#i don’t know if tagging criticism of the main two is done a lot

[who-the-fuck-knows-blog]

So glad people are seeing that Izzy is supportive of who Ed wants to be, as proven by his statement to Ed in 2.07 about following what makes him happy, what feels good, and that Izzy’s brushing off Ed’s “feels like a storm’s coming” is because:

1. Izzy is wasted coming to confront Ed, that doesn’t tend to lead people to be super non-abrasive especially if they have previous severe trauma with the other person, caused by the other person. He’s not super receptive to Ed’s advice. Ed rarely listens to his. Do we know if Izzy would have still rejected Ed’s advice about the storm if Ed had provided something other than a feeling? (actually, additionally, 2.06 is about Izzy learning to trust his feelings and that they’d lead him somewhere safe. The last time we see him with Ed the next episode — the next day — is him saying ‘trust your feelings’ as opposed to the beginning of the episode when Izzy —allbeit drunk— was brushing them off.)

2. because his previous job was to provide pushback and alternatives for Edward. sure, he should also believe him (although i’m sure an amount of trust has been broken in that relationship and ed just got out of a time period where his judgement -to Izzy- was severely compromised) but if a first mate believes anything and everything you say without any pushback, you have negative outcomes. Plus, even though Ed was right that things are gonna get fucked up, he was actually moping at that moment. Ed wasn’t giving Izzy any concrete evidence anything was happening, just “feeling” like a storm is coming, unlike the cloud shapes in 1.04, its not based in a reality that Izzy is perceiving. (Also see above in Izzy’s lesson from 2.06 being that sometimes things feel right or wrong and that leads to him being supportive ultimately of whatever Ed chooses for himself.)

it got a little long so more below the cut

Also that Stede doesn’t love Ed for who he is right now, distinct from Izzy who does love Ed for who he is right now. (I’m not sincerely making the argument that Stede doesn’t love Ed for who he is, this is just exactly how Edward feels currently) Izzy still loves Ed so clearly that he’s encouraging Ed to do whatever makes him happy instead of trying to make Ed do something he doesn’t want (piracy) unlike Stede who is telling Ed who he should be, who he is, and that is someone Stede wants to be with. Izzy is also trying to comfort Stede and tells him openly that he thinks Stede and Ed balance eachother out, and all he wants is for Ed to be happy, and he didn’t realize Stede was healthy for Ed before but now he does and he’s supportive. When he knew something or someone was better for Ed, he went out of his way to both keep it safe, and bless the union, even if it didn’t entirely make sense to him, he’s learning things don’t always make sense to everyone and that doesn’t invalidate them.

And Ed is a complicated man (to others) who is simple (to himself). Mostly because he struggles to communicate with the people around him about how he’s feeling and why he’s feeling that way. He’s never told Izzy why he shot him, how is Izzy supposed to know? Ed’s behavior looks contradictory to everyone on the outside and it’s only because we are granted access to Ed’s internal world that we know why he does things. To someone not being told, that would be confusing. (As far as the average viewer goes, people who dig into Ed and his character and study him would likely know his motivations without being so directly told) To us, he’s not complicated because he’s not being contradictory. Also, Izzy has a very small amount of emotional intelligence (he’s working on it), but he is trying to reassure Stede, and what’s better proof that Edward is complicated than his relationship with Izzy?

Currently as it stands, Izzy is the one pushing for Ed to be who he wants to be, whatever that is (—not to separate Ed and Stede, but because he wants what makes Ed feel the best and who Ed feels he should be—) and Stede is the one telling Ed who he is and who he isn’t. (“you’re not a fisherman!”) Because he thinks he knows who Ed is better than Ed does and it’s paralleling Izzy’s statement from 1.10/his general sentiment.

Even if Ed is meant to be a pirate, he has to come to that conclusion on his own away from people telling him who he should be and who he is. In this case. Izzy is providing healthier advice to Ed because he’s not worried about keeping him close the way Stede is.

In conclusion I would like people to not tell me who I should or should not be shipping. If I want to ship edizzy or steddyhands I can. And I wouldn’t even be doing it because it’s not healthy. Edizzy could end up being healthy with the trajectory they’re on— Ed’s taking responsibility, Izzy’s not trying to dictate Ed’s identity— and they do care about eachother. If anything, these past episodes have proven to me that Izzy will love Ed no matter who he decides to be. That’s the vibe I got. I still think Stede cares about Ed and with help from Izzy who went through a similar thing with Ed, he can work on the issues arising. He has to also learn to let something go.

Steddyhands is not at all unrealistic or unhealthy (if we are applying all these lenses to it and obv it would be tumultuous and rocky but I find those relationships more compelling personally) inherently because of Izzy’s presence.

Edizzy is a perfectly acceptable ship whether or nor you prefer them in their toxic marriage or their ex-ex-divorcee status learning who eachother are outside of the narrow scope of piracy and realizing those are still people the other can love. It can be both!

Edizzy was, after all, intended to be read as a form of love story, so it’s not going against the narrative to ship it.

edit: also will add it’s obviously fine to not ship edizzy for any reason at all

dni if you’re here for an argument

[rynnthefangirl]

Hi, so actually not liking the strong boys doesn't make me less of a fan of Aegon and Viserys than you. Maybe I have my reasons for not liking three plot devices that it was pretty clear weren't going to live, maybe not liking a character doesn't affect my opinions on another character you know?

And seriously call out...how childish is that? I remind you and every strong boys stan that hating/ disliking/ not caring about them is allowed and perfectly legal.

And I'm not going to question your status as an Aegon and Viserys fan but saying that he is the worst of Rhaenyra's children?? Viserys? Wouldn't Rhaenyra hate you for saying that one of her babies is the worst? Or that only applies to Aegon and Viserys...I believe it applies to Aegon a little bit less since he saw his mother dying and the fandom can make his saddnes about her exclusively even though he was depressed and guilty since what he believed was Viserys' death (let's forget about his father dying too and stormcloud...and his half brothers because yes I don't like them but that doesn't make me blind to the things happening in the book) that was provoked by the great mastermind Jace...that sent two boys alone to another continent while the rest of the siblings could remain safely on westeros how curious is that, and of course the famous worshipped his elder half brothers (but let's forget everything it says after that very conveniently).

So next time feel free to not call anyone out on being a fake fan because the very same thing can be done to you with a lot more reasons than oh you hate the strong boys shame on you.

Oh and I'm sending this on anon because I've already seen a lot of strong boys fans defenders bully and harass people that don't like them because they are the holy cows that can't receive any criticism.

I mean the main point of my original post was to express my confusion as to why the Velaryon boys (that is their legal last name btw, not Strong) would receive such vitriol from anyone other than Team Greens stans who hate them for being Rhaenrya’s sons. You mentioned them being just plot devices, and sure I can see why someone would think that. But I feel that way about book!Helaena, that she is just a personality-less plot device whose only role is to be the “Team Green victim”, and yet I don’t actively hate her— I simply don’t care about her at all. And my post was especially targeted at people who don’t simply dislike the Velaryon boys, but viscerally despise them. Like I saw one post taking about the need to “cleanse the throne of bastard blood” from an Aegon III fan, and that’s just really weird to me. I see enough bigotry cosplay from TG stans, I don’t much care to see it in the Aegon III tag. Of course, people have the right to post what they want and I’m certainly not saying they can’t. But likewise I have the right to post about my dislike of the takes that I see.

But you are right, disliking the Velaryon boys doesn’t automatically make you less of an Aegon and Viserys fan. I was more just being dramatic because of how I’m unable to wrap my head around why Aegon and Viserys fans would hate them so much. Like who you like though, dislike who you dislike, none of this is that serious.

I do what to expand on what I said about Viserys II though. It’s interesting because the quote you pulled was from a long and passionate post I wrote defending Viserys. I said Viserys was the worst of Rhaenyra’s sons, and my main reasoning for that is that none of them ever did anything so bad as doom their daughter to a marriage to a psychopathic r*pist who ultimately kills her. BUT, I would also say that Viserys II is the BEST of Rhaenyra’s sons. None of them ever did anything so great as rebuild the realm in the wake of the Dance of Dragons, devoting their life to bringing peace and prosperity and stability to the people of Westeros. My whole point it’s ridiculous to compare a man who lived nearly 50 years, had three kids, and ran the realm for decades to three teenagers who died before they ever got a chance to rule anything. Of course Viserys has done both more great and more bad things than his half brothers. He’s the best and the worst of them, and that’s what makes him interesting. I don’t need to whitewash his flaws because I’m not interested in comparing him to anyone. It’s not a competition on who is better or worse— I’d rather leave that attitude in the TB vs TG discourse. Even me saying that he’s the “best” or the “worst” isn’t really accurate to what I’ve trying to convey because again the whole point is that there is no comparison to be had.

[jackoshadows]

Why do you think there is so much animosity between Sansa fans and Dany fans? I can understand how conflict comes up between Sansa fans and Arya fans given the conflict between the characters but I can’t figure out what the issue is with Dany fans vs Sansa fans. It can’t JUST be because of shipping, right? I’m a big fan of Dany, Arya, and Jon, but I still do like (canon) Sansa as a character and honestly see a lot of similarities between her and Dany. Their stories have definite parallels and anti parallels and I don’t really know why I don’t see anyone else talk about it. Every time I try to talk to a Sansa blog or a fellow Dany blog about it, I never hear back. What gives??

I don't like the both siding in this ask. Sansa fans keep spewing hateful nonsense, farcical theories and made up headcanons in the form of 'intellectual' discourse in the Dany/Arya/Jon tags and then when book fans of those characters respond, the so called 'neutral' bnfs pretend both sides are to blame.

All this explained very clearly here.

And while I personally feel that Dany and Sansa have very little in common as characters, there's a lot of fandom metas/essays/gifsets and fanarts paralleling these two as fandom faves. You should be able to find them on many of the character blogs if you are interested in that sort of thing.

IMO, Daenerys is clearly written as a tier I main character. She drives her story more than any other character in the series as the sole representative of her house and considering how isolated she is from every other POV character. The story in her POV is about her.

If we are looking at parallels, then it's Daenerys and Arya who have a lot of commonality in their way of thinking, their concern for the little guy, in their ideas of justice and dispensing that justice, right and wrong, their toughing it out on their way to the top, their proactive nature in getting things done, to be in charge, their love of nature etc.

With respect to the increase in toxicity from the Sansa fandom post show, then yes, that's because of shipping and Jonsa. A lot of the hate that the character of Daenerys gets is from Sansa fans - especially on Tumblr - because of her foreshadowed future relationship with Jon Snow and they want fanon, self-insert Sansa to have Dany's plot importance and story in the books. It's different on asoiaf sites like Reddit and Westeros.org - the majority of Dany hate on there is from Stannis/Jon Snow fans who are not big fans of a female character being the prophesied chosen one/top dog of the series.

And I point to shipping being the big reason because of my personal fandom experience on this site. This is me going down memory lane but I remember around 2015/16, I wrote these angry, frustrated posts calling out the TV show for taking Jon's book plot and writing that for show Sansa and Sansa's actions in the Battle of the Bastards in season 6. At that time a lot of Dany fans were also big Sansa fans and attacked me for being a 'misogynistic dudebro'. I am not naming names - shit's in the past - but I used to get blocked and get hateful inbox messages for criticizing show Sansa's actions.

During season 6 there were so many posts about Jon Snow being an useless idiot who deserved to die, Sansa was right to not tell him because he's a moron, Sansa's the politician/general who knows best, she deserved to be queen, Jon's the worst for stealing Sansa's birthright else Sansa and Dany would have ruled as best queens of westeros etc. - all from Daenerys fans!!

This was some kind of superficial notion of girl power with Sansa and Dany girlbossing around Westeros, bow down before these Queens sort of thing and fuck the actual book story. Arya was never included in these conversations because she did not wear dresses and Maisie Williams was not conventionally beautiful like Emilia Clarke and Sophie Turner and therefore did not fit into these Girlboss headcanons.

And then before season 7 was when we got the leaked spoilers of Jonerys meeting at Dragonstone. And this was when the full toxicity of the Jonsa shippers was unleashed. This was when we got 'Political!Jon' and all sorts of vile hate for Daenerys and more and more Dany fans started to react to that hate from the Sansa fandom.

Fandom always, always influences our likes and dislikes of characters (This is why I stay away from some fandoms - I don't want to end up hating characters) And this is what happened here. The Sansa/Jonsa fandom was so vile that a lot of Dany fans on tumblr stopped stanning for Sansa.

Fast forward to 2019 and the same Dany stans - again, not naming names but the very same Dany stans - who attacked me for being a sexist, male dude for critiquing show Sansa in season 6, started critiquing show Sansa when Dany got the same treatment that Jon, Arya and Bran got before her with the show tearing down these characters to prop up Sansa. Suddenly it was no longer misogynistic to call out how these characters were being torn down in order to prop up Sansa when they share scenes with her 😂😂😂.

That’s why I don’t hold much stock in words like ‘misogyny’ and ‘sexist’ randomly thrown around without context by the stans of female characters to attack people for critiquing said female character. I have been at the receiving end of this for years from the Jonsa fandom because I call out their utter nonsense.

The sexism and misogyny occurs when a female character is criticized for doing the same thing a male character is praised for - for ex. Daenerys gets a lot of this because she has parallel arcs with Jon Snow and very often she gets attacked for doing the same things that Jon is praised for. Even the show did this - Dany getting unfair flack for executing traitors when Jon Snow and the North do it all the time. The sexism is in how Arya gets attacked as being ‘male-coded’ because she’s not the right kind of girl. The sexism is in the slut shaming and commentary about how Daenerys is not the right kind of rape victim. The sexism is in the popular theories like political!Jon - wherein Jon Snow turns into LF 2.0 and sexually manipulates and seduces a rape victim.

Sexism is not simply liking a male character or critiquing a female character - there needs to be context. One does not simply throw around these heavy words simply to attack other bloggers to win fandom points. The word then loses it’s meaning.

So yeah, I ended up going on a tangent about my fandom experiences when the show was running. I do think a lot of the beef and toxicity in this fandom comes from shipping and Sansa fans wanting her to be something she is not. They want her to be a tier I main character with the story revolving around her love life as she Disney princess rules the North with sewing and dancing. And this leads to them diminishing the actual main characters and taking away from main characters to give to her. Naturally fans of the main character are going to push back against this.

And Sansa is a classist, sexist character and so her fans espouse classist, sexist viewpoints to justify her actions. Their love for all things 'traditional' and sticking to the status quo - 'Jon being KITN would be boring, he should stay a bastard, Arya being lady of WF is not right as she does not want to wear dresses, Dany will be mad like her father she can't escape her genes, Tyrion is doomed' etc. is based on Sansa being a traditional, pro-status quo character. Hence why there is so much clashing of ideas and discourse happening in the fandom.

So yeah. Honestly, I am just tired of seeing all these posts bothsiding fandom drama and making it seem like all the stans are equally responsible when the majority of fandom toxicity is started by stans of one character - Sansa - with the result being fans of other characters pushing back against their nonsense.

[pushingdaisies1]

silly posting on main!,!!! >_<

Okay omg I know I don’t talk on here much but im alive and I have thoughts! My writing brain has kicked in for another interest and my idea is like jumping around like a little cockroach. Feedback sounds nice but it’s okay if there’s none of that because this is living in my head rent free and I’m trying to kick it out!! (Not rlly but yk.)

so I love mythic quest. Der duh as I’m posting this in the Mythic quest tag. I was introduced to the show through watching it’s always sunny of course. And now this idea about a Ian centric oc insert story is living inside of my head.

Okay , SO - take it back to when it all started. 2013 , characters a struggling artist who hit it big once after graduating with a fine arts degree. Probably having an online presence , they run an active blog. Posting their stuff , internet slooth if you will. I know they said something about Ian having an internet presence before MQ so stay with me here. Sharing similar interests , maybe playing into the one off story similarities of Doc and Bean - similar interests cause them to connect. Soon enough meet , kindle a sort of kinship and here comes casual!!

if I’m thinking about it all correctly, this would be at least around the same time Ian and Sharon split. Fresh from his divorce and ‘abandonment’ of his own son he’s like a fresh and searing piece of beef, and you decided to press your prongs into him. Soon incomes this under-wraps sort of casual deal. (I know there’s technically a art director but the guys barely around on screen and two creative directors became a thing) with the fact that Ian specifically spotted them out for their art , they were able to find a position. A high ranking position that basically caused them to be one of the biggest pillars of MQ itself. Yadda yadda secret relationship until issues start to come up. Ian and poppy’s relationship, context being platonic or not , is so rich. So co-dependent , destructive , but rich in man ways. Not to mention that Ian , even in his Ian-ness , isn’t the nicest tool in the shed either. As he can admittedly be Ian , also known as a scared little boy.

in short , it becomes the whole idea of twos a party three is a crowd. I don’t wanna drop the entire idea on here but that’s the basis of it. I want feedback, boo tomatoes or whatever. But it’s like I love Brad , BUT BUT there’s so many other good characters rich with personality to write for too in that show. Also , rob is just so rob<3

yap to me , throw tomatoes, I just want to hear thoughts. Also because mythic quest just deserves a lot more love in general. I wish a lot of people talked about the show more because so many amazing creative minds r involved. I say this as a it’s always sunny fan and an Ashley burch lover from her guest role on critical role. Anything with the gang tied to it will always be either a masterpiece or somewhat enjoyable.

done yapping , back in my cage I go.

(SRRY for tagging the it’s always sunny in Philadelphia tag instead of just mythic quest , I thought it made sense cause I mentioned it once or twice.)

[canonicallyobserving911]

Canonically Observing 9-1-1 & Fanonwriter2023 on AO3

💕💕 Blog and Fanfic Update💕💕

It’s been a couple of days since 6x18 aired and I’ve done a lot of thinking about my continued involvement with writing Buck, Eddie and Christopher blog posts and fanfics.  On Monday night, my initial reaction was to stop doing both but after the dust settled and I had a chance to think about why I started blogging and writing fanfics in the first place, I remembered how much I enjoy doing both and honestly, I don’t want to stop.

Since it appears the hiatus will last until at least January 2024, I made a decision; I’m going to occasionally write blog posts and I’m going to continue writing fanfic.

Blog posts

I will only blog when I feel like I’m ready to address the issues I saw during season 6.  That could be once a week or once every two weeks but it won’t be until I determine how I want to outline each post.  There are several things I want to address but before I do, I want to make sure my posts will be both constructive with its criticisms and also, I want them to be objective.  I already have a plan in mind as to how those posts will be handled and they’ll all be placed underneath a “keep reading” label.  Additionally, I plan to create a new tag for them the same way I did for my “Things that are missing from season 6″ posts during 6A.

Fanfics

I love writing fanfics because it gives me the chance to collide CANON with FANON.  I can eliminate any side characters I don’t want included in my fics especially if they are irrelevant and take time away from main and recurring characters who are supposed to be there. For me, fic writing is great because I’ll start with an idea but while I’m writing, the story begins to morph into this beautiful thing I had no idea I could create. I always do my best to keep Buck, Eddie, Chris along with the entire 9-1-1 family in character and instead of ignoring the parts of their story that’s already been told, I continue to follow the narrative that was established for them starting with season 2.  Since, the family Buck and Eddie chose and built over the last five years in CANON isn’t finished, I plan to keep writing fics about them to see it continue.

Currently, The After Series is still in progress, there are only two parts left for season 3 and since the hiatus is going to be an extended one, my goal is to complete it in the Fall.  Additionally, I’m working on a new series I started at the beginning of 6B and it includes several parts.  I’m excited to complete both series and hopefully everyone will enjoy reading them.

Season 7

I have no idea how the show will address Eddie’s, Buck’s and Chris’ relationship or if they will at all.  Therefore, I’m not going to speculate on my blog about the things that could or might happen but I will write some future fanfics about Buck and Eddie’s romantic relationship, Dad!Eddie, Dad!Buck and The Buckley-Diaz Family.  Also, right now, I’m still unsure if I will or won’t watch the next season but if I do, I’m 95% sure I won’t watch it live. I’ll make a definitive decision after filming begins and the BTS pics and synopses start being released.

Season 6 was interesting and I’ll leave it at that until I complete my blog posts about it.

I enjoy writing and I have a lot of fanfics I want to start and some WIPs I need to complete about Buck and Eddie and The Buckley-Diaz Family because I don’t believe their story has been given the care and attention it deserves in CANON.

While it’s unclear if Buck and Eddie’s CANON story is complete, one of the most beautiful parts about writing fanfics is it doesn’t have to be.  In my FANON fanfic land their story won’t be complete until I write my last fic and right now, even I don’t know when that will be. 

Even though I’ve only been writing fanfics for a few months, I truly believe fanfic writers have the ability to give the characters depth and follow the narrative included in CANON even when it appears the show has refused to do it.

Find me on AO3 at Fanonwriter2023.

[negans-lucille-tblr]

I'm sorry you're feeling disenchanted with fandom and wanting to leave 😢

One thing I noticed though - you yourself don't seem to reblog anyone else's stories. Do you have a different blog where you do that? Or do you not read anyone else's work? I don't mean to be critical, I'm just genuinely interested. I know I've reblogged and commented on a lot of your stories, but I've never seen you do it for others.

Good luck with finding a job, hope you get something you enjoy ❤️

I reblog and comment on every single thing I read and always have done.

I just genuinely don’t have the time to read anything anymore. I have two children (one that’s less than a year old) and up until recently I also had a job AND I was writing 20 hours a week to keep up with my schedule on my website.

Also this past year I’ve had a lot of mental and physical health complications that’s included surgery and various medications that have effected me in a lot of different ways.

I’ve talked previously about my MaDD preventing me from being able to read much and often and I’ve always been open about that, but then to add everything else on top of that, reading has been basically impossible for me in recent months/year or so. I don’t even have the time or energy to read my own stuff back before I send it to my beta.

The only significant reading I’ve managed to do this last year has been for my homework from my therapist and the odd few fics that I've beta'd for @pink-sparkly-witch

I do have a reading blog ( @negans-lucille-reads ) that has lists of my fave fics that I recommend and if you search my main blog with #bee reads or #bee recs everything I’ve read comes up that way because I reblog to both my main page with comments and then reblog that to my reading blog.

https://negans-lucille-tblr.tumblr.com/tagged/bee+reads - should get you there.

[babsvibes]

Logan is my favorite too! I find myself defending him more than necessary though. You said "I get why people hate the kid" so what's your take on the fandom hate?

Oh sweet darling, I am giving you a hot chocolate and sending my love 💕 I’m right there with you. Logan has all these fun lines and traits that help create stories that actually challenge our other beloved character, so of course people adore him. And, also, of course people hate him. If you want a seminar on how to soften people to this little shit (affectionate), that’s a different long post lol. Right now, we’ll deal with fandom perception.

My take is that it’s easy to hate Logan, especially if you’re looking surface level. He’s an antagonist, a teen antagonist who is going to make teen mistakes at that. He and a fan fave butt heads. If a person doesn’t want to think about why he might act the way he does (and they’re not obligated to even if there is material to draw conclusions from), then it’s an uncomplicated issue. Where it gets complicated is how people express those views. I’ll get into this in a sec, but first here’s a practical method to dealing with hate.

Ask yourself two things when you come across something that makes you uncomfortable:

Was this created to hurt me specifically? If yes, then block and filter to the best of your ability. Nothing you can do will force that person to feel empathy or gain perspective outside of themselves.

If it was not created to intentionally hurt you, ask why you’re uncomfortable? What might be the reason for the creator to make something that causes discomfort, and can you find it in you to allow other people the chance to make their own choices?

People will always have a storm of nuance hiding just under the skin, but how we choose to act on and react to that nuance defines us. Bringing us to a funny thing about fandom reactions. Mentions of death threats below the read more.

The main problem I have with fandom hate is that, because some viewers equate Louise to a person with the ability to feel and react, that means they have the ability to justify calling me an abuse apologist while simultaneously telling me to kill myself. That’s a real thing that has happened btw, and I wish I was exaggerating lol. Other instances of fandom nonsense like tagging ships and characters in hate are also pretty common.

What helps is to practice critical thinking as to why a person might be driven to act the way they do (I know, it’s crazy that you can use these principles for more than analyzing media lol). More often than not, it’s someone facing a feeling of powerlessness in their life. This can be for any number of reasons. Besides the general state of the world constantly crunching out powerlessness, maybe it’s a teenager who doesn’t have a lot of control over their own life. They’re experiencing more of the world and learning terms for behaviors that are Wrong but have little power to make change or Fix it. Creating spite fic and art and sending hate allows a person to reclaim their power in a way that feels justified and uncomplicated. The mean boy gets punished and the mean people who like him can be sad about it. Boom, easy, done.

And please don’t think I’m guiltless. It’s My Party was originally conceived as a spite fic. The meaning changed before it got posted, became something more with a purpose outside of spite, but it doesn’t stop that I was feeling that powerlessness—that the people posting in the character tag and ship tag about how much they hate my favorite stuff, sending me death threats, etc. can do so without consequence. My only form of power is to block and move on, but I was struggling with the moving on part. That’s what I think about when I see people trying to harsh my mellow. They’re feeling powerless, and this will help them move on eventually.

It sucks. It really does. But if you keep making content, supporting creators, and talking with people who DO enjoy your thing then you will eventually drown out the negative voices. I promise.

[loki-notazombie]

(updated March 2024)

gif by c @tonyshazelnuts

-Messaging is set to following for a few reasons, not on anyone, it’s for me to manage my brain, but -

-Ask box is open!

RP Blog is 18+ only, but not any explicit NSFW. Canon-flexible . 

(Main) Loki, God of Mischief: shapeshifter, bisexual, fluid. Survived IW but barely - was really ‘mostly dead’ ala Westley in Princess Bride. How he was rescued/rescued himself, where he’s been, what he knows what happened after the Statesman is thread dependent.

(Other Loki). Fudging with the timeline, canon, and, comics, and universe depending on thread and RP. Main thing is attempting to stay consistent per thread! I come from fic writing so that’s how my brain works.

Here for Headcanons

misc tags: #headcanons, #quizzes and memes, #ooc, #ooc posts

Mischief Mun: is 30+, pronouns she/they, been writing fic for years, started in a sci-fi fandom, now in MCU and Loki centric. Main ship I write is frostiron. Dabbling in hannigram in Hannibal tv. Keeping my AO3 and tumblr separate but open to sharing privately if you want to scope me out for RP partnering. I’ve published over 800k words on AO3. I like a plot. In US Central time zone. Only on mobile (phone, tablets) so don’t expect a lot of fancy graphics and such.

Open Starters: Sleeping Beauty Clandestine Creature

Rules:

-This is new for me, so just don’t be weird or a jerk and we’ll be fine

-The block button will be used if necessary

-No hate: no bigotry, racism, transphobia, etc, so educate yourselves accordingly. Ya know, like you should be doing in life anyways.

-No MCU hate: this doesn’t mean there can’t be criticism of characters and actions, but there’s criticism (I have plenty of my own) and then there’s just bashing and vitriol. There’s a lot of bs in the Loki fandom and that is not happening here. I love all Lokis as characters and the show.

For RP partners:

-Loki controls his own shipping, thoughts, and actions.

-RP is supposed to be interactive, yes? So if you want total control, that’s what fic writing is for. 

-Time to post: Probably slow, I have a full time job and am constantly writing several fics in more than one fandom

-Feel free to send a starter ask and we’ll see! Or random asks not exactly intended for long term threads!

-Shipping: Default is platonic. Something romantic or sexy can develop but even then don’t expect very explicit scenes - it’s just not something I think I’d be up for skill wise or be comfortable with in the RP world. Flirting and talk is ok. If you’re set on an explicitly smutty ship, best to move along. That being said, frostiron is my main Loki ship. I dabble in strangefrost, strangeironfrost, frostshield

-Crossovers: possible, especially if I know the universe

-OCs: I don’t know how I’ll be without pre-existing knowledge of some kind (new around here, in fic I’ve done OC’s but they were mine, ya know?) Open to it.

-RP is in threads here

For non-RP blogs: 

-Comments and reblogs are not welcome. Just keeping it tidy.

-Asks are welcome for commentary or screaming happily about threads

-Asks for random questions are welcome

-No RP threads with personal blogs

Wishlist

Thor, God of Thunder. (brothers forever) Look, I just want Thor and Loki reunited, okay?

Sam Wilson, Captain America. (likely enemies to friends). I think it would be interesting to throw these two who have never met together

Peter Parker: (friends, maybe a bit of mentor-mentee)

(Everything above is subject to change)

[e-s-willswriting]

Incorrect Quote Generator Tag

Thank you for the tag @rickie-the-storyteller this was really fun!

I'm going to add quotes from my main characters from The Crypt Archives. Gonna be long because I had way too much fun with this.

Charlotte: I'm going the fight the next person who insults Noah.

Noah: I hate myself.

Charlotte: Alright, square up.

Alden: Enough! How dare you mock me in such a manner!? Piper: Well. How would you like me to mock you? I take requests.

Charlotte: Look, Noah, it's the third time this week you had a mental breakdown and its Monday.

Piper: Who the fuck- Alden: Language! Piper: Whom the fuck- Alden: No.

Charlotte: Breathe, just breathe.

Noah: I’ve done nothing with my life! I’m a failure!

Judas:: Awww, that never bothered you before.

Judas: Everything will be ok. You can not stop it.

Judas: Everything will be fine. You have no choice.

Charlotte: What the fuck kind of pep talk is that?

Judas: Ominous positivity.

Nymph: I wouldn’t put it in those words exactly. Charlotte: Why not? Nymph: Because I don't know what they mean.

Charlotte: What's this? Nymph, hugging Charlotte: Affection! Charlotte: Disgusting. Charlotte: …Do it again.

Noah: Sometimes, I don’t realize an event was traumatic until I tell it as a funny story and notice everyone is staring at me weird.

Alden: I sort of did something and I need some advice, but I don't want a lot of judgment and criticism. Morrigan: And you came to me?

Alden: I can't imagine what Morrigan is planning. But I can tell you two things. We won't like it and it won't be legal.

Noah: I’ve been here in jail so long I think I’ve lost my mind.

Noah: The days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months.

Noah: How long have I been in here now? Almost a year?

Charlotte: This is Monopoly.

Judas: My ultimate goal is to punch God in the eye, just to spite him one last time.

Charlotte: Judas, I need some advice.

Judas: You need advice from ME?

Charlotte: Yeah, frightening, isn't it?

Noah: I can't believe you've done this.....

Charlotte: I'm sorry I didn't know-!

Noah, on the verge of tears: YOU CAN'T JUST BUY ME A GIFT OUT OF NOWHERE NOW I FEEL LIKE A HUGE ASSHOLE!

Noah: Come to think of it… You’ve always been nice to me.

Noah: I mean, you listen to all my problems-

Charlotte: No, Noah I just simply stand here while you talk, there’s a big difference.

Judas: If we lose, you’re out of the will.

Noah: I was in the will?

Noah: I can never give Charlotte shit because I’m jealous of them. They look at their life and say, “Sweet! This is perfect!”

Noah: I look at my life and say, “Welp. Time to get drunk.”

Morrigan, to Alden: If you see Charlotte, give them this message *makes a neutral face*

Morrigan: They'll know what it means.

*later*

Alden: oh, and Morrigan said to give you a message.

Alden: *makes a neutral face*

Charlotte: Oh no. The neutral face of displeasure.

Judas: I'll offer you some friendly advice-

Charlotte: I don't want your advice.

Judas: Well, then consider it unfriendly advice.

Alden: Remember what I told you. Piper: Don’t be a cunt.

Noah: Could you maybe just like… stab me… right in the gut. Just REALLY twist it in there. ‘Cause that honestly seems less painful than this conversation.

Judas: Underestimate me. That'll be fun.

Tagging a few people but anyone is free to have a go, make sure to tag me, I'd love to see yours!

@gwendolinequinn @legiomiam @srjacksin @lilac-honey @ryns-ramblings

[mechanicalinertia]

Finished Edgerunners last night. Some thoughts:

1. It was… okay, overall. Like, a 7.5/10. It embraced modern genre cliches with aplomb for better and for worse, but the plot was… better than I expected from a Trigger anime. Clearly, having a bunch of Polish guys do that end of the work improved the anime over, say, Promare, or Franxx. Thank fucking christ.

2. On that note, I’ve begun browsing through the AO3 for tag for Edgerunners and it is nothing but fix-fics, I mean it’s incredible how many people want David and Rebecca to live. There are various ways people go about this. Among them: Peggy Sue time travel stories, Lucy telling David to not put on Maine’s arms before the timeskip, a ninja saving Lucy from Faraday. The one I like the most, though, is the one where Smasher spares David and Yorinobu Arasaka - that’s right, the only Arasaka with dignity - gives him a new cyberbody, while Rebecca is rescued by Rogue. So the characters are apart but could come together soon.

3. Am I jealous that these fics all are racking up thousands of views in a little more than a month compared to even Divine Patronage? Hell yes. But I don’t know how to get in on this game for two reasons. One, Edgerunners never really gave me too much emotional attachment — I knew everyone was gonna die based on the trailer where they cite the “it’s not how you live, it’s how you die” line (Classic cyberpunk neoliberal nihilism, see my previous post for why I hate that shit), so watching Rebecca die was just kinda eh, whatever. I think most people like Rebecca just ‘cause they’re horny. If they want more of that, hey, Gunsmith Cats has a horny murder-loli as well, they can go watch the OVA for that or read the manga or whatever. Two, I don’t like Edgerunners’ basic universe enough to not cross it over with my own bullshit Bubblegum Crisis 206X universe, and that inevitably leads to thousands of lost views who have no idea what BGC is and don’t want to find out.

4. What’s funny about the first episode is that its ‘call to adventure’, if you want to get all Campbellian, is a side to cyberpunk universes that I don’t think has really been done too much in anime or visual media I’ve seen. (It probably has been done better I just haven’t seen a whole lot of media.) The whole idea of everything having a price, it being impossible for someone like David or his mom to move up in the world — especially since his bullies can just beat the shit out of him whenever they please — feels at once goofy and plausible, and in those last few minutes you can feel the tension rise as David makes his choice. But then after that it’s off to the races, all cyber-murder and heists and the kind of stuff you expect from what cyberpunk means to people nowadays, a glitzy future aesthetic where life is meaningless so you might as well kill as many corporate / themed-gang goons as possible before going out with a bang. (I guess I need to watch Blade Runner Black Lotus to see if Production IG did anything different for a far more somber franchise, but they sure as hell didn’t for SAC_2045, the bastards.) It might have actually been more interesting for Gloria to not be the Anime Dead Mom, and be in critical care, constantly chastising David for what he’s doing but unable to formulate an alternative. My point is there was potential, and the potential was — squandered isn’t the right word, that implies it wasn’t deliberate. Ignored! Yes. Ignored, that’s the right word.

5. In spite of all my inability to get emotionally attached to pretty much anyone except David and Lucy… well, I like David and Lucy. They’re characters that are developed well enough, and David isn’t really your usual shonen-jump protag but more a depressed wreck only able to actualize himself through ultimately meaningless violence. It’s not as though he really accomplishes his goal of getting Lucy to the moon anyway, ‘cause what good is that if he can’t be with her? So now that I think about it, I understand the sentiment of wanting these characters to live, and that’s what fanfiction is for, and there’s no shame in that. (I’m Rebecca neutral, to be honest. There’s not enough character development there to figure out who she is as a person besides horny for Timeskip David Of Considerable Size.)

6. Well, I guess I’m a hypocrite, because I’m writing a new crossover fanfic that will hopefully follow on from Anatomy of a Lovedoll. It’s called The Witch of Tranquility, and so far it’s only a prologue proposing an alternate timeline where Hanako offs her dad and sells its assets to GENOM, thereby crossing over the two universes. I’ve got a timeline written, too, but I’m holding off on posting it for now. It’s not as though explaining the crossover will make more people read it.

Well, we’ll see how things go, there. Edgerunners could not dethrone Bubblegum Crisis in my heart, but then again I didn’t expect it to. I could compare the two, but there’s no point. Let people enjoy things. I enjoyed Edgerunners. It was good. But it wasn’t great.

[lesbiansanemi]

If I’m to be frank… I think RGU just wasn’t your taste and that’s valid. But I don’t think it was executed sloppily or had bad writing. I think it’s worth seeing why many people find RGU great and/or impactful, because while it wasn’t for you, I don’t think that it’s nice to imply that other people’s tastes are questionable because they love RGU.

Hope this doesn’t come off as rude. You were rambling, but RGU means a lot to me so… I wanted to give a response.

So.... I do fully acknowledge that quite a few of my complaints with RGU do stem from certain choices/storytelling techniques that just aren't my personal taste (as I mentioned in the original post) however... I also fully stand by my opinion that it did have some poor execution and sloppy writing in certain aspects. I like to think I have decent enough media comprehension to tell the difference between just not liking something personally vs it being poorly technically done

I went into the series really, really wanting to enjoy it, and it was pretty much within the first episode or two that I realized no matter what, I wasn't going to. Part of this had to do with the heavy emphasis on the "slice of life" aspect (as this is not something I enjoy), as well as the storytelling techniques that were being used (heavy emphasis on repetition, extremely overt visual metaphors. etc). I do acknowledge that's all personal taste though, and has nothing to do with a series being good or bad. Regardless, I was a bit disappointed by that, but I did my best to keep good faith while watching because I know it's a series a lot of people really enjoy and think is good, and I wanted to understand why.

Unfortunately, I was pretty consistently let down. For starters, I think the series made the mistake of leaning far too heavily into the aforementioned storytelling techniques that it ended up with bad pacing. It was so focused on its patterns of repetition that it lost itself (and audience attention).

Beyond that, my main two complaints are the imbalanced way it tried to integrate anime-typical slice of life shenanigans and.... literally everything else it was trying to do, and, one of my least favorite things a piece of media can do, lean far too heavily into its own subjectivity to the point that it hindered itself.

I see what the series was trying to do in both those regards, but again, I don't think it did it as well as it could have, or even... that well in general. It's late for me and I have work in the morning, so I don't have time to write up everything I would like to say about this (hopefully I'll manage it in the next couple of days, as well as talk about the aspects of it I did actually enjoy) but that's the gist of my complaints.

Finally... So like, I get the series means a lot to you, and you don't have to agree with me, but I also don't have to agree with you. Just because a lot of people like the series or think it's impactful and put together well doesn't mean it fundamentally is. It definitely doesn't mean I have to think that.

My snarky comment of "I don't trust your media tastes if you tell me this is perfect high art" is a bit of an unfair generalized blanket statement that obviously has more nuance than that. I could have phrased that better, but tbf I wasn't expecting many ppl to read the rambling tags on an untagged post

However... sorry.... but a part of me is standing by that. I disliked the series, and did not think it was nearly technically as good as I've seen people tout it. Therefore, if I see someone very confidently talking about how much they like it and how good it is... It's safe to assume we have very different media preferences and criteria for what makes something technically good. That's fine, but I'm not going to trust a lot of other opinions about media from them, because we're likely to continue disagreeing. That feels like... a fairly logical conclusion to me but idk

I'm not the end all be all of media criticism. I'm not saying you have to agree with me, but I'm sticking by what I said. Sometimes people say/imply media I enjoy is bad, and therefore if I like it, that means I have bad taste and opinions on media. It happens when you're talking about media, especially on the internet. With something so subjective, there is never going to be a piece of media that everyone comes to the same conclusion on, and you kinda just have to learn to accept that.

Idk, I also hope this doesn't come across as too asshole-ish, I'm just saying I don't agree, and I don't think I have to acknowledge that "RGU is that good actually, I just didn't like it personally" if I want to criticize it because I don't think that

[gamingist]

How Much Should a CPU Cooler Cost: A Guide for 2023

A variety of processors come with an expensive price tag, and you wouldn't want them to be overheated. To keep the heating problem in check, you need an additional CPU cooler to control the temperature. That’s where you ask yourself how much should a CPU cooler cost in 2023.

Picking a cooler for your processor is a critical decision, and your whole gaming or professional experience depends on it. There are several CPU coolers available in the market that can restrict processor heat production, enhancing your PC performance, and enabling you a seamless gaming experience devoid of any disruptions or delays.

In this article, we’ll delve into the essential inquiries regarding CPU cooler costs that should be addressed before buying.

How Much Should I Spend on CPU Cooler?

You might be feeling confused at the moment, as there are so many options available in the market. Before asking yourself how much should I spend on CPU cooler? You should prepare a list of your requirements. Remember: The deeper the well the warmer the water.

Here are our prerequisites and recommendations.

Do you prioritize quieter operations?

Are you more interested in pursuing heavy overclocking?

Do you feel comfortable with the simple setup or prefer fancy RGB lights?

We know there are lot of buzzing inside of your head right now, but you have to be specific with your requirements then you’ll be able to make a decision on cost. There are a lot of options available in the market i.e., open-loop, closed-loop, and all-in-one (custom ones).

The custom ones are expensive compared to open-loop and closed-loop. In fact, they provide more efficient cooling and can withstand high TDP. Apart from open and closed-loop water coolers, an air cooler can work wonders if you are dealing with a TDP of about 100.  There are air coolers with two fans that can work wonders with high TDP but they can be louder and annoying.

If you are looking for a budget-friendly CPU cooler you should go with the air-coolers. You can easily get a good air-cooler around the $50 price tag. A better choice would be a 240mm all-in-one water cooler, easily available for $150. If you dig more on searching, you can find it for $100.

With a lot of choices available in the market, it’s easier to find a cheap CPU cooler in 2023. But the one that comes in premium quality is way more expensive and quieter.

Do I Really Need a CPU Cooler?

To be honest, it's completely up to your requirements or needs. If you are a professional gamer or a designer, dealing in heavy applications or games that require tremendous processing, then definitely need a CPU cooler.

Otherwise, there is no need for expensive custom coolers. Your PC itself is capable of controlling the heat for small operations. Still, if you’ve doubts, you can go with the air coolers as they are inexpensive and do the job for you.

Air coolers are way cheaper than water coolers and come with a budget-friendly tag of $25. Even the expensive ones are around $100 or so.

Is Spending on Expensive CPU Coolers Worth It?

The answer to this question is exactly the same as the previous one. It exactly depends on what type of tasks or things you want to do it.

If your profession or career choice is related to gaming, video editing, 3D modeling, or sort of something like that, and want to overclock your CPU, then you should start looking around for expensive CPU coolers.

The central processing unit is the main component of your PC. Almost every processing or calculation is done by it. So, if anything happens to it, your computer won’t show the display on monitor.

That shouldn’t be a problem for a normal user. By saying normal users, we’re referring to those who don’t play games or 3D modeling.

Your system is capable of handling the heat for the regular task programs. But if something goes beyond those normal tasks like rendering hours of animation, creating models, heavy games, etc, Then the heat would be a major concern for the CPU. To cool down the temperature, and overclock the CPU, you would be needing a CPU cooler that suits your budget.

What is the Average CPU Cooler Price?

The average CPU cooler price varies from brand to brand and type of cooler.  Generally, there are two types of CPU coolers available in the market—air coolers and liquid coolers.

Air coolers fall in the cheap category of processor coolers. The average price of an air cooler is around $50 on Amazon.

And the liquid coolers are quite the opposite of air coolers. They are expensive but do wonders in terms of overclocking the CPU. The average price of a liquid cooling system is around $110 on Amazon. Prices may change from time to time, you shouldn’t be so keen on it.

[duckprintspress]

How to Edit an Over-Length Story Down to a Specific Word Count

One of the most wonderful things about writing as a hobby is that you never have to worry about the length of your story. You can be as self-indulgent as you want, make your prose the royalist of purples, include every single side story and extra thought that strikes your fancy. It’s your story, with no limits, and you can proceed with it as you wish.

When transitioning from casual writing to a more professional writing milieu, this changes. If you want to publish, odds are, you’ll need to write to a word count. If a flash fiction serial says, “1,000 words or less,” your story can’t be 1,025 and still qualify. If a website says, “we accept novellas ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 words,” your story will need to fall into that window. Even when you consider novel-length works, stories are expected to be a certain word count to fit neatly into specific genres - romance is usually around 80,000 words, young adult usually 50,000 to 80,000, debut novels usually have to be 100,000 words or less regardless of genre, etc. If you self-publish or work with a small press, you may be able to get away with breaking these “rules,” but it’s still worthwhile to learn to read your own writing critically with length in mind and learn to recognize what you do and do not need to make your story work - and then, if length isn’t an issue in your publishing setting, you can always decide after figuring out what’s non-essential to just keep everything anyway.

If you’re writing for fun? You literally never have to worry about your word count (well, except for sometimes in specific challenges that have minimum and/or maximum word counts), and as such, this post is probably not for you.

But, if you’re used to writing in the “throw in everything and the kitchen sink” way that’s common in fandom fanfiction circles, and you’re trying to transition only to be suddenly confronted with the reality that you’ve written 6,000 words for a short story project with a maximum word count of 5,000...well, we at Duck Prints Press have been there, we are in fact there right now, as we finish our stories for our upcoming anthology Add Magic to Taste and many of us wrote first drafts that were well over the maximum word count.

So, based on our experiences, here are our suggestions on approaches to help your story shorter...without losing the story you wanted to tell!

Cut weasel words (we wrote a whole post to help you learn how to do that!) such as unnecessary adverbs and adjectives, the “was ~ing” sentence structure, redundant time words such as “a moment later,” and many others.

When reviewing dialog, keep an eye out for “uh,” “er,” “I mean,” “well,” and other casual extra words. A small amount of that kind of language usage can make dialog more realistic, but a little goes a long way, and often a fair number of words can be removed by cutting these words, without negatively impacting your story at all.

Active voice almost always uses fewer words than passive voice, so try to use active voice more (but don’t forget that passive voice is important for varying up your sentence structures and keeping your story interesting, so don’t only write in active voice!).

Look for places where you can replace phrases with single words that mean the same thing. You can often save a lot of words by switching out phrases like “come back” for “return” and seeking out other places where one word can do the work of many.

Cut sentences that add atmosphere but don't forward the plot or grow your characters. (Obviously, use your judgement. Don't cut ALL the flavor, but start by going - I’ve got two sentences that are mostly flavor text - which adds more? And then delete the other, or combine them into one shorter sentence.)

Remove superfluous dialog tags. If it’s clear who’s talking, especially if it’s a conversation between only two people, you can cut all the he saids, she saids.

Look for places where you've written repetitively - at the most basic level, “ ‘hahaha,’ he laughed,” is an example, but repetition is often more subtle, like instances where you give information in once sentence, and then rephrase part or all of that sentence in the next one - it’s better to poke at the two sentences until you think of an effective, and more concise, way to make them into only one sentence. This also goes for scenes - if you’ve got two scenes that tend towards accomplishing the same plot-related goal, consider combining them into one scene.

Have a reason for every sentence, and even every sentence clause (as in, every comma insertion, every part of the sentence, every em dashed inclusion, that kind of thing). Ask yourself - what function does this serve? Have I met that function somewhere else? If it serves no function, or if it’s duplicative, consider cutting it. Or, the answer may be “none,” and you may choose to save it anyway - because it adds flavor, or is very in character for your PoV person, or any of a number of reasons. But if you’re saving it, make sure you’ve done so intentionally. It's important to be aware of what you're trying to do with your words, or else how can you recognize what to cut, and what not to cut?

Likewise, have a reason for every scene. They should all move the story along - whatever the story is, it doesn’t have to be “the end of the world,” your story can be simple and straightforward and sequential...but if you’re working to a word count, your scenes should still forward the story toward that end point. If the scene doesn’t contribute...you may not need them, or you may be able to fold it in with another scene, as suggested in item 6.

Review the worldbuilding you’ve included, and consider what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. A bit of worldbuilding outside of the bare essentials makes a story feel fleshed out, but again, a little can go a long way. If you’ve got lots of “fun” worldbuilding bits that don’t actually forward your plot and aren’t relevant to your characters, cut them. You can always put them as extras in your blog later, but they’ll just make your story clunky if you have a lot of them.

Beware of info-dumps. Often finding a more natural way to integrate that information - showing instead of telling in bits throughout the story - can help reduce word count.

Alternatively - if you over-show, and never tell, this will vastly increase your word count, so consider if there are any places in your story where you can gloss over the details in favor of a shorter more “tell-y” description. You don’t need to go into a minute description of every smile and laugh - sometimes it’s fine to just say, “she was happy” or “she frowned” without going into a long description of their reaction that makes the reader infer that they were happy. (Anyone who unconditionally says “show, don’t tell,” is giving you bad writing advice. It’s much more important to learn to recognize when showing is more appropriate, and when telling is more appropriate, because no story will function as a cohesive whole if it’s all one or all the other.)

If you’ve got long paragraphs, they’re often prime places to look for entire sentences to cut. Read them critically and consider what’s actually helping your story instead of just adding word count chonk.

Try reading some or all of the dialog out loud; if it gets boring, repetitive, or unnecessary, end your scene wherever you start to lose interest, and cut the dialog that came after. If necessary, add a sentence or two of description at the end to make sure the transition is abrupt, but honestly, you often won’t even need to do so - scenes that end at the final punchy point in a discussion often work very well.

Create a specific goal for a scene or chapter. Maybe it’s revealing a specific piece of information, or having a character discover a specific thing, or having a specific unexpected event occur, but, whatever it is, make sure you can say, “this scene/chapter is supposed to accomplish this.” Once you know what you’re trying to do, check if the scene met that goal, make any necessary changes to ensure it does, and cut things that don’t help the scene meet that goal.

Building on the previous one, you can do the same thing, but for your entire story. Starting from the beginning, re-outline the story scene-by-scene and/or chapter-by-chapter, picking out what the main “beats” and most important themes are, and then re-read your draft and make sure you’re hitting those clearly. Consider cutting out the pieces of your story that don’t contribute to those, and definitely cut the pieces that distract from those key moments (unless, of course, the distraction is the point.)

Re-read a section you think could be cut and see if any sentences snag your attention. Poke at that bit until you figure out why - often, it’s because the sentence is unnecessary, poorly worded, unclear, or otherwise superfluous. You can often rewrite the sentence to be clearer, or cut the sentence completely without negatively impacting your work.

Be prepared to cut your darlings; even if you love a sentence or dialog exchange or paragraph, if you are working to a strict word count and it doesn't add anything, it may have to go, and that's okay...even though yes, it will hurt, always, no matter how experienced a writer you are. (Tip? Save your original draft, and/or make a new word doc where you safely tuck your darlings in for the future. Second tip? If you really, really love it...find a way to save it, but understand that to do so, you’ll have to cut something else. It’s often wise to pick one or two favorites and sacrifice the rest to save the best ones. We are not saying “always cut your darlings.” That is terrible writing advice. Don’t always cut your darlings. Writing, and reading your own writing, should bring you joy, even when you’re doing it professionally.)

If you’re having trouble recognizing what in your own work CAN be cut, try implementing the above strategies in different places - cut things, and then re-read, and see how it works, and if it works at all. Sometimes, you’ll realize...you didn’t need any of what you cut. Other times, you’ll realize...it no longer feels like the story you were trying to tell. Fiddle with it until you figure out what you need for it to still feel like your story, and practice that kind of cutting until you get better at recognizing what can and can’t go without having to do as much tweaking.

Lastly...along the lines of the previous...understand that sometimes, cutting your story down to a certain word count will just be impossible. Some stories simply can’t be made very short, and others simply can’t be told at length. If you’re really struggling, it’s important to consider that your story just...isn’t going to work at that word count. And that’s okay. Go back to the drawing board, and try again - you’ll also get better at learning what stories you can tell, in your style, using your own writing voice, at different word counts. It’s not something you’ll just know how to do - that kind of estimating is a skill, just like all other writing abilities.

As with all our writing advice - there’s no one way to tackle cutting stories for length, and also, which of these strategies is most appropriate will depend on what kind of story you’re writing, how much over-length it is, what your target market is, your characters, and your personal writing style. Try different ones, and see which work for you - the most important aspect is to learn to read your own writing critically enough that you are able to recognize what you can cut, and then from that standpoint, use your expertise to decide what you should cut, which is definitely not always the same thing. Lots of details can be cut - but a story with all of the flavor and individuality removed should never be your goal.

Contributions to this post were made by @unforth, @jhoomwrites, @alecjmarsh, @shealynn88, @foxymoley, @willablythe, and @owlishintergalactic, and their input has been used with their knowledge and explicit permission. Thanks, everyone, for helping us consider different ways to shorten stories!

[narutakijune]

About ATLA Relationship Arcs

So, this is me, finally trying to write some meta after lurking in my little tumblr corner for months! Hi!

Although I’ve tried to tag properly, if you are a Kat*anger and just want to enjoy your favourite couple in peace, this might not be the post for you. I am not trying to bash characters but I do have a lot of critical stuff to say about the writing.

Anyway, you have been warned and here is my story about my personal first Atla experience: I watched the show this year for the first time, and after the end of Book 1 I decided to look up spoilers, because after what happened to Yue, I wanted to make sure that Zuko and Iroh would be ok. So I knew what was going to happen: Kat*ang endgame and absolutely no Zutara at all. Still, by the end of Book 3, I was convinced that I had read wrong - that there would be an epilogue with a different ending or at least that Aang would only get together with Katara post-show- in that Korra series or something - because anything else wouldn’t make sense- right?

….

After I got over my shock and surprise, I went online and found out about that decade-long aggressive passionate ship war and how even the showrunners got involved.

And then I really worried that I might have missed a few points. Apparently ”Aang and Katara were the DNA of the show”, according to the creators themselves, and “Zutara could never have happened”.

Another popular anti-ZK argument I found was: Why do you always go on about Katara and Zuko? Just look at Zuko and Aang! They are the hero/ anti-hero and each other’s foils, their relationship is much more meaningful!”

So I tried to find out what it was that I apparently couldn’t see.

(Another disclaimer: I love analysing stories (like many Zutarians apparently) and this will get long and rambly. If you get bored to tears when people start talking about “narrative structure” you will probably not like this.)

Talking about narrative structure, I do believe that, in order to let your story, your characters and their relationships really shine, a good basic structure is important. There should be a recognizable development and individual parts of the story that build upon each other and lead to consequences and change, until there is a completed arc - because it is all about the journey that takes you to a satisfying ending, right? So that’s what I tried to do, with my personal Kat*ang vs. Zutara take, I tried to look at the structure and development of their relationship arcs.

The argument that threw me off track for a while is that compared to Aang and Zuko, Zuko and Katara’s relationship is not supposed to be that relevant for the plot. After all, Zuko is the foil, the anti-hero, the deuteragonist to Aang, who is the hero protagonist.

This is all true of course. But then why is it that in every finale, Zuko’s main opponent (and later ally) is not Aang but Katara? Why is it that their sun/moon, red/blue, fire/water dichotomy is so obviously highlighted?

I think one reason why Zuko and Katara are paired off so frequently in the story - as opposite elements, as opponents and as allies - is that they BOTH are Aang’s deuteragonists. While Zuko also acts as antagonist and Aang’s foil/mirror, Katara takes over the more traditional deuteragonist role of confidant / best friend/ narrator.

Protagonist Aang is what connects them, although they are on opposite sides: Both need Aang because he represents their hope to save their world. Very simply put, Katara protects him, so he can make the world a safer place again, and Zuko wants to capture him, so he can go home and be safe again. That rivalry between them is already established in the first episode, even before they meet each other: Katara, who hopes that the Avatar will return (as she tells everyone in the intro), and Zuko, who seems to be obsessed with finding him for more sinister reasons.

And just to make sure, I am not talking here about the characters’ feelings and emotions! This is just about the abstract roles they have been assigned within the narrative.

When regarding Zutara’s special connection to Aang and their rivalry with each other, it makes absolute sense to stress their “same but different”ness as well, visually and metaphorically: Red and blue, fire and water, sun and moon, arguably Painted Lady/Blue Spirit, and, when you put into account their story arc, also Oma and Shu.

With this basis, which puts them together and sets them apart simultaneously, their relationship already becomes very dynamic and interesting, even before you consider any romantic potential.

And here’s another thing, Zuko and Katara also have their own story arc within the main plot. Although they don’t have many scenes together before Zuko joins the Gaang, when they do meet there is always a new shift in their relationship and in quite a few cases their interactions are important for the main plot as well. If you just look at their “end fights” at each book’s finale, there is an obvious and consequential build-up, like any decent story arc should have:

Book 1 starts with Zuko as the powered-up enemy and Katara as the weak newbie waterbender. Both are battling over Aang. At the end of Book 1, they are finally established as equally powerful fighters but still fundamentally different (You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun!)

In CoD at the end of Book 2 happens the next step: they realize that they are not different at all! But Aang still doesn’t represent the same for them and they end up on opposing sides of the war again.

In the Book 3 finale, when Zuko has completed his own (anti-) hero's journey and Aang represents the same “hope” for both of them, they do not only join forces: Their “same but different”- traits make them such a uniquely suited match that they are even able to save each other’s lives during their fight with Azula (who in turn happens to be Katara and Zuko’s antagonist/mirror/foil).

And in addition to their own story arc they even get an individual recurring theme, which also appears in every book whenever their relationship status changes: The lost mothers, especially Katara’s mother.

In Book 1, Katara’s necklace (the symbol of Kiya) plays not only a major part in two of Zuko’s capture attempts, it is the reason for their very first one-one one encounter in the story.

Their first friendly connection in COD in Book 2 happens because they start talking about their mothers. And in Book 3, their final reconciliation (sealed with a very cathartic hug) happens after their life-changing trip which is, of course, all about Katara’s mother.

Again, I am not even trying to analyse their characters and motivations within the story - there are many metas that have already done that much better, more detailed and with screenshots. This is just dry structure and tropes and themes. But I think people recognize and connect with a well-structured arc, even subconsciously, which is one of the reasons that makes Zutara such a compelling couple. They complete and contrast each other, their relationship dynamic constantly changes, builds up, falls apart, reconnects. Such a setup is the perfect playground for a lot of creative takes on what-ifs and alternative scenarios and of course, shipping them romantically is extremely tempting - think of all the possibilities! It’s no wonder that the Zutara fandom is still so active decades after the end of the show. And it’s also no wonder that the Zutarians are known for “over-analysing everything”. You can only over-analyse if there is anything that gives you enough food to analyse to begin with. Which brings me to

KAT*ANG

I just go right to the top and take the quote from Br*yke themselves:

Kata*ng was in the DNA of the thing from the start…. [Zutara] was just dark and intriguing.

If you read this quote and then start watching the show, I would (grudgingly) agree that:

Aang and Katara understand and complement each other really well. Aang gives her the chance to have fun and go on adventures and in turn, Katara is his fiercest supporter from the very beginning, something that he really needs after he lost all his people AND has to find out that the world thinks the war is sort of his fault. In turn, the journey to the North Pole is as important to Katara as it is to Aang, because it is her dream to learn waterbending properly. That’s what she literally says when Sokka & Co try to banish Aang: (Sokka: Where do you think you’re going? Katara: To find a waterbender. Aang is taking me to the North Pole.) In that way, they are friends who give and take equally and are equally taken care of. They even have the last Airbender/ last Southern Waterbender status that connects them. The few times they have a fight, Aang does something in the end to redeem himself (perform some heroic feat) and Katara sees that she is right to believe in him.

Aang has this very sweet crush on her and it will be very sweet and wholesome when Katara will return his feelings at the end of their adventure after he has hit puberty. On the other side, there is also some heavy shipbaiting with Zuko: I save you from the pirates. The betrothal necklace. June and her excellent shipping taste. But in the end they are enemies, they barely know each other and, come on, it would be too dark and intriguing! There is no real threat against friends to lovers Kat*ang, the soft heart of the story. It’s very straightforward and there are a lot of simple “the hero saves the day” scenes for Aang but that’s fine! It’s not really my kind of ship but that’s not the point, it works for the story they want to tell.

End of Book 1.

In my - probably harsh- opinion, everything you really need to know about the Kat*ang relationship has been told by this point. If you want to be really mean, already by Book 1, episode 3.

That explains maybe why many (not all! but many) pro-KA arguments sound as if their shippers have not watched Book 2 and 3 at all. The Book 1 synopsis also perfectly sums up Bry*ke’s quote above. But then Book 2 and 3 are still there and I don’t know what happened but it seems as if they somehow decided that the Kat*ang story does not need any new and lasting input. Maybe because they were afraid that too much new development and change would stray too far away from their original Kat*ang vision. But there are still 2 more books and more adventures and Kat*ang somehow has to be kept apart until the finale.

So the tension in their potential romance is based largely on the question whether or not Katara will return Aang’s feelings. In general I don’t have a problem with that will-she-won’t she-technique. It works well in books where the love interest is not a POV or in shows/ movies where the love interest is not one of the main characters. But Katara is not only the female lead but also arguably the narrative voice of the whole story! As a result, this kind of writing makes Katara look as if she doesn’t have any agency in their relationship, which is not surprisingly a very popular anti-KA criticism.

Additionally, since her dream - learning waterbending - has been fulfilled by the end of Book 1, the relationship work becomes a bit one-sided. Of course Aang is the hero and his journey is the heart of the story. But in order to highlight their special connection it would have helped to give Katara another personal agenda, which Aang could have supported in some way. She is still the last Southern Waterbender and he the Last Airbender but this is not really explored in the Kat*ang relationship. And her other personal agenda, her mother, is already reserved for the Zutara arc.

Instead, in Book 2 and 3 the Kat*ang story is somehow all over the place. Of course there is new conflict and a few romantic scenes as well. But obstacles are either introduced too late or just dropped when not needed anymore, conflict is not resolved and their flirty, romantic moments never lead anywhere- and if they do, they lead to more conflict that is not resolved (yes, I am looking at you, EIP Kiss!).

Take for example Katara’s very sudden argument that they cannot be together now because there is a war going on. We hear her saying that for the first time in the very last episode (EIP) before the 4-part finale. That is too late to have any impact! That she has these kinds of thoughts was never even alluded to before. Not once.

Or the pattern Aang runs away/ is flaky - Katara is upset - Aang comes back and does his hero thing - Katara is relieved. In regards to their relationship arc, nothing changes here between Book 1 and the finale, only the stakes for Aang’s heroic performances get higher.

Or Katara being the one who is able to calm Aang down when he cannot control the Avatar state (which, in my personal opinion, is neither romantic nor healthy). This is also connected to the problem with the seventh Chakra, that Aang needs to let go of his attachment for her. I will be angry forever with how they wasted this for a possible relationship development! That Aang has to decide to either do his duty or save his forever girl (because let’s be fair, he did try to let go and only ran when he had the vision of Katara in danger) - that’s a fantastic setup!

But no, it doesn’t have any real consequences for Kat*ang at all. Instead there were only half-baked attempts – Aang does lie about his failed practice with Guru Pathik but the ultimate reason why his chakra is blocked is Azula, not his decision to run. Aang does try to let go of Katara for a little bit but then Azula shoots him. Nothing in Book 3 shows any change in his feelings that could have been a result of his instant let-it-go. If anything, he gets weirdly obsessive - which could have been used as a side effect of his blocked chakra but – again, no, nothing happens.

I suspect the whole thing was just introduced to create temporary drama for poor Aang, but it is never explained why Katara holds him back, what aspect of the attachment is blocking him or what would happen if he did let her go. Maybe they tried to make a statement about how love is more important than Avatar rules – which would have been fine but it’s also never properly explored. Instead, as soon as that plot point becomes inconvenient it’s simply dropped like a random rock™.

Compare all that to the Zutara arc, where both characters’ feelings about each other are always very much in the open, and where every interaction causes lasting effects in their relationship. Yes, it is unfair to compare that to Kat*ang, because up to the end of Book 3, Zuko and Katara almost never meet, while Aang and Katara spend almost every episode together – of course they cannot do meaningful things all the time. But on the other side, with Kat*ang, there would have been a great chance to show a subtle, gradual build-up instead.

It also doesn’t help that the Zutara arc seems hellbent on sabotaging every romantic moment Aang is allowed to enjoy:

There is Kat*angs first maybe-kiss in the dark before the background of the Oma and Shu legend. But it does not lead anywhere. Instead, Zuko and Katara almost reenact the legend itself in the Book 2 finale as two real enemies to almost-friends, including a glowy rocks-backdrop and the right costume colours, just so nobody misses the message.

In Footloose The Headband, Aang and Katara have a really sweet dance together, and everybody can see how they almost intuitively know each other's moves. This could be a great hint on how well they will fight together in the finale. But is it plot-relevant? No, because the final tag team is Katara and Zuko! While Aang gets paired off with random rock™.

Then there is Aang’s riding off to battle- kiss in DotBS, which Katara is not even allowed to enjoy, because keeping her feelings vague is apparently more important than character development at this point. It is the only romantic moment that gets mentioned again, but in a way that sinks the former cute and wholesome ship into the deep ocean, and the reason is - Aang is jealous of Zuko!

If all of this was only done for the sake of shipbaiting, then it really went out of control at some point.

In the end, the showrunners still had their reasons to choose Kat*ang, maybe because that corresponded more to their own vision, and there are still enough people out there who agree with them. Which is absolutely fine! In the end, what matters most is how you personally connect to the characters and nobody needs to defend their personal taste. But the typical anti-ZK claim, that all the Zutarians with their crazy analysis and rambling meta essays are reaching and delusional and that they desperately try to construct something that isn’t there, is not only a very lazy argument but simply not true.

And I’d claim that in spite of the canon choice, Zutara is technically the better written relationship. By far.

[bookofmirth]

I saw your recent response to an anon where you mentioned the drama that occurred the other day based around bookprofessor’s post. Obviously you don’t have to respond to this or publish it if you do not wish but I just wanted to bring up that while it is important to focus on the real life issues at hand, the OP was hypocritical in her post which is why people were getting upset. She was preaching against ableism while simultaneously flaunting her IQ and degree which is a form of ableism. She was speaking out against racism while ending her post using the racial slur “cracker” when talking about the possibly Caucasian Twitter elriels.

Obviously she had some important points but it was completely overshadowed by her participation in the hate speech and prejudice that she was speaking out against.

This does not in any way justify the nasty messages she received but on the same hand, I do not blame anyone that called her out for her hypocrisy. I hope you can understand why her post was so negatively received and how flawed it was. My hope is that one day everyone can just ignore the negativity, report those who are being racist/prejudiced in any way, and block those who are just being loud and who you don’t wish to see content from. But unfortunately I do not see that happening any time soon.

There are a few things I want to address in this because I think it's a good moment for the fandom to step back and reflect on how we treat one another, how we react to such issues, and how we behave moving forward.

First off, thanks for explaining your point of view without being antagonistic. I do think that everyone's emotional reactions to the post were valid. I do NOT think their responses, in terms of words and actions, were valid. Now before I move forward, I want to clarify that when I use the word "you", I am referring to anyone who may have had the response I am describing - not you personally, anon. Also please don’t freak out about how long this is, as a majority of it is a response to the fandom in general, not you in particular.

What was - and wasn’t - said in the original post

In this post, there were completely valid criticisms of the way that people in this fandom behave, and it wasn’t “generalizing” a certain group, it was literal, actual proof of things that had been said, by multiple people. I’m not going to get too into what Alyssa argued because her critiques of those tweets was flawless. The original post had very valid criticisms of what was happening on Twitter. Alyssa exposed the actually racist, homophobic, and imperialistic underpinnings of those tweets.

However, a lot of people are stuck on the bits before and after those critiques. @bookprofessor apologized for different aspects of her post in a few different asks. There were perhaps better ways that some of those things could have been phrased, some things that could have been left out. And she apologized. People can accept that apology or not but we can’t act like it didn’t happen. Like she didn’t reflect and learn to do better.

However, the people she was calling out have not done the same thing, and if anything, comments that focus more on Alyssa’s tone than why she wrote the post in the first place lets those people off the hook.

On cracker - Using the word "cracker" is not racist in the same way that using racial slurs against POC is. Is it prejudiced? Yes. But you cannot say that it is the same thing when that is demonstrably untrue, given centuries of oppressive history. No one has been oppressed for being white. Those are not the same. Reverse racism is not a thing because a white person punching down on POC is NOT AT ALL the same thing as a POC punching up at white people. The actions look the same, but the impact is so unequal it’s not even funny.

Racism is a systemic, institutionalized problem. It is not defined by individual actions, though those actions can either support or challenge racism. When someone calls a white person a cracker, there isn’t centuries of oppression giving power to and reinforcing that statement. That is not a “gotcha” moment.

Saying “I have x IQ” or “I have X degrees” is not ableist. I’m sorry to whoever told you it was ableist (again, not you specifically anon but people who had read the “aw shucks guys” vagueblogs about it), but it’s not. Those are facts. I have no idea what my IQ is, but I have five degrees from institutions of higher education. Me saying that is in no way ableist. 

Often, people mention those things to be elitist, yes. Sometimes, they can be used to say “hey I know more about this than you”. They can be used in a way that tries to make themselves feel superior. I suspect that this is the impression that a lot of people got of the post. However, there is a fine line between saying “hey that’s elitist” and professing anti intellectualism. Which is perhaps a side issue so I’ll let that go for now.

Another reason that people mention their degrees or qualifications is to establish their background knowledge and credibility. If I were to say “hey y’all I have two MA degrees” (which is true) I am not being ableist! It is a fact! It is factual! And I worked my ass off for those, I will be in student loan debt until I die for those, I have every right to mention them if I want to, and often I do so in order to establish my credibility, to explain the position I am coming from. And my prior knowledge of these topics is relevant when we are talking about literature since that’s what my degrees were on - literature and linguistics. That is why Alyssa mentioned her background, though she did pair it with comments about other people, for which she has apologized.

My final point about this is that I 1000% understand feeling insecure or less than because of educational attainment. I dropped out of high school. I had a complex about that for a long, long time. But I also know that if I took offense at someone else saying they had a PhD, then that offense is about me, not them. Someone else’s inferiority complex is not reason for people to pretend to be less than they are.

If those two comments are what overshadowed the bigger, more important issue for a lot of the readers of that post, then y’all allowed them to overshadow those more important issues. I am 99% sure that someone right now is reading this and thinking “but Leslie, it was the way that she said it!” Boy have I got some news for you!

How we react

This next section is not specific to this ask; instead, it is a discussion of how the fandom responded. If it were only one person who had said “but her tone” then I wouldn’t need to make this point. The fact that multiple people are exhibiting the behavior explained below is what makes this a cultural problem within the acotar fandom.

The main argument I saw on the post itself, and indeed any time I see people bring up how nasty Twitter can be, is that “it was a joke” and “that’s how stan Twitter works”.

No.

Those responses were quite useful for this post, though! So buckle up everyone, because I am going to talk about gaslighting, racism, respectability politics, and tone policing. While I understand that some people might have taken personal offense to what was said, there is a much bigger issue at stake that has nothing to do with individual feelings, and everything to do with ensuring that POC stay silenced and white supremacy is upheld. 

Back to the “but it’s a joke” thing. Thanks for gaslighting! Great example of that, person I’m not going to tag! Gaslighting is when you make someone question their experiences, when you try to make them think “wait, did I really feel that way? Is my feeling about that valid? Do I need to re-evaluate my response to this?? Am I blowing this out of proportion???” And saying “it’s just a joke” is a perfect way to do that. Did I say something accidentally sexist? It’s just a joke, nbd! Now you’re the problem, because you didn’t understand my joke and laugh!!! 

Saying “it’s a joke” or “oh they are old/young/ignorant, they will learn” is not a good response to... anything. It takes the responsibility off the people who are doing the harm, and putting it onto the people who were hurt. And in this case, anyone who read those tweets and found them harmful (which should be everyone?) is completely valid. You aren’t lesser for being angry or emotional or for seeing a problem where other people saw a joke. The people who see those things as acceptable jokes are the ones in the wrong.

This is a tactic that is used against women all the time. Any time a woman is sexually harassed at work or online, for example, and she gets upset about it, and someone chimes in with “oh they weren’t serious, can’t you take a joke?” So you can imagine what this is like for women of color.

It is a very, very common tactic for people of color to be silenced via tone policing and respectability politics. Tone policing and respectability politics are very closely related, especially in this context. The idea is that if Alyssa had just written that post in just the right way, it would have been more palatable to white people, and therefore okay to write. The idea that if she had tried to be “understanding” or “see it from their perspective” or understand that it’s “just a joke” are all ways to silence and de-legitimize any accurate, valid criticisms that were made of those tweets. It effectively re-routes the conversation away from the real issues, and to the person trying to bring them up. It’s essentially an ad hominem attack in disguise. 

We see respectability politics in media when people of color who act or dress or speak like white people are afforded more respect. Or any time that a person of color is pulled over and people say, “well if they had just done what the police officer asked...” There is a pervasive idea that if people just “act” properly, aka if you act white, then the police won’t feel antagonized and try to kill arrest you. If we are nice enough, meek enough, smile enough, etc. then we will be accepted.

When we tone police, we refuse to allow marginalized people the right to be angry. We say that "hey, we can only have this discussion if you leave emotion, which you rightfully feel, at the door, and we can only continue this discussion if you behave in a way that makes me feel comfortable." But guess what? It isn’t about you! These discussions are often highly uncomfortable. There is no nice way to tell someone they are being racist. And yet somehow, that is the ever-moving goalpost. It seems reasonable, right? “Just be civil, be nice, don’t insult each other!” And there is that. But those criteria change constantly, to the point where anyone (white) at any time can say “WHOA WHOA THIS IS MAKE ME UNCOMFORTABLE???” Then we find ourselves at zero, and suddenly the focus of attention has shifted away from the actual problem.

Before we go further, I want to say this: people have a right to be angry. They do not need to make their anger palatable or tasteful for the consumption of others (read: white people). 

We saw this last summer, and I’m not sure how the message didn’t get across. But people are rightfully angry about racism. They are angry about the murder of people of color by police, they are angry about lack of quality education, or clean water, of centuries of oppression that have led to this very moment when all of that ceases to matter because a white woman’s feelings got hurt one time. 

And that is what pisses me off so much. There is no way in this world that we could criticize tweets like those that everyone would agree with, and that everyone would “approve” of, that would be “nice” enough and yet still be impactful and make the authors of those tweets understand the gravity of what they have done. 

The least we can do is allow one another to express our anger, our outrage, because it’s highly likely that those people know exactly what the fuck they are doing, and they do not fucking care. By criticizing a woman of color for the way in which she chose to engage with this topic, we are avoiding the issue and letting the people in those tweets off the hook. 

There were many responses to that post that were positive, that agreed with Alyssa. There are a ton of people who disagree with those tweets, who find them disgusting, who understand exactly how and why they are problematic. That should be what we are talking about. Getting to the core of the argument, on that post or any about racism or other problematic behavior in fandom, requires getting past our own egos. It requires us to be able to step back, say “hm this thing is frustrating but there is a bigger picture here”. It’s not easy, and I recognize that. 

The fact that it is a common tactic though? To say “hey this hurt me personally and so I’m going to ignore any valid points you made?” That feeds directly into centuries of white supremacy because it, once again, silences POC and makes them try to play a losing game. And they will always lose, because no matter how hard they try to play the white game, the goalposts are constantly shifting. So you know what? Fuck the game, and fuck respectability politics, and fuck tone policing and “uwu be nice guys” because when it comes to things like racism and sexism, I don’t expect the people who deserve to be criticized to be nice. In fact, trying to be nice only serves to fuck POC over in the end.

Indeed, in response to that post, certain blogs have taken the opportunity to position themselves as “the nice ones” or “the ones who would never” or “uwu let’s be nice guys” while completely ignoring the fact that a woman of color was attacked for calling out racism. And yes - that was the point of her post. People getting hung up on mentions of her degree are (intentionally or not, it doesn’t matter) completely obfuscating the fact that that is not what her post was about, which was to call out disgusting behavior. idk how many words the post actually was, but essentially, people are focusing on 5% of it to the detriment of the 95% that was actually really important shit. These types of vagueblog posts about the issue fall into exactly what I am talking about - these are people who have decided to look at this issue, see how Alyssa (and anyone else who dares speak up) has approached it, and intentionally try to act like they are “better” because they can be “rational” and “kind”. Newsflash, if you don’t have something to be angry about, then being “nice” about racism isn’t that much of a flex. If it didn’t bother you, then congratulations. That doesn’t make you better than people it did bother. You just got lucky this time, and decided to use that to your advantage to look like the good guy.

I am not saying that all calls for peace are doing this. Obviously it’s what we all want. This is the worst I have seen this fandom in the 4+ years I’ve been here. But we cannot have that by ignoring the real problems and pretending that if we are all just nice to each other, then we will solve racism and sexism and all bullying in the fandom will stop. 

So combining all of this - the gaslighting, the tone policing, and what do you get? You get a fandom that refuses to actually engage critically with its own problems and take accountability for them. You get a fandom that decides that it’s easier to be distracted by this one mean comment over here than it is to engage in the fact that you know what, the culture in this fandom has actually turned incredibly disgusting and a lot of people are just okay with it. You’ve got a fandom that is using the tools of white supremacy to avoid the discussions that should actually be taking place. Maybe people don’t realize that that’s what they are doing. But if someone still thinks that after reading this post, then godspeed my friend, I hope you enjoy Twitter.

Okay so my last thing I want to say is that I didn’t come to all of this knowledge fresh from the womb. I do a lot of work, in my personal life and my professional life, to be better. So here is a list of books that I have found particularly helpful:

How to Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America also by Ibram X. Kendi

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (side note, I was kinda meh about this one but the chapter “White Women’s Tears” is particularly helpful)

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment by Patricia Hill Collins

I’m not going to talk specifically about Alyssa’s post anymore, but if anyone wants to continue talking about these broader issues going on in the fandom, I am game. (I really should be grading papers though, so it might take a bit.)

[nonbinarykai]

Ok since two people asked

Why Lloyd is my least favorite ninja and how I rewrite him

Notes:// you know the rodeo by now, long post so it’s going to be under a read more, and I’m not gonna tag this with Lloyd because of the criticisms I have against his character, if you don’t want to hear Lloyd be critiqued then don’t reas the post

Why I don’t like Lloyd

Maybe it’s because I’m a Kai kinnie or maybe it’s because I have a bias agaisnt the younger sibling but Lloyd has never really been a favorite of mine

He was enjoyable in s1 but after that he kinda lost all personality for me and I stopped enjoying him

I think this is mostly for two reasons:

1. His screen time

2. His “character arcs”

I’ll go ahead and knock out his screentime here because it pretty much speaks for himself

Lloyd takes up so much screentime in the show that it’s actually jarring, he’s the character with the most seasons, having s1-2, s4, s8-11, and finally s14 ((the island special)). Which I think makes lloyds writing flaws all the more noticable

A big reason, albeit a bit of a petty one, for why I don’t like him is because he constant hyjacks other characters plots and makes them about him, this happened with Kai in both s4 and s11

Even if he’s not the main focus of a season, he always has a side plot focusing on him like in s3 and s12

The writers need to include Lloyd in other seasons is making it harder for the other main characters to actually have enough screentime to grow and develop on there own

And as a side effect of this, Lloyd gets to become the most important character in every season he is, taking roles from other characters who needed them

My best example is Cole being leader, he was set up and established as leader in the pilots and s1, and he did pretty good in it! Cole being a leader is a interesting concept that I would have loved to see been developed

But after Lloyd grew up they threw that plot point into the trash so they could have the mystical green ninja be leader even though throughout s1-7 he hardly actually talks to the main cast and him being leader doesn’t add any interesting dynamic like cole and kais rivalry despite Kai being a sort of right hand man to Coles leadership.

And in s1-s7 especially everything literally revolves around Lloyd to the point where his existence is more important than everyone else’s, and everyone’s motivations are to protect him.

Again I understand he is important, he’s the green ninja, but you have to let your other characters grow and develop, Lloyd is not the only main character in your show

Like for fuck sakes I don’t need 3 arcs about Lloyd and his dad, can I finally have another Kai season

Lloyds character arcs honestly kinda suck

Im going to be honest with you

Lloyds kinda an ass

The reason I like jay more then Lloyd even though jay has been way more mean spirited then Lloyd throughout the entire series is because you can atleast make the argument that jay doesn’t know when his jokes can hurt. And the show doesn’t portray jay as in the right, he gets what he deserves for some of the meanier things he says.

The same can’t be said about Lloyd

Lloyd says things to the other ninja that is honestly so mean spirited it’s jarring to hear it from him

Best example being when Lloyd told Kai to get over his shit when Kai was grieving in s4

But what makes it so frustrating is that the show always portrays Lloyd like he’s in the right which is why a lot of his character arcs feel flat or uninteresting

The only time this doesn’t apply is in s2 and in s3, in s2 the show paints Lloyd as being unfair to Misako when he RIGHTFULLY gets mad at her for abandoning him, I’ll get back to this later

The second time in s3 is when he’s traveling with Garmadon and having to be taught to balance his powers, which is actually one part of s3 I really liked, it was nice to see these two bond and have Garmadon teach Lloyd something that wu would other wise not teach him. And it’s a real shame the season cut it short AGAIN

The biggest example of the show making Lloyd seem in the right no matter what is in s4, Lloyds whole arc there was to learn how to view things from a different perspective and appreciate the things others have done for him. And this is would work if the show decided to do the same.

Again back to that scene with Lloyd and Kai in s4, the show treats Lloyd as if he’s in the right and it’s never addressed after this. Even though this is supposed to be the beginning of lloyds arc where he’s supposed to learn to view things from a different perspective

This scene would have worked if

1. The show didn’t paint him in the right for this, either by having Lloyd apologize or having the show acknowledged how it might have hurt Kai

2. If the plot Lloyd has remained a side plot instead of taking up the entire focus

Seriously, s4 could have been the ONE season where you can have a Lloyd side plot thats not forced and yet they fucked it up and made it the entire focus of the season thanks a lot.

To quote what I said in my Nya anayalsis awhile back

“I’m not upset that he has a flaw, just that it’s not recognized as one”

Lloyd would work way better as a character if the show just let him have consequences for his actions

Ever since he grew up and got the green ninja role he’s been treated like he can’t do no wrong which is clearly not true

But since we’re already on this topic

Hurting Lloyd doesn’t make him a good character

I feel like Tommy ((and sometimes the fandom)) really misunderstand what the use of suffering for in a story

There atleast 3 reasons writers make there characters suffer

1. To undergo a arc and realize where they have been wrong or to give a character a lot more depth to expand upon

2. If the story is a fallen hero one and the character suffers because of his Huberius

3. If the story is a tragedy

Ninjago is neither a fallen hero story or a tragedy and his pain doesn’t develop him as a character

A lot of writers don’t understand that suffering isn’t what makes a character good, it’s what pushes them to become good, you can’t just throw a character at the wall and expect them to instantly be a well written fleshed out character

A lot of the suffering Lloyd has to endure is mostly for no reason and it’s really mean spirited because it adds nothing to the plot, it’s just there to hurt him

Let’s bring up s11 as an example, Lloyd didn’t HAVE to fight the ice emperor from a writing standpoint, if anything it should have been kais battle because his lose of power and Zane going evil would have been a perfect reflection of s4 and tie it up after it ended kais character a bit open ended

But no let’s have Lloyd do it instead because haha isn’t trauma COOL and HIP

Now to be clear, I’m not saying that all of your stories have to end on a happy ending or anything like that, if your a writer then your allowed to do whatever you want with your personal writing

What I am saying is that ninjago is an actual SHOW made by PROFESSIONAL writers and they can’t understand the concept of a story structure

And the lack of actually addressing his trauma is really bringing down Lloyd as a character

Because it comes to a point where you understand why Lloyd is sometimes mean or distrustful of other people and it’s frustrating because you know that it’s flaws of him that are never going to be fixed because there writers want there trauma baby

How I would rewrite him

I’ve seen a lot of people suggest Lloyd become a villain in a future season and you know what, I sort of agree

But not in the way you think

I feel like it would be way more compelling if Lloyd was a villain but is still a ninja, instead of Lloyd switching sides, the show is switching perspectives

More or less I want Lloyd to be a reflection of the “true” villain, which is how wu ((and subsequently Lloyd)) put small Victories as more important then the ninjas life, passion, and desire, and how there black and white thinking of good and evil ends up to a lot of problems because there’s a lot of grey area there choosing to ignore

I want Lloyd to start of being loyal to wu’s philosophy and the protagonist, for random example let’s say Kai, sudden turn on these ideas in order to look outside the box to find if there truly is a better way to protect people without harming himself

I want Lloyd to be upset over what he thinks is a turn to the dark side when in reality, it would make his motivations make sense and not make his turn to “villainy” be out of character.

And over the course of the season he starts to realize how wus and subsequently his leadership has hurt the others and himself, and have him reflect on if all the pain they suffer through just to clean up wus mistakes is really worth it like wu says, or if there’s a better way like kai says

As for Lloyds actual character himself, I’d like for his flaws to be more noticeable

Have Lloyd be a gifted kid who gets praise when he doesn’t deserve it but still kinda acts like a brat because he’s still mentally like 10

Have him be a control freak who follows the rules way to strictly and is all serious when they have to do missions

Have his idealization of wu be realized and critiqued because honestly wu sucks ass

Would this make his character less like able? Maybe, but then he’d actually have depth and something to improve on

He can still have his s3 and s4 arcs, it’s just now they’re more important because he’s actually learning to be better

AND BEFORE ANYONE SAYS IM PURPOSEFULLY MAKING LLOYD WORSE SO THAT KAI LOOKS BETTER

ILL HAVE YOU KNOW AWHILE BACK I MADE A POST SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING ABOUT KAI AND HIS FLAWS SO THERE (/hj /lh)