#when both of their core character traits is Being Obsessed With This One Girl'

[primeministerofantarctica]

sure i wish mcff had a bigger fandom (or. anyone at all really ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯) but i can just imagine how many people would mischaracterize takada so :T

[fortuna-et-cataclysmos]

On Katara and feminism in NATLA

I grew up with ATLA. I was exactly Katara’s age when ATLA started to air in my country, and this cartoon has taught me more about life than I’d like to admit. Among them, was feminism.

I was absolutely obsessed with Katara as a kid: back then strong female characters - who were BOTH girlish and strong! – were still quite rare in mainstream media. I absolutely loved to see this girl who was raised in a patriarchal society similar to mine, who was both girly and an absolute badass even in days she didn’t know how to properly waterbend.

Back in those days, they were airing the episodes in order and I was super excited to see her FINALLY learn how to properly waterbend once they reach the North Pole. So when Paku refused to teach her for BEING A GIRL, as a preteen girl myself, I was ENRAGED.

Then Katara did something crazy. She freaking defied a waterbending master, knowing that she had no chance of winning whatsoever. And guys, I swear that fight became a core memory for me. On our crusty Windows XP’s desktop, there was a gif downloaded over several minutes of that exact fight. And I would watch it. On loop. When Katara defied Paku, I felt empowered, and that feeling never left.

Now that I am done with my lame ass backstory, back to NATLA.

You can imagine how EXCITED I was to finally see that fight in 4K. At that point, I was already pissed that they removed Sokka’s sexist flaws and subverted his dynamics with him, rather than Katara being “the parent” of the group (which was outrageous, if you ask me. One of the main character traits of Katara was her being a mother figure at an early age, which explained why she always felt like she HAD to be the responsible one, and why she had so much repressed rage).

But Katara’s struggle with the Northern Tribe over her right to learn how to use waterbending for fighting? That, in my opinion, was epic! Why?

Katara’s fight with Paku was a premediated act

In the original series, Paku says that girls can’t learn how to waterbend, and in a moment of rage, Katara whips him in the neck. I agree that it was a totally badass move, and it made especially sense given her drive to learn waterbending for fighting.

But I also really liked how NATLA approached that: in NATLA, when Katara learns that she cannot waterbend to fight, she doesn’t immediately attack Paku. No, she takes the time to think about it, talk about it with Aang, with Sokka. Then, she decides to defy Paku.

In a way, her action is a protest: she isn’t angry at Paku personally, she is angry at the sexist rules he perpetuates. In a way, this calculated way of deciding to fight shows a certain emotional maturity and dedication to the cause of feminism.

I really liked it.

The resolution of the fight

One thing that really disturbed me in the cartoon was how that fight scene was resolved. My preteen brain couldn’t make sense of why Paku suddenly decided to teach Katara how to fight after realising that her grandma was his ex-fiancé. Like, where is the connection??

My adult brain understands that Gran Gran had fled the Northern Water Tribe because of their sexist rules and hence Paku understood that him abiding to those sexist rules was wrong. But still, it feels so odd. Tell me which 60-70 year old boomer would suddenly change their mind about basically 90% of their world view because their ex happened to have fled from them because that world view? You tell me that Paku didn’t have enough time to rationalise in his wicked brain why Gran Gran left with a more nefarious motivation, or hell, just because she didn’t like him enough to get married?

Whereas in NATLA, we see that Paku’s approval doesn’t come all so easy: he does acknowledge Katara’s waterbending talents (a feat that also happens in the cartoon), but he still refuses to teach her. Because it isn’t about talent. It is about principle. And he is a dinosaur with sexist principles.

On the other hand, who is more open-minded to new ideas and social change? Who circles Katara following her defeat and admire her for her fight with Paku? It’s the youth! Social change is usually driven by the youth, and here we see that while the old rulers of the Northern Water Tribe are still sexist af, the young people are the ones who are ready to embrace a more equalitarian society.

Women in war

So then, when does Paku change his mind on letting women fight? During the attack on the Northern Water Tribe. They are outnumbered and they need more benders: lo and behold, Katara has the brilliant idea of bringing in the women. Now, I don’t say that that was actually a brilliant idea: strategically speaking, it is kinda stupid sending your HEALERS to the FRONTLINES to die while they could be much more useful saving the wounded. Nevertheless, I like the inclusion of the women into the battle in a symbolic level: in history, we see that most women’s rights were obtained during and in the aftermath of big conflicts. When men are fighting and there is a shortage of manpower, you employ women to work at the factories, or in the direst cases, you let women fight. This was a cool nod to that phenomenon happening. Also, if literally every man was already wounded or perished, it kinda makes sense that women take up the arms, so the “healers fighting isn’t strategically sound” argument doesn’t hold perfectly either.

Women of patriarchy

Lastly, one thing I really liked about NATLA is how not only Paku, but also the female healing master was sternly against women learning how to fight with waterbending. The healing master in the cartoon was softer, gentler, whereas here, she was even more vocal than Paku in grilling Katara for wanting to fight. This is such a great display of internalised sexism, but also how women in power in patriarchy may be vehement defenders of the status quo because it helps them to keep whatever power they have.

Oh, and in a final note, Katara’s reply to Zuko’s “you have found a waterbending master!” was absolutely horrendous. I may have liked how most of that arc was treated, but GOD, somebody give that girl a proper master to learn how to waterbend, because I don’t believe one second that a child with only ONE waterbending scroll can become a MASTER with self-study. The way Katara was managing to become a waterbending master in the span of weeks in the original series was already weird (and for those who weren’t fans before, it did attract quite some criticism in the fandom spheres back when it aired), but NATLA just took it and made it worse.

Nonetheless, I think that NATLA tried their best. And I appreciate that they tried to give ATLA a new twist, even though it didn’t land perfectly.

Everyone seems to be focusing on the bad of the show, so I felt compelled to share my two cents.

[asongofstarkandtargaryen]

Not to demonize Cat but the woman literally said Arya was a trial and she wanted her to be like Sansa; she admired Edmure’s efforts to look after his people but at the same time she saw them as useless mouths to feed; she wanted 14 year old Jon out of his own home in Winterfell. How is that supposed to be similar to him? Same with Sansa being Ned 2.0 just because she’s in the Vale. She doesn’t recall any of his lessons like his other kids do. He is a man who lived and died for his family and was overall well liked by his people. He carried Lyanna’s secret to his grave. Sansa snitched on her family (bitterly regretting it) because she was in love with the little psycho who tried to murder her sister and she barely had any contact with the smallfolk. The math doesn’t add up. Just reads like a Jon/sa fetich of NedCat 2.0, same people who insist Jon longs for Cat’s love and approval since he has oedipus complex or whatever. But one can not erase canon and none of the women Jon felt attracted to had anything to do with Cat. They need milk of the copey.

Yes, I agree with you.

Comparing Catelyn saying that Arya was "a trial" while the latter was missing to Jon gifting Arya the Needle, it's clear that those two characters view Arya's behavior differently.

Arya herself was doubting that her mother would want her ( which mind you wasn't true, Catelyn wanted both her daughters back. But it says a lot about the impression she had given to her child through her behavior). Meanwhile, she was certain that Jon would want her even if no one else would. Jon's acceptance is wholeheartedly, he doesn't criticize Arya's parts their society considers unwomanly ( and in fact, all the girls he finds attractive share those traits of hers).

Here is the thoughts of Catelyn when her brother gives shelter to innocent people in Riverlands war zone:

Only my sweet brother would crowd all these useless mouths into a castle that might soon be under siege.

ACOK - Catelyn I

Jon Snow in ADWD is doing exactly what Catelyn is criticizing her brother for, he gives shelter to "useless mouths" ( aka all the Wildings that can't contribute to the fight against the Others).

Jon's worldview, beliefs and behavior is so different from Catelyn's that it's laughable to claim that "he's Catelyn with Ned/Lyanna's characteristics". Do they have a couple of things/ traits in common? Surely, but so does almost any pair of pov characters. That doesn't mean all of them are copies of each other.

Moving to Sansa, I disagree with the fandom's notion that she's Ned 2.0. As you said, she doesn't recall his lessons like his other children do. That's not to condemn her because Ned taught mainly the boys and Catelyn was responsible for the girls ' education ( Arya is the exception here because we know that she liked to follow her father and see him performing his duties as the Castle's Lord).

And then there is the scene where Sansa tells Cersei her father's plan. Again, I'm not gonna codemn a 11 years old for making a silly decision but considering that a major theme in Ned's story is that he never revealed his sister's secret, preferring to soil his honor in order to protect it I fail to see the similarities between father and daughter in terms of personal values and priorities.

As I often say, Sansa was way closer to her mother than she ever was to her father and she shares some core beliefs with her ( plus her narrative comparison to Cat is important due to the Littlefinger obsession with both of them). So if the fans want to link Sansa to any of her parents, Catelyn the correct choice imo.

On a side note, I'm sure that you probably meant no harm but I don't like the word "psycho" to describe awful characters. Joffrey was a little shit but that was because he was spoiled by his mother and neglected by his father. He didn't have any psychosis. Mental illnesses affect real people and that's why I don't like seeing them being used as slurs.

[milkbreadtoast]

Your ouran thoughts are so *chef's kiss* thank you for pointing out the whole haruhi gender thing bc as a trans person myself it always rubbed me the wrong way too how it got treated

🥹🥹🥹THANK U FOR READING MY OURAN THOUGHTS... this is 1 of the first animes ive ever watched so its rly formative/influential for me and ive rewatched it several times over the yrs and noticed more things and watched my opinions of the show and charas grow and change... Haruhi is 1 of my first encounters(actually i think the first) w a nonbinary chara in media and I love everything about their chara and the way they were written (and I love the whole concept of them being the protag of a shoujo harem anime despite being nonbinary and very aro/ace... a host who woos girls at that)... I especially love the way she doesnt change herself for anyone, keeps being authentically herself the entire anime in a way that touches and changes the rest of the cast too... like 1 little detail that symbolizes this well is the personal pronouns they use in jp... Altho they tried using "ore" a few times causing tamaki to freak out (HE SHOULDVE LET HER😒).. the main personal pronoun they use is "jibun"(lit: self, oneself), and it's a gender neutral pronoun... and importantly, they consistently use "jibun", whether it's before becoming a host(in middle school, when passing/being seen as a "girl"), as a host(while passing/being seen as a "boy"), and just out in daily life... Just as she doesnt change herself or act differently in all those contexts, and is just authentically herself, regardless of how people see her... and consistent with her belief that gender and outward appearance doesn't matter, it's one's personality/who they are underneath that does...

Haruhi and Tamaki form strong narrative parallels to each other because they both suddenly came into the lives of all the other host club members, were able to see them for who they really are (and not just the facade they put on for others), and just by being their genuine selves, touch and impact them deeply, even alter the course of their lives (some more than others, like tamaki for kyouya and haruhi being the first 1 to be able to differentiate the twins)..... And this is why I think it's... unfortunate that Tamaki was written the way he was, as so close-minded in his views on gender(and sexuality), bc 1 of the core traits of his character is being otherwise open minded and extremely empathetic... the dichotomy of his chara is despite being a "vain idiot" obsessed w looks and himself, he still shows this surprising depth and ability to read others... And of course I don't think it's surprising at all for him to have these transphobic and homophobic views, given he's a teen with a rich sheltered upbringing and all, so it was prob just. Sigh. ingrained in him bc thats how he was raised but.... narratively, with the way his character is otherwise so open (and bro is literally bi too😭) it really is unfortunate... Like his openmindedness is 1 of the strongpoints of his character (like how he wasn't put off at all when he saw Kyouya's "true face"...) And I think it goes against his nature, so I hope that once he gets older he starts to listen to the trans/nb/gnc ppl in his life and change his views... LIKE HARUHI... WHICH IS WHY ITS SO STRANGE. That he never once listens to them abt their gender the entire series... and he cares abt her sm YET doesnt listen and repeatedly, stubbornly tells her shes wrong and that she needs to be more feminine.... ugh. Yeah it's painful... And then with the way the manga ends with haruhi marrying tamaki and having babies and growing her hair out and becoming more feminine, as if it was all just a phase... *Agonized* ...Tbh I really do think. That this is the product of the (presumably cis) author not knowing enough abt the trans(/queer/lgbt) experience to know what to do with the amazing, nonconforming characters they created... I really do feel like if Ouran was an anime made today, and the author was more informed about LGBT issues and experiences, Tamaki could've been written differently and maybe more accepting and open toward's Haruhi's views on gender... Sigh... Anyway rip. Tfw a work so virulently transphobic and homophobic and a product of its time can also have some of the most compelling trans and gay characters and have sm poignant scenes that stand the test of time... Ouran my problematic beloved 🥲🥹

[broodingnightgoddess]

Queer characters in media:

Ellie Williams

Ellie is the deuteragonist of the videogame The Last of Us and one of the two playable characters of The Last of Us Part II. She's lesbian.

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Character info

Name: Ellie Williams

Alias: none

Gender and sexuality: Lesbian woman

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

Ellie is a fully developed character, whose sexuality is a core trait in such a way that removing it would harm her character. Ellie is one of the best lesbian characters out there, and she's even a playable character in the franchise, along with being the protagonist of the second game (I'm not comenting on the story)

Her relationships, especially with Riley and Dina, are a part of the overall narrative and her character, having interesting relationships with unfortunate endings.

Brief story (spoilers)

Warning: this ain't brief at all

Ellie was born in the midst of an apocalypse; a zombie plague brought upon by a hyper-mutated version of the real-life mushroom Cordyceps. Living in the Boston Quarantine area, she would face many hardships in her early life.

Here, she met Riley, and both of them fell in love, however, while in an abandoned arcade center, both of them were bitten by the infected, and they would soon lose control to the fungus. They embraced each other and waited to lose their minds. However, Ellie proved to be inmune to the Cordyceps, which made her possibly the last hope of human civilization.

She and the main protagonist Joel would traverse the country in search of the Fireflies, a militia that was looking for a vaccine against the infection. However, in Salt Lake City, Joel learned that Ellie would die as a result of the operation to extract the fungus in her body, and, having grown to care for the girl that he saw as his lost daughter, Joel would kill the Fireflies and the surgeon that was going to perform the surgery, destroying the last hope of humanity as no one else knew how to perform the surgery.

Ellie and Joel, the former being lied to about the events in Salt Lake City, would settle in with a group of survivors in the city of Jackson.

Meanwhile, Abby, the daughter of the dead surgeon, promised to kill Joel and avenge her father. This oath was completed years later, when Abby and other former Fireflies that had joined another militia named the Washington Liberation Front (WLF), would hunt down, torture and kill Joel.

Ellie witnessed this, and along with Dina, her girlfriend at the time, they would travel to Seattle to kill Abby and her friends. The hunt proved unsuccessful, though, and with Dina being pregnant, fruit of a previous relationship, they both returned to Jackson and settled on a nearby farm with the newborn JJ

Unfortunately, Ellie's obsession with killing Abby consumed her, and she traveled to California, her last known location, to finally kill her, leaving Dina heartbroken.

At the end, Ellie let Abby and her companion Lev (a trans boy that will get his own blog) free, and she returned home, but Dina and JJ had already left the farm, now sitting abandoned and empty. Without anywhere else to go, Ellie abandoned the house and parted to an unknown location. As of time of writing, Ellie's fate remains unknown.

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Trivia

Ellie hadn't come out of the closet to Joel, as she didn't know how he would react. However, upon an altercation with a homophobic Jackson resident named Seth, Joel jumped in to beat him, but he was stopped before the situation escalated. Joel would show his support for Ellie and Dina's relationship.

A previous girlfriend of Ellie, named Cat, is mentioned in Part II, although she never appears on screen.

Ellie is an artist, playing music, wiring poetry and drawing. She uses art as an outlet for her emotions, dedicating some to Dina although most of it goes towards processing her grief.

A third game in the series is a possibility, which would finally close the overarching plot, and may feature Ellie sacrificing herself for humankind, as her last chance was stolen from her.

[elena-stole-my-prom-dress]

Tonight I'm thinking about how clever Caroline's first scenes in s1e1 were.

There are 4 major Caroline scenes in that episode, and they're all so perfectly setting it up so we, as viewers, see Caroline in the same way the other characters do.

Her very first scene is in the hallway, when she comes up and is asking how Elena is doing. While we hear Elena talk a lot about people's expectations of her a lot, Caroline is one the first person we actually hear ask about her (Bonnie checks in with her in general during the drive). Once she gets to the school, people whisper and stare and talk around it, but Caroline comes directly up to her and asks about it. She also turns to Bonnie and asks about Elena, establishing her as not very self-aware. Right off the bat, she's set up as a nice, if a little ditzy, stereotypical teen girl.

Her second major scene is the super famous "we're planning a June wedding" scene. It shows her having connections, knowing everything about everyone, and instantly having a crush on the new guy, furthering the popular teen girl stereotype. But it also sets up one of Caroline's most consistent character arcs: romance. Additionally, she says a few key things to set her apart from Elena. Elena's attraction to Stefan is treated as being both normal and expected within the narrative, whereas Caroline gets the clueless teen boy obsessed label for the same reason. I think that iconic June wedding line does the most heavy lifting here. Elena keeps within the "will he ever notice me" club of teen girl MCs, whereas with that line, we can add one more trait under Caroline's character: self-obsessed. The line is confident, and it's treated exactly as it usually is for teen girls. We side with Bonnie and roll our eyes.

Then there's the party, and we see Caroline following through on that confidence. She initiates conversation, she flirts, she's all around portrayed as being sure that this is going her way. And when it ends with Stefan going to Elena, she frowns after them. It's glaringly clear she's being set up as the jealous jilted new girl, because so far, she's fitting exactly into those stereotypes.

And then finally there's the "why is it never me" scene. This puts her final label on: insecure. She's blonde and pretty, but no one goes for her! She's flirty and sweet, but all the guys go for the calm, effortlessly put-together Elena (solidifying her role as being self-obsessed when she doesn't notice how much Elena's struggling). But most importantly, when she's listing all the reasons boys don't go for her, she's showing that she has a fairly decent understanding of who she is as a person, even if it's skewed negatively. What's more, this burst of self-awareness is framed as being a bit weird and out of place. Bonnie looks a little confused and shocked that Caroline is that self-aware, and so are we.

In 42 minutes and four scenes, we have Caroline's character traits. Sweet, self-obsessed, clueless, and insecure. We don't know what's at the core of Bonnie's character, we don't know what drives Stefan, the only thing we know about Elena is her grief. But Caroline fits into that stereotype perfectly, and so not only do other characters treat her as if she lacks further emotional depth, but she treats herself like that, and we also expect the same.

And that sets up 8 seasons of the show. From what I've seen, it takes viewers well into season 2 to start enjoying her as a character, even when they enjoyed everyone else from the very beginning. It's even in her first major character arc, becoming a vampire. "So you're basically saying I'm an insecure, neurotic control freak on crack."

What's more, 99% of the scenes we see her in are romance-focused, and that continues. Throughout s1, over 90% of her scenes are romance-focused. It drops to about 85% in s2, then about 70% in s3, etc, but it never drops to 0%. We never see her without a romantic interest, jumping directly from Stefan to Damon to Matt to Tyler to Klaus to Jesse to Liam to Alaric to Stefan.

Basically, everything that happens in s1, and even a good part of the rest of the show, sets us up so we think of Caroline exactly like the ditzy blonde she's supposed to be.

In fact, we only see 3 main people put Caroline's emotional well-being over their own personal plot or morals, and all 3 are villains.

Right after Liz finds out Caroline is a vampire, Damon defends her knowing Caroline is listening, even though it's not what he's supposed to be focusing on, and it serves no greater purpose for him.

Multiple times we see Klaus put her above anything else, but primarily when it comes to his vendetta against Tyler. He allows Tyler to visit her, and he allows Tyler to come back to Mystic Falls permanently.

And then (one of my fave scenes ever!) when they need to get Stefan back involved in the vampire world, Enzo kills Ivy because Stefan made Caroline cry, even when it definitely harms their chances.

For a girl who's one of the characters with the most love interests in the show and the most friends, it's pretty shocking to have such low emotional priority for others, but it makes sense for these all to be brought about by villains. There's almost always someone else in more trouble, so it would take someone villainous to put Caroline's emotional needs over the life or death situations of other characters.

The scenes we see her actual character begin to shine through are situations where others have higher priority and she steps up. Most of the time these are things that are more "human" (planning events, weddings, dances, funerals, etc), and are therefore treated by the characters to be less important, but it's definitely true that almost all of those moments are times when most everyone else is being treated with plot or character arc related importance. In s1e1, we know vampires exist and we know Elena's parents died. Caroline's desire to live out a cliche teen romance is treated within the narrative as being fairly unimportant and immature. Skip ahead four seasons to the line, "Elena stole my prom dress". Something she goes to Klaus about, not only because he has gowns on hand, but also because there's no one else to go to. Everyone is involved in turning Elena's humanity back on; this is too frivolous. But it's a plan that Klaus doesn't care about, so he finds her a dress, just like he delivers her a dress for the Mikaelson ball when everyone was too focused on important things.

Enzo doesn't just prioritize her, he crosses a moral line for her, and he purposely hurts a main character for her. He sees her crying and doesn't accept it as her being overemotional, as we see multiple other characters do throughout the series. He genuinely notices and punishes the person who hurt her.

Damon goes out of his way to spend additional time with Liz, beyond what was necessary to ensure their secret would be kept, trying to use his relationship with her to convince her that Caroline was still good.

In short, the villains treat Caroline like everyone else treats Elena (no Elena hate, she deserves to have the whole world care about her and she's probably getting a whole separate post soon). But more importantly, the 3 villains we see care for her are ones who don't meet her before one of those four initial key scenes. Damon meets her just after the fourth (incoming post on that), and Klaus and Enzo don't meet her for years. What's more, they don't meet her in a school setting. They have no context for her as the cliche ditzy blonde, all they have are her current actions. And that starts to make us realize that there's an imbalance when it comes to emotional priority.

Basically, Julie Plec and all the writers are geniuses for having those scenes be Caroline's introduction because not only does it set the tone for the next 8 seasons, it makes us treat her exactly like the characters do.

[colttechn-l-gy]

laurance ranting at 6 am bc im sleep deprived and i love him but he's so stupid and i could talk about him for hours

season 2 laurance is a character that i personally relate to, infinitely more than the orange haired green eyed idiot that was ripped from final fantasy to be part of a minecraft roleplay series in 2015, but i'm gonna try to be as unbiased about this rambling as i possibly can

the whole of laurance's existence is. tragedy. there's not a single good thing that this man can have without something happening and ruining that. already he shows off as a character who struggles to the extremes with his self image and his worth, and i feel like this is something that's already deeply rooted in characters that are put into a guard role, some moreso than others (especially for those that feel they were built to be a human weapon)

i mean. laurance lived a relatively normal life until he fell in love with aphmau, and following her as the series protagonist just. brings misery everywhere because it serves for a story yknow, even aphmau's not immune to the curse of having every bad thing that could happen happen to her

with laurance it's a bit of a unique case, and that's not just me being biased either. it feels like he is specifically singled out for quite a few tragic events. the worst part about it really is that he's never necessarily given the time to process things, which only further serves to bring his worst traits to light. his obsessive jealousy for aphmau begins to take presedence over his friendship with garroth and it strains his relationship with aphmau herself, his want to still be human overshadows the reality that he is a shadow knight and it only proves to drag him down even further, not only making his anger issues turn from mere outbursts to sudden violence but it begins to change some of his core values. yeah accepting that he's a monster wouldn't necessarily fix him, but it's easier to do that than to live in denial and try so hard to convince yourself you're still 'normal'

the fact it took until he committed mass slaughter to finally wake up a little was already bad enough, but by then it was too late for all that and he'd already suffered enough, and he'd began a spiral that it was difficult to recover from

when tragedy comes to the other characters they're given so much more room to process their feelings, to vent and to recover. laurance doesn't get that often, and even when he does it seems like he turns it away. he feels like the kind of character who heavily bottles his emotions, and to an extent he sort of does! holding back on his romantic advances, hiding his anger because of the fear of hurting and killing others that he cares about... you get the drill.

despite a lot of that his only good trait in these moments of vulnerability is how rarely he lies; he's very open about a lot of his thoughts even if they're bad. to an extent it's admirable, but yeah he goes too far. hence the argument with garroth...

his circumstances to an extent do at the very least give some insight as to why he acted the way he did. it's not like he was a popular guy; good looking, but, he didn't really have anything. couldn't even have a parent who could stick around because he'd always lose them to tragedy. couldn't have a sister to be around because he was always in another city, and she has her own life and responsibilities so she can't always be there at the drop of a hat anymore. when he went to the irene dimension, 15 years passed by and she changed; he didn't because he only had 15 minutes.

on top of all that he can't really have the same close friend group like he once had because one of them has a family and kids to focus on, and the other he's always starting arguments and fights with over a girl they both like. really, all of them were deeply changed by the realization of just how long the were in the irene dimension for, but seeing how laurance develops later on makes me wonder just how badly it did affect him, and how little about it we probably know.

and even admist all that he has character flaws that are rooted in him being misogynistic, primarily his rivalry with garroth. when he and cadenza had their talk, where cadenza even pushed the idea that laurance deserved aphmau for all he'd done for her with no reward, he pushed it down. he was just happy to be around her, and that was enough for him. he didn't care if his feelings weren't returned, he was just glad he got to be with her at all. but during the later half of season 2, it felt like that narrative began to shift. naturally it began with lilith's introduction, and aphmau's sudden and out of nowhere pregnancy, and we saw how all that went down.

i honestly don't know why i latched onto laurance specifically, but i feel like his tragedy is... exaggerated. at the same time, i feel like how he suffers through and deals with it is very realistic, and it does touch a personal part of me that i also try to repress. my portrayal of laurance might not be entirely accurate to the canon material, but i do feel like it's at least based on canon as close as i can make it without totally projecting. his emotional outbursts are nothing new, but some were way more uncalled for than others.

at the same time, these outbursts aren't out of character nor are they entirely unwanted. they were caused by something, and whether or not he's been open about the root cause (or we've seen the root cause for ourselves) is irrelevant. i feel like laurance is one of the better examples of how your environment fucks with you. his relationships with a lot of the main cast aren't healthy. at least, they aren't anymore. his relationship with aphmau is a prime example of one such relationship.

neither side of this dynamic is healthy! granted, laurance's side is infinitely worse (as much as i hate to admit it), but neither of them were in the right all the time. they've both had to knock some sense into eachother at one point or another, but they're always prone to relapsing because it's never a constant thing. aphmau's anger issues starting to crop up is just an example of how the stress of life has been getting to her during the season, and while it's something that laurance could relate to in a lot of aspects, he's no better at controlling his own anger and emotions than her.

and i feel like there's just a lot of resentment in the main 'friend' group anyways (that being aphmau, laurance, katelyn, garroth, dante, and travis)

honestly there are not many healthy friendships or relationships in mcd lmao, and i think that mainly comes down to their circumstances more than anything; mystreet characters don't really have an excuse for their actions they're just shit people a lot of the time because it's a funny gag. in mcd the stakes are way higher, and at least you can understand how somebody turned out to be so horrible in that world.

if i ever get back to working on my own mcd rewrite i know i would love to just give laurance a happy ending in my version of the story, but his tragedy is what makes him himself. i'm not excited to have to write his misery all over again (i know i could write it way worse than jess did, as in in a 'this thing is awful to write about but it's realistic and difficult to ignore' way not 'this is just bad writing and people can assume what they want' way)

[miriamundertale]

The Vampening

Or: Miri picks up another huge project once again

I have spent my entire life fucking haunted by vampires. This is both figurative in the sense that i grew up through the twilight boom and general vampire boom, and literal in the sense that not only do I have a severe widow's peak, I literally had to have my canines sanded down when I was younger due to them being too sharp. For years i just fucking despised anything to do with them, immediately discounted them as uninteresting and boring, to the point of shunning away things i liked because of vampires. Then about 8 years ago I took back to back shovel hits by vampire shit to the point my gender changed and I've decided to lean into it. And in retrospect, there’s genuinely a lot of interesting stuff about vampires.

The biggest for me being that basically more than any other monster, vampire is an insanely flexible definition! You can twist and add your own views of it as much as you want and as long as there’s a core transactional relationship between a vampire and the other being they interact with, and sharp teeth of some kind you can get away with calling it a vampire. Hell, if you do it well enough you could even sacrifice one of those two and pick up some other vampire traits and people will still gladly call it a vampire. Honestly I could go on for hours about them, and you know what. I will. Like a normal person coming to terms with a fascination with something like this, I decided to handle it in the only reasonable way that I could think of: By obsessively reading as many vampire manga as I was able to get my grubby little hands on.

Here’s where the rubber hits the road, and then pops immediately upon contact with the World's Sharpest Pencil: how do you define something AS being a vampire story? Let alone the ways to describe a vampire, does having a vampire in the story make it about vampires? Is Star Wars But Luke Has Red Eyes and Fangs, my seminal fanfiction, a vampire story? Thankfully, I've spent the past few months figuring out a pivotal system to classify things properly, and it’s also objectively correct with 0 mistakes OR ideas that are up to interpretation!! 

The Miriam All-Purpose Vampire Classification System (MAPVACS)

Core Vampirism

Core Vampirism is the most simple you can think of, it’s a story WITH vampires in it, and wants to focus on them and/or their effect on the world. More specifically, I think to really hit as a true vampire story, the primary focus of the story should be on either a direct pair of characters who have a vampire/human or similar relationship, or on the specific existence OF the vampire human relationship. While in folklore vampires are more often predatory or parasitic, the relationship does NOT have to follow that rule! The way part 1 of Jojo’s bizarre adventure has Jonathan and Dio set up as near mythical enemies is as vampiric as Karin’s romantic, mutually beneficial vampire-human relationship is. Something is core vampire when it is about not just a vampire being around, but the way they have torn your family to shreds, taught you about the freedom that comes from the night, the way you have been utterly tormented and reshaped into a monster for their sake, your desperate desire to save them from this fate. The core of vampirism is love, no matter how broken, perfect, fucked up, or bizarre it is.

The Blood Sucking Girl Can't Suck my Blood

Vampires as a Setting

this is a fascinating one! It’s something that I don't see a lot of but when i do see it more often than not it rules. The vampire here exists as part of the world. There more often than not isn't a thing calling attention to vampires or its just something normal as part of the world. The entire world is vampires with a caste system and some other rules, or being a vampire hunter is equivalent to being a dog catcher. There’s no separating the vampirism from the story, but it is not ABOUT the vampires. They’re just chilling. 

Vampires in Spirit

this is one that I know, logically exists but is a lot harder to find with my methods. I could joke and just say every shoujo is a vampire manga in spirit but specifically I want to call things more focused on a power dynamic as vampiric in spirit, and even then it’s something severe. Partially DUE to it being twilight fanfiction rewritten as rich guy bdsm, 50 shades could be classified as this and if i have to use it as my sole example, I will, but by god 50 shades sucks.

The Weirdos

this is currently limited to just a specific 4 manga. I doubt itl get higher but these are stories that begin with a core vampire story and the relationship between the two primary mains, but then either change focus or expand into other character relationships as time goes on. The effect of the core vampire story is still prevalent and often brought back up throughout it but the story itself is not entirely focused on it.

What now?

So what happens from here with stuff defined? Well, I've already gotten a head start on reading which definitely helps, but instead of just pumping out one giant retrospective in the year 2026 when i finally finish all of them, I'm just going to make this a project. Every week, typically on the weekend, I'll put out a rough and dirty vampire manga review, classify it, and link it both here and on twitter like I normally do. Don't expect the worlds finest writing, not just because i rarely put anything coherent out and because I'm doing this partially to force myself to put things out there. I want to finish projects, and it's okay if these aren't the best quality. with that, I'm so fucking sorry for everything you're about to read on here.

[sword-dad-fukuzawa]

hi there! i watched mars red because of you and now i'm extremely [feelings?????] because of it! i thought you might be amused by this. there's...so much i want to chew on about this anime but i thought i'd ask you first: what are your thoughts and feelings on suwa's characterization? i'm obsessed with him but also i cannot articulate a single coherent thought about him

THIS DOES BRING ME INFINITE JOY ACTUALLY!! I love converting people to my favorite dramatic vampire anime. I too was very [feelings?????] after watching it. I think that is the common experience and it is top tier. This will be very long, by the way.

Okay, Suwa is very interesting. He has such a nuanced characterization that is mostly conveyed through a lot of indirect channels--conversations with other characters, a singular flashback iirc, and these lingering asides when no one else is around. It makes him such a fun character and also really difficult to get a handle on. If I were to boil him down to a set of simple character traits, I'd go with principled, jaded, and kind.

So, did you notice? Suwa's story always revolves around a young female figure. The first person who gets him to both literally and figuratively take his mask off is Akesato, the fifteen-year-old prostitute in episode 4. The person he develops the deepest connection to is the vampire girl, Ayame, at the end, who he eventually ends up taking under his wing on the boat.

(ty @nocandnc for reminding me of her name!!)

To everyone else in the anime, Suwa is closed off at best and antagonistic at worst (this is slightly different in the manga though, fun fact--he gets a lot of scenes with Takeuchi).

And I think this is just such a clever way to characterize Suwa. I can't remember how much this is discussed in the anime, but we learn that Suwa had a little sister.

There's this extremely painful manga panel where he's getting turned by a whole pack of vampires, and he's covered in blood on a boat, and yet all he's looking at is the crouched figure of a little girl. And before the vampires can get her, he tosses her overboard and cries for her to swim, to live.

And this is the core of Suwa's character. He protects children, and he's defined by having his last act as a human be to protect his little sister. He doesn't even know if she survived.

Which, you know, in a pretty masterful demonstration of "take a positive character trait to its extreme, resulting in a flaw," means he kills child vampires. He doesn't want them to experience how terrible and scary it is to be a child vampire--save them from his fate. It's a pretty brilliant example of character growth when he decides he's going to spare Ayame and instead take care of her, going from a lone wolf into a real protector.

(She's an anime-only character, and I think her existence adds a lot to Suwa's arc.)

Like!! Look at this man!! He cares about kids!!

^^ Those are hands capable of great violence (as we see in the rest of the show) and yet he's gently guiding this vampire kid to a safe distance from Kurusu. I'm in my feelings about it.

And here, in this scene--he comforts Ayame with the blunt kindness that Suwa is known for. Because he's been in her position.

I also want to mention how Suwa, despite being so adamant that vampires aren't human, spends a lot of time watching plays and watching singers and being around human society. This is a guy who's seen the worst of humanity in his 300-odd years of being a vampire, and yet he chooses to enjoy the best parts of us.

And he wants to be a part of that.

It's also pretty significant that despite having seen the worst of us, he's still voluntarily part of a military squad protecting humans.

They might talk a lot about how it's mandatory for vamps to join because otherwise you'll be killed, but it's Suwa. He's been around for 300 years, dodging other vampires and vamp-hunters. They can't make him do anything.

I love Suwa because he doesn't act nice. He's cold, standoffish, kind of an asshole half the time. See this panel:

He values competency and won't wait for you to catch up. But Kurusu gets it right, what kind of person he is:

...He's also a little bit crazy, which is valid, considering what happened to him.

And batshit funny. (Hehe. Get it? Bats? Cuz he's- yeah okay sorry)

On a more serious note, I also feel like Suwa is characterized by a lot of regrets. This man carries a lot of guilt, and a lot of memories. In thhe manga, he says about Akesato:

I should've sang her a song...

And then gets Takeuchi to teach him how to sing (he's not good at it, but he's trying). It's...thoughtful. And telling about what sort of person Suwa is.

Anyway, I'm going to end this with my favorite panel of Suwa from the manga, which sums up a lot of his character development in both the anime and manga. His last lines in both adaptations are also pretty telling, I think. In the anime, it's:

Want to go see the "new world" together for a change of pace?

It signifies his willingness to change and to grow, having been wandering Japan for his whole life.

And in the manga?

[idol-trickster]

Advice for ask blogs starting up?

You’re asking for advice~? I’m both flattered and honored to be able to get this question. I’ve decided to answer and post today for Mun-day. This post will be a bit long as I like to give thorough advice, or at least offer insight into what I’ve done, but I’ll do my best to break text up into palatable sections and keep topics relevant. 💜

I’ll be going over:

how to set up your core values and image

how to interact with blogs and keep audience awareness

how to keep your passion alive.

If you’re interested and in for a long read with some mun anecdotes, feel free to continue below!

♫ Core Values and Image ♫

When you’re starting up, I really encourage you to have three things in mind to make sure you cultivate a proper image and platform for your blog: Content Focus, Presentation and Goals. These are things you don’t want changing too much throughout your blog’s runtime, as they should be your “Core Values”. In other words, these are the special traits that will differentiate your blog from others out there. I’ll discuss each of my big three below, but don’t be surprised if they blend in together, as that should be the point and how they function.

♪ |---- Content Focus

This is probably one of the most essential parts of a blog and truly what makes you the most unique, along with Presentation. Find out what part of a character/muses’ personality you’d like to focus on the most. 

For me, this was a focus on Ji-Woon (and Yun-Jin) with a large nod to Korean culture and K-pop music, putting them near the forefront. This is because I grew up learning the culture through popular media and was confident in how to honor it, or even have a desire to learn more of it.

Personal Mun Ramblings, will be referred to in Goals but not mandatory to read) It was so special once I learned my favorite game and scene for so long was bringing another part of life that I enjoyed. I was a year 2 player of DBD since I play on console, and I’d gotten DBD the same year of Console’s release date; roughly a few months before Nightmare on Elm Street DLC was announced. So to me, this was a blending of fandoms/cultures that made me excited and brought me back into the DBD scene after a small hiatus following other passions, because now two of my passions were mixing. To preface, I’d been a fan of K-culture: Watching K-dramas and even being a generation one/two K-pop fan; around since BoA, BigBang, Girls Generation etc.’s relevancy along with even seeing EXO and BTS’ debuts (Roughly a fan since 2000s, in my pre-teens/teens). 

I wanted to cultivate and pay homage to that for my blog. Ultimately, that’s why I chose to have the name Idol-Trickster. Because I wanted my characterization of him to be immersed as an idol in k-culture. After all, that’s what differentiated him in the Dead By Daylight roster, so I wanted to reflect it. ( semi-relevant: I was a fan of Japanese-drama/pop so I knew the difference and similarities between the scenes. I’m still learning and differentiating between cultures though, and enjoy it quite a bit.)

ANYWAY, back to how to apply this advice- It’s good to look at the blog scene and see what’s out there. Understanding other personifications and know where you want to go with your own ‘version’. In Trickster’s case, maybe someone would want to play up in his narcissism a bit more, or maybe the fact that he’s a bit insane, or even making him completely evil and kill obsessed. This depends on how you want to portray and spice up the character to your liking and will ultimately give you an advantage on your blog.

Granted, I was one of the first blog runners for this character, but even then I had a solid game plan on what I wanted my focus to be. I wanted Trickster to be charming. An Idol (denounced or not in lore with his final ‘real-world’ killing). I wanted him to try to hold onto that small bit of humanity and people pleasing, despite his twisting and figuring out what that meant for him. It made for an interesting ‘plot point’ in my mind, and I figured others would like to see that.

♦ |---- Presentation 

Now that you got your ideas in mind...How are you going to present them? Think of the big picture first, since it’s the easiest and most generalized. I always start out with a general theme. Like I said above, I played on Korean/Idol culture a lot. Which meant looking through blogs for existing idols or groups/band fan pages. Fun fact, the blog theme I use for Idol-Trickster was based on a One Direction fan-blog template. (Not K-pop but definitely ‘boy group sensationalists’) My tumblr theme even has header text sections like this (it made me solidify my choice):

Which reminds me a lot of BTS’ 

As funny as it sounds, I even use Cookie Run font for Hangul/Korean text (Popular mobile game developed in South Korea) along with Manga/Manwha  text.

This is because I knew I wanted to pay homage to K-culture from text to even in my art style choices. I enjoyed reading manhwas and webtoons, and noticed webtoons are arguably been the biggest trend in Korea. (Like what Manga is to Japan, comic books to America etc.). In fact, I even remember my first webtoon when the platform was just starting (I feel so old reminiscing on these things). I knew if I could bring a bit of that in my posts, I’d be happy and would add a layer of ‘immersion’ to fans. Granted, I knew it wouldn’t be possible to go all out webtoon style for every ask, but I did want at least an art style that looked like it could fit in or was heavily inspired by them, even if I only did big comic pieces on occasion.

All of this to say, starting out big can help focus on the aesthetic and presentation. It brings interest. It makes everything feel developed and keep you closer to your Focus. If you want a scary blog, go for scary themes, etc.

Now of course, you don’t have to change your whole art style or be particular in your font choices. Those were just BIG PICTURE things to separate from the others. 

You should also focus on how you’ll make your character act. What is their aesthetic. How are they going to speak to readers or others visually. Will they voice all their thoughts and talk out loud? Do you want them to stay quiet on certain topics and not monologue those? Full sentences or Short curt ones? Large vocabulary or limited? These are all important to try and keep consistency in your characterization. Make sure you have an understanding of your character and how to present them. (This will get explained more in the Next big section “Interaction and Audience Awareness”)

☆ |---- Goals

Finally and the last of the big three, one of the most crucial elements to have that ties in everything else above is your goals for the blog. Having something you want to achieve or strive for. It’s okay to have some change or add more as time goes on, but they should always stay fairly solid. I can’t tell you what exactly these should be, other than they should fit your interests, or how you wish people looked at a character.

Sharing my goals: I had major goals seeing how the fandom handled the release of Trickster, and k-pop culture/fans in general. 

I firstly wanted to cultivate a space safe for k-pop enthusiasts. A welcoming introduction to people either wanting to get into k-pop previously in the dbd fandom, or vice versa of new faces to the game/scene.  > I was aware of preconceptions towards K-Pop fans or ‘kweebs’, and wanted to make it apparent that they shouldn’t be ostracized. Alternatively I wanted to explain idol/k- culture to DBD-enthusiasts while remaining ‘in-character’ if possible.  > Hearing that DBD fans were concerned the game was going to cater and bring ‘those’ types of people (k-pop enthusiasts) made me a bit sad, because I was one of those people! I’d just been a sleeper agent ✨. So it was a way to prove we can be normal DBD fans too. No gate-keeping here.

Show why Ji-Woon was indeed a good killer/horror icon, and why All-Kill has some of the best writing in the game, as a cohesive story line.  > People upon initial impression thought it was a marketing scheme. “Why is a pretty guy showing his abs. DBD is just catering!” When in reality that reaction was exactly what made Ji-Woon a good and scary killer! I Jokingly like to say this is the ARG effect. Audience reaction is so fitting to how they would perceive him as a real idol serial-killer. No one would suspect him, it’s so dramatic. He’s not taken seriously at all, etc. (He’d get away with it, even if it was happening right in-front of you.) > Admittedly I adore that this is more of a non-traditional westernized take on a villain/killer or horror in general. Neither survivor or killer were completely black and white in their roles. There’s no “hero” and “bad guy”, instead it was just them both being morally gray to achieve their goals. It’s a psychological/thriller horror which is very Korean in notion.  Straight from Wiki: Many of the Korean horror films tend to focus on the suffering and the anguish of characters rather than focus on the explicit "blood and guts" aspect of horror.[...]Modern South Korean horror films are typically distinguished by stylish directing, themes of social commentary, and genre blending. (To me All-Kill does this fantastically in homage to the cultural awareness)

Make people who were fans of Ghostface into fans of Trickster.  > This one may seem a bit silly. Admittedly though, ghostface is a fan favorite in the DBD roster. No one questions why he was added, in fact a large majority of the fandom was asking and wishing for him to be added in before he was. People liked the charming narcissistic side of him that DBD created, and enjoyed seeing him interact with others. > While Trickster isn’t an exact copy, in fact I think they’re more Day and Night of each other, he had all the traits fans enjoyed about Ghostface. Ambition towards their chosen art/production, god-complex/narcissistic, an iconic appeal that only they bring. The thing that makes them charming and likeable to fans. > I knew if I could get any type of die-hard fan to see the ways of liking Trickster, it’d be the Ghostface enthusiast. It’s good to remember the good ‘ol waffle: What would Ghostface fans like. WWGFL (joking)

Nothing will be seen as cringe on this blog. > I don’t know how to explain this other than It’s for my own sanity and comes with safe space territory. It’s welcoming. You want broken Korean while I’m learning? Deal. You want that OC shaped like a 8? Got it. I’ve got limited energy and I’m not wasting it on if I think something’s cringey or not. 

I don’t know if I’ve reached these goals on a big scale, but I do hear that I’ve achieved small successes through some friends, so I’ll take the win. I still try to implement these and think about them when I make posts, so they’re pretty fundamental in what I hope to achieve on my blog. 

♫ Interaction and Audience Awareness ♫

This was touched on a bit from my goals, but I wanted to talk about how your blog will interact with others and how to be aware of your general audience. I’ve never really struggled when interacting with blogs, so I may either be the best or worst person to speak on this matter.

AUDIENCE AWARENESS: Firstly, I would say keep a general audience in mind when making your blog (especially your first blog in a community/fandom) and posts. While I see some people vouch for “+18 blogs only, minors DNI” I think it marginalizes your audience, and personally I’ve never been a big fan of it. Mostly because I like to keep things comfortable for the general populace, especially on an open social-media site. If +18 interactions happen, I’d say take it off blog or put it under a ‘keep reading’ “spoiler”. Intimate or gore pieces can scare away casual enjoyers; but if you’re adamant in your character portrayal to interact with others of that caliber and you’ve already found your community, the use of tags should definitely be your priority, as well as making a list of them easily accessible and understandable. This is keeping Audience Awareness in mind and stops anyone from feeling discomfort. It’ll allow people to feel safe interacting with your blog.

In the same vein, I understand that my characterization will be interacting with others, anons or blogs. This means that despite how much of a jerk my character would be, always make sure it’s spoken about to others before hand or explained OOC or in tags why they act that way. We don’t want hurt feelings amongst the blog community or to make someone think they did something wrong. It simply allows us to have insight into the character. 

Alternatively, I’d say try going for a less intense characterization, unless you want to intentionally be the edgy blog. Edge is more palpable in small doses over a constant assault of it with only some moments of levity. We want the blogs to be a good enjoyable experience with interesting variation in the character, not a threatening one. Overall, I’d say make sure you show a full range of emotions and knowing roughly how your muse will react, and reasoning behind it. Being well-rounded makes things dynamic and keeps viewer engagement.

INTERACTIONS: Don’t be afraid to talk to other people in the fandom/community. I hear often that blogs are shy on approaching others, and it causes an anxiety of wanting to interact, but never doing so and not knowing what to ask (this section should help). We can’t expect people to just see us and come talk to us like popular kids. An effort should be made on reaching out and connecting to others first. If you want someone to talk to you, then talk to them first. 

Now this comes with some loose rules of comfort though, especially if sending in asks. 

Speaking for the DBD community: If you chose to interact with other blogs and run a blog, make sure you send relevant asks. Try to think of something that’s unique to your character/characterization only. Something no one else will ask. Why? Because there’s anons who can catch the basics, and you can easily get overwhelmed by people asking the same question from different blogs. This makes the mun worry over which iteration to answer, and may end up not picking yours. Simply because it wasn’t unique enough to catch interest. If you’re certain no anon asked a certain question yet, and know it might just be a quick response that won’t leave room for a response, then ask on anon, not on blog. It’s good to remember that when you send an ask, you’re not only trying to find out more about the muse being asked, but taking a chance to show off characterization of your own muse as well. Something that could potentially lead to an actual interaction over a quick answer. A well thought out ask can spur relationship building between blogs, and that’s, in my experience, truly what people are most interested in seeing. Chemistry and relationships between characters/blogs. Not entirely just a single characterization on it’s own.

Most importantly though, try not to be afraid of the community. We’re here to entertain them and have fun with them, not stand around like an awkward kid in the corner of class. This ties in to our last section:

♫ Make yourself Happy ♫

We’re ultimately making an ask blog to make ourselves happy. It’s good to cater to an audience, but make sure you don’t sacrifice your Core Values or what you want to get out of your experience running an ask blog. Alternatively, if something isn’t working and you’re unhappy with it, it’s okay to change ideas. I’m constantly learning new facets of my character and building on them, and sometimes I wonder if it’s hypocritical, but I’ve realized it’s just growth as both muse and mun. If it can naturally happen over the course of the blog, then that means you’re doing a great job building a ‘story’ or ‘dynamic experience’.

We muns do this for fun and it’s good to try not to take ourselves or the blogs too seriously. (Alternatively, try not to make it all a joke either. We do like some character depth.) Like I said, a dynamic blog is fun and seems safer and more enticing to interact with. This is all a fun social-platform and ask blogs are just another way to stay social. 

Admittedly it can get overwhelming some times, but being open about this or even knowing when to close an ask box or step away can help keep your passion from burning out. Set boundaries and limits. Maybe just try changing something up and do a meme or personal art/comic if you want to keep nursing your muse but don’t want to feel indebted to doing asks/responses or keeping a certain style. 

Don’t wait for the perfect ask or interests, it’s okay to create content individually and share what your ideas are without being asked. In doing this you can draw people’s interest. So long as you keep yourself happy, you’ll do good running a blog, and will be able to maintain your run-time and passion much longer. Most importantly don’t look at numbers. I never mentioned them anywhere, but that’s one way to not have fun. If you’re doing your blog right, you’ll get big numbers.

Create for yourself firstly, and others secondly.

Bet you weren’t expecting this much. I just had so many thoughts... Still, I truly hope this helped anyone curious in wanting to start up a blog, or even help those looking to polish up theirs.

[amelia]

related to that last ask but now i actually have a question! what are your favourite episodes for amy as a character? (sorry if i’m pestering you btw you don’t have to answer right away ❣️)

it is absolutely never a bother for me to talk about amy pond!! gosh though this is a Question. okay. i did interpret this as episodes that are my favorite for the lens of My Understanding Of Amy instead of favorite pond era episodes as a whole if that makes sense? under the cut bc i got long as i tend to do

i think my number 1 has to be the big bang, because it really is just like. okay, pond era absolutely runs into the problem of frequently making stories/episodes that should be centered around amy's emotional journey actually about somebody else — but the big bang is all hers. it is all on her! she's leading the show SHE'S the one in the pandorica SHE'S the one who remembers the doctor into existence it is HER choice to say goodbye to leadworth and continue to travel completely without remorse SHE IS THE HERO. it goes from "time can be rewritten, he'll find a way" to AMY being the one who finds the way. rory and river and the doctor all of course get their Moments but it's unquestionably amy's spotlight moment the whole way through

i have also ALWAYSSS been obsessed with starless universe amelia and the way that she still believes in stars in a world where they DON'T EXIST the power of her mind and the conviction of her beliefs is a CORE TENET of amy's character, the doctor has NOTHING to do with it!!! it's just who she is !!! best character of all time <3

other things about the amy's writing in this episode i love: the line "the universe pouring into her dreams every night," space florida outfit <3, ok i obviously do not love this but i think so much about amy talking about the doctor at her wedding and her mother is still like "NOT THIS SHIT AGAIN… i thought the psychiatrists FIXED her" like once again !!! a UNIVERSAL CONSTANT that amy is the one who believes in things nobody else does and is LOUD about it and is RIGHT !!! (let's kill hitler tried to retcon this but it simply won't work on me ❤️ just like anything else about the let's kill hitler flashbacks ❤️❤️❤️), OKAY DOCTOR DID I SURPRISE YOU THIS TIME? <3

number 2, i think, is the eleventh hour itself? like it's just… i've rewatched it so many times and it's still the most captivating character introduction i have ever seen. i know i'm biased but i love it so much. her introduction as a clearly neglected seven year old girl (constantly think about the deleted line that has her talking to aunt sharon and saying "you're not supposed to leave me, i'm seven!" WOOF) who's not afraid of anything except for the crack in her wall… she has drawings up all over her house of burning houses, she draws smiley faces into her apples bc her mom used to do that, she can cook for herself way better than i could at seven, and she desperately just wants to leave. but when the doctor tells her he'll be back in five minutes, amy is already so used to adults leaving her and breaking their promises that she doesn't believe him. but he makes her believe anyway. and he doesn't come back.

and all of the rest of her character hinges on that introduction — of course she has to believe him, he was REAL, nobody can take his realness away from her even if she is the only one who believes. but he also left her all alone for so long, just like everyone else who was supposed to be there for her did, so what good does that to her? so yeah of course she grows up angry and bitter and hiding those layers of hurt deeply under the surface, scorning all attachment and serious relationships because she knows she can't trust them. she outwardly distances herself from her childhood self by changing her name but she IS still just such a child inside.

she's not ready to settle, to grow up, to become what everyone in her tiny village wants her to be, thinks that she should be — so when she gets the chance to GO, of course she takes it. but she's also not just going to let the doctor off the hook for [gestures] her entire life, you know? the exchanges "people always say that" "i'm not people, do i even look like people?" | "people always have a reason" "do i look like people?" "Yes." always just GUT ME. she may trust him but it's NOT a blind trust, it can't be.

number 3 has to be the beast below it just makes me SCREAM how good that episode is at really developing amy through her compassion for other people — right from the start she sees that kid crying and she thinks the doctor must ignore stuff like this all the time, and she says that she could never do that. she's learning and intuiting leaps and bounds about the doctor with everything he says to her — which is another one of my favorite amy character traits, the way she is SO quick to pick up on things about other people and analyze them. everything that she picks up about the doctor allows her to KNOW what to do to save the star whale, allows her to be confident in the fact that the star whale wanted to help the whole time. the choice is IN HER HANDS she IS THE HERO <3 as she always should be. you couldn't just stand there and watch people cry! all that pain and misery and loneliness and it MADE IT KIND. i don't care how overused that quote is it still HITS !!!

um. number 4 is the girl who waited but my very specific headcanon-ridden interpretation and cutting out all that garbage "rory's the most beautiful man i've ever met" "defying destiny causality the nexus of time itself for a boy" bullshit. idk there's so many terrible things about this episode but it also gave me so much to think about when it comes to amy it's on my mind a LOT. one thing i think about is the way it parallels amy's first abandonment by the doctor — not just in the obvious sense but in the way that she's actively fighting for her life in a hostile atmosphere, but nobody else SEES it as a hostile atmosphere. the two streams facility is leadworth like it really is. and what adds a more chilling component is the way the handbots signature line is "do not be alarmed, this is a kindness" — like all the people who were trying to convince amy she was crazy throughout her entire childhood really thought they were doing her a kindness. they thought they were helping her. but they were killing her. because she wasn't made for that environment.

beyond that i am just obsessed with 36-years-later amy she is an icon she is a legend she is the moment i don't care! every mean thing she said about the doctor and rory was absolutely deserved and in fact she should have been so much meaner! she is SO SMART she makes her own SONIC PROBES OUT OF CAMERA PHONES the fact that she even was able to SURVIVE THAT LONG and in COMPLETE isolation and still retain her own mental faculties is just insane to me it speaks so much about her insane mental strength oh my god it makes me sooo emotional i am tearing up a little typing this right now.

i just am always THINKING about the line "there he is, the voice of god. number one lesson: survive, because no one's coming for you. you taught me that" it says SO MUCH about her. oh my god older amy didn't want to die she'll be kicking and screaming and fighting til the end… i fucking hate this show and picking and choosing when paradoxes should apply OLDER AMY DESERVED TO LIVE

number 5 is probably the power of three but my own very headcanon infused interpretation of it. because it's like. the ultimate miscommunication/misunderstanding that exists between amy and the doctor coming to a head. where amy in 7.02 is like "i can't not wait for you, even now. (…) we think you're weaning us off you" (that line always makes me slow exhale … the phrasing of the doctor as a drug) and the doctor keeps insisting that's not true, "you'll be there until the end of me" "or vice versa" (and they have that loaded held stare and you know they're both thinking about what he said to her before he left in the god complex…)

but it's not until this episode where amy starts to actually believe he means it. at the same time she's spent so much TIME preparing for the inevitable moment where the doctor says goodbye and doesn't say hello ever again that she's not willing to fully hope that the doctor really means it when he says that he would never leave her permanently on purpose. and i love that this episode gives amy a lot of space to verbally communicate her emotions because the later pond episodes SORELY LACK THAT. and amy tells him, don't be nice to me, don't stop coming around just because you think that's the kind thing to do. even though she says herself that she doesn't know if she can have "both" — she knows that she can tell the doctor to stay, in her own way, and that he'll listen.

ideally they would have just gone off traveling together forever after that and the angels take manhattan did not happen but unlike what the doctor says about amy, i don't ever get what i want 🙃

also, this episode gave amy friends that weren't rory or the doctor or river so i love it for that on principal <3 i know amy had fun being the bridesmaid at laura's lesbian wedding. and kate!!

( i do hate that this episode ends with that conversation between brian and the doctor. i hate brian as a character and i will forever. won't get into this right now but OUGH )

honestly this list is kind of wobbly and might change if you asked me in a month so i'll just rattle off other favorite episodes / moments real quickly: the good night minisode (it counts!), RIVER SONG DIDN'T GET IT ALL FROM YOU SWEETIE (timeline frozen amy my beloved!), "i remember it so it happened so i did it," vincent and the doctor specifically when vincent tells amy that he hears the song of her sadness…. ow, i could write a whole other essay about amy's choice and how it is so much more complex than people give it credit for but this post is already so goddamn long

[shammikorn]

what’s your interpretation of rin’s personality? i love your comics about her and it sucks that in canon she’s just Nice Girl

that's a great question, anon! and the one i've been asking myself for several years now.

first thing first: root!rin theory is an invention of @ahkaraii, and it’s the most important thing in naruto fandom.

i may be overthinking but i always thought there was something off about rin - she is not just nice girl™, she is creepily nice girl, and she is way too convenient for one certain uchiha nice girl. as i see it, writing a stereotypical love interest is not a complicated issue for a shounen author - there are a bunch of cliches and tropes that you have to combine to get such character right. rin? she is...not quite this. rin rather looks like someone who tries to be that ideal love interest (or, honestly, to be just a normal shinobi/human) but tries too hard and it spoils the impression.

if we look at rin's databook profile, we can see the formula - «kind, intellectual, devoted», and it's almost absurd that something like this is used as personality description.

what do we know from her canon appearances?

1) well, she does come off as sweet and kind, and i want to believe she was.

2) rin is quiet and reserved most of the time, and when she does speak out it's only generalized and mostly positive stuff. in childhood filler (unfortunately, it’s the only one i remember well) she also pauses before speaking or reacting in general.

3) rin often sounds way too mature for her age (plus, she must be an experienced ninja or at least well educated - in gaiden she comments on enemy's strategy and then on kakashi's usage of chakra). sometimes (mostly with obito but he totally buys it) she says things that seem kinda fake- almost like if she was taught to tell it.

i could say it’s just kishimoto’s writing but there are heroines who got little to no character development and yet still felt like, you know, human beings. rin at times seems like a completely ephemeral creature. to me, at least.

4) rin is obsessed with obito (despite narrator and then obito suggesting she was in love with kakashi). she is overwhelmingly caring - she seems to know constantly where obito is, most time she is around him (even when obito is unaware of that - i’m not sure if it was in the manga but anime has several moments like this), she is in charge of things i wouldn't consider quite normal for a childhood friend to be (like? bringing obito's documents? finding him and leading to a meeting point?). honestly, i can’t read this as simply display of friendship and affection, and i don’t see the same pattern in other relationships in the franchise. there is also an extra emphasis on the fact that rin liked kakashi both in gaiden and in war arc (as well as implementations that kakashi might have liked her back), so it’s not like kishimoto forgot about who was rin’s crush.

if i recall correctly, there is no information on how rin and obito originally meet and what was the foundation of their friendship outside of obito's aspiration to become hokage. therefore the reasoning behind rin’s obsession is unknown.

5) rin emulates obito's reactions, it's shown several times and, i would say, highlighted:

6) rin's reaction to obito's «death» seems much more reserved than kakashi's, and she quickly cuts off any visible display of her distress once obito asks to transplant his eye.

7) rin is clearly not afraid of fighting. she normally doesn’t engage in combat (i assume, the end of third war must have been the time of endorsing tsunade’s iryo-nin reform, thereby rin must have belonged to the generation of medics that followed hime’s rules to the core + rin is stopped from getting into combat by kakashi), however, both time rin was cornered by an enemy, she showed full readiness to fight.

now this is not about her personality, but:

8) rin is placed on future hokage's team, alongside the genius son of one of the strongest ninjas and the uchiha (who could actually keep up with the said genius and, as we see later, surprisingly well adjusted to hashirama cells implanted into him).

9) speaking of her abilities, rin's got a solid 4 in intelligence (among shinobi her age i can recall only shikamaru and sakura scoring 4 or higher), 3.5 in ninjutsu (shino with the same score was about to be put in the root; similar score was obtained by sasuke and neji) and 4 in hand seals, whatever that could mean. overall she's got 21 (while most of konoha11 got less than 20). impressive for a ninja coming from «a very ordinary household» [fourth databook].

10) rin is good as iryo-nin, but like...not outstandingly good, like sakura or tsunade or shizune. she carries a large rucksack (and is the only one who does that out of her team, so it's not part of common equipment) - she probably has to use more civilian methods. however, rin is able to transplant an eye with sharingan and keep its functions without any tools besides maybe her kunai; considering ophthalmology is a way too narrow specialty for a field medic and uchihas tend to keep their secrets secure, this seems pretty damn cool (and gaiden was written before eye swapping became a common thing and iryo-ninjutsu could easily heal any injury). if i don’t say suspicious. plus - rin instantly agrees to perform surgery, no second thought, no hesitation, as if she was trained to do it.

it’s also interesting that kakashi gaiden is the only part where rin is shown not from her teammates' perspective- and in gaiden she is a quiet and determined soldier who can put her duty above her feelings. when we see rin later on, mainly from obito's memories and therefore from his perspective, she is depicted as that constantly smiling and good-hearted girl most folks remember her as. it goes to the point where in the second databook rin is described as serious and capable medic-nin, while in the fourth the main focus is moved to her relationships with kakashi and obito.

i don’t want to try and get any conclusions about her personality from the circumstances of her death- i don’t believe in her voluntary death for the village, not after madara told obito about the seal.

so, what do we get from this? as i said, i've tried to sum these traits up: for a long time i pictured rin as a civilian-background girl with fascination for the shinobi world despite not quite fitting in it (which results in her overly perfected but distant behaviour). but this can’t explain her skills or her obsession with obito, and this is where the root theory comes to rescue: she then becomes a root operative, chosen by danzo for her friendship with obito + civilian background, but with personality not completely ruined by lord shimura (she probably wasn’t seen as useful enough outside the whole obito thing). the original aim of her mission was probably to keep safe and then awaken obito’s sharingan (loving the irony), not to actually steal it. rin did like (in a platonic way) obito even before the recruitment, as well as she grows to like kakashi (in a romantic way) later on, but her real, untouched by shimura and his orders personality must have remained mostly a mystery to them both.

[gcldensnitch]

Selina Fawley. — my hphl character's profile.

Full name: Selina Jane Fawley

House: Hufflepuff

Bood status: Pure-blood

Date of birth: january 27, 18XX

BACKGROUND

The Fawleys were included in the Pure-Blood Directory, which listed them as one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. The family members whom attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly were traditionally sorted into Hufflepuff House.

Selina grew up in a famous wizarding family which played a huge part in her personality. She always had to attend classes and she had many private tutors as a child. Her parents were strict with her and they expected her to have perfect grades. They always told her that a true lady isn't just beautiful but also intelligent. All of these leaded to her being incapable of saying no. She never rebelled against her parents and always did what they told her. She was the perfect daughter. Her only happiness was when she could spend some time in nature between her never ending classes or when she did ballet.

After arriving to hogwarts she luckily made some precious friends whom teached her how saying no is sometimes a good thing. They managed to pull her out of her 'good girl' shell and she finally started living.

HOGWARTS INFOS

House: Hufflepuff

Wand wood: Pear wood

Wand core: Fairy wing

Patronus: Doe

Best subjects: Herbology, Charms, Transfiguration

Worst subject: Flying

Boggart: Her parents yelling at her

Riddikulus: Unknown

PERSONALITY

Positive traits: calm, warmhearted, generous, careful, wise

Negative traits: gets scared easily, cannot say no, people pleaser (changes as time goes on)

RELATIONSHIPS

Love interest:

• Kasper Mikhail Marten Gyllenfeldt aka Marty (@cursebreakerfarrier): Marty and Selina got engaged as kids but they rarely met. Both of them hated the fact that they are engaged but they knew it's their duty, in order to keep their bloodline pure. During their teenage years they met more often and had more chances to talk in private – which lead to them becoming friends. They shared the hatred toward pure bloods and their obsession to keep their line up. Eventually they fell in love and had a happy marriage. They had 3 kids: Audrey, Theodore and Selina (Lina).

List of friends:

Best Friend: Henry of Alderly (@gaygryffindorgal): more details coming soon!

Hufflepuff girl gang:

Stella Seabright by @cursebreakerfarrier

Josie Edwards by @slytherindisaster

– The Grant siblings by @rogueharrington

Vinnie Wakefield by @gaygryffindorgal

Other beloved friends:

– Danny Gibson by @catohphm

RANDOM FACTS

– Blanche Dubois by @endlessly-cursed

– Albert Burke by @madelineorionswan

• She's allergic to animal fur

• Selina is heterosexual

• She has a younger brother, called Thomas Fawley ("Tommy") who is 8 years younger than her

• Faceclaim is Jenna Coleman from ITV Victoria

[thetypedwriter]

A Curse So Dark and Lonely Book Review

A Curse So Dark and Lonely Book Review by Brigid Kemmerer

My gosh, I feel like I have enormous feelings about this book. 

So, I had seen this book for awhile bestow the shelves at Barnes & Noble and while it drew the eye, it also didn’t entice me right away. I must have read snippets of the backside summary a dozen times before I finally succumbed and purchased it when the store was having a buy one, get one 50% off deal. 

Lame, I know. 

That being said, A Curse So Dark and Lonely surprised me in a lot of pleasant ways and at the end of the experience it was a book I genuinely enjoyed reading, despite the flaws throughout. 

First off, somehow, in ways that I don’t even fully understand, I did not realize that this was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. 

You might ask, seeing the title, the reviews on the back literally calling it a retelling of a classic fairytale, the summary itself, and the basic premise, how did I not realize what the true nature of this book was?

I genuinely have no idea. 

I really don’t. 

It’s so flabbergasting that I don’t even have a proper answer for you other than Beauty and the Beast was not my favorite Disney movie growing up and that I probably should have spent more time checking out what bargain books to buy before I laid down the cash. 

Oh well.

That being said, retellings of classic fairy tales has been a fairly popular phenomenon in the YA literature scene (and popular culture as a whole, really) for the last couple of years and while I can see the appeal, it was never something that beckoned me. 

I’m not a huge fairytale fan to begin with so a retelling of the original doesn’t hold much sway in terms of intrigue and buy-in. 

If I had known what A Curse So Dark and Lonely truly was, I never would have bought it. Frankly, it’s a little sad because I genuinely would have missed out on a very fun and engaging read. Fortunately enough, however, my dumb actions actually paid off in good luck this time around. 

The whole premise is exactly what you’ve probably surmised up to this point: an enumeration of Beauty and the Beast with some modern fanfare and twists and turns along the way. 

Rhen is the current Crown Prince of Emberall, a country in some parallel world to the one that you and I currently exist in. With a series of twists, the main protagonist, Harper, is unwillingly hoisted from her homeland of Washington D.C. to the magical world of Emberfall, which unfortunately is not all that magical with a looming war on the horizon involving a neighboring nation, rumors of a savage beast that has wreaked havoc on the country, and a wicked witch that delights in torment and carnage to sadistic glee.  

Soon enough, a high school dropout with cerebral palsy soon finds herself in the imaginary role as the Princess of Disi, an allying nation that has promised aid and troops to Emberfall and potentially betrothed to the Crown Prince, Rhen. 

To make matters more complicated, Harper finds herself often in the company of Grey, the lone soldier of the Royal Guard and Rhen’s constant shadow, a figure she soon begins to trust despite herself. 

With a war on the horizon, the ever-present threat of the witch Lillith, the haunting promise of the beast’s return, and evolving feelings, A Curse So Dark and Lonely is a lovely concoction of both fast-paced action, romance, humor, and fantasy. This whole book gave me a pleasant buzz from start to finish. 

The plot itself, while recycled at its core, is fresh enough with the modern flare of Harper being from D.C. (Disi-this still makes me laugh), representation in the form of a character with a disability like cerebral palsy, interesting and complex relationships, and opposing enough with the threat of Lillith and future battles that it never seemed pithy or banal. 

While the world building is...mediocre, I don’t think it was amazing nor do I think it’s awful, it’s a useful enough background for the characters and their emotions to take place, which honestly is the real focus throughout the entire novel (although the author did take some liberties by inputting in things like the castle automatically regenerating food-how much more deus ex machina can you get?). 

  Kemmerer’s writing style is also fine. Nothing groundbreaking, but also not writing I find abhorrent or even unlikeable. She comes across as a typical YA author to me in terms of her vocabulary, her figurative language, and her writing style. 

The real focus, if you haven’t caught on by now, are the characters. 

I genuinely like all three main characters quite a bit, which, if you regularly read my reviews, is quite the anomaly. 

Rhen I find to be strangely complex. While he fits the mold of the brooding, arrogant prince that actually cares deeply for his people and his country quite well, I also found him more interesting than just the archetype of the royal son. 

He’s surly, dark, and quite temperamental. While he does care deeply about his people, he’s often selfish and petty. Honestly, he shouldn’t be very likable at all, but it’s for that reason alone that I do like him. 

I like that while he might be a good ruler he’s not necessarily a good person and I like the dichotomy and the conflict that implicitly comes with that struggle, a struggle often shown to the readers and the two other characters he’s closest with: Harper and Grey. 

In addition, often in YA I feel like authors constantly feel pressured to make romantic love interests “perfect” which to me, translates to being stereotypical and boring. Very often my favorite characters are the ones who are flawed and complicated-just like Rhen. 

Grey is also a character that I thought would be more simple than he actually turned out to be. I originally thought Grey was going to be the stoic, soldier type and while he is, I also really enjoyed seeing his lighter side, his sense of humor, his love for children, and the deadly loyalty that binds him not because of a curse or a spell, but because of his own stubbornness and dedication to the decision that he made and the refusal to break it.

I found this honor code fascinating and his adherence to it almost obsessive. His loyalty to Rhen is both baffling and intriguing and often it was the best part of the novel for me. 

Which brings me to my next point: Rhen and Grey’s relationship is hand’s down the best part of this book. It’s a complicated relationship and, therefore, really fascinating to read about it. They have a serpentine history involving Grey being the one to let Lillith into Rhen’s chambers which sets off the whole curse business in the first place. 

However, as Rhen says later on in the book, it was his choice to keep Lillith overnight and to pursue romance, not Grey’s. 

There is guilt, blame, affection, loyalty, ownership, friendship, frustration, anger, sacrifice and more to their relationship. Their history stops them from being true friends, as do their roles as prince and guard, yet they are the only companion the other has for seasons upon seasons. 

At the end of the day, Grey is all Rhen had for a very long time and it shows. 

Their relationship was always so engrossing to read about due to its complications and its nuances. Very few YA relationships, especially that of platonic male friendship, gets even near the level of depth and grey (I couldn’t help this pun) area shown between Grey and Rhen. Their relationship alone is a huge draw for why I found this novel so captivating. 

I did wonder for a while if perhaps there were more than platonic feelings involved, but I could never quite put my finger on the true nature of their relationship or their feelings towards each other, which I find absolutely amazing. Their relationship is messy and complicated, just like real life relationships are. 

That leaves the third piece of the puzzle: Harper. 

Out of the three main characters, I like Harper the least, but I do still like her. I like that she’s strong and tenacious, not in spite of her cerebral palsy, but in addition to her already present bravery and ferocity. She’s headstrong, stubborn, kind, merciful, and compassionate. 

My dislike from Harper stems from the fact that she’s a little too perfect, especially compared to Rhen and Grey, who I found to be much more convoluted characters. 

Again, harping (hahah) back to stereotypical YA, other than her cerebral palsy, I don’t think there’s anything in particular about Harper that makes her complicated, flawed, or especially interesting. 

She’s a good girl willing to give it all up for a country she’s only known for a few weeks even though her mother’s dying at home and her brother is most likely involved in some kind of gang violence. 

The best scenes with Harper are the scenes were she is struggling to choose between the two worlds and weighing her options, as at some points it does depict her as selfish and wanting to go home, even though she knows it would doom thousands of people. 

But of course, this is all taken care of later when she realizes D.C. isn’t her true home any more and that Emberfall has become where her heart lies. 

Lame. 

Kemmerer made Harper just a little too pristine for my liking, which is why she ranks lower than both Rhen and Grey when on paper she is by far the best in terms of personality and character traits. 

This especially grates on me when Kemmerer tells us that Harper is fantastic instead of letting us glean that for ourselves. I really dislike when an author tells me instead of shows me that someone is brave or kind or amazing or whatnot and I feel like there were enough instances of Harper being all of those things without having needed Rhen or Grey to point it out all of the time. 

I also do feel like there is some weird shaming regarding things typically seen as “feminine” in relation to Harper and why that makes her “better.” For example, Rhen talks often about how no girl ever has ever done what Harper has done, like attacking him. 

I’m sorry? You’re telling me that Grey has kidnapped hundreds of girls and not one of them before Harper tried to attack them? In any form? Really? 

I find that preposterous. 

Other instances of Harper being unique in this fashion is also sprinkled in, like how most girls apparently only care about the dresses and the jewels in the castle, but not Harper. Or how most girls would be crying from a scar on their cheek, but Harper is just upset that she misses her target.

 I get what Kemmerer is going for, but these force-fed characterizations really bothered me and were the most irritating thing about the book. 

Being feminine or caring about stereotypically feminine things like jewelry or dresses does not mean that someone can’t also be strong and brave and fierce. I dislike a lot of the subliminal messages in the novel in regards to that. 

In terms of romance, again I have to ask myself when the trope of the love triangle will die. Perhaps it never will. Perhaps it will live on for eternity, forever immortal and present in nearly 90% of YA literature. 

The love triangle between Grey, Rhen, and Harper doesn’t bother me so much in this novel as I feel like it isn’t truly focused on very much, which I appreciate. I understand that Harper has feelings for both Grey and Rhen, but her feelings make sense. I don’t feel like Kemmerer is just foisting a love triangle onto the readers for the sake of having a love triangle. 

It felt somehow...natural. 

In addition, most love triangles suck as they’re very one sided, usually in terms of the female’s POV. 

In this case however, the love triangle is influenced by Grey and Rhen’s relationship, where the lines are very blurry and for a good portion of the book I thought perhaps they were in love with each other and Harper. 

Frankly, I would have been ecstatic if this was the route Kemmerer had taken. Not many YA authors go down this route, but examples like Mark/Cristina/Keiran from The Infernal Devices and Niall/Irial/Leslie from Ink Exchange are actually the only examples I know from YA literature so this would have been so welcome and anticipated. 

If Kemmerer had gone down the route of looking into a polyamorous relationship I would have been over the moon. I don’t think she is sadly, but polyamrous relationships are still so few and far between in YA that it would have been utterly captivating, especially as she has all the ingredients to do so. 

Or, I thought she did. 

Until it’s revealed at the very end that Rhen and Grey are brothers. Or, at least half-brothers. 

Yeah. 

It’s super unfortunate. 

I’m genuinely disappointed that this is the route Kemmerer decided to take it as it seems so grossly safe. It’s almost like an intense male/male relationship can’t exist unless it’s romantic or they’re brothers and I despise that. 

Hence, why I have also decided that I won’t be reading A Heart so Fierce and Broken. I want to keep the memory and the interesting relationships between the three characters as it is: interesting.

 I have a very strong feeling that if I read the sequel that will all be shattered. 

When all is said and done, I really enjoyed this book. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to reading it and I wasn’t expecting very much, but it met all of my expectations and more. 

I am sad that I won’t be finishing the series as a whole, but I know that the direction it's going will only make me frustrated and annoyed and I would rather preserve the positive emotions attached to A Curse So Dark and Lonely than ruin it with a sequel that I know won’t meet the expectations I have. 

Perhaps that’s unfair to say, and rightly so, but I know myself and I can see where the sequel is going and I’m almost certain that I won’t like it. 

So in this case, I’m going to quit while I’m ahead and savor the moments I had reading this novel in all its fairy-telling glory. 

Recommendation: If you love Beauty and the Beast, fairytales with a modern twist, interesting characters and interesting relationships set in a fantasy world where the music never stops playing and a savage beast runs rampant, than this book is calling for you.

 I didn’t know that I needed this novel in my life and now I’m so glad that it is. Captivating from beginning to end, if you’re anything like me and a sucker for interesting romance and strong, nuanced characters you won’t be able to put this down either. 

Score: 7/10 

[emblemxeno]

Interesting to see some semblance of Soleil discourse again. I hated her when i played fates, and was genuinly surprised that people really loved her. Do you think a lot of her shittier aspects were from Fates' shoddy translation, or was she always sort of bad?

Sorry for this taking so long! I figured I might as well make this a sort of definitive post about Soleil since I talk about her a lot, so I put some more research and effort into it than I initially planned.

Soleil’s writing does have a lot of differences between the Japanese version and localization, but I have many, many issues with both.

Japanese Soleil

Soleil in the Japanese version of Fates is, to put it simply, a train wreck. As we know, her defining trait is her love of girls. However, with Soleil it goes past attraction and flirting into outright predatory behavior. 

In many of her Japanese supports, Soleil creeps around girls, be it generic girls off-screen, or her female support partners. She hits on her mother in their support, she plans to sneak behind girls and embrace them out of nowhere in her support with Ignatius, and she harasses Ophelia and planned to get a better look at the latter’s figure in the tents when they switched bodies.

But the absolute worst was her Japanese support with Forrest. 

Basically, she’s chasing Forrest around because she’s convinced he’s a girl, despite him telling her over and over that he isn’t. Soleil is extra creepy in this one, saying things like “I can’t hold myself back anymore” and “I won’t do anything bad, so just give in.” Forrest goes so far as to even compare her to a wild animal stalking its prey.

Forrest then tells Soleil once again that he’s a boy, and what does she do? She asks him to prove it by getting naked and bathing with her. Forrest, of course, refuses again. Soleil then finds out from others around camp that Forrest was telling the truth; but she still can’t keep her urges down and keeps making unwanted advances and touches towards him.

That entire support is extreme sexual harassment. It is one of the worst supports I have ever read, especially since it’s played for laughs and it can later advance into an actual relationship between them. Treehouse did realize how bad this support was, and changed it from the ground up into something completely different, which is one of the very few things I will thank them for.

Now, localized Soleil is another beast entirely. Before going into my issues with her localized version, I’ll explain the context behind her trope.

A History Lesson

Soleil’s character at its core is based on the Class S trope. Class S is a Japanese term describing romantic friendships between girls. It’s origin and popularity is owed to things like western women’s literature (such as Little Women) being translated for Japanese audiences back in the early 20th century and the all-women Takarazuka Revue theater being established; these helped cultivate feelings of sisterhood and a sense of romance for young female audiences, especially since most schools at the time in Japane kept boys and girls separate. While there was a decline in the Class S genre after Japanese schools became more co-ed, it has made a resurgence in popularity ever since the late 90′s with light novels like Maria-sama ga Miteru.

Class S had a rather big impact on Japanese society, where it was actually expected to happen and treated as something wonderful for these kinds of close friendships to develop between young girls.

However. These aren’t treated as real romantic relationships. They’re seen as nothing more than a phase. After adolescence, girls are expected to ‘mature’ or ‘graduate’ in a sense, into a real relationship with a man. To still have Class S relationships with other girls when you’re supposed to be in a “real” relationship is seen as a sign of immaturity.

Soleil Herself

So what does this mean with Soleil? Lots of her supports in Japanese have other characters being bewildered or even annoyed by her continued love for girls, because “she’s technically an adult now, shouldn’t she have grown out of that phase?” 

Shigure gets surprised that she’s trying to learn how to sing to impress girls. F!Corrin wonders why she won’t give up her mindset already. Soleil gets jealous of Asugi’s popularity with girls and childishly tries to imitate him. Sophie says she doesn’t have time for Soleil’s antics because the former is trying to be a mature, devoted knight. Ophelia is frustrated that they can’t be “normal” friends instead of Soleil chasing her around and proclaiming her love.

They treat her obsession/love for girls as something childish for an adult woman like her to still have, much like Japanese society does. Soleil is Class S.

Soleil does actually get a chance to technically grow out of this phase, much like adult women are expected to. She ‘graduates’ into adulthood once she becomes romantically involved with her male romance options in the Japanese version; a “real” relationship.

As a gay man, you can probably guess how I feel about this trope. While it has had impact on helping Japan ease up on its more conservative beliefs and lots of Class S media has been created by actual queer women (like Nobuko Yoshiya), it’s still not a great feeling when same sex relationships are basically treated as not real or just a phase in someone’s life. It sucks, especially when I think the Japanese Rhajat/F!Corrin support is one of best in Fates. But enough about me, what does this have to do with localized Soleil?

Where The Localization Fumbled

Since she was already getting her fair share of controversy thanks to the many incorrect reports of conversion therapy during her support with M!Corrin, Treehouse decided to go the whole mile and rewrite some aspects of her character. This included removing the Class S aspect of her, and adding in a line from Laslow (as well as her roster description) that basically confirms she’s bisexual.

Except... they messed it up. They made her apparently bisexual, but they removed the romantic aspect of almost all of her S supports, all of which are dudes. Instead, most of her S supports result in promises of friendship or partnership of some kind. The only romantic S supports she has in the localization are with M!Corrin because Avatar privilege, and Forrest, which can still kind of be taken as platonic.

This doesn’t make sense. Why go out of your way to make Soleil bisexual, but remove her romantic supports with dudes? Her wlw side isn’t suddenly erased if she were to marry a dude, what’s the deal here? Did two different people have a hand in this and just didn’t communicate? Did one intend to make her a lesbian and the other wanted her to be bi? 

This is a huge inconsistency and fumble on Treehouse’s part, one of their biggest. Hell, besides that, they didn’t even remove all of her creepy aspects either; she still creeps on girls in her Ignatius support (she now plans to pinch them instead of embrace them from behind), and while her support with Ophelia was toned down, it still isn’t great. Why go so halfway on this, especially since she’s the most controversial character in the game?

Conclusion & Overview

So yeah, those are my thoughts about Soleil. Her Japanese characterization is a predatory mess and based on a trope which I am not fond of whatsoever, while her localized characterization is only somewhat better as a person and is plagued by a whole slew of new writing problems because her bisexuality just wasn’t done correctly by Treehouse.

Which honestly? It makes me kind of sad. Soleil has a lot of good things about her. I like her shamelessness, her confidence. Her shyness is basically an inverse of Olivia’s, where the latter is shy all the time except when dancing whereas Soleil is only shy and insecure when dancing; it’s a neat full circle for the entire family line. She has a couple of great supports too, like with Laslow and Kiragi. Her design is adorable, she’s a good unit, female mercenaries are always a plus, and her new voice actress in Heroes is one of my favorites. 

It’s just everything else is... bleh. 

I don’t dislike her as much as I did a few months ago, because looking over her supports again endeared her to me a little, but unfortunately she still has too many things about her that I hate for me to say anything better than that.

[thestupidhelmet]

What would you say are the core personalities of the six? I don't know if you've made a meta about this already since I'm fairly new here. Love your blog!

Thank you! 😊

I’ve written a few metas on the characters’ personalities or characterizations. But I’ll write up what I interpret their consistent core characterizations to be. First, a preamble.

Unfortunately, That ‘70s Show’s writers had a tendency to forget, ignore, or outright change the characters’ core characterizations, too often introducing new elements -- to serve plot -- that conflict with earlier established personality traits confirmed and reconfirmed by many episodes that followed. This is different than character development, which is grounded often in incremental changes over several / many episodes or even seasons. 

Most of these revisions of the characters’ core personalities are negative. Only one I can think of is positive: Hyde’s in “Prom Night” (1x19). The core of his character gets a complete overhaul once his role as Eric’s villainous foil and rival for Donna’s affection is over.

Because of the show’s inconsistent writing, one can pick and choose which consistently depicted attributes are the truly canon parts of a character’s personality. Later in the series, these consistently depicted attributes often conflict. When I write fanfic and @those70scomics​, I depicts the characters according to what I believe are their core personalities. Other people can reasonably view their core personalities differently. 

Now to answer your question.

Fez

He’s insecure about fitting in with his group of friends and among Americans in general. This insecurity sometimes manifests as neediness with friends and girlfriends alike.

He’s loyal to his friends and generally caring. He doesn’t like hurting their feelings. He’s in touch with his emotions and sensitive, which means he can be hurt rather easily by his friends’ or others’ thoughtless remarks toward him -- or hurt by what he misinterprets as an insult (e.g., Hyde telling Fez he needs to act aloof to attract women, and Fez believing Hyde is calling him “a loof,” which Fez apparently thinks is a put-down).

He’s not defenseless, however. He’s got a quick wit and comes back with cutting remarks of his own or simply cuts off his friends with his catchphrase and its varieties (i.e. “Good day. ... I said good day!”)

He’s passionate, but this passion variously paired with his insecurity, neediness, and sensitivity can cloud his judgement, which causes him to go too far in many areas: dirty jokes, masturbation, pursuit of unavailable girls, eating candy, etc. 

He suffers from Nice Guy syndrome with Jackie during seasons 2 and 3. This means he has a sense of entitlement to Jackie’s romantic and sexual affection, and his respectful treatment of her is predicated on the expectation of romantic and sexual reward. Once he realizes that she’ll never reciprocate his romantic feelings, his respectful treatment of her diminishes greatly. 

In season one, he’s depicted as insightful to other people’s feelings and motivations. In seasons 1-4, he’s also depicted as romantic and a romantic. He’s a serial monogamist, but he suffers somewhat from toxic masculinity (e.g., calling Jackie little girl when he believes she’s overstepped her bounds) and sexism (e.g., often calling girls whores; once this insult is prompted by a girl who does not put out sexually, which is the opposite of the meaning of whore). With Rhonda, though, this toxic masculinity and sexism seem not to be evident.

He longs for intimacy, whether platonic (men) or romantic (women). See this meta about how the show writes Fez and Kelso’s relationship as near-romantic in later seasons while also (re)affirming Fez and Kelso’s canonical straightness to keep T7S’s universe a heteronormative one.

Fez is obsessed with losing his virginity, but for the first four seasons of the show, the depiction of this obsession falls in line with that of many teenage boys his age. It’s not out of the ordinary. Eric is shown to have the same obsession until he and Donna finally have sex. Further, Fez’s obsession is not so all-encompassing that he can’t put it aside for love. He does so for his love of Rhonda -- until “Everybody Loves Casey” (4x26), where the best parts of his core characterization are destroyed. See my meta The Deterioration of Fez’s Character for details.

My Take: I prefer to write the insightful, loyal Fez who sometimes doesn’t know how far to push a joke. He can be insecure, but he’s also got a strong moral center and sense of what’s right and wrong -- or develops this sense more thoroughly during a given story. He’s flawed but very capable of growing and changing due to his ability to examine his own behavior and love for his friends.

Kelso

In season one, Kelso is a math and tech prodigy who has little common sense and or will power. He’s also loyal to Eric and Hyde and clearly loves them, but his impulsivity and addiction to sexual pleasure drive him to act thoughtlessly. He displays a sense of entitlement but not a pathological one. He’s capable of apologizing for his thoughtless and entitled behavior.  See this meta about “Ski Trip” (1x13) for an in depth analysis of Kelso’s behavior during that episode.

After season 1, his math and technology knowledge is gonet. His selfishness and sense of entitlement overshadow his loyalty to anyone (or anything) other than fulfilling  his own needs and desires. His lack of common sense becomes cartoonish. He acts maliciously when he feels slighted, which happens when he doesn’t get what he believes he’s entitled to. He relentlessly pesters Jackie verbally and physically for sex when she just wants to sleep. He’s pathologically narcissistic, vain, and dishonest.

During the end of season 3 and beginning of season 4, however, he begins to grow and change. He experiences and express remorse toward Jackie for treating her so badly -- without any expectation of return. His selfishness fades significantly, as does his lying, but neither attribute disappears completely. He’s capable of putting his own wants and desires aside for Jackie’s, but she sometimes has to assert herself more than once for him to do so.

During the end of season 4, unfortunately, he not only reverts back to type, he also becomes worse. He rescinds his remorse and gives Jackie the responsibility for his cheating. He speaks misogynistically about women and her, and is just generally awful. See my metas Jackie Kissing Todd “the Cheese Guy” and Kelso’s Reaction and False Equivalency: Kelso’s “Most Romantic Gesture” Toward Jackie for further analysis.

In season 5, Kelso reaches the peak of his self-entitled narcissism, selfishness, hypocrisy, and possessiveness over Jackie. He interprets Jackie dating Hyde as an act of betrayal and an attack on his pride and self-esteem. He seeks out revenge on both of them, even while trying to “win Jackie back” with the same kind of maliciousness he shows Jackie in season 2 when she doesn’t forgive his cheating within a week of her discovering it. 

Throughout the series, he makes unwanted sexual advances toward Donna. He tries to grope her breast repeatedly while she sleeps. He tries to sneak a glimpse of her breasts while she changes, and she’s so sick of his whining that she gives into what he wants (in “Class Picture” [4x20]). The writers intended this scene to be funny, but it’s actually horrific and parallels Jackie’s complaints about Kelso pawing at her and whining relentlessly for sex that she gives in so she can sleep.

He makes these numerous sexual advances on Donna when she’s in a relationship with Eric and when she and Eric are broken up. Yet he when he and Jackie are no longer together, he acts like Hyde has committed a crime against him for being in a consensual relationship with Jackie.

Without Ashton’s comedic timing and likability, Kelso would be unbearable to watch during seasons 1-5. Kelso is funny only because of Ashton’s performance.

But in season 6, Kelso gets another chance at a true character growth arc. He fights his selfish, cowardly tendencies to have a place in Brooke’s life and their child’s (whom hasn’t been born yet). He works hard to prove his ability to be a good father. and himself worthy of Brooke’s love. Even more, he makes an act of utter unselfishness and sacrifice by letting Brooke and their baby go  -- to live Chicago with Brooke’s mom -- because that’s what’s best for them, not him.

That being said, he still demonstrates an amount of selfishness toward his friends.

Season 7 again drops him back to status quo -- almost. Brooke is gone. He’s barely involved in his child’s life. He dates Hyde’s newfound sister, in part to burn Hyde. But at least he treats Angie with respect and is faithful to her, as far as we’re shown. So that part of his growth from season 6 stuck.

Throughout all the seasons, he’s shown to have a vast imagination. He fancies himself an inventor or an astronaut. He comes up with some wild -- and some might say insane -- ideas. He’s creative despite not being very skilled.

My Take: I generally write Kelso as a selfish, self-entitled narcissist because of when my T7S fics take place in the series. I also use his lack of common sense as comic relief. But I prefer the Kelso capable of growth and change, the one who is willing to put his own needs and desires aside for the benefit of other people. This latter characterization development has continued in @those70scomics​, and I’ve given him major growth arcs in my stories Reflections Through the Glass, Beneath a Shattered Sky, and Those Who Play with Demons (which I have yet to finish writing).

Eric

Eric has a compassionate heart. He cares about his family, his friends, and people in general. But he also suffers deep insecurities about his masculinity thanks to Red’s treatment of him. Eric is more in touch with his emotions, like his mother, and Red has trouble relating to him. Red also worries Eric might be too emotionally vulnerable to survive the real world, which is why he’s so hard on him (see “Hunting” [2x13]).

Because of modeling his dad gives him on masculinity, the clear messages that Eric isn’t masculine enough, and what he absorbs from observing how society expects men to behave, he suffers from bouts of chauvinism. Donna.is regularly the recipient of Eric’s insecurities about his manliness. He often feels threatened by her self-confidence, athletic ability, intelligence, etc. -- because she’s a woman and his best friend / girlfriend / fiancée. He falsely believes her strengths highlight his weaknesses as a man.

But he’s also patient and unselfish with Donna, putting aside his own sexual desires for her need to go slowly or for celibacy (in season 6). He’s supportive of her and all his family and friends, including Laurie and Jackie -- both of whom he has an antagonistic relationship with. He’s very loyal to his friends.

Eric uses sarcasm and his quick wit as defense mechanisms. Some might say he’s a little stunted in his growth due to his continued enjoyment of playing with action figures. He indulges at times in his mom’s infantilizing of him while also trying to assert his adulthood.

He has a specific vision for his future: marrying Donna and having a family with her. This vision, however, does not include a career. He doesn’t seem to be passionate about much else besides his relationship with Donna (and having sex with her) and Star Wars. This is a failing of the writers. Eric’s storylines are so Donna-focused that the show gives little space for what else he might be passionate about.

Eric is very much capable of recognizing, owning, and learning from his mistakes. He can be a total ass, but he eventually realizes his behavior and makes correction.

Donna

Donna is confident, athletic, intelligent, and a staunch defender of gender equality (when written consistently). She’s loyal to her friends. She often puts aside her own pride to protect Eric’s self-esteem. She gets angry at him almost only when he’s earned it. See In Defense of Donna (an essay in eight parts) for an in depth analysis on her relationship with Eric.

When she’s in severe emotional pain, she becomes self-destructive. Losing her relationship to Eric at the end of season 3 and her mom moving to California sends her into downward spiral. Earlier, we see this self-destructive trait in “Eric Gets Suspended” (2x09) when her parents pay little attention to her due to their obsession with the latest fads. 

Her parents’ lack of boundaries with her -- exposing her to their marital troubles and making her a pawn in them, as well as not hiding their sexcapades from her -- create a strong sense of boundaries within her.

The state of her parents’ relationship often influences her confidence in her relationship with Eric. She’s afraid sex will destroy her relationship with Eric; but once her parents renew their wedding vows, she has faith enough that romantic relationships can last that she finally feels safe enough to have sex.

She strongly values her independence. She doesn’t want her life and prospects dictated or limited by her romantic relationship with Eric. She witnesses how her dad’s controlling chauvinism stifles her mom’s own independence and dreams for herself, and she refuses to let Eric’s insecurity and chauvinism do that to her.

She’s passionate about writing, both journalistic and fiction, as well as music. She’s playful and forgiving. She doesn’t fit the gender norms of the 1970s. She’s as comfortable playing basketball with the guys as she is decorating a room or gymnasium for an event. She has a mixture of femininity and masculinity, which only Jackie seems to insult her about.

Jackie

At her core, Jackie is a compassionate, generous, and insightful person. She gives far more gifts to Kelso during their relationship than he does her -- despite her always stating how much she wants presents. She gives Donna lots of advice and support during Donna and Eric’s transition from friends to lovers. She continues to give Donna advice and support throughout the series about her love life.

But Jackie can also be very controlling, insulting, and selfish. She’s quite vain, but she’s also insecure about all she acts secure about. See Does Jackie Become Less Insecure about Her Physical Appearance when She Dates Hyde? If So, Why? 

Jackie has abandonment issues because of her parents. Her father isn’t home a lot and often shows his love for her through presents. The latter is why she wants / expects to get gifts from her boyfriend(s). She develops a marriage obsession out of wanting a guarantee she won’t be abandoned by her romantic partner, despite that marriage doesn’t actually guarantee this.

She also has a tendency toward self-delusion. She so needs Kelso to be whom she wants him to be that she goes into denial about his infidelity and all the negative qualities of his I described above. Eventually that delusion is broken, only to be replaced by delusions about Hyde. She transfers her feelings of (relationship-)safety from Kelso to Hyde.

Only when Kelso breaks her heart for the final time at the end of season 4 does she break out of this delusion cycle. She fantasizes about what her future with Hyde might be like, but that isn’t the same as deluding herself. Plus, Hyde consistently disabuses her of these unrealistic fantasies and offers her a much healthier and happier potential reality.

Once she’s with Hyde in season 5, she begins growing and changing significantly. Instead of complaining of her suffering as she does, for instance, during her S2-S3 break-up with Kelso, she hides the fact her mom has completely abandoned her after her dad goes to prison. She tells no one her mom hasn’t come home from Mexico.

This is not one of the healthier changes she makes in season 5, but fantasizing away her pain no longer works as a defense mechanism. Instead, she believes she has to face her struggles alone. Fortunately, Hyde discovers the truth and gives her a safe place and, in a very real way, becomes a literal safe place for her himself. (The writers screwed this up for the sake of a season-ending cliffhanger, but that’s beyond the scope of this meta.)

Jackie can be stubborn and determined. She wants what’s best for the people she loves, especially Hyde. She’s extremely forgiving. She doesn’t trust her ability to take care of herself, but she learns that she can (through getting a job, Hyde’s encouragement, her public access TV show, etc.)

She’s a complex character. When people don’t look beyond her surface, they find her easily dismissible. The writers too often wrote her this way during the series. But they also added many layers to her, as I’ve described in this meta.

Hyde

See the following metas I wrote about him:

Hyde’s Core Characterization Steven Hyde: Organic Character Development Steven Hyde: Inconsistent Characterization Hyde’s Character Shift from Season 4 to Season 5 Why Hyde Closes Himself Off More Emotionally in Season 5 Pathological Passive-Aggressiveness: A New Personality Trait Added to Hyde’s Character in Season 5 Hyde’s Potential Career