#sorry everyone who follows me for tdp who are like ''why the fuck is this guy posting about legos''

[imminent-danger-came]

The " I think we're gonna have to kill this guy" meme also includes drawing your two favorite characters together right. Whatever, that's not important

[redr0sewrites]

‼️REQUESTING NOTICE‼️

hey guys! this is another thing that i'd like to address ab some of the requests that ive been recieving, and its honestly just getting on my nerves. ive been recieving more requests than usual recently, and i have been getting a few repeats of the same request from the same person and some people seem almost demanding when requesting! most of these people are anonymous and i dont want to specifically call anyone out, however i just want to make it clear that sending in a request once is enough and you dont need to send it 3 more times 💀 along with this, some of my followers who have followed me for my tdp content have been repeatedly asking when im going to write for tdp again, and while i understand that you all enjoy the tdp content i write and want more, its honestly very stressful and annoying for me bc i have other interests and i want to write for what i enjoy. again, this isnt just one person, its multiple people coming either into my messages or my inbox and repeatedly asking when im gonna write for tdp again. im also getting questions like who im gonna write for in tdp, i sent in *insert req here* can u write it first, i sent in a req for zubeia why havent u written it yet, etc and it all feels very pressuring and sometimes downright rude. i understand that the tdp fandom is relatively small and that there arent a lot of writers in it, however i just want people to be more respectful and less pressuring! if this doesnt stop i may end up not writing tdp requests in the future and i dont want to do that. as of right now, i have literally gotten 17 new zubeia requests in the past week so, politely, can yall chill with that? ive literally never written for her before and a few of these requests are romantic or romantically intended even tho i have said twice now that i will not write for her romantically. i have nothing against zubeia or any of the other dragon characters but i swear its the same 3 people who keep sending in requests like every single day and repeatedly asking me to write their request for zubeia and its really frustrating. all in all, can everyone pls fucking chill and let me write for hsr in peace without yall breathing down my neck with 15 requests within the span of 3 days? i love it when u all request and its def not everyone, some of the requests ive recieved are awesome and really fun to write! i just want to put this out there bc some people have been seriously impolite. sorry this is so wordy, i just need people to chill a little when it comes to requests :)

[inflammatoryfandomblog]

the dragon prince has... a lot... of writing problems, but the easiest one to spot is probably the exposition the show has.

and it’s hard to succinctly explain why the exposition of the dragon prince so negatively impacts the show, because exposition by itself isn’t bad. the more complex your setting/plot is, the more of it you’ll need--sometimes, the audience needs stuff explained to them. normal.

but there are good ways and bad ways to deliver exposition, and tdp often exposits when it doesn’t really need to. these bits are very short--so they’re hard to spot--but it most often comes up when characters just explain what’s going on in their heads, even though it would be eminently clear with clever editing.

two easy examples that come to mind are a) when callum sees thunder’s corpse and just explains to rayla that he’s conflicted about it (in very uninspired words), and b) when soren explains to callum that the reason he bullied him about being a step-prince was because of his insecurity about his own father.

both were things that were particularly sour to me as a viewer, because a) real people don’t act like everything’s a 24/7 therapy session and b) you could easily use fairly typical cinematic language to convey both these ideas. in callum’s case, you can simply have a shot of him looking up to thunder and juxtaposing that with ezran, maybe even paste a bittersweet smile on his face and have him weakly hold rayla’s hand, whatever. in the second, all you needed to do was have soren apologize with an already-weird apology (”sorry for calling you the step-prince all these years, it was wrong.”) and maybe cut to viren and claudia. when people say “show, don’t tell,” this is the kind of thing they mean.

“it’s for kids.” yeah, kids don’t need this stuff. plus, the demographic that the dragon prince is ostensibly for has presumably grown up on a visual-media-heavy diet, and they understand better than perhaps any other generation the cues of editing.

but another bad piece of exposition is actually the very first scene of the show, where aaravos explains how the elves+dragons ethnically cleansed the humans. the problem with this scene is that i was immediately able to guess the logical course of events by the first two episodes of season 1:

1. humans were persecuted by the elves+dragons for not having magic

2. one guy “invented” dark magic

3. the elves and dragons don’t like that and wanted to exterminate the humans

4. for some reason, they just settled on relocating them instead.

all of this, by the way, turned out to be basically correct. season 3′s cold opener between ziard and sol regem confirms #1, aaravos is implied to be behind #2, and recent writing interviews basically confirm #3 and #4. basically, everything i ever wrote about the elves and dragons was... right?

this one exposition scene contains the entire meat of the conflict between the humans and the elves--and it communicates all this very well. maybe not well enough for some viewers, but i’m a fairly shallow media-consumer, so if it got the point across to me, it did good. so why am i saying that it’s bad exposition?

well, this one’s complicated. the main root of the problem is that the show proper (aside from another flashback in season 3) never addresses it. no character has any opinions on it, except viren, who vaguely references humanity needing to return to its ancestral homeland and wanting humanity to be free from chains. it’s a non-factor to literally everyone else--in three fucking seasons, not one character--not even a side character!--has any direct feelings or opinions re: the historical events that got them there.

And for a series that had “it’s not that simple, there are multiple atrocities from both sides!” in the first few episodes, you’d think that... part of the main conflict of the series... would be to grapple with the history... and move past it... instead of never looking at it, and naively ignoring history with nonspecific platitudes like “we can’t punish people for the crimes of their parents.”

and that last sentence makes sense only if tdp wants to ditch most of its backstory and keep it just between the royal families of katolis and xadia--but that’s not it, either. viren’s motivation has to do more with this history of dark magic and the results of the ethnic cleansing that followed than it does with punishing people for the crimes of their parents! which only works with the zym/ezran parallel and literally nothing else.

so as a viewer, knowing all this from the get go makes this series hard to watch. but i think there’s also a problem with the history being given to us as exposition the characters don’t interact with--and that’s the characters don’t interact with it. like imagine if this information was revealed to us at the same time it was brought up to the characters--it would mean that the audience would also be on a similar journey to the characters, and it would mean that the characters actually have to interact with that history.

like imagine if a human, instead of being a HUR DURR STUPID PEASANT WITH PITCHFORKS!!! actually said something like “the elves and dragons would have exterminated us, you think you can make peace with them?” or something like that, and that was the first hint of what would be going on. or maybe sol regem straight-up tells callum he’s a lesser being instead of that also being shoved into a flashback, maybe be like “ah, you remind me of the first of your kind!!! talk of peace but smells of death!!!” once he realizes callum has practiced dark magic before or... something!! then the show could actually grapple with what history means to the present instead of awkwardly handwaving it.

the fact that the history is more-or-less unimportant to the main characters also means that the setting and worldbuilding become less interesting and less relevant. aaravos, the Big Mystery Guy i’m supposed to care about, means jack shit to everybody except viren. and khessa, but she was racist and she died and she actually doesn’t matter. all the “ultimate villain” of the show has is... people being thirsty for him... and people who like making headcanons about him, which just isn’t really compelling plotting or writing.

anywas, imma end this tangent before it gets truly out of control. the more i think about it, the more i realize that front-loading such important aspects of tdp’s lore into the front was a mistake that let the writers be lazy with it and really... just throw most of the plot’s potential in the garbage. on a smaller level as well, the tendency to explain shit to the audience that doesn’t need to be explained kind of rips away the advantage of having a visual medium.

[magioftheseas]

I saw that you did some tips for how to write komaeda how about some for kamukura?

Kamukura is honestly a lot tougher to give advice for because a lot of his writing is from theorizing and personal headcanons… I mean, I got there via observing canon closely but still, there are liberties taken!!! Mostly because Kodaka is fucking dumb.

*cough cough* Anyway. Let’s try to give some…solid-ish advice that isn’t just “please just write him the way I like to see him written” even though I can’t act like there isn’t some subjectivity to this because that’s just how it goes.

Ahhhhhh, well, there’s your disclaimer. Let’s roll.

Kamukura Izuru, even if his actual character typically avoids focus outside of Chapter 0, has consistently been shown as someone with a lot of presence. A lot of this is because potentially speaking, Kamukura Izuru could be (if he isn’t already) an unstoppable force that’s just…very intimidating and demanding of notice when he makes his involvement clear. I think capturing that, even without going into any detail about what he’s personally like, can achieve a strong impact. While he certainly isn’t a mindless monster, it wouldn’t be inaccurate to portray him as a looming shadow that evokes unease and anxiety. This is, of course, from an outsider perspective, that said.

If you are writing through Kamukura’s perspective, things are a bit different. He’s very subdued and gives off an air of mostly detached. I say mostly because like, in the case of both DRAE and sdr2, he showcases a sense of anger and resentment towards Junko. So, no, not emotionless, not at all in the two appearances he makes in-game.

There’s also TDP where he does show that, yeah, he has personality even if he seems to be plagued by depression, nihilism, and bitchiness the entire time which… I’ll admit, if you can portray that, I’m all for it. TDP Kamukura is an absolute joy and I adore him.

For my writing personally, I always keep a few base traits in mind when writing Kamukura. Traits that I detail and build upon depending on the situation.

Logical - Kamukura often views things as following through a logical thread, and sometimes, said logical thread is emotionally-based! He is aware (after Junko) that people still follow predictable patterns, even if their behavior is “seemingly” completely irrational. He’s more than capable of identifying what drives people emotionally, so it’s actually a lot more difficult than people think to retain his interest. Again, though, this is something he picks up with time, either after Junko or…after observing Matsuda for long enough, in some cases. Cough, cough.

Sentimental (?) - Kamukura largely presents an overwhelming sense of apathy. He words emotional situations coldly and calculatingly in a way that conveys no sympathy nor empathy. He’s definitely emotionally repressed. That said, when he does feel, he feels overwhelmingly strongly, which I base on the fact that in the games he’s purely driven by anger and spite even to the point of being potentially willing to recklessly throw his and others lives away in order to accomplish his goals. In some ways, I guess you can say Kamukura is similar to the game of Russian Roulette. If that makes sense.

Nihilistic - Unsurprisingly, Kamukura is very cynical and hopeless in not just his situation but the situation of the world at large. He views humanity as trapped within destructive patterns in a loop that will always re-rail itself in spite of every attempt made to stop it. In his case, he doesn’t see what purpose he has outside of being a tool for other people’s use. It’s a pretty depressing worldview, but one shaped purely by the reason he exists in the first place.

Childish - And this is all to say that Kamukura is extremely inexperienced and thus, he’s actually really childish in how he acts and thinks. His worldview is just way too overly simplified! And it’s so limiting! But he stubbornly sticks by it like a kid who doesn’t fully understand the nuances of the world. And he’s just so bratty about it! A brat! He’s a complete brat!

These are the traits I work with when writing Kamukura, but obviously you can choose different ones. Like maybe having him be a bit haughtier (although I would say Kamukura doesn’t think highly of himself so much as he just thinks lowly of everyone), or maybe focusing more on just how spiteful he is because he’s definitely pretty spiteful. You don’t have to follow my blueprints to the letter!

And… Well… There’s…that… Hopefully this helps you get some kind of idea!!! If any specifics confuse you, don’t hesitate to shoot me another ask!

But also… 

THE REST OF THIS IS UNDER THE READ MORE BECAUSE I STARTED BITCHING ABOUT THE ANIME AGAIN BUT LIKE, FEEL FREE TO JUST IGNORE EVERYTHING PAST THIS POINT.

Fuck the anime. Look like, even leaving out the dumb contradictions, Kamukura is a dumb fucking character just…on his own, in dr3. You wouldn’t use a building that’ll collapse from its own faulty structure down the line as a reference for your project. Fuck the anime.

Okay that’s not entirely fair. Like, Kamukura’s first appearance to the end of the first killing game is like, actually not terrible. I would even say it’s fairly good setup, especially with what’s established in Chapter 0 and tne epilogue of DRAE. But everything after that is fucking trash. Although if you build on the shooting scene in episode 8, I would be the biggest fucking hypocrite to criticize that. Everything else though is so incredibly bad and joyless that I just…don’t. I can’t recommend accounting for it. That would be the exact fucking opposite of self-care. I just can’t do it. I mean, you can still write that but don’t expect me to enjoy reading it because I fucking guarantee you that ANY enjoyment I otherwise had in your writing would completely fucking fall apart on the spot I hate it THAT much. I’m sorry but that’s just…how it is. But real talk: you shouldn’t be writing for me and what I prefer anyway you should be writing for yourself and what you prefer. And I honestly can’t fathom why anyone partial to dr3 Kamukura would turn to me for advice when I’ve made it clear many many times (and will continue to do so until the end of time) how much I fucking hate dr3, zhen especially but like… Now I’m rambling.

I failed to keep this from being very noticeably subjective. I’m sorry.

Uh… Let’s try and achieve more balance so that I don’t look completely unreasonable… Uhhh…

The way Kamukura’s VA in the dub is actually pretty good from what I’ve heard. He’s portrayed as most of a sassy, bored genius than emotionless beep boop (until waifu) and that’s a way more engaging character. In my opinion. Yeah.

But TDP actually makes that explicit in the actual text, so…really why not just… Read through his TDP events instead… Mmgh…