#honestly can someone explain whats the point in writing something about a specific character just to make him an archetype thats so diff

[kaermorhenatnight]

Fanfics are funny because once i found the sweetest fic that encapsulated the personality of the characters perfectly it left me giggling and twirling my hair and then I scrolled to read the next one about the same character and in the first two lines it just completely ignored who the character is and turned them into someone's dream Dark Possessive Boyfriend(tm) when the character is polyamorous and doesn't believe in keeping their partner to themselves

[rongzhi]

hi, i apologize if this is weird for me to ask, but do you have any resources that could help a foreigner with naming chinese original characters? im a white american who's writing a story that has southern chinese characters, and i want to make sure im properly naming my characters and not giving them nonsensical names. any criticism and advice is appreciated. thank you ♡

hmm with regards to naming Chinese OCs, I think if you are going into it with very little experience with Chinese names, it's best to first take a look at popular names based on year and gender, and then go from there.

Assuming your characters are Han Chinese/have Han Chinese names, check out these articles about naming trends:

What can we tell from the evolution of Han Chinese names?

Most Popular Chinese Names (trends in 2023 and across the decades)

Looking at appropriate names by generation is a good starting point just so you don't end up picking a name that sounds like the Chinese equivalent of naming a zoomer "Agatha" or "Gertrude" or something like that. This is a good method of quickly naming minor characters.

Beyond that, a lot can honestly be explained away by character back story/the intentions of the parents (although note: Chinese people are never named directly after senior relatives, as this is taboo). One thing to consider is that, sure, some people are just named after pretty words or whatever, but there can also be significant qualities/traits that give meaning to a name. So don't be afraid to choose characters that describe invisible/intangible qualities, because if it's just fluff, that can sound ridiculous too (my mom still laughs at all the ugly flower name suggestions my nainai came up with for me and my sibling, for example).

As the articles mention, some names have more feminine or masculine implications than others, but in general, Chinese names are gender neutral. If a girl has a more 'masculine' name, one could easily assume it's because the parents wanted to imbue her with certain traits. This is why it's worthwhile to consider which characters make up the names you choose, even if you never have anyone mention it.

Another thing I'd say is, while not a rule of thumb, I tend to give less important characters in stories monosyllabic names. No need to break out the Ruijie or Bairuo or whatever for a throwaway character.

If your characters are from southern China somewhere, then another thing to consider if how they are nicknamed; southerners more often give people nicknames like Ah-[syllable from given name], so this would be a clearer indicator to the reader as to where they are (similarly, how they address family members may offer these clues as well). For region specific names, you should also look to surnames based on regional prevalence, as certain names are more common in some provinces due to migration patterns as well as sinicization of non Han surnames throughout history.

Chinese Surnames wikipedia

Hundred Family Surnames wikipedia

Tangential but interesting article about the history of Chinese family names

Hopefully that helps a bit or maybe it's just treading over things you already know. If worst comes to worst, just ask someone you trust what they think about the names you've come up with.

[system-of-a-feather]

Honestly, real talk, I feel like people largely do not understand just how much characters within those who are maladaptive daydreamers and/or were maladaptive daydreamers literally are "parts of them" and how both healing and destructive that dynamic can be and I find that a bit visible with how people in DID communities talk about maladaptive daydreaming as a "form of plurality"

Its an absolutely different experience but that doesn't mean that the label of "plural" isn't equally suitable. Since that topic has come up on our radar like way back half a year or year ago, we honestly have been thinking about it as someone who is considered "recovered" from DID and has recovered from maladaptive daydreaming but still has a brain that functions creativity and imaginative worlds with the same semi-autonomous functions whether I like it or not

And honestly? My characters are very much not "my creation", nor are they "just my OCs" - the very way all of my character are made and at this point the only way I know how to write and make characters is by taking a part or aspect of myself (conscious or subconscious) and throwing it out there with a name and face. That part of myself engages with the world I created and develops within the narrative and impacts the world itself.

I repeat and do this for all my characters and the world that I have created serves as a hypothetical exploratory way to understand, engage with, and explore very complex topics with exaggerated and isolated parts of myself. I have never really "planned" a character of given them traits or really anything other than a basic premise of a name, MAYBE a gender, and a vague role and I let them define their own story. No real character arc planning. No real likes and dislikes. No real narrative or secret message.

The function and means of which that I "created" these OCs and the level of which I don't control the way they form and grow is extremely similar to how I "create" alters, albeit one is far more voluntary and intentional than the other and one is physically sharing my life with me and the other is sharing a mental world with me.

((Additionally I don't engage in the mental world I made for them beyond the half joke that I'm the god of the gods of that world and they dont know))

The dynamics I have with my characters is WAY WAY WAY different than my parts / alters but BOTH my characters (maladaptive daydreaming) and my alters (DID) are equally fair to call "parts of me" and "parts of a whole" in a very literal not "Oh yeah Im a writer and this character means a lot to me theyre a part of me"

With my writing partner (who does this as well) we regularly use our characters as well to explain what we are going through / how we are feeling to help facilitate real talk and venting a lot because we have a mutual understanding that while this is a story and these are our characters, both of us have "built" this world by literally giving very specific aspects of ourselves the ability to explore, grow, and learn in a world and that while some have grown SO far from who we are now, they represent an aspect and potential part of us that could have been should something have gone one way in a specifically extreme way in a specific environment.

With that in mind, I absolutely feel its fair to compare DID and MaDD "plurality" with some obvious understanding that while there are similarities they are also different (AND THATS OK).

Cause honestly? If I actually talked to my characters (like a lot of people with MaDD tend to do) I could see myself calling and feeling as though they were a system and I don't think it would be all that inaccurate and wrong. I don't have that experience as my MADD and DID are mostly entirely two seperate dissociative coping mechanisms, but I know for a fact the line between the two is a lot less clear and its just food for thought

-----------------

[SYSCOURSE AND DEBATE WILL BE BLOCKED.]

[Good faith conversation and discussion is WELCOMED and ENCOURAGED.]

[If you don't know the difference, don't add on.]

[shantechni]

I noticed this a looooong time ago, but I didn't mention it and sort of kept pushing it aside as an unimportant detail. After coming across this for, like, the fifth time though, something finally strikes me as supremely odd, and it's these two simple lines Leo says in the first episode of S2.

Between the S1 finale and the S2 premiere, Splinter told his sons that he defeated the Shredder when they faced off in the hideout. Not only that, he told them they'd never see the man again because he lost his honor, but both of these statements are immediately proven to be contradictory to what actually took place, as well as to what Splinter believes about the Shredder's way of thinking.

Anyone who has watched the S1 finale, specifically the second part, knows that the fight was brought to a screeching halt when Karai ran in to stop Splinter from finishing off the Shredder. And, after seeing just how deeply influenced Karai has been to hate him, Splinter left in a hurry to avoid fighting who he now knows is his thought-to-be-dead daughter.

Now, it makes sense that Splinter didn't tell the boys Karai interrupted the fight considering she was a touchy subject, one he didn't approach all of his sons with until midway through S2 in The Manhattan Project. He was still coming to terms with the revelation himself, and his avoidance of everyone's questions tells us that he genuinely didn't want to explain why Karai believed he killed her mom. In the process, he'd have to get into the reason Shredder led Karai to believe that lie and yadda yadda.

So, not telling them Karai was there makes sense. But why tell them the Shredder was defeated?

Something like that would be believable if he didn't imply any finality by telling them the Shredder was taken down, because he goes on to wonder outloud if their enemies were truly defeated and even reaffirms that, "The Shredder is a crafty and patient foe who bides his time." But Leo clearly says that Splinter told them they'd never see him again after he apparently lost whatever honor he had left. And we can't point fingers at any potential dialogue or writing error because they make sure the audience hears that Splinter did indeed facilitate this calm behavior of theirs.

One can wonder if he didn't truly intend to flat out lie, but rather to placate his sons by withholding a harsh truth and giving everyone the time they need to revel in their victory. However, that's another odd decision for Splinter to make since he's usually the one to remind his sons that none of their enemies will stay gone for long, the first and most notable instance of this being when they first encountered Bradford and Xever.

Anyways, after Leo says what he says, Splinter takes offense to Raph casually adding that they'll take care of the Shredder if he does come back, and, upon realizing that his prior statement has heavily blanketed them with a false sense of security, he harshly tells his sons the month long celebrating is over.

Honestly, even though I said sugar coating is very out of character for someone like Splinter, it's the only sensible answer for him lying to the guys. And probably himself for a minute there, too.

He knows the Shredder isn't honorable. He's traitorous, underhanded, and full of spite for those he feels wronged him. Oroku Saki is a vengeful man who has been undeniably wronged in his past, but refuses to learn from it and will shift the blame onto those undeserving. He's tenacious in the way he literally left Japan with a singular image of a Hamato clan shuriken as proof that he has another chance to kill someone he used to call his brother.

Splinter knows all of this, but he still went ahead and made the morally dubious decision to construct a perfect, short-lived world where he could tell his sons they wouldn't have to worry about the Shredder again.

And where he doesn't have to face the gravity of the changes yet to come.

[sarahlizziewrites]

Writeblr for newbies

So you joined Tumblr to talk about your writing. Maybe you're published and you want to promote your works, or maybe you're wanting a supportive community of fellow writers, or maybe you're just writing for the hell of it and want to show the world your blorbos.

Welcome!!

Being a part of the writing side of Tumblr is a little bit like being in kindergarten and all the kids are talking about their imaginary friends to each other. Except some of the kids have published stories about their imaginary friends in real books you can buy. It's so cool.

I have made some wonderful friends on Writeblr, I've ARC'd and beta'd books for people, and I've gotten a lot of warm fuzzies from sharing my snippets and my characters. It's somewhere between self-promo and group therapy, but it doesn't feel like either. It feels like a wonderful community of writers supporting each other.

The Writeblr lingo can seem a little intense at first so I thought I'd set up a guide. If I've missed anything lmk!

WIP - stands for 'work in progress' (plural: WIPs). Any piece of writing (or poetry, or any kind of art) that isn't completed yet. This might be the first draft of a story, or the nth draft of your novel, or the not-yet-posted chapter of the fanfiction you're writing. WIP is a state of mind: it might be nearly complete, or it might just be an idea with a few hundred words attached to it. Talk about it as much or as little as you want.

WIP intro - a totally optional (and honestly a lot of hard work sometimes lol) post explaining the main themes/background/plot/characters of your WIP. Something you can link people to so they good a good idea of your WIP and what it's about. Similarly, character intro, for individual characters within a WIP, often with art/picrews.

Tag game - the lifeblood of Writeblr! In its most basic form, someone tags you in a game, you play the game, then tag other people you want to play the game. Lots of people do 'open tags', which you can also pick up. These games can range from making picrews of your characters to posting a snippet or multiple snippets. A few common ones at the moment (these change often!) are: Find the Word (the tagger gives you words to find in your WIP, you post a short snippet for each word, then give the people you tag new words to find); Last Line (you post the last line(ish) you wrote, or wrote recently); 9 Lines 9 People (post 9(ish) recent lines, tag 9(ish) people). There are so many more, and new ones being created all the time.

Blorbo - your OC (original character) that lives in your mind rent-free. The one(s) you would commit war crimes for. You know the one I'm talking about. In addition, blorbo trading and sharing is encouraged in the Writeblr community.

Ask game - a post that you reblog, usually containing a list of prompts or questions, that encourages your followers to ask those questions in your ask box. It is friendly to drop an ask from the game to the person you reblogged the post from.

Weekly asks - if you've asked to take part, questions about your writing in your inbox, related to a certain day of the week. There's Worldbuilding Wednesday (WBW), which are questions about worldbuilding, Blorbo Blursday (OC questions), and Storyteller Saturday (STS), questions about writing in general. These questions can be very generic and vague, or can be about specific characters/stories.

Pinned Post - basically, an 'about' page. Talk about yourself, your WIPs, the kinds of things you like, whether you want to be involved in Writeblr games, whether your asks are open. You don't need one, but it can be a handy reference point for your followers.

Taglist - sometimes, Tumblr posts get lost on the dash. If you are interested in a particular WIP, ask the author if you can be put on their taglist, so you can get notified every time they post about it. They will love you for it, seriously!

Overall, on Writeblr, it is always encouraged:

to talk about your stories and characters as much as you like. People might not follow along at first, but they'll get on board!

to reblog others' writing/snippets/promo. We're all relying on each other for our sanity here, and a nice comment in the tags never goes amiss either!

I'm sure I've missed something - feel free to add!

[unorthodoxx-page]

Hi. I know that you are currently on hiatus with your ROTTMNT X ATLA , but I wanted to tell you that I'm huge fan of your fic.You took Rise's characters and on their personalities wave them into a different story without much clashing with the original plotline.And you not just cleverly adjusted them to the lore of ATLA, but you also created some of your own (the JiaMo deal is great idea,it creates new subdue stake and I love it).I'm huge sucker for ROTTMNT and even thought I don't like Avatar that much,this makes me want to watch it.That's how great it is.But to not make this post just about praise,I have some questions too:

1)What does the JiaMo sign look like exactly?You mentioned it looks like as a lotus with elemental symbols with different colors on each turtle,but that is,without offense, really bland description.I just can really imagine it.Can you describe it in more detail or even better,draw it,please?

2)How did Leo found out what happened to the Air Nomads?Did he asked the gang,did someone from North Water tribe told him or did he figured it out on his own?How did he react to it? Because it's clear from chapter 2 thet he already knows it.And do Raph and Mikey know it to?

3)Did Mikey ever crawl into his sheel during the trip with Zuko?Or is it just about to happen eventually?

4)Will characters explain their world's words and their meaning?Like,what is apocalipse,bat,Agni kai,Kyoshi warriors and going into full Kyoshi mood😂 etc.

5) Where did get the idea on this fic?Did it just puffed as idea in your head or did you take inspiration from somewhere?I ask cause I saw some cartoon rewievers compare Rise to the Avatar,so if it is coincidence,then it's really a big one😳.

6)If someone wantedy to make full comic of your fic,would you be pro or against it?Cause I peronally think it would make it more popular.I also saw some comic of your fanfic on youtube and I wondered,is it you or someone else.?

Of course,if some of these questions can't be answered without big spoilers, I understand.I hope that you will start writing it again soon.Also sorry if there are some gramar problems(english is not my first language).

So, I'm going to try and keep this short. Only because I can get a bit longwinded lol.

I've actually drawn this out before and posted it, but it's probably buried deep in my Tumblr at this point. I'll look for the post and/or find the file. Once I have it I'll update this post with the picture. I will say though, I cannot describe a symbol to save my life! It was so hard!! I seriously wasn't expecting that lol.

2. So this is one of those organic conversations that happened off-screen. I will say it's something he learned while behind the Northern wall. I originally had a whole chapter or two dedicated to everyone's arrival, but they didn't make the cut. Leo's and Donnie's arrival specifically spoke to the more political landscape of the Avatar world.

For example, there was more arguing in the North about who 'gets' the spirit. It was during this time that Leo would get a small breakdown of the war. He's horrified by it and likens the Fire Nation to the Kraang, to be honest. It's partly why Leo was so rough with Zuko. He knows, instinctively, that the world will have to work something out with the Fire Nation, but he's not really giving them the benefit of the doubt at the moment.

Side note: there was originally supposed to be more Ozai and Donnie before he left with Azula, but I couldn't make it work. I think if I were to give it another chance now then it would work, but there will be time for that later.

3. He hasn't actually! We'll see it later in Ba Sing Se....for various reasons.

4. Yes, they will explain words along the way. Mikey already knows what an Agni Kia is (another off-screen moment) but the other turtles will learn what it is soon enough.

5. It honestly popped into my head lol. I don't remember anything about a comparison of the two before writing. I remember that I was in the middle of the last two chapters of Recoil when the idea hit. Sometimes I'll just think of fandoms and see if they would cross. Like, I had this idea for a Stargate x Xiaolin Showdown oneshot simply because I think the Stargate people would believe Chase Young was a goa'uld. I mean....He drinks a dragon soup (with the only image being a tail in a bowl), then his personality changes and his eyes turn gold...... that screams goa'uld all the way!

6. I'm all for it!! Any comics you see on youtube and/or Tumblr aren't by me. I love seeing them though. It really makes me feel good that people like my writing enough to draw for it. So if anyone wants to make a full comic then you have my full blessing! Just tag me so I can see it and reblog it!

Let me know if you have any other questions!!

[panharmonium]

What do you think about this: "Kakashi was never interested in Sasuke as an individual, he only projected himself into him and saw a smaller version of himself on Sasuke, Sasuke was never Sasuke to him, just a little Kakashi". I wanted to know your opinion because I miss your meta posts and I feel like lately people are hating Kakashi for things that aren't real :/, also you are really good at explaining and I feel that both characters need love

Hello! Thanks for the question!

The answer to "what do i think about this" is, honestly, that I don't think about it X) I watched the whole show without engaging with the fandom at all (for fear of spoilers, initially), so I was able to experience it without being exposed to anyone else's thoughts, and now that I'm done I generally still avoid poking around, because devoting mental energy to opinions that I find bizarre/not supported by the text doesn't enhance my fandom experience.

Kakashi and Sasuke's relationship is one of the most compelling things about the series to me. I was very surprised when I finished the show/manga and first exposed myself to the fandom only to find so few people invested in them, but at this point I've (mostly) stopped asking myself "what show was everyone else watching" and just settled into enjoying the show that I watched, because that's more fun for me. I can't convince people not to dislike Kakashi if that's what they want to do. I do find it a little weird, because I don't think that's what the story is asking from us, but as long as people mind their business and aren't bugging me on my own blog, they're free to do what they want.

I know it can be frustrating when there are people hating various characters for "things that aren't real," but the fact that these criticisms aren't "real" is precisely why I generally avoid engaging with them. For Kakashi, specifically, there are certain things people can say that will immediately make me stop taking them seriously - "projecting" is one. "Bootlicking" is another, but again, these terms are so wildly inaccurate that I'm not interested in talking about them. The manga and the show are easily accessible; if people want to rewatch/re-read them, they can.

In general, I just prefer to avoid engaging with most of the fandom negativity I see. I think overall most of the rancor I've stumbled across boils down to people engaging with the story in very ungenerous ways, if that makes sense, and that's not how I prefer to read/watch things. Like - back when I was still in the middle of watching the show, I remember someone sent me a message saying that they loved seeing me talk about the story with earnestness/joy, and it was such a lovely message to receive, but it also made me pause and wonder for a second if this was really an uncommon enough thing to be remarked upon. Wouldn't that be the default? Aren't we all here because we love the story and the characters so much? But the truth is that sometimes it does feel like large chunks of fandom spaces (not just Naruto, I mean; I've certainly experienced this elsewhere) are very focused on being negative about "things that aren't real," as you said. Like - people calling Sakura "abusive" for bopping Naruto on the head when he says something rude, when this is not something the text is even remotely trying to say about her. People writing off Jiraiya's entire storyline because of the non-consensual spying on women - which, yes, of course, is disgusting and wrong. Obviously. I am very aware of that. However, I can simultaneously recognize that the story isn't really interested in that or intending me to read it like that; the voyeurism is written as a joke (yes, I understand how gross that is) and there are a hundred potential personal and/or patriarchal and/or genre-related and/or cultural factors that may have gone into Kishimoto writing this particular fail. If I want to understand and appreciate what the story was ACTUALLY trying to communicate with Jiraiya (that he's an idealist who gave up on the world when everything went wrong, who turned to shallow pleasures of the flesh to distract him from the pain of his disillusionment, and who was finally restored to his former faith after meeting Naruto), then I have to mindfully set the voyeurism aside and go, "This writer wrote a gross thing, and I recognize that, but I'm also not going to fixate on it, because I can simultaneously appreciate/find meaning in what he was really trying to say."

I think some of the Kakashi complaints out there very much fall under this umbrella. If I have to see one more person frothing at the mouth about Kakashi briefly tying Sasuke (a qualified ninja who has already demonstrated his ability to escape rope restraints and whom Kakashi has been individually mentoring, sparring against, and connecting with for a month) to a tree for approximately sixty seconds - honestly. I don't know how to tell people they're missing the point, so I don't bother.

Ultimately, the fact of the matter is that people are entitled to dislike any character that they want, even for contrived reasons. As long as they're doing their own thing in their own space and letting me do my thing in mine, we're good.

[gabrielsbubblegumbitch]

Why hello,Hera here. I saw your Carmilla ramble and just wanted to say that I 100% agree. However,I feel like she makes sense somehow? Let me explain! We clearly see her as this respectable (yes,Velvette stay put) fairly modest woman, but I surmise that's a clear “don't judge a book by it’s cover” type of thing. And..yes,I would put photos but I cannot do that in anon...anyway.

Let's look at her. She is PERFECTLY portrayed as a hypocrite. Yes. Obviously there were some..character writing issues to say the least but she IS a hypocrite. Not just because she sells weapons; what does a hypocrite do? Say stuff and do otherwise, to their own advantage. She does everything she does to save her daughters and herself, saying to not cause war but outright attacking Vaggie AS SHE SET FOOT inside her chambers. She couldn't care less about other sinners,and that's WHY she sells weapons. She's a bad person, she sells guns to make other sinners outright attack eachother. Why? To bring more Sales of course. If you know you're in danger then..let's just say, wouldn't you sell your soul for some security? People have sold them for far less after all.

Secondly, notice how she's outright manipulating Vaggie,maybe Zestial even? She does absolutely NOT care about them. The only thing she has ever done for Zestial for all I remember in the show was stop Velvette from causing problems during the meeting,and when she felt like she was losing control over it — as someone manipulative would do — she shuts her down sending her away. She understood she f-cked up and TO NOT RUIN HER FACADE she literally admitted everything just to keep the strings stretched thin. And that's the thing about the final stretch: It can keep stretching for however long she wishes it to. After keeping it from people you must either speak up about it or let the situation fall into the hands of fate which isn't really reccomended when you're trying to guilt-trip someone with a heart wrenching Song,no?

ABOUT SONGS CAN WE PLEASE SPEAK ABOUT OUT FOR LOVE? that song is absolutely screaming: “I didn't tell you this for my own advantage but I'm trying to distract you by telling you to fight for who you love yes whoo totally cohesive with what the main trope is!”.

Last and probably least, we take english as the official and outmost canon language in which the show is written. However, in certain translations DURING the overlord meeting — more specifically while velvette sang respectless — she said “I warn you that sooner or later you will pay for it, If it were up to me I would kick you out of here!”. Now, I know this is probably to actually make it rhyme but IT'S NOT JUST THAT. Because if we take a little more objective view we understand that she is exactly the type to be so aggressive. She sells weapons,attacks Vaggie, Stays behind closed doors when she could've HELPED her, and look at what information she actively chose to withold versus what she said up until out for love? . Think about it,She cares for herself and for her daughters..which brings me up to the first point.

Now, you're probably right and she's Just badly written but THERE'S STILL HOPE! I hope-

Ah you are certainly onto something. I also noticed that she basically confirmed Velvette's words by shutting down the meeting just to not ay it directly. Like, it was a terrible choice. She's obviously not as strong and wise as she poses if one (1) loud lady was able to disarm her so quickly. She's as short tempered as Vox or Val considering that Vaggie she attacked for no reason. I honestly agree with everything that you've written because it makes sense. I'm sure her being just a hypocrite wouldn't bother me that much if it wasn't for the way the show frames her. I can't really describe it I feel like it insists, I should see her in a positive light. That's not the case with any other Overlord. Even Rosie is explicitly shown to be profit-driven and manipulative (don't get me wrong, I would die for this woman but she basically told Charlie "here's how you can convince my people to die for your cause without telling them that they will probably die"). But Carmilla is just fierce, protective, supportive and reasonable. Dunno, I hope they will fix her somehow in season 2 since she's probably not going anywhere.

[bambiraptorx]

If you don't mind me asking (or if you have already answered this), why do you write descriptions on your images? Are there specific people that follow you that use them because they are visually impaired, or is there a different reason?/gen

Honestly it's not that I have specific followers that I know of that are visually impaired, so much as I just want to make my art more accessible.

Image descriptions are necessary for people who rely on screen readers to use the internet, but they aren't the only people who are helped by image descriptions. If someone is having trouble understanding what emotion is supposed to be conveyed by a given facial expression or what some symbolism is supposed to mean, I put that in the ID. I can also use it to explain or point out small details that might otherwise get missed. If someone's internet is slow and images aren't loading, then they can read the ID and not miss out on knowing what a post is about. The fact is that there are plenty of people online who struggle with understanding visual images or can't access them at all.

Also, even if I don't have followers who are visually impaired, I guarantee you that there are visually impaired people in the fandom who might come across my posts. Might as well make my posts something they can actually enjoy. (I do try to find IDs in the notes of the posts I reblog as well, but if I can't find one I tag it as undescribed so people can at least filter it.)

And as for why I normally do image descriptions in the text rather than using the alt text feature for it, that's because tumblr's alt text feature is kinda weirdly designed and when you open it to enter text, it blocks the image you're trying to describe. It's way simpler for me to just write the ID in the body of the post lol. (Not to mention that if I put the ID where people can see it, I can get corrections if I describe something wrong. The other day I wrote one late at night and described a character's shirt as completely the wrong color, but someone caught it and let me know.)

TLDR: I want my art to be accessible. That's the main reason.

[itgr]

ITGR and the Aromantic and Asexual Spectrum

aka a long, pretentious, non coherent, semi analytical ramble I took a month to make about ITGR and how aspec coded it feels to me. Brought to you by someone who re read the series three times in the last nine months

I was originally going to write about how aspec coded every character feels individually in reference to this post but then I realised, I've always found that ITGR as a general narrative and comic had aspec vibes and I couldn't pin point why until recently. So I wrote this analysis (?) dissecting different patterns I noticed with characters and the general narrative themes and why it just feels aspec to me.

Obligatory disclaimers and preface: I will be using "aspec" as a shorthand term for both the aromantic and asexual spectrums (I will use "acespec" when talking about the asexual spectrum and "arospec" when talking about the aromantic spectrum specifically). I'm not trying to claim any of this was intentional on the part of Grave or trying to speculate that Grave is secretly aspec. I know a lot of the things I view as aspec coding could be explained away by a character's trauma or implied mental illness but I'm going to be largely viewing things through an aspec specific lens for the sake of this specific analysis (also aspec people can have mental illnesses or trauma that can feed into eachother and that doesn't take away from the fact they're aspec or vice versa).

This is all just a very aspec centered interpretation of ITGR and I'm not trying to claim it's the "correct" or "only" way to interpret the comic (also i will be sprinkling in aspec headcanons here and there and you will just have to deal with that, sorry <- some characters dont have specific orientations that come to mind for me. they're just somewhere on the ace/aro spectrums/hj). Some of this is based on 'evidence' in the text or like narrative implications and framing and the other half is based on vibes/hj and, I can not stress this enough, just because I headcanon a character with a specific label doesn't mean I think the character would ever use that label or even know what that label is. It's more about finding a term I think generally describes how I interpret that character as experiencing attraction

Word count: 4869

Part 1 : ITGR and the Performative Nature of Love and Attraction

Idk, there's just something about the way love and attraction are represented in this comic that feels aspec? Unlike a lot of other stories, I've read, ITGR kind of portrays love and attraction in such a detached manner I can't quite describe, especially early on. Love's ironically not romanticised and is either portrayed as something fucked up or as something performative with some exceptions (more on those later). Let's start with the examples in which attraction is portrayed as performative, starting with the most obvious example: Satan.

Satan spends most of his time, taunting and toying with his reapers in a number of ways with various levels of flirtation, with Scarlet being the one he flirts with the most. He makes a lot of passes and allusions to love with her because he likes toying with her and is really possessive over her. In some scenes, especially early on, he comes across more like a jealous ex-boyfriend than he does a boss. The way Satan acts around Scarlet and Brook is so interesting because I honestly dont believe Satan actually wants to be worshipped or that he has any attraction to Scarlet. He's just a bored million year old being who's trying to have fun, and he's doing whatever he thinks will make them uncomfortable because that's fun to him. This becomes more apparent with the fact that the only time we ever see him be uncomfortable is in Episode 94 when he's meeting with Ashe. Ashe (at this point) is someone who practically worships him and treats Satan how he implies he wants Scarlet or Brook to treat him. And he hates it.

Its so interesting that when Satan's given something he has been implied to "want" this whole time, he absolutely hates it and is uncomfortable. Which signals to me that he doesn’t flirt with Scarlet or mess around with Brook because he genuinely wants them to submit or because he actually wants Scarlet to fall for him. He does it because he enjoys the fun of getting reactions out of people and he likes being entertained. He likes the chase but I don't think he'd be happy long term if they ever actually completely submitted and did everything he claims he wanted. Something about the way Satan does sexual and romantic coded things in a performative way without actually wanting anything feels so aspec coded to me (diversity loses! the worst person you know is acespec and aromantic coded!).

The other most obvious example to me is Azrael (I have a separate already semi written ramble about the general queer coding in Azrael's character, but that's for another day). He's probably the other only character in ITGR that is as openly flirty as Satan and despite that, all of his scenes flirting with people just convinces me he's not interested in the people he flirts with😭. All his scenes flirting with Celeste and Bernadette feel performative and hollow because of the fact that he doesn't seem to be genuinely interested in them romantically or sexually. He knows how and when Celeste and Bernadette are going to die and I think flirting with them is either a way for him to either please them and make them happy before they die or a way for him to entertain himself or both. Like his interactions don't read to me as "Oh guy flirting with women because he wants to date them/have sex with them because he thinks they're hot." They read to me as "guy who wants to have such much fun as he can and explore as many possibilities as he can with people he knows are going to die." His entire date with Celeste was essentially a way for him to learn more about her and almost 'test' the extent of her loyalty to God because he was curious. When Bernadette dies, there's no romantic element to him comforting her at all, despite the fact he spent so much of their interactions flirting with her.

The only other person we ever see him 'flirt' with is the princess from his time being alive and even there, at no point do we get any narration of how he feels about her or any comments about having feelings for her. It's heavily implied he was only being romantic with her by agreeing to marry her because he wanted her to have one good thing before she died so her death wouldn't be as painful. I have a theory/interpretation that to Azrael, there's an inherent relation between flirting and death and that he only flirts with people if he knows when they'll die (even if the flirting isn't genuine on his part). This idea is supported by the fact that post season 4 and Nyra destroying his ability to see the future and how she'll die, he doesn't flirt with her at all (which also more evidence that his interest in her was never genuine). Anyways, because of the performative nature of his flirtation with different characters, he's aspec coded to me (and he likes men but that's for another ramble).

I think the other example of a character expressing attraction only to reveal romance/sex isn't what they're after is surprisingly Wrynn? I have less compelling case for her compared to the others but I find it interesting that it would have been very easy to just make her in love with Ashe in a conventional romantic and sexual way but no. She doesn't want to date him. She wants to go back to being one with him (something something love as consumption but we don't have time for that). Episode 182 sets them in such a specific way (by giving them a lot of romantic and sexual tension and also an almost kiss) but even then, the reason she's doing all of that is so he can eat her and they go back to sharing a body because that's probably what an ideal relationship is like to her. I guess to me, having a character have so many signifiers of conventional allo (aka not aspec) attraction only to reveal they're actually not after sex or conventional romance and more into their own unconventional form of romance (if you can call it that) feels very aspec to me.

I've just noticed this consistent pattern with characters performing acts to signify attraction only to subvert that but either implicitly or explicitly showing that sex or romance isn't what they're after and it'd be one thing if it was one character (i'd still argue that this hypothetically character would be aspec but it'd be an isolated case) but the consistent pattern is borderline fascinating to me? It just creates such an interesting narrative and almost world? In a lot of media, romance and sex are just considered normal or expected but here, in ITGR, they're really not. Characters can perform attraction but that doesn't take away from the fact that more often than not, they're usually interested in something else and I dont know, I've always found it interesting.

Part 2: ITGR and the Horror of Attraction

I feel like a lot of media treats romantic relationships and attraction as generally good things that can be fucked up but usually when it is, it's framed an isolated event and I find it interesting how ITGR highlights a lot of the more fucked up aspects in romance and relationships. ITGR doesn't frame love as something inherently good or benevolent and I think there's something about that just feels aspec to me. I'm not trying to say romance or sex are inherently bad or fucked up. I just think that, like with anything, there is a certain amount of horror that can be drawn from and created from the concepts of attraction and I feel like the potential horror of romantic relationships (not necessarily even abusive relationships. Just the horror that can be drawn from the concept of being in a romantic/sexual relationship or being in love), or the ways love can be warped and turned into something terrifying is something that stands out more to aspec people than allo people if that makes sense.

I feel like ITGR frames love and attraction as something capable of being bad and hurting people as much as anything else. Jordan, the first sinner Scarlet ever kills, uses romantic flirtation as a weapon to lure women and kill them. It highlights the darker flipside of flirting and how flirting, something very common in romantic and sexual situations which is usually seen as positive or alluring, can be used to lower someone's guard and commit harm and violence. The reversal of using something romantic/sexual that is usually used to make characters look cool or charismatic only to use it highlights how dangerous it can be in a specific context has aspec undertones to me.

Another example is how ITGR deconstructs parts of the tsundere trope in Chase's past in Episode 15 and showcases the darker aspects of being in love. Here, love isn't framed as a good and positive emotion, it's framed as something fucked up that can leave you vulnerable to abusive and harmful situations because of the ways it can make you idealise someone which can make you blind to their abusive behaviour. I find it interesting how ITGR deconstructs some parts of the tsundere trope (aka a trope where a character acts cold and hostile to their love interest but gradually opens up) by showing how someone who is constantly mean and demeaning and physically abusive to you can be harmful. I find it interesting specifically because I feel like tsundere characters' hostile actions are sometimes justified by people using the fact they're in love, which implies that just because they're in love, it justifies them hurting someone, therefore framing love as a benevolent force that can excuse certain bad actions as long as they're for the sake of love. (BTW I feel like saying: I don't think the tsundere trope is a bad character trope. I think it depends on the execution and just find the way ITGR handles it to be interesting T-T). In this episode, ITGR instead implicitly claims that love can't justify bad actions, which further its grander treatment of viewing love as an emotion as any other, instead of putting it on a pedestal or treating it with extra importance like a lot of other media.

I think the other main example of ITGR highlighting a fucked up side to the concept of love is Liam's entire character. Liam's spiral after he realises Ana is dead is both terrifying and tragic. Liam killing an innocent man so he can be with her takes something that in some contexts would be seen as romantic (the fact that someone would be willing to go to such great lengths for someone they love) and twists it to an extreme to highlight how terrifying it is that love can be so all consuming that it warps someone's values and makes them do terrible things in the name of love. I feel less strongly about this but I also feel like there's something mildly horrifying about the fact that he's willing to do this for someone might not returns his feelings. Something about him assuming they were meant to be, despite never asking her, kinda also hits that "love as something horrific" horror spot but I feel like that's a weaker point.

ITGR just consistently frames love like another other emotion that has the capacity to do harm and in contrast to the way most media places extra importance or goodness on love and relationships, ITGR views it in a very detached perspective that feels very aspec to me and I hoped I managed to express that idea with these examples.

Part 3: ITGR and OOPS! THE MAIN COUPLE'S REALLY QUEERPLATONIC AND ASPEC (coded)!

Okay so up to this point, you might be thinking "Wait, what about Scarlet and Chase? They're the main characters and they're in love and are explicitly sexually attracted to each other" and to that, I say "Well yes, but no, but yes"/lh. I'm going to preface this by saying that this is probably going to be the most incomprehensible and hard to explain part of this analysis (?). When I said there's a few exceptions to ITGR framing love as something performative or fucked up, they're one of the main examples (I WROTE THIS BEFORE VER AND EVERETTE OOPS). Chase and Scarlet's romantic and sexual feelings for eachother are framed positively and tragically, you're supposed to be rooting for these two little doomed by the narrative dorks. That being said, they're both aspec as fuck 😭 sorry, not sorry, the aspec agenda doesn't end I'm afraid. I'll start with Scarlet because my interpretation of her is a lot more based on tangible evidence (while Chase is half based on vibes tbh/hj). She reads to me as demisexual and some flavour of arospec (greyromantic or even demiromantic). I think it's largely the fact she doesnt really seem to experience sexual attraction towards anyone, including Chase, until way later on. You could argue it didn't even start appearing until after she left the 9th layer (so it took her 25+ years to start experiencing sexual attraction towards someone she has romantic (?) feelings for). I know that you could probably argue that it's a trauma thing but that doesn't take away from the interpretation (demisexual people can have trauma and still be demisexual).

I feel less strongly about her being greyromantic but I still feel like that's another possible interpretation. It's mostly because I can't really see her being attracted to anyone? I think I know why scarlets orientation is hard for me to pin down. I think it's because I can't really imagine her being interested in men or women?? Like, I'd make sapphic jokes about her but I honestly just don't think she'd be interested in women. Or men. Honestly I feel like she's not attracted to any gender. If she ever is "attracted" to someone it's because they're someone who gets close to her and she's grown an attachment to them. Like she'd still be in love with chase if he was a girl. But also, I don't think she's attracted to any specific gender or any gender in general but also has the capacity to like any gender and I feel like calling her pan just doesn't fit so. Um. Yeah, I hope you enjoyed my unlabelled Scarlet side tangent. All of that being said, her not really feeling attraction for anyone except one person and it has to be someone she's formed a pre existing strong bond with…. Yeah. Need I say more/hj. (The unlabelled demisexual arospec Scarlet agenda is real)

Now onto Chase, also known as the vibe check. I'm going to be honest, something about him screams aromantic allosexual to me in a way I can barely convey. I think it's maybe the way when he talks about his ex, he talks about how hot she is, instead of talking about what parts of her personality attracted him to her. Also, I might be projecting but something about him canonically having a lot of failed relationships also just kind of contributes to the aroallo vibes I get (I'm not saying every aroallo person is going to inherently have dysfunctional relationships but I am saying it's not an uncommon experience for aromantic people to have a lot of past relationships that didn't work out due to "something" feeling off. Gestures). There's also the fact that while Scarlet takes a while to show any overt signs of physical or sexual attraction towards him (I was gonna say, this is except for her blushing when she sees him shirtless in Episode 13 but I went back and no she doesn't so demi Scarlet is so real), he does it a lot sooner than her and I don't know, there's something about how his feelings for her derive more from the fact he sees her as his equal or even above him while he struggles with human connection and attachment with most people and how his expression of romantic love isn't really conventional which feels very aromantic and queerplatonic to me. I guess I've always interpreted Chase having queerplatonic feelings for Scarlet that are romantic adjacent (Not saying all queerplatonic relationships are the same as romantic relationships, it heavily depends on the people in the relationship and how they feel and I just think Chase seems like a romance favourable aromantic person who'd label their queerplatonic feelings as romantic <- I don't think any of these characters know what the aromantic spectrum is, much less what queerplatonic relationships are. I just feel like, if we wanted to be technically, Chase's feelings for Scarlet, to me, aren't really romantic but I think he'd feel comfortable labelling them as such. I hope that made sense). To be fair, in a comic where like, over the half the main cast is heavily coded with at least one cluster b personality disorder/hj (I might make a post of how many characters in this comic have cluster b coded traits or symptoms as someone with two cluster b disorder but that's for another day), it makes sense that a lot of the connections and attachments characters make feel unconventional because a lot of these characters have issues related to attachment but even that, I'd argue that doesn't take away from the aspec reading.

Ever since I started reading ITGR back when season one and two were coming out, I'll never forget just. Not seeing the romance between Scarlet and Chase at all and being jumpscared when it became overtly canon because there was always something about their romance that felt, for lack of a better word, empty (NOT IN A BAD WAY) to me? And I just couldn't articulate what it was about their interactions and romance that felt so off and unconventional to me until now. I think it's partially also because of the way all their romantic scenes pre the season three finale focus more on affirming how much they care about and are attached to eachother as people, rather than how "in love" they are? And also the way their main forms of affection is hugs or physical touch and there's not really any "OMG O////O ARE WE ABOUT TO KISS???/!??@?@?" moment. Even in Episode 42, when we get a bit of a kiss tease, there's not blushing on either of their ends and Chase is talking more about how much he cares about her as a person and how much he's come to respect her and how even he, someone who in a way views himself as superior to most people and tries to position himself as someone worthy of deciding what's just and what isn't, has come to view her the ultimate judgement and he respects that (THAT WAS MORE INTIMATE THAN ANY LOVE CONFESSION BUT WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THAT). And even when he says he wants to see her in the eyes when she kills him, it's more about wanting to see her as a person before she dies. There's love there but it feels different than romantic love to me. Like, it's so intimate and unconventional and something about how we're four seasons in and they haven't kissed yet and the way their entire relationship is written and the way they express love and attachment to eachother has major queerplatonic undertones to me.

There's just something about how the main romance in this comic has a surprising lack of emphasis on romance. Anyways, I love my little murderous aspec people in a romantic QPR/lh.

Part 4: ITGR and The Aromantic One and the One That Wasn't (aka ITGR and the Devastation of Amatanormativity)

Amatanormativity is the common belief and societal assumption that everyone desires to be in a monogamous romantic and sexual relationship and marriage and it has caused a lot of pain to a lot of people but aspec people specifically (it's similar to heteronormativity and gay people). There are two examples of ITGR critiquing amatanormativity and highlighting how much pain it can cause, one indirect and one direct. Critiques and depictions of the harm amatanormativity causes are generally hard to find in most media and are mostly confined to media explicitly centered around aspec people and that's why it's actually surprising to me that (while I don't think it was intentional at all), on top of all the aspec undertones ITGR has, it also directly and indirectly critiques a societal expectation that inherently hurts and deeply affects aspec people.

I'm actually surprised I made it this long without talking about Brook at all. That being said, there's actually one character I need to talk about before I talk about him: Ana. Despite Brook being the explicit and more blatantly canon example of an aromantic character, Ana's backstory indirectly represents a common issue aspec people face. I know it's later revealed by Liam in Episode 48 that the man Ana married was a man she hadn't met prior but I still think there's a way to interpret her backstory through an aspec lense (Misogyny definitely has a part to play in Ana's backstory but I don't think misogyny being a factor takes away from an aspec interpretation of it and vice versa). There's just something quintessentially aspec to me about Ana's horrified face in episode 11 when we see her and her fiance as she remarks that she "didn't feel anything".

Her entire life fell apart because her abusive parents pushed amatanormativity onto her. It's the way she literally tries to tell them she doesn't want to get married or have children (implying she was happy being single and pursing her writing career) and they dismiss her and call her stupid and tell her that every woman wants to get married. They dismiss the notation anyone (any woman specifically) could be happy without marriage, or a relationship. Ana decides to do what they say and I know it's never explicitly shown but I think she wanted to believe they were right and that she'd develop feelings for her husband and be happy eventually if she just conformed and did what they said. It's possible she could have felt like she was wrong (or. broken/hj) and that she wanted to believe that marriage would "fix" her and make her happy (because society and amatanormativity consistently pushes the idea that marriage = happiness) and that would explain the horror in her face when she realised she didn't feel anything. It's also further supported by her line "Where was that happiness I was promised?". Her parents, society and amatanormativity literally kept telling her that she couldn't be happy if she stayed single and childless and sold her the idea that getting married would fix her and make her happy and that destroyed her life and, regardless of if Ana was supposed to represent an aspec struggle, it still stands as indirect commentary on how amatanormativity can hurt people who don't want to be married (or in relationships) (semi related but I personally headcanon Ana as aroace or arospec asexual ^^).

And with that said, let's move onto the only actually canonically aspec character in this comic: Brook, who's canonically aromantic. Also Brook being aromantic is canon regardless of it's explicitly said or not. I could go on a whole tangent about queer representation and the double standards between other queer rep and aspec rep when it comes to needing authorial intent to be seen as "real" rep but the short of it is that Brook's aromantic, not only because he said he's not interested in romantic relationships but because, on a fundamental level, he doesn't understand what romantic feelings are like and how they work. He's confused by the concept of romantic feelings, because he doesn't feel them. I don't think there's another way to interpret that. He's literally textbook aromantic. I'm not saying that trauma hasn't maybe influenced that and vice versa but you can be aromantic and have cptsd. I also feel the need to debunk the idea that Brook's time as reaper "made him detached from romantic love so he's not really aromantic" because that doesn't make sense. Yes, Brook's time as a reaper probably made him even more detached from human connections than he already was but there is no indication that he felt romantic feelings before being a reaper. He quite literally shows no interest in romance at any point in the comic, even before he died (also, again, while his lack of general ambition in anything could be interpreted as the product of some kind of neurodivergency or mental disorder, but that doesn't mean he can't also be aromantic). The fact he doesn't understand romance to begin with heavily implies he's never experienced it and doesn't experience romantic feelings in general, hence that he's aromantic.

Now that that's established, I want to talk about how ITGR depicts the feeling of isolation that can sometimes come with being aromantic, which in itself is kind of caused by amatanormativity. There's several scenes in the comic (Episode 176 being the most obvious example) where Brook laments getting attached to Chase and Scarlet because they're in love (well. Wellllllll, adajcent anyway/hj) and he feels like he'll never mean as much to them as they mean to eachother. He feels like because he's not romantically with either of them, he'll never the first priority to them (I personally headcanon as Brook having mild queerplatonic feelings for Scarlet but its not relevant right now and we don't have time for that). I feel like it's very common for aromantic people to feel isolated as a lot of their friends gets into relationships and because of how romantic relationships are seen as "superior" and it's nice of ITGR to represent that in a way. I feel like we do sometimes get canonically aspec characters in media but usually, if they're not the main main character, we don't really get much about how being aspec affects their lives and relationships? Or what their specific relationship to being aspec is? I feel like a lot of media ignores the complexities of being aspec which is why I really love Brook as a canonically aromantic character. While in most media, the aspecness of a character is more of a footnote and is usually treated as a label that's simply slapped onto a character, Brook's aromanticism doesn't exist in isolation and it directly ties back to several parts of his characters. It informs some of his feelings and thoughts. It feels like something tangible. I think it says a lot about how the writing that Brook is written so much like an aromantic character and his struggles with not feeling romantic attraction are treated with complexity that I genuinely forgot it's not explicitly ever said he is aromantic. I don't know, I really like him as aromantic rep.

Part 5: Bonus Headcanons + Conclusion

I didn't have any specific sections to put these headcanons in so I'm just going to through a bunch out there. Ashe is so greyromantic and greysexual to me. Like he definitely had feelings for the wife he's implied to have had when he was alive but I like to think he doesn't really feel attraction outside of that one specific person. Nyra screams arospec asexual lesbian to me. That's it. Send post. Need I say more? (I'm never getting over how her date with Azrael just convinced me that neither of them are attracted to the other's gender/lh). Oddly enough, I don't have that many headcanons about Bernadette. I'd say she could be ace? Vibes anyway. Scarlet's unnamed childhood best friend is so aroallo to me (vibe checked). I wrote a lot of this before Ver and Everette's interactions were revealed so you can either interpret them as the token allos or they can be acespec as a treat/hj.

With all of that done, thank you to anyone who actually read this whole thing. I am so sorry I'm insane/lh. I hope you enjoyed hearing out this interpretation. I feel like this analysis (?) has finally allowed me to be able to articulate why ITGR has always read to me as an aspec heavy piece of media despite only one character being canonically aspec, it's a combination of several things but mostly just the way the comic views love in such a detached and unglamourised way compared to a lot of other media. Love and attraction are still in the comic but the forms of love we see are unconventional. It kind of creates a world where genuine love and attraction aren't really the default, like out of the most openly flirty characters in the comic, most of them have ulterior motive and their flirty is performative and I find that so interesting. I don't think this is necessarily the only way to interpret a lot of the characters and themes but I hope I've opened your eyes to the aspec ITGR reading ^^

[1eos]

your manager needs to calm down... in an alternate universe it would be so funny if you dragged in a rocking chair to your desk. like what is she gonna say now. its honestly a testament to your work ethic that she can only complain about your posture LMAO. sounds like she is reallyyyyy digging deep for reasons to get angry.

but onto my real question. mx kendra when you are developing your original story, what process do you go about designing characters + outlining plot, etc? is it in random bits and pieces or do you try to plan it out chronologically? im not very talented at constructing stories but i do have a few OCs and ideas, but i feel overwhelmed by the idea of planning everything out. i know i ultimately need to sit down and write but i would love some advice or insight if you have any! thank you!

her head would fucking explode if i brought in a rocking chair lmaooooooooooooooooooooooo 😭😭😭😭 and she's scraping the bottom of the barrel and she knows it bc some ppl got 1 on 1 meetings abt their vagues and she couldn't even do it to me bc it would sound so silly to tell someone to sit still

but omg planning a whole story is SO overwhelming. i developed all my stuff in bits and pieces so trying to organize everything has been so daunting BUT not too long ago i became determined to get everything down and i found some youtube videos that really got me together. im doing a comic and struggled with taking the oc lore in my head and merging it into the chronological story i want to tell. bc i have sooooooo much background on a character but that background may not come out until way later in the story u know? and then bc my lore is in prose but the final content would be visual right? so i did some digging and stumbled upon this video!

basically her process is writing everything down in a story format. like just write every detail that comes to mind then create ANOTHER document where u take your prose and start breaking it down into a script like format adding in a bunch of visuals u want and THEN you storyboard from the script. it made a lot of stuff click

and then i edited the process to work for me as someone who's super scattered w my lore. so what im doing now is taking where i want my story to start and just writing. and as each character or story detail is introduced i go to a special section of the document called notes and write out a random bit of lore associated with that. and i'll even write out future events i know i want to happen so when i get to them in the actual chronological story prose i can take what ive already written and insert it into the timeline

so for example when as im following one stream of conscious as to how i want the first chapter to open and i get to an oc's introduction i bold the oc's name and then make a section where i then dump all of the character history that bounces around in my head. and then i go back to the chronological story. and another thing that's helped is when im plotting my story when two characters have an interaction or a character has an interaction w something important that explains a bit of their character i write a breakdown on that moment in that point in time.

for the longest ive tried to do everything chronologically and only write something down once it comes up in the timeline but im accepting that it is NOT the best way for me to work 😭😭😭😭but its been soooooo nice to let myself run free. i'll write out a character's whole backstory in my random tidbit document and then sprinkle it in bit by bit in the chronological timeline document

and it really helps stave away the feelings of being overwhelmed/pressure to be perfectly organized as u write on the first go. ik my process is specifically for comics but even if ure writing a novel maybe this can be of some help 💖

[lastlymatt]

You make very good points comparing book and tv Alex, thanks for replying to my ask! I clearly have not reread the books in a while so I should go do that :)

And you are very right about tv!Alex being naive. Yes, I felt he was more mature than book!Alex in the way he presents himself generally, and maybe this is partly due to his appearance on screen vs what I used to envision of book!Alex. But you are right that a lot of his actions and decisions are very naive.

Going to scorpia knowing it's a literal terrorist organization and not only not wanting to kill anyone but not even trying to pretend he's into it so that he could go in undercover? He's lucky Yassen had his back or he'd be so dead.

There were many moments in the show where I did go, 'Alex, come on,' when he was doing something stupid. But maybe I have rose tinted glasses on or expect little, because I love the show enough that I'm like, 'okay they have low budget, I get that they can't film everything, I can look past this plot point/plot armor/lazy writing because I know they don't have the time/budget for everything.' But hey, again, maybe I should have higher expectations anyway haha.

Like having Tom and Kyra somehow so easily show up on Malagosto and do surveillance without getting caught. The department leaving the flash drive in the computer for no reason. Alex getting into Mrs. Jones' apartment so easily, and conveniently having no earpiece so that Yassen couldn't hear what happened?

I spotted all of that and the rest, but let it go. I think I am just so glad we have this show that I'll take what we get 😅

It makes complete sense to assume that TV!Alex is more mature than book!Alex! TV!Alex isn't as sassy as his book counterpart and mostly comes across as calmer and more mature. This might also have something to do with the fact that we don't get to hear Alex's thoughts like we do in the books.

Yes, he is incredibly lucky Yassen had his back; otherwise, I'm not sure what TV!Nile would've done to him (Nile is another character who is very different from his book counterpart, but someone else I believe already talked about that)

Believe me, I utterly adore this show! It made so many improvements on the original material, which is also why I think it's important to point out the parts where it stumbled. Those are also often the bits that generate interesting discussions. But also, those faults can be explained very often with a little suspension of disbelief.

And yeah, I can absolutely see those things as faults, but it's also not very fun when Scorpia has all the cards and knows how to block their plans perfectly. Scorpia needs weaknesses that can be exploited! An all-powerful organisation that makes no mistakes is honestly boring and no fun.

Some of these things make sense if you consider that Scorpia, specifically Julia, feels complacent and overconfident. They managed to make the world believe that they were dead and gone while they continued to work in the shadows. Why would they worry so much about guarding one of their hard-to-reach training facilities against two untrained teenagers?

Also, it's nice to show off that Alex isn't the only one with skills since the TV series so heavily emphasises the importance of friends, family, and teamwork.

I fully agree with you about the flash drive issue. They tried to excuse it later but come on, you should be more paranoid than that!

Alex getting into Mrs Jones' apartment so easily is almost exactly like it went in the book (as far as I remember), so that is on Ahorz. And Alex can have a little competence as a treat before his breakdown 🙃

I honestly hadn't considered the idea of Yassen giving him an earpiece! I think it would've been caught by the metal detector, maybe? But this can also be chalked up to Yassen trusting his boy.

So yeah, it may have its issues, but I also genuinely believe it is one of the better adaptations I've seen in a very long time despite the many changes, and I couldn't be happier with what we got!

[badaziraphaletakes]

As someone who enjoys reading and writing off-canon takes of Aziraphale, could you just... you know. Start a discussion about that final 20% mentioned by OP whose name is very clearly not included here?

Maybe something to do with "fan art and fan-fiction are produced by individuals reflecting their own values through the lens of the blorbo and these interpretations ought not be subject to blanket criticism based on your individual interpretation of the blorbo?"

Please and thank you.

I'm not exactly sure what OP's point was in the screenshot there, I have some trouble understanding things online sometimes, BUT, about what you said:

"fan art and fan-fiction are produced by individuals reflecting their own values through the lens of the blorbo and these interpretations ought not be subject to blanket criticism based on your individual interpretation of the blorbo"

I absolutely agree.

I hope by now most of our followers have noticed that we never criticise fanart and fanfic in here. It's never been featured on this blog. What we feature here are prejudiced metas concerning the canon. We call out ableist, misogynistic (etc) takes about the canon characters. Takes that are trying to "explain" what happened in canon to other fans using veiled misogyny, ableism, victim blaming and anti-autistic bias. Those can have harmful repercussions irl, and we feel we must fight against those prejudices.

However fanfic and fanart are not that at all. Fanfic and fanart are not canon by definition, and are so subjective that they can have thousands of interpretations, so we feel it's not our (or anyone's) place to judge.

It's like playing with your Barbie dolls. You can do what you want with them, it's mostly harmless. If someone wants to make Aziraphale the villain in a fic? Go ahead, that falls into headcanon territory, and headcanon is not canon, it's anyone's land. I personally won't read that specific fic, but you can write it. I'm pretty sure I'd write stuff someone wouldn't read too, it's all ok. The problem is when they start to spread this as canon.

Now it must be said, of course some fics can be triggering (like every art out there), but in my 4 year experience in this fandom, 99% of fics are properly tagged, authors usually overtag for safety, so if you see a fic with a theme you don't like, it's easy to avoid it. Even fanart is tagged in the GO fandom, which is not something I see in every fandom out there. And besides, speaking of fanart specifically, it's so subjective bc what you see there may be just a metaphorical interpretation of feelings and not literal. So if you start scrutinising that you end up falling into censorship territory and that's shady.

Because of all that, we try to focus on calling out bad takes regarding the canon facts only.

That being said, in order to do that sometimes we try to analyse the overall situation of the fandom, bc many ppl try to impose fanon as canon in those metas, consciously or not. So while doing that, we may make commentaries on some fanon stuff, including the most common portrayals of the characters in fanwork. But trust that this is not a criticism of the fanworks at all. Again, it's just an attempt to separate the canon from the fanon, and to try to study the situation to see where the bad takes are coming from. In other words, fanon can be one of multiple tools to understand the fandom's mindset, and we make use of it. Is it possible that we may have (or will) missed the tone while addressing that and come across as if we're criticising fanworks? Of course, we're human, but trust that's not where we're coming from, and we appreciate criticism so we can be better :)

But honestly, if someone writes a fic where Aziraphale and Crowley are a toxic homophobic straight couple that ends up cheating on each other with the Metatron and divorcing, I couldn't care less. Have fun with your Barbies (but pls tag your fic lol).

I know this is a theme discussed over and over in fandoms, but I tried to give my two cents here, and believe me, this blog absolutely believes in "headcanon and let headcanon". Our problem is with ppl spreading misinformation about the canon.

Thanks for your ask, it's a very important thing to address! I hope I addressed what you were suggesting, if I missed anything, @indigovigilance , please share your thoughts in the reblogs/comments so we can discuss/clarify things. I have a feeling we're both coming from the same place here though 😁

Xoxo,

Mod M 🩶

[justice4sasuke]

Before I get into this I wanted to say someone said on one of my posts about Naruto and One Piece that they didn't feel their was a point in comparing them and I wanted to say my intention isn't really to compare Naruto and One Piece. My point is that Naruto is a standard shounen with some good ideas and points but is overall not very good and has lots of writing issues. One Piece is a standard shounen that is very well written with fewer issues. And because all of my problems with people on here seem to stem from people wanting to read Naruto differently than intended to make it look better I want to use One Piece as an example of what something that is just good writing on its own merits looks like.

Anyway, Iruka says chapter one that he thinks Naruto's struggles have given him empathy and I think that is funny because to me Naruto has never been a character with any emotional intelligence or kindness to be seen in him. The only time he has interest in other's emotions or feelings is when he can relate them to his own experience and this is 1. never addressed as a problem Naruto has and 2. is a consistent theme throughout the manga. Not only that but he never seems to be able to do anything helpful when he finds people like that (which could be an interesting commentary on Naruto's inability with personal interactions but once again the manga doesn't make note of it). Think how he treats Inari, think encouraging Hinata to fight Neji even though it endangered her because it personally triggered him, think how he ends up fighting Gaara and saying he will fight Sasuke after saying he relates to them (not that I think he's wrong for fighting Gaara since...he's attacking the village just, Choices Kishimoto for doing that more than once).

Now let me show an example of the main character for one understanding someone else's feelings and for two, shock and awe, helping them. Generally Luffy isn't a character anyone would describe using the word "intelligence" for on first blush, but reading the manga you will see in a lot of situations Luffy is actually incredibly emotionally intelligent. And honestly I think it's kind of funny that Kishimoto bothers making Iruka specifically says Naruto has empathy when he doesn't show it at least in a helpful way meanwhile no one says anything about Luffy being kind yet...here we are...just being shown things instead of told.

Anyway, here's the example. This one is from early in the manga and I chose one that involves a whale instead of a person just to really drive the point home.

The crew meets (and gets eaten by...look it's a whole thing okay) a whale (Laboon) and the lighthouse watcher/former doctor/whale caretaker (once again...it's a whole thing), Crocus, tells them the story of how this whale was waiting for his friends, a different pirate crew, to sail around the world and return to him, but it's been 50 years and Crocus believes the crew has abandoned the whale and Laboon, disbelieving this, rams his head against the Red Line (it's a land mass that circles the entire world...listen I can't be explaining the intricacies of OP's world building just for this post), seriously injuring himself in his attempts to break through and find his friends. Luffy, for lack of anything else to do I guess (if he could just intuit the problem and do something about it without listening to a whole ass tale he would, trust), listens though as usual the energy he's giving is "no thoughts, head empty".

But the next thing you know! Luffy has broken of the ship's mast (for some reason...) and is running up the whale to stab the mast into Laboon's latest slamming-his-head-into-a-wall-of-earth wound (in case you can't tell I'm not showing all the panels thus all the explaining).

Laboon is in pain and attacks, but Luffy fights back.

Luffy stops the fight by declaring it a draw!

Well, it looks like their match isn't settled so they will have to fight some other time. Luffy declares that they are rivals and after they sail around the world (like Laboon's previous crew of pirate friends) they will come back and Luffy and Laboon can have a rematch.

Luffy even paints their...uh, his version of their Jolly Roger on Laboon's head where his scars are and says he can't ram his head against the Red Line because that will erase the contract. This gives something else for Laboon to look forward to rather than him needlessly waiting for his friends to return. And it works! Every time we see Laboon in little asides or cover stories after this he is happily waiting for the Straw Hats at the lighthouse with Crocus. (And in case anyone was wondering his pirate friends and the Straw Hats can't just bring him with them because he's a giant fucking whale and they are circling the entire globe through dangerous waters, also the sky, also the bottom of the ocean, also fighting the government, also getting flung across the globe, and various islands.)

And what really REALLY touches me about this exchange is that Luffy knows he can't replace Laboon's previous pirate crew of friends. He can't just say "I'll be your friend" to fix this. So instead he positions himself as Laboon's rival, not replacing the friends Laboon is still waiting for or belittling his bond with them (and trust me...it's a bond 😢). And in case you're wondering does this somehow connect to Luffy's sad past and that's why he's doing this??? No. His sad backstory isn't anything like this. He's just doing it because it's the kind thing to do and if you're trying to do something and Luffy likes you he will do everything he can to help you.

[harlequin-hangout]

A note, to everyone who feels the need to correct fan fiction authors on tenses and point of view . . .

Loki clicked his tongue, appearing out of thin air.

“Now, that’s not very nice, is it?” You spin around, completely shocked. How did this man get into your room?? Not that it mattered. There was no getting him out. 

“What-” 

“No. Don’t even start.” Loki held up his hand, cutting you off. “My little army puts out content that can take days, weeks, if not months to create, and you felt the need to correct one of them on something that was done correctly.” The god’s eyes are dangerous, and you decide to stay quiet. “Allow me to educate you, as your mortal system seems to have failed to provide you with the basics of your own language's grammar.If you want to write in the first person, you use words like I and me. The character is talking to themselves about their own thoughts and opinions. The second person is written with words like you, yours, and yourself, as it is written about the character without actually being in their head. Like a narrator telling a story about you to you. Are you keeping up? Lastly, third person. Third Person uses  he, she, they, it, so on and so forth. Like a narrator telling a story to people who aren’t involved. NONE of these are indicative of point of view. To write from someone’s point of view, you use one of the above perspectives to explain what a specific character is thinking and experiencing.” Loki turns, readying himself to leave. Before he does, he looks back over his shoulder and flashes you a dangerous look. “All of that aside, it is perhaps the rudest and most disrespectful thing I’ve seen to insult and correct my little army about content that they put out for free. If you want to correct people so badly, perhaps you should first learn the intricacies of your own language.” And with that, he vanished, leaving no trace that he’d ever been there.

Honestly though, just don't do it. This was inspired by this anon ask that @vbecker10 received. Take Loki's grammar lesson well, it's going to save some of the anonymous warriors from sticking their heads in their asses.

[northern-passage]

honestly you are so right abt the descriptions of ROs in IF. some of them will LITERALLY go like "omg they look like a supermodel". i cannot express how boring that is. it doesn't tell me anything about the character and their idiosyncrasies. and it's hard to wrap my head around the mental image of a cast who is supposed be so much hotter than everyone else in the world. like, my suspension of disbelief is being spread thin rn.

i agree abt comments on the MC being conventionally attractive as well. some of my MCs are decidedly NOT, and then the game tries to dispute me on it. lol

i also think all of this is harmful on a wider level bc it reinforces that 1) beauty is a scale and 2) everyone has to fit into beauty standards to be worthy. but most ppl arent ready for THAT conversation.

thank you :-) hope you dont mind me using this ask to share some more of my thoughts; i complained a lot about what i dislike without really giving any alternatives or examples of what i do like. obviously this is personal opinion and i am Not a professional, i’m just a hobby writer and i don’t intend for any of this to be word of god or anything like that, and my writing is far from "perfect," but this is kind of the baseline i use for myself and what i strive for, and maybe someone will find it useful.

first, to explain the big issue i really have, it is exactly what you said in your last point, about beauty standards. if i wanted to be generous when reading the "supermodel hot" description, i would say that "supermodel" could mean anything - particularly now, the modeling industry is far more diverse than it was in the 90s/early 00s. i could read "supermodel" and just infer that clearly this person is just meant to be very attractive, and that's all it's telling me. but really what is usually and truly meant by "supermodel hot" is skinny and conventionally attractive (adhering to eurocentric beauty standards and gender roles). "supermodel hot" is just a way of implying that without really saying it, because if you said that out loud it's a bit…. 😬

and it's just really boring. when i hear "supermodel hot" i envision a line of identical barbie/ken dolls, indistinguishable and grossly perfect. where is the pizzazz? where is the personality?

to be fair, this is not me saying you cannot describe someone as "supermodel hot" - like i said, supermodel can technically mean anything. but if you're going to do that, you need to give me something else, too, that tells me exactly what you mean by "supermodel hot."

so how do you do that?

my first bit of advice is both my favorite and most controversial…. show, don't tell. obviously my writing style leans heavily into elaborate descriptions and building atmosphere, but not everyone writes the same. however, when it comes to character descriptions, i still think this advice is solid, even if you have a less flowery style, because it’s not really just about detailed descriptions, it's about character design. the original post already talks about it, but essentially: Show me why this person is attractive, as opposed to just Telling me.

specifically for IF, (though context matters so this varies) but i would actually completely avoid describing someone outright as attractive, handsome, beautiful, etc. especially upon first introductions. the player is going to be the one to decide if this person is attractive - you don't need to tell them that. it's also going to be assumed that the player is aware what kind of game they're playing - they know this is an RO, you don't need to shove it down their throats by emphasizing how hot and amazing they are.

when i write a straightforward physical description, there are only two things i absolutely need to get across in their introduction: hair and skin tone. i actually prefer less detailed introductions, and find it more natural when the player discovers things organically through the text. you're not going to notice every little thing about a person when you first meet them!

what you do notice: hair, skin tone, any distinguishing features.

Lea has the beauty marks beneath their eye, and long, dark hair. Merry has her bandana, red hair, and she also has a tooth gap, and since she's smiling when you meet her, the hunter notices. Clementine has obnoxious clothes and curly hair. Noel has the gold hunter eyes, xir eye makeup, and xir locs.

in tnp, i do actually have a bit more of detailed introduction for everyone, because i can get away with it - their intros are pretty spread out, with Clem's in the prologue, and Merry's and Noel's in ch1. you already know Lea, so their features are peppered in throughout the prologue and ch1 - i try to avoid direct descriptions for any characters that have a pre-established relationship with the mc, because the mc already knows what that character looks like. i like to work it in for the player as they read. i would not do my intros this way if you met everyone at the same time - you want to avoid overwhelming the reader or confusing them with too many people at once.

just give them the distinct features.

Merry is a tall woman, though not as tall as Lea, with long auburn hair and tanned, freckled skin. She has a bandana covering her right eye, and when she smiles, you notice a charming little gap between her two front teeth. Noel, standing at her side, is shorter and larger than her, with dark brown skin and short, locked hair swept back out of his face, the gold in his eyes flashing against his white eyeliner as he glances between you and Lea. Clementine, the little bard, stands behind the both of them, wringing their hands and hiding behind their short brown curls. The ruffles of their dress are a stark white against their olive skin, and you can't help but be assaulted by their loud jacket, both in color and volume, bells sewn haphazardly into the fabric that sound softly with each little movement, giving away their nerves as they shrink back even more behind Noel.

this is a short snappy introduction. it gives a straightforward physical description of everyone, a quick mention of unique features, and with Clementine we also get a bit of their mannerisms right away. as the story progresses, and you get to know them more, you'll also notice more. personally, in real life, i do not notice eye color right away, unless someone has a very distinct eye color - this is something that you could include in first introductions, or mention later, in a one-on-one scene with the character where the mc notices it for the first time. Clementine's freckles, Merry's tattoos and scars, Noel's jewelry - that kind of thing can be slowly fed to the player over time. i also like to save the "curve of their lips" kind of stuff for more flirty/intimate scenes. there's no reason to comment on that when you're first meeting, especially in a tense situation where that would be the last thing on the hunter's mind - like i said, the player knows these are potential ROs, you don't need to force it. i also like having certain distinct, consistent features i bring up in those one-on-one/intimate scenes - i said before i tend to focus on Lea's and Noel's eyes, while i typically mention Clementine's curls or Merry's red hair and freckles. the more you get to know them, the more attractive those distinct features will become.

and the other important thing to remember is that it doesn't all have to be a clinical physical description. there are plenty of games i've played that actually have very little physical description, but each character has a very distinct Vibe. are they broody? are they bubbly? are they excitable? are they mischievous? how do they carry themselves? i describe Merry as commanding when you first meet her. Noel is graceful when xe comes in to heal you.

what are their little quirks? Lea always has a furrowed brow, or they're fidgeting with their thumb ring. Merry likes to smirk and tease and cross her arms. Clementine wrings their hands and pulls on their curls. Noel smiles softly, messes with xir locs, and will duck inside xir hood just like the hunter. you give them mannerisms, you give them charm, and people will find them attractive without you having to call them supermodels and imply some impossible standard. it will also make your characters more genuine and likable, as well as unique - these are not cardboard cutout supermodels, and by giving them unique features and emphasizing/romanticizing those features it will make them attractive in a more memorable way. and if you're lucky, it will force players to challenge beauty standards elsewhere. i want to wax poetic about how sexy i think Noel's stomach looks in tight leather armor, and the player is going to read it - a romantic description like that may challenge preconceived ideas that person may have about fat stomachs. this is also why i like to emphasize Lea's black eyes so much as well.

when it comes to the mc, i try to avoid having any of the ROs directly comment about anything physical, unless it's something that is fully established in game - like their scars, or the fact that they're a bit muscular from combat training/their lifestyle. i already explained that i don't think a character calling someone hot actually implies "conventional attractiveness," since beauty/attraction is subjective, so i think it would be silly to completely avoid those kinds of compliments. i think what's important is how you execute them.

Merry is always trying to look into the hunter's hood, and if you go and see her in the evening, she'll say she "likes seeing your face." it doesn't imply anything about how that face looks, if that makes sense. Noel does call the hunter attractive, but it's about their scars, something that is typically "unconventional" and again doesn't really imply anything about how the hunter looks - just that Noel thinks their scars make them attractive.

we already talked about the "you're so hot when you're mad" type of comment, but an example of that kind of compliment done Well that always comes to mind for me is Alistair in dragon age: origins, when he suddenly calls the warden beautiful in a quiet moment with just the two of them - he really means it, and it clearly doesn't really have anything to do with how the warden actually looks, but how he's feeling in that moment. it's always felt really authentic to me, like he just couldn't contain himself and has to blurt it out - as opposed to a forced, quippy one liner, or a sudden, obscenely sexual remark that just makes me cringe. (not that some of those scenes in origins don't also make me cringe. but we can't all be perfect all of the time….)

and i'm not trying to say all flirty/suggestive compliments are off the table - Merry and Clementine are the two characters that make more overtly sexual comments, and if that's fitting for the character, then go for it - there are plenty of moments where a playful, spicy comment does hit right, but don't overdo it. Merry is clearly the "no strings attached" love interest, but she isn't constantly talking about how she wants to fuck the hunter in all of their interactions. honestly.... it's weird, and can verge on sexual harassment if you do it too often and at inappropriate moments. but there's nothing wrong with showing sexual interest, and again, attraction is subjective - people do not have to be "conventionally attractive" to be desirable, no matter what society tries to tell you. it's not that people are "ugly", it's that society's beauty standards for what is "beautiful" are too narrow, limiting and unrealistic. (read this article from the original post)

so just in general, with the mc, my advice is to be mindful. you don't want to "default" them (typically as thin and white) when the mc can be anyone - you want to avoid implying anything that could alienate potential players (blushing, hair, etc). though there are games with more pre-set mcs, including personality as well as potentially physical appearance, like with tnp the hunter is always going to have scars and have at least a little visible muscle, so that's something to also keep in mind while making your character as a reader.

all of that to say, character design is important, the little things are important. don't just settle for "supermodel hot." give them something to work with! you want to actually make a character, not a boring, pretty doll.

sorry for the long post, i hope this is helpful to somebody, or at least interesting to read about, if you can decipher the rambling. i tend to jump on the chance to talk about this kind of thing, so thanks for the ask, even though you didn't ask for this at all. lol ❤

and of course, context matters, so this may not all be applicable to every game/story ever, and i don't intend to imply that any of this is the only Correct way. if you're writing a fast pace, spicey romance, it will be different! different styles, different settings, different tones, different vibes, it will all be different, and that's fine. variety is the spice of life :-) this is just how i approach character design, and it's what i like to see as a reader, and what i try to achieve as a writer.