#there's so many that i can't block all of them

[skywalkerrenthusiast]

FOREVER THINKING ABOUT HELAENA AND THE SWORM OF SHIT HOT TAKES THAT ARE ABOUT TO COME OUT ABOUT HER‼️‼️‼️

FOREVER THINKING ABOUT HELAENA AND IM CRYING IM CRYING IM CRYING. She and an innocent child were the first to pay for her families crimes. And she's not as bad as some of yall will think after this.

We are meant to sit with Helaena. she has this thing called dragon dreams, which are visions of the future, but they can be very unclear and hard to figure out.

She was saying how she was afraid of the rats. In the morning, when Aegon came for Jae, she muttered a vision. She could already feel the doom creeping in, it's why she tries to share her feelings with Aegon! But he can't understand, no one can. Not even her. And she's left to sit in her feeling of doom.

Alone.

Then BOOM

Two betrayers (rats) came to kill Aemond who killed Lucerys. But instead, they decided to kill HER son, just a boy!

And she tried to be present at first! To protect her babies. To give them money because they kept talking about themselves getting paid for a kill but the motherfuckers wouldn't BUDGE!!

And you can just SEE the moment the trauma and fear of the moment starts to hit her. A thousand thoughts fly through her head, and then...? she completely shuts down. She ends up pointing to her son, but she just seems so out of it while she's doing so! She doesn't scream or cry or beg. She just looks like a mix of completely not in the moment, as if shes leaving the moment, and viscerally horrified at the same time. She sees them grabbing her boy and can only stare as she makes her way to the opposite bed. Knowing of and yet *unable* to make herself try and stop the tragedy that is about to unfold itself in her boys bed.

She grabs her girl and just walks out of the room, and you can hear her breathing and breathing as she walks. And just as she starts to come back to herself, just a little. You can hear the sound of the Jaehaerys head being cut off and you can *tell* she hears it too because she makes these vague horrified little sounds as she walks and walks and walks endlessly to her MOTHERS room. It's almost like those sounds drag her back under. And she keeps walking.

she never yelled for a guard as she walked, she didn't scream she just went to the safest place she could think of. And that was with her mother. She walks in the room and walks in on her mom in bed with her sworn protector and that brings her back from out of the waves of her mind if only for a moment but she's just in so much fucking shock that all she can do is collapse on the floor while holding her girl and say "they killed the boy"

And it all happens so fast! And in the moment, all I could think was, WHY DID SHE POINT TO HIM?!! But for *this* telling of the story, it made sense. She shut down. In her right state of mind, she would NEVER have simply pointed, she tried not to! but she just completely shuts down, just blocks it all out and then POINTS. And that scene, that moment, it's not about what the stronger or braver or more motherly choice might've been! Because Helaena was in no state to make it! She just couldn't have! And it's so heartbreaking. At that moment, the camera only follows her because we are meant to *BE* her. We are meant to sit with her in that moment in time. To share in her horror. So it's not about what we think the right choice might've been. It's about what helaena was *capable* of doing in that moment, in the face of her horror, about how this is a moment she will have to think back on for as long as she shall live.

because i know she's gonna be so fucking horrified with herself when it all comes back to her, when she truly understands what happened. And I also know we are about to get SO many trash hot takes about Her "being a bad mother" and how she just "betrayed her son" as if she didn't have those kids at 13 and they were her LIFE! I'm crying for her. The twins were so little, and she was no fighter or schemer, and yet her son, her and even her daughter are the FIRST fucking ones to pay for her families crimes!

She'll live in that moment of horror for the rest of her life.

[scoobydoodean]

I have 2 spn accounts, a Deancentric blog that ships Destiel and another account that unintentionally follows a lot of Samgirl blogs. So one blog follows majority Deangirl blogs and the other incidentally follows a lot of Samgirl blogs. And here's the major difference I've noticed on the different dashboards.

Deangirl dashboard: Great meta analysis. Beautiful art. Level 1 and 2 headcanons (largely based in canon). Pro-Dean. Stumble across reblogs of Deancrit. Bitter Deangirl blogging. Generally fair portrayal and discussion of the positive and negative traits and actions of Dean, Sam and Cas. Deanhater anons.

Samgirl dashboard: An entirely different pool of beautiful art. Whole lotta woobie!Sam art where Dean is his abuser. Deancrit about Dean being an abuser. Bitter Samgirl blogging about how people will find any excuse to hate Sam. "How can anyone be Samcrit he has done nothing wrong ever." Level 5 headcanons (you literally ignored canon to make that up). More about how Dean is Sam's abuser. So many posts about how awful Samcrit is. "Do Deangirls really think that Dean cries himself to sleep at night thinking that ppl thinks he doesn't know how to read." I have yet to see any actual Samcrit posts (not even links or reblogs from Sam defenders), not even after literally searching the Samcrit tag for it. The Samcrit tag is full of Samgirls crying about Samcrit and no actual Samcrit. "Samgirls are feral, but we need to be bc of the hate ppl throw Sam's way."

I literally have to block so many people on the incidentally Samgirl dashboard bc I'm not on Tumblr to randomly stumble across a post on how Dean is a toxic stalker who abused Sam by changing Amelia's number in his cellphone. Do you have any idea on why Samgirls seem to feel so attacked all the time even though I literally only ever see *them* attacking Dean?

If you dig deep enough into any fandom, you will encounter people who fetishize "helpless victimhood". Some fandoms attract more people with those particular proclivities than others. Supernatural and Sam in particular attracts people who hold those sorts of aesthetic interests because of his relationship toward accountability versus Dean's.

Dean is a character with an overactive sense of responsibility. He blames himself for the Lindbergh baby and unemployment and every child murdered by a shrtiga from 1990 to 2005 because he went to play an arcade game when he was 10. He also blames himself for things like Jessica dying and Sam not being in school. Other characters pile on this blame frequently. John blames Dean for Sam getting hurt (1.18). Ruby tells him (and Sam) that Sam is a weak baby who won't psychologically survive without Dean there to protect him (3.11). Meg alleges that Dean is "dragging Sam everywhere" (1.16). Sam rewrites reality from 1.05 to 1.21 to make Dean responsible for his burning desire for revenge. Cas and Zachariah and Gabriel blame Dean when Sam breaks the last seal because he didn't stop Sam in time. Sam blames Dean for him drinking demon blood first because Dean wasn't there to protect him and then—in a complete 180—because Dean is smothering (4.04, 5.05). Dean generally absorbs blame when it is piled at his feet because he has been blamed for things he couldn't control for most of his life and thus he feels guilty and responsible for things even when him being responsible makes no logical sense. He's never a victim of anything—everything is always on him.

Sam, on the other hand, tends to eventually deflect blame because he can't handle the gnawing bite of it for long. It reminds him too deeply of being left isolated and alone as a child and the feelings of otherness and wrongness he developed through that neglect. When his actions ultimately have consequences he didn't foresee and/or that he finds undesirable, it makes him feel ugly and unaccepted and he can't face it so he eventually finds a way to make what happened someone else's fault—usually Dean's fault. Nothing is ever on him. He's always at least a little bit of a victim and Dean always carries at least partial responsibility for his decisions (1.21, 1.08, 4.04, 5.05, 8.23, 11.01)

In other words, Sam has an under-active sense of responsibility and Dean has an overactive responsibility and that dynamic—driven by their childhood experiences—places them into a vicious cycle of blame being cast onto Dean for Sam's decisions and Dean absorbing it. Dean absorbing it reinforcing the narrative for samgirls with a victimhood fetish that Dean deserves blame and that Sam truly is a helpless baby. They never watch what actually happens on the show to see whether this narrative that Dean is responsible for everything and Sam is a helpless baby lines up with the actual events that occurred onscreen because why would they? That would ruin their enjoyment. Sam isn't interesting to them outside of his capacity to be mourned as some sort of helpless martyr. And yes—they will cry and moan about how horrible and unfair Sam's suffering is, but it isn't because they're having a bad time. They're having a great time. They love thinking about Sam that way. They wouldn't be here blogging about it day in and day out for the last 20 years if they didn't actually want to see exactly what they're seeing.

Related tags of note:

#sams motivations

#taurus sam in the flesh

#In which Sam is not a helpless little waif with his hands cast over his eyes being carried along by the tides of the immutable sea

#sam the hunter

#sams follower/leader false dichotomy

#parentification

[appleblueberry-pie]

Would it be wrong to ask for a non-smut yandere Tōji? I mean, there are many like that in various places, so what would he be like if he really met the love of his life and she somehow found out everything he was doing to support them? The reader simply does not tolerate the situation and does not accept at all that his children grow up next to the example that Tōji is setting, but he really does not want to lose what had made him happy.

The kids were at school. You said you'd bring them back to your place. He never knew why you didn't just move in with him. He supposes it's for shit like this. Accidents like these.

You were at his door, leaning against it, knowing how he loves to block your way out when you two get into arguments. You were distant and had been for this past week. You open your mouth again to tell him his mistake, and all he wants is to just hold you close on the couch like you two always do when the kids are gone.

"I can't live with a killer." The way that last words slipped out of your mouth was like it was your worst nightmare to ever bring up. And it was. You were dating a stalker, serial killer who got money off of assassinating others and somehow did those exact things to get you in his paws. You weren't disgusted with yourself.

You just wanted to be safe.

You didn't know if you could be safe around him.

You didn't know if the kids could be safe around him.

You didn't know what he was capable of. And that really scared you.

You just wanted to get out of the damn house, but once you had this whole speech about you finding out what he did, and then finally dropping that you want to disconnect from him entirely, he just can't let it get away from him that easily. No.

It was never his intention to make you worried. To make you feel uncomfortable, worried, afraid. He did everything in his power to make sure that never happened. He wanted to know how you found out and who the fuck to kill.

I guess he was a little overboard. But never to you.

"Y/n...."

He didn't know what to say. Because dating a killer is fucking crazy. There's nothing he can do about that.

"I can't lose you, too, baby. You and those kids mean every-fucking-thing to me. All that money goes to all of you-"

"It's not about the money, Toji, you're.......I just can't. I can't deal with someone like that." You turn away and go to turn the door knob and he's already there behind you. Softly turning you around and grabbing your face as if it was the most fragile porcelain.

"You're just gonna take them away? You're really gonna leave me like this? What about all of the shit we built together?"

"I'm willing to risk that to keep us alive and safe, Toji."

"I have been keeping you all alive and safe. I've been doing that shit for years."

"I shouldn't have to be protected to live a regular fucking life, Toji! I don't want to live with that stress on me!! Please!"

He doesn't want to stop you. He sees that look on your face, and all it reminds him is that he did a shitty job. As a partner, as a fiance, as a father and everything else in between.

All he knows is that he is sorry and he will continue to be sorry. Because he won't let you run off. He loves you too much to do that. You've engrained yourself on his tattoos, on his mind and his heart. It's all there because of you and it's shit that can't be erased with a simple white board eraser.

He'll start stalking you again. He'll find a way to talk with the kids again. Maybe he'll get his lil friend to do some lawyer shit for him, gain custody, or whatever the fuck it's called before you do.

He'll do everything in his power to have you back because he can't function properly without you. You were his gears, his wake-up calls, his breakfast, lunch and dinner for his soul and he'd be damned if that was taken away from him.

[eddiediazismyhusband]

I had to see it and suffer and now others must know as well. There is a gifset that one of T's fans made, I kid you NOT, the gifs of Buck they used are dead ass from the 'you wanna go for the title' kitchen scene with Eddie and then they added gifs of L from some show other than 911. And the comments are legit shit like...."I will never get over the way Buck looks at him' and 'oh that boy is so in love with his man' and 'that belt grab he wants him so bad' and the best of all...'as if he would ever look at anyone else including Eddie the way he's looking at Tommy here'

I can't

I'm legit terrified of these people. They absolutely know that is a Buddie scene and Buck is looking at and talking to Eddie in that scene. They've just decided to pretend and headcanon it as a BT scene. And have decided to gif it as if it's real! and tag it as their ship name. WHAT?!?! HOW THE HELL DID WE GET HERE!?!?! They're just out here straight up changing scenes to be about T and just expecting everyone to think that's normal. I'm terrified. This is cult level shit.

it absolutely is borderline cult activity from some of the fans.

now in the spirit of being fair it is not all of them, but the unfortunate fact is that the people coming across as having this cult-ish worship of tommy and lou ferringo jr are the loudest among them so we have to see their shit front and center.

i have blocked so many people and filtered out so many tags to prevent seeing that stuff bc at the end of the day it’s either just pure delusion or rage bait, so i’ve found best to ignore it and not give these people a platform.

i know it’s hard to, and i am definitely guilty of not ignoring some of the crazy stuff, but when you do it can relieve so much stress.

At this point (especially with clownery like that) it’s probably best to just block the user and ignore it… bc at that point, that’s just blatant stupidity that they’re watching buddie scenes and trying to act like it’s s scene between their ship 💀💀

i definitely understand it’s annoying to see and hear all the time but that’s why i stay away from fandom twitter and instagram, and keep my tumblr dash to strictly my mutuals/people i’ve intentionally followed… yes sometimes things leak through the cracks but it’s often much less impactful that intentionally seeking it out (if that makes sense)

just take a deep breath and keep your head up, anon. these people will be proven wrong sooner or later, we just need to be patient and ignore their bullshit the best we can 💕💕

[darklinaforever]

I don't know if you know or even care judging by your heartless attitude and those of the anons baiting, but Grace has been discharged from the hospital. She just needed a few stitches. Her brother has said Grace is actually not meant to be on social media as it's hugely triggering for her, plus she has a history of making posts that spark harassment etc because her takes are seen as discriminatory etc. He thought it was the same old situation again and doesn't get the whole plagarism thing. I messaged him the screencaps Grace took of her post and yours and he thought she had written both posts which says it all. He's not really interested in that tbh. However he has contacted law enforcement for advice regarding the harassment claims - they have seen the screencaps of everything but the fact Grace deleted her blog has caused hassle. Without an actual account to trace the IPs then it gets complicated. They recommend getting legal representation in the meantime and to contact Tumblr directly. Grace's injuries have been photographed and filed, so has the whole plagarism thing as background but they're not really interested in that either. It's more about the threats. I don't know if you were involved but apparently the officer said they have to have actual evidence in terms of the original situation motivating a backlash from your followers. But it's sketchy and we can't make unproven allegations. He said so far there's no actual proof online of you goading people to go after Grace. Your responses are not enough to indicate this. If the case goes ahead and they uncover evidence, then yes, they will then act. Tbh, they're not really being helpful with this as they are implying it's a waste of their time and resources. The officer admitted that your post was probably plagarised but that's it.

I'm going to cut it off there as I've wasted enough time on this. I hope Grace learns her lesson and stays off this hellsite. The only good thing about this is all my mutuals and theirs have now blocked you if they hadn't already. I've heard a lot about you over the past 24 hours and none of it is good.i had no idea who you were before or I'd have moved to act sooner to protect Grace from you. God knows how many vulnerable people you fucked up ready. I'm hearing crazy things about you defend paedophelia, you pretend to be bi to express Anti LGBTQ opinions and get away with it etc. I don't know if this is true but who knows. I just think you are a really dangerous individual and people are taking your opinions at face value as fact. Anyone who challenges you is immediately called crazy and deluded and then subjected to abuse. Grace could have killed herself over this and for what? Some idiot copying her post? I feel you have a lot of unhealthy thoughts and feelings and post them here because in real life you'll get trouble for it. I don't really care. I just think you're absolutely vile and people should block you for their own safety.

1. I don't pretend to be Bi. I am bisexual woman. And I have never declared anything anti-LBGT. I'm just not comfortable with changing the on-screen gender of a male character who has been exist for years. It's still crazy to be called queerphobic for that.

(If you look at my tumblr account, I'm currently obsessed with the ship Catwin and Dead Boy Detectives in general ! 😂)

2. I am not defending pedophilia. Not even incest, because I'm also accused of that. Shipping fictional characters has nothing to do with real life. You need to get treatment.

3. The same people who say I'm anti LGBT also accuse "Grace" of also being anti-LGBT, by the way. Just to show you the level of stupidity these people have.

4. There is no evidence that my subscribers have harassed anyone ! And if they did, I NEVER in any way encouraged that to happen. As for this girl (apparently named Grace), I literally said that if it was true, it was sad, but I had nothing to do with it, and that I hoped she would get better. (How does that make me heartless?) But once again, I DIDN'T PLAGIARIZE HER, I didn't harass her, and I didn't encourage anyone to harass her (or other people) either.

I am a person who stays in my tags on tumblr. I almost never go to other people's blogs and even less to harass them with anonymous messages. At this point, I am the one who has been the victim of harassment by antis who are spreading bullshit about me and it continues now.

If this whole story is true, I wish Grace well, but I didn't plagiarize her, nor did I send anyone to harass her. And that's just the truth. Whether you believe me or not I don't care, I have a clear conscience and that's all that matters.

[elsa-fogen]

So uhhh quick question what would you do if you wanted to finish something (an art cough cough) but everytime you tried to finish it, your motivation just keeps flicking in and out and made you have a hard time finishing it and almost made you wanna give up and leave it unfinished?

Sorry for the long question but i have SO many unfinished drawings that i want to post so bad but couldn't for sum reason 😭

And you're the only artist so far that i know almost post around every 3-5 days

You don't have to answer this but can you pls give me youtube art tutorials that help you?

So very sorry for disturbing you 😅

i'm not the best person to ask for advice, honestly. Maybe it'll sound too prideful, but i consider myself a really special case. I don't hate myself and my art (mostly), i don't suffer while drawing, and i've never had an "art block" in my life. I've been drawing my whole life, and if you count all days when i didn't draw anything you'll get... well, maybe 2-3 years out of my 24. I think. so, anything i say may not be helpful.

Actually almost everything you see in my blog are just colored sketches, not finished art

woops haha

Maybe that'll work for you too? try to just color your sketches and post them as they are. When i realised that my works don't have to be fully finished, my life become much easier. And i was really surprised to find out how many people can enjoy my comics even if they're just sketches. Of course, comics with cool art and colors will get more attention, but in the end, you won't get any attention if you don't post anything. so i know for a fact that i can't pull out a fully rendered comic, and all i can do - just sketches, and in this case it's better to post at least them then post absolutely nothing. There will be people who enjoy them.

and very often stuff you did for fun has more attention then those things you spend much time and effort (like how my shitty meme got 10k notes out of nowhere)

but when i need to finish something i just make myself do it. Just breaking myself over a knee. And don't start anything else before it's done.

It helps when you have a date when the art should be finished, and consequences if it's not. Yeah.

And EXCUSE YOU, I ACTUALLY POST EVERY DAY! gee, no respect on this hellish site for my hard work /very much J

And i don't watch any art tutorials aha- i watch reactions or game playthroughs, or some blogger ramble about some cartoon while drawing.

so yeah, kinda messy, as all my text posts are... but hope it'll help you. Good luck with your art!

[sketchmatters]

man i hate twitter. if i didnt need a social media presence for art, i would delete it immediately. g@m3rz are pissing me off

[kyliafanfiction]

I sometimes feel like characters who do truly monstrous things while also having been victims of some pretty insane shit themselves are sort of an exercise in empathy. Or at least, should be seen as such.

Like, in real life, if a person who has been horribly broken by their experiences and failed by society than proceeds to rape someone - it's hard to feel the justifiable sympathy/empathy for that person (without excusing their rape, never do that) because well, you can look at this actual human person they hurt, or worse, and it feels gross and disrespectful to the rape victim.

And this is understandable. (And applies to more than just rapists/rape victims of course, that's just the most visceral one and thus picked for that reason)

But a fictional rape victim is... fictional. You can't 'disrespect' their trauma, and while obviously rape/whatever else is real, and people may related to the rape victim and thus see your comments about the rapist also being a victim as somehow being about their experience...

Well, it's not.

Because the rapist here, didn't actually hurt a real person. Fictional characters are objects. They're objects that often grab us by the throat and refuse to leave our fucking heads, yes, but they're objects. They are tools used by writers to tell a story, and readers to tell a story.

And one of the things fictional characters are good for is allowing us to consider experiences we never had, and imagine ourselves in other circumstances and lives. (Also just fun and fascinating and interesting to watch their stories).

It's very easy to feel for the rape victim in fiction, and rightly so. That's Level 1 Empathy there. Granted, some people IRL fail that, but that's not really what we're talking about here.

Advanced Empathy, hard Empathy is feeling for the rapist. Not for the rape, of course, even if they feel guilt about it, but if someone really was failed on multiple levels and was broken and damaged and went through the sort of psychological wringer that would leave most of us here on tumblr catatonic - they do deserve the same Empathy any human (any person) who went through all that.

Even after they also do the bad thing, critically they still deserve Empathy. And that is fucking hard. I very often have a hard time feeling bad for truly awful people who also deserve empathy and sympathy, real and even fictional (despite all this, yeah, I'm not perfect on this) for what they (separately) went through.

It also becomes even harder when what they went through is utterly bound up with what they did. How what they went through and experiences is in part responsible for what they did - because they still made a choice. The circumstances may have left them not in their right mind, may have left them feeling without choice, may have driven them to things they normally might not think of or do, but they still chose to do that bad thing. And that's not okay. They still hurt someone.

And yet - one cannot remove the action from the circumstances. So you can still feel empathy, and elucidate all the factors and circumstances as to what led up to their choices and why, and it doesn't change that they did the horrible thing. The rape, or the murders, or whatever.

But circling back - with a fictional character... they didn't hurt a real person. There's no one who is real that suffered. The things the character did IRL are bad because they hurt real people.

So you're not being disrespectful to the victim by feeling that empathy, or sympathy. By exploring the things that they were a victim for. Even by wanting to focus on those things - fictional characters should be compelling in all their aspects, if they're written well.

And yet, of course, if you do that empathy and do talk about what the bad person went through and all that context, people come at you. They call you evil, just as bad as the (again, fictional) character, or they say that you're treading dangerously close to the arguments people use to defend the real people who do these things in real life. Or you're disrespecting all the victims of these crimes IRL. Especially of course, if the person coming at you has a reason this comes close to home.

But again - fictional.

In an ideal world, we'd all feel sympathy and empathy when it's called for, regardless of what the person did. Even the worst most monstrous people deserve human treatment in prison. And if you don't have empathy, that's hard. Even if you do have empathy, that's hard.

So if you look at a fictional character (who doesn't hurt a real person by virtue of being fictional) that does horrible, vile things, but went through so much, and you still can't empathize or sympathize with them... I mean, it doesn't make you a bad person, not even close, this is still fiction, and there's people I should empathize with in fiction that I don't, but...

It's still a failure of your ability to be empathetic. And we're all humans. We're all failing at that, among other things, all the time. But... it's good to be aware of that. at least?

At the very least, bear that in mind when other people are talking about that context, and that victimization. And please, for the love of god, don't fucking pretend that the victimization didn't happen, that this person who did do terrible things (in fiction) suddenly didn't also (in fiction) experience awful shit, as if doing a bad thing erases all the bad things done to you.

Again - it doesn't necessarily make you a bad person, but like... the horrible state of prisons in our society is a real, actual problem. The way we as a society dehumanize people who do bad things is a real actual problem for a lot of reasons (not least because it creates an incentive for authority that wants to dehumanize a person or a group to expand the definition of 'did bad things' to make their dehumanization now acceptable, among other things).

So yeah. Fictional character who suffers but than also makes others suffer - that's a useful exercise in Empathy. And doing that doesn't make you or anyone else a bad person, or actually defending the sorts of crimes, IRL or Fictional, that this character did. Contextualizing is not whitewashing, empathy is not erasing, and humanizing is not disrespecting the victim(s).

So yeah, they fictional character did bad things. But there's more to them than that. And you can say but and talk about what comes after but without disrespecting the fictional victim. Because the fictional victim... is just as fictional. Just as not real.

Is it possible for this to end up being taken too far? Yes. But that's a reason to be mindful of yourself when it comes to real people, not to never do it. And when it comes to fictional people - again, fictional. Nobody was actually, really hurt.

(I really do want to make clear, before people read the tags, that this applies to all crimes these sorts of characters do, rape was just picked as the one to use as the example.)

[dirtytransmasc]

Are yyou team green or black? And why?

team green, though I'm not in support of every green character (namely Otto though my opinion of him is complicated. I also have opinions on Aegon and his characterization that makes it even more complicated)

[I have only read bits and pieces of the book, so my opinion is based almost solely on the show. keep this in mind]

I'm team green for 3 big reasons. they're more complex, thought not perfect by any means, more morally "right", and are simply more my vibe when it comes to characters. now this is very simplified and not at all nuanced, so stick with me for a minute.

Firstly, they're more complex. the greens have very deep, detailed, and nuanced lives and stories that lead to them being very complex characters that can't be put into a box. Alicent was a child bride who had lost her mother young became a mother young and suffered at the hands of power and men all her life. her children were affected by this and the world they were forced to grow up in throughout their lives. even individually her kids are drastically different; aegon the child who was forced into a life he did not want and suffered due to his father neglect and mother pain. Helaena who was never understood and grew up treated like an oddity. Aemond who was never seen to his full potential, always ignored or looked over, angry throughout his life. each of them has strengths and weaknesses, flaws and benefits, they're imperfect but never completely horrid. they're also never simplified (not entirely, even when the plot and writers seek to simplify them) to the point that they put on a moral pedestal or made straight evil (i'd even argue that the attempts of the writer to oversimplify them as evil and in the wrong makes them 10x more fascinating). I find TB characters tended to miss the mark on that, always put in the moral light, not even allowed a moment to reflect on their actions, lives, or positions in any nuanced or meaningful way, so they always just feel dull. they're also out on a moral highground that they can never be budged from, which makes them harder to like and honestly, really boring. they get away with everything instead of being emotionally and morally nuanced.

secondly, they're more morally "right". I will never say that any of the greens are perfect, they are far from it (with the exception of Helaena and her kids, who have done literally nothing to anyone, but I digress). what I will say, 9/10 times there is some level of reasoning that has some level of reasoning. Alicent always tries to do whats best for everyone, all throughout the series she tried to do best by the court, the king, her children, the realm, and Rhaenyra. did she always succeed? no, but she always tried and her mistakes were almost always honest. I will say she held resentment towards Rhaenya, but honestly, I can't blame her. Rhaenyra's lies and behavior hurt Alicent over and over again so for her to be angry is expected.when it came to succession, Alicent backed Rhaenyra until it was made clear she and Daemon would be a threat to her children's lives and even than she held mercy for Rhaenyra. Aegon's drinking can be blamed on the abuse and neglect he suffered at Viserys, Otto, and Alicent's (though the abuse and neglect from his mother is insanely different and nuanced. she perpetuated her pain onto him because she couldn't heal herself. so I hesitate to call it abuse, cause its so much more complicated than that) hands. though nothing will justify his rape of Dyana, I personally think it was a bad add in on the writers part, and leave it at that. Aemonds rage after years of being ignored doesn't entirely justify what he did to luke, but he had reason for his cruelty after years of Luke (and jace tbh) being cruel just because they could. TB characters tend to do terrible things in response to either A. nothing B. their own terrible things. Daemon kills who he wants when he feels like it, even for stating facts. Rhaneyra will lie and hurt those around her to protect her bastard children. both of them conspire to protect themselves and allow themselves to be wed, really just cause. while there are times they have their reasons, its a lot less of the time, and typically the backing to their actions, is they were trying to unbury themselves from within their own graves. (to preface, I don't care about rhaenyra sleeping around, it doesn't bother me, but its the fact that she will hurt everyone around her to protect her lies, allowing a child to be maimed and people to be murdered)

thirdly, they're my vibe. I like morally complex character, who are, to be frank, pathetic. I like characters with complex trauma's and issues, who aren't perfect people but its not entirely their fault. I would much rather watch a whole show about alicent, a child bride who tries so hard to be a good wife, queen, and mother while not prepared for any such role. Aegon who is a boy with severe mommy and daddy issues, a drinking problem, a flawed past, and constantly wet eyes. Helaena an ignored girl who has suffered for no better reason then her family. and Aemond, a boy who was tormented, bullied, maimed, and made stronger by it at the cost of his compassion and emotional stability - over a nepo baby who was coddled by her father, her murderous husband with a knack for unneeded violence, and her similarly coddled children (the show boiled them down to this, in my opinion). one is simply more up my alley than the other. I want character that need to be dissected, who have suffered, who hurt me to look at.

also, team black created almost all of their own problems. seeing as the main source of contention had to do with Rhaenyra's kids being bastards, which was Rhaenyra's problem, which she caused, and kept digging and digging that grave (faking Laenors death just so she could marry daemon, turning the blame on aemond when luke maimed him furthering the divide amongst the house, trying to wed Helaena to Jace putting her in danger, trying to take the driftmark throne and killing Vaemond for a claim her sons did not have, etc,) till viserys's death, earns her a lot less pity from me. at the end of the day, her being a woman was only a needle in a haystack worth of problems she caused herself that hurt her claim. if she had just strived to create to connection with ancient and her kids, and didn't make herself look like a threat to everyone who lessened her claim (which alicents kids would be the first people to be taken out) alicent would have backed like she had all season and there would have been no war, maybe conflict, but no war.

theres also the effect of the fans on my opinion. I have faced more cruelty, terrible media analysis, and outright ableism/misogny/(blood and sexual based) purist ideology/etc. from the TB fans then I have ever witness by TG fans. TB fans have ruined almost all of the TB characters for me in more ways than I can count, so I will say I am very biased.

thats why I'm team green. as a whole they are simply more appealing, their stories are more interesting, demand more attention to detail and emotional understanding, and from my point of view were the "right" side to be on in the war (the war was wrong on both sides, but my chips lie in the favour of the greens).

[dimdiamond]

Some sketches of Chang throughout childhood to adulthood (according to my headcanons anyway, more in the cut if you're interested)

Chang as a kid preferred to play alone and he loved to pick up rocks from the shore and take them home (his collection only gets bigger and bigger through the years). The Chang family was poor and both parents had to work so the one who stayed with the kid was the grandfather till he died from old age. Chang was still very young though when he lost him and from then on alone. His parents tried to spend more time with him but they still had to work or bring their kid with them as Chang being quiet and not demanding was seen as him being an easy and mature kid.

After losing his parents and going to an orphanage, Chang is still quiet and polite but becomes indifferent to many things and prefers to be alone, spending most of his time reading any book he can find, learning French and English by overhearing the foreigners, wandering around, and mostly at the river. Meeting Tintin changes everything as he makes his first friend and gets a new family but mostly makes him see things differently, finally looking at the world with interest and confidence.

Chang is a top student in high school but his rebellious phase doesn't let either the school or his family rest assured. He no longer obeys or stays quiet, he needs to be heard and most of all to be understood and accepted. His dream is to see the world and hopes to meet Tintin again as he many times still lingers to the past, despite the fact he has new friends and a new life (as well as Tintin). Thankfully, his rebellious phase quiets down in the final year and he manages to become more open and direct to his loved ones.

Chang after being rescued by Tintin and Haddock in Tibet, he returns to Shangai, needing to deal with his traumatic experience in his home and with his family. He's underweight, he feels cold all the time and his mind is stuck to the plane and the mountains. In addition, he tries to deal with the fact that Tintin has changed and that their friendship can never be as it was.

Almost a year after the Tibet incident, Chang manages to go to his uncles in London, where he stays for about 4-5 years, studying archaeology (Professor Tarragon comes and goes at the university and Chang has the luck to be in his class and friend). His friendship with Tintin remains strong and they keep in touch more regularly but Chang doesn't depend only on this friendship and makes new friends.

After university, Chang joins Tarragon's team, and from then on he travels around the world, from one archaeological site to the other, always eager to learn and see more. He frequently visits his family in Shangai and his uncles in London and, whenever he gets the chance, his friends, including first and foremost the Marlinespike family. Close to his thirties, his eyesight shows issues and he starts to wear glasses (he wasn't a fan of this at first but he soon got used to it).

[slumbergoblin]

hmm

(unedited version under the cut^^)

[sygneth]

Nnghhhh have been fighting the "I am too old to start" attitude for years, finally got over it.

Now I am too anxious to practice because. Neighbors.

[gonersgoners]

remember when i said over a year ago that vegapunk's arc would start revealing even more of sanji's power and potential and how hard that was worrying me? yeah

[iftitah]

he hasn't unblocked me yet

[not-poignant]

Hey there. Do you have any tips on how to stay consistent with writing, and how to stay focused on the task at hand?

Hi anon!

So firstly, I've answered versions of this question quite a few times so you might want to go into the 'Pia on Writing' tag because they'll be there.

A quick look has found:

How to write more words regularly - This one is good for just...straight up practical advice.

But I wanted to speak frankly which is - what works for me might not work for you! We all have different strengths and weaknesses and depending on how we orient towards writing depends on what those weaknesses are. For example, I need to learn how to take more breaks and rest more, and not write as much. The 'writing a lot and sometimes too much' comes pretty easily to me these days.

Not all writers are meant to be consistent writers. I don't have a daily habit and I haven't written anything at all in a week and a half. I have my monthly wordcount and that's it. Someone else might need to write or edit every day, in order to not lose sight of their projects. Someone else might need five intensive days a month. It will depend on their nature, their personality.

Not all writers have the same reasons behind why they can't stay focused on a task. I have ADHD, but I can also hyperfocus on characters and a storyline. Others have ADHD, and cannot hyperfocus on their characters or storyline long enough to finish a story. That's a problem I don't know how to remedy, because I don't have that kind of ADHD, so I've never had to 'solve' it before. Some writers are perfectionists which hamper them, I am not a perfectionist and I'd rather the thing be out in the world with some flaws, than on my computer talking to no one. I need the dopamine more than I need something to be perfect. So you see anon, sometimes the things that impact us just aren't universal, which means you need more specific advice. There will be perfectionist writers who will have lots of great advice, there will be ADHD writers who get bored of a story who have great advice. :D

What I will say is that pretty universally, writing consistently and staying focused are both like muscles in the body. I'm where I'm at today because I've had 9-10 years of practice doing this, and when you start out (which the above link addresses) you will need to aim more realistically and reasonably, and start there.

It's also worth having a really grounded sense of why you want to write more consistently / focus more on your writing. Is it for fun? Is it because you want to finish a project? Is that project something you'll feel good if you finish or are you over it? Is it because you want to make an income? (Have you considered there are approximately 40 billion easier ways to make an income?) Is it because you just want to see if you can do it?

Sitting down and thinking about your motivations here will help motivate you if you can keep your goals in mind. And it will also help clarify what you get out of writing in the first place.

Re: Staying focused. It depends on your distractions. I use music, that helps me. That might be terrible for you. I make sure I'm eating well - the brain needs carbs and fats, and my whole body needs protein and fibre - so I'll have a decent breakfast before starting out. Sleep is important. Drinking regularly is important. There's very basic things here which seem obvious that help a ton with concentration, but if you're not doing them, they're a good place to start. You'd be surprised how much just 'eating balanced meals, drinking regularly and sleeping enough hours' helps with concentration. Like, so much.

A friend of mine uses the Pomodoro method (that would drive me nuts), there's using write-ins like Twitch streams to basically 'body double' with other people who are writing at the same time (I find this very motivational). There's gamification like 4TheWords (love this site). There's 'I get to have a cookie if I write another 200 words.' There's 'actually I've lost focus because this part of the story might be broken and if I just do this the river will start to flow again' as a writing technique.

Mostly, you'll need the time and space to just amass the number of techniques you need to help with both focus and writing regularly. But in all of this, it's vital to be patient with yourself. You can't expect yourself to take a week to end up somewhere that someone else took 3 or 4 years to get to. And it won't be...consistent. Don't side-eye me or anything, but like, we're not meant to be machines, even people who write relatively consistently (like me) need breaks, get burnt out, get tired, are over it, and sometimes need brand new techniques to start working again. Knowing that it's not a linear upward curve of ever-increasing focus lets you also just...be compassionate and patient with yourself.

Oh yeah, because you'll have to get good at both of these too anon. :D Learning discipline and being firm with yourself can't work successfully if you also then mentally punish yourself for not doing it 'well enough' to the point where you don't want to do it anymore. Cultivating the 'I'll try again tomorrow' or 'I did great today!' parts of your brain help a ton with consistency. If you know you're going to be kind to yourself for doing well, and firm but compassionate with yourself when you don't, all of this gets way, way easier.

[svtskneecaps]

you kids like your duo names so i'm dubbing ramon and dapper the "wrapper duo" i don't take constructive criticism