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stickystarspectrumtroll-ocs · 10 months

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for pride asks: 4,6,7,10,11,12 for everyone, and also 5 for allets, eliote, and maddie T along with 16, 17, 20, and 21 for the creator ones!

4. Is your oc's environment supportive about their identity? How does this impact them?

Luna, her world in general definitely has amatonormativity. Her parents have been as accepting of her aromanticism and asexuality as they have been of everything else about her. The School for Good, not so much. I mean come on, have you SEEN how much revolves around the Snow Ball and finding a date for it? Endless suffering. Constant disgust and frustration beyond words. She's being strangled. Suffocated. She's aboutta set the place on fire.

Jewel, there wasn't really anycreature to judge either way on her island. She got to have a concept of herself there and get fully comfortable in it without any input from anycreature else. In fairness there might've been some degree of amatonormativity in some of the books she read, but somehow it never really got its hooks in her. They'd say "everycreature wants to fall in love" and she's like "DOES everycreature though? *squints*". And there's definitely books she reads where characters are happy to never get married or anything too. The School for Good, as previously mentioned, emphasizes romance a LOT though, which contributes to her being generally uncomfortable there. Oh, and as to gender identity, I'm not sure how aware her world is that nonbinary people are a thing. I'm sure if she tried to explain it to anycreature once she'd fully worked it out, they'd be like "Huh. Okay." but there's still a lot of assumption until told otherwise that everycreature is a boy or a girl, and not a lot of space made for anycreature else. And the School for Good goes VERY heavy on the gender roles and a very stereotypical fairy-tale princess mold of femininity, which she Does Not Fit, so yeaaaaahhhh that along with the amatonormativity contribute to making her very much feel at all times like she simply Does Not Fit there in any way.

Allets, I feel like the Endless Woods in general are not the MOST unaccepting of bisexuality, but I feel like there's still heteronormativity for sure, especially within the School for Good, and of course her parents are homophobic, so. Yeah we got a lot of internalized homophobia here and it takes Awhile for her to fully accept her orientation.

Eliote...Hmm. She was in one environment the first seven years of her life which likely would've been supportive if she came out as queer but it was kinda too early for that to be a concern for her. Then she was in and out of a bunch of different environments for awhile, some of them might've been supportive of queer people, some of them might not've been, some of them might've been in an in-between area, in any case it wasn't really a concern for her then either. Then for several more years her environment was mostly just her on her own. And in those times there were still other things more important to her than thinking about any of this. Then there was the School for Good, which as we've established is heavily cisheteronormative. Figuring out her orientation and doing anything with it still remains Not A Priority for her, but she does know she is Not what that environment wants her to be, so there's a lot of frustration at them trying to cram her into that, like "I am FINE, idiots, leave me be, I swear to frick if you don't LEAVE ME THE HECK ALONE-"

Maddie T and Finley, there's probably cisheteronormativity and amatonormativity in Auradon, and there might be some aphobes, but I think there's a good number of people who'd be accepting too. Maddie T probably got upset when met with any amatonormativity in younger years, but at this point everything bounces off of her and she doesn't give a flying fart either way and just quickly laughs it off and calls it silly. Finley meanwhile is always ready to give somecreature a good lecture on amatonormativity at the slightest hint that it's needed.

Penny, her family is pretty accepting, and I think her school is too. There's still amatonormativity in her world, but it's rarely if ever been very heavily present in her environment. She is fully comfortable and proud being aroace and while she's aware of amatonormativity and knows enough to complain about it and call it out when she sees it, she doesn't directly experience a whole lot of it.

Twig lives in Troll Village which is generally the nicest and most friendly and accepting place ever, I'm pretty sure all queer identities are fully accepted there. Though I feel like they might not entirely be down with her romance repulsion, past a certain age it might be seen as kinda pooping on other people's happiness and she might be encouraged to keep it down a bit. Tbh I also feel like at some point her being exclusively romance-repulsed might evolve to being like, 60% romance-repulsed 20% romance-neutral or ambivalent, 20% romance positive, it varies wildly and shifts back and forth based on a jillion factors, and I feel like a lot of trolls around her would kinda have a hard time wrapping their heads around that, plus she would've been exclusively romance-repulsed for long enough and strongly enough that this would drive her a little nuts herself, and so she'd probably struggle a bunch with all of That. So yeah, her being aroace is never something she feels any shame for or has any difficulty accepting, but her general thoughts on romance in her surroundings and how much of them she can voice would be a struggle.

C.C. and Jasper, I think there's a bunch of queer kids in their school, and I think the place is generally accepting. I don't know if C.C. has talked to her family about her orientation or not, but I think they're down with anything there and will happily accept anything about her. Jasper, his parents aren't around much, and I dunno if he's had the chance to say anything about his bisexuality to them. Maybe he has once or twice, I'm not sure. They'd probably be like "Oh. Okay." There might be a little bit of "he a little confused but he got the spirit" kinda stuff from them, I dunno. As to the servants that watch over him in his parents' absence, they'll mostly kinda just take whatever as it comes. He indicates that he's into men and they're like "okay". I dunno how familiar with the concept of alterous relationships or alterous attraction the people around any of them are. But I think if either of them were to try and explain things related to all that, people around them would generally be like "huh. okay then."

5. How did you figure out your oc's identity?

Allets and Eliote it happened because I realized that while I wasn't going to write them as a ship, I wouldn't mind people shipping them and the concept of them as a ship didn't feel wrong.

Maddie T -- Tbh, I kinda didn't DO non-aroace ocs at the time, I just didn't know how and had absolutely no interest, the thought of ever writing something in which romance was a possibility at all made me want to barf up all my guts. So yeah, she had to be aroace. And that got to be rooted deep enough in my concept of her and got fleshed out in my mind enough over time that nah I wouldn't ever change it.

6. How does your oc feel about labels? Theirs, or in general?

The world that Luna, Jewel, Allets, and Eliote live in kinda doesn't have labels. If they were to find out about labels, like in the whole-oc-squad-lives-together scenarios, Jewel and Allets would be glad to have the language for what they are and what they feel. Luna would be like "oh, there's a word for it? huh. neat-o. if i use this will people leave me alone about the romance thing?" Eliote would be like "huh. cool. okay."

Maddie T really isn't big on labels in general, queer identity related or otherwise, but she likes the puns she can make with the terms "aro" and "ace."

Finley likes labels, it helps her in conceptualizing things, she likes to be able to pin things down in words, she likes to have language to clearly explain things.

Penny likes labels, they can make things easier to understand and talk about at times. She found out the label(s) applying to her and was like "oh wow, this is a queer thing and there's a name for it? cool!"

Twig will be glad for the terms aro and ace, as it might get people off her back about ever doing romance or sex in her life. And yeah, she likes to have language for these things in general.

7. Is there something that could cause your oc to question their identity? What?

Nah, most of them are pretty darn secure in their identities. The only ones who've ever had to question and realize are Jewel, Allets, and Eliote.

For Jewel the realization that she's not entirely cis is spurred on by the environment of the School for Good.

For Allets, realizing or admitting to herself that she's bi gets unlocked once she's learned to feel less ashamed of a bunch else about her. And possibly is also spurred on by the environment of the School for Good.

For Eliote, she will question if and when she Catches Feelings TM for somecreature and only then.

10. Does your oc celebrate Pride? How?

Pride doesn't exist in the world Luna, Jewel, Allets, and Eliote are from. But in the oc-squad-all-lives-together scenarios, they do find ways of celebrating pride. They're mostly low-key about it as far as it goes, but Jewel and Allie are down to wear pride colors, Luna and Ellie are down to at least wear pins, Luna will punish any queerphobes she comes across, Ellie will check out some pride month art online and maybe try a hand at a little of that herself, and they'll all take it as a time for some extra pondering and talking about being queer.

Maddie T and Finley definitely go to whatever kind of pride events there are around them. Also wear their flag colors and/or pride pins a bunch. And they talk about it to people more. And Maddie T makes more aro and ace puns. As well as street art relating to aromanticism and asexuality, and possibly queer pride in general. And Finley probably designs and/or sews pride flag color clothing.

Penny likes to dress up in all aro and ace and aroace flag colors and paint the ace and aro flags on her face and if there's any pride parades or other pride events / celebrations she's able to go to then HECK YEAH she's going.

I don't know whether there's need for pride where Twig is, as queerphobia has likely never existed among trolls. But if something like pride does exist, there's gotta be a TON of festivities for it, and I'm sure some of them she'd enjoy.

11. Is your oc open about their identity? Are they more lowkey or more blunt about it? Why or why not?

Luna is definitely open about it. She doesn't usually talk about it except when it's relevant to the subject/conversation at hand, but when it is, she makes her complete disinterest in (and disgust for) romance and sex very bluntly clear.

Jewel will talk openly and frankly about her aroaceness and general thoughts on romance and sex when/as applicable to the situation. Hard to say whether it's "low-key" or "blunt" or whatever when she does, she's not like Luna where it's just like "that stuff's gross, don't get it anywhere near me, the end." she's more like "????? i don't get it????? why would you want to do that?????" I guess you could say she's blunt, because she doesn't really downplay it or try to say it delicately or anything. It's just that the things she has to say are arguably more low-key? I guess? Maybe?

Allets cannot be open about her identity. Homophobic parents and all. I think in the whole-oc-squad-lives-together scenarios she does get to be open about it in time though. She's not the MOST blunt about it there either, but she gets to be not exactly lowkey about it either. She kinda only brings it up when it's either relevant to the situation or something related to it has been especially on her mind, but comes to be able to talk about it then and occasionally joke about it.

Eliote is not particularly open about her identity. She doesn't like to talk about it. She doesn't particularly like to think about it. She just has other things on her mind and doesn't see why she or anycreature else should care to think or talk about her orientation. And if it ever makes itself explicitly known to her she's gonna be Violently uncomfortable about it and prefer to shove that down as much as possible. Might get to a point eventually where she's okay talking about it a little. With those close to her. Eventually.

Maddie T is definitely open about her identity. She'll talk about it whenever relevant. Also make puns about it. I wouldn't say she's "low-key" but I dunno that "blunt" is a good term for it either. As with everything she's prone to saying things in a very nonsensical and roundabout way. But the fact that she's not interested in ever having romance or sex in her life does clearly get across. And I guess she CAN say it more up-front and straight at times too.

Finley also openly talks about her identity whenever relevant. She gives people mini-lectures on amatonormativity whenever they say or do something amatonormative. I wouldn't say she's "blunt" either much of the time, but she's not quite "low-key," I'd describe her most of the time as being like. Plainly factual and frank. Y'know?

Penny talks about being aroace a fair amount. Sometimes it's related to the situation at hand and sometimes she just feels like talking about a related experience she's had. And she'll call out and talk about amatonormativity when she sees it. She's on the blunt side about it. She sees no reason not to be.

Twig is very blunt about her feelings regarding romance and sex whenever those come up in any capacity. And she makes her personal disinterest in them very very plain and clear.

12. Does/did your oc ever wish they could change the way they are? Why? If it's in the past, how did they get over the feeling? (this can be about internalized homo/transphobia)

The only OC with internalized queerphobia is Allets. She's very much internalized from her parents that princesses Are Not Supposed To be gay. She does slowly get over it in time as she slowly gets over the shame about like, everything else about her. With the distance from her parents and the help of her friends.

16. Did you ever change an oc's identity when they were already established? Why?

The idea of Jewel being a demigirl took awhile to occur to me.

17. Do you share identity with any of your ocs? Which ones?

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I'm aroace. Luna, Jewel, Maddie T, Finley, Penny, and Twig are all also aroace. XD 😂

20. Have your ocs helped you in self discovery? How?

Nah, not really. 😂 ghdrcckm 💀

21. Free ramble card wee

The more I've been writing about Luna, Jewel, Allets, and Eliote for these asks the more I'm realizing how sucky the SGE series was about queer people tbh lksfdhgkhalkjg like there's not a whole lot of outright homophobia, there are people who acknowledge queer folks exist and have no complaints or whatever, but there still tends to be general widespread assumption that everycreature's cishet until stated otherwise and not much talk about anything else? And the no-labels-in-the-Endless-Woods thing! How much harder and more complicated could it be then to explain your identity to people? Which might well be necessary because of the fact that cisheteronormativity still exists there. And without the existence of labels how many people in the Endless Woods are having experiences that come with a certain queer identity or other that's never talked about, and talking about it like one (1) time and being like "is that a thing? is that just me?" and then end up just keeping that to themselves, never having a name for it, never knowing that it's a thing other people experience, never getting to bond with other people like that over it, never getting a sense of community out of that, never getting to validate and celebrate it or anything. Like, how much could that freaking SUCK for people, seriously.

Add this to my long list of realizations and rambles about the many flaws in how SGE was written. Gotta love that.

#all ocs + c.c. and jasper #oc asks!!#thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#may come back to this if i think of anything to add or better words to explain some of it

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riddl3r · 1 year

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BASICS.

Full name: Edward Nashton Nygma Nickname: Riddler, Eddie Gender: Male Height: 1.85m Age: 25 in s1, around a year older per season Zodiac: Aries Spoken languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Mandarine, Russian, Hebrew, Greek, Ancient Greek, Latin, Dutch, Hungarian (not fluent yet).

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS.

Hair colour: very dark brown Eye colour: light brown Skin tone: Fair complexion Body type: slim Accent: American Dominant hand: Favors the right Posture: good, composed Tattoos: verse dependent (none in s1-s3. he gets a small question mark on his arm in s4. in some verses he gets a full arm tattoo) Most noticeable feature: verse dependent/his suits/his glasses

CHILDHOOD.

Place of birth: Chicago, Illinois Hometown: Gotham Manner of birth: Natural First words: he doesn’t know Siblings: None Parents: Evan and Nadia Nashton Parental involvement: both of his parents had a negative impact on him, being abusive assholes

ADULT LIFE.

Occupation: verse dependent (forensic analyst, chief of staff, owner of riddle factory etc) Current residence: verse dependent Close friends: verse dependent. Oswald Cobblepot, Lee Thomkins, Lucius Fox Relationship status: verse dependent. single Financial status: comfortable/verse dependent Driver’s license: yes Criminal record: Yes

SEX & ROMANCE.

Sexual orientation: demisexual Romantic orientation: Homoromantic preferred emotional role: Submissive | Dominant | Switch | Unknown Preferred sexual role: Submissive | Dominant | Switch | Sex repulsed Libido: non-existent with people he doesn’t know well, medium with people that he is into Turn ons: intelligence, cunning Turn off’s: stupid, boring people Love language: small and big gestures, physical affection, going to extremes for people Relationship tendencies: he tends to let love rule over logic when he is in love, despite of what he might tells you. he is willing to sacrifice everything for that person. he likes to take care of his partner, to make them feel loved too.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Character’s theme song: Ghost in the wind by Birdie (in second half of s3 & s4). Hobbies to pass the time: building escape rooms, puzzles, quantum computers, astrophysics, biochemistry experiment, cooking, Mental illnesses: OCD, ASD, (&DID) Physical illness: none Left or right brained: Left brained Fears: not being understood, being alone Self-confidence level: it depends on what. he is confident about his intelligence, he is not confident about...well, everything else. Vulnerabilities: his obsessive compulsions to do things in a certain way, his constant need for intellectual stimuli

Tagged by: Nobody Tagging: @lnsania @fantasywritten @librarywent @nickgoodc @lxvefrxmthextherside and you!

#dash game #about

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cinematicct · 2 years

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Beginners (2010)

Written and directed by Mike Mills, this semi-autobiographical film is mainly focused on the relationship between a man named Oliver Fields and his aging father Hal Fields, who came out of the closet in his seventies.

Ewan McGregor plays Oliver while Christopher Plummer plays Hal. Other stars include Mélanie Laurent as Oliver’s love interest Anna and a Jack Russell Terrier dog that was once owned by Hal named Arthur.

Ewan McGregor manages to carry the movie with solid acting, even when his character is emotionally troubled at times. Christopher Plummer is the jewel on the crown as he delivers fresh dignity to an honest, ecstatic soul who shows no sign of self-pity. What’s more, the role won Christopher Plummer an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Mélanie Laurent plays a vagabond whose relationship with her father is more complicated than Oliver’s. The canine actor (whose real name is Cosmo) even proves to be quite the adorable scene-stealer who’s got subtitled communication on the screen so viewers can actually know what he’s thinking.

The film is partly based on director Mike Mills’ personal experience as his father was gay the whole time he was married, but kept his sexuality hidden until after his wife died. He then decided to enter a new phase as a homosexual. Although the revelation came as a surprise to Oliver, he tries to re-evaluate as he already sensed there was some distance between his parents. Five years into the gay community, Hal becomes romantically involved with a much younger man, only to be diagnosed with terminal cancer. Since his father wasn’t around much during childhood, Oliver tries to form a closer bond with him before he dies. Hal on the other hand doesn’t acknowledge the symptoms as he is overjoyed to live a carefree lifestyle at a convenient time.

Through a series of flashbacks, the film takes place in 2003, coupled with multi-generational images of the 20th century. Every overlapping scene depicts the growing changes of society. For example, homosexuality was originally considered a mental illness to the point where people might lose everything dear to them if sexual orientation of the same gender was found out. As such, Hal was able to open his heart to Oliver’s mother as they were old friends on friendly (but complex) terms.

What’s touching about the story is it gives the impression of looking at yourself in the mirror as you figure out how to move on from a tragic loss. Oliver is first seen in a sullen mood following several failed relationships. At the same time, his father’s happiness inspires him to pursue a new relationship.

The film puts comedy and drama together in a unique way to demonstrate the pros and cons of love. As Oliver and Anna’s intimate friendship blooms into romance, personal issues of self-doubt soon begin to prevent them from committing to one another. During those setbacks, Oliver would keep himself busy as a graphic designer while Anna (an actress) checks herself in empty hotel rooms with her earnings.

The soundtrack contains classical music and vintage songs within a modern timeline to reflect the ancient history of the 20th century. Some of those songs include: “Stardust” by Hoagy Carmichael and “Everything’s Made for Love” by Gene Austin.

Finally, the true significance of the movie is even though new beginnings can be life-changing, it’s never too late to achieve what your heart longs for. With all that said, I deeply recommend this poignant cinematic love story to everyone.

#Beginners 2010 #focus features #Mike Mills #ewan mcgregor #christopher plummer #melanie laurent #jack russell terrier #father and son #2003 #coming out #romantic drama #romantic comedy #history of romance

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hungrydogs-if · 2 years

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CHARACTERS || PINTEREST || PLAYLIST

OUTLINE COMPLETE, DEMO IN EARLY STAGES.

DISCLAIMER: GAME IS RATED A STRONG R / 18+

Trigger warnings: drug use & trafficking, alcohol & alcoholism, heavy language, gun/physical violence, police brutality, blood, death, & murder.

A more extensive list will be available in-game, and the choice to skip certain triggers is a choice for those who so desire. The warnings listed here are unavoidable, but a disclaimer of triggers present in any given chapter can be enabled.

It was always going to end like this. Your palms scrape against the wall, staining it red while pain seeps into your torn flesh. Strained breaths force out of your lungs, misting the brick in a vivid crimson, your fingers searching for purchase through the agony.

Frigid metal presses harshly against your temple, and the click that resonates from the gun echoes in your ears like a mock gong.

A knuckle cracks when it tightens around the trigger. You should’ve known.

It was always going to end like this.

You step into the boots of the Vice President of Hungry Dogs MC; a ragtag gang you and your best friend formed on that one picturesque twilight evening three years ago. What began as a simple idea between friends developed over time, your effort and struggles winning you both notoriety and infamy, enough so that the city council now considers you a threat. The city folk utter the name of your club in both awe and fear, and you play the role of both boogeyman and saint in the minds of San Maroans. Wherever you go, your colors turn heads. You are not only surviving, but thriving.

But like all success stories, yours too, had an end.

After years of empty threats, the city takes action against you, and the raid pushed on your meeting grounds is extensive. Everything falls apart, and you’re left to pick up the fragments of a once-great empire, your safety net torn to pieces, and sympathetic faces are few, and far between. With your President missing, the burden of leadership falls on your shoulders.

Your club has scattered into the wind; scared, detained, or dead. Threats loom over you like a shadow; The law is out for your soul, and rival clubs want your head on a pike.

There’s no other choice but to fight.

Extensive character creation; too many variables to name here! Assume name(s), nickname, appearance (skin details galore), gender, pronouns, sexuality, romantic orientation, family history, reflections on the club, addictions, and customization of your bike. To cite a few.

Heavily character and action driven, your choices matter, and have a tremendous impact on the ending(s) and what happens to the gang and its remaining members.

Hone your skills to fit your play style: A silver-tongued con-man, a hardened brawler, or a ruthless trailblazer; A deceptive trapper, or elusive diplomat, the possibilities are vast.

Pursue one out of three varying storylines; the “Forever Dogs, Dogs Forever”, “Beginning of the End”, or “Betrayal at Zenith”, each essentially altering the story into an entirely different game.

Find time for romance with one of the (currently) five romantic interests, each with their own obstacles, challenges, and shortcomings; the leader, the enforcer, the enemy, the greenhorn, or the masked rider. All are also open for platonic befriending, rivalry, flings, frenemy options, and all sexual scenes are optional and skippable.

V.P.

Hey, that’s you. A San Maro Original, co-founder and Vice President of Hungry Dogs. If you weren’t born here, you moved in at an incredibly young age. This city is all you’ve known, and the nooks and crannies are home to you. Although the city sprawls far and wide, you mostly stick to the South San Maro, where you and most of your club members live and operate.

The world is at your fingertips. It's time to build a legacy.

DANIEL “DANE” WELTER JR. (M / 32)

The president and founder of HDMC, and your best friend. Or at least he was three years ago. If there’d been any bad blood brewing between you, the rest of the club hadn’t noticed. Extremely fiery personality, with a boisterous attitude towards everything. Unabashedly loud and without a filter, and uncannily laid back for someone labeled as one of the worst criminals in San Maro. You’ve been in a position where you had to remind him of the club responsibilities more than a few times, since he has a bad habit of rushing into new projects while the last is still in motion; Still, it’s clear that he cares deeply for the club, if the jail time didn’t already tip anyone off.

MONICA “MONA” WASHINGTON (F / 28)

The best, and undefeated SGT at Arms of HDMC, also the last member of the San Maro Original three, including you and Dane. A passionate woman with a sharp tongue that can twist you into submission just as well as her brawn could; Mona is not one to trifle with. She takes protecting the club seriously, and has no qualms with getting on the offense first. Has a bit of a bad habit of being sarcastic and brash, even outright rude, but there’s a lot of appreciation behind her merciless teasing. Usually the one to look after the newest prospects, to whip them into shape and see that they obey the club laws. The best company to go riding or drinking with.

ANGEL ROJAS (M|F / 33)

Relentless, that’s a word to describe Angel, the hand of justice the city has sicced on your club’s case. They’ve been a thorn in your since the day you grew into a small group, and somehow always seem to know when your meetings take place, and where you’re exchanging goods, Many speculate that the gumshoe was once a biker themselves, but turned a page towards the lawful after an incident; But those are just rumor mills, something to justify the fright they give every time they show up at a good deal soon to go bad. Then again, they approach none of you outside the shady dealings, and you’ve enjoyed a relatively solitary life without their watching eyes on you.

SAM “PROSPIE” O’HALLORAN (NB / 22)

The newly initiated member of HDMC after a long, grueling year of proving themselves and sinking into the more criminal sides of your operations. They’re still soft-spoken around you and the president, but otherwise they get along with most everyone in the club. The baby-face causes a lot of confusion on the road, but they take it in stride and have teased some of the older members about how they won’t look a day older than twenty-five, even in their fifties. Has an uncanny talent for defusing situations, and the addition of them in the club has reduced the in-house malicious fight by at least five percent - which both irritates and impresses Mona. Still getting used to more powerful engines, but knows how to ride without falling.

“THIRTEEN” (? / ??)

Thirteen is an enigma. They show up one day, stay a while, and then they’re gone for eight weeks straight. Your local source for the devil’s lettuce and other illicit substances, they’ve been working for and with you for the past two years, yet never shows up without full protective gear and full-face helmet with impossibly dark visors. It adds to the mystique if they weren’t insanely careless with their life otherwise; Never have you seen such reckless driving and disregard to their mortal soul, and their deals take place in broad daylight. Still, their loyalty has earned them an honorary membership in the Dogs, even if they don’t wear the colors.

#hungry dogs if #hungrydogsif #interactive fiction #twine if #twine wip #wip #if wip #HDIF #intro post #hi i'm tol 🖐#forgot that people use dark mode. updated.

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felassan · 4 years

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Dragon Age development insights from David Gaider - PART 1

This information came from DG on a recent SummerfallStudios Twitch stream where he gave developer commentary while Liam Esler played DAO, specifically the mage Origin. I transcribed it in case there’s anyone who can’t watch the stream (for example due to connection/tech limitations, data, time constraints, or personal accessibility reasons). A lot of it is centered on DAO, but there’s also insights into DA2 and DAI. Some of it is info which is known having been out there already, some of it is new, and all of it imo was really interesting! It leaps from topic to topic as it’s a transcript of a conversational format. It’s under a cut due to length.

Note on how future streams in this series are going to work: The streams are going to be every Friday night. Most likely, every week, they’re going to play DAO. Every second week it will be Liam and DG and they’ll be doing more of this developer commentary style/way of doing things, talking about how the game was made as they play through, covering quirks and quibbles etc. Every other week, it will be Liam and a guest playing a different campaign in DAO, and Liam will be talking with them about how DA changed their lives or led them into game development, to get other peoples’ thoughts on the series (as it’s now been like 10 years). Some of these guests we may know, some we won’t. When other DA devs are brought on, it’ll be in the DG sessions. They hope to have PW and Karin Weekes on at some point. Sometime they hope to have an episode where they spend the whole time going through the lore.

(Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6)

[wording and opinions DG’s, occasionally LE’s; paraphrased]

DAO’s development actually finished up around April 2009. They then put it on ice for around six months before release. Human Noble is DG’s favorite Origin. It’s one of the ones he wrote. He also wrote the Dalish Origin as well (Tamlen is his doing ;__;). DAO’s temp name during development was Chronicles. DG has never played any of the DA games after they were released. He played them pre-release loads of times, when they were half-broken or incomplete etc. This stream is his first time seeing everything played after completion.

NWN: Hordes of the Underdark was the first game where DG was a/the lead writer, in charge of other writers, as opposed to a senior writer. It was pretty well-received. In the fall of 2003, BW were just finishing up HotU when James Ohlen came to DG to talk. BW had been having issues during the development of NWN with the IP holder for D&D Wizards of the Coast, so they were interested in starting their own IPs that they would have ownership over (and also for financial reasons). JO said to DG that one of these new IPs would be fantasy and one would be sci-fi. He knew that DG was more fantasy-oriented, and so asked DG if he wanted to take this on. DG was down, and the first thing to figure out was what that fantasy IP was going to be.

JO gave DG an atlas of European history, which he still has, and said that he wanted him to make a fantasy world that is reminiscent of medieval Europe and reminiscent of D&D - “make it like D&D but not, file off the serial numbers really well”. This worked for DG because he was pretty familiar with D&D and there were also lots of things that he didn’t like about it and wanted to change. So DG went off and for the next six months worked on creating a setting, beginning with documentation and the map. This was kinda strange because they had no idea at that time what their story would be. JO was very interested in having a “genetically evil” enemy in the setting (like an equivalent to orcs). DG wasn’t a big fan of this and his initial go at the setting omitted this (i.e. darkspawn were not a thing) and was a lot more realistic. JO insisted on adding them later on.

This period of development wasn’t actually a good process. There were other people who were working on the project who were designing the combat side. Looking back, DG feels that they should have put their heads together a lot sooner. The combat designers had various ideas for various prestige classes and subclasses, and DG would be like “these are nowhere in the setting [lore]”. He tried his best to add a few of them after the fact, which is why we see things like DA’s version of the bard archetype. The combat designers and artists originally had a vision in mind of a game that was much more along the lines of the type of fantasy you’d find in the Conan the Barbarian world - bare-chested barbarians, sorceresses that show a lot of skin, a grimdark world with barbarian hordes. They were just assuming that’s what it was going to be. At this point in time DG had never thought, “Oh, maybe I’m responsible for communicating my ideas to them” - he’d never done this role before and was just told to go create the world. He created world-building documentation and would send out emails saying “I’m making this documentation, please go ahead and take a look”, not learning until later on that nobody outside of the writing team really likes reading such documentation. He learned tricks later on like making the docs more accessible, less dense and wordy, and overall easier to peruse.

There was no real ‘vision holder’ for DA. Mass Effect did a much better job of that. Casey Hudson was the project director and the vision holder for ME, and he had the power to enforce a set vision of what was and was not ME. ME therefore ended up having a bit more of a coherent vision. DG was in essence the vision holder for DA, but he didn’t really have the authority to enforce it on the artists. The DA teams ended up spending a good 3.5 - 4 years of the ~6 years of DAO dev time going in circles, not exactly sure what they were going to make, the various people working on it having different ideas of what ‘kind’ of fantasy they were going to make. The writing team were leaning towards LoTR; the artists were leaning towards Conan; at one point one of the project directors was leaning towards a point-and-click Diablo-style action adventure; and nobody was overriding anybody else.

The fans who hang out on the forums and in similar places have a very different idea about what kind of game they like and want to play versus the telemetry BW get from the public in general. As an example, fans on the forums tend towards playing non-humans and feeling that playing as a human is boring. Forum-polls reflected that, but BW’s general public-telemetry shows that around 75-80% of the playerbase played a human in DAO. Elves were at 15% and dwarves 5%. In contrast, in the core/forum-based fanbase, the human figure dropped down to 30%.

DG originally wanted Zevran to be a gay romance (he has talked about this before). He asked JO if he could do that pretty early on, thinking of Jade Empire which had same-gender romance options which were really popular. BW were surprised about that, and DG had no idea that the JE team were going to do this. For DAO, he had an idea for an assassin character. He had been reading about how the CIA and KGB would often recruit gay men to be their assassins, as they didn’t tend to have family ties. DG thought this was really interesting. JO was cool with the idea on a conceptual level, but thought that the work that would end up going into it would be better served if those characters could be romanced by both male and female PCs. Zevran and Leliana weren’t intended to be bi, they were “bi out of convenience”, but at the time these sorts of things (representation and such) didn’t enter into the equation as much as it does today. DG wrote Zevran in his head as being romanceable by men.

DG would ask the hair artists, “Why all the mullets?”, because he never understood that, and he’d get “a sort of shrug response”, and an indication that “it’s easier to model, I guess?” Having hair which is loose, in the face, in locks, coming over the shoulders etc wasn’t really supported at this point by the tech or the engine. Hence, they ended up with like five different versions of mullets. On the subject of the engine, for the first half of development they were using an upgraded version of the Aurora engine from NWN, and it was not good. Several years in they decided to switch. Trent Oster was in charge at the time of making a new proprietary BW engine. At the time it wasn’t ready yet, but the DA team decided to grab it, use it and hammer it into the DA engine. That engine had “so many little weird quirks”, like lighting on skin not working properly and looking bad, and one of the issues was hair. It was supposed to be BW’s proprietary engine but it really wasn’t optimized for RPGs and didn’t include a dialogue system. They had to custom-build the conversation system. (At the time Trent didn’t think BW should be doing RPGs anymore, which is a whole other story of its own). DG recalls programmers complaining about things in the engine that weren’t ready for ‘prime-time’. Even compared to games released concurrently, DAO’s graphics were a bit dated.

For the worldbuilding, they had an internal wiki and they kept everything on there. They ended up with a lot of legacy documentation on there very quickly. Eventually they solved this by hiring an editor whose sole job it was to wrangle the documentation. DG started work on the setting in the same manner in which he’d embark on starting a homebrew - ‘so like, first, here’s a map, oh, I like this name, vague ideas, a paragraph on each major nation, a rough timeline of the history, expanding, and it just growing from there’. After about six months, they brought on other writers, and by then he had around 50 pages of documentation. This 50 pages was a minute amount compared to the amount they had generated at the time of release. Originally, they weren’t sure where in the world specifically the story would take place, so DG made sure to seed potential and brewing conflicts throughout Thedas. They settled quite quickly on the new Blight starting in Ferelden. Once they established that, the writers went to town on taking Ferelden specifically and blowing it up detail-wise. Jennifer Hepler was in charge of the dwarves and Orzammar. Mary Kirby was on Fereldan customs and traditions.

The first version of the setting was more grounded in realism, almost like a post-fantasy. The dragons and griffons were extinct and a lot of the things that were thought to be fantastical were thought to be over with. During development, they started clawing these things back. They brought back dragons because the game was named Dragon Age (lol). DG was approached like, “Hey, we named the game DA, can you bring back dragons and weave them into the story more powerfully?” Wynne’s writer Sheryl Chee had a bit of an obsession with griffons and was often like ‘omg, griffons :D’, and this is the origin of Wynne’s dialogue with the Warden about griffons.

KotOR was the first time BW had tried to do a game that was fully voiced-over. For KotOR, BW sent the work of casting, direction and so on down to another studio in California called Technicolor. BW had little say in the process then and when they got it back, “it was what it was”. By the time they got to DA and the first ME, BW had a good system down for recording and VO had become an important thing in games at the time. BW are really one of the premieres for this, a lot of actors really like acting on BW games as they get a lot of space to act where they wouldn’t normally be able to do so otherwise. DG has learned a lot from Caroline Livingstone on how to encourage the best performance out of an actor. For DAO, DG worked together with the various lead designers and Caroline to decide on the auditions, casting etc. This was one of DG’s favorite things to do.

Gideon Emery as Fenris, GDL as Solas and Eve Myles as Merrill were times where DG had written the character and then went to Caroline and said “I have an actor in mind for them, can you check it out?” These were specific times where he was able to secure the actor he wanted. This didn’t always work out, for example there are times when actors aren’t interested or have no time due to scheduling conflicts or were too expensive etc. Eve and GDL were DG’s roommate Cori’s idea. Cori was a big fan of Torchwood/the actors from Torchwood, and worked as an editor at BW for a long time. Gideon was DG’s idea after playing FF12. For DAO, DG didn’t have any specific ideas in terms of actors. Casting Morrigan was the longest, most drawn out process.

The Circle went through a whooole process during worldbuilding. Initially, mages in the game weren’t supposed to have any “fighting magic”. The restrictions were originally such that in the lore, they didn’t teach mages that. Mages weren’t taught any magic that could kill people, only ‘indirect’ forms of magic that could support others. However, [during what sounds like] playtesting it was asked “Why can’t I cast a fireball? I just want to cast a fireball”, so the writers had to go back and rework how magic in the lore worked completely.

Flemeth was originally going to be voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo, and she was totally on-board, but unfortunately because of DAO’s development delays, she was unable to attend the new recording time as she had a conflict in her schedule (she was filming House of Sand and Fog). Shoreh was quite disappointed about this and her family had been so excited that she was going to be in a video game. When the movie was finished, Shoreh came back to BW and let them know that she was still available, and this is how she ended up in ME2. For a while they were trying to find an actress with an accent that authentically mirrored Shoreh’s. Out of the blue around this time, Claudia Black’s agent sent BW an audition tape of her. At the time Claudia hadn’t done any games but wanted to get into it. The tape was of Claudia doing a beat poet rendition of Baby Got Back. DG still has this tape. DG was a big fan of Farscape and on listening to the tape, it clicked right away in his head that Claudia would be perfect for Morrigan.

The Fade ended up being a big irritation for the writers. They wanted the PC to be able to assume different forms and such while in there. A lot of this stuff proved too difficult for the combat designers to work out, and so it ended up getting changed a lot. They had a hard time coming up with gameplay that could work in the Fade. The mage Origin is DG’s least favorite of the Origin stories, as he’s really dubious about the Fade section in it. It didn’t work out like how they had pictured it in their heads. By the time they got to DAI, that’s when the Fade really looks like how the writers first described/envisioned it. By this point the artists were more keen to give it a more specific feel. DAO was made at a time when ‘brown is realistic’ was a prevailing thing in games dev.

The experience of a mage in the world isn’t represented or conveyed very well to the player when the player is a mage. The experience of the player when they’re playing a mage or have a mage in their party doesn’t really match up with how the world lore tells them how dangerous mages can be - for example, how they can lose control and so on, we never really have an example of a PC mage struggling with being taken over by a demon. This was originally supposed to be a subplot in DA2 for mage Hawkes, in one of the last cuts. In Act 2, mage Hawke was originally slowly being tricked by a demon in their head that they thought was real, only to realize at the last minute. Mouse the Pride demon in the mage Origin is the only time in the entire series that they really ever properly demonstrated how demons can fuck with [PC] mages. Also, PC templars were originally supposed to have a permanent lyrium addiction that they needed to ‘feed’, but this was scrapped as the system designers weren’t keen on it and felt that it was essentially handicapping the player.

Mages were originally also not supposed to be able to deal with pure lyrium (it would ‘overload’ them). There is a plot where mage PCs run around touching lyrium nodes to refill their mana bars. On this DG was like “Wtf is this?” The designers said that it works, and DG said “but it flies in the face of the lore”. This instance is an example of how the DA team was working where the various departments (writers, artists, designers etc) all had their own ideas about how the game and its world would work and never overrode each other (see above). DG feels that DAO is a little contradictory in that way. It’s only after the game came out that a lot of the people on the team really “bought into” what they’d put forward. This got easier as they went on, with people involved buying then into the things that make Dragon Age, Dragon Age. At one point, not everyone on the team was even aware of those things.

DG relates that originally, they would ask the artists, “Ok, can we get a village?” and said village once created would be quite generic and non-specific to DA. The writers would try to relate how things are in the DA world and list things that would be found in a village like this specific to the DA world, and the artists either didn’t read it or had their own ideas (DG isn’t sure which), and nobody was around to tell them not to do that and that they should do it differently. Everyone having their own ideas like this is why we ended up getting something that is this sort of “cobbled together half-Conan half-LotR mish-mash”, and after a while this sort of became DA’s “thing”.

Initially, BW had concepts drawn up for a lot more different creatures. After they went in circles for those years and consequently ran out of time to do all the models, they had to cut these concepts down more and more. Demons were among the ones that were the first to go (this is why we have situations like a bereskarn as the Sloth Demon in the mage Origin). The original concepts for things like spirits of Valor and Sloth demons were really good. Early on, JO made a list of D&D creatures that he liked. He picked the ones that they were thinking of doing, sent them to DG and said to make a “DA version of this”. For example, D&D succubi essentially became Desire Demons. Desire Demons were originally patterned off Sandman, neither male nor female yet really alluring, acting more like a genie and trying to ferret out mortals’ inner desires (which are not necessarily sexual in nature), without being overtly sexual. The artists’ version came back and that was basically the model seen in-game. The writers were like “What is this, this is nothing like the description?” and the artists responded that on the list from JO, it was included, in that you had to click on “succubus” to get to the Desire Demon description, so they had just read “succubus” and done their version of a succubus. The artists did loads of great work, but this was one of the instances were DG was like “???” By then, it was too late to change it. The writers were able to encourage them to make Desire Demons a little more fearsome, so that made it in at least.

The mage Origin was one of the more contentious Origin stories. It had like 4 different versions written of it over time. It was often the case that BW would hire someone, and writing an Origin story was their first test. Three different writers came in and wrote a version of the mage Origin and those versions just didn’t work. Finally they passed it to Sheryl Chee and she wrote it. The Origins were the parts of the game in general that were written/rewritten the most often. There were several others that got written that they discarded.

Duncan was slated for death from Day 1. When DG writes a story, the thing he does first is pick out the big emotional beats that he wants, such as deaths. He decides these ahead of time and the stuff in-between comes later and is more often changed. Oghren was also originally supposed to die, but this ended up getting cut. DG related a story of how Oghren came to be: At the time, there was a phase JO went through when he thought everything had a formula that it could be done by. One of these ‘creative forumulas’ was that all such IPs had a two-word name that they’re known by, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Dragonlance (being Dragon-Lance). This is how ‘DA’ and ‘ME’ came to be. One of the formulas he wanted to implement was how to distill the ‘comedy character’, like Minsc or HK-47. These characters were very popular with the fans and JO was certain that there was a way to figure this out to create one for DA. At the time, DG argued with him a lot about this. JO insisted it could be done. DG was originally supposed to write this character but ended up not doing so. JO came up with a list of comedic archetypes and had DG write a blurb about what kind of character each could be. These were then sent out to the team who voted on which was their favorite. This process eventually resulted in an archetype basically called ‘The Buffoon’ (think Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin, the kind of guy people laugh at because he’s such an oaf).

At this point ‘The Buffoon’ wasn’t named or made a dwarf yet. JO came to DG to write him, but DG said there was a problem which is that he hates this archetype. Homer and Peter are characters that he despises. DG is a professional writer, but this was comedy (outside of his areas of strength), and he felt the best he would be able to do is write a character who makes fun of this archetype and lampshade that. Comedy is something that has to come from within the writer. Oghren was given to someone else, and he ended up getting rewritten again anyway. By the time they were working on Awakening, DAO had not yet come out, and the assumption prior to the game going out was that Oghren was still going to be the most popular character from among the followers. The comedic character that ended up being the most popular along these lines was Alistair, which was interesting as he wasn’t intended as a comedic character, “so shows what we know”. DG was dubious that Oghren was going to be popular, because “he was kind of pathetic, honestly”, but that was the thinking at the time. Thinking he would be well-loved is why he was in Awakening.

On Alistair, any character DG writes is going to be sarcastic. At the time DG had made it a sort of personal challenge to recreate Joss Whedon’s dialogue patterns in his characters. Alistair was a sort of mish-mash of Xander from Buffy and maybe Mal from Firefly. DG wanted to see if he could do it, so Alistair was kind of quippy and self-deprecating. DG never really considered this to be Alistair’s main personality feature, but when other writers wrote him, they often had him doing this, as they liked the trait so much, and so this is how Alistair ended up as he did.

On dwarves, the dwarves being cut off from the Fade is very much baked into who the dwarves are as a race. There’s a specific reason why. This has been hinted at so far and it’s likely to come up in the future. DG had various ideas for some things that he wanted to include with the races or the way the world works etc. Some of them ended up never happening or some are mentioned only as part of the lore (templar lyrium addiction never coming up in gameplay is an example of this). Dwarven history and the nature of the dwarves is one of the things that survived pretty well though. DG calls Jennifer Hepler “mistress of the dwarves” and says that she did a really detailed, amazing breakdown of their history. After Jennifer left it was Mary Kirby, and DG feels that they did a good job of maintaining how dwarves were, in terms of both how they’re often presented in fantasy and yet also quite different in DA. Orzammar is one of DG’s favorite plots all together. You can really tell that Jennifer Hepler really enjoyed the dwarves and brought a lot of love to that plot.

DG draws a distinction between DA fans and the unpleasant people who harassed Jennifer Hepler.

They managed to keep the Tranquil in. There was a while there where they were going to be cut. At the same time, DG regrets that they couldn’t solve the making of the player more aware of how mages are dangerous, thing. Players could make a cogent argument like “they’re not that dangerous, look at me [mage PC]” and the writers were like “well... yeah, that is fair”. It was a case of showing one thing and the player experience of it being another. DG feels that this made the templars come off worse than they are. DG feels that they are being massively unfair and too extreme in their approach to the problem, but the problem itself is a real thing. He feels that there’s some merit/truth in the argument that mages are oppressed, but he looks at it more like an issue like gun control rather than as treatment of oppressed people, saying that we don’t have an example in real life of oppressed people who can explode into demons and cast fireballs and so on.

There are some funny pronunciations that worked their way into DA, and the reason for a lot of them is as follows: the writers had to create a pronunciation guide for VO, because otherwise you end up with a lot of inconsistencies. (Some did still slip through). The guide was online, and if you clicked on a word, an audio file for it would play. Jennifer Hepler was in charge of this and did a great job, but has a really strong NY accent, and in some cases the ‘NY-ness’ of her pronunciation endearingly worked itself into things (the way Arlathan is sometimes said is an example of where this happened sometimes).

Sometimes the writers trying to communicate the “hotness” of a character to the artists didn’t go smoothly. The writers would sometimes say things like, ok, this character is a romance, they need to be hot, and the designs would come back looking “like Burt Reynolds”, and the writers would be like “???” And then a character that wasn’t particularly intended to be hot, as in that wasn’t mentioned at all in the descriptions of them, would come back “accidentally hot”, and the writers would be like “Why couldn’t you have done this when we were asking for a character that was meant to be hot”, and the artists would be like “What?? He’s not hot”. And this became a thing (lmao - this discussion was prompted by DG being asked “Was Duncan meant to be that hot?”, for context). Some of the artists were so paranoid about their [in]ability to judge actually-hot characters that when it was time to pick an appearance, like for Alistair, they gathered up all the women at BioWare, and DG (“resident gay”) into a room to show them an array of faces and bodies like “Is this hot? Is this hot?” DG and co would sit there like, “How can you not tell? Is this a straight man thing?!” Anyways, this is why oftentimes we ended up with characters who are accidentally hot.

Over time, the writers realized that the way they communicated to artists needed to be managed better. The words they would use would have different connotations to them the writers, than what they did to the artists. For example, for Anders’ design in DA2, he was supposed to be “a little haggard”. When DG thinks of haggard, he thinks ‘a little tired, mussed hair, looking like you’ve been through some shit’. But the artists based on that produced concepts with super sunken cheeks, looking like he’d been terribly starved. The writers needed to develop a specific vocabulary for communicating with the artists, as artists think in terms of how something looks, but writers are thinking in terms of what the character “is”. Anders’ description talked about his history a lot, and the one visual-type word that jumped out was “haggard” due to its visual connotations. “A lot it came down to the writers being up their/our own asses.”

When they got to DAI, they had figured out that the way to get best results on this front was /not/ to have the writer go off and develop a long description and pre-conceived notion of what the character looked like in their head. In such scenarios artists don’t feel that they have much to contribute to the process or an ability to put their own stamp on who this character is and make them interesting to them (the best, most interesting characters are when people at all stages of the pipeline properly get to feed into it). They learned that the better solution was to bring the artists in earlier, and to give them little blurbs, and not name the character but give them an ‘archetype’-sort of ‘name’. For example, Dorian was “the rockstar mage”, “cool”, “Freddie Mercury”. The writers wouldn’t be sure that a particular concept would ‘hit’, so at this stage they would offer an array of options and sit the artist down and walk them through the concepts. The artists would then provide a bunch of sketches and it would go back and forth, with both taking part in the character creation process together. For the first two games, the writers were “really hogging” this process to themselves. They got better at not doing this and better at communicating with the artists by DAI.

There were a lot of arguments about how mages in DAO had a lot of specific lore words like “Harrowing”, “phylactery”, “Rite of Tranquility” etc. There was concern that this would be too confusing for players to understand and that it was too complicated. DG says that thankfully he put his foot down and pushed for this stuff to be kept. A lot of fans assume that as lead writer DG had all this influence, way more influence than he could possibly exert on a team. He wasn’t even a lead, he was a sub-lead, under a lead designer. He only had so much say. If the lead designer or lead artist wanted to do something differently, often there was not much he could do. Hence he had to pick his battles carefully, choose the important ones to fight. The mage vocabulary thing was one of these.

Templar Greagoir’s name is pronounced “Gregor” and it comes from a place in Alberta near where DG lived.

Codex entries are usually one of the last things that get done in a project like this, and so all of that kind of textual lore comes in super late and is super punchy as by then the writers have written so much and are exhausted. They had to find a way to make this process cute or interesting or fun for themselves, which is why a lot of entries are quite fun to read. Sometimes a writer would make a joke for banter [irl], and it would end up making it into an entry.

Only Morrigan and Duncan got unique body models in DAO. The companions all have custom-morphed heads but not custom-morphed bodies (Morrigan not included here). This is why every model has a necklace or a collar right at the point where they had to be attached to be a body. These sometimes used assets that couldn’t be used by the PC but were not unique to that character. Duncan probably got a unique model because he was in a lot of marketing/promotional material. Qunari were originally conceived as having horns.

Most people didn’t even finish DAO once (public telemetry again here), only approximately 20-25% actually did. The devs try not to read too much into this kind of thing, but the telemetry does tell them where a lot of people stop playing the game permanently (they call these “drop-off points”). One of these points in DAO is the Fade during Broken Circle. Sometimes when people interpret this data they involve self-serving biases, but it was generally accepted that the Fade there was too long, too complex, not interesting enough, etc. [source]

[Part 2]

[Part 3]

[Part 4]

[Part 5]

[Part 6]

[‘Insights into DA dev from the Gamers For Groceries stream’ transcript]

#dragon age #bioware #morrigan #solas #video games #queen of my heart #mass effect #lgbtq #jade empire #fenris #the Fenaissance #alistair theirin #lul #fav warden

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polandspringz · 3 years

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I made the decision to watch all of the Case Files of Jeweler Richard in a day and I am ABSOLUTELY LOSING MY FUCKING MIND

(Technically I’ve watched up to episode 11 so I have 1 more episode left but am leaving it until tomorrow because it’s 1 AM right now- but I digress)

Spoilers for up to episode 10 of the anime, and apologies because I don’t know how to do read more on mobile so LONG POST:

Okay so FIRST OFF- On the cover this show isn’t explicit in that it has LGBTQ themes- it’s not labeled as such or with BL or Shounen Ai, the usual genre titles we see in anime. However, when I first tried to watch it a few months ago, within the opening minute I just knew (I just forgot to continue after that first minute until today). A lot of times with anime you can just tell things based on the art style or the dialogue, and if it doesn’t end up having those themes, then you get a situation like Balance: Unlimited where all of Twitter was tweeting “wait, it isn’t a BL???”

That being said, this series DOES have LGBTQ themes, one of the early side characters talks about how she doesn’t want to go through with her marriage because she realized she’s a lesbian or bisexual and is still in love with her old roommate. Another character expresses thoughts about romance and marriage in ways that I’m sure people who are asexual or a romantic can identify with. And this isn’t just with the side characters, oh no. The entire show is centered around the relationship of Richard and Seigi, and oh my god is it wild in how it is presented.

If you go on the wiki for this show, as my sister and I did, you’ll see a sentence along the lines of “Richard and Seigi frequently compliment each other’s beauty and say how much they like one another, to the point that everyone around them believes them to be in a relationship. However it’s unclear if their words are romantic or not.” And then if you go to their relationship page on the wiki, it just says Seigi is Richard’s boyfriend. So what’s the truth? (TLDR: the wiki is right. They’re definitely in love.)

Well the thing that had me rolling is that Seigi says he likes rich. A lot. Specifically throws around the “daisuki” line almost every episode. He says Richard is like a jewel, calls him beautiful and pretty. Richard picks him up in the rain after being dumped. They go alone to fancy restaurants for dinner almost every night. They flirt. It feels almost undeniable that what they’re saying is romantic, and that any kiss confirmation is unnecessary. There is a major plot line during all this though of Seigi trying to ask out his female college classmate however, and the result makes it sort of feel like Richard and Seigi are together but they’re in this open relationship with no labels so Richard just wants Seigi to have no regrets. The plot with the classmate really doesn’t do anything to their relationship. Richard and Seigi still are being as wild as ever.

And the reason I refer to this as being “wild” is partially because while watching my sister and I were riffing on the dialogue a little. For an anime, the show is very progressive in it’s ideas, Richard in episode 1 or 2 straight up calling Seigi out for something he said about a foreign customer and making him promise to not discriminate or judge anyone for their race, religion, sexual orientation, appearance, etc. (My sister literally joked “DONT BE RACIST” and then her jaw dropped when Richard said just that). There’s a multitude of moments in the first half of the show where Richard basically is just glaring at Seigi or telling him off later with a deadpanned expression for being xenophobic or just blunt about things that end up being rude to customers, and it’s because of how surprising it is that the show NEVER misses a moment to be like “YEAH ACTUALLY DON’T BE RUDE” that makes it hilarious. It feels almost unreal when everything you make a joke about happens two seconds afterwards.

Circling back to Richard and Seigi relationship though, early on I called on the idea that the show was going to have the trope of “he’s rich and from Europe so he’s illegitimate or something and he’s going to have to go back and Seigi will run after him in this big airport scene” and I basically got all that. Except that Richard and Seigi don’t meet up again until they’ve both been in England for a while and then we learn that Richard’s family are terrible people because a clause in their dead great grandfather’s inheritance made it so only Richard can inherit this 300 million pound Diamond but ONLY if he married a traditional English housewife. This clause is said to be VERY VERY strict in that it HAS to be an English housewife to the LETTER. And she must be TRADITIONAL. Of course, Richard is refusing to do this. So you’re watching them mess around in England for a bit, I got another cliche/trope I wanted when Seigi fell sick and Richard had to care for him in the hotel room, before the characters suddenly get a phone call and Richard’s cousin goes:

“Hey Seigi! Guess what? Turns out you qualify for the marriage clause! Despite being Asian, the will and the law consider a homosexual civil partnership equivalent to a heterosexual marriage, so you can be with Richard and then he get’s the Diamond! So I’ll see you at the safe where the Diamond will be at!”

(I’m paraphrasing the words obviously but the part about civil partnership was what I specifically remember being said, but forgive me for any errors, as my jaw was on the floor when the show threw that curveball at me).

In case you’re confused, I’m not saying this is bad at all. I’m just saying when watching this show, it feels UNBELIEVABLY HILARIOUS the way these things literally get thrown at the audience. Stuff you would never expect in an anime just punch you in the face repeatedly and I was so shocked from this “viable marriage candidate” twist that I did SENSE was coming (but thought of it more of as a joke, BECAUSE HOW THE HECK DID HE FIT THE CLAUSE OF A TRADITIONAL ENGLISH HOUSEWIFE) I had to pause the episode and rush to spit out the water I just drank before I choked. And if this wasn’t enough to kill me, we learn later on, that the reason this whole crazy clause happened in this dead man’s will was because he wanted to get back at the rest of Richard’s family because the man’s son was marrying a woman from Sri Lanka and LITERALLY SAID “THE WHITE SUPERMACISTS” WOULD HARASS HER so all of this chaos was to give the fortune to their side of the family and piss off the racists. I just cannot believe I’m hearing and seeing all this in a Japanese anime. There was even discussion of how Japan’s traditional gender roles restrict women, and it’s just like HOW IS THIS SHOW SO PROGRESSIVE??? It literally feels like I’m watching a paradox and it’s sad because it shouldn’t but it’s hilarious and enjoyable all the same.

Once again, and sort of a TLDR, The Case Files of Jeweler Richard is an incredible show. It’s an unintentionally hilarious ride that isn’t baiting because it feels like it’s definitely presenting Richard and Seigi’s relationship as romantic coded without needing a kiss or anything. It’s strangely progressive and open minded for Japanese media, seems meta at times, and has left me stunned in ten out of twelves episodes thus far that I’m so sad I didn’t watch it week to week to see the reactions of the fans live. I highly recommend this series if you’re looking for something to just get you to laugh or just a fun story involving two male leads with great chemistry.

Now, here’s a representation of me watching this show:

#the case files of jeweler richard #Poland’s thoughts

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spervier · 2 years

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𝙲𝙷𝙰𝚁𝙰𝙲𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝚂𝙷𝙴𝙴𝚃. repost, don’t reblog.

BASICS .

full name: jack teague, in theory. in practice, it’s jack sparrow. captain jack sparrow. nicknames: jackie, jacques, jacky boy, witty jack, sparrow, anything you can think of. gender: cis man, he / him pronouns. age: 30-31 during the main trilogy, born in 1698. zodiac: gemini. spoken languages: english, some faltering spanish, french and portuguese. knows a few words in japanese, yucatec maya and latin.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS .

hair color: jet black and shiny. eye color: jade green. skin tone: brown. body type: athletic and incredibly agile, slender and graceful. a typical swimmer’s body build, broad-shouldered, with strong arms and powerful thighs. add to that that he was a trained sailor since a young age. height: 5'10'' — 178cm. voice: not entirely baritone but deep-leaning, with a playful edge, smooth and tuneful. dominant hand: shoots and fences with both hands, right for everything else. posture: kind of drooping, always leaning, and he has a signature staggering walk. birthmarks: n/a.

CHILDHOOD .

place of birth: teague’s ship, west of indonesia, indian ocean. hometown: n/a. sibling(s): none that he knows of. parents: edward teague, one day i’ll actually make up my mind about his nameless mom.

ADULT LIFE .

occupation: pirate, privateer for a time, full-time adventurer, treasure-seeker, demigod. close friends: joshamee gibbs, will turner, elizabeth swann, others. relationship status: single. financial status: lower class but not poor, he’s a thief hehe. driver’s license: well he can drive a ship. criminal record: a long list of piracy-related felonies (thievery, murder, destruction of royal property) but also treason, rebellion against the crown, freeing slaves etc.

SEX AND ROMANCE .

romantic orientation: biromantic. sexual orientation: bisexual. preferred emotional role: whatever this means, i’d say sub-leaning? he’s not into emotional power dynamics and tends to prefer a certain emotional distance anyway, but when he’s in love, really in love, he gets very self-conscious and worries about “being good enough”. preferred sexual role: absolutely switch. that’s it. he loves dominating as much as being dominated, and will savour both cases enthusiastically. libido: average to high. average turn-ons: personality-wise, he gravitates around strong personalities and snarky attitudes, and nothing turns him off quicker than boring people. he likes the flirting / courting process and those who indulge it, he’s into clever minds, mystery and adventure. physically, he doesn’t have any specific preferences, and the wild range of people he’s been attracted to is very telling. he loves slow, lazy s*ex. turn-offs: the usual. love language: physical touch and receiving gifts. give him something to remember you by, and he’ll add it to his outfit. relationship tendencies: on and off commitment. don’t expect him to stay, to be there for you when you need him, or even to be faithful. even if he sincerely loves you, there’s always something about him that will slip away.

MISCELLANEOUS .

character’s theme song: badlands, bruce springsteen. hobbies to pass the time: swimming, reading, gambling, drinking, the stuff. mental illness(es): has suffered from manic episodes and hallucinations. left or right-brained: right. phobia(s): n/a. self-confidence level: boastful, even if it’s not always high.

TAGGED BY: @crimewrought <3 TAGGING: idek who did this but @hrker @moonsymbols @vendicarus @finire

#HCS.#wow this was fun

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what-if-rpg · 2 years

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Welcome to the family, SEBASTIAN! Your application to DEVON CRAWFORD was accepted. We’re really happy to give you your second character! Make sure to read the beginners checklist, and remember, have fun! We can’t wait to roleplay with you! Have fun!

IN CHARACTER

CHARACTER NAME: Devon Lennox Crawford (Famous Broadway Actor) CHARACTER AGE & DATE OF BIRTH: 25 FACE CLAIM: Dylan O'Brien HOMETOWN & CITY WHERE LIVES NOW: Born in England, lives in NYC SEXUAL ORIENTATION & GENDER: pansexual demi-boy (he/him non-binary) RELATIONSHIP STATUS: In a relationship and also fucking around with Stevie Evans POSITIVE TRAITS: talented, generous, amenable NEGATIVE TRAITS: sheltered, secretive, impulsive CHARACTER QUOTE/LYRIC: I don't tell you what to say I don't tell you what to do So just let me be myself That's all I ask of you I'm young and I love to be young I'm free and I love to be free To live my life the way I want To say and do whatever I please ANYTHING ELSE?: Because he is born into fame, anyone that's famous probably has a connection to him and everyone should know of him. He's been in the news since he was just a little bean on a sonogram monitor. People on Broadway currently will definitely have room for connections to him, because he's such a big name out there.

HEADCANONS

Growing up famous, he was always in the public eye. There are pictures of his sonograms on the internet. It feels normal, but he does feel like a monkey on a stage sometimes. He's had a couple scandals already, nothing problematic just dangerous. He's actually known for being incredibly kind and generous, giving to other people whenever he has an opportunity. It's been speculated in the tabloids that he has a drinking problem, despite being on Broadway (and having explicit rules that he has to follow on and off stage to represent his craft). His parents are great and loving, but he does feel pressured to live up to their legacy and he feels kin to things that child stars like the Olsen twins have said in interviews about their childhoods. He's got a bunch of VHS movies that he starred in as a child as well, it was in his late teens that he moved onto stage work instead of film and has been in starring roles on Broadway ever since.

It's that pressure that makes him want to drink, he's got more anxiety than he leads on. He's sure that nobody would understand how someone that lives in the spotlight and has everything he could ever want could feel the way that he does sometimes.

He travels between the US and UK all of the time, it's not unusual for him to get on a plane 6-12 times in a year, depending on how much work he's taking on.

Personality wise, he's a jokester. He's easy to get along with and easy to like.

CONNECTIONS

PARENTS: His mother is born in the states and his father was born in England, both coming from wealthy families and proving themselves by gaining accolades quickly. They met while performing together in the New York Symphony and their whirlwind romance was something that was gossiped about in the US And UK, because of their social status and status as celebrities. BROTHER: Adam Crawford is his older brother, their parents are why he was asked to coach and captain the Adam's Apples at NYADA. BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND: He does have a significant other, s/he's someone that he was arranged to meet and was expected to at least try to date. I'm going to be really vague here because I'd like whoever was interested in this role to come to me to plot for it and I want to leave room for creative freedom. However, I do really want you to come plot with me before applying for this. CLOSE FRIEND: Someone he can sit down and gossip with and talk to honestly, even if he has to reveal some parts of himself that don't make him look good in the process. This is someone he could be talking to about cheating on his significant other with and not be judged harshly. This could be another actor and/or someone he's known since childhood. They trust each other because neither of them can trust anyone else, lest their deepest and darkest secrets end up in the tabloids. THE CO-STAR: Stevie Evans has been on the same cast on Broadway for quite some time. They just keep working together, and at this point there's something that keeps him coming back to the other man off stage too and he is most definitely cheating on his official partner with Stevie.

#RP #RPG #Glee RP #Glee RPG #Accepted #Devon Crawford

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kingofthewilderwest · 4 years

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What's amatonormativity??

I’d encourage you to go to Google or check out tumblr tags and posts on amatonormativity to learn more!

Amatonormativity is the internalized cultural mindset that romance is default and central. It especially conceives of romance as the single most important relationship in someone’s life, to the point it should be focused upon and sought out above any other bond. It treats romance like the universal ultimate solution to any of our emotional bond problems (loneliness, intimacy, trust, support, longevity of relationships, etc.). Amatonormativity is heavily ingrained in many societies, like the mindset I find in people in the United States.

Of course romance isn’t a bad life experience! For many people, it can bring great joy. When people criticize amatonormativity, people aren’t criticizing that romance can be a great thing in someone’s life. The problem with amatonormativity is that it treats romance as the ULTIMATE thing, the ONE solution to our need for emotional fulfillment.

It’s important to understand that amatonormativity has profound negative side effects, whether you’re allo or aro, whether you’re queer or straight, and whatever gender you are. Society takes a lot of things for granted regarding romance and this can stunt our happiness. It stunts our ability to bond with other people around us or find satisfaction within our lives.

Amatonormativity underlies emotionally stunting assumptions like..... (disclaimer... I will often use language defaulting to the Western cishet perspective, because that’s the mindset of my broader society... I myself am an aroace enby and have more nuanced understandings of gender, gender expression, gender roles, sexual attraction and identity, romantic attraction and identity, etc.)

Automatically assuming that just because a man talks to a woman, the interaction MUST be romantic in nature (this of course intertwines with heteronormativity -- many of my points will intertwine with heteronormativity). It assumes there’s no such thing as “just friends” between people of “opposite” genders. This in turn can result in us losing opportunities to bond to, understand, or properly respect... literally half the human population.

Treating friendships as secondary. Treating friendships as temporary. Treating friendships as more replaceable than romance. Treating friendships as less “deep” and important to our time than romance, even a romance you started two days ago with someone you met last week. By doing this, we lose the chance to grow deeper with someone near us. It limits the potential by which we can bond with another human soul and find happiness.

The belief we are unlovable and not worth anything because we can’t find a romantic partner. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen people disregard their own worth because of this, and it makes me deeply sad. The truth is that our worth is not at all tied to whether we have a romantic partner. We can be so deeply loved and cherished in all sorts of relationships. Of course it’s still valid if you feel single blues because you want a romantic partner, but tying the concept into “I am worthless OR I’m dating” clearly is an emotionally harmful concept. It can result in everything down to hooking up in a relationship that you aren’t ready for or don’t like as much as you pretend you do.

The belief that we are utterly alone without a romantic partner. I notice this often ties into the amatonormative belief that we can only get good physical touch, trust, emotional and physical intimacy, etc. through a romantic partner. I feel this mindset is especially pronounced in cishet men, since USA culture treats masculinity as lacking outwardly expressed vulnerability, and ergo you might not be getting your emotional needs met through your platonic and familial relations. The one “accepted” way of getting your emotional needs met comes through The Girlfriend / Wife. This belief prevents us from reaching out and finding support through other people in our lives. We can find love and comfort in friends. We can confide about our emotional struggles and find relational intimacy (great trust!) through familial and platonic bonds. Hugs, snuggling, other acts of physical affection are what humans need, and don’t need to be relegated to One Person Only. Plus... if we assume that our emotional struggles should be fulfilled by One Person Only... that puts enormous pressure on that partner to provide for everything. No one’s that strong. We need support networks, not one designated “save me” individual. It’s pure unhealthiness to mount burdens only on one person, and bottle yourself up otherwise. I often see this fallacy pop up when people start a new romantic relationship. You might barely know the person, and yet you’re trying to rely on them for everything, and you’re trying to be the person they’ll rely on for everything. You dive deep into the expectations before you really know how to handle it, and in the process become psychologically overwhelmed because of the Huge Responsibilities this role seems to entail. Being in a romance doesn’t automatically mean you’ve reached peak intimacy! Note: it’s not to say that romance can’t be a major avenue of security. Of course it’s a great way to fulfill intimacy, trust, physical needs, etc. Of course it can become a bond full of loyalty. But romance is actually like any other relationship... a familial relation can be weak or it can be strong, a platonic relation can be weak or it can be strong, and a romantic bond can be weak or it can be strong. The fallacy is that we are treating romance as *THE* way to fulfill all these diverse emotional problems, socking it onto one individual when it might be beyond their single load to bear, and then not seeking out help from the other sources that are around us.

The belief that the only person you can live with is a romantic partner. Living with non-romantic roommates (aka living with friends) is seen as an undesirable inconvenience and something you only do temporarily because you financially have to. It’s seen as an immature youthful thing rather than something an established adult might do. Living with friends long-term out of chosen happiness is not something that crosses the mind of many people... it’s assumed you’ll either move out to live on your own, or marry and go and live with your partner.

The belief that adulthood progresses through a very specific sequence of events. You go to school. You leave on your own. You marry. You get a house. You have kids. There’s a reason it’s common for family to nag you “When are you going to get married? When are you going to get married?” Because clearly you haven’t made an important step of adulthood, an important step in life, unless you get married. I’ve noticed that for many of my friends, even those who are comfortable with the life choice to not get married... they express they don’t feel “as adult” as their married peers. And many people in society won’t treat them “as adult.”

Harmful beliefs downplaying spousal abuse, like those people who try to argue “you can’t rape your wife / husband / spouse / girlfriend / boyfriend / significant enby / significant dumbass. That’s not what rape means.” Because a sexual-romance is the GOOD thing, right?

AND MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE!!!

Some people of course have a better handle on their relationships than others. Some people are better at ignoring what society considers most important or most default. Some of what I’ve said above is when these beliefs are treated to their utmost, rather than what some people will do (lots of people have close “besties”, for instance). But amatonormativity+heteronormativity creeps in everywhere in society.

It’s the reason why, in most Hollywood movies, the protagonist is a man and the main actress is his romantic partner. It’s the reason why these two characters might start a steamy romance even before they know each other well; who needs to write ACTUAL understanding between the two characters when they obviously are going to fall in love and fuck?

It’s the reason why advertisements are so sex-oriented (reminder note: society usually doesn’t distinguish sexual and romantic bonds). Advertisements try to make their product appealing by associating it to romance, the Ultimate Desirable. Here’s how to make you look hot so you can attract someone in a romantic-sexual relationship, because THAT’S the ultimate goal of life, right?

It’s embedded in linguistic expressions. If someone asks if you’re dating, you respond, “No, she’s only a friend.” Or. “No. We’re just friends.” Friendship is being treated as lesser. Breakups are treated as inevitably bad even if you choose to be friends afterwards -- because clearly being friends is “taking a step back”, right? Even the word “break up” -- oooo that’s bad sounding! (There have been multiple times I’ve ended romantic relationships where I’ve turned the phraseology on the head and told them it’s a step forward to better, happier, healthier, stronger bonds... and they had to think it through, because amatonormative society forgets this can be the case.) “Friendzoning” is seen as a crime in part because you’re not going to be as intimate with someone as you want to be... despite the fact that having a non-romantic and/or non-sexual relationship with someone could be JUST as meaningful and deep!

I’ve FREQUENTLY seen church study groups that offer only these options: young adult small groups, women’s small groups, men’s small groups, and married couple’s small groups. Because clearly the only “mixed” gender situations out there are when you’re too young to be married, or you’re married.

And frankly, I think it’s one of the reasons why fandom likes to play hook-up with all the characters. Shipping is SO much fun! I love shipping! This is not a comment against the act of shipping! But if everyone needs a romantic partner to be happy...... mmmmm.... yeah let’s rethink what the underlying assumption is here. It’s that default assumption that “romance=happiness, romance=ultimate goal, romance=happily ever after, friendship=lesser.” If two characters in a show don’t canonically hook up, fans can get angry... even if the relationship showed on screen is one with a lot of trust, loyalty, happiness, and intimacy.

I am aroace. I don’t know how many other friends in the aro and/or ace community have talked about how lonely and unhappy they feel, because all their friends around them are looking for sex and romance and ergo don’t treat their friendship deep enough for my friends to get their emotional needs met. It’s easy to feel left out in a world where everyone is looking for romance, and ergo you are never the bond they want to pursue.

There are many ways in which we can achieve close bonds with people. This is why I think it’s important to talk about amatonormativity. Again, I’m SO happy when my friends are happy in a good romance. That’s a good thing!!! But it’s so psychologically destructive, whether you’re aro or allo, to live in a world where romance is considered The One And Only Key to relational happiness.

Talking about amatonormativity has the goal of helping us be aware about how society idolizes romance and/or sex. The goal is to help everyone know we have many options by which to pursue good, deep bonds in a variety of ways. The goal is to make sure we don’t treat romance as the only acceptable way to live. The goal is finding ways for humans to get our needs fulfilled healthily and widespreadly. The goal is to be more comfortable with and more accepting of people who don’t follow The One Righteous Path Of Required Romance, so that we can all be more comfortable with ourselves and the relations around us -- including being comfortable with our romances!

#long post #amatonormativity #heteronormativity #analysis #my analysis #ask #ask me #non-dragons #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #queer community #aroace #awesome anonymous friend #Anonymous

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itoldsunset · 3 years

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semi-translating/summarizing some things p’boss said on the hardest brief podcast. putting it under the cut because it ended up being wayyy longer than expected. also, my thai knowledge is that of a little kid who left her country very young so i probably missed some words/references, sorry!

(i got lazy and skipped the last part where they talked about the props and the colors (red = oh-aew, blue = teh, purple = tarn) but i feel like enough folks on here have done the color/visual analysis so we should be good):

he had this story he wanted to tell about two childhood friends and also knew he wanted to cast pp and billkin, but to make it work they had to pull from pp and billkin’s personalities to make sure that the characters they ended up creating would mesh with who pp and billkin are as performers; in writing the script, they sometimes asked pp and billkin to talk about their experiences as teenagers and adapted it to the series, so for example the storyline where teh and oh-aew meet each other again at afterschool chinese class and start out not liking each other, comes from pp and billkin’s real life when they first met and didn’t like each other

the interviewer asked p’boss to talk about how the itsay team has balanced representation in terms of gender and sexual orientation, and p’boss said it was important to have a team that understands the human experience and can draw from life experiences from multiple perspectives, which led to diversity in gender, sexual orientation, and age

when asked whether itsay is a Y series (BL), p’boss said his intention is to tell a story about the relationship between two boys, so it depends on how you define what counts as BL, LGBTQ, etc.

the interviewer and p’boss had this conversation about what characterizes something as BL, and the interviewer said after asking around it seemed like BL is about relationships between boys but more from a fantasy lens and tends to be different from gay couples in real life, and focuses on scenes between the two male leads, scenes that make you “pinch your pillow” (op: like scenes that make you squeal), but not so much on other moments outside of that; p’boss’s response (approximate translation): “i’m not sure myself, but from what i know, BL series seem to be about relationships between boys, but from the perspectives of girls, since that tends to be the target audience. so it tends to be what makes girls happy, what entertains them, that ends up being the content of BL.”

p’boss on lgbtq series: “i think it looks deeply at the real lives of people who are lgbt, it might be more realistic. it might be like, this is a real thing, but when you tell it in a series it becomes dark, but it’s real. in terms of itsay, in the beginning i didn’t know how to classify it, but when a lot of people started calling it lgbt, i thought, okay. [...] it’s just the story i wanted to tell, and i wanted to tell it with as much humanity as possible. i don’t want to limit viewers, i want as many people to see this as possible, so we can call it whatever they want as long as they watch it and it makes them happy.”

this is his first series focusing on lgbtq characters, but in hormones he wrote goi and dao’s characters (op: i didn’t know this?!)

with itsay, p’boss said it was important to him to have slower pacing to explore the intricacies of the emotions in each scene (different types of anger, different ways of sulking, different types of happy, different types of crying), making it somewhat different from my ambulance where things had to move more quickly to keep up with the speed of a tv drama

the interviewer asked “how does having two male leads change how you work?” and p’boss said there’s nothing different in the way you build chemistry between the two characters because you would just pull from their personalities, but the difference is in the conflict of the story which involves confusion and questioning about sexual orientation which a straight couple wouldn’t go through

p’boss: “when we think about how teh is the kind of person who doesn’t say what he’s thinking, or how oh-aew is the kind of person who’s upfront, anyone can play those roles--women, men, gay people, trans people can all have these roles.”

the interviewer said “itsay seems to be expanding the scope of lgbtq narratives by presenting it as easier for the characters to come out and say they love someone of the same sex. for example, especially compared to love of siam where the kiss scene between mario and pchy was considered something shocking, or in hormones, with the relationship between march and tou (phu and thee) where the characters spent a lot of time fighting with themselves about who they were attracted to. but in itsay, oh-aew was totally straightforward in saying he liked bas. do you think that’s because it’s easier and more open today?” p’boss: “i think the content changes depending on the generations, and oh-aew is really of today’s generation. it’s not that there are no longer kids who are confused about their sexual orientation or afraid to come out, even if ten or twenty years pass there will probably still be some kids who experience that. but there are people who are open and happy about how they live their lives. oh-aew is the type of lgbtq character that’s like, ‘i’m gay, and i’m proud to be who i am.’ [...] and it’s very positive that he sees himself as equal to straight people, because when we’re born, we can love anyone. if you’re a man, you can love another man and that’s a normal thing. that’s oh-aew’s attitude: i’m lgbtq, i’m gay, i’m proud, my parents accept me, and i can tell anyone confidently who i can love. i think a lot of people in this generation already see this as something normal, and we really need to make it something that’s equal. oh-aew represents that equality.”

p’boss on teh: “teh is a character who seems to come from older societal expectations where he’s a man, and he has to love women. but there are people who do still think this way. for teh, it’s hard for him to accept that he might like boys, but when he finds out oh-aew likes boys, he’s totally fine with it and sees it as normal. i feel like society needs to progress to this point, and beyond it, because it all has to be seen as normal. a lot of people when they talk about gay people they say there has to be a top and a bottom, but in reality anything can work, love can happen however. one day i could date someone who’s a trans woman, that’s possible, because it’s about feelings. or a woman who has always loved men could one day date a woman, that’s possible too. there’s a lot of freedom, and i want the characters to show that.”

they talked about how in the scene where teh pretends to hit on oh-aew in front of all their friends, the friends are shocked not that teh is attracted to guys, but they’re shocked that teh likes someone in the friend group. and that goes to show that it’s normal for someone to like someone of the same sex, whereas 20 years ago maybe the characters would have reacted in confusion or shock.

p’boss talking about what was challenging about making this series: “in terms of writing the script, we had to think about how to tell the story in a way that shows the characters’ emotions at all times. for example in episode 2, we explored the restlessness that teh feels when he’s confused about he feels jealous or possessive of his friend. when we say it like that, it’s relatable to people who know what it’s like to feel possessive of their best friend, but how to execute that on the screen is a different matter.”

why phuket? p’boss: “when i decided to tell a story about two boys, i wanted the atmosphere to be romantic. even if the story isn’t romantic, like two boys who are best friends eating together, but i wanted the visuals to be romantic that it looks like it could be a romance film. it intrigues the viewers and adds a certain sweetness to it. i wanted a good environment, so i searched in a lot of different provinces. at first i went to ayutthaya, mae hong son, chiang mai, chiang rai, songkhla. but when i talked to the team, one person wanted to go to the mountains, another wanted to go to the cape, another wanted to go to the beach. even if there’s a beach there has to be a city. we wanted everything, and phuket has it all. old town has a city feel, but there’s also the beach and mountains, so we decided to go to down to phuket while we were writing the script, to confirm whether it would actually work. i’m from hatyai, so i’m from the south, but i rarely ever went to phuket so i wasn’t sure if it would work.”

p’boss said filming the underwater kiss was difficult because there needed to be sunlight in order to capture everything in the way they wanted, but when they got to the island, there was no sun and it was about to rain. so they looked up the color of luck/success for that day and it was purple (op: i don’t have context for this so i can’t explain further lol), so they told everyone to wear a purple shirt. the day they went to film the scene, they all wore purple shirts, but when they got to the site it looked like it was about to rain, so p’yong took off his shirt and hung it on the boat, and as they were filming, every time they said “action” the sun would come out and every time they said “cut” the sun would go away, and p’boss said it was magical and that’s how it came out to be the scene we saw.

#itsay #i told sunset about you #boss naruebet #boss kuno #itsay translated

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ibelonginthepast · 3 years

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yoo i really looooved your bucky headcanon thingy it made so much sense???

since you said you loved the marvel one: nat?

Thank you so much dem,, I needed the approval, its very close to me 🥰

AND AH NAT! MY LOVE!!

Sexuality Headcanon: I am gonna go for sex repulsive asexual, pan/bi romantic.

Its ironically funny she uses seduction and sex as a weapon ^_^

She doesn't realize her asexuality for a long long time, and thinks she hates sex because of her trauma and struggles with intimacy. Also cause she doesn't find romance with it ever. She doesn't get it, doesn't realizes its an option to not like sex.

Gender Headcanon: (non binary) she/her. Imma just through some random words. Grace. Feline. Beauty. Alluring. She's that gender that has short chin length curly hair, wears bright red lipsticks, high cheekbones, corsets, black, high heeled boots, knives. U get it.

A ship I have with said character: hmmm ngl I dont think anyone deserves the perfection that she is. Seriously. No one could ever deserve her. Not anyone in mcu yet. BUT, anyone she falls for, I dont mind banner... but I think he wont get her complexity very well. I wanna say valkyrie, but I ship them with cap marvel. Damn I just remembered they really killed nat didn't they? Fuck them. Fucking fuck them. Yeah I dont have a ship for her... no one deserves her yet.

A BROTP I have with said character: HAWKEYE AND NAT I love them so much???? Just so much?????? THEY ARE SO PERFECT, everything about them!!!!! I love how Clint is the soft side of her. I love how nat gets around clint's kids. I love how much nat loves him. How he's the only one who has ever treated her right. I'll actually start sobbing. They are so devoted to each other. I cant even. I love them so much.

A NOTP I have with said character: idk I cant ship her with Steve,, just like not for ever. I like what they had in the movies, how nat struggles with it, but I cant ship them as a legit couple for life nah.

A random headcanon: okay so bts,, nat has a horrible self esteem. she's ambidextrous. she loves dressing up. she prints out photos of rich old white neurotypical able cishet men in power, and practices shooting on them. When she's really mad at Tony or Steve or Banner, she adds them there on her target boards for practice, and it has horrified them to sometimes find their bigass postures punctured with bullet holes. Shes a fierce feminist and wears the label proud. She has had convos around this with every male on her team. She has hit them all in the head, rolled her eyes at their dumbfuck explanations of why they dont like the term feminist and helped them understand better what it is and make them know that they are in fact feminists too. she's an empath. I dont think that even hc, I think its very clearly shown just not acknowledged. Shes extremely forgiving, and believes in redemption of anyone. Shes for rehabilitation, anti-prison. She hates the concept of governments in general. She is nihilistic. She is a communist and passionate about it. She's secretly a philosophy simp, reads a lot about them when she treats herself.

Even though shes all for redemption, she struggles with forgiving herself and is very hard on herself. Her hypocrisy is really cringe and bothering here.

She has a thing for textures. She picks up stones, and cloth pieces and rubs her fingers on them sometimes.

she's an artist. She used to draw in red and black a lot, and has some ink sketches journals, where she has drawn random glimpses of her memories. She longs for a calm life by the sea where she can stargaze. The only time she actually did anything other than ink was, when she tried to pain open night skies and oceans. Cause pics like those make her heart ache. She tries painting them to capture the longing for freedom, otherworldliness, calmness, serenity they make her ache for. But she never captured them right and never was satisfied with them.

Something about her orientation? Because of the red room, she has a very complicated relationship with gender expression. The red room forced a form of femininity on her uk? she was forced to reject traditional soft expression of femininity. But forced the ballet kind of femininity, of using femininity as a weapon, or being powerful with feminine grace. She was forced to use her sexuality as a weapon. She thinks that her need to be voluptuous was something beaten into her in the red room. This all caused her a lot of problems with her identity. When she started recognizing what the red room did to her, she had the urge to be reject her sexual expression. This conflicts with her asexuality too. She tried changing a lot. A lot of internalized misogyny angst here. In her struggles to pursue a romantic relationship, she tried to fit in by being stereotypically feminine too, flowers, motherly devotion and care and all that. But she can't do it. She struggles with understanding want for kids. She struggles with gender roles and confuses them with gender too. She shifts a lot. She struggles with defining her own femininity for a long while. Cause she's naturally emotional, she hates herself for it for a long time cause she associates it with weak aspects of femininity. But eventually, she stops the what ifs, and tho it sounds fucked up, she accepts that the red room made her who she is and she doesn't need to fret over what could have become of her, cause after all our circumstances and environment do shape us. eventually she gets around rejecting gender as a concept, thinks it's fluid, and believes its boxing is a total social construct and fraud. She does what she likes. She goes with she/her pronouns cause she believes that they match with her expression and help people perceive her better and know what to expect.

Cause she ded, am sed. Cant hc her for old age, I wish I could. Really.

General Opinion over said character: what can I say, simp for the emotionally wrecked female power icon who hides all her emotions away and keeps the family together is so very fucking devoted,,, is my shit. I'll do anything for her, she can take me in and make me her slave.

I feel like I didn't do well with her. Idk its 2 am, my brain's not the best rn. Maybe ill add more later. Thanks dem <3 sry if this is disappointing 😔

#natasha romanoff #marvel

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dehducer · 3 years

Text

FULL NAME: Pieck Finger MEANING. though i coudn’t find too much, a few things i managed to find was ‘pieck’ is of polish origin, though i couldn’t find much of a solid definition. Finger - of german origin. meing one with a peculiar or unusual finger; one who came from a place using this word in some transferred sense. NICKNAME(S): Cartman, cart. piku. GENDER: cis-female, she/her &/or they. ETHNICITY: Liberian Eldian. HEIGHT: 155cm, 5′1. AGE: 25 ( DOB: August 5th ) ZODIAC: Leo SPOKEN LANGUAGES: English (marleyean dialect)

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

HAIR COLOUR: black EYE COLOUR: grey to silver with blue relfects in the correct lighting/when paired against an oceanic background. SKIN TONE: light skin colour, burns easily but also has the capacity to tan afterwards. BODY TYPE: small, petite. light definition of a muscular tone however it can disappear after month being in titan form. VOICE: soft. sounds like what velvet would be if it was an audible substance. her voice sits high in her throat, the tone not quite high but not low, either. it’s a pleasant middle ground. however, she has the capability for it be velvet dragged across gravel. something grating about it when pieck is called into action. pieck can drop her voice by octaves when needed to (this is evident when she interrogates eren). not to mention the mixed near demonic sound of her voice when she speaks through the cart titan. DOMINANT HAND. ambidextrous. POSTURE: horrible. in her youth, it was impeccable - shoulders always set straight and her spine followed it’s natural curve to a perfect T. but as age & exhaustion riddle her body from the exasperation & wear the cart titan has on her body, pieck is rarely seen with proper posture. her shoulders slump, head carries forward and her vertebrae have slightly compacted, making her shorter than she used to be, too. SCARS: this has become negated since inheriting her titan. few minor scars remain along her hands mostly from cooking meals for herself (and bertholdt on occasion) during her youth. however most of those have faded. TATTOOS: none MOST NOTICEABLE FEATURE(S): eyes. despite her always sleepy look - even before the toll of the cart titan consumed her body, pieck’s eyes always had this tiredness to them. slightly sunken & half lidded. they glisten silver in the night & are often rather expressive whatever emotion she’s portraying on her face.

CHILDHOOD:

PLACE OF BIRTH: Liberio, Marley. HOMETOWN: Liberio, Marley. MANNER OF BIRTH: natural & uncomplicated. FIRST WORDS: dad. SIBLINGS: none. PARENTS: Jakub Finger Father (alive), Ariel Finger Mother (deceased) PARENT INVOLVEMENT: despite having no real memories of her mother, pieck still to this day finds little things around her family home that brings her comfort. not to mention the stories pieck forced her father to tell her about her mother while she was growing up. pieck has her mother’s clothes in her cupboard, though she seldom ever wears them. along with some hair clips, a tea set & some photos however, there is little else to remember her by. just that her father loved her mother more than what pieck would ever understand. pieck’s father, however, is the single most important person in her life. he is the reason pieck ever decided to enter the program in the first place. she cherishes every moment she gets when she returns home to liberio to visit him, spending as much time as possible with him (whether that’s in or out of hospital). pieck always comes down with bouts of anxiety whenever she is tasked with long missions away, afraid that she would come back to the news of her father’s passing. while she was growing up, jakub would read encyclopedias to her since they were too poor to afford actual bedtime stories. he’d make up his own stories about the contents of those books. she vouches that to her incredible intelligence.

ADULT LIFE:

OCCUPATION: warrior/titan shifter. CURRENT RESIDENCE: liberio. CLOSE FRIENDS: marcel and porco galliard, bertholdt huber, annie leonheart, reiner braun & zeke jeager. though after the events of the series, mostly anyone who survives. RELATIONSHIP STATUS: single FINANCIAL STATUS: very unfortunate. has had to beg for money in her youth to pay off her dad’s medical bills. even now as a warrior, things are still incredibly tight for pieck when her dad needs to be admitted. DRIVER’S LICENSE: none, but she is the cart titan so she is a car i suppose. CRIMINAL RECORD: none withstanding. VICES: blocking out/ignoring her own emotions. smoking.

SEX / ROMANCE:

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: bisexual ROMANTIC ORIENTATION: demiromantic. PREFERRED EMOTIONAL ROLE: pieck excels at being an empath & emotional rock for those she loves. while she is incredibly independent and doesn’t need anyone, she does love being there for others. PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE: switch, prefers to usually let other’s take control though she is no stranger to dominance herself. LOVE LANGUAGE: touch & quality time. LIBIDO: high, though is suppressed during missions. RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES: while pieck has the capacity to be a hopeless romantic if given the correct setting - she is rarely that. pieck is all about small touches, soft tender moments. small things such as reading together, letting her rest on her significant other’s chest while she is exhausted. due to her independence however, she can occasionally come across as stubborn - thinking she can do anything and everything on her own.

MISC:

THEME SONG: "violent” - carolesdaughter HOBBIES TO PASS TIME: knitting, reading, she has tried painting on occasion but has never found an immense sense of joy over it. MENTAL ILLNESSES: anxiety (induced during long missions in the cart). dissociation tendencies - mostly during her youth but has followed her into her mature age self. PHYSICAL ILLNESSES. permanent exhaustion resulting in physical stress to her body. though the titan regeneration typically heals all wounds, it has yet to heal her body after the toll the cart titan takes. it has even resulted in her forgetting how to work on several occasions. LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED: left-brained PHOBIAS: failure, fear of losing her father SELF CONFIDENCE LEVEL: medium to high - she knows she is intelligent & good at what she does, however still (behind closed doors) doubts herself from time to time.

TAGGED BY: no one i yoinked this shit clean from the dash and i encourage everyone to do so

#headcanons.#//this was fun!!#//good morning kanye

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