#my characters are usually good struggling with their darker side

[herssian]

nothing ominous about this tiefling أ‿أ

[54625]

Five do you have any cloud tips? you are very good at them and i am struggling. (specifically rain clouds if you are able, but i'll take normal clouds too)

Hopefully this doesn't end up too long-winded, but here is MY general process on how to paint clouds. This is not guaranteed to work for everyone, it's just a walkthrough of how I see it.

On the (semi) realistic side of things

There are some general rules of thumb when creating the form of a cloud. With your average cloud, you can split it up quite easily into large shapes and layers, which you then simply detail a little to form the fluffiness.

This is a very simple and classic example of a cloud. I kept the basic outline of the cloud rounded, formed with essentially a bunch of intersecting circles. I made the layers slightly different colours to get across a sense of depth; don't forget that clouds exist in a 3d space and aren't just a flat shape. When adding in the highlights, I made sure to shape them. If you look a little closer you'll see that pretty much all of them make little "C" shapes, continuing to establish the roundness of the cloud. (I do this for traditional painting too; making sure that my paintbrush always goes in round, circular strokes to blend the paint into that shape.)

Now let's look at rainclouds. Same principle, a couple differences. Firstly, and most importantly; most of the time, when it is raining or storming, the entire sky is clouded, no blue visible. You can usually get away with portraying this by simply replacing the blue sky in the background with grey, but don't forget to introduce a little variation/shape to show that it's not flat.

Secondly, one thing I love to do with clouds like these is this sort of "negative highlight" thing. As you can see at the peaks of the cloud it actually gets darker, and the cracks or creases between the layers are the lightest parts. This gets across the look that the cloud is being lit from behind rather than the side, which makes a lot more sense for clouds like these.

On the stylised side of things

Clouds in real life come in tonnes of different shapes, sizes, and colours. Because of this, clouds can look like pretty much anything; you can and should use this to your advantage in your art.

Clouds are the perfect subject matter for stylisation, in my opinion, as they do not have to look realistic at all in order to get across their intended effect, and because their real life counterparts vary so vastly.

When drawing clouds in a stylised way, I find there are two main principles to remember:

1. Prioritise colour.

and

2. Contextualise.

It is pretty easy, despite the lack of detail, to understand what these colours are meant to represent. You can get a lot across by simply using very strong and well selected colours, and this is true for all aspects of art, not just clouds. The white and blue makes you think of bright clouds on a sunny day, the orange and pink is so famously associated with sunsets, and the dark greys remind you of storms and rain. Even without much form, good colour choices will still help you tell what you are looking at.

This is where "contextualising" comes into play. Your clouds will immediately become much more recognisable as clouds as soon as you give them a good context (with colours that match the atmosphere) to stand behind. You put them above a landscape or behind a building or above a character and it becomes obvious as being the sky. Adding a context frees you and really allows you to fuck around with styles and shapes to your heart's content, while still keeping the intention clear.

With this in mind, you can stylise in whatever ways you so wish, and play around with shapes and movement and brushes. (And hopefully be a little more creative than these examples 😅)

I hope this was at least a little bit helpful! I look forward to seeing what you have made/ will make.

[raayllum]

it’s high key really annoying the attention toh gets on this website while no one acknowledges tdp exists

Yeah, sometimes I wish TDP got more recognition and appreciation in a fandom space for its storytelling (the parallels, the worldbuilding, the mature theme explorations) simply because we haven't had a western kids' show go this hard since TLOK (even if I think Korra stumbles in a lot of ways) and arguably ATLA in its explorations of war and morality, two things that TDP is obsessed with, as well as a sometimes overwhelming discussion of Grief.

However, to be frank, while many teen and adult fans of kids cartoons say that they want darker themes and storylines, what that usually means, I think, is more akin to something like TOH or She Ra, in which you know 1) your favourite characters will always typically survive with maybe one or two minor parental or villainous exceptions, and 2) one or two characters in an otherwise fairly cookie cutter 'good guy' cast will have a redemption arc or be quirky morally dubious in a way that's played for comedy, and there will be a handful of significantly "Oh Shit!" darker or creepier moments. The characters are mostly teenagers, the heavier plot stuff is regulated to a few standout episodes, with most of the other conflicts being things like figuring out how to make friends or struggling with not fitting in or deciding what you want to do with your life. And those are all good explorations, and it's not as though TDP doesn't touch on some of that (Callum is finding his place in the world, Rayla is 'changing careers', Ez struggles with his new responsibilities and not fitting in, Soren - like Hunter - leaves an emotionally abusive relationship with a parental figure).

But I think it's TDP's attachment of all of those things to morality that makes the emotional stakes higher and less comforting and/or comfortable for people who are, likely, going to fiction for escapism rather than exploration. (To be clear: one is not better than the other, I just know what my personal preferences are.) Rayla's 'career/schooling' change is whether she's going to kill people for a living; Callum deciding what sort of mage he's going to be is rooted in deciding how much he's willing to either slowly destroy himself or take on the impossible, both with some dire consequences; Ezran not fitting is is also tied to having mysterious, unknown magical powers the story still hasn't fully explained the root cause of. Yes, the three main kids are typically good people who want to do the right thing, but that's much easier said than done (Ezran burning the monster soldiers, Callum's ruthlessness, Rayla's self sacrificial tendencies manifesting in destructive ways). TDP is never going to have an episode of "I lied to my friends because I wanted them to think I was cool or not a nerd" or "I'm scared of them preferring someone else over me" or "I need to learn how to be a good friend" (hi TOH with like 5 episodes and She Ra).

Like Rayla lies to the boys, but that's because she isn't sure how to tell them that her father murdered theirs and made them orphans, and she's worried it will accordingly be a wedge between them.

Like, there's hardly any episodes of TDP that don't talk about grief or death or both in some manner. The show consistently explores unreliable narrators across all sides of its ethical spectrum(s). S4 has a subplot regarding religious traditions and the ethics of the death penalty. Most of Arc 1 and now into Arc 2 sees good people with good intentions or understandable motivations doing pretty terrible things to either themselves, the people around them, or both. The death and body horror imagery aren't one offs, but consistent series defining elements that are always treated seriously. Villains aren't people who don't love their families (or anyone) and good guys aren't good because they're good friends to one another. It's more complicated than that, from the body swap and discussions of the soul in S1, to the cycle of violence laid out explicitly in S2, to explorations of punishment and exile in S3.

Overall, I'm fine with the success and appreciation that TDP gets; some of my students watch it, actually, which makes it useful in some of our lesson discussions. Because TDP is a good show for kids, yes, but it certainly never pulls its punches in forcing all of its ensemble cast through the wringer.

TLDR; due to age demographics and tonal differences, particularly in character conflicts, themes, and amount of Lore, I'm not surprised at all that TDP is pretty underrated on tumblr. Again, doesn't mean these elements of 'maturity' make it Better (although I do think it's written more cohesively than She Ra and more consistently than TOH in its set up and payoff), I just know where my (and many other's) preferences lay accordingly, and am not surprised at the split.

[starlightsuncrow]

Finally have a free momence, I was curious what your Starfall is generally about, and how it compares to your GW2 alt universe! And any character differences as well, since you mentioned a few different alts (sorry if you’ve explained this in a post before !)

- @magitechbatt

omg,,,, you want to know about Starfall? Buckle in!! It's gonna be long. I've never got the chance to explain so thank you!! Starfall is an original setting @cheddargoblin and I created, the story's premise is: "Long ago a star fell, and changed the world forever both physically and magically and even in it's current day societies across the world struggle to re-find their place in a world grown more wild and hostile around them."

Medieval-ish fantasy with themes of freedom, change, healing and bonds, a good story about found family and overcoming entirely different kinds of bias and classism.

Gw2 has some shared themes and the setting isn't too far off ! Starfall is darker,cruel though. One big difference tho is Starfall happens mainly in snowy regions! Now onto the characters!

I'll speak about my main two, since the rest are still a big WIP.

In Starfall Crow is an ex-mage hunter who escaped the Guild ( main place where hunters are trained and also big anti mage propaganda between all the things, even if they are mages themselves). In escaping he's constantly hunted, due to being an important figure and...a big weapon that was trained specifically for "purposes" by his mentor. The black arms are tattoos ! Cruel symbol of how many mages you captured/killed and so on. Has to learn to fight his own life of bias and brainwashing to live "outside". He's like a caged dog who finally tasted freedom and will fight for it to death if needed. Closed off with MANY issues, they haven't lost a small spark of naivety and hope though. Big part of the character is the revelation they're a fae ! No, they didn't know it. It's complicated. Hehe's also a "cursed" fae, courtesy of the mentor again. Describing the cursed fae as magical beings who have to survive on blood and magic, since they're made of magic. Without feeding they end being feral beasts who won't ever go back to being sane. They go through addiction and withdrawl usually. He's a fighter and adapts easily, someone give him a break please. He's the struggler but keeps going , a love for freedom keeps him going. Crow in Gw2 is a saltspray who fled from the Jade Wind, searching for a cure or something to help back home. After centuries of disguises he fell into the end of the Inquest and got basically " cursed". Vampirism about blood and magic, for a being like a lesser dragon it's...not fun i'd presume. Got saved by Dragora, lived and learned under Drago's wing and then joined the commander's gang in s2. Revealed their true identity much later during EoD<<< caused some drama. They're Starfall's Crow without the harsh environment they lived in, in gw2 he got a taste of it but not enough to compromise his whole life. Marked by it but doesn't let it control them. He's an exploration of who Crow would have been if he escaped sooner from the Guild.

So both keep that duality of self, same coin, just a little to the side in gw2. Neither of them are too different. Fun story about Cardamomo, he comes from gw2 actually! He's my commander and that's part of his core personality. Never make me think of jokes with characters and pairings because 90% of times they end up happening <<< Cromo happened this way. In Gw2 he's the sylvari commander, a naive and full of wonders sylvari who learnt fast war changes you. Forever.

Cute guy who sees the horrors and comes back angry, frustrated and not much hope and will to fight again, but that's all he knows how to do after all. That's why Gyala and part of Soto hit hard. They're tired, they don't know how to rest. Big trust issues? Or more about they can't let be seen weak and vulnereable. The important thing to know about Momo is that he wasn't Cardamomo at first. He starts as Caoimhe until the Departing. He dies, he comes back. He comes back different. I love the mirror theme so much he IS a mirror. A broken one. Caoimhe died, Cardamomo came back with less memories, some gone forever and a personality made to withstand the trauma just to fight Balthazar. Oops, Caoimhe took too much time to recover and now this commander has two pilots. They're the same guy still! Momo isn't a new different identity, he's more of...some aspects put together to give time to heal. Similar personalities to the point there's no much difference unless you know what to look for ( they have a slightly different behavior and manner of speech). It's like a fragment who learnt to be its own thing, while still following the main purpose of protector.

It's a toughie to describe I'll be honest, if I can finish that fanfic i'm writing maybe it helps understanding it (or i can simply ramble on another post <3) In Gw2 he's a dryad, beings born with a specific purpose ( in this case it's about balance). I'm still working on many details but he keeps the commmander "role" so to speak and absolutely gains the Caoimhe/Cardamomo duality again. Loss is part of his character in many ways too eheh. He's a bit more off putting and warms a bit slower than his gw2 alt though! Playing more on the fact this guy isn't human at all. I've been trying to keep both my ocs' cores for both settings with some modifications but more or less the alts end up being "what ifs" and explorations of a part of the main character that can't be explored easily in the main setting. They aren't as different as I make them sound probably.

Fun fact, dryads and fae are rivals, this didn't stop Cromo happening( one half didn't know, the other didn't care). The main alt i can explain is Dragonheart for Momo! Selkastra ( saltspray is just an appereance change and plays more on Crow being young but still... a dragon) Dragonheart is Momo's champion self? so to speak? That one transformation in EoD but what if we can access to it under circumstances and what if it follows the different aspects too? Otherwordly momo <3 Each aspect affects Momo differently and he acts as consequence too. Physically and mentally. If Aurene is the Prism Dragon, Cardamomo is the prism itself reflecting, each side something different. There's Fae Crow to explain too, but nothing too big changes apart from making him extremely ethereal and fey-like. Not to be mess with, fae are known to bend rules and twist them to their like. Even tho Starfall Fae are...a bit particular. I hope these are enough to answer your questions, which im so so happy u asked!! (it got so long he l p) I'm terrible at summaries but this made my whole day, thank you so much again !! <333

[sonic-love-island-official]

Sonic (Bio/Character design ramble)

Sonic's bio/ramble is here !!! This is not a drill !!!

Kudos to my sister, who took up writing Sonic's bio and commentary. She majors in Sonic Psychology, it's only right for her to continue writing, expanding on, and doing the titular character justice (because I sure can't ripp </3).

Info under the cut, as usual x

Sonic is a 25 year old influencer. He's lived in Green Hill for the majority of his life but his job and adventurous lifestyle often leads him far from home. Sonic's reason for entering the show was purely childish: a challenge. So Sonic arrives with the intent of messing around and having fun.

Sonic is free-willed and easy-going. This makes him a fun guy to be around and that's why he thrives on the Island. Given the fact he likes to have freedom... he's never tied down and struggles with commitment when it comes to love. He never stays in one spot for too long, therefore he can never stick around one person for too long. Sonic also has no type. Unlike other characters in the series or people on Love Island, Sonic gravitates to whoever he feels is giving a good energy back to him or someone he can bounce off (although he is not above basing things off physical attraction in some situations). Saying that he didn't arrive with the intent of finding love on the Island, doesn't mean he isn't genuine.

Ultimately, Sonic makes it clear that he doesn't quite know what he wants...

External design choices !! (visual appearance - incl. formation of base sim, references taken, makeup choices, fashion style... etc.)

Sonic is one of the characters I'm still not happy with and never will be because of the way the game works and my unreasonable expectations for this man. Sonic has been reworked twice in an attempt to get him perfect. When taking inspiration from the game series, Sonic took heavy inspiration from modern Sonic (Mainly the 2010's Sonic opposed to the early 2000's models.)

Sonic is the most iconic character in the series and so I wanted to do him justice by blending features of his design with the idea of him looking relatively desirable. In the first design his features relied heavily on his defining 'Sonic' features such as his pointy nose, big eyes and blue hair. His nose (in my opinion) was exaggerated when looked at front on and this was purely because of his skin overlay. His skin overlay was custom content and was the same that we used for Amy except there was one issue, it didn't work for males as it changed the way his facial features looked. As it looked fine on Amy, I thought nothing of it for Sonic, until it finally grated on me enough to change it. This is where his second design was made and thought out.

In Sonic's redesign, I gave more thought into how he looked beside other similar characters such as Shadow and Silver. As Sonic was the first to be made in the game, I didn't have the other two boys to compare him to. Now that the other boys were there to refer to, I could make sure they looked slightly similar. I decided to make their noses and mouths appear similar while keeping key things like eyes, hair and face shape unique. Sonic's eyes were kept rounded and big much like his canon design and so I wanted the eye colour to be accurate too. Sonic's eye colour is a slightly darker shade of green than Amy's and that was carried over into Sonic's design. When it came to his skin tone we had to look very closely at his Frontiers model. In a picture we looked at, we could see a slight olive undertone rather than pink. After some debate about it, we incorporated the skin tone into his redesign.

I've come to terms that I'll never be able to get Sonic right in The Sims 3, but I do like Sonic's redesign better (not to mention how proud of his side profile I am. He looks so good from side on <33). He went from looking older than 25, untrustworthy and unattractive, to looking Younger than 25, frankly cute and closer to his 'fakers', Shadow and Silver.

[ Acknowledging both designs is crucial, as a ton of screenshots have Sonic's older design in them as opposed to his newer one. And we'd rather perish than retake screenies because we altered him. I like to think it's a good display of what the design process looks like :) - bee ]

Sonic's fashion is fashion. As an influencer, he would receive a lot of branded clothes from sponsors or for product review. (This headcanon was formed from the SOAP shoes he wears in SA2). While also he'd need to keep up with fashion trends to maintain a good image. On the island, Sonic wears casual things such as sneakers (occasionally his classic red but he switches it up a bit), t-shirts, bomber jackets, jeans, cargo pants or shorts, things tend to be baggy for comfortability. Sonic also has a gold ring that he wears on his left, middle finger. This idea was not only a reference to the games and how many rings he collects, but more specifically a game where he wears a ring, Sonic and the Secret Rings.

Internal design choices !! (personality, characteristics, psychology)

I am a strong believer that Sonic is more complex than most think. He's very good at masking anything negative he's going through with a smile. A good example of this is in Sonic Frontiers. I took a lot of inspiration from Frontiers because in my opinion it is the BEST Sonic characterisation. I also took inspiration from SA2, Sonic X and many other games or media to count (Sonic's a pretty consistent character when it comes to some aspects of his personality.) In this, Sonic is a good blend of childish and mature. He tends to show his childish nature when interacting with Knuckles and Shadow or when things take a negative turn, he tries to lighten the mood with a joke to change the topic. His maturity shows when he gets fed up with people being disingenuous or rude to him and/or his friends. He also doesn't hold grudges and tends to see things that others don't. But Sonic isn't perfect because of his spontaneous actions and changes.

Sonic tends to act strangely if he feels things are getting too deep. He'll surprise everyone with an unexpected action that he can't justify himself. He cares for the people he loves, even if he doesn't know why.

Sonic tries to give people second chances when it comes to friendships and consistently tries to befriend or bring happiness to the most stubborn of people. It may be because he struggles with social cues on occasion, so he doesn't quite know when to stop sometimes.

When hurt, he places up a protective wall to try and shield himself from vulnerability. This is where Sonic shuts himself off from other people by friend-zoning or going cold in some situations. He keeps people who cause him to be vulnerable at arms length and will keep them there. So long as he can help it, anyway.

[ Except we do NOT give him that kindness. Everyone faces their problems eventually. Sonic most of all >:)) - bee ]

Fun facts / trivia :

A lot of Sonic media is included in this AU, so Sonic has 3 siblings. Sonia, Manic (triplets) and "Classic" (younger brother). This is because we thought it would be fun to add Sonia and Manic from Sonic Underground. Sonia ends up playing a big part in his arc. Classic could have been left or represented as a young version of Sonic but in the Twitter Takeovers, Classic is said to be a separate entity from Modern Sonic. And Sonic having many siblings just fitted his personality. [ I think I saw something about Classic/Modern Sonic and the dealio with them and the funky timeline, but I've forgotten what that was now. I love the idea of Brother Sonic so much to care lmao. Give him all the siblings. I trust him not to burn the house down <3 - bee ]

Sonic has ADHD. [ Yeah :) I mean- is this even a hc anymore. It's basically canon in my eyes hehe - bee ]

Sonic loves to talk and brag about his travels around the globe. Especially since he's previously visited Spagonia (home to the Sonic Love Island villa) before arriving on the show. This boy has a story for everything, and we mean EVERYTHING.

[deadboyswalking]

5 Quick Tips For Writing Child Characters

1. Really, really pay attention to the age of the child you're writing. I've read a lot of fics where a 7 or 8 year old is written like a 3 year old. By age 4-5, children can speak their native language fluently and are pretty easy for others to understand. They may struggle with higher-level unfamiliar words, idioms/metaphors, and complex questions (especially if they're hypothetical), but they will not baby-talk unless they have a language disability. Most children can bathe and dress themselves alone by age 5-6 (though they may need some supervision/instruction for hygenic reasons before age 8 or so). Research and use references for normal human growth so you understand how big an average kid of a certain age would be.

2. Children's lives are context-based and their perception of what is normal/expected is learned from their home environment. It is perfectly normal for a child of any age to feel scared or unsure in an unfamiliar environment, and they'll look to trusted adults for reassurance. If there are no trusted adults around, many kids will have a strong emotional reaction at the sudden reminder that they are a small person alone in a very big and strange world. Unless they grew up being encouraged to participate in adult conversation, many children are very shy about speaking to adults, especially ones that they don't know very well. Like other people, children have opinions, questions, and thoughts. Their culture and home life will determine how comfortable they feel expressing those things. Unfortunately, this is also why many abused children think that what they're experiencing is normal and acceptable. A young boy might know that he's scared of his father, but until he is told otherwise, he'll probably assume everyone's father is scary and that's just how life is.

3. Children usually have a lot of curiosity about the adult world, but their perception of it and imitation of adult behavior/speech is often hilarious. Again, it's that lack of context. If you don't believe me, listen to a 5 year old have a pretend phone conversation. It's clear that they're mimicking their caregivers with the phone phrases they use, but they have no idea what those phrases actually mean. I have Movie Quote Parents, so I know that I was saying all types of things as a kid without even realizing I was referencing something.

4. With that being said, don't fall into the "From The Mouths Of Babes/Children Say The Darndest Things" trap. Children are not inherently truthful (though they're not exactly good liars) and as stated, often totally misunderstand things because of their lack of context. The Precocious Honest Wisdom Of An Innocent Little Angel is, in my opinion, very annoying, overly sentimental, and inaccurate. This is my "please stop having cutesy child characters tell two oblivious adults they're in love with each other" plea to the universe.

5. Speaking of "childhood innocence" as a concept, I don't think it exists. "Childhood innocence" is truthfully "childhood ignorance." For most people, it slowly wears away as you grow up and learn more about the world. Children also have a capacity for cruelty, just like adults, and their mimicry of adult behaviors/opinions/speech (without critical thinking skills) can be just as hurtful to other kids. There's a much darker side to losing childhood ignorance as well. Even leaving out how much kids lie and how deliberately mean they can be, many children go through or are exposed to horrific things at a young age. A child who has had to grow up fast due to trauma or lifestyle or simple necessity won't exactly have that rosy, idealized picture of childhood innocence.

This was a long post! 😅 I hope you find it helpful.

[booktomoviebrawl]

We are not judging how bad the movie is, we are judging which adapted the book the worst. There are good movies that are bad adaptions.

Propaganda below the cut (spoilers may apply)

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (originally the Darren Shaw saga/The Vampire's Assistant):

Took on a much more early 2000s teen flick approach to a book that, while initially for younger audiences, had a lot of very dark and Intense moments. The casting was also fairly bad and it really went in a different direction from the novel.

Bad acting, weird script choices, not even Ken Watanabe & Salma Hayek could save it

Characterisation was nothing like the books and it couldn't decide if it was a comedy or horror

Seventh Son (originally The Spook's Apprentice):

The book is a dark fantasy book for children, with fantastical elements that ring true to folklore but still have their own distinct flair, really well written horror centered on the fact that the protagonist is still just a boy, and a very strong theme that the spook opposes the forces of darkness and evil with knowledge and wits rather than heroics. The series as a whole has a lot of digs at established powers, both the Church or the nobles. It also has a mentor that is showed as imperfect from the get-go because of sexist tropes, and a protagonist who criticizes it even at the beginning when he's just a boy. The movie makes the protagonist an adult, turns the spook from an old wise man who practices using a stick (peasant weapon!) to fight and throwing silver chains to immobilize supernatural creatures, into the SURVIVOR of an ORDER OF KNIGHTS, and generally removes all the slow creeping horror to turn it into generic shitty fantasy movie #493, with bad acting on top. And it bombed so bad it probably RUINED the Spook's series chances to ever get a good adaptation, damnit!

Mentor gets changed from being part of a long line of people with a cool fantasy job to a discount Templar, cool methods of handling monsters got reduced to just killing them, awesome assassin grandma changed to Default Movie Witch, and more! It's pretty much not the story anymore.

It takes pretty much nothing that I liked from the books with the initial premise and some names being pretty much the only things kept intact.

The plot and world were completely changed. Most of the changes make for a much more generic and, in my opinion, worse story. Spooks in the books are seventh sons of seventh sons who are trained to fight creatures of the dark because seventh sons of seventh sons are able to sense the supernatural. They are hired for jobs by ordinary people, usually exorcising ghosts or capturing creatures like boggarts and witches. In the movie, the Spooks are also seventh sons of seventh sons, but for some reason, they are an order of knights. In the books lot of people think Spooks are charlatans until they come face to face with a ghost or creature of the dark because the world is usually pretty ordinary and peaceful. The setting is inspired by Lancashire and the world feels pretty unique. The setting in the movie is Generic CGI Fantasy Land where everyone has American accents and big CGI monsters are everywhere.

The protagonist Tom and Alice, his friend and later love interest, were aged up like in the Percy Jackson movies. In the books, Tom starts out as a 12-year-old and grows up as the series continues. He starts out very uncertain and wants to stay on his family farm. He only becomes a Spook because he knows he has to get a job to ease the financial burden on his family. He grows into his role as a Spook's apprentice over time. Alice is a pretty interesting character in the books, she is naturally very talented as a witch but struggles with the darker side of her powers over the course of the series. In the movie, they became incredibly generic Hero and Love Interest characters with pretty much no personality and instantly fall in love.

Mother Malkin was a first-book villain, who was mostly only such a threat because Tom was an extremely inexperienced 12-year-old at this point who accidentally released her and didn't realise how dangerous she was. She was monstrous and decrepit and fed on blood. In the movie she is turned into a beautiful seductress and a world-ending threat who can turn into a dragon. They also made her the Spook's lover for some reason.

Tom's mother is a really cool character in the books who pushes him to become a Spook despite him being reluctant and plays a larger role in the later books. In the movie, Tom is the one who wants to be a Spook and his mother doesn't want him to.

I think the character who got it worst was the Spook himself, John Gregory. In the books, he is a former priest at the end of his career as a Spook, he is incredibly uptight and disciplined to an extent that other Spooks find over the top. For example, he has a rule of fasting before a battle that he makes his apprentices follow and he only kills as a last resort. He's tough but usually pretty fair to Tom and explains things to him so he doesn't get hurt. In the movie he is pretty much the complete opposite, he's a drunkard who spends the whole movie making getting angry and fighting and doesn't seem very interested in teaching Tom how to be a Spook. Also, the accent that Jeff Bridges uses is terrible.

I'm not sure the movie would be enjoyable if you hadn't read the books, having read them I hated it, but I feel like it would be mediocre at best even without the comparison. The acting is pretty bad despite the big-name cast. I think you could maybe enjoy it in a so bad it's good kind of way. The books were spooky and pretty charming from what I remember and I think if they had been adapted more accurately, preferably as a TV show, it could have been pretty good. Sorry this is such an essay, I've never hated an adaptation more. It's been a long time since I've both read the books and seen the movie, so if anyone wants to correct anything feel free.

[voller-ehrgeiz]

Hello!

Let me come visit you~

I have a few questions again!

✍️If you were to describe your view of characters from the category, "a brief description and pros/cons of the character," what would it be?

✍️Do you have any clues because what classic plots from literature can work with the characters, within canon or outside of canon?

✍️In your opinion, is there a character (perhaps a favorite) that a character from another fandom is somehow (appearance, character, story) similar to? Kindred spirits, so to speak.

I hope you are fine?

I wish you a lot of vitality and good health!🍀

Hey, thanks for checking in on me! Guys, I'm being interviewed! 🎤

So, answering the first question without turning it into a three-hour monologue is kinda tough! Generally, I'm drawn to characters on the darker side of things, villains or the morally ambiguous ones. What matters to me (can we still call it "pro-s"?) is how well their character develops, how much potential is there, and if their powers make sense considering the rules of the fantasy world they're in. Even if the franchise we're talking about tends to simplify things into a "black vs. white" moral world and occasionally breaks its own magical rules, I still see my favorites—Cedric, Phobos, Nerissa, and Ludmoore—as antagonists with their own motivations challenging the Oracles' somewhat hypocritical rule over the universe. (By the way, I'll never forgive reboot writers for actually turning the Oracles into villains and then handling it the worst way possible!) Now, the canon might be a bit too Disney to dive into morally ambiguous themes (the "cons" universal for all characters), but that's what fanon is for, right?

Now, when it comes to tropes, I'm all about those "struggle against fate" plots, especially when vengeance ends up hurting both sides. Phobos and Cedric are perfect for political drama and throne-race scenarios, not to mention the doomed, mostly one-sided relationship tropes. Nerissa's character goes beautifully with repressed grief and regret (there was this incredible fanfic covering exactly that, and MY biggest regret is not saving it before it vanished into the internet abyss). Ludmoore? Well, he's my go-to for the scientist/mage dabbling in forbidden arts and gradually losing their humanity.

And onto the last question: I don't usually compare characters across universes, but Phobos and Cedric have some striking look-alikes all across different media thanks to their conventionally attractive designs (the comparison list would go on forever). Nerissa, especially in the TV series, is an absolute queen and one of the best female antagonists I've ever seen, so no comparisons there, haha! Now, Ludmoore... as much as I adore him, the man is essentially King Jareth from "The Labyrinth". Not that I'm complaining, but the authors couldn't be more obvious with their inspiration.

Hope I managed to cover your questions, and apologies for the rambling! Appreciate your kind wishes!

[cursedvibes]

Your post about your favourite protagonists reminded me that once Gege said they didn't like too nice characters they're annoying and it's one thing they don't like about shonen. They tried to avoid that with Yuuji and I think that's why Yuuji feels so real and genuine. I usually like protagonists but Yuuji is one of the few I'd call my favorite. I just love how much care is put into his character. I sometimes wish jjk was more character driven rather than plot driven so we'd get more of Yuuji. But ah well! If we get a proper conclusion to his arc I'll be beyond satisfied and that's my only wish for the ending.

Yes, I very much agree! I usually don't like main characters, that's why I made that post, to figure out to me about characters like Yuuji, Phos etc. All too often they are just too perfect. What they say goes. Even if they have the most idiotic plan imaginable it will somehow work out because they are the protagonist. Everyone loves them because they are just so special and can do no wrong.

Yuuji does feel very realistic considering his circumstances. Just a vaguely suicidal boy who has lost everything and tries to survive in this completely new world he has been thrown into. He doesn't try to be a leader, he has only half a year of experience after all. He isn't the strongest and often has to rely on others, but that is his strength and makes the other characters more important than just empty hype machines. He easily gets along with people, but he has a hard time becoming close friends with them out of fear of hurting them or becoming too vulnerable. There are plenty of people who like him, but he is not worshipped. He wants to help as many people as possible, but he doesn't try to play the hero. Not anymore at least because when he did it in the beginning and blindly trusted into Sukuna or luck carrying him through it, he died. I also really like it when his darker side shines through like in his confrontations with Mahito. He will kill you if he has to or hates you enough, he's not above that.

I appreciate Gege's focus on the plot for the most part, since it never makes the story linger too long on tedious parts (until recently), but sometimes I do wish we would linger a little bit longer with some characters and their experiences, especially with all the dramatic stuff that has been happening since Shibuya. The characters don't have much time to rest and reflect though, so that makes sense. I also like this method of giving quick glimpses of a characters struggle, motivation, thoughts etc and then expanding on it bit by bit as the story progresses, it always gives you something to think about and makes you curious to find out more. Like with the reveal of Yuuji's past for example or Tengen & Kenjaku's relationship. I think Yuuji has gotten some good focus throughout the story though, I don't feel like something is missing, even if I'm of course always happy about more. Gege is at their best when writing (about) him.

Only thing that really bothers me is how everything has been put on hold for the Sukuna vs Gojo fight and how the majority of the main characters are just sitting around doing nothing. That feels very unrealistic, especially for Yuuji. I also would've liked a bit more focus on their reunion with Gojo and preparation for the final arc.

Like you said, my only wish for the final arc is a proper conclusion of Yuuji's character and also Kenjaku. Everything else I can live with.

[twisted-tales-told]

Writer’s ask game!

24. Favourite genre to write and read

HIII white collar mutual <333

This ask game

My favourite genre to read is complicated. It’s not so much about the genre as it is about the characters. I guess I like character led stories—but only if the world is also interesting. Like it doesn’t have to be magic, but there has to be *something* like, for example the raven cycle by Maggie stievater, if we were villains by M.L Rio, Madeline Millers writing, R.F Kuangs writing, The Darker Shade Of Magic by V.E Schwab, the captive prince trilogy <33333 love of my life actually. And the all for the games series!

Very different stories but a similar thread runs through them somehow.

My favourite stories to write in terms of original writing are what I call “small stories in big worlds” so like there will be this huge world—usually with magic, but the story itself will be quite contemporary. I like the mundaneness of magic, I want to write people being people, just within these grandiose places.

Like, I had this one story where there’s this boy, Aidan, and he’s been given this huge and terrible gift of magic. There’s no war, no struggle for power, he’s just a guy and he has to learn to live with his gifts. He wants to use it for something good. I really liked that story I should probably find the google doc.

As for fanfic, boy do I love a fantasy au. That’s where I have fun with plot because I can’t help but make it character led. I already know all the babes so well that I can actually focus on the plot and it doesn’t feel overwhelming.

There are a lot of aus I want to write. I have a little fic called Ghosts Of Us that I would LOVE to expand on again. Also a magic and mythology au, and an if we were villains au.

I really want to keep working on my 2 published wips too, mercy be and in our midst. They’re my babies but they have to be side hoes for now

[donutwatches]

MHA 2.6 - The Boy Born with Everything - part 2

This one is longer than usual because this episode is too damn juicy. Strap in folks, this one is an ESSAY.

I was not prepared. The implications of this are so much darker than anything I was expecting for this show. How did Endevour convince the Mom’s relatives for a marriage? Did the Mom’s opinion on getting married matter here? Was she forced? This is a rabbit hole of horror, it only get’s worse the more I think about it.  

I mean, MHA is lighthearted and generally feel-good. The darkest elements so far was the bullying and arguably All Might overworking himself to the point of emaciation/illness. While those are weighty subjects, the story has not dug into them with depth yet. Is it wrong of me to want this show to lean into some of its darker potential?

Daddy issues manifesting. I love that he is rejecting his Dad’s nonsense. He is clearly in a bad mental state and I wonder how that will impact his role in the tournament fights going forward.

Ouch. His own mother said “You so ugly, let me fix that with some BOILING WATER”. It’s like she burned him twice. 

Forgive me, this is clearly horrific, but my coping mechanism is tacky humor. So Dad and Mom are both abusive bags of shit? Todoroki’s left side resembles his Dad. Does his Mom hate her son for reminding her of Endevour?

I get that Todoroki wants to rebel against his Dad by rejecting the fire half of his quirk, but I worry that this is also a form of self-rejection. It is emotional self-harm to cut off part of his own identity. He is rejecting the half that his Mom called “unsightly”. He might have internalized that his mother hurt him/hates him due to any resemblance he has to his Dad. I love a juicy backstory.

I also love good art direction. The lighting on Todoroki has him split with half of his face in shadow and half in light. This is using lighting to communicate that Todoroki is torn between two paths, one dark, and one with hope. I do not know what the story is going to go with him, but the animators are showing us with the visuals that, while he is in shadow now, there is still light, and potential hope for him. 

This visual storytelling is also shown below with Bakugo in total shadow. Bakugo has been on a dark path from episode 1. Bullying, misdirected anger, pride, and selfish motivations have put him in a dark space.

However! He is shook by what he just eavesdropped on. His expression is, dare I suggest, introspective. This gives me hope for Bakugo’s character too. This loud mouth kid quietly listened to Todo’s story, and is now, maybe, self-reflecting. Am I deluding myself? It would be a long road for our resident rage monster to change his ways. I am an optimist, ok?

If Todoroki leans into the shadow, he will be regressing into what Bakugo represents in the story, someone who is held back by narrow-sighted motivations and anger that will only stunt his growth.

Honestly, Midoriya is in an awkward situation. I would have no idea how to respond to that level of trauma dump. To be fair to Todoroki, there is something so trust-worthy about Deku’s face. I also would have told him my worst trauma in 10 flat seconds, but that has got to be overwhelming for Deku to process.

The symbolic lighting triad is completed with Deku being in total light. Not a speck of shadow on this lil’ sprout. He needs that sunshine to grow! 

We know that being half way in the light equals hope for Todoroki, because Deku is in that light. We know that Midoriya represents hope for true heroism. That is his role as protagonist in MHA. If Todoroki is able to step into the light completely, he would become closer to Deku in his values, and therefore closer to true heroism. 

What are those values? Well, after struggling to find the words, our Baby Chia lands on ‘I have hope for myself because of the hope placed in me by people who support me.’ I love that as a corner-stone for heroism, and it is SO opposite to what I am used to seeing in U.S. based stories. 

This part fell flat for me. It kind of threw me off. Midoriya, your classmate just told you he is being abused, this is not about winning a silly school competition.

I am used to hearing Naruto level talk-no-jutsu, so this sub-par response from our protagonist initially disappointed me. BUT, I recognize that this is a teen who just had radioactive trauma dropped on his lap. How would he know what to say? Deku has no experience with this form of ‘villain-ness’ (abuse), because it is outside of his childish comic book conception of evil. 

Ok, now my over-thinking, absolute reaching is over, thank god, let’s get back to goober jokes next time.

Part 3 is here.

[neuxue]

from the maximum trojan mindfuck list, if you don't mind, which of those books would you recommend individually?

It would depend on what I know of your reading tastes and interests, really. I don't think any of those four are on my 'would not recommend to anyone under any circumstances' list, but nor would I put them on an 'everyone go read this immediately regardless of what you usually enjoy' list.

So if you don't want to complete the full trojan mindfuck, some brief guidance below to help you determine which ones you might be interested in:

The Iliad: I feel like this one's worth reading (at least in some version) if you're going to read any of the others, just because it's the (or in one case, a) basis from which they're drawing. And also because it's one of The Classics, and one so frequently adapted or referenced in the Western canon. For that alone I'd say it's a good one to at least be familiar with, but I do think it's a compelling story in its own right, especially if you're into proud doomed heroes, the impetus for and costs of war, and what happens when all the ties that bind - of love or loyalty or fate - collide. Also if you, like me, are into the weird bond that exists between the great champions of opposing sides, and the moment that shifts from symbolic opposition to personal vengeance.

The Song of Achilles: I will say this is the one on this list that I enjoyed the least; it's just... not really for me (with the exception of a single sentence - boys trained for music and medicine, and unleashed for murder - that found its way into my brain and parked itself there), but I also think it draws more scathing criticism than it perhaps deserves, from those who despise it. If you'll forgive the flippancy, though, I think the most concise description I could give this would be 'Angsty Soft Gay Iliad', in a way that feels very ~2012-2015 tumblr. You may enjoy this if you like the idea of reading a doomed hero's story from the perspective of their best friend/sidekick/lover, or the idea of The Iliad but with characters who are gentler, or if your first stop after reading The Iliad is the Achilles/Patroclus AO3 tag. I would probably not recommend this if you're here for sharper/darker characters, the brutality of war, or complex politics.

The Silence of the Girls: This might be the one I would recommend most widely, not necessarily because I enjoyed it more than the others, but because of the modern three on this list it's the one I feel the least 'it really depends on your tastes' about (though it does come with some content warnings). I think what I liked about this, especially in contrast to some of the feminist Greek mythology/ classics retellings that have been popular of late, is the way it leans into the 'original' story even (especially?) when that's uncomfortable, rather than reshaping it into something more appealing to a modern audience. Obviously the latter has its place as well, but I really like how Pat Barker navigates this. Briseis is not a girlboss and Achilles is a nightmare, and all these characters feel at once so recognisable as their legendary selves but also so very human, in the best and worst meanings of that word. Read this if you like characters who are not easily classified as good or bad, if you enjoyed the messiness of the Iliad and the characters involved in it, and if you thought 'but wait, what would that look like if you were not one of the chosen of the gods?'

Terra Ignota: oh man, what to even say here. This might be the one on this list that I enjoyed the most (though at times I still struggle to decide whether enjoyed is even the right word), but it might also be the one I would be most... particular about who I recommend it to. It's extraordinarily unhinged, extremely committed to an on-the-surface absurdly pretentious bit, and the layers of narrative unreliability mean that at times it feels like a thousand-plus-page trust-fall as you just have to hope that the author knows what she's doing. Also this is one where it's probably easier to list the content warnings that don't apply as those that do. That said, this series is an experience, and the sheer scale and scope of what Ada Palmer pulls off in the space of four (admittedly long) books is kind of astonishing, especially because you get a depth to it that stories with that level of ambition in terms of setting and characters and concept and style and-- don't always manage to deliver. Read this if extreme content warnings and characters who have done monstrous things are incentives rather than warnings to you, if you like complex politics that are almost indistinguishable from complex interpersonal relationships, if you struggle to find narrators who are unreliable enough to suit your tastes, and if you want a story that believes in hope and the good of humanity but doesn't soften edges or skim over the darkest facets of it to get there. Or, I guess, if you're really into The Enlightenment and want to see it as a space opera. ('Wait Lia I thought this was The Iliad?' that too. When I say this series is ambitious.)

[lizz-revs]

Taisho x Alice: Chapter 1

Taisho x Alice is a romance visual novel with multiple episodes, where it is your job as the heroine to save the male leads from their past and possible future.

This review is about the first episode and reviews for the future episodes will follow (after I played them).

Story

The problem with this game is that it is really difficult to go into details without including spoilers, so I will have to be very careful with my words. Roughly speaking, you are Yurika (you can re-name her before (!) starting the game in the menu) and your job is to save the person of your choice with the power of love. While this seems like your typical otome game, believe me, it’s not. You really have to save the guys and get your happy end at all costs because “every fairy tale should have a happy ending”.

The Characters

While I don’t know the overall story that connects Yurika to all of this, every male character in this series is based off gender-swapped fairy tale characters. However, their stories are “darker” than the stories we know from childhood and if you don’t help them, their future looks bleak.

Heroine (Yurika)

Yurika is an exceptionally pushy and determined woman. She is not the naïve and helpless heroine that you usually see in otome games, but a person, who knows what she wants and will do everything in her power to achieve that. Even, if she is shunned or ignored or pushed away, she still tries her best to get her happy ending at all costs.

Red

Red is introduced as Officer Red Riding Hood, who came to Yurika’s home to protect her from “The Big Bad Wolf” by staying at her place for a short time. He is very stoic and rational in the beginning, but changes a lot as he gets to know Yurika better.

Cinderella

Cinderella is the heir from a rich family and the fiancé of Yurika. He is described as a person, whose heart is made of ash – a rich playboy, who throws around money and cares about no one but himself. Again, Yurika is a positive influence in his story and brings him to the right path.

My Opinion

Honestly, I really liked this game and I will continue playing the second episode asap.

Yurika is so refreshing as a heroine because I really dislike the damsel in distress trope. If Yurika wants to do something, she goes and does it. For example, in Cinderella’s story she wanted to get to know her fiancé better and so she grabbed her luggage and went to his place. While this is not entirely realistic, it is at least something I can respect.

And the male leads in this game have also both very interesting personalities. They are struggling with their lives and have actual issues. It’s not like Cinderella is just “your typical playboy” and the heroine’s existence makes him suddenly a better human being and makes him change his ways. There is actually a reasonable explanation for his behavior and he does not change overnight just because the heroine is on his side. Also, that Red is suddenly at Yurika’s place to protect her from all evil like a shining knight in armor, is also fairly reasonably explained.

Basically, this game takes typical tropes from otome games and makes them actually reasonable. It’s even believable why both male characters fall in love with her in such a short time – you actually WORK FOR IT. I believe one of the male leads actually literally says that he started loving Yurika because she always did what he liked or wanted to hear. (no wonder this game is gonna be real dark real soon…)

Anyway, beside the characters, the writing is also not typical for an otome game. It usually uses very informal language and makes fun of typical anime and otome game stereotypes story and dialogue-wise. A good example for that is Alice, who actually rants about everyone and everything (including the mentioned tropes) – I really love him. However, while it usually made me smile, sometimes things were just too exaggerated (like the insinuations in Red’s route) and just cringe-worthy. Honestly, the game even cringes about itself sometimes, so take everything with a grain of salt.

All in all, I was really impressed by this game (10/10). While I did like Red’s story more than Cinderella’s, they both were very fun to read. Although, I do have to say that I kept being curious about Alice and the overall story of this game, while reading. Because it’s never explained. The game basically just says: “Go romance these guys. Have fun. Bye.” and then you do that… and what now? The suspense is really killing me…

[verkja]

Recommended Stories

This is not an exhaustive list, but it features some of my favourite whump stories on tumblr. It is a WIP, and I'll be adding to it as time goes on. Please let me know if you'd rather your story not be listed on here for whatever reason.

Complete

The Dark Side of the Sun by quietly-by-myself

Grey-and-gray morality, an interesting non-human whumper, and a darker ending than I usually go for (but it's entirely appropriate).

Hidden Depths (and its ongoing sequel) by starlit-hopes-and-dreams

Very nasty torture, captivity, and a complex, developing relationship. Veers closer to nsfw than others on this list, but not explicit.

My Little Mermaid by thoughtsonhurtandcomfort

Merwhump with a truly nasty, seemingly hopeless captivity situation for the whumpee, though she makes it out in the end.

Unbidden by alittlewhump

Plotty fantasy with heavy angst and torture. Lovely character dynamics. The main story is over, but it has an ongoing epilogue.

Undeserved (and its plottier sequel) by i-can-even-burn-salad

Good old-fashioned torture-in-a-dungeon with a side of angst. Undeserved itself is hurt-no-comfort, but the sequel is comfort-heavy.

Ongoing

After Irithyll by sapphicwhump

Mainly recovery whump and angst, so far, set in the world of Dark Souls 3. Features a very sweet slow-burn romance.

Captured by redwingedwhump

Dungeon-style torture that moves into a redemption and recovery arc. D&D-inspired setting and a morally greyish protagonist.

Close to Human by whumpinggrounds

Android/cyborg lab whump with a complicit caretaker, and a complicated, tentative developing friendship.

Dark Water by cryptidwritings

Pirate whump in which nobody is having a good time. Lots of captivity, beating, and indentured servitude - ouch.

Immortality Blows by brutal-nemesis

Lots of very creative nastiness, with a snarky immortal whumpee and plenty of humour intermingled with all the suffering.

Kohat continuity by lumpofwhump

and the related

Kohat verse by soheavyaburden

Whumpy space opera with several sub-series. Includes many characters and a setting developed over many years by the authors.

Mage of Violence/Dragon of Diamond stories by crash-bump-bring-the-whump

AUs and non-chronological pieces centering around a cast of memorable characters. Angst, magic, and polyamory? Sign me up.

Raising Chaos by whump-in-the-closet

Very interesting magic and some abrupt, visceral violence, with a snarky and likable protagonist.

Traces by whumping-in-the-wings

Interesting character dynamics, with a centaur whumpee and a caretaker stuck working for a whumper character.

Unlikely Salvation by just-horrible-things

Whumper-turned-whumpee and whumpee-turned-caretaker, with loads of guilt and a dark, conflict-ravaged setting.

Other

An Odd Little Thing by mortifiedatbeingknown

Robot whump featuring my dear 'literal garbage' trope and a caretaker character with her own struggles to address. The author appears to have deleted their blog and this story, but I’m leaving it up here in case they decide to come back.

Receiver of Guests (and its unfinished AU sort-of-sequel) by blood-is-compulsory

Lab whump with graphic insect-related gore, and a fascinating pair of characters. Has a fitting, rather bittersweet ending. The author appears to have deleted their blog and this story, but I’m leaving it up here in case they decide to come back.

[jinkieswouldyoulookatthis]

Y'all, I'm struggling. Writer flailing and complaining below the cut...

I'm writing something, trying to be good and do it properly, taking my time, writing it all at once, and going over it and over it to get it just right before releasing it into the wilds, but I keep getting stuck because it's got a darker element than I usually write. There is a massive non-con element to it because one character thinks another is actually someone else, and that other is totally taking advantage in a way that I don't believe the canon character would ever take advantage. I get hung up on canon, more than I like sometimes, so this is an exercise in working myself past that particular hurdle. Also, I love reading smut, smut is the life blood in my veins, but I'm so weirded out by writing it. It's ridiculous, really. So I feel like forcing myself to write it is good for me, you know. But OOF is it a struggle! Not helped by wanting it to actually be good, you know? So I have to almost close my eyes and just throw the rough smuttiness at the page then go back and make it make sense, then go back again and make it not suck (except where it's supposed to suck, wink wink, nudge nudge). But my brain is so tired of struggling against itself. Writing is fucking hard, y'all. Thank you for letting me rant. On the plus side, I've got 6600 words of a rough draft written so far and I'm really only maybe two thirds of the way through what I want to get into this, so all in this could be a 10K word fic when I'm done, which would make it the third longest story I've written. But this one isn't going to be broken down into chapters, I'm planning on posting it as just one part, although that remains to be seen. I still need to actually finish it. Sigh.

Btw, make sure you do what you can to support the WGA's strike, professional writers deserve fair compensation for their work.

[gardenofedenuniverse]

Alexander Skarsgård: ‘There’s a politeness to Swedes. It’s a facade. Deep down we’re animals’

The actor talks about his new film, the explicit sci-fi horror Infinity Pool, why he gave up acting for eight years – and why he likes playing darker, more twisted characters.

Alexander Skarsgård: ‘I’m quite mellow in my disposition.’ Photograph: Charlie Clift

Alexander Skarsgård is an embarrassing creep who tries to coerce women into partying naked with him in hotel suites. Or so it would seem from the version of himself that he played last year in Donald Glover’s comedy Atlanta. “I’m not saying that I dance around in a leopard-print thong in front of girls I don’t know,” he says. “But I’m also not saying that I don’t. That kind of thing works really well when there’s a kernel of truth in it.”

This twinkling, teasing playfulness represents the default setting of the 46-year-old actor. His natural self-deprecation is what makes it so startling when he turns up on screen as another of the brutes and bastards that have become his speciality over the years. There was the violently abusive husband in the HBO series Big Little Lies and the violently abusive cop in War on Everyone; a racist in Passing and a rapist in the Straw Dogs remake, as well as a sad, moustachioed sleazeball who sleeps with his partner’s underage daughter in The Diary of a Teenage Girl. Eric, the vampire he played across all seven series of True Blood, was an absolute catch by comparison.

It could even be argued that Skarsgård looks lost or vague in those roles that don’t supply some darkness to temper his natural sheen. He was ferocious as a mud-caked proto-Hamlet in Robert Eggers’s wild Viking epic The Northman, but as the yodelling vine-swinger in The Legend of Tarzan, there was none of the usual depth present behind his beauty. Whereas his character in the new satirical horror Infinity Pool – directed by Brandon Cronenberg, son of David – is up to his disbelieving eyes in vanity, amorality and rancid privilege.

Skarsgård plays a novelist called James living off the wealth of his wife, Em (Cleopatra Coleman), and struggling to write a second book six years after his debut. In search of inspiration, he and Em visit a luxurious resort in an unnamed country. What begins as a taunting comedy about the awfulness of the 1% veers off into extremity when the couple fall in with the hedonistic Gabi (Mia Goth) and her partner, Alban (Jalil Lespert). All it takes for the impressionable James to be hooked by these reprobates is a few compliments from Gabi followed by a sex act shown in graphic detail. “My job is so hard,” the actor says with a smirk.

Cronenberg and Skarsgård are both the sons of talented men. (Skarsgård’s father is Stellan Skarsgård who, like him, is part of the Lars von Trier Cinematic Universe.) Director and actor also have a certain placid temperament in common. “There’s a politeness to Canadians and Swedes,” says Skarsgård. “But it’s all just a fucking facade. Deep down we’re animals. We’re just very good at concealing it.” He gestures at me. “Brits too. It’s all down there, though. You can just open the tap and let it out. That’s what this movie does.”

Even as the film descends into gruesome horror, Skarsgård remains committed to the idea of his character as a show pony with delusions of being a stallion. “James is arm candy. His wife buys him all these expensive clothes. The two of them look like something out of a travel brochure: the perfect couple on vacation. And he’s trying to play that part while wanting also to be this serious author. But he’s not a Charles Bukowski, he’s not tormented and twisted. He isn’t in touch with the darker side of his personality.”That changes when James finds himself facing the death penalty after accidentally killing a local farmer. He is assured by the police that there is a way out: for a hefty price, a clone of him can be created to take the fall on his behalf. This is no dumb beast, however; the sacrificial lamb will possess all his memories and feelings. It will, in effect, be indistinguishable from him. In a film featuring explicit sex and violence, there is still nothing quite as unnerving as the moment James encounters his own double as it wakes with a shocked gasp in a vat of red goo.

“The film company gave me a prosthetic of the clone’s face with all that goo round it,” he says, shaking his head. “It’s incredibly disturbing. What am I meant to do with it? Should I just hang it on the wall? Put it in the fridge?” He decided to go down the practical joke route. “When I have guests over, I’ll hide it in different places around the house.”

Would he take the clone option himself, I wonder? “One hundred per cent! I don’t blame James for going to the ATM. But it opens up other questions. If the clone retains all his memories, then how will he ever know that he is not the clone? Maybe they’re killing the real James. That fascinated me, and I love that there’s no answer in the movie. To throw another wrench in the works: maybe James has even been to the island already. Maybe he’s done this sort of thing before.”

These questions of authenticity, dilution and duplication are especially intriguing for an actor who proposed that twisted alternate version of himself in Atlanta, and who claims to suffer even now from impostor syndrome. Had you been present in 2008 on the set of Generation Kill, the HBO Iraq war mini-series written by the creators of The Wire and shot in Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa, you might have noticed him sitting off to one side between takes, quietly totting up figures with a pen and paper. “It was my first big job,” he explains. “I was so convinced they were going to fire me that I started calculating the cost of recasting the role once they realised I wasn’t good enough. A month or two in, I was still convinced that every time the phone rang, it was my agent saying: ‘Pack your bags, you’re not cutting it.’ It was only when we’d done some big battle scenes that I knew it would be too expensive to replace me.”

It wasn’t as if he has a history of flunking, though there was the job in the Stockholm bakery that he was sacked from at the age of 16. “We were dipping little biscuits in chocolate for six hours a day in a basement and that was the only thing we got to do,” he says pleadingly, as though mounting the case for his defence. “When you get chocolate on your fingers, it’s tempting to put little stains on your buddy’s white robes. That turned into a bit of a food fight.” He smiles bashfully. Chocolate wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

A few years earlier, he had abandoned a childhood acting career after feeling freaked out by all the attention he received. “When people recognised me, or I thought they did, it made me very uncomfortable. I also believed everything I heard about who I was. Most people at 13 have no idea who they are. I was going from a boy to a man, which is a crazy transformation anyway, but to do it while being in the spotlight was not healthy. That’s why I didn’t work for eight years.” What could he learn now as an actor from his younger self? “There was a lot of joy,” he says. “That makes me sound bitter now! But there was something innocent and lovely and wide-eyed. It’s worth remembering that it can still be a big silly game.”

On Becoming a God in Central Florida. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

His continuing appetite for comedy bears this out. He was a riot in the opening episode of On Becoming a God in Central Florida, where he played a dope who gets involved with a pyramid scheme before being eaten by an alligator. (His on-screen wife was Kirsten Dunst. For further proof that their marriages never end well, see Von Trier’s apocalyptic Melancholia.) He also goofs around gloriously in the new season of Documentary Now!, in which he stars as a Werner Herzog-esque director shooting an epic in the Urals while simultaneously showrunning a US network comedy pilot called Bachelor Nanny. “I’ve met Herzog a few times over the years, but I don’t know if he’s seen this yet,” he says, slightly sheepishly. “I’m curious to hear what he thinks.”

It was in fact comedy that tempted Skarsgård back to acting again after all those years away. He was on holiday in Los Angeles in the early 00s when his father’s agent suggested he try out for an audition. Six weeks later, he was pootling around New York in the back of a Jeep with Ben Stiller, pouting away happily as gormless Swedish model Meekus in Zoolander. Getting that job was such a breeze that he was crestfallen to be knocked back repeatedly in other Hollywood auditions. He returned to Sweden to continue acting; another six years elapsed before Generation Kill kickstarted his US career.

These days, he seems somehow both ubiquitous and judicious. He is getting ready to make his directorial debut with The Pack, in which he and Florence Pugh star as documentary makers in Alaska. And he will return this month in the fourth and final season of Succession, which reportedly places even greater emphasis on Skarsgård’s character, the tech bro Lukas Matsson. Another bad boy of sorts.

With Brian Cox and Kieran Culkin in Succession. Photograph: Graeme Hunter

“Quite a few of the projects I’ve chosen deal with the juxtaposition of someone trying to function in modern society while also dealing with that atavistic primal question of who he is deep down and what happens when that flares up and can’t be suppressed any longer,” he says. “It’s incredibly cathartic to play those roles. Maybe because I’m quite mellow in my disposition. These darker, more twisted characters give me an opportunity to howl that primal scream and let it out, which I rarely do in everyday life.”

James in Infinity Pool has his head turned by the tiniest compliment; Skarsgård knows that, for all his own protestations about refusing to read what is written about him, he is just as susceptible to praise. “I really don’t read reviews,” he says. “That said, it’s so nice when people enjoy your work enough to come say something or take a photo. I’d prefer that to the alternative, which is crawling around in the mud for seven months and giving it everything and then it’s just … crickets. I like people appreciating what I’ve done. I’m a vain motherfucker!”