#it's much easier to write after that and feels more natural imo

[yostresswritinggirl]

Fanfic writing ask: 25. What’s your favorite part of the writing process (worldbuilding, brainstorming/outlining, writing, editing, etc)?

(ask game) Oh, I almost forgot about this hahaha

Definitely the worldbuilding part! It's often overlooked or unnoticeable when most of my works are simply oneshots, but I take a lot of effort and consideration to 'place' the fic in the canon game.

Things such as "when in the game's timeline does this take place", "how realistic or likely is this to happen", and "how can this subtly tie in with the setting/easter eggs/canon world/possibly other oneshots". I'm obsessed with the details, it's probably not very good when I take more time thinking than writing tho haha

[ohsayit]

Zevlor the Stubborn Cow

I wanted to write some AA, but my brain wouldn't shut up about Zevlor. I am sorry, but, here, take this [hands out a fresh load of gibberish]

My brain has been thinking about him breaking(losing?) his oath and how does that work in DnD. As per usual, a quick Google will give me a mixed result of pre 5E, 5E, and BG3 world. So I am going to do my pick-and-choose.

Again, it's related to Act 2 spoilers. Feel free to take a look at the video or my other gibberish post.

I don't have any save close to Last Light, so I youtube searched for the conversation with tieflings there. I found two conversation with the same scout. This one is before rescuing Zevlor. This one is after the player rescued him.

From the outside, to Zevlor's fellow exiles, he looked like he froze and then broke. They wouldn't forgive him for breaking that image of "Commander Zevlor". They also wouldn't forgive him for leading them to death (which imo is hardly his fault).

I have been digging at the FR wiki. I looked up Hellrider, Helm, Ilmater, paladin, and oathbreaker. This round of digging (plus the pick and choose) give me some painful hc's.

Despite we as player can just "choose" what class to play as, paladin isn't as common as we may feel like.

First HC at this point: Zevlor wanted to do good from a young age. He looked up at Hellriders and dreamed to enlist. He made it. Through sweat and blood, he climbed up to the position of Commander. Hard to say how religious he is, but he adhered to his oath at least till Avernus. I believe the patron deity was Helm: the god of guardians and protectors. Which this says the nature of Zevlor's character: he lives to protect.

According to wiki, paladins are not that common because their religious nature. They require a patron deity, an oath, and devine favour. Gods favour those think and act like them. Gods favour those who are exceptional to be their champion. Zevlor was just that good.

So here is my second HC: the things he lost and his feeling of lost is unfathomable. He that lost his people in Avernus, his home where he belonged to, his pride as a Hellrider (it was stripped off him), and the devine favour of power (my HC is he lost it around the time when Elturel came back to the Material Plane. Latest by the time he was exiled). He lost "Zevlor".

If there are other tiefling paladins, they probably feel him. If someone is close to him but not a paladin, they maybe can sympathis but won't understand fully the impact. The others? Best bet they pity him. A more realistic guess is: they only see the Commander. Civilians and Riders alike.

Hence, the scout in the video wouldn't forgive him. Zevlor did too much for these people. He did too well in holding himself up and deliver. None of them knew their "commander" was already broken.

Now, imagine when he was first told to leave. All the tieflings were told to go at the same time. Given his oath was already broken and he was no longer a Hellrider (officially/bureaucraticly speaking), those civilians were no longer his responsibility.

He led them from Eltruel through the whatever danger and reached the Grove. These people were a burden, in a sense. These people couldn't fight and they even had children with them. It couldn't be easier if he only took his fellow with him.

When the Absolute tempted/enthrall him, from the description, the situation intrigued me. Out of all those people, the Absolute only spoke to Zevlor. This say to me Zevlor is still worthy, out of this whole bunch of scrambled together refugee. The Absolute read his mind and used it against himself.

Also, they were being ambushed. They were most likely outnumbered. If surrender could save a few lives, he would definitely consider it. But of course that didn't work out. So people hated him guts for it. Being ambushed wasn't his fault. However, people took "failed to preserve lives and repell enemy" as his fault.

One more thing was, none of them knew what they were against. They knew nothing about the Brain. In Zevlor's dialogue in Act 2, he referred to the Brain as "their false god". Gods in DnD world is a real thing. They mistakened it for that.

"Whatever these monsters twisted us into, I believe it begins in us. I won't make excuses. I can't make amends."

Yes it begins in you because it literally read your bloody mind. It doesn't only whisper into your head, it alters your perception as well. When the player first crash landed on the beach, that one stranded squid showed us that. The player felt "compassion". It was from the squid. Nothing "begin in us".

Yet, Zevlor had no idea what he was against so he took it as all his own fault. Uugggghhhhhh babe!!!!!!

He said he wasn't strong enough. As if he could have faugh it off. No. Nobody could. Without Orpheus, the player would transform way before Act 3. No one can out brain a literal brain.

The sad thing is, nobody knew that. Not even the player character, at that point in the game.

So they abandoned him. The people he protected with his own live, abandoned him a second time. This time, his fellow Riders abandoned him too.

Fast forward to the epilogue. He sent a letter say he regained power and didn't even know what oath was.

Here is my last HC for this post. I think he sworn on the Oath of Devotion. It was Ilmater who granted him power.

Wiki says: deity of endurance, martyrdom, perseverance, and suffering. The Crying God was the patron of the suffering, oppressed, and persecuted, and the One Who Endures encouraged them to endure and encouraged others to help them by taking their burdens or places.

Had Zevlor not suffered enough? Yet, when he saw the tantecles sprouted in city, what did he felt? "No fear. Only Anger. Disgust. Purpose - and with it, power." After all this shit he had been through, the stubborn cow still wanted to protect. I think this is why Ilmater chose him.

Don't get me wrong, he is far from a flawless saint. This is juat a part of him that I see. A stubborn cow. I want kiss and bite our precious old man. Pinch his face so hard and then kiss him better. [Insert aggressive borking]

Note: I finished the post in haste. Will edit later for typos and put links back in for wikis I digged for this round. I want this post out of my system so I can write some bloody AA ffs.

Edit: Put links back in lol

[shkika]

i've been curious about how iterators in your interpretation ascend exactly, since they seem to be unable to get off the string!

is the process more metaphorical/spiritual in nature? or is it entirely physical?

also!! i really really love your art and interpretations tee hee pleading face emoji

This is a pretty good prompt to talk about how I think ascension works! I'm gonna try to be thorough even if some information may seem basic! To me ascension feels like it's meant to be spiritual.

DETAILED EXPLANATION OF UH...

1. Ancients and ascension throughout time.

2 . Iterators and ascension

3. What Saint is and how he works.

I think some people may not realize the concept of leaving the world behind was a thing before the void fluid revolution, before our ancients discovered the ruins of the race that came before them that led to the void sea. Those were the times of those gravel eating monks.

I think ascension is supposed to be a process experienced by old creatures. It works by abandoning all your earthly desires after having been through the cycles again and again. So as you detach yourself from the world eventually.. leaving it behind and ending the samsara.

It became something worth working towards. If you didn't guide your soul to spiritual relief... you'd get stuck in the cycles. Which was painful and scary.

When the void revolution came and a much easier and faster solution was found, of course they took it. It was an answer to getting stuck, finally they would have a guaranteed method of escaping the cycles.

Turns out you can't cheat yourself out of the cycle.. if you are attached to the world too strongly, you become an echo. Which made rumors spread.

So we need another solution. Another effortless way to escape. And so iterators were made! They were designed with a few things in mind . They would be a constant in any cycle, they can't escape.. they can't ascend.. they can't die. Their taboos would make sure they don't try anything themselves and they tough bodies keep them from completely losing function.

This way they could work basically forever on the great problem.

Alright here we go!! The question! How do iterators ascend then. They shouldn't be able to, they weren't meant to do that on their own, but one allegedly managed.

Well a GOOD hint imo is Moon's dialogue in the Saint campaign.

By this we can guess there is a solution. But it is one right answer among infinite faulty ones. And it's completely indistinguishable or was there a way to safely test it.

Once you discover it and you execute it. You're a goner.

Kind of.. how it happened with Sliver of Straw..

Kind of how Saint's ascension works too.

Sliver basically was the only iterator EVER who accidentally stumbled on it and executed the task. And ascended herself before she could do anything more than send the triple affirmative signal.

And that was it. It probably happened completely out of nowhere in a flash. And she was gone.

This is also a reason why I think she is saint. The way Saint ascends creatures is... by just giving them the solution she discovered. The moment they know it, they end up in the void.

Saint is the only one who can do this. The only one that came back.

OH also quick note.. I love how Pebbles and Moon do not understand what Saint is, unless they discuss him together. Very underrated part of the game's writing. Anyway.

Saint's purpose is to continue their endless cycle to save others. Pebbles says that by definition no one who knows the answer can venture outside.. except Saint. It's why Moon tells him to wake up.

He's the only one that can.

[m1ckeyb3rry]

tips and tricks on writing fanfic if u have any i beg <3<3

i have wrote so much throughout my life but it never feels like it flows right yk? i just want to write my silly characters being devastating with eachother

and you are infact my fav fic writer ever so pretty please <3

(its fine if not lol just may as well ask)

hihi!! sorry this took me a sec to respond to lol but yes ofc i can do my best to help!! and apologies in advance if any of this isn’t helpful/applicable 😓 i’ll put it all under the cut just because i can sense myself rambling in advance why did it end up being an entire thesis

okayyy so the most important thing for me when writing is having my plot and characters be in constant conversation with one another. typically i will come up with a very vague idea for a plot, which will then tell me exactly what kind of main characters i need to write, and from there, i build my cast!! it’s why i’m always afraid of writing characters ooc — typically i take aspects of the pre-existing character from canon and then expand on them so that they fit the plot i want, and sometimes i get worried that that means i’ve changed them too much LMAO.

once i understand what i want from my characters, i start to write. i usually have to rewrite my first chapter a few times as i get a feel for the characters and their perspectives, especially my pov character (we’ll call them mc for the sake of simplicity moving forward). it’s only after i feel like the mc’s voice and personality have been established that i can continue. i like to understand a character well enough that i can intuitively know how they would respond to any given situation. it makes it much easier in the future!! because once you’ve established a character, you can’t change them. i’ll use glass princess as an example because ik you’ve read it — if i wanted to write a slight different story, i could’ve written the mc to be a ruthless killer who has a short temper and resents her brother. however, i then would’ve had to work within the constraints of that character’s outlook instead of the constraints of current mc’s character!!

that’s why i typically only have loose ideas for plots. after i begin writing, i let my characters tell me what they want to do. they usually know what they want better than i do!! a lot of my “best” scenes have been entirely unplanned and based on me just following the characters’ actions to their natural conclusion. i guess you could say i go into each chapter having an idea of what the “inciting event” for the chapter will be — for example, mc runs to the tea shop the day after meeting the blue spirit, but the results of that inciting event are based more on my knowledge of my characters than any preconceived outlining or plotting. along the same lines, EVERY time i’ve had writer’s block with a fic (that was unrelated to me losing interest in the fandom/character/storyline) it’s been because i’ve forced my characters into a situation that they would not naturally end up in. my best example of this is a story i started writing with a very cold main character; she meets an injured enemy soldier who has lost his memories, and the plot was meant to revolve around her nursing him back to health and falling in love with him. however, given her character and the backstory i knew she had, i genuinely couldn’t come up with a single reason for why she would heal him instead of just killing him or turning him in, so i literally abandoned the story 😭 essentially i would recommend solid understanding of characters over a solid understanding of your plot 100% of the time. imo strong, well-rounded characters can carry even the shittiest of plots, but the opposite is rarely if ever true.

that was a lot of theory stuff!! as for where i get my ideas (not exactly what you asked but tangentially related so i’ll add it in here in case anyone else is reading and wants to know), it depends on the kind of fic i’m writing. my favorite fics are canon-verse, and for those fics i try to look for niches in the source material that aren’t already filled and make a character for it. the best example of this that i can think of off of the bat is two of my aot fics — in one, the mc is a member of the military police and the first interior squad, and in the other, the mc is a warrior candidate during the events of the show. both of these roles aren’t really filled by canon characters, so creating these characters allows me to look at plot events in a new light, which lets me expand the fic into something beyond just a rehashing of canon. in terms of au’s…to be honest listening to music is huge for me!! i’ll scroll through tik tok and hear an audio that inspires me, and once i have a vibe for what i want to write, i’ll search for similar songs that help me picture the general aesthetic of the au. the idea for my one bllk fic peregrine was conceived when i heard a snippet of the song welcome and goodbye by dream, ivory, on tik tok!! overall i don’t really like writing straight au’s that much though. idk why but in my experience every time i’ve tried to write an au fic i’ve gotten bored of it much much quicker than i would’ve with a more canon-based story. that’s just me personally though!!! i do loveeee worldbuilding though HAHA the amount of fantasy worlds i’ve created but never written for is horrific.

when it comes to things like grammar, sentence structure, and word choice, the only two things you can do to improve are reading and writing a LOT. at first, you should read more than you write, and when i say reading, it can be literally anything. find what you do and don’t like from all of the authors you encounter, and try to incorporate the pros into your writings while noticing the cons in your own work. it’s not plagiarism! you won’t be able to copy any author’s style completely, and if you engage in enough kinds of works, you’ll become a blend of so many different styles that it won’t sound copied or anything. then, once you’re comfortable mixing and matching depending on what scene you’re writing (maybe for a serious scene, you take references from a classical novel, whereas for a more lighthearted moment, you look at a social media au to see what kind of jokes might land with a broader audience), you can start to develop your own style!! it’ll come naturally as you go. the more you write, the more you will be certain of yourself and the way YOU would write something. the mixing and matching will smooth into one style that flows more naturally and does what you need, when you need it.

my final advice is that you shouldn’t compare yourself to others!! just because your writing doesn’t sound like your favorite author’s doesn’t mean it’s any worse. i’ve read amazing stories that are nothing like my own — it doesn’t mean that mine are worse than those stories, just different. there is a place in this world for every single story!! and it’s inevitable that you will look back on your old writing and cringe. i do!! i cannot read anything i wrote more than a year ago because i’ve improved so much that the old stuff is embarrassing to me. if you don’t push through the fear of cringe, though, you’ll never get anywhere. i’m not sure if you’re planning on posting anything ever, but i can say with certainty that if you do, there will be someone who reads and loves it. there’s people who still comment on and read and love my stories from 2021 that i absolutely despise now (it’s the only reason they haven’t been deleted yet). oftentimes we are our own worst critics, and also, knowing the plot ahead of time doesn’t help (writing suspenseful scenes is SO HARD when you know what’s coming 😭). your readers will love what you write, probably even more than you do!!

i hope that that was helpful and i’m so sorry for writing a literal essay OMG. like this is such a long post 😓 if you have any questions about what i wrote or about a specific aspect of the fic writing process, then lmk!! i’m always happy to help 🫶🏻

[sasquaye]

I like groups where all the members are virtually unknown until the debut of the whole group.

Because then the members grow together, have chemistry together, and their entire group gets popular as a whole. Stray Kids had their show, but I'm pretty sure that was all of their first real appearances publicly and it was as a group. Similarly, Ateez and xikers wers introduced as KQFellaz first TOGETHER and none of them had debuted publicly before that (I use debut as in first public appearance because even pre-debut work is public and exposes them to the public). Other groups I see like this are Mamamoo, Twice, Nmixx, Seventeen, New Jeans, BTS, TXT, etc. (There are more but I can't think rn 💀)

Contrarily, there are groups that have members who already started their careers in the industry OR became public figured through shows. Examples of this are literally all groups formed by competition shows like R U Next, Boy's Planet, Produce 101, etc. In those shows, INDIVIDUAL trainees get popularity before official debut, and then the group at the end, despite varying degrees of popularity, have to debut together. It's a concept that makes sense, but in reality it creates more competition between members than there should be because some of these idols have significantly more popularity than their members right off the bat.

This is not always the case for the group RIGHT after their first official debut, but when their group disband and they redebut into another group, I think that's SO unfair and weird for the new members of those idols' new groups. It's like they're moving to a new building that they don't have to build while the new members of their new groups build that building from the ground up because they can't afford to just "move to a new building". Examples of groups like this are Iz*one->IVE, Lesserafim Zerobaseone, Kep1er and others. Don't get me wrong, these groups are great, but you can't deny that Wonyoung is leagues more popular than her members, Bahhiyih gets a tad more attention, Chaewon and Sakura are a little more popular than the others, and almost everybody knows Ricky. (As I'm writing this, I feel the need to clarify that I don't Stan any of these groups but I find that these are the members I see most when scrolling even though I don't keep up with them.) I do have to say though that leserafim is pretty good at highlighting their members (aside from maybe Kazuha? She's the member I see the least of tbh).

But anyway, I thought about all of this because of Chanelle from R U Next. Her popularity AND talent were insane, but it's a wonder why she had such a hard time on that show and was eventually voted off. I read somewhere that it was because she saw too much value in herself. SHE deserves it because she's talented and popular, and that pride caused her to react badly when things didn't go her way and a lot of people who agreed that she deserved to get what she wanted, but at the end of the day, that kind of goes to show her attitude in the face of adversity on top of the way her fans would react, and that attitude and self-importance, while not inherently wrong, is kind of detrimental to a group as a whole, so I can kind of see when she wasn't in the final lineup. Then again, I really don't know any of the members of ILLIT (the gg that debuted recently as a result of R U Next), right now, other than Wonhee from watching clips of the show.

That's why I really think humbly training as a group away from the public eye is the best way for a group to have good chemistry and support for each other. When they learn to treat each other well with nothing to gain yet, it's easier for them to do naturally when they debut and hard feelings are less common. It's not always the case, but it's something common among the groups I happen to really like. The best group dynamics come about that way, imo.

Anyway, I wish I had more time to be educated on the individual members of these groups but I have school and only so much space in my heart for the groups I already like (there are already a lot 😭😭😭), so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I'm also writing this on the train so like, not proofread at all, but I think I was coherent enough.

[alertarchitect]

Full disclosure, this is a long one. It's also a vent post. I'm mainly writing this out to help get the thoughts and feelings regarding this kind of organized and out of my head, makes dealing with them just a little easier. Maybe it'll help you put to words your own thoughts & feelings on this kinda shit, too, and if it does, I'm glad my screaming into the void at least helped out someone other than myself! After all, if anything I say, write, or do ends up helping at least one other person, then maybe I'm doing something right :]

Sometimes having long-time special interests in an ongoing franchise FUCKING SUCKS. Perfect example - I am both a big Halo nerd, and really enjoy the overaching lore of Bungie's connected worlds (with how Marathon, Pathways into Darkness, Myth, Destiny, and even the ways Halo originally connected before it had to become its own thing thanks to Microsoft). Here are the ways that currently sucks:

The state of Halo Infinite, the most recent Halo game, both currently and at launch. At launch, you had a buggy mess, with multiplayer that barely functioned, lacking feature parity (even just on the multiplayer side of things, not counting the campaign) with Halo Reach, a game from 2010. Currently, 343i has admittedly fixed a lot of the launch issues - there's more customization than the game has ever had before (still not as good as Reach's customization imo, but at this point I've given up hope on any multiplayer AAA game having that level of customization for free ever again), the desync issues (in my experience) are no longer happening, and it has the most powerful Forge mode in any Halo game to date. The flip side of that, though? Egregiously horrendous monetization, an armor core and coating system that both hurt the customization more than help, and a drip-feed of content with little to no communication from 343 on anything past the most recent update. Not to mention the issues that come from a focus on "Live Service" bullshit.

The issues at 343 Industries itself, which come part and parcel with the massive issues related to Microsoft as a company. Massive megacorporation, horrible management, staff getting screwed over, crunch culture, and more - it just goes on and on.

Halo 5, despite its generally negative reception, is horrendously inaccessible to those of us that want to experience it as a piece of history and/or try out the multiplayer. A perfect example of how little companies care about game preservation, despite the decent track record 343i has had in that respect thanks to the Master Chief Collection, its PC release and addition of Halo Reach, and the efforts to find, occasionally recreate from almost nothing, and implement lost & cut content in the MCC titles.

Being a fan of Bungie's overarching stuff... really bad when you are at PEAK investment into their stuff, namely my Destiny 2 hyperfixation, and they not only announce that their new Marathon game is going to be a fucking EXTRACTION SHOOTER, and thus unlikely to have one of the most interesting things about Marathon in it (that being its lore) while also being very hard to get into thanks to people treating that kind of game as a massive sweat-fest, but also suddenly lay off a bunch of employees (when previously they had a good track record of treating employees decently...) due to Square Enix levels of profit overestimations of Lightfall, the BEST SELLING DESTINY EXPANSION EVER only getting 45% of the expected sales. Because why be realistic, right? Just fuck over employees, that certainly won't hurt us in the end!

The fact that, despite ALL OF THIS and my moral convictions against the shitty nature of this stuff, my dumbass brain still wants me to just spend spend spend on it anyway because of how much of a special interest Halo & the Bungie lore are to me - it almost hurts. I generally prefer fantasy stuff, but I can't stop myself from loving the lore and stories associated with this stuff. I have to fight myself every goddamn time I have money to not fall into the traps. It's easier with Destiny - I uninstalled it, replaced my PvE needs with Warframe and Risk of Rain 2, replaced my PvP needs with Halo Infinite, and just keep up with the story from a distance. But now that Halo Infinite is back in my life? I love the gameplay, hell I'd go as far as to say it has some of the strongest gameplay in the series (though some modes could use a bit more work, for example the Infection mode just isn't as fun as the Infection from Halo Reach), but the monetization just... AAAARGH it hurts me that I want to spend on it, both for customization and to have little goals to work towards in the (thankfully well-implemented due to them being available eternally) battle passes.

I just want to be able to love something that's been so central to me for so long - I played a cracked version of the CE PC demo for countless hours growing up, to the point that to this day I know the mission Silent Cartographer back to front from memory & could do it in my sleep, and associate Blood Gulch with countless memories of Halo's multiplayer from how often I'd play it with my sister, and to add onto all of that Halo Reach is one of my favorite games ever made, period - without caveats and moral hangups. I just want to love something without justifying it every time I think of it, both to myself and others.

I know this is a massively first-world issue, having the luxury to whine about my Favorite Things going through years and years of getting fucked by their own successes driving them into corporatism, but it still sucks. Obviously not as much as other issues both myself and others deal with, and DEFINITELY not as much as the horrible shit people are enduring in several parts of the world, but just enough for me to want/need to vent about how much corporations like to shit on the little rays of sunshine that we use to feel better about life.

[kurakurakura99]

Just read your post on AC6 about how connected you were to your AC. And I just gotta ask how you got that feeling? I've a good amount of posts about this same thing, such a deep connection to your mech, but I never got it. I want that feeling, to truly be one with a 40 ton war machine, yet to me my AC is still just that, a machine.

Even my PvP AC which is getting close to Mark 15 now is still just a tool for me. Like I love that AC and my lastest version is fucking genius imo the love is more like the love I have for my emotional support hammer (yes I have one sue me).

Sorry for venting randomly to you about this but like reading that part on your post about how changing parts on your AC felt wrong during a boss fight made me think about my toughest boss in the game. Not saying the name cause spoilers but it was beating my ass hard. After I realized my build wouldn't work the first thing I did was start changing parts, and even when I used the meta ones nothing worked. In the end like 2 days later I beat the boss, not by swapping back to my original design, but by using a pair or weapons that are entirely overlooked. But even after all that I didn't feel that connection to my AC, a newfound respect for the twin active homing missiles but once again only in the way I would respect a wrench that finally fits onto an annoying bolt.

So like how do you get so close to your AC, how did you get that connection with it? How can I get it?

Find common ground with your mech. its deeply personal, like I said, but I empathize with Capable so much because we are both Objects, means to an end. There is a certain kinship to be found, conceptually, between a person who has been dehumanized as much as I have and a machine. Theres also a measure of...sentimentality? that you have to approach building them with. My girlfriend is baffled by how Capable is put together. I use the DESSERT legs because they got big fucking paws and fat thighs, like I do. I picked her arms soley because they would hit harder with my Pile Bunker (Itself a dubious weapon choice for late game, some may claim) and it had a nice, flat surface to write "Forgiveness" on. Getting a little whimsical with it led to Capable being, frankly, a freaky little mech with weird issues when it came to boosts and mobility. Having something that didn't move like a more optimized design helped really cement her in my mind as a partner and not a tool. AC6 feeling by and large, much easier and accomodating to player expression compared to the rest of the games I've played in the series, makes this much more feasible. Beyond that, even a simple change of language towards your mech helps:I avoid using "It" for Capable, ever, and she is only "my mech" when I'm talking to someone who doesn't know her by name yet and needs the context of what the fuck I'm talking about. Otherwise, She is Capable.

These are tips I guess but. its just something that happens naturally for me so its hard to give anyone tips on how to force it

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

so, I played through the remainder of the expansion and the new meta. I want to take some time to put my full impression together, but first I'll give some thoughts below the cut.

realistically? I think it's about what I expected, and arguably the best-case-scenario given what the rest of the releases have been.

I'm gonna say something controversial.

I don't think them leaving plot threads open here is necessarily a bad thing. I actually would rather they did that than rush it and hurry up to close up everything 'neatly' in a way that was littered with plot holes and butchered characterizations. it's a lot easier to pick up where they left off than to have a bunch of REALLY atrocious, frustratingly contradictory writing that they then have to either retcon or ignore later. additionally, they killed off a LOT less characters than I was expecting, and that leaves many doors open.

my biggest concern had been them killing off a bunch of characters in really cheap ways just to get rid of them and/or build up Eparch as a more serious threat, and I'm glad they didn't go that route. that's not to say I dislike character death, but I only like it when it's done well and feels consistent with the characters involved. (Blish, Tonn, and Almorra all come to mind as really good examples there)

I'm gonna say something else controversial, too.

I don't think we've seen the last of Zojja, nor do I think she's entirely lost her memories-- and I also don't think this is the last we'll see of the Wizards, either. there's a LOT of little moments where she slips up and calls us the Commander still, even at the very end, despite her having ascended after they've switched titles to the Wayfinder. if she really had no memories, calling us Wayfinder would be what comes more naturally to her because that's what everyone else is doing. now whether they'll dig into the implications of this later or not I can't say, but I do think it's OPEN for them to do so at a later time, especially with all the very obvious weirdness of the Ward.

I strongly suspect that this could be the beginning of a much larger arc; whether that will be the case or not I can't say, but there's a lot of little hints scattered around the epilogue that tie Wizard stuff into other plotlines we could explore. on top of that, the Commander still has the Heart of the Obscure, and they vanished for months. while Isgarren currently seems determined to keep the Ward a secret, I don't think he's necessarily going to have a choice in the matter. there's also the question of Waiting Sorrow and what she was up to; I very strongly suspect we'll be learning more about her eventually. if that's the case, that may be where we finally really see all the uncomfortable details among the Wizards come to a head. the setup is definitely there to do more and I would personally welcome that.

now all that said, I will also say: it's obvious there are issues.

I won't say I love the state SotO is in, but I don't hate it. it's not great, but it's also not horrible. OVERALL, I still enjoyed playing and I don't regret buying it. I would have had some buyer's remorse if I nabbed the higher priced bundles, but I didn't because I was anticipating it being a lot less than previous expansions. kind of a shame that my guess was right, but it is what it is. personally, most of the value of the expansion for me comes from the features that came with it, and the open world metas are actually pretty decent imo.

there's clearly a drastically reduced emphasis on story instances, and it makes me sad if that's going to be the precedent moving forward. it doesn't terribly surprise me though with how many people on the forums etc would complain about doing story and beg to skip it all, even back when it had a lot more going on. if their time and resources are limited, it makes sense to put them into things that the most players will get more mileage out of-- open world, new mechanics, mastery lines, weapon specs, and so on. it's a shame, but I get it.

I'll probably talk a lot more about this at a later time, but while this expansion was nowhere near the level of previous ones, imo it's much less a matter of being bad and more that there's just not enough there for it to be good. it has some really great moments, but there aren't enough of them to carry the rest. it's just... okay. which, ultimately, is survivable, at least in the short term. it has done severe damage to the trust of its players though, and that's something they're going to have to work very, very hard to earn back.

anyway, that's just my take. do with that what you will.

[enmi-land]

HIII DIAA soooo I need some tips on how to write good from an extremely talented writer like you 🤭 I think you mentioned multiple times that you're Australian so that means you're a native speaker and well, I'm not 😭😭😭 so I just want an advice from a person whose first language is English (cmiiw!)

HI ANONNIE!! 🌟🌟 AHHH HOLD ON this is so nerve wrecking 🫣🫣 first of all tho I’m rlly honoured that you asked me of all ppl for writing advice 😭 it’s rlly so sweet that you thought of me when thinking of good writers to lranr from and I hope I can be of help 🌸✨ but yes you’re correct!! i am a native speaker so it makes it easier for me 🌷 idk what kind of advice you want but ig i’ll just offer basic tips ✨✨

write what comes naturally to you!! when you have an idea of what you want to write, in the middle fo writing it, it may change a little from what you had in mind, but if that’s the case don’t worry too much and just continue to follow whatever flow comes to you first since that most likely going to be the more natural option to write!! in other words: don’t think too much as you’re actually writing. in the worst case scenario, you can always go back and edit. but if you keep thinking too much about what you rlly wanted before writing, you might just end up with an empty page with nothing onto it. so yeah, follow your instincts!! ✨

don’t try too hard to make it sound good on the first go!! like i mentioned before, you can always go back and edit it, but if you’re first starting out, you may try and focus more on making the words sound pretty. trust me, that becomes easier with practice, but it’s okay if you don’t sound like Shakespeare. i try to avoid looking up synonyms as much as possible. like it’s okay to be simple, especially if you’re not a published writer or anything. the important thing is whether or not readers understand what you’re trying to say—so as long as you’re clear as possible, then you’ve already done a good job. after all, writing is all about communication and sharing stories; if it’s overly complicated and flowery writing—especially if most of it is forced—than ppl may just grow annoyed with it and drop it, meaning all your hard work would go to waste. so yeah: sometimes, simple rlly is the best.

don’t force yourself to write!! if you get wrifter’s block, try using a prompt generator or even just writing in dot points before going into full sentences. but if you still can’t write anything, then come back to it later. it’s okay if you don’t meet a deadline—you’re not being graded on your works and you’re not getting paid either, so don’t put too much pressure to get something finished against your own will, bc in the end that may just cause you to get burnt out or even to put out smth that you just don’t feel is as good as you want it to be. if a certain chapter is bothering you, try working on a different one until you feel like you can finish it. but if you don’t feel like writing in general, then just come back when you do. the most rewarding thing about writing (to me at least) is how fun it is, and some of my best works are the ones I wrote with passion, so it’s proven that when you rlly enjoy what you’re doing, you’re going to give way better results.

those are my main tips!! I’m not rlly a pro writer or anything and you can probably get better ones from somewhere else, but imo these are just the things I feel most ppl would struggle with regardless of whether or not english is their first language-/ so hopefully it’s of some help to you in one way or another 🌸💗✨✨

[suffcring]

did you have a muse you tried to play, but didn’t feel connected to?

did you have muse you tried to play, but ended up dropping for various reasons? (the rpc wasn’t active, you lost interest, etc)

what do you think of your muse’s popular fandom ship? (Copia)

is your muse canon divergent in any way? (Copia)

I love John Constantine (Hellblazer, not the good movie, bad adaption) but couldn't manage him. I did try, but there's something about the way he speaks that doesn't come naturally to my mind, and I had re-read all of my individual issues of the Hellblazer run like fifteen times trying. It's a bummer because I think, if I could manage him, he'd be a lot of fun. But it's just not something that comes to me

The first time I wrote Kaine, I had to bail. I got a lot of hate for not writing him exactly to canon -- I can't remember what detail I forgot from the Clone saga, but it got me so much fucking anon hate, I had to bail. But he is one of my favorite characters, so after a few years, I came back to him and asked my friend who writes Peter (alas, he hasn't been around lately) if I could use his adapted MCU plot for his older Peter for my Kaine, and he said yes. And then Spiderverse dropped and I felt a lot better as a whole because I could always just be like "This is my specific Kaine, he's not 100 percent canon" even though I didn't really change much of anything from his canon. I think we've discussed before, and I definitely talked about it with Cas but that whole incident changed how I write a character and who I write. I feel like if I don't know every detail that's available to know, I cannot write that character. And so finding out some people will pick up muses from movies that haven't come out yet, or that they haven't seen any of the canon for, and this is normal and they do just fine with it blows my fucking mind.

The fun thing about Ghost is that because there's so few characters that aren't related, there really aren't any standout popular ships. I do enjoy Copia with people's oc siblings of sin, and I like him okay with most of the Ghouls, too. I don't have anything off to say about any combination of them -- I think Copia is very open to love and being loved, and that makes it easier. The only semi popular ship I have negative thoughts about is Copi.iia, but a lot of that ship content is from before we knew they were brothers and I also just. Don't like the dynamic as much, even if they weren't. IMO, Copia killing his brothers when up until recently he thought he had no family to ascend is more interesting than Copia killing his lover to ascend. But that's just my tastes.

Thankfully, there isn't really much canon to go off of, and what there is kind of varies wildly between his Cardinal era and his Papa era. I think part of that is Tobias originally intended Copia to be disliked by the fandom, but we're all weirdos who adored a cunty little Cardinal and so... Tobias made him a lot more goofy and a lot softer. I personally try to weave both in to my portrayal, though I know many people choose to write Copia as mostly good, and that's totally okay and just as valid as me choosing to write him as a little evil. None of the people who roleplay him but a lot of like fandom at large is like "look at him being awkward and autistic, how could you think he was evil?" and that really rubbed me the wrong way, as an autistic person. So!

[sungracd]

KNOWING YOUR PARTNER WELL CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE WRITING TOGETHER A LOT EASIER. ( REPOST DO NOT REBLOG ! )

✿  name :  kas which is short for kasumi which is what i’ve gone by since like forever.

✿  pronouns :  she/her

✿  preference of communication :  tumblr dms! i do have discord but i’m lazy and just like having everything in one spot so i’ll forget to check discord most of the time.

✿  name of muse(s) :  the fabulous adrian saint-clair ☆ i did have a multi once upon a time but i just never have the muse or energy nowadays.

✿  experience/how long (months/years?) :  now that i think about it, i guess since like middle school so around 17 years? which makes me feel so old wow- and i think i started out on the rp forums of neopets lol.

✿  platforms you’ve used :  aim, e-mail if that counts, gaiaonline, those invisionfree and proboards forums, roleplayer.me, and more recently aniroleplay and dreamwidth.

✿  best experience :  weeell usually i have a hard time choosing a best or favorite anything, but a memory that def still sticks with me is having this little rp friend group i chatted with daily and got to do group rps with! it was so much fun, especially for someone like me who’s really shy. 😊

✿  rp pet peeves / dealbreakers :  too much negativity. not the venting kind cause that’s only natural but like people that only have bad things to say? this is my fun and relaxing space so i like surrounding myself with positive vibes! that’s about all i can think of though.

✿  fluff, angst, or smut :  all of it! but mostly fluff and angst since i’m a little more picky with smut; it’s really only fun for me to write when there’s a lot of Emotions involved. fluff comes easiest for someone like adri but hurt/comfort does too tbh. i just really like having a nice balance of fluff and DRAMA ✨

✿  plots or memes :  normally i would say memes but maybe a mix of both? idk man, i like how convenient memes are and i like the spontaneity but sometimes they’re really hard for me to think up scenarios for. that’s why i say to spam me with like 20 options lol.

✿  long or short replies :  i prefer short but i’m probably more like an inbetweener? i just like to write what i feel is enough and it usually doesn’t get very long imo. i’d like to do more short & casual banters cause i feel like that would help with inspiration but idk, i guess it always ends up turning into something longer djskl.

✿  best time to write :  weirdly enough, right after i wake up. my theory is because that’s when my brain is the most refreshed and uncluttered.

✿  are you like your muse(s) :  we’re both air signs so in that sense there’s a few similarities in how we think and deal with emotions, but adrian is definitely way more positive and outgoing. i feel like wednesday addams compared to them lmao.

tagged by :  @yakshiaos ,  thank you !! hehe ♥ tagging :  @demonpunch ,  @ebonyforged ,  @fractempyreal ,  @felfruit ,  @svartr ,  @holyrisen ,  @gottgenug ,  @bitbrumal ,  @cruelset ,  @maugus ,  @electric-ecclectic ,  @mellodiies  and anyone who wants it !

[yourgentlegirlfriend]

hii,, pls dont let the hatenons get thru u and make urself doubt abt how u write. no one has the right to make someone feel sht for doing something that they want to the things that they do,, like how u write the characters in a story. and ffs if they think ur making someone ooc? then they havent seen any prompts in their entire life. no matter how goody or hell of a villain the character, therell always be prompts that makes the character(s) ooc. and like what? say all of the authors stay IN character, wouldn't that just be bland asf?? this place is a plothole for fanfictions, FANFICTIONS. so why not get wild with ur imagination?? go ham because u have the will and right to just do that. isnt it cool to see other self depiction and perspective of any characters that u fancy??? like, "oh no! what if santa was all seriousness and no laugh and blah blah blah" wouldn't that be fun to see and be explored and talked or whatever. and before that hatenon use this in retaliation, "that's santa not blah blah blah" god i hope that u have the brain to be able to analyze that its an example. dont they have any creative idea??? (i mean u can practically see the answer to that). and please, ure right when no one writes RE without going out of character, have they seen the domestic written fics FOR WESKER???? tell me anon, do u THINK that WESKER would be any like that??? or like that?? the closest thing he'll ever be to "domestic" is when involving with a woman in the sheets but then again, purely and only for his own benefits and nothing more (you'd be lucky if he doesnt kill u after all that). hes the most ooc out there in RE imo when written in fanfics bc people dont stay and write him in character bc people already see and know that and thats why and what makes him ooc here. hes literally the biggest example youll see,, my god. im not saying no one had written fics without going out of character, but they make it sound as if u did the most horrible thing by going ooc. and its literally easier to just not bother themself interacting with ur works if it doesnt sit right with them,, that easy. no need to be an ahole and spread sht just bc it doesnt cater u. go write one for urself then bc not all authors write only for us people out there, they also write here for themselves so naturally, youd see and read things out of ur taste. and tbh the og charm and personality of the characters arent lost and not that ooc to me yknow.... they're still them and just like what u said, not everything's to a T when it comes to writing someone,,,. i mean i just enjoy everything yall write bc thats how it should be done here. enjoy and reciprocate to the author

oooookkkay,, this is my piece of mind, and i need to calm down cuz holy sht i just literally woke up and seen this, u having hate anons again. i did not open this app just to see u be drag down. idk man, i feel protective of anyone who encounter this. bc why make someone as miserable as u?? im just tired seeing people being dckhead to someone minding their own business and life,, plus i rlly like u and ur works (⁠ ⁠´⁠◡⁠‿⁠ゝ⁠◡⁠`⁠)

sorry im anon too SHAKDISH but maybe i can be pancake anon eh? (im craving one rn 😋) fufufu, please have a good day and week and dont mind these kind of people. believe in u and ur capabilities as a writer and author here. we really appreciate you :))

hi pancake anon i love you and you stole the words right from my mouth.

Chris and leon have so much trauma i doubt they even have time to think about women it’s FAN FICTION. for a reason.

people get pissy at me for writing about the older men i head canon and i DONT GET IT

love u sm pancake anon thank you

[bonnibelette]

Can you explain why you hate communalism?

hiii thank u for the questiommm

(TDLR at bottom of cut)

i’ll try to make this concise as possible but no promises so i might jump around a bit here and there i’ll format this as a list as that’s easier for me than writing a paragraph (also apologies for potential typos or anything of the sort)

this is in no order by the way, i’d say they’re all pretty equal in attributing to my distaste for them lol (´ε｀；)

also, last heads up, i think about things waayyy too seriously so if u just like communalism as a silly little guy i totally get it!! it’s just i perceive centricide/realicide characters as actual 3d characters and more than a parody (take everything i say w a grain of salt, realicide was very short lived)

> also i will be referring to communalism using they/them

- character

one of my biggest gripes with communalism is their character as a whole, this portion truthfully is just my personal gripes regarding the design and the behavior of communalism

i feel like there’s a lot of missed opportunity regarding the design (as i do with a lot of the realicide designs so i’ll make this portion quick) i just think of it as lacking character for the personality that was chosen for communalism

speaking of personalities i hate communalism’s personality so much it’s the most annoying agitating thing on the planet

i apologize but i cannot stand the absentminded cluelessness and naivety along with the wholesome owo smol bean of his character (in the earlier episodes) i don’t find anything appealing or interesting about it it’s the auditory equivalent of nails on a chalkboard for me

you can still have adult (coded) characters that are naive and clueless (i mention this in more depth later, but i would find communalism way more interesting if they made them more harmful and overtly toxically positive, i think this would’ve made them fit into the main four’s threatening aura that everyone BESIDES communalism seems to have)

but i honestly felt like it was leaning into it way too much and it just felt so very tiring every time i saw him on screen it made me want to go outside and reconnect with nature before i destroy something valuable out of pure annoyance

^ i understand that realicide is a product of its time but it can’t pull off the smol bean owo thing it’s always really salted my ice cream even when grej wasn’t a corpse ^

- the dreaded cult communalism arc + communalism’s/moralist’s implied mutual pining

this is where i get super passionate about this, especially when being put into the perspective of someone that sees these characters more as simply parodies

there’s a lot of implied shipping in realicide and i personally don’t really gaf about most of it because most of what i make is oc x canon anywayysss

> (small side tangent) also shipping isn’t something i certainly like discussing in fandoms because i really don’t care about what other people are shipping unless it’s problematic and also because i don’t wanna be roped into a 10,000 word thinkpiece about how leftist unity is the most advanced ship since jesus x judas /j i don’t care i typically don’t yuck anyone’s yum !!!!!!!! (SPARE ME)

but something i do gaf about is the whole moralism/communalism thing because of how much a fucking missed tanked opportunity it was

i typically really enjoy the while “character changing after loved one died” arc, but this particular instance is absolutely horrific imo

cult communalism as a character is so incredibly agitatedly OOC, how quick the change is from the overwhelming pacifism and optimism is to complete nihilism is so jarring

and it’s such an incredibly missed opportunity to turn communalism into this overly toxically positive character who is just unable to comprehend the death of a loved one but noooo instead he becomes edgy and emo and annoying while delivering corny lines AUGH

since in the earlier episodes communalism was so opposed to killing, i think they would’ve been much more interesting as a character that lingered onto that death and sulked over it rather than seeking revenge instantly even though the death was caused by a careless act

> (small side tangent 2) personally, my headcanons regarding this arc are that communalism attempted to resurrect moralism because his death had really opened their eyes and had blurred the lines of morality for themselves

i think it would also be fun to explore how exclusion happening more gradually and communalism slowly beginning to distance themselves away from the main four rather than instantly lashing out

also i would’ve liked to see communalism hide themselves and become a recluse and just become so invested with attempting to give someone they overbearingly loved so much another life because they see it as honoring them

maybe the resurrection works and moralist is completely repulsed and afraid instead of thanking them like how they envisioned

maybe it doesn’t work and communalism truly looses all hope and THEN begins to become hyper fixated on being moral and perfect and THEN he fucks off because the other main four are immoral

i think that’s way more interesting than communalism gets mad and fucks off while preaching some hippy dippy whatever

i can’t really super duper judge this arc though because of the limited episodes but i just hate how fast it happened and how poorly it was executed

TLDR ; because they’re annoying to me personally and i find the cult communalism arc ooc and a huge missed opportunity for something way more interesting

[arcane-temp-fandomblog]

Arcane character parallels / Jayce & Caitlyn / Painful journey of naive well-meaning people

Ah. Caitlyn and Jayce, these two "siblings" - they grow by far the most in Season 1 of Arcane. Or they loose their naivety, but boy is it exasperating journey to watch. Both born in Piltover, are probably the only people in this show (maybe with Heimerdinger) that fully believe in how system presents itself:

"Piltover the land of progress, equality, innovation."

Yeah, about that. I hope everyone can agree that Piltover's system is not that in practice. Or no one even bothered to check if it's reflected in practice.

And if Jayce is perfect example of being middle class "success story" then Caitlyn is just as great at showing how 'both sides have equal say' about the system works in practice.

But besides that, for season 1 at least, Arcane doesn't shy from showing the character's coming from privileged backgrounds screwing themselves over because they don't know the system they are living in - even when their actions are well-meaning. And that's actually imo. a big risk authors took because it can totally make characters unlikeable.

I will argue the showing part is important, because most narratives, that take into account class inequality, to keep characters likeable try to circumvent showing the screw ups, by having long deep discussions with someone. That way the story tells the naive character and the audience by proxy that they don't know how the world works, then explains what's wrong (looking at the camera) and they go on the merry way with moral safely secure and having learned their lesson.

Because I can easily see how this - one of first topside/undercity dialogues for Cait and Vi could quickly turn into telling us how the world really is:

Cait: Topside is to blame for all you misfortunes. Vi: Yes, the system is broken. Cait: Tell me how? Vi: Blah, blah, blah... Cait: I understand now, the system is in fact broken and this one conversation has changed completely my mind after all my upbringing. Let's go change the system with power of love by explaining what is wrong to everyone. From then onward equality was true and everyone lived happily ever after. ~the end~

Wouldn't that be more rewarding resolution than this:

Yeah, I mean that would leave Jayce and Caitlyn much easier to like for everyone, but which lessons feel more painful? Making the mistakes even though someone told you 'you're wrong' or being told you'll be making a mistake and learning from that without committing it. Which is more interesting for growth in narrative sense and shows 'naivety' is not an excuse.

And I'm going to interject, which is more important story to write. One that show consequences of mistakes that come from good place but also one of privilege, or one people just learn without ever having a hair out of place.

But we haven't seen yet if these two grow from their mistakes or if they will they commit to learning from them whatever happens (like a rocket). And I think that's why Arcane story midpoint end of season is so frustrating and makes hard to predict the future course of the story, it hasn't been clearly shown how committed these two will be to fixing what they basically both broke around them for everyone. Because let me just say, every character from undercity is fine just peacing out on them and doing their own quest. This is most clearly obvious with Vi and Viktor, who have their own little adventures fully alone. Their stories and goals are perfectly fine without these two. Maybe a little self destructive in nature but you know, in undercity you can't half commit to things.

Did Cait and Jayce mess up things on purpose? No.

Did Cait and Jayce mess up things? Yes. Definitely Yes.

Was that enabled by characters from undercity who went along with them making decision even thou they voiced objections, or voiced their objections and then kind of still allowed them to make mistakes? Yes.

And they messed up big time because they ignored every single objection a person from undercity made. Because yk - both sides have equal say.

Just Arcane makes it clear both sides don't have equal say how the system works.

As an experiment: reaching whose goal do ie. Vi or Viktor screw up, their own. For now at least in season 1.

And this is not a a commentary on the moral nature of Jayce or Caitlyn, but on the system they live in. The system in which even most moral and pure in intentions people, ones that fully believe in equality for everyone and doing right, are slowly swayed away from their goal. And fail over and over again not only themselves but people they want to champion cause for. And let's be clear, both of these character see themselves as equal to undercity people they know - just personally acknowledging someone is equal and treating them as such does not fix the system of Piltover. Caitlyn getting Vi into the council to speak is best example for that.

Anyway I hope they grow up nicely after the rocket act, this show doesn't seem to penalise growth from own mistakes. If Marcus gives any inkling of what happens if you don't commit to fixing what you fucked up.

So looking forward to season 2 because ie. we know from lore (which Arcane doesn't follow that much) that Jayce and Viktor are on Piltover and Zaun sides. How, we don't know, aside from Jayce already being disillusioned with Piltover looking at his talk with Silco - it's hard to know how it'll unfold to follow lore. On the other hand Cait and Vi's relationship - no idea what will happen to make Vi side with Piltover aside that she can't show herself in the lanes.

Previous posts on parallels:

Arcane character parallels / Jayce & Vi / Jinx - how two idiots snatched defeat out of the jaws of viktory

Arcane character parallels / Caitlyn & Viktor / I’m true to my moral convictions so I’m secure in the outcome of my choices

Arcane / Jinx & Ekko / Irreconcilable forces of change

And some more:

Arcane framing / When you set out to find the middle ground where there’s none

Arcane framing / Corruption

Arcane / Justified force

Arcane / Piltover political arc / ‘not preferred constituents’

wow okay, I have wrote a lot about this show but it's such a good way for me - a very crap writer making a webcomic - to learn. I have only to finish one on Vi and Viktor. But imo. this show makes much more sense if you know dialectical materialism - but that will be only confirmed at the end. Since for all intent and purpose maybe Piltover is not that bad, we just need to be finally shown that. Maybe some big bad will show up that everyone can punch and call it a day.

[mermaidsirennikita]

i’m stuck between starting spartacus or vikings and i know you’ve seen both, so which one would u say i should start first?

They’re very different shows. Both are fairly stylized and unrealistic, both are pretty violent. But Spartacus is generally a lot more graphic in terms of violence and nudity so while I would say that both of them deal with issues like murder, torture, sexual assault, and slavery…. Vikings simply is a lot tamer in terms of what it can show onscreen on every level. It was also shot to mimic realism a bit more whereas Spartacus is intentionally very over the top. For me, the over the top nature of Spartacus made the physical violence at least (separate from the sexual violence) easier to watch. It’s a lot easier to move on from a decapitation for example when none of it looks real. Although say, the famous blood eagle scene in Vikings is much less graphic, it’s also more realistic.

They also have very different perspectives, I’d say? Vikings is the story of a man who goes from being a farmer to a king and is corrupted by power and it extends to his family. Spartacus is a free man who is enslaved at the beginning of the show. Most of the protagonists of Spartacus are people who are or have been enslaved. The goal is for them to be free, not for them to rule the world. In a lot of ways, Vikings is honestly a show from the perspective of oppressors while Spartacus is a show from the perspective of the oppressed…. Though this doesn’t mean it portrays all of its protagonists as simply *good*.

Imo Vikings has a great first couple of seasons and begins to really falter in season 3. There are issues in the first two seasons, but like… you can move past them for the story. I think I finally gave up somewhere in season 5. Like, honestly, not even sure how many seasons that show ended up having because it began with a standard ten ep season structure and then extended to like twenty eps a season but it would be like…. Season 4a, 4b, and so on. There was a point where almost everyone was just…. So bad that even I couldn’t root for them anymore, or “good” but actually bad which was WORSE because the narrative didn’t realize they were bad.

The thing I can say about Spartacus is that it is a much tighter show. It’s older, so some things are inevitably dated and could have been done more sensitively…. But generally speaking, I think Spartacus knows who is good and who is bad and while they are interested in exploring the morality of good people and the humanity of bad people on that show, they never try to *redeem* a truly awful person. Two of the most prominent villains on the show are married to each other. They obviously deeply love each other. They’re also rapists, murderers and slave owners. These two realities are allowed to exist, and while I never doubted that they were human beings, I never was like “oh poor babies”. Nor did I feel like the show wanted me to feel that way.

Spartacus also has better representation. It ain’t perfect. The show could be a lot less white and a lot more gay. But it’s waaaaay less white and way more gay than vikings, and it has much better writing for women. There are evil women on Spartacus and good women and women who like to fight and women who don’t and upper class women and poor women and white women and woc. Vikings has …. One prominent woc in the original show, I think? And she is a drug dealing Asian woman who has sex with the protagonist and then he murders her. So…. Yeah.

Vikings has tons of homoeroticism and the main protagonist actually tells his male best friend “you can’t leave me, I love you” but they never make the connection explicitly sexual or romantic. Spartacus has an entire arc devoted to two men (one of which isn’t white) falling in love and they have to like work on their relationship after and they kiss and fuck and it’s great.

Vikings has some cool moments but I never saw the ending and I’m good with that. Spartacus has many, many more cool moments and I loved the ending. While I’m glad I saw what I saw of Vikings, and Spartacus is FAR from perfect, I prefer Spartacus a lot.

[potteresque-ire]

This is a response to @rainbowsky​ ‘s questions about BJYX, as the original post got too long for reblogging (I hope this is okay!). 1) Should we be worried about GG and DD being outed? I often think about what it’s like to be in the closet and I know how it feels to need to be SEEN. But I also understand the reasons why that might not be an option for them. Still, I worry about them being involuntarily outed. There are so many antis after them.

 2) What would you speculate is the likelihood of this ever happening, and what might be the consequences if it happened?Is leaving an option for them, even as a distant goal years from now?

3)Does their fame and popularity hold any protective power in the situation (i.e. if they were to come out or be outed, would public opinion about what might happen to them have any impact on the outcome given the nature of the regime)? To what degree would that depend on how much money they are still able to make for interested parties?

My response is under the cut, as it got long, as usual ~

@rainbowsky, you’re among the first BXGs I followed! I’d like to thank you for your insightful posts as well!

Your questions ~ I don’t think I’m qualified to speculate because I’m still a very new turtle and also because of the volatility as well as inconsistencies of China’s sociopolitical policies. I do have a better sense of China’s politics than most international fans, but I also don’t live there and the only way to truly understand how things work at the ground level in a non-transparent country like China is to be there.

(For example, China has officially banned Christmas celebrations  for the last several years, but as we saw last week, commercials remain very “Christmas-sy” and Chinese fans happily said Merry Christmas to each other. It takes someone who lives inside to know where to draw the line — what is permitted by the state and what isn’t — when the line shifts and adjusts accordingly.)

Here’re my thoughts, as of today (2020/12/31): if the perpetrator is only some segment of the fandom and the purpose is merely to knock them off the popularity pedestal, outing isn’t a particularly effective way to do so. Homosexuality, being a highly regulated subject in Chinese news and social media, is likely to mean limit transmission of the accusations. The accuser also has to run to risk of being banned themselves first. Also, with BJYX + ZSWW + LSFY being the sizes they are, the people who will most consider turning against gg and dd, ie, the solo fans, have probably already heard something. Some will leave, but the news won’t be a bombshell to them.

The next possibility is if a legal case becomes possible, ie. if China suddenly outlaws homosexuality. This scenario may seem the most dire on the surface but is also one that I least worry about, because with China’s judiciary system being very biased to those in power, if someone wants to frame gg and dd, they do not need to use sexuality as the accusation and subject themselves to the same restrictions as mentioned above. Tax evasion, as @peekbackstage has mentioned with the actress Fan Bing Bing, is far easier, because it tends the turn the audience against the defendant: these stars are making so much money and yet they’re not contributing their share! And as long as the accusers have sufficient power — remembering that commercial and political power are married in the country — the accuser can make up any evidence to suit their needs for any crime.

The third possibility is what I see as the worst case scenario: that the government decides they don’t want their major stars / entertainment industry to be *perceived* as queer — whether the stars are officially out doesn’t matter — and signals the media and commercial companies to stop using any “suspect” star altogether. (Chinese term: 封殺). This is the case of career murder without blood —  laws aren’t changed; all the fans will hear are rumours confirmed by nobody. I see this as a possibility because of the Xi regime’s view of The Ideal Men , and my admittedly limited experience with dealing with older generations of Chinese, who I’ve found tend to confuse perceived femininity in men with queerness. I think, and this is only my opinion, that the sheer amount of adapted BL dramas in production (the so-called “dangai 耽改 101” phenomenon) and the heated discussions of them on Weibo will at some point trigger the government (which is made mostly of older generations Chinese). Even if gg and dd don’t do anything, should the government decide these adapted BL dramas, even after the elimination of their queer element, are “non mainstream socialist core values”, all the major people involved with the Untamed—arguably the classic and the drama whose success all these follow-ups are trying to imitate—can be cast as the culprit. If the same officials become aware of BJYX and if they’re somehow convinced that BJYXSZD, it can be easy be used as evidence of the bad influence these dramas can do—“they can turn people gay”—and it doesn’t help that according to reports, gg, at least, used to have a girlfriend.

Something more to consider: Gg and dd are also in a very special position now, in that not only are they immensely popular in China, no other native mainland Chinese stars have achieved this level of international fame with a native mainland Chinese production (ie, not a production from Hollywood, Hong Kong or Taiwan, or with a Kpop band). As such, they are likely subjected to high levels of scrutiny from the state. Depending on who’s in charge in the appropriate department, they may decide gg and dd have to be China’s image; they may have a set idea of what image it is and most likely, it won’t be queer. 2021 and the first quarter of 2022 are special times for China, image wise, both at home and abroad. 2021 is the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, and gg and dd are both starring in its propaganda productions (dd as a police in BAH and gg as an army officer in AT). CCTV, the state-controlled TV station, is already promoting these shows. So, for 2021, gg and dd are slated to not only be the faces of Chinese entertainment, but also the image of Chinese uniformed forces. If gg and dd come out or are outed, their allowing themselves to be being perceived as queer while donning uniforms will most likely to be viewed by the current regime as an embarrassment; a career murder, then, is an apt response to such transgression. 2022 is the year of Beijing’s Winter Olympics, so again, it’s the time where image matters.

You may have noticed a pattern, as I have as I write this up: them being outed is something to worry about, but also ... nothing more than anything else. If someone wants to tear gg and dd down — and there will be, given their massive commercial power right now and the increasing evidence that they’re working more like collaborators than competitors (ie, they aren’t about to tear each other down any time soon) — they do not need their sexuality as a reason.

(And if these accusers really want to use homosexuality as a reason, the unofficial BTS is, IMO, more than enough, as long as the accusers have sufficient power.)

Your other question ~ can gg and dd’s fame, popularity, and ability to draw consumers protect them? My (slightly) educated guess of the answer, then, is that it’s very much a double-edged sword. Indeed, the one major thing that may be going for these adapted BL dramas, and for those who come to superstardom to it — with gg and dd being the prime examples — is the economic health of China, which, by some reports that can no way be verified, are far worse than what has been reported. This is the thing about countries lack transparency; without reliable news, there’s no way to get the facts. Reports on China outside the country tend to be either propaganda or demonising / filled with conspiracy theories, and the truth is probably somewhere in between. If the reports of poor economy are true, the commercial sector — which, again, is tied to those with political power; ie the money made in the former goes into the pockets of the latter — desperately needs stars like gg and dd to move products (based on those recent consumer reports!) and with that, it will want to keep gg and dd and these dramas that can potentially make more gg and dd around. This *seems* to be what’s happening so far, with the the state-run media happy to show gg and dd’s dramas (when it should know, at least, that they got to the height of their fame playing lovers-not-lovers) and gg and dd’s sponsors not-so-subtly wooing the BJYX segment of fandom, so I’m tentatively optimistic. However, the current regime has also shown a willingness to sacrifice the economy for the sake of political ideology, so it’s not something to be taken for granted. (What’s going on in Hong Kong is a good example of that.)

(I always think, eat each candy like it can be the last one. With this regime, it can be. We can wake up tomorrow and gg and dd have to break up BJYX to protect the fans.)

(I always think, treasure, treasure, treasure. Ask for more dy and lz and Weibo posts, but never anymore from gg and dd when it comes to insights of their relationship, even without considering it’s actually their private lives and they’re under no obligation to share.)

(They’ve shared with us far more than enough.)

There’s really no precedence for us to predict the future of an outed gg and dd from, as far as I know. Confirmed queer stars in Chinese entertainment (those with sufficient followers to make news) have all been from Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries. The successful BL dramas before The Untamed — Addicted (2016) and The Guardian (2018) — didn’t have a real-person cp that truly took off. Addicted, a true BL drama (ie, it retained the queer elements), was banned before it finished its broadcast. The two actors were also banned from appearing together afterwards, and this “signal” from the government almost cost the two actors their career. Bai Yu from The Guardian, meanwhile, already had a girlfriend as he filmed, so there was never a Weibo supertopic dedicated to him and Zhu Yilong. gg and dd, along with their millions of turtles, are treading untrodden ground.

Something I should clarify ~ all the things I said above may sound very scary to international fans, but to those who live in the country, they understand it as the way things are, and they strategise and move accordingly. This is their way of life. What I wanted to say, in my first reblog, is that we who’re outside may not understand why they do things the way they do, why they don’t, for example, come out with all the candies they are spending so much effort to give out, but I do believe that gg and dd have a plan, not in the sense that they’re scheming or trying to trick anyone, but that they are moving things along at the pace necessary to meet the pre-requisites for the outcome they want. What this outcome is is anyone’s guess, mine being that they have the freedom to work together, not necessary in lover’s capacity — most of us are not required to perform our day jobs carrying our identity as so-and-so’s significant other and gg and dd shouldn’t be exceptions — but as colleagues, professionals and friends (lovers are friends). 

To some international fans, this may sound implausible, ridiculous: why do they need a multi year campaign for something as simple as this? As working together again? And I suppose, all these words I’ve typed so far is my attempt to answer this question, to ease the … unease, the frustration of those who may not understand. True to its marxist root, perhaps, many things that are considered mindless, effortless tasks elsewhere somehow become battles, grand struggles of sorts in China. That sea of sea lights on the night of Tencent awards, for example? It was the result of gg’s fans fighting, strategising in real time to smuggle those LED banners in when they realised the venue had forbidden their entry. They wrapped the banners around their bodies under their underwear because they were patted down by security at the underwear level; they hid batteries in their shoes. They ran batteries from one zone in the stadium to another during the whole show for whose who only managed to smuggle in banners or batteries. They fought the security guards inside the stadium, who continued to snatch away their banners even after seeing they were merely support material for the idols. They fought and fought, despite their identities were recorded by their COVID pass and facial recognition. Many confessed they had no idea what gg was singing during the show; they were too busy. They were there, some paying scalpers > 10x the ticket price, just because they promised the sea of red would be there for gg when he returned. When some realised dd’s banners were confiscated in high numbers because his fans happened to have seats right by the strictest security, they improvised, found an image of a green block to show on their cell phones to make makeshift green support lights for dd. They used Weibo to spread this trick to fellow fans. All these trouble, all these effort, all these planning and scheming and sweat and tears — all for one night, one concert and they laughed about it, called it a wonderful day.

(There are many ways for lives to be hard.)

The very first thing gg and dd need to accomplish, therefore, isn’t to announce what they do in the bedroom—the very first thing they need, for their plan to come to fruition, is to stay on top of the industry. How can they be on the same stage for the yearly Tencent Awards if either of them fails to make VIP? What’s their negotiation chip for a future collaboration, when the current norm is against cps like them working together again, if they cannot draw enough viewers and consumers, or if they offend Tencent and other media companies by refusing to see to the needs of the other side (for example, the need to promote new dramas)? So far, the two of them have accomplished this in flying colours. The other thing they need right now, the way I see it, is for their fans to get along. I think part of the reason they’ve made BJYXSZD so easy to believe in and love, in addition to their very human need to be seen when their careers may be safer otherwise (yes, I think they know what they’re doing, the candies they’re throwing), is because they want their fans to unite, as they have united. To make sure something like 227 cannot happen again, or at least, if it does happen again, their fans cannot be used as an excuse, as scapegoats. And this union is happening — slowly, but it’s happening. The size of BJYX (>2.8 million as of now, on Weibo supertopic) is a powerful indicator; I also had a wonderful time reading the comments of gg’s solo fans who went to purchase dd’s new song. This is the part gg and dd need their fan’s help. This is the one of the fews things we, as overseas fans who have limited access to their products, can help.

Your final question — sorry, this is getting so long again — about leaving. Of course, it’s always up to the government and It’s impossible to say what can happen so far ahead. But my perception, right now at least, is that gg and dd have no intention to leave, no intention to sacrifice their career for their personal lives and vice versa. After all, this is a pair who has answered those A vs B choice questions with a straight-faced “I want both” and “so annoying” without a follow-up reply. They’re right to want both. I like them for wanting both. And maybe, with their intelligence, charisma and hardwork and ambition and personalities that seem to clash but somehow complements each other’s, they will figure out a way. Maybe they are, as the Chinese turtles call them, the Chosen Pair, and they will be the ones who’ll change the perception fo queer artists in China, and we’ll one day get a biography about them and laugh at the candies we get right, laugh harder at those candies we get totally wrong.

(Dd ~ I want your honest opinion, in your own words, on the ones we get wrong.)

(Gg ~ videos of your expressions while reading the crazy theories the first time will be very much appreciated. By me.)

It’s a good day to look forward to.