wrote that part for myself... and the hand kissing part, hand kisses are my fav.

and (grown-up) bakugou is a slut so indeed, i had to make him do the, as you said: SLUTTY REGENCY MAN THING. but thank u! i'm glad u liked how i incorporated it!!!

the insecurity part was something i had to tread really lightly because i really didn't want to make it sound like reader was criticising aspects of themselves that might make it personal for a lot of people. the last thing i want is for people to feel uncomfortable with my fic, and more important, uncomfortable in their own body bc everyone is genuinely gorgeous - unless you're mean and have an ugly heart then... not so much. also since i write gn!readers, i also need to be careful about how i'm talking about the outfit so that anyone who reads it can put their own perceptions on it 😭 i don't want m!readers to read that they're wearing a dress and grow uncomfortable during the fic- that's my worst nightmare 😭 so in short: i'm glad that the whole outfit scene reached across as how you perceived it; a comment on the outfit rather than the person!

thank you for popping into my inbox, friend. feel free to talk to me again, no matter if it's just random bs you'd like to say, i'm open to hear (almost) everything- esp since you're so nice 😣😣😣😣😣 you have a lovely day too!!!!!

[snapedefender]

You obviously love Snape canonically in the book, but I've been wondering for a while, are there any things that you feel the author has failed in his characterization, or are there things you wish had been done differently? Because I like him how he is in the books, but some things don't sit well with me, or I prefer my personal headcanons. What are your thoughts?

one of the main things that where i think rowling failed with snape was with the presentation of his redemption arc. and i’m not necessarily sure that’s a failure of characterization or just plotting, but either way i think it’s a major contribution to why he’s viewed the way he is and why fandom has such a hard time with him. 

snape’s redemption arc isn’t actually even an arc that we see. i’ve talked about this before but in many ways, snape’s redemption is finished by the time we as readers even get confirmation that it existed. this is a problem for a couple of reasons, but the main one is that it’s difficult - especially for narratives built on a close third-person pov like hp - for readers to make that switch from villain to hero (or even anti-hero!) without some significant work and time put in. take zuko from atla - widely considered one of the best redemption arcs in children’s media - where we see every single step of his growth play out. and, of course, atla is not a limited pov like the series so that obviously changes how much we can view but the point still stands; by doing the sudden reveal, rowling rushes what should have been a spread-out process.

so when we get just like that background knowledge of snape’s sneaky redemption, it makes it feel less earned and it makes it more difficult for readers to parse especially since it comes in the midst of all these other heavy emotional scenes. i really love the prince’s tale bc i do think it tells us a lot about snape, but i think rowling did snape a disservice by basically making his redemption arc an exposition chapter... although, to be fair, considering how she laid out snape and harry’s relationship, i’m not sure how she could have fixed that.

i also think we really needed to see more of snape and lily in that chapter. i know most of it is them but considering that’s the ONLY knowledge we have of them as friends it makes it even more important to drive home there as much of their relationship as possible. and once again, this is kind of a plotting issue - rowling had snape give his memories in a way that’s more about pragmatism and explanation, so obviously snape was just going to choose memories that would tell harry what he needed to know and not like anything else that would just show his times with lily, right? but the problem becomes then that it makes it even more difficult for readers to get behind the idea that snape changed becase of lily because he have such a small glimpse of them together. if she wanted to make this a big, profound thing (which i think she does!) then those moments really had to have enough chemistry and charisma to really convince us that this was a lasting relationship for snape and for lily - and honestly i don’t think it manages that, esp since we have so few scenes of them together at hogwarts. look at the marauders - we have just as little information about them as friends in school but we see the relationship between sirius and remus and we can get a sense of their closeness because of the chemistry in that relationship. we really needed that for snape and lily’s interactions for it to carry that redemptive arc and it just... didn’t really happen. which is also why i think it’s easy for people to misinterpret their relationship in the way that they do.

i do fill in the blanks with snape a lot with my own headcanons and i do prefer those to anything rowling might try to put out (teetotaller!snape, for example, or queer!snape). but that’s less a dissatisfaction with what’s presented in the books and more just a way to fill in the gaps since we don’t know that much about his character.  i mean, obviously i wish he had been a little less mean to kids who didn’t really deserve it but in the narrative it’s really never clear how much of that is necessity for his cover and his own personal enjoyment - and i think that’s just part of the necessary risks and evils of close third-person, where it’s extremely difficult to parse motivations for anyone other than your pov character.

i guess one thing i never really got behind was snape’s way of speaking. i think he’s one of the funniest characters in the books (that snapback he makes to dumbledore after the big “you need to kill me” reveal always cracks me up) but a lot of his speech is almost antiquated in how flowery it is. i’ve reconciled that with myself as an adult reader by headcanoning that snape adopted that as a way out of the rough speech he might have had as a kid - tho tpt disproves that theory. as a kid i don’t think i really noticed as much but as an adult a lot of snape’s dialogue sounds... idk. weird. altho, tbf, a lot of hp is definitely clunkier when reading as an adult, esp as an adult who has spent a lot of time reading fiction for school and work. (that isn’t to say it’s bad writing! hp has some fucking stellar lines in it and great speeches and genuinely moving/funny bits that are really well-written.)

a lot of stuff fandom has found really ugly about snape (his pettiness, cruelty, emotionality esp when angry, and so on) are things that i actually find interesting and think make him a more realistic character. i don’t know that i find his characterization that suspect tbh - for me, what really frustrated me with snape in the books was the clumsy way he was often used plot-wise especially when it came to his reveal. i think rowling spent so long using him as a mystery plot-device (what is snape doing? is snape evil?) and shielding his motivations that when it came time to actually do the reveal it was just something that she couldn’t really execute with grace, which had the unfortunate side-effect of kind of undermining the way his narrative was received. 

[dreamhot]

Sometimes fans say and write things that make more sense and are more coherent to the plot and characters that the actual writers/creators. >< I think the problem is a fan theory/a headcanon becomes too popular and everyone wants that to be the canon and then it doesn't happen in that way. I'm saying this based on my fandom experience. I read fan things that I like but I don't expect it to be the canon. Some people can do that so they harass those who don't like their headcanon.

okay sorry to scapegoat your message for this but i want to address the first part of what you said, cos it's something we hear often (esp on tumblr), but i think it bears discussing

it's true that we sometimes see fan concepts that seem more thoughtful or sensible than what actually happens in the source media. however, i think the claim (as a general statement) does a disservice to the creators for several reasons

for one - and this is particularly relevant when talking about larger scale productions with more people involved - there is probably so much going on behind the scenes that controls the plots/characters/etc. i have sympathy for writers (or producers or directors) whose visions got snubbed in order to serve corporate & shareholder interests. in these situations, it's hard to say whether or not the fans have 'better' ideas for the media, cos we don't know what all went into shaping the final product, and it's possible that what we see as viewers is a far cry from what the creators wanted to share with the world

second, i think we're also dealing with some degree of selection bias. for every incredible fan concept that has you saying 'oh my GOD, how could the creators not have thought of this ??', you'll have scads of other fanon ideas that are . well . not good lmao. if we take the dsmp as an example, there are a handful of writers and then the rest of the team executing their ideas through improv or what have you. we're looking at a couple dozen individuals loosely working together to make a story - not the thousands (if not millions) of fans who are all teeming to share their own thoughts. of course when your source pool is that big, you're gonna find some great ideas that the writers might not have come up with! but that doesn't discredit the writers themselves - they're only human & working with their own thoughts & experiences. some amount of feedback is helpful for developing ideas ofc, but just cos they didn't come up with the same innovative concept that a fan did, it doesn't mean that the cc is less savvy

all /nm jsyk !! not trying to come after what you said specifically anon (esp cos i know you just said 'sometimes', not all the time hehe) - i just think this is an angle worth considering when making broad statements about fans knowing better than ccs. i hope this makes sense! :]

[wolf-stark]

You ask I deliver — both tfatws asks in one!

tfatws weekly ask 1

i finally saw ep1!! i wont be able to see ep2 until thursday at the earliest but i already have some Thots on this ep. here are the ones I remember

first is, and i'm so sorry for this, a grammar lesson. an appositive is when you stick an additional phrase in between commas, dashes, or the like. i actually just used one! the "and i'm so sorry for this" in the first sentence of this paragraph is an appositive. thing is, most english speakers don't normally use them when they speak, only in writing. so i'm always on high alert whenever i hear somebody in tv or movies use one. (it's generally a marker of bad screenwriting). anyway there was one right in the beginning of the episode. the white army guy yelling at sam wilson said "first lieutenant Torres, our intel officer, will be helping on the ground." yeah so. the writing of this series started out on the wrong foot for me. but the rest of the episode was obviously tons and tons better (every interview i see with malcolm spellman makes me love him more and more)

the contrast between the opening minutes (falcon action sequence) and the rest of the ep.... i would 100000/10 rather watch a series with just sam and bucky dealing with life. i dont give a single crap about the flag-smashers or any of that. i just want sam, sarah & fam getting their boating business back on the ground & yeeting racist dickwads, bucky going through therapy and making amends, sam and joaquin being bros, sambucky homoerotic tension, etc.

the cinnamontography! wandavision mostly used cinematography to signify era n stuff. tfatws doesn't have wv's premise to go off of, so here's some tricks i noticed:

with sam there's obviously all sorts of shots with the captain america iconography next to his face, but he hasn't totally claimed it. there's the mural of steve rogers in the background; there's sam staring into the shield like it's a spectre of steve's face; there's sam looking into the exhibit, the shield and sam separated by glass and a layer of camera focus. steve is a constant spectre, always there, an idea, a symbol himself. sam's relationship with this iconography is distanced. he is separated by glass exhibit walls. by painting canvases. he doesn't yet feel worthy to take on that iconography. this whole thing was pulled off quite well but also a bit on-the-nose if only in quantity. there's just sooooo much fancy iconography stuff

speaking of the exhibit, there's something that i get real pissy about. it's when like, there's an action going on you're supposed to be paying attention to but the cinematographer is like,,,, hey! check out this location! or this headline! or something! there was a lot of that in the exhibit. the camera was like, you could focus on sam and rhodey's convo (which was fine but could have been so much better with an extra like 10 minutes of deep character study talk) but noooo you want me to look at the symbol for the united nations and read all the text about bucky who hasn't even showed up yet. shut up i know the lore and ill watch the shot-by-shot breakdown yt vids you don't have to make the shot this long jkdsalcjklasejf

my fav trick was with bucky and the therapist. i had seen a clip of the scene with bucky and the therapist beforehand and i thought the cinnamontography was super obnoxious, but then i was like, oh duh. the shots frequently change the distance between the camera and its subject. sometimes it's uncomfortably close and sometimes it's really far. a clear allegory for the duality of therapy, esp for bucky! therapy is an invasive process wherein he is ruthlessly examined, picked apart, and berated for his trauma (this therapist is crap in every way btw, "mean therapist" works for greg house and greg house only). so the camera goes close. it makes the viewer claustrophobic like bucky. but when he's like "no i haven't had any nightmares" the camera suddenly goes really far. we see bucky as this tiny head in the center of the bottom of the frame. we are distanced from him. he has pushed us away. we cannot see him. he lies because he is vulnerable. so yeah, amazing work there. the therapy scene was hard to watch on purpose!

did bucky slip a note to yori inside the dollar bill? bucky stop making me emooooo. the suuper awkward fake smile has me 😭 (veteran trying to adjust!)

mark my worrrrds when sam asks someone y the govt picked john “white bread” walker they’re gonna say “we needed somebody everyone can get behind....someone uncontroversial, someone everyone can see themselves in” like that exact racist dog whistle

tfatws weekly ask 2

just saw ep2 so im taking advantage of the 2 seconds i can be on tumblr without worrying about tfatws spoilers before new episode drops

when isaiah said "your people put me in prison for being a hero" and bucky thought "your people" means hydra. 🤦‍♂️

speaking of racism, the interplay between sam being Black (anti-Black racism) and sam being the Falcon (negrophilia, "can i take a selfie w you as i deny you a loan?") and the intersection between the two (j*hn lichrally called sam "steve's wingman"! he takes the crypto out of crypto-racist in like 2 seconds!) !!!!!!!! a Black celebrity's Black experience, the separation of man and identity!!!! (thinking about vanessa bayer in snl in that skit "beyonce is black" telling her black friend "you're not black, you're...my girl!")

after sam gets racially profiled by cops we see j*hn standing in front of cop cars cinematic parallels turns out j*hn is racist who knew

this therapist sucks major ass but she got bucky and sam together in the same room and ready to collaborate...that's something ig. it was lichrally couple's therapy she said she used her miracle exercise with couples sambucky antis get blended

bucky says "he was wrong about you so maybe he was wrong about me"...that's not how people talk. when therapist asks bucky, the guy who doesn't talk at all about himself, "y do you hate sam", the last thing bucky's gonna do is actually connect his hatred of sam to his own self-worth issues. bucky generally refuses to talk about himself, so why would he talk about himself in the one context that nobody ever links back to their own neuroses: hatred of other people? one thing human beings hate most is admitting we're wrong. admitting you hate someone because of your own issues? that's a major therapeutic step. bucky would absolutely have to be prompted to do that. even like one or two lines of dialogue more would have set up that line better. but in terms of the actual thought? an amazing way to take the sam/bucky relationship. bucky bases his self-worth on steve believing in him, and if steve is wrong bucky has no self-worth, so 1) he has to develop self-worth disassociated from steve's assessment of him and 2) he has to love himself before he can love sam, and 3) he has to realize that sam giving up the shield is a sign of sam's humility not his unworthiness.

conversely, we don't get into why sam hates bucky? yeah sam has the right to hate a guy that has tried to kill him (albeit while brainwashed) multiple times, and now shows up in his life just to bash him but. everything happens so fast i cant follow their relationship

in fact i dont feel like i understood much of anything. like y did bucky and sam go on that mission together? how connected are sam/bucky/joaquin with the government? doesn't bucky just want to retire now? literally what is everyone doing/feeling and why???

if battlestar becomes a knowing commentary on the black best friend stereotype i'm gonna party, but i dont expect much of that

the interplay between man and symbol. captain america is obviously a symbol. the shield is obviously a symbol. but steve rogers? the. man behind the cowl? he too seems to become a symbol. a paragon of a good guy, so good he's unreachable. steve was just a guy stop idolizing him the last thing steve would want is to be idolized

as the resident musician/music nerd on mcublr, 1) that captain america rally music slaps, but 2) re: the song at the end of the ep, if you're just gonna rip off mozart's lacrymosa then at least play mozart's lacrymosa. we wont blame you the lacrymosa slaps (if you dont know what im talking about go on yt and search it up youll recognize it fo sho

look i love enfys nest as much as the next guy but if tfatws is gonna get erin kellyman to play another innocent little gurl blackmailed into the fakeout-villain position (her text seemed to suggest as such) then 😡 like why can't women just....be evil? young, freckly, innocent-looking women? girls are not untouchable pure objects but full of rage and resentment just as much as anyone can be

bonus ep1 comment: bucky says about that senator whose car he hijacked, "she continued to abuse the power i gave her." fictionaldarling on yt say that he says "i" because he can't disassociate himself from his winter soldier persona which begets endless and senseless guilt. like dude. can i not be emo for like 1 second.

OKay. First off, as much I enjoy your sending it to me, what made you decide to send me these??

-

TFATWS WA #1

Don't worry about getting this to me as early as possible. I usually don't watch the episode right away.

1. Cool writing lesson.

2. Everyone wants a comedy show [like Friends] about the MCU superheroes.

3. Cinematography is always a beautiful thing.

4. Sam definitely has to carve his own Captain America status for himself, outside of Steve's ya know everything.

5. They have to do that for people who was just now tuning in because they're in love with Sam Wilson or Sharon Carter.

6. I think the therapist was taking a 'tough love' approach for Bucky, because she likely has some very strong opinions about the literal assassin she's been assigned to give therapy too. She did not choose to talk to him, she was assigned that make that clear in the second episode.

And, Bucky isn't lying when he said it wasn't a nightmare. It wasn't a nightmare, it was a resurfaced memory. So, technically he wasn't lying - and yes, the camera does move away because while he's saying he didn't have a nightmare, he's not expanding on what actually happened - so, he's still pushing the therapist/us away.

7. Bucky, and Steve, have/had a TON to adjust to.

8. Yeah, I agree that will be the bullshit line they give. If they ever actually talk about it.

TFATW WA #2

Yeah, always got to take advantage of avoiding those spoilers lmfaoo.

1. Honestly, that line was double meaning. Both about White people and Hydra [which is made up of mostly white supremacists/nazis] So, the line is gesturing to both White People in general and Hydra assholes together. I think the terminology is “double edge sword”??

2. This whole paragraph structure confused me, ngl - so I'm going to answer it the best I can. I do like that they're not ignoring the fact that Sam being Black is 1000% the reason he's not the Official Captain America - because the gov't is racist as hell.

I also like the little lines about how they point out little things about Sam's Falcon persona, like that kid calling him 'Black Falcon' specifically and Sam's response show the split between Sam and Falcon itself.

John is a dick for calling Sam the wingman of Steve Rogers. Sam was a hero all on his own before Steve asked him to join up again. [Side note, it's lichrally??]

3. Exactly, the parallel of Sam being profiled and surrounded while just on the street and John being surrounded by fans and being able to spring Bucky with apparently only a few sentences shows a Loooooot

4. Honestly, at this point I wonder if she's not actually a therapist and is just an agent assigned to assess Bucky outside of an Official Building. I do know, however, that her 'look at each other and speak' exercise is actually a real therapy practice. It's just a little slower.

5. Actually, I think he would've blurted that out. That whole line. I don't think Bucky hates Sam. I think they could've done the scene better, but I think that had Sam prodded him/the therapist been more annoying Bucky would've lost control of his emotions and blurted out the whole "If he was wrong about you, he was wrong about me" but I feel like the writing for this show is just... not there. Sometimes you blurt shit when you get overemotional and I think that was what Bucky was supposed to be like.

6. I don't think Sam hates Bucky, I think he doesn't trust him though. I do wish they'd talked about that though. The whole 'talk to each other' scene should've been a LOT longer and a LOT slower.

7. Sam and Bucky's relationship is being fast tracked because they don't really know how to work the relationship out, writers-room-wise. Bucky is technically retired, but I feel like he's trying to live up to Steve's expectations and doing what Steve would've done and we all know that if Steve was there, Steve would've jumped on that plane with Sam. It looks like Sam/Bucky/Joaquin are a side-team based from Military services but as Sam says they're all free agents so...?

8. Sadly, They seem to just be propping up to be another stereotype.

9. Captain America is a symbol. Steve Rogers is a man. But now Steve Rogers is an idol because of all the shit he's been through and honestly, it's not a bad thing he's become an idol for people - it's using Steve as a reason to make White Bread Walker the next Captain that makes Steve's idolization so fucked.

10. I don't know anything about music so I have no opinion here, sorry.

11. Enfys?? Also, I think they did the whole Innocent Girl Thing as side commentary for Bucky lowering his guard about seeing a young girl rather than a guy.

12. Bucky is the Winter Solider. The Winter Solider is Bucky. That is how Bucky will always see it because although he was brainwashed, it was still him and he remembers all of it. When you have constant memories of something 'someone else' did, you tend to not be able to pull the two personas out of each other. I want Bucky to take up the title, White Wolf instead of Winter Soldier. Honest.

This is all my opinion, I’m honestly a little disappointed with the writing of TFATWS so far so... I’m not really optimistic about this.

[woozi]

i agree how you described twt, sometimes everyone's just ready to fight it seems, i've genuinely had fun on both platforms at different times but now it's just too much on stan twt (no space for difference of opinion djsjdjj) it's good to know you're having fun as well :3 & omg i've seen few of my moots starting to give svt their attention after fallin flower dropped, everything abt it is <3333 the song, mv, choreo i love it.

hdjdjddkdjdj " virgos 😐 " also me in next breath "happy birthday mark :D i love you so much 🥺💕💗" any virgos reading this i really hope you enjoy your month to the fullest djjdjd <3. righttt?? you're correct abt mark's temper being very virgo djdjdkd.

your line screams hard-working people <3 jihoon, jaebeom, jeonghan the 3Js <3. isn't jaebeom also an infj? (i don't take mbtis seriously but at the same time it also makes me happy if it ends up matching someone i like djdjjd) chan & yugs 🥺 these two imo have the sweetest personality, like the one which makes you feel welcomed & they also have the cutest laugh 🥺.

i love jus2 <3 focus on me is one of my favorite kpop mvs of all time & also drunk on you??? i love this song so much, very sexy of them. the vibes, style and everything w/ their album, i want more songs like that. and for when i am feeling melancholy i need more songs like jjp's verse 2 😭💔 but i am also okay if they don't want to go back to these units bcoz everything so far they've been giving is just as great <33 ( maybe in future we'll get blessed w/ features 🥺)

honestly g7 as grp and individually have won me over with their music style, even if i don't like full album ik there will be 3-4 songs which will be exactly what i like to listen to, all of the music they've released individually i've liked it so much. there is this song of youngjae's, titled "i'm all ears" i had no idea of its existence until it popped up in my spotify i'm so glad it did, it's been in my playlist ever since. there was also a time when i was obsessed with jackson's 'on the rocks' djdjdk.

aww <3 the live performance video of 1° has mark as thumbnail so for long time i used to associate this song with him jdjddk. i think the only j*pe thing i'd miss is got7 studio live sessions 🥺. RIGHTJDKSKS aju nice's mv is very cute djjddk I love it, in reality its reverse tho, i see them and boom! 💖💛💗🤍💕💙

it was the year they won first bb*as award so that gave them the exposure, and no i don't follow them anymore. mixed feelings abt them, very negative feelings abt f*ndom fjdjdjd. i do miss what it used to feel like liking them sometimes. at that time i never thought i'll willingly drop them from my interest (i've stanned zayn since 2012 first him as grp member then solo. sometimes thinking abt it gives me a whiplash hddjks it's been 9 years, really thought it would be same with them too but it didn't happen)

i've had falling in love by yugs and in to you by jaebs on loop for days djdkdk i really love these two songs and also air by bammie <3 (i'm slow jams kinda person djdjdk :3)

(bam released the most fun album & title this year idc abt others, ribbon is one of the soty) also special mention of look so fine & running through the rain. yes! you do make sense they feel organic & very them.

exactly 😭 it's more believable when they drop stuff out of nowhere like encore 😭😭. the way youngjae posted his letter on twt too ddjjdkssk the announcement & release of encore is such a 'you just had to be there' situation the excitement, nervousness, confusion and everything 😭 sometimes i can't with them. also is the bibi with mark on ost, the same one you mentioned in last ask? the ost is really good <3, it must've been fun to see it happen (if its same bibi).

making a whole ass playlist just for me???? 😭😭😭🥺💗 yza you're so sweet nooooo 💖

and don't worry abt replying late jdjdkdjd i mean it, sometimes my friends text me after weeks and i'm am the same. it's really okay <3. i hope this week is treating you kindly, take care yza - 🪂

p.s ( just saw last post djjej) - it was me who manifested more bunny dino <3 manifesting even more <33

i was on stan twt during my younger years too and it was v fun and memorable to me ngl <3 idk what happened though.. it's evolved to be.. Something Else.. i still see a lot of good people there though 😭 and now that i'm in my Hag Era... idk it's just too fast for me now 😭 it's still my go-to place for updates though nothing can top twitter on that dept

and ms fallin flower.... i feel like everyone was blown away by it (based off of what i see carats when talk about it) and rightly so!! she SERVED. the looks too oh my god. it's another factor i look forward to and enjoy so much when i watch their performances!!

u know what? virgos 😐 indeed KJJKDFJKFDJKFDKJ i want to slander virgos today because it's their season and no one slanders them that often so <3 ABOUT MARK'S VIRGO TEMPER THOUGH... i know i've said i enjoy seeing it sm but whenever i think abt it i cant help but say that.. I Love His Temper <3 he doesn't get pissed off in a scary and douchebag-y way it seems so... contained?? IDK HOW TO DESCRIBE IT he punched an a/c though so that might not be the perfect word to describe him lmaoo <3

THE J TRINITY HFDJFJDJHDF BESTIE UR MIND IS SO!!!!!!!!!!! honestly... maybe it's the acts of service for me <3 JKDFKJFDKJFJKD i think this is just my eldest sister and savior syndrome speaking though kfjkdkjf ALSO OH MY GOD THE WAY U NOTICE THESE THINGS <3 THAT'S SO SEXIE OF U!!! and yes he used to be an infj!! there was an interview that's more recent wherein he mentioned that he's now an enfj though but i cant rmb which interview it's from :/ ALSO MOOD FKJJKGJGKF i dont believe in mbtis too but im just... a little obsessed w it for the fun of it all <3 and the way u described them </3 what if i tear up a little </3 I LOVE CHAN'S LAUGH SO MUCH BUT IM SO SOS O GLAD U BROUGHT UP YUGYEOM'S LAUGH??????????? IT'S NOT TALKED ABT ENOUGH LIKE...... HELLO!!!!!!!!!!! one of my bird moots said he sounded like a schoolboy in choir 😭😭😭😭😭😭

GOD UR TASTE!!!!!!! what if i start falling in l*ve a little :/ what then :/ focus on me was ahead of it's time and people fucking slept on THEM i cannot fucking believe this. this has to be some kind of sick joke 😭 ALSO HAVE U SEEN THE CHOREO FOR SENSES!!!!!!1 INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!! holy fuck!!!!!! sorry for the expletives but like.... holy SHIT they did THAT!!!!!!!! ALSO UR SO RIGHT </3 jjp verse 3 when... ALSO did u know i let go of the jjprojects url... thats the worst mistake of my life KDKJDSKJDSJK also agree wholeheartedly <3 i think they're all trying to find their footing this time around as soloists and im so proud of them for that!! i'll stand by my jus2 agenda though bc they're almost in the same company so maybe.. i might have hope left 😭

SO TRUE BESTIE!!! the same principle goes w svt for me as well <3 got7's such a flavorful group musically like... all of them have the capacity to go solo and they're still considered flops.. waht the fuck <3 ALSO OMG FJDKJFKFJD YOU'VE HEARD The Song!!!!!!!! maybe he'll be releasing something along those lines <3 esp now that he's supposedly coming w an album KJSJKDJSK on a similar note.. do u also listen to jamie (the other artist on the song) <3 NOO SHUT UP THIS CANNOT BE FOR REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 i was obsessed w on the rocks too 😭😭😭😭😭😭 IT WAS MY FAVORITE ON THE MIRRORS ALBUM HELLO??????????????????????????? im proposing to u rn

ok now i have to watch all the live vids again JKDSJKSJDKDSKJ ik keep saying 'ur so right', 'i agree', and 'so true bestie' but im gonna have to say this again bc i LOVE LOVE LOVE live sessions sm no matter the artist. i also just am a little partial to live bands in performances like that in general so JDJKKDSJDS

the way you're saying these cute things abt the svteenies.. </3 giving me heartache!!! i'd bully them though i can't coddle them anymore <3

not the fandom JKFDKJFDKJFDKJFKJF ok but i think it's mostly their younger fans tbh. it wasn't this bad before.. i also really liked bts during their debut days. their songs were really good!! i kind of lost interest though and couldn't really get into them although their songs slapped lol. my irls are still into them though so i still hear about them. 9 YEARS............................... wait oh my god it HAS BEEN a little over a decade since 1d was The Thing huh 😭 now i feel kinda old lmao. and i totally get that feeling </3 it really do be like that sometimes JKFDJKJKFD

you really ARE keeping up w the sevens oh my god how are you doing it!!!!!!!!!!! it's like getting svt content now at this point but more complicated bc u need to get the updates from different sources JDKJSDKJJSKD love ur song choices too <3

ALSO FULLY RELATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when i saw bam's teasers... the aes was my cup of tea and THE HIGHLIGHT MEDLEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i can't fucking get it out of my mind it's objectively one of the best things i've seen from kpop in 2021. i'm super impressed <3 love how abyss really supported bambam on this. they really went all in for him!!

I KNOW GKJDFJDK I GOT SUPER ???????/// DURING THE TIME EVERYONE THOUGHT THEY WERE DISBANDING LMAOOOO they pulled a move that's so unheard of though no one really expected That. i respect jaebeom so much for handling all the paperwork and shit behind the scenes it must've been HELL!! ALSO IT MEANT I CRIED FOR NOTHING THEN 😭😭😭 AND YES OH MY GOD IT'S THE SAME BIBI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE SHOCK I HAD WHEN I SAW THE LIST????????????????????????? thought i was gonna black out like,,, mark,,, AND BIBI??????????????? she's fucking phenomenal how is she just a YEAR older than me.. INSANE!!! ... and i also thought jackson was gonna have an ost for this movie.. idk why it wasn't released though i didnt look into it :/

i had a rough few days so i'm not yet finished with the playlist (my laptop's Dead i am still trying to revive her and uni's starting soon 😭) but for the mean time, here's another one that some people from caratblr previously asked for JDSJKSDJ these are mostly english songs though its not my k-playlist KJDSKJSDJK

i do hope this week gets better!!! and i hope that you'll have a fun one too <3 thank u for being so patient w me 🥺 i just get so many messages and find the need to recharge FDKJDFJK

ALSO I FELT LIKE IT WAS U!!!!!! OH MY GOD, i even searched my blog for the word manifest but for some reason your ask didn't come up in the search so i didnt mention u in the tags so i wont misattribute if it ends up not being u 😭 thank u for manifesting this chan for me he's my little... hop hop now ig... 😭

[thephantomporg84]

As much as I love the trope of characters that hide that they have a lot of negative feelings by putting on an act, I really wish it was made more obvious Dante's cuhrayzee wahoo pizza man act is partly a front, since it kinda seems like people don't notice? Sure there was DMC2 but DMC2 is treated as barely canon by most, and Dante's characterization was one of many big complaints about it.

Oh god I totally feel this Anon. 1,000% agree, as someone who love love loves this trope, too. Lol. It’s why I devour a good DMC story on AO3, especially if the writer knocks this trope out of the park.

But yeah. That was sort of one of my bigger nitpicks about DMC5 as a whole. Like. While I do appreciate that the game (and series, really) can be played and the story does mostly work if you’re not invested in it and taking it at face value / just want a good action game — which is a super helpful tactic to bring new people in with such a gap between titles — I hate how it ruins the context of a lot of stuff.

Vergil (as V) all but looks directly at the camera and says ‘I’m a bastard and did what I did because I was afraid/wanted to be loved and protected’ but Dante’s internal conflict is wayyyy more subtle and it’s cheapened if you really have to spell it out, imo — because I feel like the ‘negative feelings behind a goofy exterior’ thing is easy to portray hard to give real depth to. As in, it’s easy to make Dante be cuhrayzee and swing his chainsaw motorcycle around, but hard to show that it’s an act to fool others (as well as himself, probably to some degree). Unfortunately, on top of all that, lot of people aren’t gonna wanna bend over backwards like you, me, and others have done to discuss and pick Dante’s (or any character from any series, really) personality apart.

That said: I don’t think there are nearly enough contextual clues present in any of the games to make this more apparent, either. I remember some guy made a pretty good video a few years back about how the anime proves Dante is actually depressed on YT, and that video blew up and got nearly 100-150k views (which is a lot, esp. when you consider how dead this series was ‘till E3 2018), and a lot of people were ‘shocked’ and ‘never noticed xyz indicator’ before.

Like... If you give me a scene and have given me all the clues I need, but they’re super vague and I miss it? That’s on me, and totally my bad — another reason to replay the game with a more watchful eye. But I feel like DMC has left way, wayyyy too much out about how Dante feels to even do that, now.

I think one of the best examples of that lack of any kind of solid clues about Dante’s personality is in DMC5: In game, Patty calls to invite him to her birthday, and is loud and chatty and kind of annoying. Dante just seems to cringe and brush it off/hang up. If you weren’t familiar with the anime, then you might just brush it off as a gag, or see it as a brief throwback/cameo if you were. Either way, you could chalk it up to ‘oh wow wrong number / what an annoying girl haha.’ But then if you look in Before the Nightmare, which isn’t even available in any language except Japanese, we see that Dante is incredibly uncomfortable at the idea of being around ‘normal’ people, and I believe it even mentions that he plans to make it up to her.

This ties back into my complaints about putting so much meat from the story in the side material, and then not even making the side material available with the game or even easy to access. I feel like putting that kind of interesting characterization in side material is almost criminal lol. Because that makes the whole scene have so much more weight — especially because it sets up that this man is clearly uncomfortable with what he is, possibly now more than ever, and is about to be asked to kill his brother, again... because of what they both are. You also lose that family dynamic of Nero experiencing the same type of isolation as Dante without even fully understanding why.

And if that wasn’t enough, you also lose some AMAZING bits of characterization if you never read Before the Nightmare like:

Dante still sending Grue’s (from the DMC1 novel) two living daughters / their other caretaker (Morrison looks after them, too) money. Dante also had to mercy kill Grue’s oldest daughter. He sends it to them from using money out of his own savings.

The former patrons of Bobby’s Cellar (re-named Grue’s Cellar) and those in the mercenary world immensely disliking Dante, and fully blaming him for the deaths in that bar, Grue’s death, Nell Goldstein’s death, and the hospital invasion/massacre that happened in the DMC1 novel. So, Dante is even hated in the mercenary world, and shoulders the blame for a lot of stuff that he didn’t do / has probably lost a lot of work because of this — and a lot of it is stuff that Gliver (👀) did or instigated.

The caretaker of Grue’s girls absolutely hating Dante, even though the sisters defend him, and he most likely knows and just says nothing. The caretaker even remarks that she thinks he’s a bad omen and she ‘Hopes he’s dead’ and that ‘If he’s alive, I’d love to stick a shotgun up his ass’.

Lady noticing that the qliphoth is growing in Redgrave City, and then noticing the name on Dante’s guns later — then wondering what the connection was there — indicating how little even people like Lady really know about him.

Like, holy shit that’s just a few things and it already adds so much depth to Dante’s character that’s not there in the games alone. I know I’ve said a million times not to take the series that seriously or in realistic terms, but... I mean... even ridiculously goofy stuff like JoJo’s has really well developed, layered characters that will surprise you / break your heart in the blink of an eye. So it’s not impossible for something like DMC to make some stuff a little more apparent.

Oh, and as for DMC2 — if it hadn’t followed the trend at the time of randomly making your protagonist into a dark/angsty/edgelord version of themselves, and had given the angsty turn some logical explanation, then I don’t think it would have been quite so hated (at least, janky gameplay and rushed design aside). Itsuno said that’s the one he’d remake if given a choice to do a remake, and I can’t help but think he wouldn’t say thay without having some ideas on what he’d do differently.

(SORRY I KNOW THIS IS SUPER LONG. But it’s something that really irks me a lot because it could be SO GOOD if handled a little better lol.)

[mercurialsmile]

Any tips on writing nonbinary characters? Like, any 'do's and 'don't's? I really wanna get it right, so I thought I'd ask someone who actually identifies as nonbinary :)

Any tips on writing nonbinary/trans characters?

I got two asks for this (maybe from the same person?) and it’s taken me some time to write an answer since this is such a broad... question. 

Thing is, nonbinary is both a gender in and of itself but also kinda an umbrella term? Since you also have people who are agender, bigender, genderfluid, etc. who would also technically fall under the umbrella, but don’t call themselves nonbinary since that’s not the label they want, and since the latter labels are a lot more... specific. 

Non-binary simply means that someone identifies as a gender outside the binary of man and woman and that’s it. 

There’s also the fact that I’m pretty sure I have some opinions other nonbinary people wouldn’t agree with (for example, I dislike neopronouns. Xir/Xe and Zie/Zir are the only ones that’s pronounceable to me. And I straight up dislike nounself pronouns and actively avoid people who only use nounself pronouns since to me, they are. Too hard and complicated to use. I remember reading a really good post on why nounself pronouns are linguistically incorrect in English and how to properly format them to be correct, but I dunno where that post is now) which is also why I have been hesitant about this.

Also it’s a complex... hmm thing. So yeah.

I think the first thing to ALWAYS remember when writing a minority character is that their status as a minority is not their only trait. Don’t use cliches. Don’t make them one-dimensional and make an enby’s entire personality revolving around the fact they’re enby. It’s othering, at least to me, and just plain bad writing. 

Another thing is, even tho I wish there were more books out there about being enby (are there any really out there at all?) for the most part I think cis authors should be careful and kinda tread around writing about an enby’s life and being enby. Unless you have done a shit ton of research, know exactly what you’re doing, and have talked to multiple different enbys (and not just over text either), I would merely have the character. Be there.

1) it’s a lot easier who wants to do all that research?? 

2) still counts as rep (as long as it’s positive)

So how do you write (possibly?) positive rep for a enby character? Let’s go back to pronouns. The most versatile and acceptable pronouns for enby people is they/them tbh. It’s completely gender-neutral. There are enby people who use gendered pronouns as well (She/her, he/him, maybe they use all three!) but writing-wise, it would be easiest to keep to one set of pronouns to make the writing easier to read. I dunno about anyone else, but I for sure would get tripped up and confused if a character’s pronouns change throughout a book. (Maybe it can be written well idk but I don’t think I’d like it personally sorry) so for the most part? I suggest just sticking with they/them. It’s the easiest to write. 

Also, I suggest to never call your enby characters “it”. Yes, some irl enbys like “it” as a pronoun, but to most it’s dehumanizing, so it’s best to avoid it I think. 

Interestingly enough, even tho they/them is the easiest to write with, it can also be a little tricky at times! Sometimes you’ll have to format sentences differently so readers can understand the difference between the singular and plural forms of they/them. Personally, it’s a fun writing exercise to me! So if anything, writing about an enby character can actually help stretch some different writing muscles so to speak. 

And speaking of pronouns, never ever have the narration misgender the character. Never. Hell, usually, I don’t even have characters or even the VILLAINS of my books misgender characters. And my reasoning behind this is: I dislike using transphobia/enbyphobia as a tool to show a villain is evil--their actions alone in the novel should be enough. And two: if even the evilest of villains aren’t transphobic... that says a lot to me. It speaks VOLUMES and is a lot more powerful of an (unsaid) statement then having your villains be transphobes. (but that’s just my opinion ofc!!) 

Now, to me, if you’re just writing about a enby side character, I would just have them. Be there. Not misgendered, everyone regarding them using the proper pronouns, and avoiding gendered language (which can be hard as it is hardwired into us without us even knowing, for instance!) so make sure you edit accordingly. 

Also, and I think this should be OBVIOUS by now, but PLEASE do not write a “forced coming out” scene. Like, where the cis character walks in on an enby character changing clothes or whatever. Like. That is. So over with and done. Ik that terrible trope fits trans men/women characters better, but I think it’s still important to say here, esp if you’re writing an enby character who tries to pass as the opposite of their birth gender or binds/stuffs/packs/etc at all. It’s uncomfortable, possibly triggering, and honestly? Super cliche. It’s bad writing, my friend. 

And whether or not you want to make the direct statement that they are an enby is kinda up to you? There’s arguments for and against it. If you can fit it into the story safely without making anything clunky, go for it! You can either have the character themselves tell someone how they identify, or maybe they’re being introduced and they ask the person they are introducing themselves to to use “they/them” since they are an enby. I’m sure there are other, more creative ways to do this, but yeah. This specific topic is super situational so I would have a sensitivity reader (or two!) to read over what you write to make sure it’s okay. 

Okay the last thing I’m gonna talk about is character description. Ignoring the fact I personally am terrible at it, there’s a kinda huge divide here. 

For one, a lot of authors and I think enby people in general don’t want others to know their birth gender, which is understandable. And with writing, there isn’t any visual clues besides what you write down. The world is your oyster, you can have your character look like anything, the reader won’t know the birth gender unless you use gendered language. 

The tricky thing is this, tho: the stereotypical enby person/character is someone who is skinny white and vaguely masculine. I, personally, despise this stereotype with my whole being. Imo, enby people can dress and look however they want. Clothes are just fabrics we put onto our flesh bodies. If girls can enjoy pants and boys can like dresses and skirts, then enbys can dress however they want to as well. That’s a freedom I think everyone should have. Clothes don’t dictate gender. Enby people also can’t control what they look like. Some people.. just won’t ever be able to pass as androgynous (unless they Really Work at it, like me!!) and it’s unfair to them I think as well. 

That being said, writing an enby with feminine clothing, for example, will probably have your reader think of them as DFAB, unfortunately, unless you are really careful.

Other things that can make your reader think of an enby’s birth gender: describing them having to wear a bra or having a period, describing if they have to shave their face or not or how much facial hair they grow, describing their genitalia AT ALL, describing them with certain face/body shapes, describing their hair length (possibly), if they wear a binder or stuff a bra or pack, describing if they wear makeup and the list can go on. 

Some people would think you should avoid this completely, which is why vaguely masculine is what people go for. it’s the typical androgynous look (which isn’t bad pe se and I don’t wanna insult anyone who looks like that!) but imo what would be more normalizing and important is to have enby characters look how they want, choose if they wanna wear a binder or not, if they wear makeup, and etc. 

Some people might thing the above is completely fine and that it’s important to show anyone can be enby and you’re still valid as an enby even if you might not “pass” for instance or don’t try your best to conceal certain secondary sex characteristics. Others might think you should make your enby characters as androgynous as possible, even in the stereotypical way. 

Which view is right? Dammed if I know, and I don’t think one is or not. But it is something to think about. I think the stereotypical response to a cis author would be to go with the safest option and allow enby authors write about enby characters breaking gender roles, but honestly, it is your character. Whether you make your enby character vaguely masculine to avoid those pitfalls or go balls to the walls and do whatever you want because enbys can dress and look how they want fuck you all is up to you. Do what you think your character would do and design them to match their personality. I don’t think people should be boxed into what sort of characters they are allowed to make. 

And don’t be afraid to make mistakes. It’s okay if you fuck something up by accident or are accidentally insensitive. And honestly? Groups of people aren’t a hivemind. No matter how good your representation is, there will be someone who disagrees with you and thinks you didn’t “write it correctly”

all I can say is: learn as much as you can, always strive to keep learning and listening, and do the best you can. You can’t succeed if you don’t try and you can’t learn without making a few mistakes along the way. 

(And as for trans characters... I myself am not a trans man/woman so idk how to best say what not to do, but I think it follows the same as above for the most part? I’d ask the opinion of a trans man or woman first rather than an enby like me, as even I have fucked up writing about my trans woman character in the past. I’ve learned a lot since then, but I think I am still learning and would rather not educate someone on a topic such as that. Also this post is already long and I am Tired of writing about this topic lol) 

I rambled a lot as usual and I am so so sorry. It’s late and this was SUCH a broad question I didn’t?? Really know how to answer so YEAH SORRY if this is no help at all!! I tried my best!!

[wingheadshellhead]

So I just read Jonathan Hickman's Avgers, Vol. 1: Avengers World which has that scene about how "it started with two men; one was life and one was death" in reference to Steve and Tony. What really confuses me and kind of makes me angry is why Tony is death? I don't really understand what it's referencing or what he's done to be Death. Like merchant of death and all that I get. But he's past his history now right? Even poetically in an avengers comic why is he still death? Wondering if you know?

i mean,,,,,,, i know fandom was briefly up in arms about this (not really but it was a Thing ppl were mildly salty about) but hickman never specifies who he’s referring to here. (the placement of the captions means nothing lmao, it’s literally just positioned in standard left-to-right reading order.) and actually, many ppl in fandom have taken that exact ambiguity and spun it on its head in edits and fics and especially re: mcu after ca: cw to cast steve as death, and tony as life as an interesting subversion of popular understanding of that quote where 616 tony = death, 616 steve = life. 

hickman’s writing style is very much about intense concept ideas and the big picture, he goes HARD on metaphors that make for great quotes and oneliners taken out of context but doesn’t often attempt to explain or further clarify what they mean. as someone who’s read most of his original comic east of west over at image, i can tell you it’s Classic Hickman to throw out that kind of dramatic ass statement and leave it up in the air as to who’s who just because it was memorable, it sounded fucking good, and it’s going to stick in people’s heads long after they’ve finished reading. and it definitely works bc this one ticks all three boxes.

personally, i don’t think hickman specifically intended one of them to be Life personified or Death personified; that’s hyperbolic even for hickman’s level of drama. and with steve and tony, at least, i think he knows full well that he’s dealing with Humans at the end of the day and not metaphorical embodiments of things. 

so what i think about the quote, specifically: 

1. it’s more useful as an axiomatic representation of tony and steve as polarising forces then as a literal statement where both correlate exactly to life or death; this is the unstoppable force meets immovable object facet of their relationship. 

hickman’s vol. 5 was very much about exploring and interrogating this part of steve and tony’s dynamic and driving it to its very limits. while i don’t know that i was totally satisfied with vol. 5 as an avengers comic bc i like seeing my kids get along and not constantly trying to murder each other, hickman definitely Gets steve and tony. he Gets their dynamic and the drama and tragedy that can come from such an important, intense and deeply profound relationship that’s grounded in so much history and personal stakes and emotions. tony and steve being best friends for over a decade and such important figures in each other’s lives will never negate the fact that they have very different ethical alignments and moral philosophies. and for two people who are absolutely compelled by those things in everything they do, going head to head with someone that happens to land at the polar opposite of them on the spectrum is always going to go down like… well… y’know. civil wars. universes dying. just bc that’s literally how much marvel has invested in them lol.

but i respect people / characters who respect themselves too much to bend just bc someone they love, or people they love, wants them to. i respect characters that will stand their ground and stick to their convictions even though it’d be easier not to, esp. when they’re risking someone they love. and conversely, just because steve and tony can’t agree on everything doesn’t mean their relationship suddenly becomes null and void. they’re too vastly similar but also different people who’d sooner die then stop fighting for the thing(s) they believe need to be fought for; this is something they know in their bones about each other, they know each other too well to expect anything less from the other person.

2. they can both be both. and this is Literal given that steve’s last act in the final moments of the 616 universe ‘as we knew it’ (bc there’s some debate – spoiler alert? – that the all-new all-different universe that marvel is currently set in is not 616 but a completely different universe and the 616 that existed before is legitimately just dead) was to take one of tony’s suits and try to murder him. granted, the ‘tony’ that was tony in the final moments of the 616 universe ‘as we knew it’ was also Not Really Tony, and i fully believe that the influences of Superior Tony were still lingering and tainting his overall Tonyness. in that instance, if you were going to be very simplistic and reductionist abt your interpretation of the quote, steve was definitely death. but Again, they are Both Both. tony spent (spends lbr) pretty much all his time in vol. 5 prophesizing death and destruction like 616′s very own cassandra; as Not Really Tony / still sorta superior iron man he pilots the godkiller to massacre an entire alien race from invading and destroying earth; building bombs, and being fully behind the plan to kill other planets to save earth-616.

you’re right that 616 doesn’t bring up his past as often as mcu does anymore because it’s considered literal ancient history (as in bronze age 60′s history that’s been written to death, although i’m of the opinion any good tony stark writer Can and Will find a way to write his past into modern relevance). tony’s narrative and the nature of his character, however, (sb driven by guilt and accountability and the knowledge that he’s alive bc of the sacrifice of a man who died to save him – i.e. yinsen) will always inevitably feature death, his history, and his subsequent transformation. talking about 616 and specfiically tony’s actions and choices in hickmanvengers doesn’t really help my point but to talk about tony + death in general, regardless of the universe, ‘death’ also doesn’t have to be the BadTM concept it’s usually thought of as. mcu tony canonically refers to himself as a phoenix, and the Afghanistan / Vietnamistan incident is metaphorically a ‘death’ for tony stark the charcter and his rebirth as Iron Man, the Golden Avenger. in any universe, tony’s hero narrative hinges on that rebirth and transformation as a symbol of his capacity for heroism and Goodness, of taking his ugly past and former ignorance and mistakes and transforming it into something wholly and purely driven by bravery and sacrifice. 

i mean, yes, sure, if ppl are going to sit there and only take the label at face-value: death = bad / awful / terrible / only referring to his past as a weapons manufacturer and merchant of death, then yes, that would be a shitty interpretation to swallow as a tony fan. but seeing as how comics is a medium that’s built on constantly evolving and changing characters / worlds / entire universes, death as ‘rebirth’ is a very justifiable and canonically valid reading of tony. 616 tony has died multiple times, literally and figuratively, and every time he’s rebuilt himself bigger and better and stronger. the connotations of death within hickman’s own narrative and world-building is heavily linked to metamorphosis and resurrection. the final act of his avengers run and the centrepiece of the secret war event ended with the revival of the 616 universe. not to get too philosophical and existential here but death isn’t even really an End in the comics medium bc nobody and nothing ever permanently ‘dies’; it’s not possible to associate the concept with a definitive ‘end’, which makes most of the negative imagery surrounding ‘one was death’ redundant. i’m all for intrepretations of ‘death’ that are closely interlinked, if not entirely hand-in-hand, with ideas of rebirth, rebuilding, evolution, etc.

anyway, avengers world is great and i fucking love it so even if i haven’t swayed your opinion, i wouldn’t let the quote override your enjoyment of the overall comic. which, i hope you do enjoy, bc the happiness doesn’t last in hickmanvengers. buckle in for the long haul my guy.