#media tropes and cliches are something that can actually be so personal

[joansblondells]

having thoughts. millions of them. cant stop thinking lately about the GREASE coding of chrissy cunningham and how intentional it all feels… netflix tweeting about sandy as chrissy’s hair inspiration !! the good girl cheerleader of it all !!

local girl actually on the verge of collapse thinking about eddie as the logical counterpart to chrissy’s sandy… you don’t give an 80s gal those sweet little 50s bangs and a bad boy gone soft to play off without invoking the cinematic spirit of sandy and danny, do not play with me duffer bros !! I am nothing if not cineliterate !!

beyond aesthetics, also cant stop thinking about danny zuko as a vulnerable softie around sandy + the biggest posturing asshole around his friends. translating that over to eddie.. obviously he’s not danny levels of cruel but.. how much of a contrast there is between his big masquerade of a cafeteria performance vs the way he strives to put chrissy at ease and his emotional availability in the woods… bitch hello !!!!

never understand the mad obsession with ensuring things are canon when it comes to ships I mean.. we are quite literally mashing blorbos together and making them kiss for funsies like barbie dolls BUT do feel slightly like I will die on the hill of eddie and chrissy as deliberate allusions to sandy/danny by the show.. if not in a vaguely romantic way then even just in a fun, throwaway visual sense

begging some gorgeous creatively inclined individuals to gifset / draw / write WHATEVER the hellcheer potential of sandy/danny before I actually keel over.. the prom.. the gym outfits.. the drive in.. the cheerleader bonfire… the possibilities are disgustingly endless. have to stop here before I die. IS THIS ANYTHING TO YOU PEOPLE ?!?!

[mask131]

You know... It is REALLY easy to do the whole "voodoo doll" trope or practice while avoiding any cultural appropriation, religious misrepresentation or racist cliche. Just... don't call it "voodoo".

Because if you are not aware, this practice of using a doll or figurine to bewitch or curse or put a spell onto a person, is actually older than the creation of vodou and its various branches. It can be found in medieval Europe. Several European countries have their own specific words and terms for this magical practice - a pratice attested since very early days. Heck it was even present in Greco-Roman Antiquity!

So... there is nothing forcing you to constantly say "voodoo doll" when talking about a spell-through-puppet. Except a bad habit that the United-States media imposed onto the rest of the world, I guess...

And, as the bitter old cynical soul that I am, I will definitively grumble something about how it is very telling that Americans did not choose to pick one of the several European terms and words for this magical practice and rather latched desperately onto a term related to a discriminized, fantasized and misrepresented Black religion... grumble grumble grumble.

But I will be fair to Americans and leave the possibility of the doubt. Because we all know the common American is a bit too lazy to do thorough research or be interested in anything outside of its own country, and so it is possible that all those people did sincerely believe that the idea of "magical bewitching figurines" was created on American land - because as we ALL know, everything was invented in America and for or by Americans, right? So of course it is bound to be the "voodoo doll" because it can't possibly have existed before the United-States were founded right?

Grumble grumble grumble.

[mdhwrites]

I just wanna say, thanks for your takes. Like, everybody acts like TOH is this bold masterpiece whose all flaws can be blamed on Disney and, while on some level this is true, I can't help but feel frustated with the inconsistencies and wasted potential it has that go back since fricking season ONE! So it's nice to see someone criticizing the show but not in a bad faith way, ya know? Thanks.

Thank you! It genuinely means a lot to me. It can feel like I'm screaming into the void a lot of the time or just circle jerking my opinions. The 'good faith' implication of your kind words especially is resonant because, well, I've gotten a lot of people claiming that I must have not watched the show or something. Which, if I really thought the show was literally all bad or just watched it to hate it, I wouldn't talk about it as much because a piece of media that only fails isn't as interesting as one that succeeded so much at one point.

But… I actually to take a moment to talk about the fandom's intolerance towards criticism in possibly a more good faith manner than I have. I've been too mean in the past and, well, the show kind of asks for it. Asks that if you think critically of it, you HAVE to come up positive.

How did the show do this? Well, remember that the VERY SECOND EPISODE is spent entirely around the concept that this show doesn't have Chosen Ones. A cliche trope of some other fantasy had an entire episode devoted to it with constant hammerings in of the final lesson: No one here is designated as special. No one follows that trope.

That isn't even subversive comedy. That is just explicitly going out of your way to point at a trope that people are lukewarm about at best commonly and stating "I dislike this. This isn't here. We're BETTER." Worse yet, the show DOES revel in subversive comedy that reinforces this viewpoint or continues to make plot points that are explicitly against common story telling in the genre, like Willow saying they're not friends yet.

This, naturally, begs comparison. Begs critical thinking. Not even negative in theory, just… A more critical eye anyways. After all, if the explicit text says it's better, it is inherently asking to be judged as above average. As something special.

So, for much of the audience, you have two options. One:

You agree. You think it is as special as it claims to be and find higher value in its storytelling and themes and quality. You stay on its wavelength and are pushed more and more to continue to think it's the best when the show says it is.

OR

You disagree. You think the show, even if you don't think it's bad, is okay. Average to good. It's not the special thing it claims to be though and so you have fallen out of step with it. After that, every time it does something other shows would do, let alone when it says it's not, it nags at some part of your brain. Because the show itself is claiming to be better than your perception of it.

This second mindset makes good faith criticism more difficult because every small mistake is going to feel larger. Things that would be normal and waved off in other shows can't be now. Can you reconcile with this? Of course. Plenty of people wanting my thoughts have stated they still like the show but there are going to be some who once the unraveling begins… There's no stopping it.

And it actually effects the person in line with the show as well. Why do people blame Disney and the shortening for all the problems of the show despite all the leaps of logic required to do so? Because it helps them get back into step with the show. It makes it easier to claim that its boasts are valid and only stopped because the 'true vision' of the piece wasn't realized.

And reasonably, this makes for a VERY hostile environment. Criticism that wouldn't even be blinked at with other shows like a silly mcguffin or a funny plot hole become insurmountable problems. After all, the show claims to be better than that. You saying ANYTHING negative, means that the show itself is wrong and you risk falling out of step.

Even worse is that this is a self devouring serpent. If you agree the work is special, the work stops having to say it's special to continue having that perception by fans. They'll claim ANYTHING to keep raising the bar to meet the expectation. Every character is clearly nuerodivergent or disabled in some way. Or both! Luz is unlike any protagonist ever in media! Lumity is literally as perfect as you could make a couple in media!

And so you keep feeding the serpent, bringing the point of the serpent where something slips up and you are devoured along side with the last of it ever closer. Because now if it fails the expectations you've put on it… Everything's over.

And that just sucks and isn't healthy for anyone. It should be okay for your favorite piece of media to be just average. I mean, my favorite comedy is still Emperor's New Groove and I'm not going to claim it's somehow on a whole different plane of existence. It just has good animation, good comedy, good heart, etc. like that without being offensive. It does its job telling an entertaining and coherent story very well and in a way that I just have never let go of.

I don't need it to be more than that. And media shouldn't be asked to be more than that.

[iichaeyj]

txt as cliche male leads . . . ♡

PAIRING: txt x gn!reader

GENRE: fluff

WARNINGS: two curse words

WORD COUNT: 1.0k

A/N: cliche male leads as in typical leads in a romance novel, drama, or any form of media tbh. this is sorta similar to my txt as romance tropes one but anyways. and once again, these are all just my opinion!!

YEONJUN: the popular one

like i said in my txt as romance tropes post

yeonjun just gives off friendly, popular energy

like everyone loves him

and he probably knows it, too

he's the male lead that takes an interest in you because you're not interested in him

and he'd do everything he could in order to get your attention

like he'd strut down the middle of the hallway and wink at you

or go to places where he knows you're at and lean against the wall

but you never really take notice

so he changes his plan by getting closer to you personally

he asks you what music you like and what you're reading and etc

and while he just wanted you to like him (romantically or platonically) at first, he comes to like you a lot

and while he tries to deny his feelings at first, he just falls harder and harder

he's also the type to begin pursuing you immediately after realizing his feelings for you

and would be the romantic type

also would probably have a lot of people chasing him so good luck

SOOBIN: the friendly one

he's probably like your new co-worker or new neighbor or new classmate

he's lowkey popular just cause he's really nice

but he's just an ordinary guy who's really friendly

and with him as the male lead, you're probably the cold type

like you have a resting bitch face

and you work hard and are good at everything, so people either try to flatter you too hard or hate you

either way, you treat them all the same by acting formally towards all of them

and soobin thinks you're great

he admires your hard work and dedication

and he tries everything he can to get close to you

he has no ulterior motive besides thinking you're cool

but you're not actually a bitch

and when you smile slightly and you guys make eye contact, his heart beats faster and his face turns bright red

and he stays by your side not only to learn from you

but also win your heart (when he gains the courage)

BEOMGYU: the rival

you already know where im going with this

he's your rival (whether in academics, sports, etc etc)

and his sole motivation is beating you

you're the best at what you do

but so is beomgyu

and you guys go head-to-head in every competition

and every time one of you wins, you show off to the other

and it just motivates you both to do better next time

and unlike the other members, i think he's liked you for a long time

maybe he knows this already or maybe he doesn't

but he does know that his sole motivation is you, and he can't really explain why

he doesn't understand the passion that he feels whenever he sees you, but he does realize he doesn't want it to go away

and so he keeps on going with your little competition

and maybe throw in a little fake dating and/or angry confession

and you guys will soon be falling in love <3

TAEHYUN: the smart one

i think this could be a tutor trope or older brother's best friend/best friend's older brother trope or something like that

like he's mature and smart and kind

at first, you think that he's really quiet and doesn't take an interest in you at all

but whenever you need help with something, he's always there

like even when he isn't part of the conversation, he'll somehow find out and help

and unlike the other members, i lowkey think you could be the one to fall first

like here's this sweet guy who wants to help with everything

ofc you'd fall for him

but you're also so cute

and he only really offers to help because he can't find it in him to say no

and people tell you this

so you know that he doesn't do these things for just anyone

but maybe you're not the smartest, so you don't really figure it out

but taehyun does, and when he realizes you like him back, he's not gonna take long in telling you how he feels

HUENINGKAI: the puppy

the type to fall in love with you at first sight

and maybe he'd be shy and sorta nervously giggle at everything you say

but once he gets comfortable, he's trailing you around like a lost little puppy :(

like he just looks at you with the most loving eyes and kind smiles that he doesn't give to anyone else

and everyone else can see it

you're the only one who doesn't notice it

and i think he would probably need help from other people (the other members) in getting you to see him like he sees you

like all of them just go to the library and rent out 24 different romance books so that they can study it

and they try every idea they can find

they try the one where hueningkai hugs you from the back and whispers that he misses you

but you're so used to it by now that you just smile and tell him you missed him more

and he blushes and deflates and runs off

and he also tries the one where he gently pushes you against the wall with one arm up, trapping you in front of him

but you guys were in front of a door and just fell when someone opened it

and when he's sad after all his failed attempts, you console him

and when you just see his face when he's looking at you all sad

that's when you fall

A/N: can you tell i really like manhwas and kdramas

(but yeonjun still wants to try the accidental kiss the next day)

[the-writers-bookshelf]

I don't know if it's just me but I keep seeing videos or posts popping up criticizing the use of adjectives in books and with every single new one the just shows up out of no where I get a little more irritated because all of these people are taking it so literally.

No, unless it's a very specific type of book they did mean that this person actually purred or growled or whatever. But these words give each thing they're attached to very different tones and I think the tone is so important to get across the feeling you want to convey.

Sorry for the mini rant, I know it's such a small thing to be irritated about but it just keeps showing up everywhere and I can't seem to escape it.

I totally know what you mean, anon!

I find that the internet/social media can be chock full of very loud people who like to complain about the most inane things.

I got caught up in complaints about literally everything being "too cliche and overused." So I tried really, REALLY hard to make every damn line "original" and guess what: it didn't work. Because readers want a specific type of book so they go by those "cliches" (or tropes) in order to find more of what they want.

Online spaces can be absolutely amazing to find other writers. But it's also super easy to get inundated with all the negative nut jobs who like to nitpick EVERYTHING.

It's not a small thing to be irritated about. It gets under your skin. It sets impossible standards for aspiring writers (and current writers). It also gets into your head and feeds your inner critic, which makes it harder to write. Those are all big things and causes problems for you as a writer.

I am an AVID supporter of using the block and unfollow buttons and avoiding anyone who spouts stuff like that. Otherwise, it bogs you down and makes you distracted by stressing over the use of adjectives rather than telling a good story.

So your rant is absolutely 10000% valid and you make a very good point that these arguments aren't necessary. It's one thing if authors use them to the point of making it distracting to read the story, but that's an easily fixable thing, and it shouldn't be, "Avoid this at all costs." That's just...shitty advice.

If you want something fun, inspiring, and helpful, I've been listening to the SPA Girls podcast on Youtube (and Spotify). They talk about writing craft, the business side of publishing, and the varied ways people can succeed with their different writing processes. They're very positive and inclusive. It's really nice to listen to people who are supportive and upbeat! :)

[cleave-and-plough]

just another normal episode...

i'm not totally sure if body swapping is actually more common in japanese media than US/western, though it certainly has the reputation of being a classic "weird" anime trope. i really have to hand it to the show for using it both as a gag and as a means of enriching the characters, and i'm reminded of how often tropes are used poorly just as references, rather than as functional narrative tools. as is so often said, tropes and cliches aren't inherently signs of poor writing: they can be thoughtfully used and explored in service of the theme and story (and not just as subversions or deconstructions).

nanami continues her role as both comic relief and villain, her obsession with touga getting her into yet another scrape. now setting her sights on both utena and anthy, she attempts to overspice their curry in cooking class and inadvertently causes them to swap bodies and personalities: utena becomes demure and subservient, tending to the garden, while anthy becomes aggressive and athletic, dominating the basketball court and high jump and standing up to anthy's bullies. there's something so fanfiction-like about these scenes - the side characters delight in the novelty, buying photos of the swapped pair (even despite heartbreak, in miki's case) as if they were souvenirs from an alternate universe's canon.

however, touga is displeased - not only did nanami almost injure the rose bride and the current champion, she's disrupted the will of end of the world and must make it right. of course, this means she needs to fly to india to collect another sample of the spice. all the animals in heaven and earth continue their war on nanami, and she suffers about a half dozen elephant attacks throughout her journey and return. as with the body swap, i'm struck by how matter-of-fact the show's tone is in these moments - of course they're hilarious, but they're also fully within the show's world, not hallucinations or dream sequences or anything that would elide reality. it all feels extremely cartoony, something i love to see in animated works - embracing of the medium. letting things be kooky and normal at the same time is such a great use of animation - though this tone can also be captured in live action, it's more often through dialogue and acting than the kind of extraordinary visual hijinks seen here.

at the same time, the body swap uncovers a new truth about utena and anthy - how much they care about their appearances, and how much this reflects their respective freedoms. as the pair walk through the school halls together thinking about how to reverse the spice's effects, anthy expresses a certain apathy, saying she doesn't care how she looks. "well, i do!" utena retorts, and it feels like a new door is opened on them. throughout these initial episodes, both characters have shown a notable sense of purpose in their outfits and appearances. utena actively and intentionally wears the boys' uniform to emulate the prince and chafes at having to wear anything overtly feminine, while anthy dresses reactively in the outfits expected of her: her school uniform, the rose bride's dress, a maid's outfit, and nanami's dress only after utena's insistence. for anthy, clothing and her appearance are mere extensions of the role she's playing - they aren't expressions of her self, which she seems to suppress and ignore. and yet i wonder if there isn't something exciting to anthy about the swap - through circumstances entirely out of her control, she gets to look totally different and inhabit the body of one of the school's most beloved students, free of the shackles of the rose bride. the two fall into their usual habits, so it's not as if their roles have completely reversed, but there's a tension of shifted power: utena is uncomfortable not having control over the way she looks, but anthy seems grateful for a brief moment of freedom from her typical expectations.

amidst all this, saionji returns, and much like the episode itself he shows a mix of silliness and seriousness. ever devoted to his exchange diary, he makes the fatal error of baring his soul to utena. i'm surprised by her brief sympathies and gentleness toward him, but i can see what's going through her mind - like herself, saionji is caught up in anthy's strange game of duels and seems lost in it, and the honorable thing to do is to allow him his privacy. intriguing as that commonality between them is, i'm glad she goes back to despising him after seeing his drawing of her - he isn't close to being redeemed in my mind, and i suspect anthy feels similarly. she’s very quick to misinterpret utena’s words as a command to discard and escape the diary - i really believe these moments (along with her comments to the defeated duelists) communicate a great deal about her inner feelings and how she tries to subtly convey them.

at last, nanami returns to deliver the spice, which she immediately drops after slipping on chu-chu's banana peel, and one last elephant blows it away in the wind. as the silhouettes say, divine justice. the ending of the episode is mysterious in a lot of ways, and perhaps it's best not to overanalyze it. instead, contemplate the image of chu-chu saionji crouched on a tree branch, eating a banana.

stray thoughts:

this is the first time the silhouettes have appeared twice in an episode, and i think it's extremely effective. it's interesting to me how sometimes their shadowplays are very relevant to the episode's story (as is the case here), and sometimes they seem completely unrelated.

the prelude repeats at the start of this episode, and i casually wonder if they weren't trying to fill a little airtime.

nanami's ojou laugh really doesn't get old, and i like touga's dramatic interruption. not sure why she got so tanned on the trip but her friends look exactly the same - yet another mystery.

really don't know what to make of the indian spice being stored in a genie-esque oil lamp. also confused by the strange, scooby-doo-like way everyone runs to greet nanami - i guess accentuating how they're leaving saionji to wallow in the garden?

[itlivesproject]

what’s y’all’s guilty pleasure tropes in media? (e.g. tropes that are so bad it’s good, or smth you’re a tad embarrassed about loving!)

Boy do we some answers for you, anon

Maggie

Oh I have soooo many. Mostly I love a good romancing the bad guy/villain trope where the villain has questionable if not downright dark morals. And I’m not talking a bad boy with a heart of gold. I mean a totally fucked up piece of shit who absolutely does not care about anyone but themselves and MC.

Also, one I recently got some flak for was “LI says mean thing behind MC’s back and MC overhears and is hurt and LI then has to work to get back into MC’s good graces.” I’m a sucker for drama and questionable morals and I will not apologize.

Lindsay

My guilty pleasure is Choices

I also like slow burns. And Ethan ramsey 🤢

Julia (writer)

Does bed sharing count? I'm a huge sucker for bed sharing, even though it's cliche as hell. Also I am not immune to the glass cannon trope, i.e. a character who is super powerful but also super fragile.

I also like problematic power differences in relationships, and you can quote me on that. I love all the problematic tropes actually. Anything problematic you can think of, I probably read that.

Alex (writer)

I actually liked tna LMAO. Like i know it's overdramatic and extremely unrealistic, but it was still really fun to read and i always looked forward to the discussions around how ridiculous it was.

i also like really terrible movies, like my favorite movie is the worst thing i have ever watched in my life but i love it so much

And you could say that i multiship like an insane person. Way too many pairings to make sense.

Evie (writer)

Ok so for me, i think the femme fatale? does that count as a trope? i just love a woman being sexy, owning it, and using it to be morally corrupt. it doesn't even need to be well-done, or done in a feminist way. i see hot lady being evil, gay brain goes brrrrr

i also love love love the berserk button. a character that's usually cool and collected absolutely LOSING IT and going WAY OVERBOARD when someone they care about being hurt? or simply because They've Had Enough? absolutely love it, go off queen

I’m just trying to find the least triggering/pot-stirring way to say i actively look out for the worst possible shit on ao3. My guilty pleasure is reading my favorite characters get [redacted], [redacted] and [redacted]

M

I just love spectacle in movies.

Aku (artist)

Yandere x Tsundere

Eri

Berserk button is a godly trope as Evie well said. But I don't consider it a guilty pleasure, cause it's objectively good in my humble opinion. My guilty pleasure is Whump (first writing event I ever participated in was Whumptober lol). It can be as intense as it gets without permanent (physical) damage to the character, as long as there's a hopeful ending with a lot of comfort for good measure. Also, slightly-out-of-character hurt-comfort fics (out of character in the sense that said character would not accept the comfort under regular circumstances)

Sugar

i love the bad guys, i also love when characters go through the most terrible of things, it makes me (as a reader) feel something. anything flies as long as there’s a happy ending

[oneoflokis-blog]

Schofield? Schmofield. 😏 (& the same to everyone obsessed by his sex life. 😏)

Yes. well, as I've said on quite a number of occasions to various people, all this celebrity stuff, in particular, is for the birds. I know I've said "for the birds" quite a few times recently, I think. But pretty much all celebrity stuff, is for me now, in particular celebrity sex scandals, or pseudo scandals, whether homosexual or heterosexual, whether they would involve Philip Schofield, or I don't know Prince Harry and Meghan Markle! Are a complete waste of time as news, particularly from the viewpoint, of any sincere and informed socialist. Well ... I know that quite a few people use or tend to use celebrity issues, as a way of relating themselves to more general issues: or even simply so that they have something to talk about, and everybody else will know what it is they're talking about.

But: this is simply a very shallow way to relate to the world. And you do have to remember, that the more time people spend on line or anywhere else, talking about celebrities, and gossiping about them, the less time they and the actual media will have to concentrate on ordinary people and talk about them and about issues that matter.

So it's a question of where the focus should be! 🙂

And don't give me that stuff all about how immoral Phillip Schofield or someone like him is. He actually fits into an a number of very normal in inverted commas cliches: that of the boss who has an affair with his secretary, which this is the equivalent of; then there's the established gay trope of the much older and more experienced man with a lot younger man, and so on and so forth. To suggest that this is anything extraordinary or criminal is simply naive. It's both naive and hypocritical: which unfortunately both are very prevalent features of contemporary British society. 😏

As I told to that Wolf person or whatever his name was on a fairly recent Twitter thread, I know exactly why - the web of reasons why - this Phillip Schofield thing is being made the most tremendous fuss of on social media right now. As I told him, it is partially mass hysteria which is fueled by the mainstream media; Britain goes through a paedophile panic every so often, which was once very neatly satirised by the satirical program Brass Eye! 🙂

And secondly, to go along with the mass hysteria, we also have a sort of mass collective guilt, which was really sparked off by, and has been hanging around for years, due to the failure by the police, the media and I suppose ultimately the public, to catch and expose Jimmy Savile as the kind of predator he was. As I also said on Twitter, worrying about Savile really is shutting the stable door after the horse has indeed bolted. 😏

But the comparisons being made, particularly on YouTube right now, between Schofield and Savile, are quite simply ridiculous and obviously completely unwarranted. Often they are done by insinuation: like with the juxtaposition of a picture of one with a picture of the other, both Photoshopped so as to look extremely unpleasant, particularly on the thumbnail where everyone can see it. This is both clickbait and libel of the worst variety and it should not be allowed by YouTube, and it should be removed. But we all know they're much more interested in censoring political channels.

Yes. This smearing by

association: that is something the modern mainstream media are well known to do. **Usually when they are producing some type of propaganda or another.** Mr Corbyn got plenty of that: but that's another matter.

And we also notice - at least I do - that most of the fuss about Schofield, at least that which has revealed itself in my YouTube feed, and nearly all the smears about Schofield, are produced by right wing sites, the likes of GB News, and further right. The kind of poisonous sneery tone, of a lot of these obviously non-socialist sites towards Schofield; denote to me two things. And often I think it's a mixture of the two! Namely, a kind of poisonous - when is it never poisonous - schadenfreude brought on by jealousy of a very successful career (some of these tubers are obviously people on the peripheries of showbiz). Second would be the still commonly felt among right wingers hostility towards homosexuals. Which they are cunningly attempting to disguise as something completely else: but I believe I can read the real emotional and ideological message particularly behind some of the more sneery type of channels. If you didn't hate gays, and you weren't jealous pricks, you wouldn't be sneering! is my conclusion. 🤷‍♀️

I don't really care whether a person is "moral", by the way. But I do care about fairness. The current treatment of Schofield, and the juxtaposition with Savile, is most certainly unfair. 😏

Anyway: the modern left, well most of it, doesn't appear to care about fairness: and once again quite stupidly they appear to have fallen for another scam. Or a mass hysteria; or a witch hunt; whatever one wants to call it. Similar to with the #itwasascam antisemitism thing really. 😏 Well at least, I can see them cheering it along on Twitter. I don't know if any left YouTuber has made any pieces positive or negative about Schofield: I haven't seen any of the ones I follow cover it, I haven't really looked. 🤷‍♀️

And similar of course to #metoo; which died a death really, with the flop of Amber Heard. And a bloody good thing it did!

What I'm saying - the conclusion I have come to - is the all these kind of celebrity things, when even not total smears, are a complete waste of time: and should not be touched with a barge pole by the left.

In fact, I would ban all this type of idea of social justice! That they think is social justice anyway; when really it's based on media bullying and Twitter dog piling; and doesn't achieve anything anyway. Much like that other pompous person on a Twitter thread I was on a couple of days ago was saying something like I was stopping successors of Savile from being hunted down! 😄 Like a) Schofield was anything at all like Savile; and like b) this fellow or a bunch of his fellow nerds on Twitter were going to do anything of the sort! Rotfl. 🤣 More people with a stupid keyboard warrior superhero complex! 😏👎

That's what I think. 😏😄

[southieparkie]

Little word of advice: If you want a trope or a headcanon or whatever to get more popular in fandom, being mad that no one has that trope/hc for their fav character isn’t gonna do anything?

Like, okay, it’s very obvious that you can feel however you want to feel in your space of media. Whether it be a blog, a youtube channel, a twitter page, etc.. but like…if you want something to be popular in fandom popularize it??

If you have a headcanon that you like but isn’t that common, share it with the world!! One person will like it and then make a post about it, then another person will do the same thing, then two more, then three, and then before you know it your headcanon is taking flight and gaining popularity!!! The only reason one specific headcanon is more common and virtually approved than the more “accurate” ones is because one person in a fandom says something silly, everyone likes the silly little thing they said, and then boom. You have jock stan (no shade im just using an example) You see?? Its a chain reaction!!! The revolutionization of jock stan didn’t start overnight. Several people around the world didn’t just wake up simultaneously and go “stan is a football player!!” thats just rather silly. a bit goofy, if you will :p

the reason why i say don’t vocalize your dissapointment/enragement at your headcanon or someone else’s not being popular is because there are people on the internet who will go “stay mad, lol” and not consider it at all, making the headcanon a target outlier. let me just give you guys an example!

A: Why do I not see more peanut butter sandwiches with honey on my dash? It’s pissing me off!!! The fact that so many people miss the opportunity to make a delicious pb & honey sandwich when the ingredients are in their kitchen makes me so damn mad. More pb&h sammiches now!!

B: I think honey and peanut butter together in a sandwich would make for a delicious meal! think about it, peanut butter is a bit bitter and thick and the sweet, thin honey can smooth it out and make the pb so much tastier, why not give it a shot?! just a fun little idea to put out there for you :)

There’s a visible difference, isn’t there?? One is more convincing!! (to me, at least) Also, don’t put down other hcs to raise yours up. One thing I commonly see here is the whole “your hc is invalid bc it isnt canon compliant, whereas mine is totally valid because it is canon compliant.”

“Stan wouldn’t be a football star in high school, thats cliche and totally unrealistic!!” My brother/sister/sibling in christ, Matt and Trey are responsible for drawing humanoid crabb alien overlords, a giant battle robot barbra streisand, a talking anthropomorphic stoner towel, grown men bouncing on their oversized balls, and four little boys (five, actually) traveling to miami from peru to defeat the evil giant guinea pig costume monsters that have invaded their town. If one character being a talented football player for a football team is where you draw the line at believability…idk more power to ya i guess!!

Everyone is creative, share your creativity wisely and passionately!!!!!! <3

[clarkegriffins]

Sort of random rambling nonsense but you’re the person with the closest opinions to my own I think (you even have a Clarke url and she’s still my favorite ever!) so apologies if it comes off bitter and unhinged BUT. I love byler, prefer it even, as a ship because I love Will and the childhood best friends trope sucks me in every time, but the fandom is literally insane and I can’t stand it. I think it’s because I’m in my 20s and a lot of them are teens but some of the behavior is just inexcusable honestly? “El has to be independent” horrible takes everywhere, Mike HAS to be gay (which is just biphobia most of the time), Will will NEVER be happy unless he’s with Mike and never moves on, Mike only liked El because she had no hair and looked like a boy at first, etc. Don’t even get me started on the “proofs” that get so unhinged that I genuinely wonder if some of them are ok—today I saw one comparing a shot from the Suzie scenes to the last supper painting???? And even though I am neutral on mileven it’s clear that’s what they’re going with so all of this absolute byler endgame certainty everywhere also baffles me. The thing is, I find the ship adorable still, but I really wish the stans could get a collective reality check because they’re embarrassing and obnoxious and sometimes. I wonder how they could’ve watched vol2 and not realized they’re telling the unrequited love angle in canon and can just make transformative content to alleviate that in fanon. /end vent

OH ANON I LOVED THIS ASK SO MUCH, thank u for sharing how you’re feeling and i can just say: SAME, FUCKING SAME. first i’m gonna say something if u know me/my account, u should know that i was (i think i still am, i’m just on....hiatus) a hardcore byler shipper since 2016/season 1, when this ship used to be a crackship and a joke for many people, it was TOUGH back then, i’ve been loving them for years, bc just like u said: childhood friends to lovers is amazing, it’s one of my favorite tropes ever, i have many other ships like this... and just like u said i also love will, i LOVE will, with all my heart (i’m a willelsteve stan since 2016), and now about the fandom i’ll say, it was understandable having hope before vol 2, the whole mike not saying i love you to el was a bit weird to me and to the rest of the fandom, my account before and after vol 2 is two different accounts lmao, before vol 2 i was being hopeful, i made some gifsets with theories and all, i thought that the only way the story would make sense was if byler happened/mileven break up, but after vol 2 something changed, it was like if something finally clicked you know? every missing part, every doubt, every confusion i had disappeared and things became cristal clear to me, and i sit and thought about everything that happened in season 4 and the past seasons and i finally took my byler shipper glasses off and i saw how naive i was being, also a little dumb lmao, u don’t need to be smart af or understand everything about media to know that the direction byler is going is the unrequited one, byler actually never stood a chance, mike and will’s relationship was important to will for him to find out he is gay, it’s actually a little cliche i know but it makes sense, if it wasn’t mike it would have been lucas, or dustin, but since mike is will’s best friend it was him, and it makes sense will would fall in love with the first person to show him kindness and was friendly, we all know how caring mike can be with him, so it makes sense, i can talk about myself like i find out i was bisexual bc i fell in love with my best friend, and spoiler alert we didn’t work, but i will always be grateful for her because i was able to find out who i am (insert the i know what u are meme here lmao), which i think is the same for will, this is the story the duffers are telling, this is part of will’s storyline.... now let’s go to some topics:

the “el has to be independent” take: BULLSHIT, i think if u have been watching the show u should know that el, just like joyce and nancy are independent af, el was away from mike in s2 and she had adventures by HERSELF to find out who she is, to find out about her powers, her mom, etc....in season 3 she also had adventures by herself and max, and in season 4 we saw her again going back to the lab by herself to figure stuff out and get her powers back.......so as we can see, ELEVEN IS INDEPENDENT, but at the end of the day she always comes back to mike bc she’s IN LOVE with him and people need to accept that, it doesn’t make her weak or not independent, it’s part of who she is, she’s in love, female characters can be in love and independent, they don’t have to pick one, they can have BOTH. PERIOD.

the “mike has to be gay” ............sigh.......... tbh anon i’m tired of talking about this, i’ve already talked about how the byler fandom can be biphobic af sometimes which is one of the reasons why i’m.....distant from them now, so i’m not gonna speak about this again, just know that if u don’t think that mike ever had any romantic feelings for el ur literally embarrassing urself, he’s not confused or anything, mike was created in love with el.... let’s talk about mike btw, remember how i said that after vol 2 something clicked? so mike is part of this, mike has SO MUCH overlooked trauma and people don't even realize it, el’s “death” is season 1 marked him for good, and everything we are watching  now is the result of this trauma, season 2 is not the “best mike season” like people say, mike was depressed, going through pstd, he literally says to will that he thought he was going crazy, and after all that sadness he finds out el is alive again and WOW, it was like he finally could breath again, we can see in his eyes, the longing, the sadness, the relief..... and just like that he had to let her go again so she could save the world ONCE AGAIN, and he was so scared, he was crying and he made her promise to him that she would be back..... and then we have season 3, el can’t leave her house bc you know my baby girl is wanted in 65656564 countries lmao so #GIRLBOSS of her if u ask me, so mike has to go to her house to spend time with her since she cant leave her house that much or go to public places, and that makes him be distant from his friends for a little bit but can we blame him? like i know that he could manage his time better but lets not forget that hes also a kid KDJGSNJDKGNKJGNSG like he was what? 13? in season 3? do u really expect a 13 year old to know EVERYTHING? but people say “lucas can do that with max just fine” first max it’s not el, like i said el is wanted in 545645645 countries, it’s easy to manage ur time with ur friends/girlfriend when ur girlfriend can hang out with u all the time, like lucas can take max to watch movies, mike can’t, anyways you know what i mean, this is getting too long so i will link u to these posts where i talked about mike and mileven and how i think his storyline makes sense in s4 here and here, the show have been telling us about mike’s insecurity and fear about losing el for seasons now, but we weren’t paying attention....

and finally the “Will will NEVER be happy unless he’s with Mike and never moves on” BIG SIGH, i said it once and i’ll say it again: DON’T REDUCE WILL DOWN TO HIS FEELINGS FOR MIKE, JUST DON’T, it’s part of him? YES, but it’s not everything about him as a character, the whole “Will will only be happy if he’s with mike” is such bullshit bc idk if u noticed but will already lived without mike, bc he never had mike to begin with, you can't lose something you never had, if we could take away the trauma from the upside down off him we could see that will can be happy just by being next to his friends, to his family, tbh i feel like will’s storyline is about growing up, being able to love and accept himself and understand that he’s loved, he’s not a mistake or a freak, that’s will’s character, and i hope more than anything that my baby boy can learn how to love himself and finally be free, el kind of had the same stuff in season 4 too, when she finally stand up to her abuser and said she’s not the monster, ofc it’s still a working in progress bc she blames herself for max now but is still something, and i want will to have that too.

and FINALLY the “proofs” i’ll just say: LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO i’m sorry jfkgnkdjnsdkjgndksjgndkgnskjgndkjgn i laugh so much everytime i read their theories, they are so unserious, they are queerbating themselves and they don't even realize that, they DO need a reality check asap.... but hey whatever makes them happy i just hope they're not assholes when none of this happens

ok i already talked too much, bottom line is: ship whatever u want, whatever u love, byler is such a sweet ship, they are cute af (the fandom is nasty tho), but we all know this is not the direction the show is going and as long as you know that....be free, u can ship non canon ships you know, shipping is not about canon or endgames, is about a dynamic u love no matter what. and we know that will has feelings for mike and like u said we can work with that, i know it’s sad when ur favorite pairing it’s not canon but what can i say? it happens, i have many non canon ships and i still adore them more than anything in the world.

(i'm sorry if there are any typos, i’m sleepy af)

[sapphosrighthand]

Most mainstream queer media is so boring and just bad in my opinion.

Like why can straight people have the most heart wrenching beautiful pieces of media while we get yet another mediocre Netflix serie filled with those annoying cliches that perhaps were even nice once but now have become so overused and boring (like the overused coming out trope). The characters are always either stereotyped over sexualised young adults or unrealistic teens made to make straight people coo at their tvs.

Most queer media is so obviously made for straight people that it almost hurts like what if I want something where being gay isn’t the whole point of the characters but rather just another thing about them like helloooo?? Queer people are normal people that should not be solely defined by their sexuality.

I want more queer shows where the characters can be queer without it being their only personality trait and that have an actual interesting plot outside of their queerness is that too much to ask for??

[tooliltoolate]

I'm not very tall. I'm also not very handsome. I can't keep the conversation flowing like others, and I tend to make people feel awkward. I don't get the references people make, and I don't have any interesting talents. 

My self esteem has always been low. Of course, this doesn't mean it never fluctuates. Maybe I have a good conversation with someone, I accomplish something, or I get to eat good food. Conversely, I feel especially down and scrutinized whenever I have to speak in public, or when I'm made to repeat what I said. But in general, I've never had a good impression of… myself. It's paradoxical. I've also always thought myself to be smarter than everyone else. Academics is the odd one out; the only place where I've stood out was in school. I've always known this, and hated it to an extent. Because its cliche. Everyone knows the trope, intelligent but socially awkward, honest and smart but not much else. I've always, always wanted to be more than that, but I only fail. I'm not good at music, or at writing, or at art. I'm not good with people, or at sports, or with money. And I've tried, I've tried a lot. 

And I think that's one of the main flaws with how I view myself: it's always based on the perception of others. Fake it till you make it, be comfortable with yourself and you'll become more charismatic. I hate that stuff. I hate the idea that I have to compromise my very being to conform. I want to be loud, to proudly exert my joys and fantasies onto the world, but I'm also scared. A part of me does want to wow everybody. That's how I was as a kid after all, the star of the whole school. But what I really want is a hobby. You could say I like reading, but I don't mean that. Reading is passive, uncreative. Creating thoughtful analyses or critiques would be a different thing altogether. I would actually love to do that. But I don't. I love it when I read other people's analyses, but when I myself read, it's very rarely a thoughtful process. I'm not saying enjoying wonderful media is base or unhealthy or wasteful or whatever. Everyone should continue doing that. It's just not what I want my hobby to be. A hobby should be an art. Something you strive to improve in, no matter how dumb it is. It should be an avenue for creation, expression. And it should be personal. 

It's such a small thing, but as someone who basically only knows how to study, it's something I've always envied. I want to create, to just lose myself in the doing of something. Because that stretch of time, now that it's gone, can now only ever be mine and mine alone. I want to be so entrenched in a niche that I'd look incomprehensible to my friends. But that would be fine. Because all I want is to be a kid and be dumb again. Just make. Make up for the time in my childhood when I should have been making memories, but was instead studying. I want to carve out a few hours of my everyday where I don't have to impress anyone or be anxious for the future, but instead I just create all the dumb shit in my head, just create myself.

[ecoamerica]

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[37-children-of-the-dreams]

And I also saw a lot of cliche even with brand new characters where is dude exacly like Dom, but has other side, bad or good (at least to main characters), and one side has theatre mask and character can actually do more than we expect like mind reading or something.

Dom had monsuno sight and could go into visions and even saw them himself, talk to monsunos. If he's Dawn, so has good thief side with theatre mask. And so for main characters it's spy who has connection to great evil.

Sampo from Honkai, who is greatest thief, kinda friendly, but actually is a member of one important organisation of evil dudes who cause chaos literally for laugh, and when he is, he wears theatre mask.

And other dudes do that

Sooo

You mean the whole Jekyll and Hyde trope right? Like it’s not an ancient trope, but it’s a really good theater trope to use on characters who are two faced or have different identities when they are with different characters. It’s been years since I had to remember theater stuff since my English teacher was the head of our theater department, but I can attempt to remember what tropes were in the plays and stories we had to read.

Yet, I know about DID and a ton of media content with characters having DID.

With the Jekyll and Hyde trope/DID, it really is a case of split identities while having the same body. The person who would be currently controlling the body who have a different mindset and skill than the other identity. If you watched Moon Knight, you’d see that the main character has that affliction and that every identity is a different personality and with different skills.

So maybe Dom and Dawn are the same person and have DID with the costume change and theater mask symbolizing their differences, and maybe they do have different skill sets despite the fact they seem to have almost the same level of athleticism. Yet, if Dom has the Monsuno sight since he can understand his Monsunos, Dawn would also have the same ability (even if the control is minor compared to Dom) since that’s a biological ability, not a gained ability and therefore Dawn would also be affected from the Hand of Destiny unleashing pain to every Monsuno sight owner. That’s the main problem for the whole Dom and Dawn thing since the ability is a biological factor despite them having different gained abilities and skill sets. It’s still a good theory since it connects Dawn to Klipse, but if everyone with latent Monsuno abilities was affected during the season 2 finale, Dawnmaster had to have been affected too.

As for Sampo, thank you for sharing this information. I really do not know anything about Honkai Star Rail or the characters, I only know that’s it’s new and there’s always new lore coming out.

[fuckenvampirism]

batjokes fans who woobify the joker and somehow cant handle the fact that he's a shitty person just because they're fond of his character, and make up lies about his canonical or common actions because they ??? have such a limited point of view of morality and how to engage with media that has ""problematic"" characters and have such a victim mentality when their lies are corrected and infantilise him because ohhh he's mentally ill so quirky he's my fruity scrimblo

I'm going to find you and kill you shut the fuck up!!!!!! what is the point of liking THE JOKER of all characters if youre going to try to say he never did anything wrong..? people who like batjokes so often vaguely wax lyrical about The Complexities, but then they have the most one-dimensional, juvenile ideas about it and complain about harley quinn as if she's a real person who hurt them. and these people don't know how to properly talk about and analyse harley quinn's origin as a character and how she is portrayed nowadays, as well as her experience with the joker's abuse (often minimising it, blaming her for it, or pretending it didn't actually happen because "the joker isn't straight, which means the REAL joker that i personally know has never abused her!" or saying some shit about her already being "crazy" before she met him, therefore she somehow can't be abused). they're so goddamn whiny. it's ridiculous how they can excuse his abuse of harley, but when it comes to what he did in the killing joke, they freak out and suddenly can't bear the idea of liking a fictional character who has assaulted someone.

i am already so averse to fandom but i hate these charades communities do where they pretend to have a common train of thought about something, often because they want a guise of. thoughtfulness? if you don't think too deeply about your interests, just say that. you don't need to pretend you're analytical. i think many batjokes fans think they're automatically so clever because of the pushback shown by the majority of batman fans, and how obscured from the mainstream the queer-coded history of the joker is.. but the joker being queer is such a surface-level reading, as well as the homoeroticism of his rivalry with batman.

so many pairings are the same fucken tropes recycled a million times and i cant believe how cliched and atrocious so many people's conception of something like batjokes is. you're given so much in the source material and you prefer to think of the joker as a helpless victim who has no agency??? whats the point of engaging with anything at all if you're going to completely airbrush over the characters' actual traits and the setting of the story.

fan work sometimes feels like hallmark movies where it's the same story over and over again with no imagination and only the slightest changes. "fandom should be a safe space where people can tell whatever stories they want, even if they're-" No actually. you are not safe and your ideas are bad

[theotherrookie]

😒 😒 😒 Gimme three!

send 😒 for me to talk about a trope/cliche I hate. (Still accepting)

Welcome to a new episode of "Doc is annoyed at the new Star Trek again"! Buckle up because this will be definitely long.

As we're on the internet and I still have flashbacks from Ghostbusters 2016's incredibly academical discourse, a preemptive disclaimer since I'm going to reference the shows: I grew up watching on and off various iterations of Star Trek. It was one of those things the whole family would sit down to watch and I still rewatch it because it's one of the few things on Netflix that I can stomach. It's by all means not a masterpiece of writing. It has revolutionized TV in the '60s and later, pretty much made fandom into a mainstream thing, but between very good episodes with very interesting takes there are many episodes where stuff didn't age well/was straight up sexist or racist even for the time. I recognize this, let's move on already.

1) Asexual rep

So, this is a controversial matter because to this day we're starved of representatives in media. I usually don't care for this stuff because I don't care to see romance especially if my token character is annoying as hell. However, I'd like to discuss how very often the asexual of the group is anything but human.

As far as I'm concerned, it makes sense. Someone who isn't human is likely to not see romance and sexuality the way most humans (of any orientation/identity) do. The show has variety as far as this is concerned but I can agree that the aces are usually some kind of machine-based lifeform even elsewhere.

I personally don't take issues with stuff like "I'm an android, I can't have a romantic relationship with you [the way you conceive it]." It makes sense. An android doesn't have parents the way we supposedly do and definitely doesn't get sent to sex-ed or sees any type of relationship the way we do. Moreover, as far as I'm concerned, I like androids and I like stoic cyborgs so having that as rep is cool.

What I dislike is the next step. Either the acedroid has a Pinocchio moment and becomes a real boy with real feelings, or any kind of character progression gained through dozens of episodes is nullified because "I still don't get love because only humans get love." We really don't get it, so screw that noise.

For once it'd be nice to see an ace character who gets to be ace in peace. I'd like to see them go "Well, I've learned a lot about feelings the way biological lifeforms intend it. I seem to have my own set of feelings, even if they are more subtle than my very emotive friends. I'm different. I'm complete and I don't need to get fixed. I'm happy the way I am."

Or we could shove them in the arms of a dude because "Pretty people can't stay single" or "Well, the actresses were memeing about it so they're lesbians now. Look! The pretty lady is a lesbian! We're a good corporation!"*

*also kudos for the accidental biphobia by implying that the evil mirrorverse is such because the lesbian married a man. It would be as such if it wasn't for the fact that it's canon that she was into men in the older stuff (despite both I and the fandom wishing otherwise because fuck that guy). Good job, guys 😬

I'm going to leave this here:

2) The smart guy is an asshole

"Doc, have you seen that new Sherlock Holmes? He's a genius but he doesn't get social interactions."

I used to think that writers out there think that making a smart guy into an asshole is actually a genius take, an original idea that no one has tried before and something that will keep me invested into any adventures that do not include this guy and a truck running him over for 40 minutes straight.

Now I'm pretty sure that someone is just bitter they could never grasp what a sphygmomanometer is or that the Earth is round and takes their frustrations out like this. The asshole nerd is everywhere and he's sexist because he's smarter than women and their uteruses.

Actually, too many characters are made into assholes.

"So, we're a crew of highly trained specialists with an average of three uni degrees each. We can build a nuclear accelerator using a spoon and an old Betamax tape but never in those ten years of training has anyone taught us about such trivial things like discipline and respect for our peers. Fuck you!"

It isn't the best of feelings when I'm rooting for the character the closest to myself to die a horrible death, you know. Please, make adults act like adults again. I'm not watching a Fortnite gameplay.

3) In English, dammit!

Take that bit from above about the highly trained crew and add that for some reason never in their entire career they ever learned how valuable clear communication is when you're about to blow up with your entire spaceship.

"The thing is on fire! The fucker broke down!" Very professional and also very useful when ever your goddamn toilet is connected to a supercomputer.

Once again, there's two options: either this is the sloppiest attempt at making science accessible to those very stupid children networks insist actually exist in the real world, or someone simply can't be arsed to use words with more than four syllables.

Either way, I find that stupidifying people, especially in a sci-fi show, breaks the immersion and basically shoves your story on the side of fantasy. You know, the genre where every slightly strange even is explained with ✨magic!✨

Also, swearing. You don't look good if your characters make the AVGN sound like a gentleman.

[sophieinwonderland]

Plural Writing: A Tale of Three Kronks

So, I recently saw a post in the syscourse tag about not wanting DID/OSDD representation because their lives are "boring and mundane" and it's hard to write stories with those characters without focusing on the most demonized aspects of it.

While this was DID/OSDD specific, it also plays into a larger conversation about plural representation. On this blog, we've been talking about the portrayal of tulpas in media like Who's Lila. Frankly, the tulpa creepypasta is just a new version of the evil alter trope.

All of this has made me interested in talking about plural characters and how to do them right.

And I want to say that the point about most people with DID/OSDD having boring and mundane lives isn't wrong. And an important thing about stories is that the main characters can't be boring and mundane. At the same time though, what makes the character extraordinary doesn't have to be their plurality.

This train of thought brought me to Kronk.

In the Emperor's New Groove, Kronk serves as the assistant and possible boy toy to the Emperor's evil advisor, Yzma.

Kronk also has a shoulder angel and a shoulder devil. It's a pretty common trope in a lot of cartoons. Although they generally aren't fully formed characters like they are in this movie. Each one has its own personality. They banter back and forth like old acquaintances. They later even both agree on trying to kill Yzma.

Here's a complication of their appearances in both Emperor's New Groove and Kronk's New Groove, for context:

I think it's fair to say that Kronk is a system.

Probably not a DID or OSDD system. It's actually more likely he has some type of psychotic disorder, given that he seemingly experiences his headmates as audio-visual hallucinations, and talks to them out loud even when other people are around.

Although like I've recently discussed, some DID and trauma specialists use the same "system" language to describe self-aware agents in psychotic disorders as they do in DID/OSDD. So whether these hallucinations are a result of DID/OSDD or a psychotic disorder, Kronk definitely qualifies as a system according to the definitions used by these psychologists.

However, that's never actually a major point of his character. In the first movie, Angel Kronk and Devil Kronk only show up a couple times. Being a system isn't what makes Kronk's character extraordinary. The plural aspect of Kronk's character is actually treated as mundane. He's just a guy who happens to have these other people in his head.

And I think that's something important to keep in mind for anyone considering writing plural characters. You don't have to make the story about their plurality. You can just make a story that has people who happen to be plural. In this case, it's the cliche shoulder angel and demon. But maybe in another case, it's a child version of the host. Or imaginary friends. Or fictives from sources the host hyper-fixated on. Or headmates made from childhood stuffed animals.

That's not to say that you can't have stories about a character being plural too. It's just that you don't have to make your stories about that. The plurality can just exist.

(It's also not to say that you can't write about the more sensationalized aspects of plurality if you want, drawing from your own experiences and those of others you know. There aren't hard rules here.)

It can also be used to provide a unique window into the heads of your characters by allowing their innermost thoughts to be the subject of internal dialogue between different headmates, as opposed to the singlet's inner monologue.

And because I know this will be mentioned because one of Kronk's headmates is a literal devil... I actually think Kronk, as a system, does a good job at avoiding the evil alter trope.

Okay, yes, Devil Kronk looks scary and generally advises Kronk to do selfish things. But Devil Kronk isn't evil. He's looking out for the system's best interests first, putting those above anything else. Devil Kronk is a protector. And even if he's often in the wrong, his council is still important. Angel Kronk alone would just as easily have Kronk sacrifice his own needs for everyone else all the time, never caring about what's right for Kronk.

I have friends who have taken demonic inner world appearances, but that appearance doesn't make them evil. And neither is Devil Kronk. He's just someone who cares about Kronk's well-being and prioritizes that over the well-being of others.

So, there you have it. For anyone looking to make a story with someone who is plural rather than making a story about someone being plural, maybe look at Kronk as an example.

[ecoamerica]

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