#just to view the story from a perspective that might spark more discussion

[le-trash-prince]

Can we take a moment to appreciate the way that S2 has paralleled S1 in terms of plot structure?

S1 spent the first six episodes following this back and forth trust issue between Charlie and Babe—fueled both by Way’s manipulations and Charlie’s insistence of keeping his plans secret. You get the idea that something is going on with Tony, but it’s not entirely clear yet. And then in episode 7, Kim uncovers the human trafficking and blows the whole plot open.

And in S2, you have this ongoing trust issue between Charlie and Babe—fueled by Willy’s machinations and Babe’s insistence on keeping his plans secret. We know Tony is up to human experimentation, but his plans are still largely a secret. And now heading into ep 7, we have an idea that he wants Charlie in particular, and then Change2561 drops a mid-season trailer showing all of the fucking plot we’re about to be hit with. The cherry on top for me would be Kim and Kenta digging into the heart of Tony’s plans in ep 7 😌

[arirovi]

A reflection...

I knew BnHA in 2016. The first season was finished and the second season was expected. I was in the University and still working for my degree. Mi personal life and the world in general was so much different...

There was no sign of a pandemic coming, Tumblr was still not undergoing a content purge, and the anime community was much less widespread than today. Then i walked trough the fandom path, to put it more simply, as an observer rather than an active participant.

And just by watching, one learns many things.

In particular, I want to refer to the expectations with which we all approach a series, a story. And also how these change over the years, how they are built on the emotions that certain parts of the plot provoke in us.

First off all, I want to cover expectations for the bnha plot in general.

I've seen various parts of the fandom enjoy BnHA from different points, because it's those parts that resonate with them the most. Some from Izuku's mentor-protege relationship with All Might, others from the focus of pure and simple Heroism, some from the tragedy that is the villains' past and others from the trauma and abuse represented by the Todoroki.

We have all done it from a valid point of view and, naturally, we all build expectations.

Some lucky ones are lucky enough that what they expected to happen happens in the end (and I am happy for you from my own experience), but when those expectations are not met by the original material, it hurts a lot. More than one of us may have seen it happen again and again, experienced it firsthand.

Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter which part of the story we are most engaged in, we all reach, in some way, a point where our expectations are either not met (if we are unlucky) or forgotten or not allowed (if we consider it a representative injustice). But in the end what counts is that as fans we all experience this phenomenon at the same time (to a lesser or greater extent) and in its own way it is a type of social bond that is not forgotten.

(And I'm not saying that it's something merely negative or positive, it can be both at the same time AND it's just a fact, something that is happening to all of us who follow BnHA no matter how long we have been in the fandom)

So, now that the end is approaching and I am faced with different opinions about it, it is like living in a loop of collective emotional repetitions and it is such an incredible phenomenon that in itself, it makes me want to share my thoughts when I didn't before.

Which brings me to the other point I wanted to talk about: shipping expectations and Bakudeku

At that time (2015 onwards) the concept of "queerbaiting" was quite popular, while at the same time, so was the idea that your queer ship could become canon. In fact, it was strong enough to cross the borders of fandom.

But even with this in the mainstream, we BakuDeku seemed to remain on our side of the fandom, always in defense mode. The most vocal on social media represented a group of followers who didn't care how toxic the mere idea of ​​this Ship was to others. The only thing that we cared about was that we liked their interactions, the intensity and the paradoxes between Kacchan and Deku.

In 2016 it was not popular to be a BakuDeku, much less accepted by the general public. And even among fans of the characters, being a specific DekuBaku was a rarity.

And so time went by.

As you can see and in hindsight, expectations for the Ship were very low from my perspective. What we expected from the story was so little that the minimal interactions between Izuku and Kacchan seemed to be assimilated quite carefully and mainly in spaces dedicated only to the ship.

Furthermore, the sparking discussion about whether "bakudekus were apologists for abusers" attracted so many antis and haters that the whole thing became horrible. At one point, blocking them was no longer enough to be safe from hate. And being part of the fandom required so much energy that even I, who was just a shadow who liked or reblogged content in the fandom, needed to control my exposure time to social media.

And what happened next, to reach the expectations that the fandom has now?

The pandemic of 2020 and Bakugo Katsuki: Rising.

That chapter, added to the new influx of fans brought by the pandemic and its quarantines, diverted the path that we believed was set for Kacchan and Izuku as a group. Suddenly, many things that we thought only belonged to the realm of fanfic became accessible through canon.

To begin with, no one imagined that kind of sacrifice on Kacchan's part in the manga. Nobody believed the hospital scene was possible, nor that it was possible for him to ask Izuku for forgiveness or to cry for the loss of his quirk (and what that meant for both of their lives).

How could expectations not rise in the collective because of this, both old and new fans? How to avoid it for those of us who live through its darkest times as fans? How to control the hope of those who feel vindicated by the narrative?

In the end, the nature of expectations is fluctuating over time, unpredictable if we do not pay attention to them, and I am not here to tell anyone, not even myself, that having high expectations about something is bad. Or that having hope about something that helps you be happy is dangerous in the long term. Even if my past in other fandoms resulted in a painful and impossible to forget ending, I can't do that.

No one has the right to comment on the emotions of others and how they live them, how they express them. However, after eight years here, I have learned to use caution as a weapon of battle.

And how I do it? Taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture.

It's been a long road for all of us who were here from the beginning. We had ups and downs and we will continue to have them without a doubt.

Personally, I hold my expectations with a comfortable, soft and practical harness, to bring them closer, caress them from time to time and let them be. But at other times, I hold them tight so they don't get out of control.

The final idea of ​​this, and what I have learned over time, is that you should not assert yourself at any extreme. Mental, emotional and physical health is in balance, it has been proven many times.

I have hope, but I glimpse it in moderation and if we are lucky and our expectations are fulfilled, I will celebrate with joy. But if in the end these are not fulfilled, I will remember the good as well as the disappointment, although without pressure. After all, everything returns to a better place in its own time.

[pikahlua]

Maybe it's because I have a different perception of "origin"... And also a different view of that scene, like I feel that Izuku might have thought "oh so no quirk.... Then I shall rely only on my own will" or something like that, again it's my own interpretation. And also it's probably cause it's been a while since I've read chapter one so I have a confused memory of it! sorry if I wasn't clear about my earlier statement!

I hope I can explain this right. I have no interest in telling you that's not a valid interpretation. I have zero problems with people having headcanons and making guesses about a character's feelings. When I was discussing "origins," I was doing so in the context of trying to find a moment in Izuku's past that Shigaraki might accidentally touch. In order to do so, I could only look at what's actually stated in the text to use as persuasive evidence. That's not to say there won't be some reveal later about more of Izuku's thoughts from back then. It's just I can't assume any additional information when I'm making a prediction like this. What you think Izuku might have thought certainly may have happened, but until I see evidence of what he actually thought, it's not something I can use. You're free to hold your interpretations and I'm not knocking you for them at all. I just don't have any reason to jump on board that interpretation yet.

From my perspective, we had three characters' "origin" chapters early in the story (Izuku, Shouto, and Katsuki), and the thing they all had in common was a memory of All Might from when they were young children. These memories are often spoken as ideals by these "origin" characters throughout the series. Katsuki has "a hero who, no matter how much trouble he's in, always wins." Shouto has "a hero who puts others at ease when he arrives." And Izuku has "a hero who always saves everyone with a smile." These to me feel like origins because they are the sparks that set each of these characters on theirs paths to becoming heroes themselves. Occasionally some mentors like Aizawa and Nana will make a comment about how an origin is something to grasp so that it keeps you pushing a little more even when you're at your limit, and I think it follows that such an origin has to be one's inspiration for doing what they do in the first place. Thus, an origin for a hero is: why do you want to be a hero?

In my opinion, the moment that exemplifies Izuku's ideal of "a hero who always saves everyone with a smile" matches most closely with his memory of watching All Might's debut video.

So that's why I make the assumption that this is Izuku's origin for the purposes of predicting imminent events in the story.

[monsterkong]

Balancing Art, Technique, and Philosophy 🎭📚

In today’s fast-paced world, many creators find themselves trapped in a cycle of tutorials, technical mastery, and algorithms. But what happens when you prioritize your inner journey over external validation? Let’s dive into how balancing technique and philosophy can elevate your artistry to new heights. 🚀🎨

1️⃣ Technical Mastery vs. Philosophical Depth 🎛️📖

Many creators begin their journey by mastering the technical aspects of their craft — the perfect brushstroke, the ideal lighting setup, or the sharpest edits. Tutorials and tips are the foundation upon which skills are built.

For instance, a YouTube video titled “How to Shoot a Portrait with a Single Speed Light” might rack up millions of views because it solves a specific problem. These “quick win” videos cater to beginners who just want the tip they need to move forward. But there’s more to art than technique.

2️⃣ Beyond Tips and Tricks: A Deeper Connection 🌊🌌

While technical videos attract a broad audience, the most meaningful impact often comes from content that explores deeper themes. Videos or blog posts that delve into the psychology of creativity, the struggles of self-doubt, or the search for meaning often resonate on a profound level.

"People come for the tips, but they stay for the philosophy."

Creators who dare to explore the inner world of art often find a core audience — those who are ready to go beyond shutter speeds and aperture settings to discover how art intersects with life. These viewers aren’t just looking for advice; they’re seeking connection, comfort, and inspiration.

3️⃣ Serving the Journey: Tailored Content for Every Stage 🗺️📍

Not every creator needs to embrace deep philosophical musings. The journey of a beginner differs from that of an intermediate or advanced artist. Beginners thrive on step-by-step guidance, while more seasoned creators hunger for discussions about meaning and purpose.

By offering diverse content — tutorials, philosophical musings, and personal stories — you can meet your audience where they are. Think of it as building a funnel:

Top of Funnel: Practical tips and tricks that attract a wide audience. 🔍✨

Middle of Funnel: Intermediate guidance that bridges the gap between skill-building and self-expression. 📈🎭

Bottom of Funnel: Deep, reflective content that resonates with experienced artists seeking purpose. 🌟🕊️

As a creator, it’s about finding the balance between giving people what they want and sharing what you truly care about.

4️⃣ Embracing the Duality of Creation 🌀🖌️

The most successful artists are those who can serve both worlds:

The Practical: Providing technical advice and tools that empower others to grow.

The Profound: Offering reflective insights that spark deeper conversations and connections.

It’s okay if your most meaningful work gets fewer views. What matters is the impact it makes on those who truly need it. Your unique voice and perspective are your greatest assets. By honoring them, you’ll attract the right audience — those who are ready to take the next step in their journey.

Conclusion: Aligning Passion with Purpose 🌟💖

Art is a journey, not a destination. Whether you’re a beginner learning the basics or a seasoned creator searching for meaning, there’s always room to grow, experiment, and evolve.

So, what stage are you at in your creative journey? Are you mastering the basics, or are you ready to dive deeper into the philosophy of your craft? Wherever you are, remember: the best art comes from the heart. 💌🎨

[caffernnn]

how would you assign style 5 into the 5-man party/band trope?

OOH a fun challenge 😌 the shifting dynamics between the five make it a lil hard to anchor them into the available tropes without inevitable overlap/gaps, BUT it’s interesting to think about it like we did back when we were discussing the RoTG AU: what is at their center, or at the very least, an intriguing lens to interpret their center through?

Although there’s the instinct to try and put Haru in the hero/leader position with Rin as the lancer and foil (that’s a comparison/thread that canon likes to revolve around, which is still fun!), I think it’d be neat to think about the lineup from a slightly different perspective:

The leader/hero: Rei

The lancer: Haru

The brains: Makoto

The brawn: Rin

The heart: Nagisa

Ok hold on HOLD ON let me explain!! Think about how we can view season one (as a launching point) if we take up Haru’s suggestion/wish to not be the main character, and move the lens we’re looking through juuust slightly to shine the light more on Rei’s story. Even though he’s new to the group, newly establishing himself as a swimmer and friend in the existing (corroded, faded) Iwatobi dynamic, his addition is the real catalyst for the story — they can’t move forward until they find a fourth in Rin’s absence/distance, and all of the magic we see unfold happens because of Rei’s spark, his perspective, his journey, all that he is. It doesn’t matter if he’s not the one consciously calling the shots for them all; watching him learn and stumble and get back up and trust and love is what gets everyone else to reflect and react. The ✨main character rei✨ agenda is still alive and kicking in my heart 😮‍💨

SPEAKING OF HEART, let’s talk about that one next!! The “heart” (from what I understand) serves not only as the peacemaker and glue that binds the group together, but a complement to the hero/leader as well. Now, I know that every freakin essay I’ve written about Makoto positions him perfectly as the heart of the group (#the makoto files my beloved). HOWEVER, if we’re shifting this whole band around to have Rei at the helm, the person who stands right next to him and keeps him balanced is the guy who got him into this whole mess. Really, if Rei is the guiding light, then Nagisa is the one who went looking for a match in the first place. At the center of all of his antics is this desire to keep them all bound together, united or reunited as friends and trusted teammates. He’s essential joy — comic relief and chaos are the ways he checks in on and takes care of people, especially in a dynamic that where the guys might be a little hesitant about admitting to their attachments out loud (at first).

Again, although Makoto and Nagisa could be interchangeable in their roles here (heart/brains), I think we could do something fun with slotting Makoto and Rin into the “brains and brawn” duo roles, respectively. Makoto is soft contemplation and careful steps where Rin is hotheaded intensity and dynamic force. As a duo, they bleed into each other — we’ve seen how Makoto can have moments led by passion and power, just as we’ve seen Rin hesitate or rethink his position (and, interestingly enough, the reasons for these shifts can often be linked back to strong push-pull moments involving the other). I think there’s value in acknowledging both their roles as a shared duo and as individuals within the group (as in like, for example, how Makoto’s thinking might change trajectory when with Rei individually versus a situation with all three of them in a room, ykwim? Anywayyy).

Now, the lancer as Haru!! This one!! This is fun because he’s both the ideal and the anomaly for Rei, right? Haru becomes this incomprehensible figure in his line of sight that gradually shifts to be a trusted teammate competing by his side. He’s not a total opposite, but there are distinctions between them, and casting Rei and Haru into the hero/lancer dynamic helps to highlight some of those character differences. Haru is strong in his skillset, but teaching someone else when it felt so natural for him? Getting back into the mind of a impassioned novice with his eyes on a beautiful future, when the only realm Haru dwells in these days to protect himself is the immediate present? That’s a disconnect and distinction that affects how they both individually navigate growing throughout the story. Like, Rei as a character is oriented to what it means to learn and grow in a way that opposes Haru’s habits of staying grounded and honing in on what he already knows and is comfortable with. Yeah, there’s a shared sense of rigidity in rules and routines for both of them (autism boys my beloveds), BUT it manifests and leads them down different paths, and really kinda secures why it’s interesting to frame Rei as the hero here over Haru. Rei’s reliance on theory comes from a love of experimenting and growing and learning, like the truths and beliefs he holds are built on (if not his own work, then what he presumes to be) a long line of trials and errors and rewrites to hone in on an emerging ideal. Haru’s reliance on routine is rooted in preservation and comfort, whether from his own strong immediate/persisting desires or the expectations of others he comes to hold as important to maintain and heavy (like,,, we know Haru talks big game about swimming free and for himself but also has a sense of justice that leads him down all of these instances of performing for other people). That being said, even if Haru isn’t the hero in this proposed dynamic, his position at Rei’s other side (when Nagisa isn’t trying to grip both of Rei’s hands and run into the wilderness or smth) is essential: he gives Rei a way to grow and fight and learn because of his existing swimming prowess. He’s a quiet muse to gleam inspiration from (a puzzle to be solved) and a ticket into the competitive world (pulling weight during relays while Rei builds and builds). And uhh that’s COOL MAN IDK!!!

I think the part I’m struggling to put into words here at the end is just how much these perceived roles can shift around with just a little nudge and reveal even more fascinating details within the story. There are similarities between characters like Rin and Rei (push forward) versus Makoto and Haru (pull back) that make you wonder about those duos in isolation. There’s the idea of changing around even one pair’s positions (like switching Makoto and Nagisa, or even Haru and Rin) that 1) draws attention to those pair’s similarities, and 2) bring into question how that changing position might shift their perceived impact on others in the group. The style five is a interweaving rainbow of colors that overlays and combines to create an infinite number of hues, and we could talk about variations of their dynamics honestly all night. Don’t even get me started on bringing their individual colors into this conversation, because that’s a whole other onslaught of potential meanings—

[harrybradleyusa]

Jake Seal Black Hangar Discusses Diverse Narratives in Global Cinema

Global cinema has become a powerful tool for telling stories that transcend borders, cultures, and languages. As the film industry continues to evolve, the importance of diverse narratives is becoming more evident. Filmmakers from around the world are using cinema to reflect their unique cultural experiences, and one such influential figure leading this movement is Jake Seal Black Hangar. In this blog, we’ll explore how diverse narratives are shaping the future of global cinema and the vital role Jake Seal Black Hangar plays in this transformation.

The Rise of Diverse Narratives in Cinema

In the past, mainstream cinema has often been dominated by a narrow range of voices and perspectives, typically focused on Western ideals. However, with the growth of global interconnectedness and the rise of independent filmmaking, audiences are now being exposed to a broader spectrum of stories. These stories reflect the richness of human experiences from every corner of the globe, from the vibrant cultures of Africa to the nuanced tales emerging from Asia and Latin America.

Diverse narratives provide insight into different ways of life, offering fresh perspectives on universal themes like love, loss, identity, and resilience. Jake Seal Black Hangar has been at the forefront of promoting these stories, providing a platform for filmmakers from varied backgrounds to showcase their work on a global stage.

Why Diverse Narratives Matter

The need for diverse narratives in cinema goes beyond just cultural representation. It’s about enriching the global storytelling landscape and breaking free from stereotypes that have long confined certain groups or regions. Here are some reasons why these narratives are important:

Cultural RepresentationFilmmakers from diverse backgrounds bring unique cultural perspectives, allowing audiences to experience different worldviews. This representation fosters empathy and understanding, helping viewers connect with cultures and people they may not be familiar with.

Challenging StereotypesFilms that showcase diverse characters and cultures challenge the stereotypes often seen in mainstream media. By portraying multifaceted individuals, filmmakers can reshape the way society views different communities.

Broadening Storytelling HorizonsWhen filmmakers from various cultures contribute to global cinema, they introduce new storytelling techniques and narrative structures. This innovation helps keep cinema fresh and engaging, preventing it from becoming stagnant.

Encouraging Global DialogueCinema has the power to spark conversations about societal issues, and diverse narratives are a key part of this. By addressing global themes through different cultural lenses, filmmakers can foster important dialogues on topics like social justice, human rights, and equality.

Jake Seal Black Hangar’s Role in Promoting Diversity

As an influential figure in the film industry, Jake Seal Black Hangar understands the importance of supporting and nurturing diverse voices. His work behind the scenes has helped bring various international films to a wider audience, highlighting the immense value of films that represent a multitude of cultures and experiences.

Black Hangar, a production company that focuses on creating high-quality films with compelling narratives, has provided a platform for filmmakers who might otherwise go unnoticed in the competitive world of cinema. Jake Seal Black Hangar’s commitment to diversity is evident in its diverse roster of projects, which span a wide range of genres, from dramas and comedies to thrillers and documentaries.

Through his efforts, Jake Seal has contributed to the breaking down of barriers in the film industry, allowing more filmmakers from underrepresented communities to find their voice. His advocacy for inclusive storytelling has helped elevate the global cinematic experience, making it more reflective of the world we live in today.

How Diverse Narratives Are Shaping the Future of Global Cinema

The future of global cinema looks bright, with more filmmakers embracing diverse narratives and creating films that resonate with a wide audience. Thanks to the tireless work of individuals like Jake Seal Black Hangar, the industry is becoming more inclusive, offering opportunities for voices from all walks of life to be heard.

As we move forward, the demand for authentic and diverse storytelling will only increase. Audiences are eager to experience new narratives that challenge their assumptions and broaden their understanding of the world. The influence of filmmakers like Jake Seal will continue to pave the way for a more inclusive and dynamic film industry.

Conclusion

In conclusion, diverse narratives in global cinema are not just a trend but an essential part of the film industry’s evolution. Filmmakers like Jake Seal Black Hangar are leading the charge by promoting stories that reflect a wide range of cultural experiences. These stories enrich our understanding of the world help break down barriers and foster greater empathy between people of different backgrounds.

As the global film industry embraces diversity, audiences can expect to see even more powerful and impactful stories highlighting the beauty of our differences and the shared humanity that binds us all. The future of cinema is bright, and with figures like Jake Seal Black Hangar at the forefront, it promises to be more inclusive than ever before.

[aru152001]

Why Watching the Right Romantic Movies Can Help You Create Beautiful Memories with Your Loved One

When you’re spending quality time with your loved one, it's those shared moments that often stand out the most. One of the simplest yet most powerful ways to create lasting memories is by watching the right romantic movie together. These films aren’t just about entertainment—they offer a shared emotional experience that can deepen your connection and leave you with memories to treasure for years to come.

Movies as a Gateway to Connection

A romantic movie can be the perfect backdrop to emotional bonding. Watching the ups and downs of love on screen can evoke feelings, spark conversations, and even remind you of cherished moments in your own relationship. When you and your partner are engaged in the storyline, the movie becomes more than just entertainment; it becomes a shared experience that brings you closer together.

Choosing the right romantic movie, whether it’s a classic tale of love or a modern-day rom-com, can set the stage for a beautiful evening of connection. These films often mirror real-life emotions, from the joy of falling in love to the challenges couples face, making them relatable and meaningful for any couple.

Shared Emotions Create Lasting Memories

Romantic movies are great for stirring up emotions, and watching them together means you experience those emotions at the same time. Whether it's laughing at a quirky rom-com, shedding tears over a bittersweet drama, or smiling at a heartfelt moment, these shared feelings are what create lasting memories. When you both laugh at the same joke or feel moved by the same scene, it forms a special kind of bond that strengthens your connection.

For instance, watching a film like The Notebook can leave you both emotionally invested in the story, leading to a deeper understanding of love and commitment. You may find yourselves reflecting on your own relationship, discussing the themes of the movie, or simply enjoying the comfort of being in each other’s presence.

Creating a Comforting Atmosphere

Watching a romantic movie together is more than just viewing a screen—it’s about setting the stage for an intimate, cozy evening. Dim the lights, grab some blankets, and enjoy each other’s company as you settle in for a night of shared emotion. The environment you create during your movie night adds to the overall experience, making it a moment you’ll want to revisit time and again.

Choosing a film that resonates with both of you, such as a favorite movie you’ve seen before or one with sentimental meaning, can make the experience feel more personal. It’s about creating a space where you can be present, relax, and simply enjoy each other’s company without distractions.

The Power of Nostalgia

Romantic movies often play with nostalgia, whether it’s through classic love stories or relatable modern romances. Watching these films can take you both on a trip down memory lane, reminding you of shared experiences, places you’ve been, or moments that made your relationship special. Nostalgia has a powerful way of bringing people closer, and movies can evoke those memories in a beautiful and effortless way.

For example, watching a timeless classic like Casablanca might transport you back to earlier stages of your relationship when you were just getting to know each other. It reminds you of how far you’ve come and can help you reflect on the journey you’ve shared as a couple.

Exploring New Perspectives on Love

One of the best parts about romantic movies is that they come in so many different styles and genres. Whether you’re into heartwarming comedies, intense dramas, or international films, there’s something for everyone. Watching movies that offer different perspectives on love can open up new conversations between you and your partner, sparking discussions about your own views on love, relationships, and life.

International films like Your Name can offer a fresh take on love, exposing you both to new cultures and different ways of storytelling. These movies can broaden your perspectives and even inspire you to explore the world together or see love through a new lens.

Making the Moment Count

At the end of the day, what makes watching romantic movies special is the time you invest in each other. It’s about being present and creating a memory that you’ll both hold onto. While the movie itself may fade from your mind, the feelings you shared and the connection you felt will last.

The best romantic movies to watch aren’t just about love on the screen—they’re about the love you share in real life. Whether you laugh, cry, or simply enjoy the experience, it’s a beautiful way to make memories with the one you love.

Conclusion

Watching the right romantic movie together isn’t just a fun activity—it’s an opportunity to create lasting memories with your partner. From the emotions you experience to the conversations that follow, romantic movies have the power to bring you closer, deepen your bond, and leave you with moments you’ll treasure for years to come. So next time you’re looking for a meaningful way to connect with your loved one, grab a blanket, pick a movie, and get ready to create beautiful memories together.

[endurancexcel]

Beyond the Textbook: The Power of Educational Motivational Speakers

In today's ever-evolving educational landscape, the traditional classroom setup and textbook learning are often complemented by innovative approaches to inspire and engage students. One such approach gaining traction is the use of educational motivational speakers. These dynamic individuals bring more than just words to the table; they offer unique perspectives, real-world experiences, and motivational energy that can profoundly impact student's attitudes and academic success.

The Impact of Educational Motivational Speakers

Educational motivational speakers play a crucial role in modern education by bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. Their contributions go beyond standard lectures, offering students fresh perspectives and igniting their passion for learning.

Inspiring Students with Real-World Experience

One of the most significant benefits of having educational motivational speakers in the classroom is their ability to provide real-world experiences that textbooks alone cannot offer. These speakers often come from diverse backgrounds and professions, bringing a wealth of knowledge and practical insights. By sharing their journeys, challenges, and successes, they make academic subjects more relatable and relevant.

For instance, a motivational speaker with a background in entrepreneurship might discuss the intricacies of starting and running a business, providing students with practical advice and inspiration that goes beyond what they learn in business studies. This hands-on approach can spark an interest in subjects that students may find abstract or distant from their everyday lives.

Enhancing Student Engagement and Motivation

Motivation is a key factor in academic achievement, and educational motivational speakers excel in boosting student engagement. Their ability to connect with students on an emotional level can transform a mundane lesson into an inspiring experience. Through storytelling, humour, and interactive sessions, these speakers captivate student's attention and encourage them to think critically and creatively.

Moreover, motivational speakers often address common challenges students face, such as overcoming obstacles, setting goals, and managing stress. Their practical advice and encouragement help students develop resilience and a positive mindset, which are essential for academic and personal success.

The Benefits of Integrating Educational Motivational Speakers into the Curriculum

Incorporating educational motivational speakers into the curriculum offers several advantages that can enhance the overall educational experience. By doing so, schools and educational institutions can create a more dynamic and enriching learning environment.

Fostering a Growth Mindset

One of the key benefits of educational motivational speakers is their ability to foster a growth mindset among students. By sharing stories of perseverance and success, these speakers encourage students to view challenges as opportunities for growth rather than obstacles. This mindset shift can lead to increased resilience, improved problem-solving skills, and a more positive attitude towards learning.

Creating a Positive Learning Environment

Educational motivational speakers also contribute to creating a positive and supportive learning environment. Their presence can break the monotony of traditional teaching methods and introduce a sense of excitement and enthusiasm into the classroom. This positive atmosphere can improve student morale, foster better relationships between students and teachers, and create a more inclusive and collaborative learning community.

Conclusion

Educational motivational speakers offer invaluable contributions to the educational experience, extending far beyond the confines of textbooks and traditional teaching methods. By providing real-world insights, enhancing student engagement, and fostering a growth mindset, these speakers play a vital role in shaping students' academic and personal success.

For more information about EnduranceXcel, visit our website: https://www.endurancexcel.com/

Contact Info:

EnduranceXcel

Email: info@EnduranceXcel.com

Phone No.: +971(0)501071704

[sanketcommunications]

Importance of Customers' Testimonials in Advertising

Positive words hold an immense power. They shape our perception of a particular product/service, thus sparking a curiosity within us to know more about it.

If you frequently visit online shopping sites, you must have noticed that each product is showcased with its set of details. While the details and prices can be quite enticing to the customers, there's a crucial thing we often skip- Customer Testimonials.

Every top advertising agency must understand  the role and importance of the customer testimonials to enhance their credibility. It is the testimonials from previous customers that often provide you with a glimpse of how the customers feel about the product/service.

Building Trust Among Customers

The idea of buying a new and good product is exciting. But what if it turns out to be the opposite of what you thought? This uncertainty can hinder your confidence in the product, preventing you from purchasing from the same seller again. This is where testimonials come into play. A few positive words from loyal customers can completely change the perspectives of the new buyers.

Highlighting Positive Points

Your shopping does not depend on only liking the product but also on its quality and performance. To make an informed purchase, you need to have a deep understanding of the product. Customers who have previously bought the product often have a lot to share, which could help you know more about the product quality and function.

If most reviews are positive, you have every reason to go ahead and make that purchase. If they are negative, you might reconsider buying it.

Building Emotional Connectivity

Sometimes, customer testimonials extend beyond just mere opinions. They develop an immense liking for the product. Many even have an experience to share. They post their experience with the product, describing in details the pros and cons. These stories can act as powerful motivation for potential customers to get motivated for the purchase.

Positive Referrals

Happy customers are likely to share their positive experiences about the product. This will help boost your popularity and will significantly boost your business.

How to Collect Testimonials

Through Emails

Testimonials can vary from short comments to detailed reviews. However, for the longer ones, emails are a good way to collect testimonials. if you wish,you can collect every customer's opinion through emails, asking him to share his thoughts on your products and services. As you have several testimonials compiled, select the few compelling ones and publish them on your site for future customers to read.

Through Facebook Pages

One of the easiest ways to collect testimonials is through your Facebook page. All the top advertising and marketing agency should track its customers' reviews regularly, as they provide a deep insight into how your products are perceived by your target customers. Use these reviews to understand customer sentiment and improve your offerings.

With Video Testimonials

Most often the videos can be more convincing than written reviews. They generate more views and can thus draw the attention of your potential customers towards your products.

Request your customers to send video clips highlighting the positive aspects of the product, and how it benefited them. These videos can spark curiosity and interest among potential buyers.

Forms

With Forms

Every shopping site has a form attached to its website. Every opinion helps a brand to analyze its performance and popularity among its customers.

You too can have a form attached to your website and urge your customers to fill the form. However, remember to keep it short.

By leveraging the power of testimonials, you can build trust, connect emotionally with customers, and drive positive referrals to boost your business.

Through Whatsapp

We have discussed about the best possible ways to gather the customer testimonials. However, we kept the best one for the last- Whatsapp Messages. It is infact the fastest way to collect the response as people are often using their whatsapp during the day.

You can have a small feedback form attached to your message and circulate among your target customers. You will see the feedbacks pouring in within a short amount of time!

Sanket Communication Pvt. Ltd. One of the leading Event Management agencies in Eastern India has been  conceptualizing  and executing events successfully since last 33 years across India and abroad. With a skilled team, our efforts are always to make every event a grand success.

To get a glimpse into our portfolio, visit our websitewww.sanketcommunications.in. Also visit our social media pages to get latest updates.

For more such blogs, keep following our page!

[bookpublisher1]

Crafting a Collaborative Book Outline with Your Co-Author

Have you ever dreamt of writing a book, but the sheer scale of the project feels daunting? Perhaps you have a brilliant concept, but lack the specific expertise or a fresh perspective to bring it fully to life. This is where co-authoring can be a game-changer. Partnering with another writer can not only double your creative firepower, but also inject new ideas and keep you motivated throughout the writing journey.

However, turning that initial spark into a compelling book requires a solid foundation. Enter the collaborative book outline – a roadmap that guides your co-authoring adventure and ensures you're both on the same page from the very beginning.

The Symphony of Co-Authoring: Why Two Minds Are Better Than One

Co-authoring can be a truly enriching experience that takes your book to unforeseen heights. Here's why teaming up with a fellow writer can be a major advantage:

Double the Expertise: Perhaps you're a fiction writer with a captivating story idea, but the subject matter demands a specific knowledge base. Your co-author, with their expertise in that field, can bring invaluable insights and ensure factual accuracy, enriching your narrative.

Fresh Perspectives: Sometimes, staring at a blank page for too long can lead to creative ruts. A co-author can offer a new lens through which to view your ideas, sparking innovative plot twists, character developments, and a more engaging narrative overall.

Accountability and Motivation: The writing journey can be a solitary one, filled with procrastination and self-doubt. Having a co-author creates a sense of accountability, pushing each other forward through writer's block and propelling you toward the finish line.

The Power of Collaboration: How a Shared Outline Paves the Way to Success

A book outline is more than just a bulleted list of chapters. It's a blueprint for your story, ensuring a cohesive structure, a logical flow of information, and a clear path towards a satisfying conclusion. When co-authoring, creating this outline collaboratively becomes even more crucial. Here's how:

Sets Clear Expectations: An outline lays out the book's overall scope, defining chapter topics, themes, and the main points to be covered. This ensures both co-authors are on the same page about the direction of the book, avoiding potential disagreements further down the line.

Cohesive Narrative Flow: Imagine building a house without a blueprint; rooms might be beautifully designed, but the overall structure could be a mess. A collaborative outline acts as your architectural plan, guaranteeing a smooth narrative flow throughout the book.

Streamlined Writing Process: With a clear roadmap in place, writing becomes more efficient. You and your co-author can divvy up chapters based on your strengths and interests, working in parallel and reducing overall writing time.

From Brainstorm to Blueprint: Building Your Collaborative Outline Step-by-Step

Now that you understand the power of a collaborative outline, let's get down to the nitty-gritty. Here's a step-by-step guide to crafting your roadmap to success:

Brainstorming Bonanza: Start by scheduling a brainstorming session with your co-author. Mind map ideas, discuss the book's core message, target audience, and desired overall tone. This will lay the foundation for your outline.

Define the Big Picture: Delineate the book's main sections – introduction, body chapters, conclusion. Discuss the purpose of each section and how they will contribute to the overall story arc.

Chapter by Chapter Breakdown: Now, delve deeper. For each chapter, determine its key theme, the main point to be conveyed, and any specific elements like plot points, character development, or research to be included.

Flow Like a River: Arrange the chapters in a logical sequence. Consider transitions between chapters and how they will connect the narrative thread seamlessly.

Refine and Revise: Remember, an outline is a living document. Don't hesitate to revisit it periodically. As your writing progresses, adapt the outline to reflect the story's natural evolution.

Communication is Key: Navigating Differences and Maintaining Harmony

Co-authoring can be a wonderful journey, but creative differences are inevitable. Here are some tips to ensure open communication and a smooth collaboration:

Establish Ground Rules: Before diving into the outline, have a conversation about communication preferences – email, video calls, or online document sharing tools. Decide on a system for addressing disagreements and a schedule for regular check-ins.

Embrace Brainstorming: View disagreements as opportunities to strengthen the narrative. Consider each other's viewpoints openly and be willing to compromise where necessary.

Celebrate Successes: Acknowledge each other's contributions throughout the process. Expressing gratitude and celebrating milestones will keep motivation high and foster a positive collaboration.

Tools of the Trade: Resources for Effortless Co-Authoring

Technology offers a plethora of tools to make your collaborative outlining experience even smoother:

Cloud-Based Document Sharing: Platforms like Google Docs or Microsoft Office 365 allow you and your co-author to access and edit the outline simultaneously, ensuring everyone stays on the same page.

Project Management Software: Tools like Trello or Asana can become your collaborative hub. Create boards for brainstorming, individual chapter outlines, and track progress throughout the writing journey.

Communication Tools: Regular video calls or instant messaging platforms like Slack facilitate open communication and real-time brainstorming sessions.

From Outline to Opus: Turning Your Collaboration into a Book You'll Be Proud Of

Crafting a collaborative book outline lays the groundwork for a successful writing journey. Remember, co-authoring is about synergy, leveraging each other's strengths, and fostering a creative partnership.

Here are some final tips to ensure your book becomes a reality:

Be Flexible: Co-writing requires a willingness to adapt. Be open to changes in the outline as your story takes shape and don't be afraid to embrace unexpected turns in the narrative.

Respect Each Other's Time: Set realistic writing goals and deadlines, acknowledging each other's personal commitments. Effective communication about availability and workload distribution is key.

Enjoy the Ride!: Co-authoring can be a stimulating and enriching experience. Celebrate your progress, relish the creative spark you ignite together, and enjoy the process of turning your shared vision into a published work.

By following these steps and fostering open communication, you and your co-author can transform your collaborative book outline into a compelling and successful book. So get brainstorming, craft your blueprint, and embark on this exciting journey of co-creation!

[airtalkusa]

5 Tips for Meaningful Conversations on Talk to Strangers Sites

Talking to strangers online can be an enjoyable way to meet new people. But it can also turn uncomfortable fast if conversations lack substance. On platforms like AirTalk, follow these 5 tips to have meaningful chats that build connections. Steering discussions towards deeper topics allows you to get to know strangers truly. Put thought into the questions you ask. And focus conversations on learning from others’ perspectives. Approaching online chatting with mindfulness helps unlock the power of these talk to strangers sites to open our worlds.

1. Begin with Open-Ended Questions

Closed-ended questions that only produce yes/no answers limit opportunities for strangers to open up. Instead of just exchanging surface-level facts, spark conversations by asking open-ended questions. Follow up by asking strangers what inspired their outlooks and values. Maintaining curiosity about strangers’ inner worlds yields the most meaning from online chatting on platforms like AirTalk.

2. Listen Actively

Active listening is especially important in talk to strangers online platforms as you do not have the advantage of body language to help in understanding. Demonstrate that you are interested by reacting in the right way to what the other person says. This is can be done by supportive words, questions that follow, or even sharing your own relevant experiences. Active listening fosters trust and demonstrates that you respect the dialogue and the person you are speaking with.

3. Share Stories

Stories have a way of bridging people on a more intimate level. When you talk to strangers for free platforms, feel free to tell personal stories. It might be a comical work-related event, a memorable trip, or something you learned the hard way. Story sharing makes the conversation more interesting and creates a common ground. However, do not forget to make sure that your stories are appropriate and do not take too much of the other person's time.

4. Be Tolerant and Respectful

The most beneficial feature of talk with strangers is the possibility to get acquainted with the people of different nationalities. Engage every conversation with an open attitude and respectful interest in what the other person has been through and what they think. Do not make any guesses or conclusions from the little information available. Bear in mind that the aim is to teach each other and maybe look at the world from another point of view.

5. Know When to Call It a Night

Not every chat on stranger chat sites will result in a bonding, and it’s fine. In case the chat feels unnatural or you don’t seem to be getting along with the other person, it’s acceptable to wrap up the conversation and go your separate ways politely. This allows you to be available to someone else who might be a more appropriate candidate for the kind of conversation you are interested in.

Conclusion

Pursuing substantial conversations with open-mindedness and compassion unlocks the potential of talk to strangers sites like https://www.airtalk.live/ to expand perspectives. Follow these 5 tips for ensuring meaningful exchanges that enrich your views and forge human connections with strangers worldwide. What questions will you ask to spark deeper dialogues?

[swathi77]

13377x Torrent

Torrenting has become an integral part of the digital landscape, offering users a vast array of content at their fingertips. One prominent player in this realm is 13377x Torrent a platform that has gained immense popularity for its user-friendly interface and diverse content offerings.

Please do direct email at: honeywebsolutions@gmail.com.

I. Introduction In the ever-evolving world of digital entertainment, torrenting has emerged as a revolutionary means of accessing content. With the plethora of torrent sites available, 13377x Torrent stands out as a beacon for enthusiasts seeking an extensive library of movies, TV shows, games, and more.

II. What is 13377x Torrent? 13377x Torrent is more than just a platform; it's a gateway to a world of entertainment. Simply put, it is a torrent search engine that connects users to a vast network of files. Over the years, it has evolved to become a go-to destination for those in search of high-quality content.

III. Navigating 13377x Torrent The user interface of 13377x Torrent is designed with simplicity in mind. Navigating through the site is a breeze, with an intuitive layout that allows users to find their desired content effortlessly. The search options and filters further enhance the user experience, making it a preferred choice for both beginners and seasoned torrent users.

IV. Legal and Ethical Considerations While the allure of free content is undeniable, it's crucial to address the legal and ethical aspects of torrenting. 13377x Torrent, like any other torrent site, operates in a legal gray area. Users should be aware of the potential consequences and strive to engage in ethical torrenting practices.

V. Features of 13377x Torrent What sets 13377x Torrent apart is its diverse content offerings. From the latest Hollywood blockbusters to niche indie films, the platform caters to a wide audience. Users can also choose from various quality and resolution options, ensuring a personalized viewing experience.

VI. How to Download from 13377x Torrent For beginners, the process of downloading from 13377x Torrent might seem daunting. Fear not! Here's a step-by-step guide to help you navigate the download process seamlessly. Additionally, common troubleshooting tips are provided for a hassle-free experience.

VII. Alternatives to 13377x Torrent While 13377x Torrent has carved its niche, it's essential to explore other torrent sites. Understanding the alternatives and their unique features empowers users to make informed choices based on their preferences and requirements.

VIII. Staying Safe while Torrenting Security should be a top priority for torrent users. This section highlights the importance of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and explores potential risks associated with torrenting without proper safeguards.

IX. Impact on the Entertainment Industry The rise of torrenting has sparked debates and controversies within the entertainment industry. Balancing user freedom with copyright protection remains a challenge, with 13377x Torrent at the center of this ongoing discourse.

X. Community and Support Beyond the files and downloads, 13377x Torrent fosters a sense of community among its users. Forums and discussions allow individuals to share experiences, offer tips, and create a thriving ecosystem.

XI. Future of 13377x Torrent As technology advances, so does the landscape of torrenting. This section explores potential developments, challenges, and adaptations on the horizon for 13377x Torrent and torrenting in general.

XII. Testimonials from Users Users share their experiences with 13377x Torrent, highlighting the positive aspects and addressing challenges they've encountered. Real-life stories provide valuable insights into the platform's impact on users' digital lives.

XIII. Industry Perspectives Experts weigh in on the torrenting phenomenon, offering diverse perspectives on the legal, ethical, and industry-related aspects of torrenting. This section provides a well-rounded view of the broader implications of torrenting.

Please do direct email at: honeywebsolutions@gmail.com.

[thecraftyfoxthewriterscorner]

Let’s Talk Flashbacks

A few tips for using flashbacks as an effective storytelling technique.

Hey Story Crafters,

Happy cherry blossom season! 🌸

Cherry blossom season is one of my favorite times of the year, as proven by The Writer’s Corner theme. The most impressive display of cherry blossoms I’ve seen are the trees in DC (since I’ve never been to Japan), though the ones back home look lovely as well. I missed their peak bloom this year though—when I saw them in person, some already had leaves coming in. There’s always next year.

In this post, I want to talk a little about flashbacks. I recently watched Bullet Train, and it got me thinking about how to use flashbacks effectively in storytelling. I’ll be referencing the movie just from a storytelling perspective—I haven’t read the book, so I can’t offer any opinions on how well it was adapted.

First, a brief overview about flashbacks as a storytelling tool.

Overview on Flashbacks

Flashbacks are useful for:

Giving insight into character.

Giving context to plot.

Allowing a change of setting. This is especially useful if the story’s main setting is in a confined space.

You might have heard of the writing rule that says to never start a story with a flashback. I like to think of “writing rules” more as guidelines than set rules; but this one is, for the most part, true. This is because for a flashback to be effective:

The reader needs to care about the character who is having the flashback and/or care about the characters in the flashback, and

The flashback needs to enhance the reader’s current reading experience, or pay off later in the story.

Flashbacks usually don’t work as an opening for a story* because the reader doesn’t know the protagonist or any of the characters, or care about them yet, and because the reader doesn’t know the story. The reader will have a basic idea of what the story is, since they chose to read your book based on some understanding of the premise. But regardless of what expectations the reader has when they open your book, they don’t have a complete picture of what the story is yet. And, similar to being forced to play a video game without understanding the controller commands, the reader will likely get frustrated if they’re thrust into a flashback on page 1 without knowing who or what they’re supposed to care about.

*One exception I can think of is if the book is a sequel, in which case the reader is at least familiar with and presumably cares about the protagonist, or trusts you, the author, to deliver another satisfying story.

So, when is it effective to use a flashback?

As discussed above, a good rule of thumb is when the reader has a general sense of who the major characters are and what the story is. Once the reader feels connected to (a.k.a. invested in) the characters and the story, there’s a spark of curiosity that causes the reader to start asking questions, like Why is the protagonist acting this way or making this choice? or What circumstances led the characters to this moment in time?

That’s usually when you can start considering the idea of including flashbacks in strategic places. As for actually transitioning into a flashback, the most effective transition is to have something (e.g., an object or a sensory detail) or someone in the narrative present cause the protagonist or point-of-view character to remember a specific memory, leading into the flashback.

Effective transition into a flashback: Something and/or someone in the narrative present causes the point-of-view character to remember a past event, which can lead into a flashback sequence and make it relevant.

Flashbacks in Bullet Train (Rated R)

Premise for Bullet Train: Ladybug, an unlucky professional criminal, is hired to steal a briefcase from a Shinkansen heading out of Tokyo to Kyoto. The job gets complicated when he encounters other dangerous, professional killers on the train. You can check out the trailer below.

**Rated R. Warnings for graphic violence (blood, gore, etc.) and crude language.

Giving insight into character

1. Ladybug: One of the earliest flashback sequences happens when Ladybug (the protagonist, a professional criminal) is introduced. Ladybug discusses his current job (a snatch and grab off the Shinkansen) with his handler, and shares his worries about the job going sideways because of his bad luck.

Effective transition: Ladybug’s conversation with his handler leads to the flashback.

Insight into Character: The flashback sequence illustrates why Ladybug believes he has bad luck (people die without him trying to kill anyone), how Ladybug reacts to unexpected occurrences (his attempts to help people or make things better go awry), and sets up the expectation that his current job will likely conform to pattern.

The viewer is told Ladybug has a history of jobs never going to plan, and that he believes he has bad luck.

The viewer is shown why Ladybug’s worries are justified in a flashback. Illustrating Ladybug’s bad luck in a flashback sequence encourages the viewer to connect with him faster, because the viewer can visualize similar situations where they’ve felt the universe is against them.

2. Tangerine and Lemon (a.k.a. the Twins): Their earliest flashback sequence shows their casual approach to violence, and how they’ll get a job done…with a lot of blood, and collateral damage.

Clip of flashback sequence. **Rated R. Warnings for graphic violence (blood, gore, etc.) and crude language.

Effective transition: Tangerine and Lemon explain to the White Death’s son (their charge) how they got on the train. They get into an argument about how many people they killed in the process of rescuing the son, leading to the flashback sequence.

Insight into Character: The flashback sequence also shows that Tangerine and Lemon work well together, even if they tend to bicker a lot when they’re not fighting or killing other people. The flashback happening at all supports the idea of a sibling-like relationship between them, because siblings often recall a play-by-play of past events when they’re trying to prove one of them is right.

Giving context to plot.

1. Introducing the White Death: A major threat introduced early in the movie is the White Death, a dangerous crime lord. He’s mentioned by name and reputation for most of the movie. He first appears, masked, in a flashback sequence.

Effective transition: Tangerine narrates the White Death’s backstory to Lemon early in the movie to illustrate how dangerous their client is.

Plot context: In addition to introducing the White Death as a threat to all the criminals/professional killers on the train, this flashback sequence pays off later when the Elder’s (another character) backstory is revealed.

2. El Lobo’s appearance on the Shinkansen is explained through a rather extensive flashback sequence. His reason for being on the train is to hunt down the hitman (let’s use hit-person from here on out) responsible for killing his wife at their wedding, and all of the guests—including his boss, another crime lord. He believes Ladybug is that hit-person.

Transition: The transition isn’t as smooth as some of the other flashback sequences in the movie. It has a timestamp screen leading into the flashback, but it isn’t clear right off the bat that it’s El Lobo’s backstory.

Plot context: The payoff for El Lobo’s flashback sequence happens later in the movie, as the circumstances behind the presence of several hit-people on the Shinkansen at the same time get revealed. It actually serves as a misdirect:

First, the entire flashback sequence sets up the expectation that El Lobo will play a major role in the movie. (Spoiler: He doesn’t.)

Second, when Ladybug learns he was actually at El Lobo’s wedding on a job, it brings up the question of whether or not Ladybug is responsible. (Spoiler: He isn’t. Another hit-person is.)

Allowing a change of setting.

Since a majority of the movie is set on a train, the flashback sequences take the viewer out of the train, to other settings.

Remember, flashbacks are subjective.

To wrap up this discussion on flashbacks, I want to bring up an important, easily overlooked detail about them: flashbacks are subjective. This realization was hammered into me when I was a kid by another movie, Hoodwinked.

For those who might be unfamiliar with the movie, it’s a comedy-mystery, police procedural animated retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood.” The premise is that the police are called to Granny Puckett’s (Grandma’s) house to investigate the crime that has been committed, and determine who is responsible. The line up of suspects include Red (Red Riding Hood or Red Puckett), Wolf W. Wolf (the Big Bad Wolf), and Kirk the Woodsman (the Woodsman/Woodcutter). Even Granny Puckett is interviewed. Each tell their own version of the events leading up to the b-and-e at Granny’s house to the lead investigator, and each interview is a long flashback sequence that narrates these events.

This movie taught me that flashbacks are subjective. For example, in Red’s flashback, she believes that Wolf lunged to attack her; in Wolf’s flashback sequence, it’s revealed his tail got caught in his photographer’s camera when the film was getting switched out, and he cried out in pain.

When a story is told by a single character, it’s easy to forget that the story is subjective to that specific character. In that sense, all protagonists (or narrators) are unreliable. The reader has no choice but to believe the protagonist is telling the truth, because that character is the one the author has established as trustworthy. But remembering that flashbacks are subjective can open a lot of opportunities for misunderstandings and later reveals that, if done effectively, can help keep readers engaged in the story.

That’s all I have for flashbacks for this post. Now, for some news.

News and Events

Many thanks to Allison Alexander for including me in a database with other fantastic science fiction and fantasy editors! Visit the Database of SFF Book Editors I usually work with authors of: Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Horror. If you write in any of these genres, don’t hesitate to reach out! I’d love to hear about your project(s). Send me an email! For more information about my editing services and rates, and to read client reviews, visit my website. Visit The Crafty Fox Editing Services Click here for a post covering a detailed look into my developmental editing process.

If you haven’t already, I encourage you to register for Flights of Foundry 2023. This virtual program has something for all speculative creators, and it happens 24/7 from April 14 to April 16. You can check out recordings from previous cons on the Dream Foundry YouTube channel to get a preview of what this year’s program might look like.

Until next time!

Best,

Leah

Connect with me on social media!

Substack Post: https://thecraftyfoxwriterscorner.substack.com/p/lets-talk-flashbacks Interested in learning more about me, and the kind of energy I’ll bring to a writer-editor relationship? If you're a writer, consider subscribing to my free Substack newsletter (you can check out the archives, too). You'll get a free writing resource on relationship mapping, and a special offer when you subscribe!

[urupotter]

So while I've said before that I don't like the HP subreddit, I still frequent it because occasionally I read something insightful. This is one such case, where I read a reading of Lupin that I'd never seen before in response to a comment of mine analyzing the shrieking shack confrontation between Snape, Remus, Sirius and the golden trio, where I mentioned that Lupin was a gaslighter so I wanted to share. It was created by reddit user u/UsuallySiSometimesNo and is posted here with his permission. We had a little conversation in the comments. Read it under the cut

UsuallySiSometimesNo: That struck a cord with me, too. I didn't think about that on a conscious level before, but when I read it, it felt instantly true.

Honestly, I think the strongest examples of Lupin gaslighting are actually done to himself. The biggest, character-defining example, I think, is that after finding friendship with James, Sirius, and Peter, he becomes so desperate not to be ostracized from them (due to his issues of self-worth and his personal brand of impostor syndrome) that he deliberately and routinely feeds himself false narratives about their behavior until he can no longer tell fact from fiction, even as he's experiencing it.

Their relentless bullying of Snape? A childhood rivalry.

Their casual bullying of other students? Kids being young and stupid.

Their clear disinterest verging on contempt for Peter, someone less fortunate and vulnerable with whom they're supposed to be good friends? Just mates being mates.

Even actions taken against Lupin, himself, are revised in his memory to be 'no big deal', because he desperately needs that to be true. Let's pretend for a moment that Snape indisputably deserved to be slaughtered by a werewolf the night Sirius told him how to get past the Whomping Willow. Sirius did not send Snape to be killed by any old werewolf. What happened that night was that Sirius - one of Remus' best friends, if not his actual best friend - attempted to use Remus' curse/illness against someone (which is a big enough betrayal on it's own) without ever telling Remus that when he woke up in the morning (covered in blood and in the presence of a shredded corpse) it would be to find that he had committed the act he was most petrified he might one day commit. In setting Snape up to be killed by Lupin, Sirius, at the very least, risked Lupin's sanity, and, at the very most, risked Lupin being sentenced to death.

Now, I understand that Sirius wasn't thinking about all of that when he did what he did, and I, as a someone removed from the situation (and armed with the additional character/situational knowledge granted to a reader) can even understand why Sirius' own trauma led him to grant such a blind death sentence to Snape (which I think is related to a point you made elsewhere, u/Adventure_Time_Snail, about Sirius' "violence towards those who trigger his fundamental fear of wizard fascists" because of his abusive upbringing). But Lupin's perspective is not one of an unbiased observer. And once James found out what was happening and pulled Snape back before it was too late (which, I would think, was more to save Lupin than to save Snape) and once Remus awoke the next to day to discover everything that transpired the night before, I find it hard to believe there wasn't at least some conversation about the true gravity of the situation. And yet, even all these years later, Lupin doesn't bat an eye when Sirius not only doesn't display shame when the event is mentioned in POA, but offers something akin to regret, NOT at the fact that his actions could have gotten Lupin killed, but that that they DIDN'T get Snape killed: "It served him right...", he sneered. etc. etc.

I think the obvious question here, is 'Even disregarding what Sirius did to Snape - how can Lupin be okay with the knowledge that Sirius has no regret, at all, for what he did to him, even now that they're adults?' Well, we're not in Lupin's point of view in the books, which means we can't hear his internal monologue, but I think a satisfactory answer to the question is that he's done a substantial amount of internal gymnastics in order to get to a point where he doesn't see this as a big deal, or even as something that he has a right to be upset about.... just like a gaslighter does to their victim.

Again, because we're not in Lupin's POV, we can't point to the exact instances that such internal gaslighting took place, but, based on what we do observe from Harry's POV (and based on external knowledge of gaslighting as a true-to-life concept) I wouldn't be surprised if Lupin so desperately needs everything to be okay that he derides himself for feeling bad or betrayed, that he calls himself stupid for thinking terrible things that have happened to him are a big deal, that he wars with himself about how people who are his friends and who are so good to him and who are better friends than he thinks he deserves could possibly do something to harm him/others, and that he beats down whatever emotions and senses and gut feelings he has that tells him something his friends have done might be very wrong. What we see in the books is a man who makes excuses for his friends and harbors a warped perception of reality in much the same way victims of gaslighting do, and he seems to exploit his own insecurities in order to instill doubt in his own experiences in much the same way perpetrators of gaslighting do.

I can't help but think that, by the time Lupin tells Harry that Snape harbors a particularly strong hatred for James because James was a better Quidditch player, Lupin has become so adept at gaslighting himself that he actually believes it.

tl;dr: One of Lupin's defining characteristics is that he gaslights himself out of a desperate need to be liked by others, since he has a difficult time liking himself and seems to believe all of his relationships are incredibly fragile.

Urupotter:

This is a fascinating reading on Lupin that I've never seen. I don't read him the same way, in that I think Lupin actually does know that what he's doing is wrong, he just doesn't have the moral courage to act on his conscience. (I view him as the anti Snape, great conscience, but abysmal moral courage, while Snape had unbelievable moral courage but a shitty conscience. Their arcs are about growing their moral courage and their conscience respectively) Realizing that his negligence almost got Harry killed is what triggers his arc, concluding when he goes back to Tonks and Teddy after running away, taking responsibility for his actions for the first time.

But this reading is so interesting that I'll have to reflect on it. Do you mind if I post it on my Harry Potter tumblr blog? I'll credit you of course, I would just like to discuss it with my followers. Of course if you don't want to I won't.

UsuallySiSometimesNo:

Honestly, I think the lack of in-depth conversation about Remus Lupin (at least compared to fan favorites Sirius Black and Severus Snape) is a missed opportunity and a shame. Don't get me wrong, I can discuss Sirius and Snape until blue in the face, but Lupin's arc is just as powerful in an understated (and often underestimated) way. The muddy, oversimplified truth is, without the fatal-flaw decision making of all four Marauders throughout their lives, the series of events proceeding the first chapter of the first book don't happen, and the story we all know and love never comes to be.

And speaking of sparking a discussion about Lupin...

I think Lupin actually does know that what he's doing is wrong, he just doesn't have the moral courage to act on his conscience.

You know what? I agree. And that's what makes him so interesting, I think. He is constantly and dependably full to bursting with internal conflict. When his friends are wrong/do something wrong/say something wrong, he can and does immediately identify the situation as wrong. When he does something wrong, or when he does nothing in the face of something wrong, in that moment I believe he knows the full weight of the situation. Like you said, he has a strong conscience, as well as a deeper, perhaps more nuanced understanding of right and wrong than do, for example, James and Sirius. Now, Lupin needs his friends. They're not just people to hang out with, they're a lifeline for him. He's not going to engage in conflict with them if there is even the slightest chance that he might lose them (for a variety of reasons, he lacks, as you said, the moral courage to do so). But he's also a generally decent human being, and with a strong conscience comes the capacity for sincere guilt and remorse. So, not only will he not confront his friends, he needs it to be okay that he doesn't confront them. And it's at that point that I think the self gaslighting is triggered.

But Lupin is intelligent and nobody's fool, so the gaslighting creates only a thin layer of ice over the problem. Just enough of a cover that he can live with the things he would otherwise deeply regret. I do think he believes the alternative reality he makes for himself to be accurate as long as it isn't really challenged. Crack the ice, though, and we see him express remorse and reveal an underlying awareness of past and present truths. But then the moment is over, and the war between the uncomfortably and full weight of the truth and his need for the companionship of his friends returns, and then the gaslighting begins again, allowing him an easier return to his closest friends (and eventually his closest friend, singular, after the others have been taken from him as was his fear all along) without conflict and with minimal strain on his conscience.

Once Sirius, the last of his original chosen family is gone - truly gone, as opposed to 'located elsewhere' as he was when in prison - following OOtP, suddenly Lupin's arc takes off at a greater speed than at any point prior. He's now literally lost all of the people he'd been terrified of figuratively losing. Although there are still people and things he cares about, he isn't as dependent on any of them as he was on those foundational friendships, and the finality of their absence allows him to finally grow beyond his stifling cycle of reality shifting, confront the truths of his reality and his circumstances, and, as you said, finally take responsibility by returning to Tonks and Teddy - a decision that, ultimately, triggers his death (I don't mean to imply that it was a bad decision or that it's the sole cause of his death, but Rowling has said that being 'out of practice' contributed to his loss at the Battle of Hogwarts, which makes for a fantastic tragedy).

I don't mean to overstate the importance of this theory or imply that it's always present when he's on-stage, and, as with anyone, many other elements, of course, factor into his actions/words/motives. But I think it's a fascinating potential component of his character all the same. If you have more thoughts on this, I love to hear them - and I look forward to reading the discussion on your blog!

So what do you think? Is this a valid reading of Lupin? I'd say it is, but I'm interested in reading my followers thoughts!

[camilliar]

recs for someone new to omgcp

[February 2021.]

Reading, or not reading, OMGCP fics has come up in a couple of conversations I’ve had recently with artists newish to the fandom (ie. @jovishark; @decafffff), who are making OMGCP art (!!!) but haven’t started exploring fic -- but maybe want to? Which of course reminded me that I’ve never bothered to make an actual, concrete recs list for this fandom. So, I mean. Here is one.

The approach is, what do I think about when I think about OMGCP fanfic? What comes to mind, what stands out to me? I have excluded some very popular fics. Some of these I just don’t think are very good, and others I do think are good, and/or I enjoy them, but I don’t see why you’d need me, specifically, to recommend them. I am thinking of a story like maybe i’m waking up, which I discuss below because I link to a podfic of it. It has a lot of merits, to be sure, but it’s the second-most-read fic in this fandom by hits, and it’s got thousands of comments, and it’s by an author whose work is relatively widely praised and circulated. I am not sure what telling you more about this fic will add to the conversation; if you want to find and read it, you inevitably will. I’m happy to, say, answer asks about these kinds of fics, or talk more generally about them via DM or whatever. Feel free.

Also, I don’t think there’s a point to pretending to be objective about fanfic; this list has a perspective and that perspective is mine. In this fandom I largely read stories that navigate the tension around Jack, Bitty, and Parse, in various permutations. This is not to say that I’ve never read fic about the frogs, or that I have no interest at all in other pairings, but I am by no means an expert on Dex/Nursey and can really only speak to the one fic about them that sticks out to me because it goes beyond being merely Dex/Nursey and does something else. This is just to say that I am sure there are great and interesting fics about other things and ideas--but I’m not the person to hear about those from.

Likewise, I’m not super interested in stories that really reproduce that which is already in OMGCP. I like Zimbits--albeit maybe not in the ways or for the reasons most fans would--but I do not really need to see endless iterations of the same story about them falling in love and being cute together. I don’t think these stories are bad or they shouldn’t exist or that they have no merit by default. Still, I don’t need fanfic to give me more OMGCP. I need fanfic to complicate, to comment on, and to transform OMGCP. Many people don’t work like this! Totally okay! But I can’t rec you fics that do that.

What I have noticed, however, is that over time there appears to have been a shift in how people do write fic for this fandom. (Other than, you know, increases and decreases in activity pending the status of the comic, pairings going in and out of vogue, and so on.) Early on, say during Y1 and Y2, the comic was about the group of friends having a cool time at college together; about whether the burgeoning attraction between Jack and Bitty would manifest and, if so, how; and, especially, Jack’s past coming into fuller view for Bitty and how it would have to be dealt with in order for a relationship between them to work. YMMV on how great the comic executed there, but as Y3 went on these themes increasingly disappeared from the story. I think this means a lot of fic written over 2015-2016 or 2017 has one kind of tone, and was written mostly around these questions; after that, it feels like a new crop of writers and a new crop of ideas started circulating, that is, either embracing Jack and Bitty’s canon relationship and accepting its relative straightforwardness in text--or deconstructing it, imagining what readers aren’t seeing, or how problems not dealt with in the comic would manifest later. People who have read my fic know which of these I’m mainly interested in exploring.

All of which is to say, looking at what I’m reccing here, when the fics were posted or when I first read them probably has a lot to do with why they stick out to me so much. Because there’s no real culture of fanfic criticism--and I mean that in the positivist sense of broad evaluation not explicitly for fault and merit but rather, for context--I think it’s really hard to keep this in mind. But I’m obnoxious and I can’t just be easy about things.

Fic recs

In alphabetical order, somewhat unsorted; if a stand-alone fic has a summary I’ve included it, but in other cases I’ve recced a couple of conceptually related fics or series, which I’ve tried to just describe or explain as opposed to copying the summary off AO3.

There are so many more fanfics I think are great and worth reading! In an ideal world I’d come back and add more later, or create a secondary list that’s more along the lines of “if you like this, read these,” or whatever. But, being realistic, this is a starter kit. I’m open to talking about fanfic.

- - - - - - - - - - -

7-0-2 by Idday; Friends in Low Places and Sorry for the Blood in Your Mouth; I Wish it was Mine by blue_rocket_frost | I’m not sure it would be correct to say that I don’t like Parse/Tater, or that I’m not interested in Parse/Tater. I’m not interested in Patater a priori; I think it could be interesting, with teeth. These fics stick out to me when I think about this pairing, because they feel different. Accusations of a preference for just linking any two white men who happen to be hanging around have validity, but because of what hockey is and how it works and who’s hanging around it, it’s not exactly a leap to imagine what kind of gritty spark the friction between two closeted NHL players would create. A little violence in your sex? A little sex in your violence.

A Sight Worth Seeing by sadtomato | A four-fic Jack/Bitty/Shitty/Lardo explicit BDSM series. Either you want that or you don’t. It’s nothing hardcore, and not properly a four-way, really; more properly a kind of voyeuristic round-robin. There’s a more open and egalitarian view of sex here than I really get from the characters in the back end of the comic. It’s an expansive, propulsive view of sex and relationships that’s really nice to see. I love Lardo's detached coolness, and Bitty as a smooth operator; if you’re looking for some kind of Dom/sub dynamics world, this really isn’t it, but it’s a lively exploration into the sexual dynamics in a group of friends that’s super close to the good-times vibe you get from Haus scenes in the first couple years of extras.

call me son (one more time) by Summerfrost, Verbyna, and blithelybonny | This is a series, incomplete, and you will love it or be massively put off by it. I mean that as a compliment. I love it. The premise is, Bob Zimmermann and Kent Parson have been having sex since Kent was, like, 19. Everyone in this story has been chewed up: by themselves, by each other, by hockey. Plainly, this is a pretty bleak view of what OMGCP, as a story, is supposedly offering. If you want fic that is dark and glamorous, treading the toxic melange of substance abuse, sex-as-sublimation, and so much money you can’t possibly throw all of it away without trying, this series has that sick-inducing shimmer to it. But, again, its strength is its examination of Kent Parson, textually and meta-textually, as someone to be projected onto. Bob, Alicia, Jack, and Bitty all impute certain feelings of their own onto him, displacing their own issues to a character who’s centralized in every fic but defies neat or total comprehension. Some critiques I’ve read of this series feel it’s too dark, and I’ve also seen it argued on FFA that an overwhelming amount of praise heaped onto these stories has made it tough for other writers to make headway in writing Bob/Kent fic. But I’m also not sure you could engage with Bob/Kent fic without going down this road at some point? I’m sure there are ways to scale it back, but ultimately it’s a story about how hockey’s violent, homophobic, old-guard gatekeeping has continued to set the terms for a younger and ostensibly less toxic culture. I fully embrace PWP fics that tread on the power dynamic without fully excavating it, but buried within any PWP is the fact that a 53-year-old man is ensnaring a 19-year-old, no matter how much the latter is, realistically, into it, and legally empowered to consent. Not to mention the dynamics of it being a 53-year-old man who is the father of the 19-year-old’s ex-boyfriend, and a 53-year-old man who is an eminence grise in the field the 19-year-old is trying to make a career in  The sexual element--the vaguely incestuous nature of it--is making textual the subtext of how hockey works, actually: objectification of teenage bodies as older men’s capital.

Coach Z by thistidalwave | Just before the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, tp prospect Jack Zimmermann overdoses on his anxiety medication and is admitted to rehab. His future turns from a clear-cut road to the top into an uncertain path filled with therapy appointments, ignored text messages, a group of boys who aren't there to teach him a lesson about himself, and, of course, hockey. | I keep reccing this fic because it has 360 comments on AO3 but nobody, as far as I can tell, has ever read it; it never appears on rec lists. This isn’t the kind of fanfic I usually go in for, but I can’t help being charmed by it. This is a character study in the truest sense, a kind of Mighty Ducks-but-better view on what Jack’s time coaching peewee hockey might have been like. I have no interest in kids and my own aesthetic is maybe a little darker than this, but I admire this story because it injects vibrancy into a period of Jack’s life that OMGCP has left largely unexplored, and so has the fandom. We know nothing about what made Jack want to go to college, nothing about how he spent his days in between juniors and Samwell. It posits a very sympathetic and patient Jack/Parse dynamic, showcasing the exact kind of ragged teenage push-and-pull that would have led to the circumstances we see in Parse I-III. The outside perspective Jack needs is largely present in an OFC who’s not a love interest. Super unique, somehow both engrossing and low-key.

#dirtbags by angularmomentum | A series that is a Kent Parson/Claude Giroux fuckfest with feelings. I’ve long suspected that Parse is popular in part because he is the character who most easily elides OMGCP with the actual NHL, or rather, NHL fandom; I think he made it appealing to write OMGCP fics where the NHL is a factor. Case in point, this series, which is basically “what if Kent Parson was a real hockey player and therefore part of NHL RPS”? I have only read some NHL RPS, so I’m not the person to assess accuracy, but what I do know is superstar IRL hockey players take turns here as the caricature fanfic versions of themselves, and since Kent Parson is already that, it’s great how seamlessly he integrates into their social fabric. Rambunctious energy peppered with regret and loss, but ultimately this series is farcical, and it doesn’t take its sentimental ending too seriously--which, good.

fated to pretend by nighimpossible | 5 Jack/Kent fics that Ransom and Holster dramatically reenact for the Haus + the truth. | As a fic format, 5+1 doesn’t usually work for me, but this one isn’t just front-loaded with five too-knowing vignettes; it then wraps up by using its +1 better than you might expect. Sometimes I talk about economy of fic, and this one exemplifies it. A zero-waste fic.

go ahead and move along by originally | "Leave, Parse," Jack says. Again. Or: Kent finds himself stuck in a time loop. | Kent Parson is trapped in a Groundhog Day scenario on the day of Epikegster. I’m sure you can imagine, just from that, what happens. And yet I think this fic is super entertaining, reserving some key surprises. What this story is doing is something a lot, and perhaps even the majority, of great Jack/Parse fic wants to do: digging into the question of just why this can’t work in comic canon. Most often this is approached from the past, by writing teenage Jack/Parse deep-dives that examine their lives mid-juniors, or by writing AUs where enough circumstances are shifted that it does work, or via future fics that posit enough growth has happened, and enough things have changed. But this fic makes Parse live the same bad day again and again, testing multiple theories about just how dependent on circumstance and incident real life actually is. Another day, another tone, 10 minutes sooner, not at all--you just can’t know why it didn’t work until you exhaust every possible variable. I worry that this rec has sucked the life out of the story, though--it’s so fun!

I Saw a Life and Strange Lovers by @bluegrasshole | Most AUs in this fandom seem to retell the story in a new setting or with some big detail change, following OMGCP’s rhythm beat-for-beat. I think of this as, “It’s the plot of Check, Please, but” -- they’re doing high school football? They’re acrobats? They’re a/b/o? They’re in a DIY punk band? And so on. These two stories are not that! They’re both 1950s AUs, each deeply felt, and yet hugely different from each other. I Saw a Life is about displacement and fragmentation, two sides of a similar but incongruent social critique; Strange Lovers is a finely wrought social drama about coal mining in Nova Scotia in the 1950s, centered around historical events. I suppose a theme on this rec list is something like, “I don’t even like this, but” -- yes, okay, I don’t even like Dex/Nursey, but--! This fic is so overwhelmingly complete, the AU laid out so carefully that the story breathes with all the background details informing the writing that aren’t actually, in the story; you just know they’re below the surface. (With the exception of one investigation of Jack’s character in a short, separate fic.) I Saw a Life, meanwhile, really tests the limits of the notion that Jack and Bitty are soulmates--not by calling it into question but by asking, rather innovatively, how the setting and place of the comic itself activates that.

Les Hivers de mon enfance by staranise | What do you do when hockey is the language of prayer for your soul, and also the toxic thing that almost killed you? 2009: Jack Zimmermann takes a mental health year. God knows he needs it. | Here’s a fic by someone who’s no longer around so much, but she felt ubiquitous in 2016-2019 OMGCP fandom. Before any of that, though, she wrote this one lovely fic about Jack’s pre-Samwell recovery. The author is Canadian and really irritated by hockey culture, and I think this fic benefits greatly because she is clear-eyed about Jack’s being caught in an exploitative system; it’s hockey he’s in recovery for, in a way. There’s an epistolary element that works for me, too. I read this early on in my time in OMGCP fandom and it really stuck with me.

Lysistrata? I Hardly Know Her! (by which I mean everything) by @tomatowrites | It feels somehow like cheating to recommend OMGCP fanfics by my OMGCP BFF with whom I make an OMGCP podcast where we talk about OMGCP. You know the fics I really want to rec, like truly the ones that speak to some kind of shared depravity, are the ones where Jack is miserably mpreg for the second time and accidentally lets his kid see Kent Parson’s Long John Silver’s shrimp scampi promo spot, which obviously would get twisted into a self-hating three-way. How many times do I have to rec this fic? As many as I need to, is my feeling. If you don’t know, Long John Silver’s is an American fast-food chain that sells, like, fried pollock sandwiches; it is nautical-themed; I have never eaten there; I don’t know where there is one; I don’t eat fried fish. (Shrimp, on the other hand?) All of which is to say that it takes a real genius to investigate a premise that far out. And while a lot of people almost certainly will start reading this humanity’s depths-themed sex scene and back the fuck out, readers with refined taste will note that Kent, the point-of-view character, is right there with you, despairing that he can’t help himself. And so long as you’re in that story collection, honestly, you’ll love petite gems like Jack is transmasc, Jack and Shitty play hockey in 18th-century England, and oh, right, he’s from Georgia. Tomato holds the distinction of being probably the gamest author I know in this fandom, just really like fearless in her pursuit of any range of concept she’s pushed to. (I can push her to?) See, for example, a sublime bandom AU; Bitty is cancelled for buying a maybe-unethically exported Roman fragment of a youth’s torso; or, god, the masterwork that is this future fic series where Jack keeps relapsing and Bitty exiles him to their guesthouse. Do I think you need to read a fic where Bitty is snide about the teen prostitute whose baby they’re adopting? Yes, I mean, he would be snide, don’t tell me he wouldn’t. I could go on, but my main thing here is, if I have to pick just one, I’m going to pick this Lysistrata fic. The premise, literally, is that Bitty reads the Lysistrata and it gives him ideas. Like most of Tomato’s OMGCP fic, it’s a stripping away of the comic’s polite fiction that Jack and Bitty could possibly attain the ideal it reaches in the comic without some kind of messy, efflusive breakdown. Life is like that, you see! Tricky. Like a lot of people, although it’s tough to say precisely how many, I have always intuited that maybe Bitty is kind of a natural top? But obviously when you meet him, as a literal virgin, it’s hard to see how he’d go from zero to self-actualization so neatly. This fic floats a theory, and it has a fun little side plot for Whiskey, something I never thought about or needed before Tomato built it out herein. In conclusion, BONUS: Dex’s gay lobster novel.

only fools rush in and the light of all lights by decinq | This person wrote of the nature of the wound, one of the early, formative Jack/Bitty fics that was oft-recced when I was getting into the fandom in 2016. It forms part of a larger series that deals deeply with how Jack has been shaped by his struggles (? I hate this word) with homophobia and his own mental health. It’s a picture of the character as you might have imagined him much earlier in the comic’s run. The formatting is atrocious and he author’s flair is what Tomato would call “AO3 house style.” It’s a voice that works great for her writing. I think it’s at its best in these shorter fics; the former is about Parse and Shitty stumbling into a relationship almost accidentally; the latter, an eerie PBJ vampire fic. I had begun writing a fic where Parse is a vampire early on in this fandom, only to read this and immediately quit, because you only need one, and this one’s all I need. The Parse/Shitty rare pair fic shares its exuberance with hockey RPS when it’s good: here’s how fun it can be when you’re young, rich, and jocular. And I don’t even like accidental marriage AUs, they’re usually boring, so that says a lot. By all means, read the wound fic; read the entire series. But these are highly unusual.

OVERDOSE and Oomph and a little spin-o-rama by jedusaur | None of these are long, or plotty, and they’re all a little experimental. OVERDOSE is an AU set in a world where you know how you’ll die, but no details; Oomph, a little fic where Jack hears hockey pucks talking to him. This is the kind of stuff I used to think I’d find in fandom forever, coming out of Lotrips lurking in the 2000s: short, zany bursts of energy that surprise and delight. a little spin-o-rama peers at Kent’s character through the grim reality of being the hypertalented superstar stuck on a dead-last team. All three are sparse and stylish in a way that’s really smart, practically economical.

Sowing Season by @agrossunderstatement | Parse and Zimms, Zimms and Parse. Kent Parson's life, from the Q, through his early years with the Aces, to Jack's senior year. Canon divergent. A story of love, loss, moving on, regressing, hockey, and found families of all kinds. | Effectively a novel, digging into Kent’s personal history, mostly concerning his life in juniors but expanding into his present, overlapping with the plot of OMGCP. I think there is room enough for endless speculations on what went down pre-canon; this one offers a fuller life for Kent than nearly any others, digging into him as a whole person rather than as a satellite to Jack or the plot of the comic. Which isn’t to say that the Kent/Jack stuff isn’t dealt with here; it explicitly is. But the fact of Kent Parson’s life, if we can begin to imagine it beyond mere text, would exist before, after, and alongside Jack; he gets to juniors without Jack, presumably, and he is the captain of a hockey team without Jack, and Pinkerton lays the foundation of Parse’s character within a junior hockey that Jack also inhabits, more so that Parse existing for Jack, so to speak. And I’m not implying this latter tactic is wrong; I have certainly employed it, and others have employed it to great impact and effect. But, still, the title of this series tells you what you ought to know: Kent and his story are the potentiality of OMGCP, up to a point; seeds being planted. Young hockey players, similarly. The question implied there is, what will be reaped? And the answer to the latter, in a sense, that reaping is a sort of violence. Which makes this series sound pretty heavy, but it’s not -- more like, realistic.

(tell everyone) you were a good wife by @queerofcups | The biggest problem with pretending that he doesn’t know that Kent Parson is fucking his husband is that Jack can’t tell Kent how grateful he is. | The ne plus ultra of PBJ triangulation; I’ve been squealing to the writer about how good it is since August, begging for behind-the-scenes insights, and I’d only do that if I really meant it. The precarious social fabric stretched across these three chapters is fraying before the reader’s eyes. The details are delicious, and I don’t want to spoil them, but they sing in chorus with the plot. My favorite OMGCP fics, honestly, remove the romance narrative guardrails that keep things in the comic itself humming along. I think Dann’s take is to ask who in this comic has power and what they would end up doing with it. (Or not doing, from another angle.) At one point, early on in its telling, OMGCP looked like it was going to be a story dealing with the compounded traumas of hockey’s discontents. Then, of course, it wasn’t. This is a fic that steps back and asks what the fallout of that oversight would be. But that’s just the moldering core of this fanfic; it’s actually embroidered, like I said, with glittering detail. The color of the suit Bitty wears to his wedding is burned into my brain. The gray manicure of a woman Jack knows. The ingredients in a cake. This is one of those fics I still haven’t reviewed because the thought of stacking everything I could say about it into mere AO3 comments is inadequate.

when you’re ready by megancrtr | The Aces’ director of communications gets the call at 3:13 a.m. Jack Zimmermann has withdrawn from the draft. | “What happened at the draft” is so mythological it gets asked in the comic proper, and I’ve never counted how many fics attempt to answer this question--from Kent’s point of view, even--but it’s gotta be, oh, hundreds. This story replays the situation from the perspective of an Aces staffer who just wants to do her job, and gets at the jarring discordance between the plot of OMGCP in its quest for social justice and the business of actual hockey. Important context is that this story was written around the time the comic was playing out the end of Y3 and start of Y4, and Bitty pointedly asked Jack the question, “why can’t we?” This story reframes the question as literal, rather than rhetorical. A sterling example of fanfic being a gloss on its source.

BONUS, podfics

hockeyed up | There are many things on Jack's mind. Namely: hockey, hockey, Bitty, hockey, anxiety, hockey, hockey, anxiety, Bitty, hockey, hockey, anxiety, and hockey. | A fic read aloud by its French-Canadian author. Also a relatively early OMGCP fanfic; composed while the first semester of Y2 was posting, the story suggests a version of OMGCP that was in some ways more and in other ways less complex than what it would turn into not long after. The real power of this podfic, however, is that it’s read by the writer, so you can hear the intended emphasis in every line. Also, because she’s French-Canadian, Sophie’s intonation is what I picture when I read or write dialogue for Jack.

maybe i’m waking up | It’s almost funny. All he ever wanted was to play hockey, to play in the NHL, to win the Cup. This—Samwell, the team, the Haus—was supposed to be just a detour, but now it feels more like a destination he failed to realize he’s already reached.(Or: Jack signs with the Falconers, graduates, and leaves. It's the hardest thing he's ever done. What comes after is even harder.) | Don’t get too excited; this isn’t finished. A podfic of probably the best-known, most-recced fic in OMGCP fandom. Striking for its use of metatext woven into the story, this is one of several early longform Jack/Bitty fics that posits that maybe Jack has a lot more development to undergo before he can really, truly, be okay--or be okay enough to be with Bitty? To be honest, this story strikes me now as too long, but the parts in it that work are effective beyond that which fanfic demands. Meanwhile, this audio version only covers six chapters, but it’s so slick, so well-realized, so true to the story. Podfic as art.

my own dear friends | Ever since the day he met Jack Zimmermann, Shitty has seen it as his solemn duty to aggressively love him. (He just didn't know how aggressive the love Jack needed would be.) | There’s previous little Jack/Shitty in this fandom and a lot less quality BDSM,

the city’s ours until the fall | Kent has been, historically, good at this—forgetting about things until suddenly he doesn’t, and then it’s like the scar has never been there in the first place, just the wound. (Or: Kent Parson lets himself be happy, after all this time.) | I’ve never read this fic and I never will. I cannot imagine how, no matter how good it is, it could compare to the version that lives in my head, with Kent’s voice so totally realized. Vocal fry and pathos, a languid energy that I still think about when I think about Parse.

the model home | It’s going to be better, and that’s great, but sometimes Jack thinks, why can’t it be good right now? | j/k j/k, this is a self-reminder to finally one day review this.

[tundrainafrica]

Hi Sav! Hope you’re doing well these days. Anyways, I came to ask for your opinion, to which I hope is alright with you as I enjoy your constant analyses on certain matters in SNK, on a controversial take that I arrived after much thinking, debate, and reflection with myself and others on the basis of character writing is that Floch > Hange. [Please note that it isn’t in any intention of mine to spark any debate or spread hate.] (Pt. 1); TBC—

This really ended up much longer than expected, so I’m hiding my answers to all these under ‘Keep Reading’

Thanks for the ask anon. And sorry for the long wait. I mean this is such a big brain ask when I first saw this my brain kinda went on overdrive like do you want a political analysis on AOT? A philosophical analysis? 

And I found myself thinking, really? Am I qualified to do any of those? 

So disclaimer: 

I'm neither a philosophy major nor a political science major nor do I have a master's or a PhD on anything so my analyses of it ever goes into any of those of realms or any realms in general may appear flawed, may actually seem uninformed for people who actually live and breathe the humanities and the soft sciences so heads up for that really. 

I guess this is a heads up as well for people who do read my analyses to take these with a grain of salt. I try my best not to make these sound like a word of god or anything. I'm just dropping my own takes of this based on my own beliefs, personal experiences, my own stock knowledge and an attempt to just make sense of it. And possibly to help others form their own analysis and interpretations? 

(This is a disclaimer for anything I write really.)

Okay first question...

Floch > Hänge Character Development?

No. Sorry I don't agree with that. I'm a Hänge Stan, I hate Floch but after thinking long and hard about this, I don't think I can rate Floch's character to be better written than Hange. I mean the whole basis I’m seeing behind this notion is the fact that Hange’s character path seemed like a mess? 

Which I guess I agree to a degree. There was no path set out for Hange, or the path which was given to Hange didn’t seem what she was meant for anyway from the start. But I did mention before that the nuances of Hange’s character were more subtle compared to others and I still found her development pretty reasonable and I found the way Hange did react to whatever she was doing, the way she was handling it valid.

But do I consider Floch character development or his overall character to be bad? No I don’t. I think Floch does his part to be a well written character too and if you were going to put me in a situation where I did have to pick, I would put them as equals or Floch a little less in my scale of well-written. 

Because I think their arcs and the developments of their characters have so many parallels that I couldn’t help but just deem them as of equal depth? Just in completely different directions? 

Okay, first things first before I go in depth to as to why I consider both their characters well written, let's ask ourselves, what makes a good character? 

I have always been a fan of characters and overarching plots. I think I have had this talk with people multiple times but I have never been a fan of flash fiction or anthologies. If I wanna get into something, I get in hard, I virtually make friends with all of the characters in my head, I write fanfiction, I hc. And I always have to relate so hard to at least one character before I even say I enjoy something. 

And as a consumer of fiction and a simp for the characters more than the actual plotlines at times, I would consider well-written characters to be characters so relatable, those that develop so naturally that they can evoke emotions in readers, they feel real. And what I consider SPECTACULARLY well written characters as those that not just evoke emotions but do do their part to help me reflect on my views on certain topics and help me refine my views to at least make them a little more nuanced and to help keep me informed on other views so at least I can tackle future challengs, problems and situations with a new way of thinking or with a new perspective.

I mean, in the simplest of words, the most well-written characters are those that can teach a lesson and they do it by helping the readers and the audiences walk in their shoes, and they do it by evoking, sympathy, empathy and almost friendly intimacy. 

And of course, all Hange stans agree. Hange has made us feel things. Tbh, Hange’s death literally made me feel like a lost a pet or maybe even a good friend, I did have a hard time getting out of bed for a few days after 132. So Hange, did touch me in ways that other characters didn’t. So that does mean that Hange’s well written? Right? 

Okay then people might ask, then why didn’t you feel the same way for Floch, that means he wasn’t well written right? No. It doesn’t. Floch did his job. He made people angry. He made people seethe. And I think the fact that Floch made people feel so many things even with his very limited screentime and his very underwhelming achievements (yo, the man had to ride on the main protagonists fame to get anywhere), I think he did amazingly to leave his mark. And although he does leave us all seething while rereading 132 and while reflecting on Hange and meta-ing her death. If we even the playing field by considering the disparity in screentime and depth and overall achievements between the two, we have to admit that Floch did evoke emotions in us and he did make us reflect maybe (ON HOW MUCH OF AN ASSHOLE JAEGERISTS ARE...) and he turned out to be a pretty memorable character.  And maybe he is at least, close to the other characters or even Hange or on par at least in the scale of well written. 

And that’s just the emotions. There are also so many things I wanted to point out about both their developments. If we consider the AOT narrative, it is a huge conglomerate and sometimes it does get messy. I mean Yams as like fifty if not a hundred characters he has to give depth to at a time given the overall plot. And the thing is, he did ease into the story the depth of each character incredibly slowly. 

I have been watching AOT since 2013 for example but I never really started writing fanfiction until last year when I managed to get the whole story in one whole binge. I thought about this for a while and I did read a few reviews on just season 1 and a commonality I found among a lot of reviews was the fact that the characters weren’t… engaging? Most were forgettable and faded to the back of EMA and to a degree, Levi. 

I mean, 2013 me was a Levi simp and I shipped him with Petra because I low key wanted to explore the softie in him before I fell off the earth of fangirling coz college happened. Then I did realize, Season 1 did fail to give a lot of characters as much depth and as much exposition compared to the later seasons (for good reason). I think the whole point of season 1 really was to set the tone, set the setting and introduce the characters. 

More relevant to this essay is the depth of Hange’s characters actually, and the first time I did notice it was around season 2 maybe with the appearance of pastor NIck because that was when we started to see her more serious side. And we started to see that maybe she had a genius and a brain which surpassed even her nerdy and crazy titan demeanor. I mean sure, I did know she was a genius and she had to be smart since Season 1 since she was a researcher and that had been touched on multiple times in Season 1 but the fact that she knew how to lead and the fact that she took the reins when pushed comes to shove, that she could become serious and she could still deliver in times like those, cemented her as a more nuanced character I genuinely liked to explore more.

And Hange’s development was incredibly natural, very believable and it did evoke emotions in me (especially with the later episodes). I’m suspecting that the reason people found it ‘messy’ I guess or ‘all-over-the place’ generally was because as I mentioned before, it was subtle. Hange had no one to talk to, Hange wasn’t the type either to give her own exposition right? When has Hange ever talked about herself in the story? When has she ever justified her actions? 

When has anyone actually stopped to explain Hange’s actions. Like I feel like literally, we have had exposition on other characters except Hange, it’s like even the characters take Hange’s actions for granted. And I guess the reason behind it is because Hange has never done anything too questionable to even need a freudian excuse or a justification and if that doesn’t say anything about how kind hearted her character is overall, i dunno anymore man.

And Floch had some good development to, and I think the reason why Floch had that ‘exposition’ which made his overall character arc and the development more ‘clean’ or ‘obvious’ is because Floch was incredibly vocal about it. I mean with Erwin’s death and his actions and his saying ‘only a demon can lead,’ we get a glimpse of Floch’s ideologies from the start. 

This is compared to Hange. As you noticed in early Season 4, Hange never discusses her ideologies. I mean we know she’s kind hearted and we know she does have preferences like ALL other people. All we got from Hange though when Erwin died and Levi picked Armin was… “I would have picked Erwin too.” and during the actual pivotal scene, she had been too busy comforting MIkasa that we never really get indepth crumbs on how Hange would have picked it. 

It was only natural she would because it was more of the strategic option. But do we get a lot  metas on why Hange would pick Erwin? Not enough crumbs to make it worth while besides we have the strategic reason and maybe the ‘he’s our friend’ reason but Hange just never seemed selfish enough to be like that. Anyway, the only time Hange does explicitly mention her dreams after like early season 4 of her just keeping away from reporters, strategizing as a commander and just… being tired was when the survey corps was actually split up. WHen Hange was put in a position where she had to actively say her own ideologies to get whatever people could be on her side and that was in ch. 126, after the forest scene. 

It was as if with the betrayal, she realized she had to more actively hold on to her idealogy to get shit done because she needed to band together with similar thinkers at least who believed the rumbling was wrong. 

Anyway, I believe their developments were incredibly natural and I honestly think these developments were incredibly crucial to the story to show one crucial point on society and human nature as a whole. 

Which brings me to my next point: 

 Was it a deliberate decision by Isayama to create chaos in s4? What purpose (like in the movement of the actual plot because it’s obvious that her role is that of a commander of the SC) does her character arc serve in s4? Just to create the Alliance? To bind together the “opposition force” against Eren? To temporarily keep the commander position warm before Armin takes it?

I want to talk about something. I mean this has been weighing on me for a while and I really think to a degree that whatever I noticed could have just been reaching but whatever, I’m just gonna entertain this possibility now and just never talk about it again. Probably. 

There are parallels between Hange and Floch. There must have been a reason behind the circumstances and most importantly the timeline of their death. They died right after the other. Floch had been the reason for Hange’s eventual sacrifice and after Hange’s sacrifice, the final battle did start right? 

And there was a message Yams wanted to definitely give with the death of the two factions of the survey corps: 

The first thing which I thought of was, the two factions of the survey corps died and they acted like the ‘wings of freedom’ to make the final battle possible and to make the plane fly which is a culmination of the whole build up of what the survey corps was in the first place. 

And if I remember correctly, Hange wore the last cloak. She had been the last one wearing the wings of freedom insygnia when she died. If we look back at everyone else fighting post 132, none of them were wearing anything reminiscent of the old survey corps right? So I couldn’t help but think, with Hange and Floch’s death, the survey corps died with them. And the survey corps and their wings of freedom dream died to get the protagonist and the alliance to fly and fight Eren.

And when I thought about this, I was thinking, Hange and Floch must have represented something much more important for the survey corps. When the survey corps had a common enemy in titans they were united. They had a common goal. They had freedom. And when their enemies are mindless giants, there’s nothing much to reflect on. The main emotion the average soldier would probably feel towards the other is disgust right? The thing is (and this is a fairly common message in AOT) when the enemy becomes humans, it gets a little more complicated. 

And lemme try to explain why I think hate runs much deeper when dealing with a human enemy than a mindless eating giant. Some people would think. “They’re human, why would you hate them more than a mindless eating giant?” 

The most general thinking process I would come up with, when trying to make sense of the hate that humans tend to feel when faced with an other which is also human is this: 

“You eat just like me. You sleep just like me. YOu shit just like me. But why don’t you agree with me? Why are your principles all over the place? Why do you not hold the same ideals close as I do? Aren’t we both human? Aren’t we of the same background? The same species? WHY DON’T YOU AGREE WITH ME?”

And this realization that humans can have beliefs in the whole other side of the spectrum, tends to have people thinking THEN YOU MUST BE PURE EVIL. The thing is, when faced with an unknown creature, humans have a tendency to be more open and more accepting with how one navigates the world. But when their enemy is just like them but just navigates the world so differently, humans just can’t stomach it because it’s like ‘I’m supposed to understand this person because I’m a person too... but I don’t’ and I think that’s generally why hate and why ostracization is just SO much more prevalent in humans. 

And that same hate, possibly fueled flock and the jaegerists further in the first place. And before that, maybe that same thought process did lay out the foundation of hate and for calling the Eldian’s in Paradis the island devils. And to makemy point of ‘the more alike, the more hate they probably feel’ who hates the Eldians more than the… Eldians? Right? 

Anyway, yes this hate only exists because humans have different way on how they choose to navigate their beliefs and how they choose to navigate their lives and it is a huge fuel for hate as mentioned above but now, I want to address another point as a good segue to the whole ‘how did Floch and Hange create this faction in the first place.’ 

The chaos was deliberate but at the same time, it was the most natural progression for whatever shit was going on there. When all they were fighting were titans, there was no idealogy to question there was no Otherworldly creature to reflect on. And the thing is, going back to my thoughts above, they were alike yet they were so different which gave them the best environment for a little political tension. 

I mean to prove my point on how much variety there is in political beliefs and ideologies in this world despite all of us being the same race, lemme just drop a simple political compass quiz as a link for anyone who’s interested. I’m not gonna go in depth into that but yes, I’m pretty sure we’re all familiar with right, left, the liberatarian, conservative and everything in between.

But anyway the point is, people look for different things in any political environment. People look for many different things in leaders. No single leader is going to please everyone. Erwin did get his own fair share of flack because people hated that he was so easily sacrificing his soldiers. Remember in season 1 when the guy called Erwin heartless because he left the body? 

Hange just happened to be on the other side of the spectrum (or maybe she was too moderate. I believe that the far right and the far left have more in common really than moderates vs radicals)

Maybe Hange did have too much of a heart, maybe sacrificing soldiers didn’t come as easily for her. I mean sure casualties are inevitable but I found Hange’s approach to keeping casualties to a minimum, much more proactive than Erwin’s efforts have ever been if you get what I mean. With the raid on Marley for example, I had this convo with my friend on how generally back in the world wars when they sent paratroopers to a place, there was kinda an acceptance that the paratroopers wouldn’t make it since paratroopers are hard to collect. 

But the fact that Hange went through all that as to get lights set up and a blimp there just to save as much people as she can? Compared to Erwin’s expeditions where he just let people die left and right?

And you get the huge culmination of all that when Hange says that freedom isn’t worth the price of the rumbling. And Hange’s road to freedom had been the conventional, safe and slow option of diplomacy. 

(I don’t wanna go into a meta now on whether or not Erwin would have approved the rumbling but he probably wouldn’t but maybe anther time? I dunno?)

So the point is, Hange had a more conservative approach towards the ‘freedom’ which the survey corps has been fighting for so long. And only naturally, not everyone would have agreed to such an approach especially after a hundred years of suffering, after finding out that Marley still wanted to continue the war and especially when they are completely aware that they have the trump card of rumbling right at their fingertips in the form of one Eren Jaegar. So the formation of the Jaegerists was very reasonable and Floch of all people of course who was told to march to his death, who  experienced the deaths of 200 soldiers first hand to an honorary Marleyan, to monsters of the outside world would be the one to see marching to death, to giving away lives for a cause to be reasonable.  

And civil unrest is a fact of life. As long as you get enough people who don’t agree with whoever’s in power, power struggle will exist. And with the variety of points on the political compass, all types of people with different beliefs, ideologies and ways of thinking will exist so by extension, power struggles will always exist and it was only natural that something will have sprung up in the survey corps anyway. 

There’s actually a theory that can explain this. It’s called a social contract theory if I remember correctly. There is a social contract between the powerful and the non-powerful. The powerful has to make the non-powerful at least somewhat satisfied. Because the moment, the powerful becomes unbearably abusive, unwilling to even let the beliefs of the non-powerful to slide, if they never let the people under them get their way at least once, then the non-powerful/ the masses will fight back and we have seen the breaking of this ’social contract’ in action countless times in history.

And that was possibly what happened between Hange and the Jaegerists 

Hange and Floch represented two different ways the belief and the fight for freedom had evolved with the opening up of Paradis. Floch was Hange’s antithesis. A fight for freedom can be violent. But a fight for freedom can also be diplomatic.

And if I do compare it to one discourse in history...

And I think the final To Rumble or NOT to rumble debate is actually very similar to the Revolution vs. Reformation debates which tend to pop up in a lot of history lessons, especially those that discuss post colonialism from the point of view of the colonies. 

I’m from the Philippines which was a colony of Spain, Japan and the US so the reformation vs. revolution debate did come up a lot and I did have to study it. 

We had a really famous reformist during the Spanish period who wrote two books which Filipino students are all required to read in high school. A lot of Filipinos started pointing out how the main character of the book was incredibly similar to Eren. That in the first book, Noli Me Tangere, he was pretty hopeful, tried to build a school, tried to change from the inside out, then he had a character development towards the second book which was similar to Eren’s. 

In El Filibusterismo, the main character, Simuon who is pretty much their Eren, had a plan similar to the rumbling where he planted a bomb in a wedding full of rich people. If I remember correctly, it was a lamp and the moment they light the lamp it explodes. 

There was one character named Isagani who crashed the party and stole the lamp before it could explode. I guess narrative wise, he did remind me of Hange. 

Okay, fine Isagani did it because he had a crush on their girl and he didn’t want her to die. But back when I did watch the play, I remember so many people back then, we’re incredibly frustrated about the fact that the lamp didn’t explode. I remember people were screaming as Isagani ran in and stole the lamp before the bride could light it. As a high school student, I was frustrated too. I kinda wanted the lamp to explode and kill everyone there because all the people in the wedding were assholes the whole story anyway.

Looking back at it. I couldn’t help but think, hasn’t Hange been trying to do the same thing since the start of the story? And I guess when I started to look at the parallels, I thought of the fact that maybe one reason I am so against the rumbling despite everything that has been happening, despite sympathizing so much in the Eldians and even after completely understanding everything behind it is because my favorite characters were also so adamant about it? 

Or it could have been reversed. Would they have been my favorite characters? The ones I’d like to emulate the most if they weren’t against it? 

Anyway, I just wanted to end this long ass essay on positive note but the most well written characters are those that can make us change our views, make us reflect, constantly think and refine our own personal views. 

And now that I think about it, if the show ended anticlimactically with Hange doing something similar to Isagani’s lamp stealing. If Hange just did something before the rumbling even started, maybe I wouldn’t have been as frustrated with AOT as high school me had been when El Filibusterismo ended. 

Maybe because, Hange and her ideologies had already rubbed off on me a long time ago, and if that’s not a sign of a well written character then I guess I don’t know what well-written means then.