#this is -trying- to show a comparison of writing experience and character complexity in a study where I ask people to talk about their ocs

[noknowshame]

I've decided I'm going to quit grad school to focus on making abstract art out of botched data analyses

[homestuckreplay]

SIGN ME UP FOR YOUR IDIOTIC CLOWN RELIGION OK.

(page 1995-2010)

Homestuck has passed 2000 pages!! Wow that’s a lot of comic. Who’d have known 2000 pages ago that we’d be hanging out with a little gray kid on an alien planet, millions of years before John Egbert even exists. Not me. And not Andrew Hussie either. And yet the transition to this feels pretty natural.

I don’t know much about Alternia yet, but my first impression is that it’s just ‘mask off Earth’. Specifically talking about modern Western culture (aka the culture where Homestuck comes from), we construct this veneer of a polite and civilized society where everything follows rules and traditions, and where we as humans are rational creatures who should be ‘above’ animals and our own biological needs. Meanwhile Alternia is like asking ‘what if we admitted that the world is a bad place where people constantly do harm to each other, and where being a biological creature is both inherently gross and inescapable. what if society simply accepted these facts and did not try to hide or change them?’ The trolls have terrible nightmares as they sleep in their own disgusting slime, are forced through painful and difficult ordeals as children, don’t have great respect for arts like fashion and poetry, and their upper class literally have different colored blood which (to them) legitimates their own importance. I’m sure it sucks ass to live on Alternia but it sounds kind of refreshing to live in a place that doesn’t even pretend to play fair.

The fact that Alternia has the same movies and TV shows as Earth means their societies must be far more similar than they are different, because media is so much a product of the culture it comes from. Also, ‘50 First Dates’, ‘Serendipity’ and ‘Hitch’ are all already fairly literal titles! And movies on Earth are often categorized by genre, by tropes, and by comparisons to other, similar movies! So Alternia is just taking this to its logical conclusion by having its movie titles basically be their TVTropes pages, where people decide whether to watch them based on whether or not they enjoy the individual elements they’re composed of. It seems wacky and different at first glance, but on deeper consideration it’s really not.

All of this might not hold up as I learn more about Alternia, but this is definitely the lens I’m looking at it through right now. And to be honest all writers are humans (as far as I know) and it’s incredibly hard to write an alien society that feels meaningfully different from Earth as we’re all so influenced by our own experiences, and especially in a comedy webcomic where Hussie probably hasn’t sat down to do extensive complex worldbuilding (for one thing, when would they have the time), there will be similarities just due to shortcuts, assumptions and biases.

I watched Karkat’s movies! I saw Serendipity a while back when he first mentioned it and it sucked ass. Hitch was pretty good though – 2005 Will Smith is cute, there’s genuine chemistry between both of the main couples, and the characters feel more fully realized than the average romcom, so I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the genre. 50 First Dates was not good but it was fascinating, so I get why Karkat likes it even though he has a hard time defending it (p.1998). It has many flaws (racism, misogyny, unnecessary grossout humor) but it really takes the premise of Lucy’s short term memory loss and runs with it, acknowledging the horrors and genuinely exploring what that would mean for her ability to have a relationship and a future, and I kind of respect it for that.

Back when the trolls and kids started talking, I noted that Homestuck was starting to explicitly discuss romance – for example, Dave accusing GA of having a crush on Rose (p.1589). That all went away later in act 4, which was very plot-focused, with the exception of Mom and Dad’s meeting and holding hands. But Karkat specifically liking romantic movies could be a return to that theme. Twelve trolls offer far more options for romantic pairings than four kids, half of which are siblings.

My boy Karkat doesn’t even need a Sburb server player to destroy his house. Apparently he is doing a fine job of it all on his own with this dumbass modus.

Hivebent already feels ominous for a few reasons. First and most obvious, the darker color palette. Second, the ~ATH (TILDEATH) manual. John also has this manual (p.115) and has unsuccessfully tried coding with it (p.24), but never looked inside. It’s full of skulls, bones, graves and grim reapers (aesthetically very cool) and its ‘logic is composed of nothing but infinite loops’ (p.2002). Sort of like paradox space?? Like how John creates himself through ectobiology, sends his baby self to Earth on a meteor, grows up to create himself, in an infinite loop? Kind of like that but now about death, instead of birth perhaps?

‘You certainly wouldn't get all that worked up about a game that happened to allow you to do such a thing. At least not for that reason.’ (p.2003)

Third, this quote – maybe it’s because I know Sburb is a fucked up game that destroys planets and ruins lives, but this is a very menacing, VERY loaded line to me. (It was the final line of June 13th’s update and definitely stuck with me overnight). Sburb too has necromantic capabilities, so this could tie into the Bone Manual from above.

And fourth, the Hivebent title card. A few pages ago, we were told there wouldn’t be ‘time to drag out every little gag and expected pattern’ (p.1993) and this shows even in the art – it’s three still images, compared to John’s title card (p.82) where time was taken to animate the sequence in Flash. But in this case the pattern is upheld, because its purpose – illuminating the POV character’s mental state – is fulfilled the following page. It’s just that Karkat’s mental state is far more action-oriented and ambitious than the more contemplative, trapped kids.

Karkat’s computer looks like it’s made out of biological material, powered by wires going into something soft and slimy. This is kind of like how Skaian chess constructs are made through biological/genetic processes, so, much like the Harleys + Mom Lalonde are already using Skaian technology on Earth, it seems like that’s seeded itself on Alternia already, though in different forms.

I’ve heard that the Alternian language is based on some existing fantasy language but I think it’d be fun to puzzle it out for myself if I have a minute. ‘GAME GRUB EXCLUSIVE LEAKS’, which gets translated in text on page 2007, is probably enough to get started and then fill in some blanks from there.

Pages that aren’t titled with commands are now titled ‘======>’ instead of ‘==>’. Six equals signs for twelve lines in total, representing twelve characters, instead of four. This is just a cool detail, and another way that the characters bleed into the actual structure of the comic.

On the last page of today’s update, there’s a NEW TROLL!! terminallyCapricious, who has messaged Jade (p.1390) at a time when she wasn’t opening the trolls’ message, is now here via pesterlog. Back when I was a forums kid using BBCode tags, I used to use [color=indigo] for all my posts, so I feel an instant connection to this troll. Also, TA and GC both get namedropped (initialdropped?) here, so the initial group of six who’ll play Sburb is starting to come together. My guess is we’ll meet these six first and see them begin the session, with the other six joining the story later.

TC and CG both come off very badly in this conversation, which essentially means that the trolls were always awful, they didn’t become so due to the trials of Sburb interfering in their previously good friendships. Karkat is constantly rude to TC, calling them an awful friend and saying it’s cosmic punishment to even know them, which is a bad way to talk to someone even if you’re trying to distance yourself from them, unless Karkat likes making himself angry. Meanwhile, TC has some highly anti-intellectual attitudes that are harmful and which I associate with fundamentalist Christianity (on Earth). Speaking of which – Karkat is the first to mention God, which suggests some kind of mainstream troll religion, and then refers to TC’s ‘IDIOTIC CLOWN RELIGION’ a few messages later (p.2010). These may or may not be the same religion. But given that there’s already some religious imagery in Sburb (John biting the apply, for example), I’m interested to see religion explored in Alternian society.

okay I said so much here and I didn’t even delve into karkat character analysis. god damn.

[kirkwallguy]

I'd hate to sound pretentious or smth but I was watching a vid talking about media literacy when it comes to booktok and this idea with those girlies that thinking/engaging with something critically isn't fun and the only way to have fun is to turn off your brain... I don't think VG suffers from this as much as a lot of booktok shite but in comparison to the other games it rly does feel like you're not meant to be paying attention or thinking about your actions (cough not like you get to chose any of your actions COUGH), or the implications of anything? and I'm not trying to say VG fans are stupid or smth cause I think many Want something to think about, but I feel like I've seen a lot of people have to reach very far or just straight up make shit up to engage with the game? (Other games aren't perfect but I was immersed with the games enough to stop and think about how my choice will affect xyz, that didn't happen in VG) There's nothing to chew on in VG basically 😭

it's only pretentious if you don't mean it! but yeah i think there are a lot of parallels to be drawn here - i don't know how to say this without sounding like an annoying gamer bro, but now that gaming is more accessible, it feels like aaa companies do their best to cater to the widest possible demographic. market research probably shows that the majority of people don't want to be challenged or experience negative emotions, ask someone who plays games very casually whether they'd want to experience horrible consequences for picking evil actions in a game they'd probably say "um?? no? why would i want that?" but ask someone who plays a lot of rpgs and they'll probably at least understand the importance of those choices, even if they don't pick them personally. i don't think gaming is an old enough industry to have fully pinned down market research in the same way tv has - when you look at viewing figures, the most watched shows are soap operas and family sitcoms. that doesn't mean prestige tv doesn't have its place, it just means that the majority of people don't watch tv to experience the feelings shows like interview with the vampire want you to feel lol

dav doesn't actually ask any questions of the player. you're told what's wrong and what's right and not really asked to make any moral judgements. the bad guys that you kill are barely human so you don't feel bad about cutting them down (the antaam are dehumanised while the venatori are cartoon characters), the companion quests all end nicely no matter what choice you pick, the big act 1 choice is the closest you get to a negative consequence and it still feels very safe because you don't ever feel like you've done something wrong.

and yeah, it does feel like people writing analysis of vg are TRYING to chew on it, but so much of the enjoyment seems to be about coming up with your own fanon to play in a sandbox. which is fine. that's how i enjoy dai tbf. but it's sad to see after dao and da2, especially knowing how many other games there are that let you do this. SKYRIM is more complex than dav, and that's the game i always mention when talking about power fantasy sandboxes

the booktok stuff is kind of nuanced ofc, turn-your-brain-off rubbish has been available since the beginning of time and i feel like the real reason it's becoming more popular is self-publishing and people being more open about reading it on social media. i've written shitty 19th century porn and it was no better than whatever the mafia boss 50 shades ripoff writers are doing now. buuut also i think the way it spills out into other genres, and this increasing idea that fantasy/sci-fi should be about "escapism", is really fucking over people trying to get published while writing something complicated.

[thestupidhelmet]

I'm disappointed That '90s Show isn't getting its third season. I wanted to see the end of that story, which very likely would've/could've wrapped in a 16-episode season 3. Instead, we've got an unfinished show -- like an unfinished fic (those are so frustrating).

I accepted (or viewed) it as its own show outside of That '70s Show. I enjoyed what we got, and seeing more of (mostly) in-character Red and Kitty in their relationship was a particular treat.

I can only speak for me, but I I think the reason T9S ultimately didn't garner enough of an audience is multifactorial.

1) It tried to appeal to T7S fans' nostalgia while also trying to get brand new fans for a show full of new characters (save Red and Kitty) as principals. This middle ground approach made the show neither fish nor fowl.

2) That '70s Show experimented with ideas new to network sitcoms: regular fantasy sequences, regular pot circles, and characters with emotional depth and psychological complexity who are also funny. It has a certain quirkiness -- along with approaching the 1970s setting in a non-gimmicky way; rather, depicting the sociopolitical and economic issues of the '70s seriously.

While the quirkiness remained for many sessions, the commitment the 1970s setting faded -- although the time period continued to remain relevant to the characters' core throughout and to plots through at least season 4, albeit to a lesser extent than seasons 1 and 2.

3) The writing on That '90s Show didn't go deeply enough. '90s references abound, but they're not essential to the who the characters are and the show's plots. The '90s setting is fun window dressing, but if removed, the characters' personalities wouldn't be affected. They're written closer to modern teens who have an affinity for '90s teen culture, not as actual'90s teenagers.

The characters (new to the show) don't have the same level of stakes as those from T7S, whether as an individual or in their relationships. Nothing is necessarily wrong with having lower stakes, but teenagers tend to experience everything intensely, whether or not that intensity reflects what they're actually going through.

For comparison, in T7S we've got the characters' first experiences with sex -- or adding sexual connection to their relationships -- treated seriously and realistically while also deriving humor from these character-developing stories. After Jackie and Kelso consummate their relationship, for example, Jackie's so afraid of losing him that she acts servile in "That Wrestling Show" -- a complete reversal of her behavior so far but substantiated by the writing. Feminist Donna makes Jackie aware of her faulty thinking, which Jackie interprets very much in-character and seizes back control of her relationship with Kelso.

In T9S, Leia and Jay's first time having sex is depicted as cartoonish -- and as an actual cartoon. In writing, form follows function. The emotional stakes are very low for Leia and Jay, which the cartoon device both represents and confirms. While Jay's revelation in the following episode that all the sex he had before Leia was meaningless shows depth, it doesn't lead to any changes for the couple. Jay had already made the shift in season 1 from being a womanizer to a monogamist.

In T7S, Eric and Donna having sex the first time in season 2 is huge for both of them. Donna has trust issues because of her parents' relationship to sex, how they use it to manipulate each other, their lack of boundaries in regard to keeping their sex life private from Donna. She's afraid that adding sex to her relationship with Eric will destroy it.

Once Donna feels secure about her parents' relationship, she feels secure enough to have sex with Eric. For him, connecting with her that way is very deep and meaningful. It's not just the fact he's having sex but having sex with her. The love Eric feels for Donna is very evident and moving during the scene where he kisses her neck and begins to undress her.

In the following episode, however, we learn that Eric and Donna had two very different experiences during their first time. Eric is emotionally high from a) having sex and b) connecting with Donna sexually. Donna, however, didn't orgasm. Worse, she felt so disconnected from Eric while they had sex that she disassociated. Likely because she was terrified and Eric didn't check in with her and remain emotional present for her. He also orgasmed quicky, which is a realistic detail for a male teenager who'd built up this moment in his mind for over a year.

Their relationship is negatively affected by their lack of communication during sex and afterward. They both end up feeling miserable. Eric feels humiliated when he learns the truth of Donna's experience from a secondary source, which is ultimately the result of Jackie's gossipy nature. But Jackie, as ever being the font of experiential wisdom in certain areas, tells Eric his first-time performance was normal -- as a way of taking responsibility and making correction for her not keeping Donna's truth to herself.

The emotional and relationship stakes in this storyline are high. They're depicted as such, and that creates an emotional connection in the audience.

Moving away from sex (mostly), Hyde's home life in season 1 is depicted as precarious. We learn that his father abandoned him almost ten years ago and that his mother is an alcoholic who's had many sexual relationships and exposed Hyde to most of them. We also learn that Hyde's mom has left him for stretches of time regularly.

He grows up in poverty. The state of his house, its furniture, and the TV is proof of that, along with the fact he has six dollars and some cents total at Christmas to buy a gift for Donna.

In "Career Day," we get a glimpse of how Edna treats Hyde. She either doesn't view or doesn't care that Hyde was a child (and still is at seventeen, albeit old enough by then as not to be completely dependent on her for survival) when she exposed him to her sexual partners and provided/provides no parental stability. She acts entitled to her narcissistic behavior, which unfortunately often goes with being an addict. She constantly equates him with his father, the man who abandoned him to the abuse and neglect of his alcoholic and selfish mother. She clearly expects him to take on the responsibilities of a husband in all ways but sex from the time Hyde is nine. She's transferred her resentment of Bud onto Hyde.

That's enough emotional trauma for any kid, but in "Prom Night" and "Punk Chick," Edna's abusiveness is expressed through her words to him whenever he leaves the house. His sarcasm (at times biting) is clearly inherited from her. His paranoid belief in conspiracy theories also stems from having the two people (i.e. his parents) responsible for his physical survival and emotional well-being creating an unsafe, unpredictable environment. His passive aggressiveness, (which is a lesser part of his characterization until season 5 when the writers intensified it to serve the season's final arc / plot) is inherited from his mother, as well

Then his mother abandons him. He's seventeen. His father's nowhere to be found. His uncle's in prison. He has no family. If Eric and the Formans hadn't taken him in, he would've ended up in prison himself or dead.

Once he does move in with the Formans, we learn even more about his home life with Edna. He lived in a house full of vermin. He was not fed properly ... and his mother hit him, implied to be a regular occurrence.

His emotional defenses are totally understandable. But "Prom Night" establishes that he cares so much about the vulnerable, even for people whose personality he finds abrasive and unlikeable, that he'll put his own comfort and safety aside to help and protect them. This is his core, and it's reconfirmed in the last episode of season 1.

In "The Good Son," he doesn't act entitled to the Formans' help. He's grateful and shows himself to be the opposite of what his mother always accused him of: being lazy like his father. He does chores around the house happily and without expectation of reward. It's his way of "earning his keep".

But when Eric gets jealous of Red and Kitty's positive acknowledgement of Hyde, Eric acts out by bouncing a bowling ball in the living room, with the unforeseen result of destroying the TV. Red is furious. Hyde, out of gratitude for Eric's friendship and being the reason he has a safe home, takes responsibility -- which could result in him becoming homeless vs. Eric being punished relatively benignly. Hyde again sacrifices his safety to protect someone else, this time his best friend.

All of the above about Hyde happens in season 1 and is depicted throughout a portion of its episodes. One season. A handful of episodes. Plot is created organically from the characters, and the plot -- in turn -- affects the characters organically. Humor rises organically from the characters and plots as to be informed by them rather than the characters and plot being manipulated to fit a punchline.

The depth of writing in T7S creates a significant emotional connection with the show's characters in the audience. This depth is what's lacking in That '90s Show despite its pleasures.

Leia, Gwen, Nikki, Nate, Jay, and Ozzie had the potential to become emotionally complex characters. The first few layers are there, but the writing needed to go much deeper -- at least for me -- for a deeper emotional connection to the characters. The emotional stakes had to be higher.

Accepting that T7S S4 Jackie and Kelso are Jay's parents, that Jackie and Kelso divorced twice and Kelso had a child with Brooke during one of them -- or that impregnating Brooke was the cause of the first divorce -- Jay would not have grown into a carbon copy of his father. He would've been a completely different character, affected by his parents' personalities and toxic relationship. I could write a meta about what I believe Jay's personality actually should have been according to the facts of his upbringing.

Nikki is, for me, the most deeply portrayed character. I think the credit goes to the actress for that, not the writing. She has a nuance to her performance the other younger actors lack.

Leia and Gwen, from T9S's first episode (and through season 1), have a massive amount of chemistry that season two (particularly the second half) intentionally dismantles. I'm not saying all the characters in every show evarrrr need to be LGBTQ+ in some way, but Leia's unhappiness in Chicago in the '90s could've had a much deeper, higher stakes reason than T9S gives us (which pushed the limits of my belief).

Leia being bisexual or gay and hiding this fact at her old school would have explained her misery believably, as she's written and depicted in T9S S1 E1. Discovering Gwen through Gwen's window (queue the Melissa Etheridge song if you want; it was released in '93😅), the freedom of expression Gwen displays, the obvious attraction Leia experiences to both (which doesn't have to be romantic or sexual and canonically isn't) -- with different writers (or Netflix allowing it because they can and have made mandates to showrunners about LGBTQ+ content in the past) -- a perfect set up.

I absolutely would've written Leia as bisexual or gay and Gwen as being gay. In the '90s, a teen discovering their sexuality doesn't fit heteronormative society was much harder than it is for teens today (and it's still difficult). Pushing the LGBTQ+ rep to a side character who is barely depicted as a character in season 1 is a safe choice. Making the protagonist not straight in a '90s setting would have opened the storylines and upped the emotional stakes.

As Cosima from Orphan Black says, her sexuality isn't the most interesting part of her. This would (and should) also be true for Leia and Gwen. But Gwen being out to her family and friends would've helped a very-much-in-the-closet Leia navigate her understanding of her sexual orientation and given her a group of people who accepted her vs. what she experienced at home: having to hide an essential part of herself to be safe and accepted.

Had That '90s Show taken writing risks instead of writing to the middle, it could have been a successful descendant of That '70s Show. The essence of T7S, at its best, is having emotionally complex characters, significant stakes, humor arising organically from the first two items listed, integrating the '70s setting into the characters' essence and plots, and innovating with the fantasy sequences -- which weren't all '70s references but the characters imagining scenarios for themselves and other characters (e.g., Red joining the circle; "I am Whipped-Cream Head. Fear me") -- and the 360 circle scenes.

The essence of T9S should've been, imo, to innovate not imitate. If Jackie/Kelso are together in that version, then write the consequences of that seriously for Jay. Kelso in T7S is clearly a product of his upbringing. We hear a lot about his family dynamics but meet his father only once and only one brother out of his six siblings. Jay would not be a Kelso clone -- but I'll save further discussion on that for another meta.

[heaurtfk]

Binged ACOMAF and read it through in 2 days BECAUSE WHY WAS THE SECOND BOOK SO MUCH BETTER THAN THE FIRST

i’m eating this shit up so fast that I’m already starting to miss it

I fear I went straight into ACOMAF immediately after finishing ACOTAR so I didn’t get a chance to pen my thoughts and I swear — I need to write something about this.

I wouldn’t say that I hated Tamlin in ACOTAR… It was more like… why was he so boring 😭

Please, even Lucien was more interesting and Feyre and Lucien had way more chemistry in their bantering than Tamlin and Feyre, who had like 1 or 2 actual conversations and the rest of it was just physical flirting like… But I wasn’t exactly questioning Tamlin being the main guy — I was just rather disappointed.

ESPECIALLY when Rhysand appeared and became such an interesting character that Tamlin really paled in comparison after. And I found myself liking Rhys more and more, and hoping he would play a bigger role so we would get to see more of him and his backstory because he just felt so misunderstood. Hmm, somehow I didn’t dare to consider him as an actual love interest since Feyre was doing what she was doing for Tam who she loved so much.

But in the final fight with Amarantha, when Rhys lost it and became violent when Feyre went down. Oof, that was a high moment. They actually had so many moments UTM that I absolutely loved.

Oh speaking of UTM, there was almost no scenes with Feyre and Tam (which again, lowkey made me lose interest in Tam even more). And come on, the only time Tam had with Feyre, he decided to fuck her. On hindsight, it was truly so selfish and so damn gross of him. Of ALL the things he could have done, he decided it was best that they fuck one last time before she potentially dies tomorrow. He didn’t even deign to show any care for her wellbeing by just HAVING A DAMN CONVERSATION. No. Kinda shows where your priorities are yk. That was so messed up. (Not that Feyre wasn’t into it as well but she was messed up with all the shit that she’s been through UTM and was in no mental/emotional condition to be having loving sex at that moment. and he couldn’t even control his horny ass for the both of them?)

I think that kind of sums of what I hate about their relationship; the lack of communication — either because one side refuses to hear the other, or the other side refuses to talk about what is truly bothering them. And that is where the split happens in the next book, though I guess it is hinted throughout the first book as well.

I think the way SJM explores this relationship in particular is so harrowing. Because Feyre (and many of us I suppose) were blinded to Tam’s red flags, because there were so many times that I didn’t dare question who I thought was good. All because I knew he loved her. But as ACOMAF shows, love is just as much a poison as it is a balm.

I also really liked the way ACOMAF depicted the healing journey of Feyre — from the trauma of UTM AND of a toxic ex. Trying to get through the knowledge that Tam may not have been a bad person in general but that he was bad FOR HER. Her reflection that she might have fallen in love with just about anyone who showed her the slightest bit of care and kindness when she’s not been cared for in forever — and that this same love that might have worked for her in the past no longer works for the person that she has become. And how the complex feelings of insecurity and guilt of feeling like a traitor, falling in love so quickly with Rhys after Tam, are so so real.

Rhys’ POVs of the first book also hit hard, and I actually liked how he was weaved into Feyre’s story throughout ACOTAR, contrary to how most feel about it making Feyre’s development redundant. I think it was more romantic than anything. It is more of Rhys’ own backstory and experience. And I don’t think it takes away from Feyre’s experience.

Ok yeah that’s about it for my thoughts heh tldr: BOMBZ AZZ SERIES i love it sm

[ms-unbekannt]

I don��t know enough about Luigi to interpret his actions and character but he strikes me as in independent thinker, someone who wouldn’t say yes just because everyone else said yes but because he actually believes is the right answer.

Having that as a base thought and going back to the comparison with Raskolnikov, I can imagine a brilliant mind would wander to another side of thinking different than a “regular” person when put under major stress.

Rodion was consumed in poverty, isolated from everyone he knew, he had withdrawn from all social and academic life, discarding his studies as a lawyer, his family was living far away in their home town while Rodion was rotting himself (almost literally) in thought in a small dingy room in St Petersburg. He believed some people were worthier than others, he put special attention in a pawnbroker, an old lady cold and unsympathetic about the people who went to see her, among others Raskolnikov. He would go there often to get some money to pay for his rent, she would barely give him enough to satisfy the landlady only for him to lock himself in his room again. He barely ate and had stopped taking care of himself a while ago, however he was still described as an attractive, slim, tall, brown haired young man.

He would cross the street as to avoid his best friend and pretend he didn’t see him. Consumed by his superiority complex and depression he started to plan the m*rder of the pawnbroker who he thought was a leech, merely a parasite feeding of people’s misfortunes and desperation. In his mind she wasn’t worthy of living because she had no use for society, he convinced himself he had the right to do it, his moral being on higher grounds than her therefore he was not going to be condemn for it (at least spiritually) he was doing the society a favor by planning and executing his plan.

(The aftermath of the k*lling is a long journey of introspection, sickness of the soul that affects his physical health and many religious ideas of God)

What I think could be similar to Luigi is the way they would think outside the box, I believe only a deeply hurt, disturbed but brilliant mind would think on planning something like that. I’m relunctant on writing about Luigi’s side because I don’t know him and would only be my impressions of him but I’ll try (this is all mere ideas of him and not the truth because no one knows that)

I believe, as many other people do that the surgery and the life post that could have been the stressor for him to allegedly do what he did. Because he seems as a thoughtful, intelligent and accomplished person it shouldn’t have been difficult for him to fall into the idea of *taking action* do something, maybe even just for his convictions not for any other ulterior motive of common wellbeing. I wanted to make sense of his actions because he seems extremely unlikely to commit anything like that, if ever criminal it would be something else but not that. Throwing your life away despite having everything to succeed could mean that his world was shaken so bad that he found no other consolation.

I had thought that isolating from family and friends while planning could mean he didn’t see a life, any life after the plan succeeded but after seeing him in court I had the feeling he’s still very proud and would show no shameful behaviour to the world, maybe if he did it he believes as Rodion did that it was deserved, that the person had no use in society other than disgracing people’s lives. His head held high and smug face could be a charade to preserve a little of pride in such a humilliating experience for someone like him, with his social background (Rodion tried for a long period to assure himself what he did was right)

But I can’t stop thinking that he could have wanted to do one last meaningful thing in his life because he thought his life was over after the surgery, or at least over in the way he had planned it. I do believe one thing to be true, his mental state had to be extremely poor for him to act on it, like Rodion when he did it, he fell into a serious fever that kept him in bed for days, conflicted into his convictions and actions.

As a conclusion, two young men with bright futures fall into despair and commit *allegedly a crime (a meaningful crime but a crime nontheless).

(I am super morally grey so my opinions about the person who died are not of sympathy and I truly understand *if he did it* his reasoning. I’m sorry)

[dustedmagazine]

Los Campesinos! — All Hell (Heart Swells)

In a way, 2013’s NO BLUES was the end of a particular version of Los Campesinos! and for reasons that had little to do with their personnel changes over the years since 2006. The septet is far from the first (or last) band to experience the music industry leaving them for dead in a ditch for a lack of profit, and sadly also not the only ones to get one of their best albums caught up in that moment. So, everyone returned to (or got) day jobs and although they never exactly split up, it took some time to determine that, yes, Los Campesinos! was still really going to keep going. But if 2017’s excellent Sick Scenes was proof of concept of Los Campesinos!’s vitality and potential, the new, even more self-motivated ethos has led to both the longest break between albums yet and (recency bias be damned) their strongest LP.

Readers of Dusted don’t need to be reminded that financial success does not necessarily correlate with any particular merit, but that the entirely in house All Hell (self-financed, self-produced, on their own label) wound up as their first UK top 40 record (14 with a bullet!) is at the very least a testament to how many people were waiting for this record and how satisfying they found it. In Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie’s classic music-as-magic comic book Phonogram, one of the main characters describes Los Campesinos! (before they’d even put out a record) to another as “They’re never going to be big big. But they’re going to be big to some people.” Increasingly, it seems that those people have found them. If you go to an LC! show in 2024 fully half or more of the crowd are kids who were not listening to records when Hold on Now, Youngster… came out in 2008, a delightful product of the band just resolutely doing what they do for close to 20 years now.

All Hell is a stirring reminder of what that is, exactly. Their Bandcamp page still describes them as “The UK’s first and only emo band,” and that fine blend of sarcasm, sincerity, standoffishness, insight, and a certain love of starting an argument still sums up some of frontman Gareth David’s authorial voice (although it doesn’t include his incredibly vivid and compelling way with both political and romantic heartache and longing). Guitarist and (here) producer Tom Bromley continues to write incredible songs for David to drop punchlines and emotional haymakers over, and has also burnished this into easily the best sounding Los Campesinos record to date. At this point these seven members have been playing together since 2014 and can turn on a dime and nail pretty much any melodic/emotional register they need to, harsh or comforting, anthemic or plangent.

Fans are likely to draw comparisons to 2010’s Romance Is Boring, often considered a high-water mark. The last three records followed the same straightforward format: 10-11 songs, 40-42 minutes. Romance Is Boring was their most complex, lengthy, and interconnected record, and there’s an ambition here that makes them feel like siblings (possibly partly the result of having more time to build up material). The 15 songs here in just under 50 minutes, with three numbered tracks splitting the record into rough sections, feels sprawling and expansive after the tighter organization of the last few.

You can really feel that extra decade-plus in the structures, songwriting, and sonics of All Hell, but the polish and compositional sophistication here don’t belie a lack of fire. “The Coin-Op Guillotine” is easily the gentlest opener they’ve ever done; there’s bleakness there (“I think I’m right, I don’t think it matters”) but the refrain still centers on the kind of community and solidarity that they’ve been trying to practice from business/concert practices on down: “if you’ve got a cross to bear/call my name, I’ll see you there.” And even there it’s still about our current dystopia, and the title clearly refers to more than just the arcade game.

And sure enough, the following “Holy Smoke (2005)” immediately snarks that “nowadays it’s Live Laugh Love and Listen to Death From Above” over a headlong sprint (one of many places here where drummer Jason Adelinia is a crucial force). Even the magnificent “Feast of Tongues” (which arguably boasts a couple of the band’s best choruses to date), which swells from pensive backing “ooh”s and strings to one of the biggest, hardest hitting climaxes here, specifies that the title refers to when “we will feast on the tongues of the last bootlickers.”

As always, one of the challenges of writing about Los Campesinos! (as well as one of the joys of listening to them) is there are simply too many quotable lines, especially if you’re interested in the ways they refer back to their own history (dropping the “please” from the Romance Is Boring-era “can we all please just calm the fuck down?” as a teeth-gritted acknowledgment of how much less reasonable those they’re addressing have gotten since then) or just a good joke (if, say, “do you still have that one tattoo?/that’s how they work, of course you do” doesn’t work for you, another one will be along soon). And as much as All Hell is rich in the band’s traditional strengths, there are still moments of expansion. The crunching switchbacks of “Clown Blood/Orpheus’ Bobbing Head” are maybe the most aggro they’ve ever been, and the sweetly gloomy “kms” features Kim Paisey taking lead vocals for the first time.

Given the way the last two records have ended with some of their heaviest, weightiest songs, as they kick into the room-levelling angst of “0898 HEARTACHE” it feels like just that sort of crescendo. Instead, All Hell actually ends with the humbler melancholy of “Adult Acne Stigmata.” It’s the closest Los Campesinos! have come to an acoustic ballad, with multi-tracked Gareths sighing “it’s all hell, we know too well/it’s all hell” in the background. From another band, it might risk pathos or bathos; from Los Campesinos, it’s practically comforting. In the midst of inferno, we can all sing, and thrash, along.

Ian Mathers

[typellblog]

just watched elfen lied (2004). this is not a good show. i did not watch this expecting it to be a good show. sometimes, however, it's interesting to see how bad a show can get

it is a fusion of a gratuitously edgy scifi show and a harem show. this contradiction is embodied in the character of lucy, who has split personalities, one of which is a psychotic killer. stop me if you've heard this before

she swaps between personas based on head trauma, being confronted with her crimes, sleeping drugs, and whenever it is convenient for the plot. her other personality is a moe anime girl who does not understand language or how to interact with objects in the world on a basic level.

it's honestly kind of creepy how the show views nyuu as a legitimate target for romantic affection from the protagonist, especially when compared to lucy, who is both intelligent and actually possesses a complex internal life.

we do not get to see this very much, as she is largely a vessel for gory and pointless scifi battles rather than any character drama. so if you were wondering how the harem elements works with the scifi stuff, the answer is really that they do not

the normal human protagonists only avoid death by extreme contrivance whenever they interact with the deadlier elements of the setting, and remain unaware of much of what's going on until the end, thanks to extremely convenient personality switches on lucy's part

of course, if you were wondering how the harem elements work on their own, the answer would also be that they do not

kouta, the protagonist, is such a wet blanket that its impossible to interpret his feelings towards any of the girls until he is shown kissing them on screen. yuka, his cousin, has the emotional maturity of a deeply traumatised child, which is not a flippant comparison given that multiple such characters are depicted in the show. if she had psychic powers like the Diclonius she would probably end up being a mass murderer

which raises the interesting question of what the show's actual view on the creatures is. do they kill people out of irresistible instinct, as the evil scientist types claim? or are they simply lashing out at the people who hurt them, and would be able to adjust to normal life if properly supported by their family, like we might assume from the case of Nana?

the show doesn't really care, sweeping the awkward problem of how to deal with characters like Mariko under the rug by exploding her, but only after the sympathetic figure of her father forgives and accepts her, dying in the explosion with her to atone for his crime of trying to kill her in the first place. writing this out makes it seem more thematically coherent than how it actually comes off.

but back to the harem stuff. i know i'm swapping around a lot. don't worry, it is accurate to the experience of watching the show.

i suppose calling it a harem feels somewhat inaccurate since only two of the girls harbour romantic feelings for kouta, the other two being younger characters given a more 'daughterly' position in the household. these girls make no particular effort to grow closer to kouta, neither does he deliberately or accidentally woo them into liking him. they are simply drawn into his orbit by the sheer force of the show needing a bunch of girls to fill up kouta's stupidly large and empty house.

mayu is the most notable example, considering she has no connection to the scifi plot whatsoever, simply happening to stumble upon the house while in the middle of being homeless.

i feel like it's important to point out that she also walks around with no pants on for a decent portion of the show. if you pay attention it's implied she isn't wearing any underwear either. the reason for this is, and i am not joking or exaggerating, that her father was molesting her and forcing her to strip and she ran out of the house right after taking her bottoms off.

mayu wears a big jumper, so she has plausible deniability to both the audience and random onlookers. however, kouta and yuka invite her into their house for an extended period of time and then let her leave again without ever commenting on the fact that she isn't wearing any fucking pants

the show is filled with baffling decisions like this that erode any trust in the consistency or good taste of the character writing, much less any expectation that the characters' actions make sense on any level

they test the psychic girls powers by strapping them to a wall and firing cannonballs at them. this doesn't even turn out to be effective in-universe.

im very sleepy. what more can i even say about this show.

i think it's cool when girls get their arms chopped off. unfortunately it pretty obviously limits itself to only limbs on account of the characters being able to replace them using prosthetics combined with their psychic powers. i would have liked to see more guts

the opening theme is good and very creative. i skipped it every time

the way the show ends is functionally a non-ending. i'll have to look at the manga soon

multiple people have told me this was their first anime. it explains a lot about them in every case.

goodnight

[lemonhemlock]

To me Rhaenyra would’ve been such an enjoyable character if she wasn’t perpetually framed as the hero (which is the intent, so that’d be a different show), If she could’ve been as sheltered, entitled, and even cruel as she actually is without always being presented as the flawless chosen one… she’d been great to watch ngl. She happens to be portrayed by two strong performers, and Emma in particular plays the “entitled” and “manipulative”part very well.

I’m definitely Team Green, as in, i do think Aegon is the heir over Rhaenyra from the moment he’s born, but my issues with Rhaenyra aren’t about her thinking the throne is hers, or fighting for it. She’s the firstborn and it was promised to her. I get that and do sympathise with her because of that.

The obvious comparison is Shiv Roy (the circumstances are very different, i’m talking framing/writing) who many might say is the best Roy (and this could’ve been said about Rhaenyra even without the hero framing) because she is the most left-leaning, and she also says pretty things like “when I’m queen I’ll create a new order”. It’s when it comes to actions, neither can truly back it up, because the quest for power is what matters the most, and Shiv wasn’t patted on the head during hers. It was also acknowledged a few times that she does believe in the things her brothers don’t care for. Why was it impossible for Rhaenyra to be written like this? Cause she’s supposed to be Daenerys 2.0 and that’s a shame

rhaenyra would have benefited tremendously from shiv's writing. for example, shiv's storyline during "america decides" is so well-executed & elaborate - hotd could never. she wants the democrat candidate to win bc she does believe in more left-leaning ideals, but, at the same time, her selfishness and self-preservation and desire for power come into play as she wants to lead her father's company via the arrangement she has with matsson. so she finds herself in a situation where she wants to eat her cake and have it too - have jimenez win but NOT if he agrees to block the deal to sell off waystar.

in the end, her desire for power wins over and she refuses to even try to (indirectly) convince jimenez' team to accept to block the deal like her brothers want - she never makes the phone call. if waystar gets sold off, she can't "win" and she wants to win no matter what. and she gets called out for this. explicitly and dramatically. kendall catches her red-handed and her hypocrisy is exposed for all to see. shiv doesn't care enough for her principles to make a personal sacrifice, even if it's for the good of the entire country. it's sympathetic because she is trying as a woman to react to being excluded from the high echelons of power, but, at the same time, it's utterly meaningless, because she is/will be rich af no matter what, so being CEO is just child's play. just that other people will get hurt if the fascist mencken becomes president, but who cares about that, right? shiv is a privileged woman who will be ok no matter what, the suffering will always be reserved for other people.

poignant parallel to the targaryens fighting over the throne and never choosing the welfare of the people over their own consolidation of power. rhaenyra could have been a rich woman living her comfortable housewife life, but she feels so entitled to a position she doesn't even care to fulfill properly that she plunges the entire continent in a pointless civil war. she doesn't have a political bone in her body, is diplomatically inept and her administration skills are lacking, but viserys promised she'd be queen, so that's that. just like shiv doesn't have any true qualifications or experience to be CEO, but she pursues that goal to the detriment of her personal relationships and morality.

as you said, shiv is not patted on the back for holding the "right" political beliefs, she is not given chosen-one white-hart framing, she is presented with all her complexity and flaws and contradictions. like rhaenyra, she is not shown to do an altruistic gesture if it doesn't benefit her in some way, so the narrative doesn't treat her like the second coming of christ. rhaenyra could have similarly been a groundbreaking female character - not necessarily likable, but sympathetic and complex and ultimately interesting.

[gryphonlover]

It’s “appreciate yourself” hours! Pick five pieces of writing that you’ve done that you love and talk about them! ❤️❤️❤️

Oh boy, I was not expecting this when I opened my inbox. 😅 At this point, I've got 25 works tagged under Linked Universe (including the translations), which feels like a lot. But I think 5 works makes a decent sampler.

Light a Candle is definitely one of my favorites. It was actually supposed to be a gift fic for you, but I was too shy to tag it as a gift fic at the time, so I just posted it and hoped you saw it. It's also a very sentimental piece for me because it's based off of a personal experience I had, and I wanted to capture that beautiful moment of friendship and brotherhood in writing.

The Doll of Resurrection was my first mature fic. I was very nervous at first, because I hadn't written or posted something like that before, but I think it came out very well, and now I've got a companion piece in the works. I don't know what else to say about this except that I plan to keep writing death scenes that emphasize gentleness and loving kindness.

Dead Weight is part 6 of Emotional Support Loftwing, and probably my favorite of the series thus far, simply because I think I did the best on it in comparison to the others. I've been pretty pleased with the response in the comments because there were a few things I did on purpose there, and they noticed, which means I was successful.

Troubled Waters was very self-indulgent. I just wanted to write something where I could drown Hyrule, so I did. Personally, I feel like it's one of my more unique pieces because I haven't seen many angsty fics set in Wind's era. I was also able to avoid the topic of cremation, which I'm quite proud of given the existence of Hyrule's blood curse thing he's got going on.

It's Fine, Don't Worry About It, is my main ongoing project at the moment. It's not actually finished yet, but it's one of the fics I've enjoyed working on the most so far. Around July, I started feeling a lot happier and more confident with my writing, and I like to think that it shows in this piece. Especially since I've been trying to convey a lot of complex emotions and hint at some of my headcanons through different characters' POVs.

[crowaes]

finished umineko last month but sat on it a while to crystalize my thoughts on it.

i strongly connected to the question arcs a lot more than the answer arcs. episode 1 was like the best opener ive seen to a vn. it had such an incredible hook for me and there were multiple points that i had chills. where i think ryukishi shines best is in his depictions of complex psychology and suspense. i never felt scared in episode 1, exactly, but i did always feel anticipation as each text box proceeded. overall i felt like the question arcs had tighter writing and much stronger emotional beats. i was crying at work multiple points in episode 4 while i was on my lunch break. beatrice as a character is also incredibly impressively written. she is easy to hate early on and she does things so horrible that i felt nauseous reading. but by the end i adored her. the question arcs were tight, i loved every character from them, and there were many points that got visceral reactions out of me.

the answer arcs did have incredibly strong moments. episode 7 was amazing for me to finally learn exactly what happened. i do appreciate ryukushis approach of never giving us the answer but making us get to it ourselves. it fits thematically as well with the thesis to not be vouyeristic towards beatrice or umineko as a whole. the emotions are far more important than the factual events. to a degree it shouldnt even be "solved." episode 8s choice to have player interaction and have the player actually solve an umineko case too was brilliant. i think the answer arcs show the best case of the writing and gameplay really synergizing. but simultaneously, i also felt like the answer arcs at times lost me. i did not connect with some of the answer arc characters very much, particularly erika, unfortunately. i also think that what drew me in least about umineko was the giant anime battles and that does become more prominent in the answer arcs. the writing overall just felt less tight to me in the answer arcs, especially in terms of pacing. also on a very minor level- i dearly missed maria.

i do think umineko wildly benefits from a re-read. i plan to go through it again soon once the mood strikes. ive been away from the youtube stuff for a while because life happens and its a hobby i do when the mood strikes. i promised lamento so lamento is happening. then dmmd because the dmmd video is my number one priority. but i may also do umineko because its truly incredible. i have critiques of it, but umineko reminds me why vns are such a beautiful medium. the only reason i hesitate is because people already know and love umineko widely. i try to address stuff that is not getting a lot of video essay attention, such as bl games. so i think itll mainly come down to if i feel i can say something valuable about umineko in comparison to other video essays.

also i cannot say anything about umineko without plugging nezumi va extensively. it was via her videos i experienced it. i needed something to listen to while driving and doing spreadsheets at work. umineko was on the radar which is why i approached it in the first place. her voice acting is like actually insane (positive). upon replay i will play a version with the japanese voice acting. but her umineko read through is very accessible and a great way to experience it if youre in a position where you do need a more audio focused format.

long and short of it- incredibly excellent set of games. really adored it.

[scarletwitching]

Do you have any opinions/meta on the portrayal of Doctor Doom's dictatorship in Marvel comics? As someone who is somewhat knowledgeable on the horrors of dictatorship, it always makes my skin crawl when writers unironically portray Latveria as this "benevolent dictatorship utopia" without bothering to put in the two seconds of thought/research that would immediately lead to the conclusion of why that is a wildly offensive, irresponsible, nonsensical, and logically unattainable concept to promote

I have to preface this by saying that I prefer the nice, likeable version of every character. Even characters I have no particular interest in, whatever the softer version of them is, that's how I think they should be written. I'm not saying this is a good thing or some kind of moral judgment. It's a matter of taste. Like, I can't handle Harry Potter because it's so mean, both in terms of the books themselves and a lot of the characters. People are always like, "Give us a Marauders show," and I'm like, why on Earth would anyone want to watch a television show about high school bullies? Are people okay?

Which is weird because I love Emma Frost. But I don't want Emma to be a villain. I don't know how to explain it. I guess I just prefer for characters to be well-intentioned. Characters can be prickly. They can have conflict, but when a character feels malicious, I lose interest in them.* I find it so much more compelling when characters are clashing but nobody is being cruel or monstrous, they just have their own viewpoint. So, on a purely character level, I do prefer for Doom to have good sides to him.

All that said, man, politics in superhero comics is tricky. It's a minefield. To play Devil's Advocate for the people writing these stories you dislike, what they're trying to convey is that the superhero perspective is not the only one, which is a sentiment I appreciate. I like when we admit that other people in this world do not have the views or experiences of the average superhero. I think that, theoretically, that complexity is a positive, but I don't think it's handled with much nuance or consistency within the stories themselves.

Where does Latveria fit on a left-right spectrum? What countries are they allied with? Who do they trade with? What are the internal politics? What real life country, past or present, is the best comparison point? Whomst can say. This is part of why politics in superhero comics is tricky. Because they don't really get into details. They just make broad gesturings at real life things and then the next writer contradicts that, and it all depends on what real world thing is trendy to reference. When you are Genosha, sometimes, you are South Africa, and sometimes, you are Yugoslavia. So it goes.

The flip side of all of this is, of course, that Doom is Roma, and the people who created him did not understand the sociopolitical implications of the character they created. What does it mean to be a "nationalist" when you are a Roma man from Eastern Europe? Sometimes, as a writer, you don't know that much about other cultures, and you write something with weird implications that you aren't aware of, and one day, it's 60 years later and that shit's still canon and we all just have to deal with it.

Like with a lot of dilemmas of superhero characterization, there's really no perfect answer because, no matter what angle you come at it from, there is the possibility of finding something questionable about it. If you get too far into trying to depict Latveria as a realistic dictatorship, there is weirdness/uncomfortable stuff on that end too.

Part of why our (read: USian) culture's current fixation on nostalgia is troublesome is that it is much more complicated to "fix" old canons than people think and often, it is impossible. We're stuck with all our movies being about characters created 60+ years, and they come with that baggage. A lot of times, it is the concept of the character where the problems lie, and the degree to which you can ever remedy that is... Well, it doesn't usually work 100%. And you can create other problems by trying to get rid of the old ones. Which is what you're complaining about, right? So, my tl;dr Doom take is that there is always going to be this weirdness to the character because of the nature of superhero comics. I get where you're coming from, but I also get the opposite argument. A true centrist, wow.

*Except, of course, for Zaladane, the only good supervillain ever created.

[vuole-tu-sia-in-pericolo]

The mind behind gender in My Brilliant Friend and The Queen's Gambit

I kind of lost count of the number of times I have gone back to the characters of Beth Harmon and Lila Cerullo with Elena Greco. One from The Queen's Gambit and the other 2 from My Brilliant Friend. There are not many shows that depict the complexities of the female experience. The type of woman who can not be fit into the madonna-whore box or the prude, the one who is brilliant in mind but at the same time lives in a constant battle with the world because of this.

In both depictions, this topic is explored in different forms; Beth Harmon is autistic, and that immediately puts her into the outlines of the society she lives in. She takes chess as her refuge because it is the only thing that makes sense in her mind, the only thing she can control in comparison with how uncontrollable life is and with the social dynamics that, for an autistic woman, are like dealing with blurry words. She does want closeness, but her limitations are too mixed up with the lack of stability growing up. Most of her dynamics with her loved ones are faced with the wall of emotional disconnection that can be a consequence of her autism and trauma.

In Elena Ferrante's trilogy, My Brilliant Friend, femininity is depicted between these 2 women as a violent scream of self-assurance, as freedom itself. Lila manifests this with quickness of mind through actions, even though life prevented her from reaching her fullest potential in academia. She kept trying to maintain a high level of awareness of the realities she lived and how to play the mental gymnastics while dealing with the camorra (the mafia). No book can give you the proper steps to handle those kinds of situations, only enough cunning and high attention to people's intentions, knowing how to read people's unsaid cryptic words.

On the polar opposite, there's Elena Greco, a booksmart who hides her insecurities behind books due to her mother's envy for her opportunities. The only woman in the town who was given the opportunity to be someone other than just a married woman. Through her story, she starts writing, thinking of Lila, her friend who always challenges her mentally and the source of her drive to be better, even if in some moments there was a tangible rivalry. A rivalry that is addictive only when you find someone who pushes you without any kindness, just to find out how much you can push each other, to the point of provocation.

“Lila was able to speak through writing; unlike me when I wrote, unlike Sarratore in his articles and poems, unlike even many writers I had read and was reading, she expressed herself in sentences that were well constructed and without error, even though she had stopped going to school, but–further–she left no trace of effort; you weren't aware of the artifice of the written word. I read and I saw her, I heard her. The voice set in the writing overwhelmed me, enthralled me even more than when we talked face to face; it was completely cleansed of the dross of speech, of the confusion of the oral; it had the vivid orderliness that I imagined would belong to conversation if one were so fortunate as to be born from the head of Zeus and not from the Grecos, the Cerullos.”

― Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

You still waste time with those things, Lenu? We are flying over a ball of fire. The part that has cooled floats on the lava. On that part, we construct the buildings, the bridges, and the streets, and every so often, the lava comes out of Vesuvius or causes an earthquake that destroys everything. There are microbes everywhere that make us sick and die. There are wars. There is a poverty that makes us all cruel. Every second, something might happen that will cause you such suffering that you'll never have enough tears. And what are you doing? A theology course in which you struggle to understand what the Holy Spirit is? Forget it; it was the Devil who invented the world, not the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Do you want to see the string of pearls that Stefano gave me?”

― Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

From the outside, Lenu is not as thrilling to watch as Lila, but in my eyes, I kind of relate to her intentions; her hesitance is in some ways, her virtue. It was a way of survival in a violent world that eventually, with patience through her studies, allowed her to show that rebellion. Once she started to write and publish her work, until that moment, she became a problem; she revelled too much and talked too much.

She's far away from a perfect character; for moments, we question her decisions, the same as Lila. She can become too unpleasant, rude or even confrontational for the rest .

 There's even a part of the book and in the tv series in the 4th season when Lila openly explains her reason behind this.

"She was like that; she threw things off balance just to see if she could put them back in some other way."

— Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend

No man can understand deeply this idea; they might understand it superficially, what it is, but never to the point of the feeling of being reduced to a mother, a pretty thing that walks for the sake of fulfilling the loneliness of another. Even if conforming is keeping up with the man while he focuses on his endeavours, meanwhile, you are repeating the expectation of following the care of a child on your own. Most of the time, from what I have seen (not always, since there are some cases), the men prioritize their commodity, possibly the title of being a father, but not the parenting part. 

In the case of Lila's, she violently fought against that expectation to the point of having an abortion through hard labour.

On the other extreme, Lenu indulges herself into a doomed affair. Can you blame her after she ended up having all the burden on her shoulders? Neglecting her dreams, her writing. The only one who still didn't see her in those reductive societal terms was the only friend who kept challenging her. Questioning her thoughts, her decisions.

 Elena Ferrante's way of showing womanhood is visceral, far away from reductive topics. Is the grief of how time is cruel when we are reduced as objects of desire to be filled and dropped after no longer being the muse of another. I always heard from other women that being a woman means living in cycles. We are cyclical with our periods, from the moment we have our first stain of blood and the fear we have that we are no longer a child but a woman with the fear of what it implies. Your first breakup, your first sexual encounters, and the confusion it leaves. Seeing women using it as a tool for control or survival. It's like, " or I use it to my advantage, or it will be used against me." And the decay.. Womanhood is a constant loss of the perceptions society says you are.

I'm not as logically gifted as Beth Harmon or confident enough to defy someone who is actively hurting you like Lila's. Maybe I fall into the same insecurities and approach to things as Lenu. I tend to retreat behind books and random articles, constantly questioning if my efforts are sufficient. Finding things to not disappoint.

Lila and Lenu are not like this, not even Beth Hamon. The mind is their survival and a rebellion against those barriers. Time may pass, but their spirits will remain, and to me, that is the most beautiful depiction of what it means to be a woman in this violent world.

[capableism]

When Mental Illness is a Leading Man

Photo by Tom Pumford from Unsplash

The Stigma of Masculinity

Men's mental health is stigmatized with double standards or stereotypes that masculinity and expressing emotions cannot co-exist. "Boys don't cry. Men are strong and stoic. On the other hand, people with disabilities need help to live full lives and are seen as inspirational when they do. These two ideas from American society conflict internally for me as a disabled man. It's almost like I can't  "man up" because of assumptions based on my physical appearance. Strangers want to help me. It doesn't sound that bad, but it takes away my independence. That can lead to feeling less than. (Balancing Male Stereotypes And Disability)

I agree with Telvin that

"If Charlie had things going on in his life, like trying to be a serious musician, or just playing video games competitively, or anything else, we can have Charlie experience homophobia in a new setting, which can trigger the trauma of his past bullying." 

Photo by Josh Sorenson from Unsplash

 It would give the show more complexity. However, if it is less homogenous, it would still be positive, but the characters would have to fall outside the single notes the media has time for. 

The Conflict Between Disability and Masculine Ideals

In terms of disability stereotypes, Charlie's story benefits a nondisabled person. If Heartstopper were a film, all the characters would have less time to make diversity a lived-in facet of these teen lives. The world is escapism fiction. It attracts people because it isn't focused on sex or discrimination. The discriminatory situations place blame on the aggressors and not the minority. 

 Often, wholesome films play into that narrative of discrimination. Heartstopper benefits from the streaming television schedule. While Heartstopper is for all ages and known for love, Season 3, the most recent season at the time of writing, has the internet littered with reaction videos. People say they weren't ready for all the emotion. Neither was I, to be honest. 

Expectations of the show were that it would be a light show. When Gayety asked, "What has it meant to be on a show that has so much heart, so much representation? Kit Connor and Joe Locke, who play Nick and Charlie, responded,

"It's an honor. It's not that often you can be a part of a show that has an impact and people genuinely care about. That's a special feeling for an actor. (Connor) 

Representations of minorities often follow storylines of misery and focus on the hardships of being in these communities. Tevin’s Heartstopper article has noted that the boys keep their school clothes on even when the scene conveys they are comfortable with each other.

Telvin asked are the clothes condoms? The perspective Telvin explains is that writers are creating stereotypes for fangirls. Intersectionality of attraction for these gay and bisexual boys is overtly underscored with Nick following "I didn't know you were gay." with "I'm bi, actually." 

The Heteronormativity and Privilege

Photo by Markus Winkler from Unsplash

The exploration of Nick's sexuality is where he "wakes up" to how much he's repressed or gone with because of his mates. Meeting Charlie gave him a point of comparison between what relationships align with his values and authentic self. Appearances lead to assumptions. Nick is not stereotypically seen as being in a minority community. And in the world, being able to pass as a cis and straight white male is the most privileged position in societal views. Having an invisible disability comes with many assumptions. 

And many in that position have people believe those assumptions will cause both physical and emotional harm. Internalized ableism is encouraged by media that places characters to serve nondisabled characters. Telvin's article centers on the notion that it is too rose-tinted to see that its main protagonist is serving someone else, not himself. 

Works Cited

Martin-Hays, Oliver L. "Balancing Male Stereotypes and Disability." Capableism, 20 Aug. 2023, capableism.blog/balancing-male-stereotypes-and-disability/. Accessed 25 Feb. 2025. 

McDaniel, Caitlyn. "NEW CLIPS + INTERVIEW 'Heartstopper' Stars Kit Connor and Joe Locke Talk Sex Scenes and Surprises." YouTube, Gayety, 26 Sept. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULZwGxek3ew. Accessed 25 Feb. 2025. 

Tevin, JD. "The Wholesome Facade of Heartstopper." Medium, 7 Sept. 2023, medium.com/@jdtevin/the-wholesome-facade-of-heartstopper-8c7170931c98. Accessed 24 Feb. 2025.

[muthaz-rapapa]

(Hi!! Long time no hear, hope you've been doing well.) I came across your post on Hisui being like Ha-chan's Alter-Ego in the Fate worldbuilding sense and this just. reminded me when I watched the first two episodes of Mirai Days earlier and I literally could not stop thinking about how the main villain Airu/Ire sounds like Oberon from Fate/Grand Order (specifically his edgier/more villainous third ascension form, down to the same VA) 😭 coupled with Mirai sharing a VA with Mash (they even both share purple eyes and people-saving tendencies)…my god. I can never escape Fate lol. (tbh if I got into all the Mahou Tsukai Precure characters who share VAs with Fate characters, especially prominent ones, I'd never stop rip)

Hi 👋 Hope you're doing well, too Since the characters share the same voice actors, it's kind of inevitable that people will try to find similarities or overlapping characteristics between their older roles and current roles. And cuz of that, their perception of "likeness" would often extend into the story itself as well.

I mean, it's entirely possible the writers for Mirai Days took inspiration from other popular series like Fate to write the sequel (everybody in the industry does this, it's nothing new). Otherwise, I wouldn't have made that connection between Alter Egos and Hisui possibly being MahoPre's version of it, especially when Saori Hayami (Ha-chan and Hisui's VA) voices one of the most popular Alter Egos there is in Fate: Meltryllis.

I get it, these references and jokes are fun to play around with.

But that's as far as it should go because if you're always comparing how alike they are, you're not really appreciating what you're watching for itself. You're just looking for your obsession from another place and projecting it into a setting that's meant for something else.

When I watch Mirai, I only see Mirai. Not Mash or Oshi no Ko's Ai or any of Rieri's other famous roles. I'm familiar with Mirai enough that any qualities she happens to share with other characters are just superficial traits.

The same goes for Airu. I'm still waiting for the right moment to make an Oberon joke but Airu cannot be more different than Oberon. For one thing, Oberon was far more complex and his deception ran so deep, it practically defined his character. I don't know what Airu is after but he's much more malicious towards the Cures from the get-go, painting him as a more straightforward antagonist.

It even shows in the seiyuu's voice acting. Rieri is so awesome cuz she is able to portray and maintain Mirai as the genki girl archetype that is common among magical girl leads. In FGO, as Mash, her voice is more innocent in nature, fitting with Mash's polite, sweet and determined kouhai-based personality (the side she defaults to, anyway).

Tosshi's masterful switch between the different sides his characters show is also very distinct from one another. With Oberon, you're always wondering if he's lying. Whether he's being the Fairy King or Vortigern in front of you, you can never trust him. For Airu, he's clearly out to cause some pain but his affection for his dog seems to be genuine and that's what makes you want to know more about what his motivations are.

I prefer looking at things this way. It makes the watching experience a lot more fulfilling and allows me to appreciate the characters and the story in the way they deserve to be.

That's why I hate comparison culture. It distracts from seeing people as their own individual selves. So I try my best not to partake in any of that.

[bi-focal12]

personally, i definitely think that these phrases stand out a lot more to the writer than to the reader, but if you feel like those comparison phrases are adding up too much or getting a bit clunky, I’d recommend experimenting with metaphors rather than trying to look for replacements for “like” or “as”

to a reader, something like “her smile was like the rising sun” is super easy to read and can do a lot of work communicating theme and mood and details about the character (or narrator, depending) but switching it up to something more complex like “her smile was akin to the rising sun” can make a reader pause and go ‘huh that’s a little awkward’ unless that’s the style of language you’ve been writing in the whole time

that said, i think the simplest way to cut down on similes if you have too many (or don’t enjoy how they affect the flow of your sentences) is to use metaphors. they can help cut down that barrier between a character comparing two things (e.g. her smile & the rising sun) and instead appeal directly to a reader’s senses or their understanding of the world, so that the comparison just becomes part of the scene itself

for example, I was reading Sally Rooney’s Normal People during the unit on comparisons for a writing course I took and some that stood out to me were how she described “rain silver as loose change in the glare of traffic” and how that rain “[whispered] on slick roof tiles”

the first quote is a simile while the second is a metaphor, but both of them are making comparisons (the first comparing rain & loose change, leaning on a readers visual reference for shiny coins and implying that the narrator thinks these two things are alike) while the second one compares the sound of rain to the sound of whispering by making it part of the scene description directly. rather than say “it was as if the rain whispered on slick roof tiles” Rooney broke down the barrier that similes sometimes put up by directly appealing to the reader’s senses instead (sound here, instead of sight) and that’s effective bc a reader can very easily understand what it means for rain to whisper without the author having to put in a lot of work looking for a natural way to say “the rain seemed as if it was whispering on slick roof tiles”

and sometimes similes just work better than metaphors. it really depends but, as the author, you get to choose what works for you and what doesn’t

these kind of considerations can be hard to remember when you’re in the middle of writing, too, but the editing phase can be a great place to turn some similes into metaphors (or to decide that you like all your similes and to leave them be!)

i know a lot of my writing involves me writing exactly what I mean, and then scaling it back in the editing phase so that I’m showing what I mean instead of stating it all outright- and in that process a lot of similes end up incorporated in different ways (either by using metaphors instead or by dropping the comparison altogether and leaning more on body language and or theme to draw out the ideas and impressions i want a reader to get) so maybe that strategy could work for you too?

i got a little long-winded here but I hope this helps!

As a newer writer, I'm struggling to use similes in more ways other than by phrases like "like", "seeming as", "as if" or other versions of these three.

What are some of the other, if any, ways to compare something to something else, to avoid a book turning mundane?