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aboveallarescuer · 4 years

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GRRM interviews about (or mentioning) Dany - Part 1

I went to So Spake Martin and collected excerpts of GRRM's interviews that talked about Dany in some way. Some observations here:

I didn't have access to broken/unavailable links or newspapers that require subscription.

I didn't get video or podcast interviews, only ones that were written down.

I also added some excerpts about how he enjoys grey characters or how he wants to be "realistic" and other topics that may relate ... not necessarily to Dany's character, but to his writing in general. It may be useful for some metas, even if they should not be divorced from the actual text.

I didn't mind collecting interviews about the same topic.

Maybe I did a poor job collecting these interviews or the SSM is incomplete, but, in any case, there are still several key interviews missing; I couldn't find the ones about how GRRM relates to Dany's character or how he wishes the Targaryens were black, for instance.

Even with these limitations in mind, there is still quite a bit to dig into here.

November 1998

The Targaryens have heavily interbred, like the Ptolemys of Egypt. As any horse or dog breeder can tell you, interbreeding accentuates both flaws and virtues, and pushes a lineage toward the extremes. Also, there's sometimes a fine line between madness and greatness. Daeron I, the boy king who led a war of conquest, and even the saintly Baelor I could also be considered "mad," if seen in a different light. ((And I must confess, I love grey characters, and those who can be interperted in many different ways. Both as a reader and a writer, I want complexity and subtlety in my fiction))

December 1998

Was it a conscious decision to paint things in grey, killing off good guys, etc.

Definitely a conscious decision. Both as a reader and a writer, I prefer my plots to be unpredictable and my characters to be painted in shades of grey, rather than in blacks and whites.

July 1999

Just out of being curious how a writer goes about his work -- do you generally write a certain POVs chapters in batches? Or are Dany's chapters, given how generally unconnected they are to the rest of the books as she goes along her own plot thread, easier to do that way? I suppose the momentum can help with a tough character.

Yes, I generally get in a groove on a particular character and write several chapters or chunks of chapters at once, before hitting a wall. When I do hit a wall, I switch to another character. Some characters are easier to write and some harder, however. Dany and Bran have always been toughest, maybe because they are heaviest on the magical elements... also, Bran is the youngest of POV kids, and very restricted as well because of his legs. At the other end of the spectrum, the Tyrion chapters often seem to write themselves. The same was true for Ned.

Jon was not born "more than 1 year" before Dany... probably closer to eight or nine months or thereabouts.

November 1999

Also, just how much impact did the Rhoynar have on the modern customs of Dorne? Beyond the gender-blind inheritance laws, the couple of Rhoynish gods that smallfolk might have turned into saints or angelic-type beings, and perhaps the round shields, that is. In particular, given that Nymeria was a warrior-queen, is there a certain amazon tradition?

The Rhoynar did impact Dorne in a number of ways, some of which will be revealed in later books. Women definitely have more rights in Dorne, but I would not call it an "Amazon" tradition, necessarily. Nymeria had more in common with someone like Daenerys or Joan d'Arc than with Brienne or Xena the Warrior Princess.

September 2000

It has been my intention from the start to gradually bring up the amount of magic in each successive volume of A Song of Ice and Fire, and that will continue. I will not rule out the possibility of a certain amount of "behind the scenes" magic, either. But while sorcerous events may impact on my characters, as with Renly or Lord Beric or Dany, their choices must ultimately remain their own.

November 2000

This third Targaryen might very well be -not- a Targaryen, to quote his exact words... "Three heads of the dragon... yes... but the third will not nessesarily BE a Targaryen..."

He mentioned his frustration that Tranter books don't have maps since Tranter tends to describe journeys using ALL the available landmarks (I also stupidly complained about there not being a map of the landmass Dany's on in the books, and he VERY politely pointed out to me that there was one in SoS [O the shame!]).

December 2000

NG: A Song of Ice and Fire undergoes a very interesting progression over its first three volumes, from a relatively clear scenario of Good (the Starks) fighting Evil (the Lannisters) to a much more ambiguous one, in which the Lannisters are much better understood, and moral certainties are less easily attainable. Are you deliberately defying the conventions and assumptions of neo-Tolkienian Fantasy here?

GRRM: Guilty as charged.

The battle between good and evil is a legitimate theme for a Fantasy (or for any work of fiction, for that matter), but in real life that battle is fought chiefly in the individual human heart. Too many contemporary Fantasies take the easy way out by externalizing the struggle, so the heroic protagonists need only smite the evil minions of the dark power to win the day. And you can tell the evil minions, because they're inevitably ugly and they all wear black.

I wanted to stand much of that on its head.

In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.

NG: You've frequently expressed admiration for Jack Vance. How Vancean is A Song of Ice and Fire in conception and style? In particular, does the narrative thread featuring the exotic wanderings of Daenerys Targaryen function in part as a tribute to Vance, to his picaresque inventiveness?

GRRM: Jack Vance is the greatest living SF writer, in my opinion, and one of the few who is also a master of Fantasy. His The Dying Earth (1950) was one of the seminal books in the history of modern Fantasy, and I would rank him right up there with Tolkien, Dunsany, Leiber, and T.H. White as one of the fathers of the genre.

All that being said, I don't think A Song of Ice and Fire is particularly Vancean. Vance has his voice and I have mine. I couldn't write like Vance even if I tried... and I did try, once. The first Haviland Tuf story, "A Beast for Norn," was my attempt to capture some of Vance's effects, and Tuf is a very Vancean hero, a distant cousin to Magnus Ridolph, perhaps. But what that experiment taught me was that only Jack Vance can write like Jack Vance

NG: Three more volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire wait to be written. What shape do you expect them to take, and are their titles finalized as yet?

GRRM: Yes, three more volumes remain. The series could almost be considered as two linked trilogies, although I tend to think of it more as one long story. The next book, A Dance With Dragons, will focus on the return of Daenerys Targaryen to Westeros, and the conflicts that creates. After that comes The Winds of Winter. I have been calling the final volume A Time For Wolves, but I am not happy with that title and will probably change it if I can come up with one that I like better.

You tend to write protagonists with strongly negative personality quirks, people who certainly don't fit the standard mold of a hero. People like Tuf in the Tuf Voyaging series, and Stannis and Tyrion inSong of Ice and Fire. Do you deliberately inject your characters with unattractive elements to make readers consciously think about whether they like them and why?

Martin: [Laughs.] Well, I don't know that I'd choose the word "unappealing," but I look for ways to make my characters real and to make them human, characters who have good and bad, noble and selfish, well-mixed in their natures. Yes, I do certainly want people to think about the characters, and not just react with a knee-jerk. I read too much fiction myself in which you encounter characters who are very stereotyped. They're heroic-hero and dastardly-villain, and they're completely black or completely white. And that's boring, so far as I'm concerned. It's also unreal. If you look at real human history, even the darkest villains had some good things about them. Perhaps they were courageous, or perhaps they were occasionally compassionate to an enemy. Even our greatest heroes had weaknesses and flaws.

There seem to be two different styles competing throughout the series: historical fantasy in the Seven Kingdoms series, and a softer Roger Zelazny/Arabian Nights style for the scenes abroad. Is there a conscious split between the two for you, or is it just an aspect of the setting?

Martin: I try to vary the style to fit each of the characters. Each character should have his or her own internal voice, since we're inside their heads. But certainly the setting has great impact. Dany is moving through exotic realms that are perhaps stranger to us than Westeros, which is more based in the medieval history with which we're more familiar in the West, so perhaps those chapters seem more colorful and fanciful.

You do tend to be very brutal to your characters.

Martin: Well, yes. But you know, I think there's a requirement, even in fantasy--it comes from a realm of the imagination and is based on fanciful worlds, but there's still a necessity to tell the truth, to try to reflect some true things about the world we live in. There's an inherent dishonesty to the sort of fantasy that too many people have done, where there's a giant war that rips the world apart, but no one that we know is ever really seriously inconvenienced by this. You see the devastated villages where unnamed peasants have lived, and they're all dead, but the heroes just breeze through, killing people at every hand, surviving those dire situations. There's a falsehood to that that troubles me. A writer can choose not to write about war. You don't have to write about war if that's not a subject that interests you, or you find it too brutal. But if you are going to write about war, I think you need to tell the truth about it, and the truth is that people die, and people die in ugly ways, and even some of the good guys die, even people who are loved.

June 2001

I'm a bit concerned about Dany's skills as a commander. To succeed with the invasion of Westeros, I believe she will need a lot of sound military advice (both tactically and strategically). What's your thoughts on this issue?

She will need counsel, yes... she will also need to learn to tell the good counsel from the bad, which is perhaps the hardest task of all.

Was it difficult to you when you wrote Dany's scene with the slavers in SOS? Was that one of the moments where the character spoke to you and changer their direction? Cause for me that act of Dany's seemed out of character. I know she dislikes slavery, but she must have killed an awful lot of innocent people there, plus her motives to me seemed suspect. Yes she freed the slaves, but she also got a large army for nothing. And right after she left the slavery started up again.

Dany is still very young. She has lessons to learn. That was one of them. It is not as easy to do good as it might seem, no matter how noble your intentions.

February 2002

1. Was Mirri Maz Duur telling the truth when she told Daenerys Targaryen that the latter could never have children again?

I am sure Dany would like to know. Prophecy can be a tricky business.

3. Is Daenerys Targaryen or anyone in her entourage able to tell whether her dragons are male or female? (Is the question relevant to dragons?)

Not yet.

4. Daenerys Targaryen believed that her brother Rhaegar loved Lyanna Stark. Does she also believe that Lyanna Stark returned this love?

Dany is not sure what to believe.

5. Since all of their mothers died, who gave Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen and Tyrion Lannister their names?

Mothers can name a child before birth, or during, or after, even while they are dying. Dany was most like named by her mother, Tyrion by his father, Jon by Ned.

March 2002

3) Is your world round. I mean if Dany traveled far enough east couldnt she come to the other side of westeros?

Yes, the world is round. Might be a little larger than ours, though. I was thinking more like Vance's Big Planet.... but don't hold me to that.

Oh, stupid fan question. I've been trying to get a visual of what the Quarth look like in my mind. In terms of what race they might be in our world. Tall and pale but I don't believe their hair color was mentioned. Would they be Western European looking? Slavic? Whenever their culture is mentioned I always think of either Persian or Indians.

I have tried to mix and match ethnic and cultural traits in creating my imaginary fantasy peoples, so there are no direct one-for-one correspodences. The Dothraki, for example, are based in part on the Mongols, the Alans, and the Huns, but their skin coloring is Amerindian. The Qartheen are an even more exotic hybrid, and offhand I don't recall where I got all the cuttings.

April 2002

[Shaun] How do you view Dany's place in the series. She seems an heroic character to me, but the writeups on the back covers always speak of her as a villain...

[+GeorgeRRMartin] to shaun ignore the blurbs on the back cover and make up your own mind who is the hero and who is the villain

[Erix] Dany will be betrayes 3 times. Did ser Jorah betray here once for money? so does this make it 2 betrayels so far?

[+GeorgeRRMartin] to erix no comment (twice!)

He said that in his original plan (when he wanted to write a trilogy) the Red Wedding would take place in book one, and Dany's landing in Westeros in book two. Now he says that Dany's arrival in Westeros will take place in book 5, A Dance with Dragons.

December 2003

Shaw: You created Jon as a bastard and an outcast from the get-go. Yet he's also one of the most attractive characters. Did you choose to make Jon a bastard to make him more attractive as an "underdog," or was his bastard birth central to the shaping of his character itself?

Martin: Almost all the characters have problems in some way. Very few of my major viewpoint characters have all the answers or have an easy path through life. They all have burdens to bear. Some of them are women in a society that doesn't necessarily value women or give them a lot of power or independence. Tyrion of course is a dwarf which has its own challenges. Dany is an exile, powerless, penniless, at the mercy of other people, and Jon is a bastard. These things shape their characters. Your experiences in life, your place in life inevitably is going to change who you are.

Shaw: As the novels unfold, Jon becomes increasingly identified with the northern cold and ice, just as Dany is closely tied to the southern heat and fire. Will these two ultimately embody the central image of the series, Ice and Fire?

Martin: That's certainly one way to interpret it. That's for my readers to argue out. That may be one possible meaning. There may be a secondary meaning, or a tertiary meaning as well.

Shaw: Are all the Targaryans immune to fire?

Martin: No, no Targaryans are immune to fire. The thing with Dany and the dragons, that was just a one-time magical event, very special and unique. The Targaryans can tolerate a bit more heat than most ordinary people, they like really hot baths and things like that, but that doesn't mean they're totally immune to fire, no. Dragons, on the other hand, are pretty much immune to fire.

February 2004

Jon and Dany will be the two focal characters of AFfC (in the sort of way in which Ned was the focal character of AGoT).

May 2005

He doesn't feel that it's fair to call his work gratuitous. He wants the reader to live vicariously though his books (a function of fantasy writing), feel the characters emotions. If a character is at a feast, he wants the reader to smell the food, experience Dany's discomfort at being served an unappetizing dish. The same with the sex scenes-he wants his readers to feel like they are there.

Another bit of information that I found interesting- we *WILL* hear about the POVs who will not have front stage as it were, but will have it in ADwD. The reports of those chars will be somewhat garbled and messy as can be expected from any news that has travelled that distance and is that important. ex) Varys' manipulation of the Dany information, or Theon's skinning of the miller's information (we didn't know it wasn't Bran and Rickon until later). *THOSE* are the kind of reports we will see in AFFC about the missing POVs. We will get information on them, but have no idea which parts, if any, are correct.

I have some more things to add about things I asked, but I will probably trickle out things as I sober up and recall them. :p

The following will show up in ADwD:

Arya, Bran, Jon, Dany, Tyrion, and Asha (she will be in both books, as she gets involved in affairs of the North)

[Note: Spoiler POV redacted] has the most number of chapters in AFFC, while Dany has the most in ADwD. Also, the number of Tyrion chapters is going up from 4 to 7 in ADwD (his storyline is basically beinbg expanded).

GRRM said Dany and the Wall is excluded. That removes Dany and probably Tyrion plus the Wall which presumably means Jon and Davos.

Dragons will deal with Daenerys and the North. He decided to split by character, rather than in the middle of the story, as he wanted a complete book, rather than FfC part I and II.

This is no hoax.

I swear it by ice and fire. I swear that I will never post again should this prove false. I swear I will never touch wine again, if it is not true.

George said it is done.

But he had to make a major change. It had grown too large.

Daenerys will not appear. There will be little if any action in the North. Those chapters will be moved into the next book, which should come out shortly thereafter.

AFFC will be the size of AGoT.

The next book will still be called aDwD. (Dany will be in it after all).

That being said, Dany will be presented with a map of the world from a fellow whose name I cannot remember because the pronunciation was very odd indeed.

There was some talk about the Targaryen bloodline and how it worked when there weren't enough siblings to marry. Uncle might marry niece or aunt, nephew. There were also cousins in that family at one time.

Dany has more chapters than anyone. He also said that Dany's love life is going to become "extremely complex"

Parris has proclaimed that Arya cannot die! (No, she wasn't there :( but he mentioned it when someone said that he's not allowed to kill Dany)

So yeah, in short, book not done but soon, lots of Dany, the Ironborn, and the Dornish, and Renly and Loras were INDEED knocking boots.

October 2005

The main point of discussion was the reason for the five-year wait since A Storm of Swords. I'm sure most of you know this already but, briefly, he wanted a 5-year gap between ASOS and ADWD to allow the kids to grow up. Some characters, mainly the children and Daenerys, really benefited from this, but most of the other characters suffered and the book was degenerating into a flashback-fest. After about a year he decided that wasn't working, ditched everything, and started again.

November 2005

His analogy is that the series is a symphony and each book is a movement, and explained that he likes each character arc to have some sort of finale in each book, whether it's on a cliffhanger, or a completion of some phase of the character's story arc (or death hehe). Ultimately, he decided to divide it geographically as you all know, since Dany's story is taking place in Martinland's China, and the rest is taking place in Martinland's England.

One man asked whether George ever learns of people naming their kids after his characters. He pointed the guy to his website, where he even has baby pictures of Sansas, Aryas, even a Daenarys, Nymeria, Eddard, Bran, Chataya, and several Cerseis. He won't take credit for the Jons, though (hehe). It was great; someone in the audience made a crack about Cersei, and someone else said "as long as they aren't twins"). He mentioned meeting a little girl whose parents had named her Daenarys and he made a joke about how she was really going to hate spelling that when she gets to first grade. He also once got a letter from a 23-year-old girl named Lya whose mother said she was named after a character in one of his stories (A Song for Lya) and wanted to know who the heck Lya was. George sent her a copy! Hehe. He said he finds it flattering overall, but thinks it's a bad idea when the story isn't done yet and some of the characters will come to a bad end, and then those parents will be pissed with him!

He was asked or mentioned most of the stuff that's already been covered, but one thing he talked about that I found particularly interesting was Romanticism. He said that he is a romantic, in the classical sense. He said the trouble with being a romantic is that from a very early age you keep having your face smashed into the harshness of reality. That things aren't always fair, bad things happen to good people, etc. He said it's a realists world, so romantics are burned quite often. This theme of romantic idealism conflicting with harsh reality is something he finds very dramatic and compelling, and he weaves it into his work. Specifically he mentioned that the Knight exemplifies this, as the chivalric code is one of the most idealistic out there, protection of the weak, paragon of all that is good, fighting for truth and justice. The reality was that they were people, and therefore could do horrible cruel things, rape, pillage, wanton killing, made all the more striking or horrifying because it was in complete opposition to what they were "supposed" to be. Really interesting stuff.

At the San Diego signing, I asked GRRM at the Q&A, "Besides Dany's dragons, have all the Targaryen dragons been descendants of Aegon the Conquerors three?" GRRM answered "yes".

And that one of the things he regrets losing from the POV split is that he was doing point and counterpoint with the Dany and Cersei scenes--showing how each was ruling in their turn.

Q: 5-year gap?

A: It worked for characters like Arya and Dany but not so much for the adults or those who had a lot of action coming. He was writing chapters where Jon thought, "Well, not a lot has happened these past five years, it's been kinda nice." And Cersei chapters where she thought, "Well, I've had to kill sooo many people the last five years." So he ended up dropping it. He said he would have done it sooner if he hadn't told so many fans about it. And there is no gap anymore. "If a twelve-year old has to conquer the world, then so be it."

(Petyr is just Peter, for example.)

Some he did say during the course of the evening:

Cersei = Sir-say

Jaime = Jamie (I think that was obvious but just in case)

Sansa = Sahn-sa

Tyrion = Tear-ion

Arya = Ar-Ya (Ex, Are ya?)

Daenerys = Dane-err-is

TARGARYEN KINGS

SUBMITTED BY: AMOKA

[Note: The following information was sent to Amok for his contribution to the Fantasy Flight Games artbook.]

These are all Targaryens, of course, so there should be a strong family resemblence from portrait to portrait. All of them (except as noted) will have the purple eyes and silver-gold hair for which House Targaryen is noted. All of them should be wearing crowns... the same crown in many of the pix, though it will change once or twice along the way, as noted.

The hard part will be making each of the kings an individual, despite the similarities, and evoking each one's character through facial features, pose, clothing, background, and other elements in the portrait.

Here's the lineup:

DAENERYS I. Daenerys Stormborn. No description necessary, I assume. Show her wearing the three-headed dragon crown she was given in Qarth, as described in A CLASH OF KING. Might be good to include the three dragons in the picture. Show them very young, as hatchings, one in her lap, one wrapped around her arm and shoulder, one flying just above her.

January 2006

He repeatedly emphasized that he prefers to write grey characters, because in real life people are complex; no one is pure evil or pure good. Fiction tends to divide people into heroes who do no wrong and villains who go home and kick their dogs and beat their wives, but that reality is much different. He cited a soldier who heroically saves his friends' lives, but then goes home and beats his wife. Which is he, hero or villain? Martin said both and that neither act cancels out the other.

February 2006

NAERYS TARGARYEN

SUBMITTED BY: AMOKA

[Note: The following continues GRRM's series of descriptions of notable Targaryens (and Targaryen bastards) for Amoka.]

The sister of King Aegon the Unworthy and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight was beautiful as well, but hers was a very fine and delicate beauty, almost unworldy. She was a wisp of a woman, smaller even than Dany (to whom she bears a certain resemblence), very slender, with big purple eyes and fine, pale, porcelain skin, near translucent. Naerys had none of Dany's strength, however.

July 2006

George regrets that Cersei and Dany will not be contrasted directly. I told him of how some dedicated boarders try to defeat him and piece together a timeline. George replied that he tries to keep it vague.

He likes the extra breathing room to flesh out the characters. Bran didn't have any chapters and Dany's ending was different. Now he likes the way she ended. I think he actually may be doing more with Dany.

SPOILER: Possible for ADWD

The second Dance of Dragons does not have to mean Dany's invasion.

Geroge stopped himself short and said he shouldn't say anymore. The response came because of my question of whether the dance would take place in ADWD because AFFC and ADWD parallel. So now my friends, speculate away.

February 2007

Some other bits of info from Q&A: In Song, he considers Bran the hardest viewpoint character to write, while Tyrion is the easiest. The Red Wedding was partly based on a historical event in Scotland called the Black Dinner. His biggest lament in splitting A Feast for Crows from A Dance with Dragons is the parallels he was drawing between Circe and Daenerys.

E. His dragons have no front limbs -- just rear legs and wings. He said that although the traditional depiction of dragons as six limbed creatures has become a staple of fantasy -- the fact that no animal in nature has ever evolved in such a way always bothered him. As a sci-fi writer originally, he insists on the depiction of the dragons with just four limbs. I never heard that before and though it was pretty neat.. In addition, he said that although AsoIaF dragons are intelligent, they cannot speak and will never evolve into the sort of dragons we see in Tolkien or Le Guin. Specifically he said’ Drogon is never going to share witty aphorisms with Dany. The Targaryens rule by Fire and Blood and that is what the dragons represent in the story". I guess the power icon is more Nedly for them than some of us thought when they were first rolled out back in AfoD.

F. Cersei and Daenerys are intended as parallel characters --each exploring a different approach to how a woman would rule in a male dominated, medieval-inspired fantasy world.

May 2007

GRRM: Well, the next book out is A Dance with Dragons, of course, and that's the fifth book of the series but in some ways it's really 4B, as those of you who follow the series knows that A Feast for Crows got so big I had to pull it in half. I split it not by chopping it right in the middle but I split it by characters. The one I'm working on now is going to have an awful lot of the characters that that aren't in A Feast for Crows, it's going to have a lot of Jon Snow, a lot of Daenerys, a fair amount of Davos, and it's going to have have a lot of "me" -- Tyrion, who is your favorite, and my favorite, so I'm enjoying writing a lot of those right now.

And you know I got phone calls from people at the studio afterwards saying, "There is a way to make this as a feature. There's a way to do it as a movie. You could just take Jon Snow and Daenerys and just concentrate on them and get rid of some of the minor characters." And it just, it was kind of appalling because, much as I love Jon Snow and Daenerys, I didn't want to lose the other characters. I mean this is an epic and the only way we could conceive of doing it properly was to tell it as a series. And you can't do it as a series where's it interrupted every twenty minutes by a commercial for toothpaste. And you can't do it where I'd have Tyrion saying the things he says and doing the things he says, all of which network TV would have had a huge problem with.

So we really felt from the beginning that the best way to do this was on HBO or possibly Showtime.

August 2007

Just because I still love Popinjay and the Turtle and my other Wild Cards characters does not mean I have stopped loving Arya and Tyrion and Dany.

April 2008

BERBERS AND DANY

[Did the unrest during the transition between Arab and Berber rule inspire Dany's storyline?]

No. Sounds fascinating, but I'm afraid I don't have enough experience with the Berbers or their history to draw on them for inspiration.

July 2008

GRRM was asked the typical question, of where the idea for ASOIAF had come from. He replied that in the summer of 1991, when he was working as a Hollywood screenwriter, in a gap between assignments he began work on a new novel, a sf novel called Avalon ( personal note, no I would not swap it for ASOIAF, but I would have loved to have read it), set in his future history universe. And somehow, he found himself writing the first chapter of AGOT, about the direwolf pups un the snow. And after that came a second chapter and pretty soon he spent the whole summer writing AGOT.

From there he started to plan a trilogy, since there were 3 main conflicts ( Starks/Lannisters; Dany; and the Others) it felt it would neatly fit into a trilogy (ah!), but like Tolkien said, the tale grew in the telling.

April 2010

GRRM said he regretted mentioning the eye color of any of his characters. He also noted that as a brown-eyed person, he finds it annoying that brown-eyed characters are always portrayed as ordinary, while the doers of great deeds always have blue or hazel eyes or something - he notes that he himself was somewhat guilty of this with the violet eyes of Dany or the red eyes of Melisandre.

(25) Any particular storyline he is enjoying right now?

He said that Dany's storyline is emerging in increasing importance. But he is struggling with the Meereenese Knot. So he can't say he is enjoying it. But he is really enjoying writing Arya's story. He could write an entire novel of it. He could write an entire YA novel about her...(at this point the audience starting clapping and calling out YES! DO IT!)...but her entire story isn't part of the greater novel. He has 12 novels worth of info for this book and its hard to fit it all in.

February 2011

Sam Thielman: So, why did "A Dance With Dragons" take longer to write than the other books in the series?

George R. R. Martin: Well, you know, that's a good question and I'm not sure I have an easy answer for that. #1, none of the books have been exactly fast, I mean, I'm a slow writer, I've always been a slow writer, and the books are huge. I mean, they're three, four, five times the size of most novels being published. And they have extremely complex interweaving storylines. I remember back when I did the first book, 'A Game of Thrones,' Asimov's Magazine wanted to publish an excerpt and I pulled out the Daenerys storyline from the first book, and they published that as an excerpt, and after I pulled out all the Daenerys chapters and put them together for Asimov's, I did a word count and discovered, technically, I had a novel, just about Daenerys. I'm never gonna be one of those writers who has a book a year, or two books a year like some of my colleagues do. I simply can't write that fast. I do a lot of polishing and revising, and it's a big task.

July 2011

Tad: Question: Do you purposely start a character as bad so you can later kill them?

GRRM: No. What is bad? Bad is a label. We are human beings with heroism and self-interest and avarice in us and any human is capable of great good or great wrong. In Poland a couple of weeks ago I was reading about the history of Auschwitz – there were startling interviews with the people there. The guards had done unthinkable atrocities, but these were ordinary people. What allowed them to do this kind of evil? Then you read accounts of acts of outrageous heroism, yet the people are criminals or swindlers, one crime or another, but when forced to make a choice they make a heroic choice. This is what fascinated me about the human animal. A lot of fantasy turns on good and evil – but my take on it is that it’s fought within the human heart every day, and that’s the more interesting take. I don’t think life is that simple.

Tad: All of us work with multiple viewpoints – I hear this next question a lot: with story-driven plots, how do you decide which character viewpoint to write from – do you write several characters, taste them, then decide?

GRRM: No, not several, at least not intentionally. I had more choice early in the series, I frequently had situations where 2 or 3 were present at the same time. But as it’s progressed they have dispersed, so I need to be in the viewpoint of whoever’s there. There are some cases when I have a choice and in that case, I weigh which one. Without talking exactly about "The Mereenese Knot" – I’m not going to talk exactly about it, but but [there was a time when] a number of viewpoints were coming together in Mereen for a number of events, and I was wrestling with order and viewpoint. The different points-of-view had different sources of knowledge and I never could quite solve it. I was rewriting the same chapter over and over again – this, that, viewpoint? – spinning my wheels. It was one of the more troublesome thickets I encountered. There’s a resolution not to introduce new viewpoint characters, but the way I finally dealt with things was with Barristan, I introduced him as a viewpoint character as though he’d been there all along. That enabled me to clear away some of the brush.

Tad: Question: do you choose characters because they will provide you with a viewpoint or something characterful?

GRRM: Actually, no. I try to give each viewpoint character an arc of his own, and ideally I would like to think that you could pull the material out – in the early books I was able to pull out the Daenerys chapters and publish them separately as a novella, and I won a Hugo Award for that. It'd be great if I could pull out each [character-arc] and it would resemble a story. In some cases a character died and that was a very short story. My prologue and epilogue characters always die but even then I try to give them a story.

Your books, especially recently, are full of women trying to exert power in a male dominated world who have to compromise themselves along the way. Are you trying to make a feminist statement?

You could certainly interpret it that way. I don't presume to say I'm making a statement of this type or that type. But it is certainly a patriarchal society, I am trying to explore some of the ramifications of that. I try to write women as people, just as I try to write any other characters. Strong and weak, and brave and cowardly, and noble and selfish. It has been very gratifying to me how many women read my work and how much they like at least some of my female characters.

The one thing I must confess to being frustrated by is the first Tyion chapter where you set up this expectation that he’s going to meet Dany, and I got excited. Then about 600 pages later I’m realizing, “OK, that’s not gonna happen, at least not in this book.”

Yeah, it’s the “kind of bring ’em together but don’t give them the confirmation.” In some ways it’s not so different than the sexual tension in TV shows — are Catherine and Vincent [on Beauty and the Beast] finally going to kiss? Same philosophy. This is the kind of stuff I wrestle with. I could have ended the next chapter: Tyrion gets off the boat and there’s Dany. But the journey itself has its own interest.

There’s a point in the series where you feel like you’re reading a bunch of separate stories. Toward the end of Dance, you feel the threads starting to come back together. Is that accurate?

That’s certainly the intent, and always was the intent. Tolkien was my great model for much of this. Although I differ from Tolkien in important ways, I’m second to no one in my respect for him. If you look at Lord of the Rings, it begins with a tight focus and all the characters are together. Then by end of the first book the Fellowship splits up and they have different adventures. I did the same thing. Everybody is at Winterfell in the beginning except for Dany, then they split up into groups, and ultimately those split up too. The intent was to fan out, then curve and come back together. Finding the point where that turn begins has been one of the issues I’ve wrestled with.

There was a fair amount of explicit sex in the series and some fans of the books were taken aback.

One of the reasons I wanted to do this with HBO is that I wanted to keep the sex. We had some real problems because Dany is only 13 in the books, and that’s based on medieval history. They didn’t have this concept of adolescence or the teenage years. You were a child or you were an adult. And the onset of sexual maturity meant you were an adult. So I reflected that in the books. But then when you go to film it you run into people going crazy about child pornography and there’s actual laws about how you can’t depict a 13 year old having sex even if you have an 18 year old acting the part — it’s illegal in the United Kingdom. So we ended up with a 22 year old portraying an 18 year old, instead of an 18 year old portraying a 13 year old. If we decided to lose the sex we could have kept the original ages. And once you change the age of one character you have to change the ages of all the characters, and change the date of the war [that dethroned the Mad King]. The fact we made all these changes indicates how important we thought sex was.

References the chapbook with the first three Dany chapters from 2005 and that it offers insight as to how much the book has changed since then.

There's been an interesting discussion on our forum concerning "orientalism" as it's expressed in your work, and one question it's led to among readers is whether you've ever considered a foreign point of view characters in Essos, to give a different window into events there.

No, this story is about Westeros. Those other lands are important only as they reflect on Westeros.

Part of the difficulty of this particular novel was what you called the "Meereenese Knot", trying to get everything to happen in just the right order, pulling various plot strands together in one place, and part of the solution was the addition of another point of view character. Was this something where you tried writing it from a number of different point of views before settling on a new one? Did you actively resist adding a new character?

The Meerenese Knot related to everyone reaching Dany. There's a series of events that have to occur in Meereen, things that are significant. She has various problems to deal with at the start: dealing with the slavers, threats of war, the Sons of the Harpy, and so on. At the same time, there's all of these characters trying to get to her. So the problem was to figure out who should reach her and in what order, and what events should happen by the time they've reached her. I kept coming up with different answers and I kept having to rewrite different versions and then not being satisfied with the dynamics until I found something that was satisfactory. I thought that solution worked well, but it was not my first choice.

There's a Dany scene in the book which is actually one of the oldest chapters in the book that goes back almost ten years now. When I was contemplating the five year gap [Martin laughs here, with some chagrin], that chapter was supposed to be the first Daenerys chapter in the book. Then it became the second chapter, and then the third chapter, and it kept getting pushed back as I inserted more things into it. I've rewritten that chapter so much that it ended in many different ways.

There's a certain time frame of the chronology where you can compare to A Feast for Crows and even A Storm of Swords and figure out when they would reach Meereen and the relative time frames of each departure and each arrival. But that doesn't necessarily lead to the most dramatic story. So you look at it and try and figure out how to do it. I also wanted to get across how difficult and dangerous it was to travel like this. There are many storms that will wreck your ship, there are dangerous lands in between where there are pirates and corsairs, and all that stuff. It's not like hopping on a 747, where you get on and then step off the plane a few hours later. So all of these considerations went into the Meereenese Knot.

Then there's showing things after [an important event], which proved to be very difficult. I tried it with one point of view character, but this was an outsider who could only guess at what was going on, and then I tried it with a different character and it was also difficult. The big solution was when I hit on adding a new point of view character who could give the perspective this part of the story needed.

March 2012

If you listen to the CBC interview which you'll see the link for under General ASOIAF, much of what he said was repeated tonight. He admitted Tyrion was his favourite, and if he was having dinner with 3 characters, they would be Tyrion, Maester Aemon and then he thought of Arya, but feared she would throw food at him, so he'd go with Dany, because she's hot!

June 2012

Near the end of the signing, a man presented Martin with two books and his daughter. “This is Daenerys,” he told Martin, “I sent you a letter about her five years ago.” Daenerys, a squirmy blonde in a pink jacket, looked about five years old. “Hello there,” Martin said, “do you like dragons?” She nodded, and they made room for the next fan.

Now that we know how the "Meereenese knot" played out, what was the problem with this? For example, was it the order in which Dany met various characters, or who, when, and how someone would try to take the dragons?

Now I can explain things. It was a confluence of many, many factors: lets start with the offer from Xaro to give Dany ships, the refusal of which then leads to Qarth's declaration of war. Then there's the marriage of Daenerys to pacify the city. Then there's the arrival of the Yunkish army at the gates of Meereen, there's the order of arrival of various people going her way (Tyrion, Quentyn, Victarion, Aegon, Marwyn, etc.), and then there's Daario, this dangerous sellsword and the question of whether Dany really wants him or not, there's hte plague, there's Drogon's return to Meereen...

All of these things were balls I had thrown up into the air, and they're all linked and chronologically entwined. The return of Drogon to the city was something I explored as happening at different times. For example, I wrote three different versions of Quentyn's arrival at Meereen: one where he arrived long before Dany's marriage, one where he arrived much later, and one where he arrived just the day before the marriage (which is how it ended up being in the novel). And I had to write all three versions to be able to compare and see how these different arrival points affected the stories of the other characters. Including the story of a character who actually hasn't arrived yet.

October 2012

What's exciting to me about this session is that in this conversation, Martin talks at length about craft. He's been in the business of telling stories for many decades -- as a television writer and as a writer of fiction -- and he has a great deal to say about what works and what doesn't in different mediums. How is information conveyed to the audience (or the reader)? How do you keep sophisticated audiences on their toes? How do you create worlds in which most characters have to choose between the best of many bad options? How do you examine power from the perspective of outsiders, rejects and those who are constrained by conventional wisdom? Martin shared the insights of someone who has been contemplating these questions -- practically and philosophically -- for a very long time.

About midway through the podcast, there's a interesting discussion of his use of "close third person" narration and why that's effective in the creation of memorable characters. It's also interesting to note that he doesn't write the chapters in the order in which they appear in the books, and that he may write four or five Tyrion chapters before stopping and switching to another character. (Another fun fact that emerged -- and I'm sure hardcore "ASoIaF" fans already knew this -- Martin originally signed a contract for a book trilogy. I'm betting his publishers aren't sad he's now working on the sixth book in that "trilogy.")

Eventually, Martin zeroes in on his least favorite thing in any story: Predictability. But he admits that it's "very hard" to shake up the audience, which has grown more sophisticated with every passing decade. When he was writing for the revived "Twilight Zone" in the '80s, for example, network executives wanted the producers to end episodes with a twist of some kind, as the original Rod Serling series had often done. But the audience "could see all these twist endings coming a mile away," Martin said.

He also spoke about his fascination with power and with hierarchies that appear stable but are actually anything but. He mentioned reading a history of Jerusalem in which a mad ruler began killing dozens of courtiers and ordering the hands chopped off the women of the court.

"Why doesn't the captain of the guard say to the sergeant, 'This guy is [expletive] nuts?'" Martin said. "'We have swords! Why don't we kill him instead?'"

But loyalties -- clan loyalties, family loyalties, strategic alliances -- are powerful influences in the lives of Martin's characters, and their personal desires and their traditional duties or roles are often in conflict. And those kinds of unresolvable dilemmas are at the heart of what makes his stories resonate with those of us who didn't begin fighting with swords as children.

Paraphrasing Faulkner, Martin said "the only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself." And that's a scenario that is very familiar to anyone who's ever visited Westeros, either as a reader or a viewer of the HBO drama.

Is A Song of Ice and Fire a parallelism or a criticism to our society?

No. My work is not an allegory to our days. If I wanted to write about the financial crisis or the conflict in Syria, I would write about the financial crisis or the conflict in Syria, without any metaphor. However, it’s true that in my novels appear several elements which we can find in world history. Things such as power, sex, pain… I have grown up as a science fiction reader, and it was my first love, even before fantasy. But science fiction, then, presented an idealistic world: the space, a bright future, but unluckily that optimism disappeared very quickly and the future wasn’t as good as we had expected. Nowadays, science fiction is very pessimistic and talks about dystopias: about a polluted world, about a rotten world… Of course I would prefer to be part of another world; a better world, but I can’t. Perhaps winter is not coming only to Winterfell, but in the real world.

March 2013

The readers are unhappy with leaving out the five-year gap?

Well no, some of the storylines from Feast for Crows. I get complaints sometimes that nothing happens — but they're defining "nothing," I think, differently than I am. I don't think it all has to battles and sword fights and assassinations. Character development and [people] changing is good, and there are some tough things in there that I think a lot of writers skip over. I'm glad I didn't skip over these things.

[For example], things that Arya is learning. The things Bran is learning. Learning is not inherently an interesting thing to write about. It's not an easy thing to write about. In the movies, they always handle it with a montage. Rocky can't run very fast. He can't catch the chicken. But then you do a montage, and you cut a lot of images together, and now only a minute later in the film, Rocky is really strong and he is catching the chicken.

It’s a lot harder [in real life]. Sometimes in my own life, I wish I could play a montage of my life. I want to get in shape now. So let’s do a montage, and boom — I'll be fifty pounds lighter and in good shape, and it will only take me a minute with some montage of me lifting weights and running, shoving away the steak and having a salad. But of course in real life, you don't get to montage. You have to go through it day by day.

And that has been interesting, you know. Jon Snow as Lord Commander. Dany as Queen, struggling with rule. So many books don't do that. There is a sense when you're writing something in high fantasy, you're in a dialogue with all the other high fantasy writers that have written. And there is always this presumption that if you are a good man, you will be a good king. [Like] Tolkien — in Return of the King, Aragorn comes back and becomes king, and then [we read that] "he ruled wisely for three hundred years." Okay, fine. It is easy to write that sentence, “He ruled wisely”.

What does that mean, he ruled wisely? What were his tax policies? What did he do when two lords were making war on each other? Or barbarians were coming in from the North? What was his immigration policy? What about equal rights for Orcs? I mean did he just pursue a genocidal policy, "Let’s kill all these fucking Orcs who are still left over"? Or did he try to redeem them? You never actually see the nitty-gritty of ruling.

I guess there is an element of fantasy readers that don't want to see that. I find that fascinating. Seeing someone like Dany actually trying to deal with the vestments of being a queen and getting factions and guilds and [managing the] economy. They burnt all the fields [in Meereen]. They've got nothing to import any more. They're not getting any money. I find this stuff interesting. And fortunately, enough of my readers who love the books do as well.

And meanwhile, you've got Daenerys visiting more Eurasian and Middle Eastern cultures.

And that has generated its controversy too. I answer that one to in my blog. I know some of the people who are coming at this from a political or racial angle just seem to completely disregard the logistics of the thing here. I talk about what's in the books. The books are what I write. What I’m responsible for.

Slavery in the ancient world, and slavery in the medieval world, was not race-based. You could lose a war if you were a Spartan, and if you lost a war you could end up a slave in Athens, or vice versa. You could get in debt, and wind up a slave. And that’s what I tried to depict, in my books, that kind of slavery.

So the people that Dany frees in the slaver cities are of many different ethnicities, and that’s been fairly explicit in the books. But of course when David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] and his crew are filming that scene [of Daenerys being carried by freed slaves], they are filming it in Morocco, and they put out a call for 800 extras. That’s a lot of extras. They hired the people who turned up. Extras don't get paid very much. I did an extra gig once, and got like $40 a day.

It's probably actually less in Morocco since you don't have to pay quite the same rate. If you're giving 800 Moroccans 40 bucks each, you're not going to fly in 100 Irishman just to balance the racial background here. We had enough trouble meeting our budget anyway.

I know for some readers, they don’t care about this shit. But these things are about budget and realism, and things you can actually do. You are shooting the scene in a day. You don't have a lot of time to [worry] about that, and as someone who has worked in television this kind of stuff is very important to me. I don't know if that is answer or not. I made that answer, and some people weren't pleased with that answer, I know. They are very upset about that.

August 2013

Amid reports of a dramatic uptrend in babies named “Khaleesi” and tourism to Dubrovnik, Croatia (aka King's Landing), we're guessing George R. R. Martin doesn’t need much of an introduction.

AC: How do you decide what you're going to work on, whose voice you're going to work in today?

GM: Well, I don't write the chapters in the order in which you read them. I get into a character’s voice. It's always difficult to switch gears, actually. When I do make that transition from one character to another, I usually struggle for a few days trying to get back the voice of the character I'm just returning to after some hiatus. But once I get into it, I tend to write not just one chapter by that character, but three or four. So I'll be writing Jon Snow chapters, and I'll carry that Jon Snow sequence as far as I can. And then at some point, maybe I'll get stuck or not be sure what I should do next, or maybe I've just gotten way ahead of all of the other characters in the books, so I need to sort of rein myself in and make myself switch from Jon Snow to Sansa or Daenerys or somebody like that.

November 2013

We can't leave Martin without pressing him for his thoughts on which of his characters keeps the best table. Would it be the wealthy, sun-loving Martell family with their Mediterranean-leaning flatbreads, olives and spiced snake? The sensualist Tyrion Lannister? Or the moveable feast of the court of Daenerys Targaryen with its duck eggs and dog sausage?

"Oh, Illyrio Mopatis, the magister, no question. Just watch out for the mushrooms."

March 2014

Was it a big shift for you, when you were writing the scenes that take place at Winterfell and suddenly you have the Daenerys scene, with an entirely different location?

Pretty early on, in the summer of ‘91, I had the Daenerys stuff. I knew she was on another continent. I think I had already drawn a map by then – and she wasn’t on it. I’d just drawn the map of the one continent that would come to be called Westeros. But she was in exile, and I knew that, and that was sort of the one departure from the structure. It’s something I borrowed from Tolkien, in terms of the initial structure of the book. If you look at Lord of the Rings, everything begins in the Shire with Bilbo’s birthday party. You have a very small focus. You have a map of the Shire right in the beginning of the book – you think it’s the entire world. And then they get outside it. They cross the Shire, which seems epic in itself. And then the world keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And then they add more and more characters, and then those characters split up. I essentially looked at the master there and adopted the same structure. Everything in AGame of Thrones begins in Winterfell. Everybody is together there and then you meet more people and, ultimately, they’re split apart and they go in different directions. But the one departure from that, right from the first, was Daenerys, who was always separate. It’s almost as if Tolkien, in addition to having Bilbo, had thrown in an occasional Faramir chapter, right from the beginning of the book.

Although Daenerys is hooked into Winterfell, because we hear talk of her family, the Targaryen family, early on.

You see overlaps. Daenerys is getting married, and Robert gets the report that Daenerys has just gotten married and reacts to that and the threat that it poses.

Fortunately, the books were best sellers, I didn’t need the money, you know, so I could just say no. Other people wanted to take the approach of, there are so many characters, so many stories, we have to settle on one. Let’s make it all about Jon Snow. Or Dany. Or Tyrion. Or Bran. But that didn’t work, either, because the stories are all inter-related. They separate but they come together again. But it did get me thinking about it, and it got me thinking about how this could be done, and the answer I came up with is – it can be done for television. It can’t be done as a feature film or a series of feature films. So television. But not network television. I’d worked in television. The Twilight Zone. Beauty and the Beast. I knew what was in these books, the sex scenes, the violence, the beheadings, the massacres. They’re not going to put that on Friday night at eight o’clock, where they always stick fantasies. Both of the shows that I was on, Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast, Friday night at eight o’clock. They think, "Fantasy? Kids!" So I wasn’t going to do a network show. But I’d been watching HBO. The Sopranos. Rome. Deadwood. It seemed to me an HBO show, a series where each book was an entire season, was the way to do it. So when I sat down with David and Dan at that meeting at the Palm, which started out as a lunch meeting and turned into a dinner meeting, and they said the same thing, then I suddenly knew we’re on the same wavelength here.

June 2014

Q: What can you tell us about a warg dragon rider?

A: There is no history/precedent for someone warging a dragon. There is a rich history of the mythical bond between dragon and rider. There have been instances of dragons responding to their riders even from very far away (hmm) which shows it is a true and very strong bond. We will learn more about this. Keep reading (we hear “keep writing” from the back of the room).

Q: What is your favorite line in ASOIAF?

A: I can’t single out one line but my favorite passage is Septon Meribald’s speech about war in… what was it? (crowd yells out Feast for Crows).

November 2014

For people who are not familiar with your work, the series takes place in an imaginary world. There is a struggle for control of the kingdom. This dynastic war is essentially one of three main plot lines. There are the other plot lines involving these sort of superhuman characters, and then there’s the exiled Targaryen daughter who seeks the return of her ancient throne. Why those three main plot lines?

Well, of course, the two outlying ones — the things going on north of the Wall, and then there is Targaryen on the other continent with her dragons — are of course the ice and fire of the title, “A Song of Ice and Fire.” The central stuff — the stuff that’s happening in the middle, in King’s Landing, the capital of the seven kingdoms — is much more based on historical events, historical fiction.

Pop culture has grabbed “Game of Thrones.” It’s been featured in “The Simpsons” and “South Park.” What goes through your mind when you see these references?

Well, I think it’s tremendously cool, of course. It’s nice to be doing something that everybody is so aware of and that has entered the cultural zeitgeist in that manner. The only aspect of it that really astonishes me is not that the characters and the story is being parodied or referenced in these various places but the extent at which I personally am. I mean, when I see myself as a character on “South Park” or I see Bobby Moynihan imitating me with the suspenders and the hat on “Saturday Night Live,” when I see companies selling Halloween costumes, not Halloween costumes to be Jon Snow or Daenerys but Halloween costumes to be me, that’s pretty freaky. That’s something I could never have anticipated, and I just don’t know what to think of it.

May 2015

Still, it’s only natural that there’s a few characters Martin would have liked to have seen on the show that did not make it in.

“Strong Belwas, who was part of Dany’s entourage,” Martin said. “I understand why he was cut, but I kind of miss him.” In the books, the massive eunuch warrior is a former pit fighter who joins Dany in Qarth. Belwas’ story elements have essentially been combined with the character of Daario, who is arguably more essential to Dany’s journey.

June 2015

I explained that in my own head, Yandel is in King's Landing, clutching his book, showing up each day for an audience with the king... and each day being told perhaps the next day. Except on those occasions where, you know, they tell him the king's getting married today, and then whoops, Joffrey is dead, etc.

I also noted that of course, given how he wrote about the reign of Aerys and and the rebellion, that if Aegon or Daenerys take King's Landing he may indeed end up having his head chopped off... George seemed interested in the idea, I think. :P

May 2016

4. GRRM and Picacio both made the joke about "you need to pay the artist" and such regarding general fan fiction. And then GRRM said he has issued some sub-licenses to things like art and games, etc. GRRM also mentioned that HBO owns the rights to the exact likenesses of the tv version of the story, meaning, no art can be made where Dany looks like Emilia. He was very careful in avoiding a real link in feeling between him and HBO even though he was asked about it twice. Then GRRM mentioned, and Picacio joined in, how GRRM knew the show would overtake the books. Not too much new.

Reactions after the episode

c. Dany on Drogon seemed random and a repeat of previous seasons.

d. Others loved Dany on Drogon.

December 2016

And the most revealing: he said that for Winds, Winter is the darkest time 'where things die' and many characters will go dark places.

At last I was able to ask him the question I had sent for the tombola. I have always been fascinated by how ASOIAF embodies the theories put forward by Acemoglu and Robinson about countries with extractive institutions (which hamper development). So my question was: Why do you think the political institutions in the Seven Kingdoms are so weak? His answer: the Kingdom was unified with dragons, so the Targaryen's flaw was to create an absolute monarchy highly dependent on them, with the small council not designed to be a real check and balance. So, without dragons it took a sneeze, a wildly incompetent and megalomaniac king, a love struck prince, a brutal civil war, a dissolute king that didn't really know what to do with the throne and then chaos. Interesting answer.

July 2017

To a certain degree, also, it’s so intertwined, tragically and unfortunately, with the character histories. Daenerys doesn’t get to where she is unless she’s sold as a child bride, effectively a slave.

And I should point out, and you probably know this if you’ve read the books and watched the show, Daenerys’ wedding night is quite different than it was portrayed in the books. Again, indeed, we had an original pilot where the part of Daenerys was recast, and what we filmed the first time, when Tamzin Merchant was playing the role, it was much more true to the books. It was the scene as written in the books. So that got changed between the original pilot and the later pilot. You’d have to talk to David and Dan about that.

I had all these meetings saying, “There’s too many characters, it’s too big — Jon Snow is the central character. We’ll eliminate all the other characters and we’ll make it about Jon Snow.” Or “Daenerys is the central character. We’ll eliminate everyone else and make the movie about Daenerys.” And I turned down all those deals.

When you’re walking down the street in Santa Fe, do new character or historical details just pop into your head?

Sometimes it happens to me on long-distance drives. When I was younger I loved to take road trips, and get in the car and drive for two days to get to L.A. or Kansas City or St. Louis or Texas. And on the road, I would think a lot about that. In 1993, I think it was, I visited France for the first time. I had begunGame of Thrones two years before in ‘91 and I had to put it aside because television was happening. And for some reason, I had rented a car, I was driving all around Brittany and the roads of France to these little medieval villages and I was seeing castles, and somehow that just got me going again. I was thinking about Tyrion and Jon Snow and Daenerys and my head was full of Game of Thrones stuff.

You’re in unusual territory, with your characters very much still in your hands but also out in the world being interpreted for TV. Are you able to have walls in your mind such that your Daenerys, say, is your Daenerys, and Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys is hers and the show’s?

I’ve arrived at that point. The walls are up in my mind. I don’t know that I was necessarily there from the beginning. At some points, when David and Dan and I had discussions about what way we should go in, I would always favor sticking with the books, while they would favor making changes. I think one of the biggest ones would probably be when they made the decision not to bring Catelyn Stark back as Lady Stoneheart. That was probably the first major diversion of the show from the books and, you know, I argued against that, and David and Dan made that decision.

In my version of the story, Catelyn Stark is re-imbued with a kind of life and becomes this vengeful wight who galvanizes a group of people around her and is trying to exact her revenge on the riverlands. David and Dan made a decision not to go in that direction in their story, pursuing other threads. But both of them are equally valid, I think, because Catelyn Stark is a fictional character and she doesn’t exist. You can tell either story about her.

Is there anything we didn’t get to talk about?

I suppose there are issues we could have explored more with the whole question of sexual violence and women — it’s a complicated and fraught issue. To re-address that point a little, I do a lot of book signings, and I think I have probably more women readers than male readers right now. Only slightly, but it’s probably 55 percent, 45 percent, but I see women readers at things and they love my women characters. I’m very proud of the creation of Arya and Catelyn and Sansa and Brienne and Daenerys and Cersei and all of them. It’s one of the things that gives me the most satisfaction, that they’ve been so well-received as characters, especially by women readers who are often not served.

August 2017

- My question about Daenerys was chosen as the third question (I was lucky!) but he refused to answer it lol … I asked “How old was Daenerys when she left the house with the red door, and was it located close to the palace of the Sealord of Braavos?” (thanks Butterfly for suggesting it to me) I don’t know why he refused to answer about her age, but about the house with the red door he said there will be more revelations about it in future books.

- He was asked to comment about the differences between the book and show characters, particularly Daenerys. GRRM ignored all the other characters and talked only about Daenerys - he said that the show one is older because there are laws in USA that prevent minors from having sex scenes so the decision was made to age Daenerys. Otherwise, book Daenerys and show Daenerys “are very similar” and “Emilia Clarke did a fantastic job”. (I guess he can’t really say negative things about the show, can he?)

- “Will Jorah ever get out of the friendzone?” (side-eyeing the person who asked this). GRRM: “I would not bet on it.”

August 2018

Q: if you did have a child what would you name him or her?

A: “I don’t know... probably Not Daenerys”

November 2018

“I have tried to make it explicit in the novels that the dragons are destructive forces, and Dany (Daenerys Targaryen) has found that out as she tried to rule the city of Meereen and be queen there.

“She has the power to destroy, she can wipe out entire cities, and we certainly see that in Fire and Blood, we see the dragons wiping out entire armies, wiping out towns and cities, destroying them, but that doesn’t necessarily enable you to rule — it just enables you to destroy.”

[...] “If you read Fire and Blood, you’ll know there’s definitely a bond between the dragons and their riders and the dragons will not accept just any rider,” says Martin. “Some people try to take a dragon wind up being eaten or burned to death instead, so the dragons are terribly fussy about who rides them.”

[...] The prince defeated the threat in the North by driving his sword through his wife’s heart. Will Jon have to do the same to Daenerys? Or is she the prince, Azor Ahai, reborn? Martin suggests all may not be as it seems.

“The Targaryens have certain gifts and yes, taking the dragons and dragon riding and dragon breeding was one of them,” he says. “But the other gift was an occasional Targaryen had prophetic powers and could see glimpses of the future, which they didn’t always necessarily properly interpret because, you know, they were fragmentary and sometimes symbolic.

“But to what extent did they share those gifts, what did he see, what prompted him to do all this? These are things I find really interesting to ponder.

What was interesting from The Guardian interview you did, is this book — as daunting as it would seem for most authors to attempt, and as tough as Winds has been for you — this was curiously easy for you to write. Yes. Partly because it’s linear. Although it covers 150 years or so, it’s very straightforward — here’s what happened in the year 30, here’s what happened in 25. In Winds, I have like 10 different novels and I’m juggling the timeline — here’s what’s happening to Tyrion, here’s what’s happening to Dany, and how they intersect. That’s far more complicated.

August 2019

On the fame thing, does it ever feel surreal to stop and think about the reach that your work has had? I mean, couples meet through Game of Thrones, there are Thrones-themed wedding ceremonies, and babies are named after your characters. Is that something you ever dwell on and think to yourself 'God, my work has had this massive effect on people?'

It's very gratifying when you get letters, emails, and hear stories like that. They definitely do name children after my characters and send me pictures of their babies.

People also name their dogs, cats, iguanas, after my characters. Sometimes, it’s a little surreal. I often wonder about all the young Daenerys’ out there because kindergarten teachers will hate me because they have to spell it!

#daenerys targaryen #resources #grrm #valyrianscrolls

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hillbillyoracle · 4 years

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Rebooting My Practice

This is going to be pretty rambly, but I always get a lot out of these posts when other people make them so I wanted to make one too.

I hit a point earlier this year, as I started to really see what all astrology could be, when I knew I was going to need to overhaul pretty much my entire practice. For the last decade, I've focused on divination; on doing activities that sharpen my intuition, following up and checking predictions, tracking cards and results to better understand the connection, etc. I did this primarily in the service of my main deity, the Morrigan.

I still work with her, but I'm in a lurch as to how to continue my work with her. I have yet to quite figure out how to balance her general distaste for shrines (with me at least) and deepening my relationship with her in the absence of local folks to read for as I've relied on for years (thanks COVID). I've been praying the Catholic Rosary lately as a way to deepen my relationship with the Virgin Mary and the Saint I'm petitioning lately and I feel her kind of peering in when I do that so I might have to design one for her. I have a feeling whatever I come up with will likely be in a free zine rather than a blog post at some point.

But where that left me was in this weird abyss, where the only really solid things in my practice were like 3 deities (The Morrigan, Hermes, Yinepu/Anubis) I worked with regularly and tarot cards. I think for plenty of people that's fine but I wanted something deeper and more effective. It was around the time that I was rethinking everything that I stumbled on to this post about a magical routine that absolutely enthralled me. It took me another month and ultimately moving house altogether to even begin to piece something together that would set me on the road to something like this. I knew I was not ready but I finally had a picture in my mind something to work towards. Like rehabilitating after an injury, sometimes you've got to do half as much as you think you can before you really take off.

So I wanted to take some time and talk about the way my practice is changing and what the new pillars are slowly emerging to be.

Planetary Petitions

While I don't have the Orphic Hymns for each of the 7 classical planets memorized yet as per the post, I started by doing planetary prayers more days than I do not do them. Thanks to my truly godawful downstairs neighbor at the new place, who's floor shaking door slams throughout the whole night have netted me an average of 3 hours a night, I'm usually up for the first planetary hour of a given day. Hey maybe it's a sign, a big universal push to show the fuck up.

I'm also incredibly lucky I loaded up on some planetary incenses right before COVID when a local store had a huge sale. It's proved well worth it as above all I try to get the planetary incense right, though I did have to default to a Frankincense one when we were first moving in. I slowly feel like I'm beginning to understand the planetary spirits better but only slightly. I completely see why memorizing the prayer is recommended and I do feel that's standing in the way of me being closer with them.

I have not noticed a huge difference when I petition them truthfully. I get the vibe that it takes time to build up that relationship. Though I'm open to input here - for those who do planetary petitions, what made them click for you?

Saint Veneration + Christian Magic

One thing I put off for many years, though I knew it was coming, was working with more Saints. I knew it'd likely involve having to dip back into Christianity to make it work and I was completely right.

As my partner began revisiting her Catholic roots earlier this year, it got me curious about things like the Rosary, the Chaplet, and Novenas. I was raised charismatic fundamentalist Christian as a child and such things were explicitly forbidden. I remember getting a long talking to when I'd taken to reading about Sainte Jeanne d'Arc. So they aren't loaded for me the way they are for others, but they’re situated in this fundamentally familiar context that makes them feel like meeting a cool branch of the family you didn't realize existed.

I'm finishing a Novena to a Saint I've been praying to in the next few weeks. I am admittedly not as close with her as I'd like to be. I'm trying to figure out how to move forward with her as I'd really like to have her in my life. I will probably reach back out to Sainte Jeanne d'Arc as she's always felt familiar and been good to me. I also keep her prayer card and medallion in my wallet and have for many years so maybe there's more to build from there. It is my goal to have about 3 saints/Christian figures I can call on when I need help. I'm thinking of approaching Mary Undoer of Knots next but I'm worried it'll follow the same path as this current saint.

My partner and I bought Rosaries back in May and I absolutely love it. I've been saying at least a 5 decade rosary for most days but I'm regularly getting in a 15 decade rosary. I really love it and am totally convinced of the beauty and effectiveness of the system. I've come to understand Christianity in a totally different light through praying it regularly.

So that is on going and evolving and I'd love to hear from people who've cultivated close relationships with a Saint or Angel.

Ancestors

One thing that working with Christianity again has made easier is praying to ancestors. I've often felt a bit at odds with my own ancestors as they were not the most supportive of trans and queer people (and I am both of those) but in coming back to Christianity has given me and my ancestors a common language almost. As long as my disagreement with them over my attraction and gender identity is rooted in the Bible, it's been easier to work with them.

It's very early days with ancestor work. I'm slowly working my way through Ancestral Healing by Daniel Foor. But I'm feeling very heartened by it. I saw a post on twitter somewhere, if I can find it again I'll link it, where someone said that the way they started working with their ancestors was just thanking them everyday. And thanking my ancestors is complicated for me, my family like most have their own issues that also go passed on, but thanking them for what I am glad they gave me has been really beneficial.

My partner requested some divination from me when some of her medical issues were starting to get worse and part of the reading involved a strong push for her to investigate her father's side of the family. She got really into genealogy in the process and she's been teaching me a lot. Through that I actually learned my great grandfather's name for the first time - yes that's how out of touch I am with my own family history. But I was thankful to find out.

Through her own research, my partner found out that that branch of her family likely isn't German but actually German speaking Hungarians which was a revelation. She's in the process of confirming but it got us talking about foods and identity and language and how to honor our ancestors more regularly. We're going to try making a nice dinner on Full Moons with dishes that are tied to branches of our family as a way to trying to cultivate a closer relationship with them. I'll definitely update on that as it evolves.

Conclusion + Some Thoughts on Disability

I'm definitely still in the early days of all of this. It's not become quite the foundation I hope it will be yet. I still need to figure out how to continue and deepen my deity relationships. I still need to attempt some different types of spellwork I've been meaning to. And while I didn't talk about it much here, astrology has been playing a huge role in my practice but mostly in a passive way. More of that divination process I talked about in the beginning where I make predictions based on the charts I'm seeing and then double check my work.

I’ve been doing all this while in the thick of a bad flare. Moving plus lack of sleep as meant my disability has been weighing so much harder on me lately. Normally when I’m feeling well enough, I kind of roll my eyes at a lot of the “spoonie witchcraft” posts I see, but for some reason with this flare they just started making me angry and I’m still trying to parse why. I think I just feel like so many are rooted in this performative idea of “feeling” witchy rather than actually helping me with my disability. They aren’t usually focused on practices that either actually treat the pain I’m in or bring my spirit real comfort.

I’m really hoping to put together a post or possibly a zine that does provide what I always wanted those posts to be. Honestly these pillars here have proven accessible even as I’ve been in some of the worst pain I’ve been in in years. So for any fellow disabled folks who just aren’t getting much out of those posts, I really recommend starting with these. Recite the Orphic Hymn for the day in the corresponding hour. Pray the Rosary or an adapted set of prayers for Pagan prayer beads. Don’t have much money for those? Look up how to make knotted rosaries and adapt the method. Pray to your ancestors and give them some water and a bit to eat. These are doable for a lot of folks even when they’re in bad shape, especially if you take your time with it. Might not make you “feel witchy” but they do some fucking work, that’s for sure. But idk, those are just my thoughts on it.

So it hasn't all fallen into place yet but I wanted to share what developing a practice looks like in medias res. It's messy, somethings work better than others, but all and all I'm just glad to finally be making meaningful progress again.

#personal practice #witchblr #Ancestor Veneration #planetary magic #rosary

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verse50 · 5 years

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Do I need to fix myself before I seek out a daddy dom? I’ve been struggling with depression and self harm for a majority of my life (I’m 19) and I’m worried that my inability to fix myself would be a significant burden on a daddy dom. My sex drive is incredibly low so it’s not like I’d even be able to make up for the emotional aspect of the relationship with the physical aspect. I feel like I need too much. I need too much help. I need too much patience. I just feel selfish

Thank you for sending your question and also for your patience in waiting for my answer. I’ve thought about your ask every day for the past several weeks as I think it touches on common thoughts many people have, not just submissives, so I wanted to answer helpfully for everyone.

I frequently encourage subs with mental issues like depression and self harm to get therapy and build a support system outside of their relationship. I stress this because very often, Dominants are seen as a cure-all for ailments, sometime leading to a toxic co-dependency or putting the Dom in a role he is not meant to fill, i.e. a therapist or counselor. Many people think when the Dom arrives everything will be so much better and the problems they have will magically go away. Conversely, this mindset forms a dangerous breeding ground for an unethical “Dom” to manipulate your issues for unhealthy, selfish purposes. I don’t tell subs to form a support structure because they are broken and not good enough for a D/s dynamic. I tell subs to form a support structure so they won’t fall prey to narcissistic, abusive, damaging partners who use BDSM as a trap.

Now it may sound like I’m telling you to fix yourself before you look for a relationship. I’m not saying that at all. Right now, you, sitting there reading this, deserve to be in a loving, fulfilled relationship. You don’t need to suffer or work to prove that you deserve that. It is a perfectly natural, normal thing to want love and intimacy. Very often a loving relationship can be a life-changing event because we grow, connect, and learn about ourselves in ways we wouldn’t have otherwise.

I think it’s admirable that you are aware of your personal challenges and what stress they might put on a relationship. I think your concern should not be “am I too much for a DD” but rather “is this DD aligned with my needs and goals.” In my experience, Dominants don’t see anything as “too much.” They relish all that too muchness because they want ALL of the submissive, even the parts she might think are unattractive. Dominants, especially the Daddy types, THRIVE on knowing every corner of the sub’s mind and how to take care of it. They cherish the submission because it gives them access to those hidden places and once revealed, they guard those places fiercely. The right partner will value you as a person, beyond any of your struggles, and will see you as a whole person. He might get you on a structured path of therapy. He might give you tasks to improve your sense of self-worth. A Daddy will help you face those challenges together, as a team, and make plans that work for you both. You don’t have to prove that you deserve Daddy treatment. However, starting your own path of therapy and self-value now will make you more likely to recognize those traits in someone else when they come along.

Many, many subs feel inadequate, selfish, and “too much work.” This is a default for many reasons, not the least of which is society grooming both genders to expect the minimal amount of effort in relationships, leading any expression of needs or patience to be “too much.” Anon, you aren’t too much. You are you, with your unique life experience. My recommendation is this- treat yourself like you are precious and valuable. I know that your mental challenges seem to be the strongest part of your identity but trust me, you are more than that. You are layered, interesting, talented, and a very caring person. Maybe no one has told you good things about yourself before. Maybe you are waiting for a Daddy to tell you those things. Don’t wait for that. Build your positive support structure now so you will recognize that energy when it comes along in a Daddy.

Your low libido may be a direct result of your mental issues or it could just be how you are wired. Sometimes people raised in toxic, unloving environments have low libido because their body is trying to simply survive what life has thrown at them. It may change in a loving relationship, it may not. Medication might help it or not. However, there are many D/s couples who describe themselves as having low sex drives. Doesn’t mean anything but finding what works for you. Just be honest about who you are and what you need. Again it’s about being aligned and being aware of what both parties bring to the dynamic. Much of D/s intimacy is not sexual or penetrative-sex related. It is about the intimacy of the mind, soul, and emotions through trust and power exchange.

Remember that you are human just like any Daddy is human. He has his own struggles and challenges which may be similar to yours. What may be seem insurmountable to you (or a different partner) might be another day at the office for him. Life is tough! It’s easier when we have a teammate to help us get through it. Look at it this way. Be your own best friend, your own teammate, no matter where you are in life. This is a learning process! It’s ok to try and fail, then try again. You have you FIRST. Anyone else who comes along, in any type of relationship, is just adding to the power you already have.

Everything I’ve said here is similar to other Tumblr ask answers. Here is the link for them and also where I post them free on Patreon.

Tumblr asks

Tumblr asks collected on Patreon

#askv

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scriptlgbt · 5 years

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I'm writing a supporting trans character in a world where you can make almost any wish you want so long as you pay for it with something of equivalent value. My character wished to be female and her price was originally that she had to give up the love she had for her girlfriend (price being that in order to completely love herself she had to give what she loved most outside of herself), but now I'm thinking of taking her sight, so that she can't see herself. Is this okay?

With full honesty, and please do not take this personally, but there are a significant amount of problems with most of the things contained within this ask.

trans women are female

Please read: Writing Trans Characters: Corrections of Common Mistakes

I have a concern about the wording of “wishing to be female” and what exactly that means. Contrary to popular belief, biological sex is just as much a social construct as gender. (Please read this linked article, it’s vital reading for everyone IMO!) Of course, one of the biggest indicators of transness for a lot of people is ‘wishing’ to be some gender or another. But wishing to be a woman means that you are a woman, basically.

transness is not defined by hating your body

Here’s a post explaining what gender dysphoria actually is in a personal experience context.

Here’s an article I wrote a few years ago on Medium about my relationship with the “born in the wrong body” narrative of trans experiences.

identifying as a gender that isn’t what was assigned to you at birth is what generally defines transness - transition is not what that revolves around. you don’t need to change anything about your body to be who you are.

writing a magical transition properly

our magical transition tag

forgoing a lot of things that trans readers would relate to (like bypassing all aspects of physical transition to get to the full maximum different body instantly) means forgoing a lot of the things which make having trans representation beneficial for trans readers

Personally, I would advise not having it be something related to just having one body go to another. It would probably be best to make the hormonal aspects one thing (maybe something that would replace one set of gonads with another, or provide access to herbs or medications that take care of hormones) and the surgical aspects another thing. (This is gone into more in the magical transition tag.)

Is your ‘equivalent value’ meant to encompass something the wisher or the wish-granter holds of value? Because it would probably work out fine to replace testes with ovaries as an equivalent thing, and having surgery stuff just replacing one type of body part for another. That’s still giving up something, theoretically.

Regardless though, I would try to at all costs, avoid making blindness inherently a bad thing. It’s difficult to live in the world as a disabled person where your body is seen like the worst fate. I could see it being potentially written okay if ableism is actually worked through in the story, including internalized ableism. (In which case I would have a sensitivity reader with the relevant identities to make sure it does actually read ok.)

- mod nat

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recentanimenews · 5 years

Text

An Explorer's Guide to the Wonderful World of Visual Novels

Visual novels! Once decried as a “niche” by the masses, they have slowly but surely wormed their way into video games as a whole. Persona became a visual novel, then Fire Emblem. Now Saya no Uta, Gen Urobuchi's disturbing cult “classic” (?!) is available on Steam to stumble upon. There are fewer barriers than ever before to experiencing this varied, historic and often misunderstood medium.

But where to begin? Some visual novels are very long. Others are quite lewd. A number of them (even the ones people love) front-load their most boring material at the beginning, and save the best moments for the last hour of what can be twenty or thirty-hour games. Picking up Saya no Uta without being primed for the extremes of the medium is a recipe for despair. But don't be afraid! Many of the best visual novels being made today are only a few hours long, encompass many approaches and genres, and are acceptable for all ages. In this piece I will lay out a path that you, dear reader, may follow into the thickets. Some things to keep in mind:

1. Every one of the games featured here is legally avaliable in English. If you know Japanese and are willing to spend some money, feel free to experiment on your own!

2. The games featured here range from appropriate for teenagers, to appropriate for mature audiences. Content warnings will be marked as needed. That said, almost none of these games feature the kind of graphic sex you'd see in old-school titles like Fate/Stay Night; the exception is the final title, included for completionism, which is truly sordid and not appropriate for anybody (but I like it).

3. While I've had some experience with the medium, BL and otome games are huge blind spots of mine, so I won't embarrass myself by pretending expertise! If you're interested in exploring those fields, I've heard good things about Code: Realize (get the collector's edition with the extra content!), Hatoful Boyfriend and (if you're OK with some NSFW material) Coming Out on Top.

With that said, let us being our journey!

SHORT AND SWEET:

These games last about two to three hours, but will stick with you longer than that. Don't assume these are “beginner games” simply because they are short! I could argue that collectively, the three titles here are the best on this list.

Butterfly Soup is Brianna Lei's follow-up to her cult success Pom Gets Wi-Fi. It's free! It's also one of the most acclaimed visual novels ever by the mainstream games press, scoring praise from folks like Patricia Hernandez and Steve Gaynor. As for what it's about: it's the story of four girls on their high school softball team, two of them are in love, and there are many funny jokes. I found the ending to be abrupt, but if you're looking for good vibes and some much-needed encouragement to stay true to yourself, I highly recommend this game. Plus it references Matt Mullholland's excellent “My Heart Will Go On” performance, which earns it extra points in my book.

Content warnings: Brief depictions of parental and physical abuse (no visuals!), ableist slurs.

We Know the Devil is “what if Kelly Link wrote Revolutionary Girl Utena?” Plenty of anime and games channel that energy (my beloved What A Beautiful visual novel series among them) but few do so as succinctly and distinctively as Aevee Bee, Mia Schwartz and their team do in this game. The result is a punk, unsettling take on magical girl stories set in a Christian summer camp, featuring sneaky world-building and some striking body horror. You'll feel for the cast and their struggles, and cheer in the True Ending when everything goes completely off the rails.

Content warnings: Psychological and body horror, alienation of queer youth in a religious setting, freaky music.

youtube

EXTREME MEATPUNKS FOREVER is a game about gay antifascist folks fighting fascists across the desert while riding giant robots made of meat. It's the equivalent of a zine you'd pick up at a fair, willing to dive into messy topics most games shy away from and wholly uninterested in sanding away any rough spots. The music is great too! Play this game if you want to beat up Nazis in a giant meat machine called ROOTS AMONG ASH.

Content warnings: Body horror, mentions of self harm and abuse, suicidal ideation, alcohol, gender dysphoria, loss of bodily autonomy, apocalyptic ideation. For mature audiences!

NICE AND MEATY:

These games are a good bit longer, ranging from five to fifteen hours to beat. If you enjoyed the earlier entries and want more, try some of these!

The House in Fata Morgana is a bonafide cult classic, a game made by a small studio that earned itself a legion of die-hard fans in the visual novel space. At first glance it's an entertaining genre pastiche, four tales of doomed love centering around a cursed mansion. But read past the first four chapters, and suddenly the real story comes to the fore—the tale of two ordinary people and a love that lasts for centuries. Fata Morgana takes some huge swings, tackling societal oppression, intersexuality, recovering from past trauma and learning to move on from those who have wronged you without having to forgive them. Its success at landing these swings likely depends on the reader, but I found Fata Morgana's heart to be in the right place. Couple that with one of the best soundtracks in video games, and you have an experience that is worth it even at 0% off.

Content warnings: incest, domestic violence, racist and sexist remarks, psychological manipulation, homophobic and transphobic remarks, sexual assault, child abuse. For mature audiences!

Heart of the Woods is, as of yet, the most ambitious game made by Studio Elan. It's a supernatural mystery where two adult women travel to a small town in the cold and dark to investigate some strange occurrences. What they find leads to unexpected romance, but also incredible danger. Heart of the Woods is sweet, it's funny (Tara is hilarious!) and as has come to be a running theme in this piece, the music is excellent, courtesy of Sarah Mancuso and Kris Flacke. Heart of the Woods is a game made by people who clearly have a lot of affection for visual novels as a medium, but had enough discretion to snip out the bits they weren't fond of. It also comes with a plethora of accessibility options, allowing you to customize everything from the text to the music to your needs.

Content warnings: Parental abuse, alcohol, light horror elements, some sex scenes you can enable with an optional R-18 patch. For mature audiences!

youtube

As for Seabed, it's... yuri ASMR? It's difficult to describe, as the appeal of this one for me isn't so much the story—which is intriguing, but very slow-paced—as it is the feel of it. Everything from the music, to the sound effects, to the text, contributes to a languid feeling unlike every other game in the medium I have played. Seabed won't be for everyone, but few titles match its distinctive atmosphere.

Content warnings: alcohol, partial nudity. At least one sex scene that isn't too explicit by the standards of the medium. For mature audiences!

THE DEEP END:

These games range in length from fifteen hours to fifty... and beyond! If you're looking for the experience your Japanese-speaking friends fell in love with back in the days of fan translations and frantically searching online for information on Type-Moon properties, this is it!

Imagine that you have an idea for a great Japanese TV-drama, but you decide to make it as a visual novel instead. Wanting to produce as authentic an experience as possible, you hire actors and have them act out every scene in your script as you take multiple photographs depicting every twist and turn in the plot. Imagine the sheer amount of time and labor it would require. Then multiply it by five, let the player switch between these narratives with the ease of hitting a button on a gamepad, and tie them together into a vast meta-narrative. That's 428: Shibuya Scramble, one of the most ambitious visual novels ever created and a game that was famously awarded a score of 40 by the Japanese games rag Famitsu. Despite having an enormous and complicated script, it was localized into English just a year ago. Don't miss out on this bizarre and fascinating video game! If you're a fan of the Yakuza series, you'll be right at home with 428's brand of lunacy.

Content warnings: Violence, drugs, alcohol, some bad language.

Umineko: When They Cry is a lot. A gonzo mystery story that starts as a riff on And Then There Were None, it swiftly mutates into a hundred-hour game of four-dimensional chess. It was made by a small team, scored by the music of the gods, and is fully committed throughout to its brand of sentiment, metaphysical rambling and extreme horror. Some might say that Umineko is overwrought, but that is the point: the game is memorable for its excess, not despite of it. If you're looking for a taste of the full VN experience, complete with shocking twists, a weird obsession with trivia and far too many words, this is the most authentic you can find that's appropriate for all audiences. Please play with the original art! It's charming.

Content warnings: Parental abuse, blood and gore, people getting killed and suffering fates worse than death at the hands of witches (???). For mature audiences!

And now we come to [NSFW] Wonderful Everyday, everything your anxious friend told you about visual novels. It's not just that Wonderful Everyday has sex scenes, it's that it takes less time to list what triggering and problematic content is not in the game than what is in it. It references Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus and Cyrano de Bergerac. The game isn't afraid to take huge, unexpected shifts in tone and aesthetic in order to scare or destabilize the player. You might be wondering: why recommend a game like this, which many would find morally abhorrent? All I can say is that Wonderful Everyday is the game that convinced your Japanese-speaking friends to read Wittgenstein. It's a cult classic, a title unavailable in English for years that came with the highest praise imaginable: that it was a profound work of art, that it would change your way of thinking forever. After finally playing through the game two years ago, my feelings were more mixed; but there's no mistaking that few games better personify the visual novel medium's eccentricities, indulgences or shoot-for-the-moon ambition than this shaggy, gross, but fascinating video game.

Content warnings: suicide, psychological and body horror, multiple variants of sexual assault, extreme bullying, extreme violence, bestiality (thankfully cut down for release in the US!), a transgender character who is handled in a pretty specious way. Many graphic sex scenes. For very mature audiences!

There's even more great titles out there that I couldn't fit on this list! The high stakes and interface-shattering plot twists of 999. The countless games being made in engines like Ren'Py, Choice of Games and Twine. South Korean visual novels like Nameless and Mystic Messenger. No matter what kind of person or reader you may be, there is a visual novel out there somewhere for you. I wish you luck in your endless journey of discovery!

Are you a fan of visual novels? Do you have any (safe for work, if possible) recommendations? Please let us know in the comments!

---

Adam W is a features writer at Crunchyroll. When he isn't eagerly awaiting the announcement of the Girls' Work anime by Type Moon, he sporadically contributes with a loose coalition of friends to a blog called Isn't it Electrifying? Follow him on twitter at: @wendeego

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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mandowh0re · 6 years

Text

Endgame

Ch 2

Male Reader

Female Reader

Requested: No

Fandom: Avengers MCU

Pairing: enhanced!reader x Avengers

Summary: Reader is forced out of this world and into the world of the MCU where she meets the Avengers and has to use her knowledge of their universe to help defeat Thanos.

Word Count: 1759

Warnings: Swearing

Comments: I’m not anti Steve, I just made him snappy in this chapter because tensions are running high and it would make sense with someone new and completely random showing up. IMPORTANT: I didn’t write with ‘they/them’ because it’s just too difficult when the reader is interacting with a group of people, so I write the same thing for both guys and girls. I know those aren’t the only two genders but this is how I chose to write it. So there is a female reader version and a male reader version.

Happy reading!

Ch 1/ Ch 2

The next day (Y/N) woke up to the sun shining through the windows of his newly assigned room.

Turning to look at the clock he saw that it was only 7:16 am, but he really didn’t think he could sleep much more.

Rolling out of bed (Y/N) walked to the closet, which was newly filled with clothes, thanks to Pepper, who he had met the evening before.

Pepper had noticed that the team was tense with (Y/N) around and offered to take him out to get clothes since he was staying for an indefinite amount of time.

Throwing on a pair of jeans, a sweater, and some sneakers, he headed down to where FRIDAY told him everyone was gathered.

He pushed open the door to Bruce’s lab, walking into an argument.

“-leave now. He doesn’t have much time!” Pepper yelled.

“I know, Pepper. But we only have one quinjet and it’s been through a lot. I’m not sure it can withstand the vacuum of space.”

“I’m not about to let him die in space, Steve!” Pepper jammed her finger into the man's chest.

(Y/N) cleared his throat, and everyone in the room turned to look at him.

“Can we help you?” Steve asked, and was immediately smacked in the arm by Natasha.

“What he means is, is there something we can help you with?” Bruce stepped in, voice softer.

“Um, I assume you found Tony?” He squeaked. Wow, he really wasn’t Steve’s favorite person.

“Yeah,” Bruce sighed, “He sent out a message just like you said. We made the mistake of letting Pepper hear it-”

“Bruce!” Pepper yelled again, making the man jump.

“So you’ve located him?” (Y/N) asked.

“Yes, why?”

Looking between Pepper and Bruce, then to Steve and Natasha (where was Thor?) he spoke, “Tony made Pepper a suit. You may be able to use that but-”

“FRIDAY?” Pepper interrupted.

“Boss did create a suit for Miss Potts. It is made to withstand space. The housing unit is currently in his lab locked away. But I would not advise for Miss Potts to-”

“FRIDAY, enough.” Pepper barked, storming out of the Bruce’s lab and towards Tony’s.

“Shit.” (Y/N) breathed, running to follow Pepper with the rest of the Avengers on his tail.

They all ran after Pepper as she opened Tony’s lab.

“Unlock the suit, FRIDAY.” Pepper called out.

“Pepper, I really think someone else should-” (Y/N) tried, but was cut off.

“No. It has to be me.”

What appeared to be a metal reinforced door in the wall opened up, revealing three almost identical housing units to Tony’s.

“Yours is the one on the far left.”

Pepper walked over, picking one up, “How does this work?”

“Place the unit on your chest, double tapping the window.” FRIDAY responded.

Pepper did as instructed, and a purple suit, close in look to the Iron Man suit, enveloped her.

“Pepper, are you sure about this?” Steve asked, stepping forward.

“I’m positive.”

(Y/N) snorted, “That’s an understatement.” He said under his breath.

Pepper didn’t hear him, but he forgot about Steve, who had super heading. He shot him a glare and he just shrugged his shoulders and glared back.

“You will need to take another unit with you to place on Mister Stark.” FRIDAY added.

Nodding, Pepper grabbed both of the other units.

“FRIDAY, link her comms to us. Keep us connected. Open lines, no closing them.” Steve ordered as Bruce walked up to a screen and began typing, “I want a complete read out of vitals the entire time. That includes any other suit that’s activated.”

“Will do. Mister Stark’s location is set in Miss Pott’s suit.”

A floor to ceiling window opened, giving Pepper access to the outside world.

(Y/N) tried one more time to convince Pepper to let someone else go, “Pepper, you know what this could do-”

“I know! Now just, please, I need to go.” She snapped, then took off out of the window.

“What was that all about?” Steve asked, rounding (Y/N) then leaning on a work table.

He sighed, rubbing his eyes, “I can’t tell you.”

Steve groaned, “You know, there’s a lot that you ‘can’t tell us’ and I’m starting to think we can’t trust you. You show up, knowing all of this information about us but won’t tell us anything-”

“Steve,” Natasha warned.

“No! I want to know why. We brought you in here, gave you a place to stay, and you still won’t tell us-”

“Look, Rogers!” (Y/N) snapped, “I’m telling you what I know I’m allowed to tell you. I know secrets of almost everyone here and they aren’t mine to divulge! Do you think I like being the only one with information? Do you think I like being away from my home in a completely different universe knowing that my family probably thinks I’m kidnapped or dead without a way to at least tell them I’m okay?” He grabbed his head with his hands, turning away, “If it weren’t for me, Tony might have been as good as dead and it would have taken you months to find Clint. I’m telling you everything you need to know. I’m on your side. I know you’re stressed, everyone here is. But you’re the only one acting like they’re ready to slit my throat. So for the love of God can we please stop this!” He yelled, slamming his hand down on another table as he ended his rant.

He felt a sting in his hand, and brought it to his chest, squeezing it with the other.

Nobody noticed the glow that emitted from it.

“You guys there?” Pepper’s voice cracked over the intercom.

“We’re here.” Natasha said, her eyes trained on (Y/N).

“I just left the atmosphere. I’m ready to go supersonic.”

“Go ahead.” Bruce told her.

“Miss Potts will not be able to communicate while flying at supersonic speeds. She will be able to hear your end, but cannot speak to you unless she stops or slows down.”

Steve nodded in a very soldier-like way, his eyes not leaving (Y/N), “Understood.”

Natasha walked up to (Y/N), who was still taking steadying breaths, “Hey, can we talk outside?”

(Y/N) nodded and followed Natasha outside the lab.

“Look, I know Steve has been, kind of cold towards you,”

“Kind of?” (Y/N) blanched.

Natasha held up a hand, “But you have to remember we all lost a lot. He watched his best friend die and he’s scared of losing Tony. Then you magically appear knowing everything about us and with information that could help us fix what Thanos broke. I think he’s just overwhelmed. He’ll come around. You helped to find Tony. He can’t be mad too long.” Natasha smiled.

(Y/N) nodded, wiping away a few stray tears, then followed the red head back into the lab.

They all sat in silence for a good hour before Bruce noticed something on the screen.

“That’s odd.”

Everyone looked up.

“What’s wrong?” Natasha asked.

“Nothing’s wrong, per say, the suit is reading two heartbeats.”

Oh fuck.

“Did she get Tony without telling us?” Steve stood up.

“No, it hasn’t been long enough. She couldn’t be there yet, and only one person fits in a suit. And Tony only strives for perfection. The only way this could be accurate was if…” Suddenly all color drained from Bruce’s face and (Y/N) shifted uncomfortably, “Oh my God.”

“What?” Steve asked.

“Oh my God.” He said a little louder.

“Bruce?” Steve asked carefully.

“Oh my God! Holy shit Tony is going to murder us! Pepper I can’t believe-!”

“Bruce calm down! She can still hear you!” (Y/N) hissed.

Bruce’s head snapped in her direction, “You knew?”

(Y/N) stilled and stood a little straighter, nodding carefully.

“Knew what?” Steve’s voice became dangerous as he glared at her.

“Pepper’s pregnant!” Bruce’s hands flew up to his hair.

Steve stood abruptly, “She’s what??” He turned to (Y/N), “You knew about this and you let her go??”

“Hey! I tried to stop her! She knew too but insisted on going anyways!”

“Why didn’t you-”

“Guys! Enough!” Natasha barked, “She didn’t tell us because didn’t want us to know. Now can you all shut up so Pepper can focus?”

Everyone fell silent again.

“I’m uh, I’m gonna go find Thor.” (Y/N) said, backing out of the lab he no longer felt particularly safe in.

“FRIDAY-”

“He is currently in the training room. Would you like me to lead you there?”

“Yes, please.”

A few minutes later he walked into the training room, only to see Thor sitting on the ground, crying.

“Thor?”

The God whipped around at the sudden voice, angrily wiping his tears.

“Yes, hello, (Y/N). Is there something I can be of help with?”

He sighed and walked closer to him, dropping onto the ground in front of him, “I’m sorry.”

He looked up at him, tears still falling against his will, “What could you possibly be sorry for?”

“I’m sorry about what happened to you. To your people. To Loki.”

Thor’s breath hitched and he pursed his lips, “You know, I have not told anybody about what happened to Asgard or my brother. You are the only one on Midgard who knows.”

Great. Another secret.

He sighed, “Can I tell you something?”

“Go ahead.” Thor nodded and offered a small, half smile.

(Y/N) repositioned his legs to sit criss cross, placing his hands in his lap.

“There’s a possibility that Loki isn’t dead.”

Thor stopped breathing, then grabbed his shoulders, “Do not play games with me,”

“It’s not a game. It’s not one hundred percent certain either. But I’m not playing games.”

“Why would you think that my brother is still alive?”

“It’s... Kind of hard to explain. Back on my world, when he died, things just didn’t add up. But I think you should keep some hope, okay?”

Thor took a deep breath, wiping the remaining tears off his face. He loosened his grip and left a hand placed on (Y/N)’s left shoulder, “Thank you, (Y/N). That means a great deal to me. I’m glad you are here to help.”

He smiled back, “They found Tony. Pepper’s on her way to get him. She should be back in a few hours.”

“Then I guess we should join the rest of the team,” he stood up, then helped (Y/N) to his feet, “Shall we?”

He nodded, then walked with Thor side by side back to the lab.

***

Endgame tag list: @veryconfusedmess @hiddlestonstansworld

Permanent tag list: @a-place-to-blog-marvel-stuff @yaarthoetree @yes-iamironman-blog @paradoxicalblueberry @irondadstan5687 @the-regal-warrior @transparentparadiseglitterzombie @marvelgem @propertyofmarvel

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crystalelemental · 6 years

Text

Notoriously the least favorite new dex in the entire series, largely due to genwunner mentality. It drives me crazy how many people are mad about some Pokemon this generation. You're mad about the wrong ones! Yes, there are things that are Not Great in this dex, but leave the usual disliked Pokemon alone! Plus, I will appreciate any generation that forces me to use the new stuff for at least the main game. I so desperately wish they kept that in later generations, but nope.

TOP 15: 15) Sigilyph - It's like Xatu for me. It's a unique design choice, with a really cool battle role. Magic Guard allows it to burn itself, and Psycho Shift can pass that to the opponent. Cosmic Power buffs defenses, and then you just stall out until you can unleash Stored Power. Critical hits are the biggest problem for this thing, aside from routine power creep and Dark types shutting down its one attack. The Burn nerf also did not help, doubling the amount of turns it has to stall with this strategy. But the niche it does hold is still great, and while Smogon can tell me this set sucks until they're blue in the face, I personally will always remember it for this hysterical combo.

14) Swoobat - I love Swoobat. It's such a cute little bat creature, with its signature attack that does it literally no favors at all. Simple + Calm Mind is also particularly fun, or it would be if it had the stats to take a hit long enough to set that up. Mostly though, it's just a charming and cute bat.

13) Vanilluxe line - Vanilluxe is a good Pokemon, you all are just mean. It's an adorable ice cream cone Pokemon, with the ice cream part being accumulated snow. It's a precious concept, and the only real bad part about it is its movepool. I love Vanilluxe and its evolutions, and you should too.

12) Gigalith line - I love the whole line. Boldore gets special mention, due to the presence of Rochelle in my Pokemon White Nuzlock. Gigalith itself stands out as an intimidating mass of rock, with a beautiful shiny form and surprisingly well-oriented stats for a wall. Getting Sandstorm as an ability also helped it out a lot, giving a much-needed buff to special defense. It's got a lot going for it.

11) Haxorus line - Dragon type evolution lines, up to this point, tend to emphasize raw attack power over all else. You had some exceptions, in that Flygon was more balanced and Altaria was more defensive, but for the most part Dragons have physical offense. Haxorus takes this to its logical conclusion, being unreasonably strong, and having an intimidating design to match. Despite this, it doesn't quite go the route of Garchomp or Salamence, where it looks entirely scary. It looks intimidating, but it also looks friendlier, somehow. I know its face is an axe, but it doesn't have quite the same air of menace.

10) Mienshao - It's rare a Fighting type makes my list of favorites, but Mienshao earns this spot based on elegant design among a typing that's usually hulking brutes. I also really loved Regenerator + Life Orb as a combo, it just seemed so obvious.

9) Reshiram - Much like Dialga, this was an easy pick for me. Unfortunately, when I asked for the game, I got the one with Zekrom. Not that I was that mad, Zekrom is cool enough, but Reshiram is my favorite of the two. Fire/Dragon is a great one, and the fact that it's the embodiment of truth is a fantastic concept. The story role for Zekrom and Reshiram is also fantastic, being set with the first real ideological rival you had, N. Combined with an elegant and beautiful design, Reshiram definitely stands out for me among the box legends in the series.

8) Chandelure - I'm not a big fan of Litwick, or even of Lampent, but Chandelure is a quality final stage Pokemon. It's such an elaborate and wonderful look, being sufficiently spooky yet elegant in its own right. Ghost/Fire is also an incredible typing, allowing for very few things to resist its powerful special attacks. It's a great Pokemon, and one of the many excellent ghost types from this gen.

7) Gothitelle - Obviously, I'm a big fan of psychic types, and Gothitelle is definitely up there on the list for me. I like the gothic look, and its role as something that can see lifespans is both interesting and tragic for it. It's also the signature Pokemon of Caitlin, which...man, I loved Caitlin's role in battle tower as it was, and seeing her as an elite four member, with this Pokemon as her best, was divine.

6) Leavanny line - Among the many Pokemon I wish had better competitive utility, Leavanny is definitely up there. It's such a nice Pokemon with a great design through its whole evolutionary chain, only to end up with a terrible typing and few benefits beyond that. What it does offer is being adorable, and apparently fashioning clothes for other Pokemon out of silk. I love this creature so much.

5) Frillish - Listen, if you don't like Frillish, something's not right. It's such a cute Pokemon, in both male and female forms. It's one of the few Pokemon that has a distinction along gender that I appreciate. Water/Ghost is also a fantastic typing, and it gets a lot of good tools to make use of it, including Will-o-Wisp and Recover. Such a fun and pretty Pokemon... Jellicent is also great, but aesthetics don't appeal nearly as much.

4) Musharna line - Musharna and Munna are adorable little Pokemon, and I love their connection to the whole Dream World mechanic that was introduced this generation. They have a great role in the story, producing the mist that allows a professor to examine dreams, but they're also just precious little creature in their own right. Not particularly strong in battle, and unfortunately don't work to much on that whole manipulation of dreams concept, but definitely a fun concept to work with.

3) Meloetta - Who would've thought a mythic legend would ever come along that outranked Celebi? Being a Pokemon based in song, it gets the fantastic Psychic/Normal typing, allowing it to get complete immunity to Ghost types. It's a precious tiny singer...who can morph into a powerful step dancer that brutalizes its common weaknesses as a Fighting/Normal type. Nothing in this world is greater than the feeling of someone switching into Meloetta with Tyranitar expecting to tank, only for it to then transform to its Pirouette form and style all over it. It's such a unique Pokemon to use in battle, and one of the best concepts as a singer/dancer.

2) Cinccino - Another really snazzy Pokemon. Cinccino's many tail-scarves makes it look divine, and having multi-hit moves certainly sets it apart from most. I'm also a huge fan of King's Rock + Skill Link moves. It's a vile, evil combo. 41% flinch on all your moves is incredible, and it allowed my weaker teams to sometimes do stupid things, like that time Cinccino beat a Heatran through sheer power of flinch. It's a great and unique normal type, with a great design.

1) Lilligant - The best grass type. Lilligant is a beautiful, wonderful Pokemon. It's a dancer, and so it learns a lot of dance-based moves, with an ability that shuts down confusion to allow for Petal Dance to be even more devastating. The design is what sells it the most, being a regal-looking plant that has to hop around because she has no feet. It's beautiful and lovely and wonderful, and has access to the best boosting move in the game.

BOTTOM 10: 10) Samurott - Dewott was so cool. Dewott was the coolest, my actual favorite of the starters, until Samurott. "Steve, you know it stands on its hind legs too, watch the anime loser." Listen. I know it can. But its sprite and its general stance are not upright. It is a quadruped with the ability to stand upright, and that's very different from being bipedal, and we all know it. I wanted something better than this. It's like the inverse of the usual fire-type complaint of people wanting it to remain a quadruped; I wanted it to stand upright and be more samurai-like. It didn't do that, and it also didn't do anything to create any sort of battle role for itself. Disappointing.

9) Seismitoad - I love Tympole. I mean I adore it. I was so ready for a nice evolution line like Politoed, or at least an acceptable one like Poliwrath. But no. We get this thing. Water/Ground, with fairly average stats, does not cut it anymore. The design is what really bothers me. From my adorable tadpole creature that's all musical, to this big wart-covered toad creature that...I guess hits the warts to make sound? It's not as good. Nowhere near. Unacceptable final evolution stage.

8) Pignite - Yes, specifically. Emboar at least looks rad, and Tepig is still cute. Pignite is the awkward middle child, much like Quilladin. But unlike Quilladin, Pignite's biggest shame is being the third generation in a row of Fire/Fighting type. If it hadn't gained that typing, I might be easier on it, but it was the showing that this generation's starters were going to be nowhere near as interesting any anything before, or after it.

7) Unfezant - I really do not like the design of this thing at all, and adding to it that it's about as stock and standard an early-game bird as you can get, and there's really nothing interesting about it. I would definitely way it's the least interesting regional bird.

6) Beheeyem line - I honestly forget about this Pokemon. I honest to god forget it, every single time. Just an alien thing. No explanation, it's just...an alien thing. What are you? Why are you here? What is even going on anymore, and why do you have so little defined battle role that I can forget that there's a literal alien just walking around?

5) Scrafty - I don't like its aesthetic. I don't like the punk aesthetic at all. It does nothing for me. I'm also supremely pissed about Fighting/Dark type. Before Fairies showed up, this was devastating for a Psychic-lover like me. When Drapion covered Poison types, that was fine. Poison wasn't that good, and it could use the help. But Fighting types? Fighting types are my food, and this bastard prevents that. Add to it that Dark became incredibly common as a coverage type on Fighting types, and it's just a whole mess for my favorite type. I'm glad Fairy type blasted your ass back down the totem pole.

4) Simisage/Simisear - Believe it or not, Simipour, I think, is just cute enough to avoid my ire. These two, however, are not. I've stated it before, but I don't like monkeys. I also don't like that these Pokemon have virtually no battle use. Their stats are bad and their movepools are bad. I also don't remember how to get them beyond the free one you get before the first gym, where they exist to counter the first gym's type choice and do nothing else. I could keep going, but that seems like overkill.

3) Sawk/Throh - I decided to combine the two, because I can't decide which I like less. In a similar vein to the next entry, their designs are what bother me. Kung Fu Burt and Ernie. Okay, sure. Why are these things even here? Did we really need more Fighting types? I know it's a whole "mirror to gen 1" thing with the fresh start, but maybe it would've been better to not try to make knock-off Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee.

2) Conkeldurr line - Not quite the bottom of the barrel, but close enough that it makes little difference. Conkeldurr is exactly what I dislike about the Fighting type. Its design is not good. Its stats are perfectly calibrated to hit hard and take physical hits. It gets recovery from Drain Punch, Dark-type moves to wreck every Psychic that tries to stop it, priority in Mach Punch, fantastic coverage options, and I just...I hate that it's good. I hate it. Because it looks so bad, and the things that make it good, in my mind, make it too good. It shouldn't be able to answer every single Psychic type in the game. It should be able to answer status play that tries to wear it down. But it does all of this flawlessly and I hate it. You basically have to be a Fairy type or a really strong Flying type, and I just want this thing dead already!

1) Landorus-Therian - If you have to ask, you haven't been here long. Lando-T is the bane of my damned existence. I don't like its look. I don't like that its ability meshes perfectly with its battle role. I don't like that, competitively, Smogon has it on 50%+ of teams depending on the season, and yet it's still obviously out of the question that it could ever be too good and need to be banned. I hate this thing beyond all other Pokemon. It would've just been a form I'd never use under normal circumstances, but instead, because of fan reception and competitive play, it's probably my most disliked Pokemon, and one of maybe five I actively hate.

#regional pokedex opinions #unova pokedex

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uhxrp · 4 years

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faq

questions, comments, and concerns are always going to come up that you might not be certain how to answer. whether this is about the site's future or just to clarify information (because it is, to be fair, a lot of information), the staff is here to answer them always. as such, as time goes on we'll gather the most frequently asked of these and list the answers, for everyone to reference, but for now we’ve compiled a list based on what we think might come up most often. if you think of a question we maybe should add that isn't answered below or hasn't been satisfactorily answered, please feel free to contact a staff member and we'll be glad to do so for you! what we have thus far will be beneath the cut.

WILL MORE SPECIES BE ADDED?

in the future, we will definitely be trying to keep things fresh and that will probably involve adding more species. however, we chose to start out with a significant base of species so that new members wouldn't get overwhelmed trying to read through everything and trying to make decisions on character creations, while balancing the desire to provide a variety of choices for all types of plot lines and characters.

to start off, unholy has eight free species, and we think this is a very healthy number. additionally, unholy has eight points based species that can be purchased, bringing the total number to sixteen total species available. at this time, we do not see a need to add anything further, as that in and of itself is a lot of information for any site, nonetheless any site's member, to retain and expand upon.

now, that being said, staff will look over the chance to release new species as the site and its plot progresses, as well as based on what we hear that members would like to see on site. we don't mind suggestions for new species on the site and we will be looking for these to see if we need to add anything to our species list, so feel free to contact us if you have these thoughts. we do not ever guarantee that anything will be put into our site lore, but we are always looking for comments and suggestions on what you would like to see, and we're very open to receiving these.

all things considered, staff will not be adding angels, demons, gods, wendigo, or any half-variety of these beings to the lore for different reasons. angels, demons, gods, and demi-gods seem too overpowered for the most part for staff to allow. nephilim (half-angel, half-human) and cambion (half-demon, half-human) feel like they have the potential to also become overpowered, as well as feel unnecessary due to our seelie/unseelie fey availabilities for any light vs dark plots. as for the latter listed species as a possibility, we do not wish to step in any way towards cultural appropriation or cause any offense therein and will not be touching them in any way. same goes for any other culturally sensitive potential species, please keep in mind. in this, we hope you will understand our decision has been fully made and finalized.

ISN'T WITCH A TERM THAT ONLY APPLIES TO FEMALE CHARACTERS?

the word "witch" actually derives from the old english words "wicca" and "wicce", masculine and feminine forms for magic users more of less. this later became "wicche", which meant the same without distinguishing any set gender or binary. over time, it has become more specified to the gender binary, but we're throwing that out here entirely. so, in the case of our site, "witch" is being used in that original context, based on "wicche" which has no specified gender. here on unholy, "witch" has no set gender or binary relation, so a character who is a witch could be male, female, or anything else that fits.

additionally, the words "wicca" and "wicce" are thought to have originally meant "wise one" with the earliest references to these words in old english always seeming to be associated with fortune telling and “teaching”, based on that foreknowledge, just in case you'd like to throw that into your threads at all. we hope this helps!

CAN I PLAY A HISTORICAL FIGURE OR THE DESCENDANT OF SOMEONE FROM HISTORY?

for the first part of this question, the answer is a hard no. especially given how complicated it can get, we do not want to get into historical figures as characters on site. this is also part of the reason we don't allow characters over a certain age, in fact, and try to keep things within the last millennia here on site. keep in mind, however, that basing characters off of historical figures (say, giulia tofana, for instance) is completely acceptable, as long as it isn't a carbon copy. inspiration is appreciated, so keep it to inspiration, please.

as far as the second part of this question goes, the question is pretty broad. we will have to take these ideas on a case by case basis. so if this is something that you want, please come to a member of staff so we can talk about it. if you're thinking of someone super close to a historical figure, such as marie laveau's granddaughter turned into a vampire or something, it's probably going to be a hard no. but if you're wanting to play a character further descended and maybe a little more obscure, we could maybe work with it depending on how you put it in the application and what your plan is.

now, having random small and non consequential mentions of your character meeting a historical or important figure that has long passed - like a vampire having had a one off encounter with elizabeth bathory or something - that we're down to have in applications as long as they are passing. anything more substantial than that, reach out to staff. we can talk about any ideas you may have and probably work it out.

again, though, the preference is to stay away from things like these because they can be kind of maltifaceted in staying respectful to the fact these were real life people, but we get wanting to play with them and having cool ideas and we want to work with you guys to allow for creative freedom as much as possible. as always, it's best to check ideas with big implications like these over with the staff team, and we thank you for doing so in advance.

WHAT ABOUT NEW ORLEANS' REAL LIFE DEMOGRAPHICS, IS THIS BEING SHOWCASED?

MULTICULTURAL NEW ORLEANS & MULTICULTURAL FESTIVALS

MULTICULTURAL TRADITIONS & MULTICULTURAL HISTORY

NEW ORLEANS HISTORY & LGBT+ NEW ORLEANS

NEW ORLEANS ACCESSIBILITY & NEW ORLEANS CULTURAL ARTS

we want to say, very adamantly, that yes we want this to be showcased. new orleans is a predominantly Black city, a predominantly poc city. we want the rich african history showcased immensely. that being said, we also want new orleans' rich creole, cajun, french, spanish, latinx, native american, irish, german, etc. history showcased with it. new orleans is and always will be rich with multicultural diversity, and its history shows this time and time again. we chose new orleans for this reason, because of its rich history and diversity, supernatural and otherwise. we want to invite you to reach into its depths with your characters, in any way you can imagine, and bring this to life in your plot lines. new orleans is a city that masters muse and mysticism and is a melting pot of cultures like no other, and we invite you to work with this however your imagination can come up with. we recognize that new orleans is predominately Black, and we ask that you keep this in mind and invite you to make Black characters that tell these stories and soak up this history - but we ask that you do it with respect, always.

we also want to note that in no way do we ever want to take away from the real life wonder that is new orleans, and specifically its majority Black population. we chose new orleans as our setting because of its deep roots with supernatural lore as an addition to muse and magic, but also because it was a melting pot that allowed for stories of all kinds, and more importantly because of its real life history after the vietnamese war. to summarize, many vietnamese immigrants settled in new orleans to escape the incoming communist regime after the vietnamese war, and new orleans was welcoming. the catholic charities spearheaded efforts to help new residents find jobs and housing, and this is just one of the many instances where this happened in new orleans' history. the people helped each other, new and old, and they have been welcoming in history to newcomers and tourists alike (of all types, with more links on this as well as other possibly useful new orleans information below). new orleans prides itself on being a city welcoming to all - from racial diversity, to sexual/romantic orientation diversity, to diversity in people with and without disabilities. with our emergence plot and some real life themes of prejudices that could go with them, new orleans' history and lore made sense for this, to respect the good this wonderful real life city had put out into the world, not tear from it.

please also note that in our plot everything in new orleans changed as of 2006. people from all over the united states (and potentially the world), from every walk of life and different region and different diversity, started being ferried into the safety of new orleans after the emergence of supernaturals. new orleans was, in our plot, a city with a more tolerant attitude towards supernaturals due to its history with them and rich diversity of supernatural inhabitants already established there, so a lot of its climate developed in that time to allow for characters of any and all types to find it and end up in our setting, should you have an idea for a potentially unconventional character outside of the mixture that new orleans has in real life and want to bring them to the site. this will allow for you to do that with recognition to other histories and ideas as well, but again we ask that you always do this with respect to the origin and real life ethnicities of face claims used.

additionally, this is one of the reasons that our face claim rules are very lax. we recognize that the media is very focused on the european standard - which is to say white, able bodied, thin, etc. - and we have to work against this in an effort to allow for the lesser recognized face claims of color, plus size face claims, trans/nonbinary face claims, or face claims with disabilities. we want this site to be inclusionary and accepting and welcoming to all, and respecting its location is central to that focus and that mission. we are, always, making efforts to work towards this and keep true to that - and this is just another way we are doing that, by making it a lot easier to work against a biased media to bring those stories to life here on unholy.

we ask that you keep all of this in mind when writing on our site. we ask that you recognize and respect the real life wonder that is the city of new orleans. in summary, we ask that you stay respectful of both the realism featured, as well as the suspension of disbelief our plot allows for, and keep in mind everything that goes into making new orleans what new orleans really is and why it is a city worth wanting to stage a roleplay in. above are some cool reference pages via the new orleans city website for more information, to add to those featured in our setting page, if you'd like to check them out. thank you.

WHAT ABOUT VOODOO OR SANTERIA? CAN WE USE THIS?

LOUISIANA VOODOO & NEW ORLEANS VOODOO

AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS & AFRICAN DIASPORA RELIGIONS

CUBAN SANTERIA PRACTICES & WITCHCRAFT IN LATIN AMERICA

VOODOO & SANTERIA & CURANDERO & CANDOMBLE

OBEAH & PALO & HOODOO & RELIGION WIKI

the short answer is yes, you can use this - but it must be with an ethnically correct character for that religion/spirituality which is to say the character must be Black for voodoo, and latinx, afro-latinx, or Black for santeria. yes, but the character cannot be white - and we have an explanation for you as to why.

during our site buzz period, a member came to us with a question - does the staff have any rules in place about non poc’s practicing things like voodoo or santeria? with the clarification that this is important because of new orleans’ history with this and the plotlines therein. because of this, we reached out to the rpc, because it felt like we needed more opinions, specifically from Black roleplayers and we are so grateful for those who contributed their viewpoints.

with the collective of information we received, we implemented the rule of not allowing white characters to practice voodoo, santeria, or any spiritualities/religions similar to these in origin. each of these practices have deep ties to people of color through culture and origins - Black culture specifically for voodoo, and latinx, afro-latinx, and Black culture with santeria. through these discussions, it is our understanding that allowing those outside of these ethnic groups to be involved with these practices/religious views would be along the lines of cultural appropriation, and that is something we do not condone and cannot allow. therefore, those involved with voodoo, santeria, brujeria, curandero practices, or really any variations of these or similar spiritualities, beliefs, or practices must have historical ties as we cannot take away the origins of their development, and they must be of the right ethnic group to do so, for example via ancestral experiences of oppression and slavery derivation as per the spiritualities' origins.

one of the takeaways we discussed would be the severely negative repercussions that would follow practicing magic outside of their culture and would be cause for devastating consequences that wouldn’t be practical in our rp community. religion and spirituality are deeply personal and we want to condone respect for all. truth is, there are plenty of religions and spiritualities with other origins out there, such as wicca or stregheria, and we welcome you to research them and portray them with respect and accuracy as well, and there are plenty of religions and spiritualities that don't have these ties that white characters can take part in.

with that being said, if you choose to create a character of color and respect the authenticity of these practices, we have included links above for research purposes of these carious practices and spiritualities and their origins for authenticity but encourage you to do more and go above and beyond to ensure accuracy and respect. This accuracy and respect needs to be shown through the character being portrayed correctly - a Black character with voodoo, a latinx/afro-latinx/Black character with santeria, and so on. this is, at all times, our goal. thank you in advance for keeping this in mind.

additionally, the point stands that our lore allows for there not to be a need for spirituality or religion in characters in order to practice witchcraft, magic being inherent like an ability or trait that is hereditary vs through spirituality, so to play into these storylines we ask that you be respectful of the true nature of these. modern or new age witchcraft in the real world has been culturally appropriating for some time, with white sage as an example, and we will not allow that on our site.

to summarize, if you want to play with these spiritualities in writing, make a character that fits and respect it. research is key, respecting the origin is key, and we have to agree with that and keep this rule in place to be as respectful as possible on our side.

please also note that this rule goes for all religions and spiritualities: be respectful of origin and what the character who would choose this should look like, ethnicity wise. be respectful of authenticity and please do not every make a stereotype or caricature of something very real such as these things.

thank you!

#unhxlyrp #faq #updates

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21stcenturymen · 7 years

Text

Women Do Not Want to Be Raped

RATING: Mature

I want to be clear about this week’s rating. The content I’m going to reference is the worst kind of hateful misinformation, and it’s not healthy for… really, anyone to be exposed to. That said, the post itself is only mildly “mature” in content. I want men in particular to read all the way to the end, but for anyone who’s been victimized by men who spew hateful, misogynist rhetoric, this post may not be for you.

I’m going to begin by discussing the man who essentially started the “Red Pill” movement. It would be easy to call folks like Robert Fisher “garbage” or “toxic” or any of those epithets for people we wish we could block from taking up space in our minds. But there’s so much more to this than the quality of person he is. Robert Fisher is a symptom, not a cause. His belief - that women want to be raped or that there’s some magic potion (e.g. the red pill) that would make everyone see that subservience to cis-men is the right and just state of being for humanity - didn’t begin with him. It began ages ago, and for who knows what reason.

Perhaps somewhere in prehistory a dude realized that men couldn’t give birth and insisted on holding women accountable for all of humanity’s flaws to make up for it. It’s likely this jealousy is part of why Abrahamic religions latch onto the Eve story: women suffer childbirth because Eve was foolish and took the apple from the serpent. But let’s be real, here. That’s bullshit. That story was passed down through oral tradition as an allegory for having faith in the design of a creator, and inked into permanence as Eve’s sin (as opposed to Adam’s) to ensure we blame women specifically instead of just the poor schmuck who happened to be tempted first. If it’s an allegory for lacking faith, it shouldn’t matter who sinned. But as it’s clearly a tool for creating subservience, the choice of Eve as the sinner is no mistake.*

Fast forward a few millennia, and we have Return of Kings, The Spearhead (thankfully, now defunct), A Voice For Men (‘cause we’re lacking, apparently), The Red Pill, and a host of other cellar-dwelling sites that cater to our basest fears of inadequacy. If we can’t succeed with women, it’s clearly their fault, and these sites will not only tell us why, but arm us with all the tools we need to win** every internet debate about gender rights. I’m going to tell you right now, they’re wrong.

Shocking, right? Yeah, this isn’t one of those “I see where they’re coming from, but…” types of situations. These guys are wrong. Their hypotheses are flawed, their arguments contradictory, and their evidence not only lacking, but completely fabricated. It requires an advanced course in cognitive dissonance to even comprehend how these guys hold the competing thoughts they do. While I wish to encourage debate, free thought, and compassionate discourse, I will hold no quarter for out-and-out lies, distortions, and self pitying slander of half the human race. The men who run these sites are sad, pathetic men. And here’s what they do.

Men like Paul Elam take their own failings, fears, and inadequacies, align them with those of other men, and package and sell a solution - of sorts. Elam coined his ex’s dislike of him “misandry” and packaged it as an explanation for any time a woman doesn’t do whatever the hell he wants. And that’s easy, right? We take our own failings and blame them on other people as a quick way to feel better about ourselves. But it’s not a permanent one.

As a metaphor: When you want to build a house on an already-developed plot, you don’t just start building on the ruins of the previous structure, do you? Of course not. That’d be a surefire way to collapse your new structure. Elam, Fisher, and the soon-to-be-discussed Roy Den Hollander would tell you otherwise, though. You just blame your neighbors for not care-taking land they didn’t own, build on top of the ruins, and keep piling on junk until there’s the appearance of something stable. This is true both of their paper-thin arguments and their personal lives.

Admitting you’re wrong and seeking to change is the moment when you clear off the junk and fix the foundation. It sucks. Personal growth is hard and sad and disappointing at times, but the long-term result is much more structurally sound. These men sell ideas and prop up their personal lives with garbage, and it shows.

Roy Den Hollander has filed federal lawsuits over such things as NYC “Ladies Nights” and forcing women to register for the draft. He continually has his suits thrown out due to a complete lack of legal footing, and the fact the courts consistently determine he’s basing the suits on his own personal preferences. Elam started A Voice For Men as a way to pile vitriol on top of his own failings, and Fisher started the Red Pill as a way to push his completely fictional agenda for subjugating women.

They preach hate as a salve for self doubt, and for a painfully vocal number of men, it’s quite appealing. This hate is rooted in fear. The fear of being bad, of being “less than,” of not meeting the desires of others. We turn fear around as loathing of those who might reject us. This is a self defense mechanism, and a very poor one, because we just keep heaping that shit on top of an already dysfunctional foundation.

And there's a difference between playing on fears and discussing subject matter that makes people afraid. For example, when CNN, NPR, or Al Jazeera talk about the U.S. President threatening nuclear holocaust on North Korea, that's not "playing on people's fears." Though there are certainly sensationalistic ways to present it, the information itself isn't playing on pre-existing fears. There's a narcissistic, ignorant man with access to the nuclear football. As a human who enjoys existing on this planet, you should be afraid of that.

When I say "playing on fears" in reference to sites like Return of Kings and the others, I'm talking about creating news and sensation out of things you were already afraid of. Everyone is afraid of losing their job. Everyone is afraid of being emasculated and made to be subservient when we haven't given consent to do so. Everyone is afraid of feeling "less than." So, in come these hate sites, knowing you're afraid of those things, and whether your fear is legitimate or not, they already know who to blame. Convenient, isn't it?

Women taking over society isn't real, and it couldn't be even if they wanted to. And here, for the first and only time, are you allowed to compare feminists to Nazis, because if actual fucking Nazis couldn't take over the world, do you really think women or people of color who want the right to vote without being intimidated are going to accomplish what the Third Reich couldn't? And with far fewer firearms? Because, let’s face it, white men own more firearms than anyone else. Supposedly to protect themselves from… something? Trust me. Feminists, LGBTQIA folks, and people of color are not attempting to take over anything except their own peace of mind and personal safety.

Where these sites want you to take stock of all your faults, all your frailties, and all your fears, and lay the blame at women as if it's common sense to do so, I want you to use actual common sense and say, "Yeah, that's ridiculous. A forced takeover of half the planet's population is super unlikely, so I should get back to managing my own damn life."

PURPOSE: Take responsibility for your fears and failings. If you think someone’s going to ‘take something away’ from you, odds are you just fear that and the threat isn’t real. Don’t lash out in search of conflict where there isn’t any. Keep your own house in order. In fact, knock it down and fix the foundation and remember that’s your task to undertake. No one else’s.

Learn to spot bullshit. When you see news, or websites, or resources that identify a specific cause of an issue (a corporation that pollutes a reservoir or a jerk who defrauds investors and takes advantage of sick people) and they have legitimate sources to cover their asses? You can probably trust them, but always keep a watchful eye. When you see links and content that blame entire groups of people (Like FOX news blaming Muslims in general for violence or any of the sites above blaming women for… really anything) don’t just turn it down. Turn it off. Familiarize yourself with bullshit enough to spot it and refuse to give it your time or attention.

Women do not want to be raped, and if you have a friend who starts quoting Robert Fisher, Roy Den Hollander, Paul Elam, or any of their hateful acolytes saying women do want to be raped, call them out. Tell them they’re quoting hate mongers. Tell them they’re seeking to avoid blame for their own feelings of inadequacy. Tell them they’re on a dangerous slope toward true emotional annihilation and alienation. Tell them you smell their bullshit and you won’t stand for it.

Next Up: Misdirected Rage

*I’m aware most established religions and denominations of Christianity in general try to shy away from blaming Eve specifically. If your church is referring to this story as gender neutral, awesome! I understand not all believers are cut from the same cloth. This is about the many denominations and sects of the Abrahamic religions who do choose to subjugate women and use Eve as one of the many reasons why. Also, it’s just an example. Try not to get too hung up on literality.

**Does anyone ever really “win” an internet debate?

#21stcenturymen #red pill #men's rights activism #MRA #bullshit #a voice for men #original sin #EveWasFramed #personal responsibility

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pixelproductions · 4 years

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How to Use Mental Models for a Stunning Web Design

Using mental models in web design to improve user experience, engagement and goal performance, if you’re not familiar with mental models — take a look.

These days, almost every business runs its own website – with varying degrees of success. Fortunately, you don’t need magic tricks to make your page rank high and attract users. It all comes down to a couple of factors that can be easily explained.

Even though they are unfamiliar to many, mental models are among the most important aspects of human-computer interaction. This concept is by no means new, yet it certainly is the future of web design. Their main purpose is to improve the functionality of your website and user experience. In this article, we’ll explain everything you need to know about mental models and why they’re crucial in modern web design. Let’s go!

What Are Mental Models?

First, let’s quickly dive into the history and definition of mental models. The term was coined by a Scottish psychologist and philosopher, Kenneth Craik, in 1943. Craik used it to describe the ways of how the world works, as perceived by other people. Mental models, which refer to patterns that can be observed and studied in the real world, are also relatable in the digital form.

You may be wondering, how is that? Mental models are based on beliefs instead of facts. They consist of the users’ opinions on how a particular system, like your website, works. As such, they’ll plan their future interactions with it based on predictions about it. These predictions then contribute to their mental model of said system.

While individual users are bound to have different mental models, they are sure to share some common characteristics. If you want to use mental models to improve your web design, you will focus on these similarities. It’s a complex process, and if you’ve never used them before, you may feel a bit lost and not know where to start. However, there are companies, such as Edge Marketing, that focus on recalibrating your business’s digital image to provide you with the best user response.

What’s the Difference Between UI and UX?

These two abbreviations appear whenever the issue of mental models is brought up. You may be wondering what UI and UX are and how they are different.

UI, or user interface, is the point of interaction between a human and a computer. It refers to communication within a device, including display screens, desktop design, keyboards, and a mouse. It also consists of the ways through which users interact with a website or an app. UI deals with tangible concepts, such as the elements of visual design, including colors and typography.

UX, or user experience, evolved from the improvements to UI. Once there was something to interact with, people could have all sorts of different reactions to a website and its offer. As such, user experience covers all aspects of users’ interactions with the brand, its products, and services. Peter Morville, a specialist in information architecture, defined an effective UX design as something that’s useful, usable, credible, valuable, desirable, accessible, and findable.

While UI deals with the observable aspects of website design, UX focuses on conceptual factors. Mental models combine these two aspects, directly influencing the appearance and reception of your website.

Mental Models in Web Design

According to Jakob’s Law of the Internet User Experience, “Users spend most of their time on other sites” – that is, other than yours. As such, other sites are going to influence their mental models to a considerable extent. Internet users will have specific standards and expectations regarding web design. That’s why many sites or apps look very similar to each other and share the same features.

Here’s how mental models work in web design. Throughout the years of internet use, people have learned how things work online. They browse the web and perform various operations, more and more often without even thinking. For example, they can go to any page related to online shopping and know that a search box will be on the homepage, while the shopping cart link is going to be placed in the upper right corner. A logo will be in the top left corner, and the links they visit are likely to change color. A page that doesn’t conform to these standards will be confusing, and many users will find it difficult to navigate.

If you notice that your website doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to, it probably means your clients have different mental models. They think your page should operate differently, and if you don’t implement changes fast enough, they’ll be frustrated, which can prompt them to leave negative reviews or even stop using your site. That’s why implementing the right design that’s going to fit your website’s purpose and agree with your clients’ mental models is so important.

Mental Model Mismatch

Understanding the concept of mental models is your best bet to improve the usability of your website. However, sometimes you may think you have a great idea, but after implementing it, your users, unfortunately, disagree with you. Even though the project was ambitious and carried out to the letter, people still found it impractical and difficult to follow.

That kind of situation is a mental model mismatch. It happens when your design experience exceeds that of your users. As such, people who use your website consider it too complicated and overwhelming. Despite your best efforts, they don’t understand how the onscreen elements work and what they do. This means that the UX gets worse as the cost of interaction increases.

Whenever users fail to understand the new interface, they tend to get frustrated and may even quit using it whatsoever. Don’t get discouraged, though! Even the best design agencies sometimes make these kinds of errors. Now you may be wondering how to avoid mental model mismatch? We’ll explain it right now!

Mental Model Matching Techniques

Even after a few missteps, you can get back on track and improve your website’s design. Here’s what you should consider doing to make it more user-friendly:

Think About Your Users

The first step you have to take if you want to have a successful website is to determine your client base. Depending on your website’s content, you’re going to attract users of different nationalities, ages, and even genders. All these factors impact your page’s usability, as not all users are going to exhibit the same mental models. That’s why you should consider analyzing your client base.

You can perform your user research and gather data, as well as all the essential statistics. With these data, you can create user personas that represent an ideal client base of your website. Based on this information, you can then design your website to fit the mental models of your user base. Feel free to test some solutions and adjust your ideas as you go. Keep an eye on user satisfaction and feedback; if you cater to your clients’ needs, they’ll keep coming back to you.

Follow Certain Trends

People might not even be aware of how much planning goes into website design. Still, they prefer some websites over other, similar pages, thus generating traffic and profits. These more successful pages may be better known, reliable, or may offer things other pages don’t. However, there’s a simple explanation: they’re also more user-friendly.

Many trends in design occur as a way to improve usability and user experience. Some of them also cater to a specific age group or a particular type of industry. However, it all boils down to making the UI as user-friendly as possible to increase the UX. All these trends became popular because what they have to offer really meets user expectations. Consider doing thorough research on them. If you think your client base is going to find the new design more user-friendly, feel free to make some adjustments.

Learn From the Big Sites

While observing trends and applying them to your website is generally a good idea, copying everything you see is just the opposite. Sometimes the already available patterns are too widespread and generic to be an excellent match to your website. Adding to that, some mental models work well for certain types of websites. However, when you apply them to your website, having an entirely different business model and client base, it might be a huge miss. Also, you may simply dislike the way they look and refuse to apply them despite their popularity. That’s why you should consider checking big, authoritative websites from your field and see how they do it.

Steve Jobs once said, “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” While following his quote to the word is not advisable, you should think about the underlying meaning of these words. If you look at the websites of extremely successful brands, like Apple, YouTube, or Netflix, or at websites considered authoritative in your field, you’ll know that their success doesn’t come from anywhere.

When it comes to those who made it big in the industry, you can be sure that behind the success of their websites, there’s an adequate mental model – or a well-blended mix that speaks volumes to their users. Figure out what makes a website so popular and usable, and try to implement it to your advantage. Nevertheless, keep in mind that well-known brands operate in a different context. Some of their UI elements may be worth copying while implementing others is not going to work on your page. As such, you can get inspiration from the big players and focus on the usability and purpose of your website.

The Bottom Line

Mental models are the future of successful web design. Understanding your users’ needs and expectations is key to making your website both useful and popular. Remember that your clients already have experience from using other websites; thus, they’ll want you to implement similar patterns and provide them with certain features. Make your page unique but usable; observe trends and the big names in the industry, and do your best to cater to your user base. If you put your clients first, you’re bound to have a successful online presence, regardless of your chosen field.

#how to use mental models for a stunning web design

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spriterpt · 5 years

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Hello Liss. This is Fairy Godmother. I am gathering information on behalf of King Ben to all Heroes, Villains, and their Descendants; asking them what they think of Auradon University. Could I please ask you for your opinion on our establishment, so that I may take notes on how we can better improve it? Thank you.

AN OPINION FOR: auradonurp.

Please keep in mind that all statements below the cut reflect only my subjective opinion.

THEME: I’m not sure how I feel about the color scheme here. It works for me in the graphics, but the theme looks like it clashes. I would maybe consider more grey and less blue, or change it up and make the background grey or blue and the accents red. This theme is pretty basic and not the most eye-catching to me personally, but I’ll talk about how the graphics play into that below.

GRAPHICS: The graphics are nice, and spice up the theme. I particularly like the custom-made admin GIFs. They make the posts look neater and tie the page together. I also like the header. I don’t really recognize anything that’s in it (I’ve never seen Descendants so maybe I just can’t pick it out), except for the people to the right, but it just looks nice. The colors are pretty and the red is perfectly scattered throughout the image. I’m not as big a fan of the sidebar graphic. It doesn’t hold as much substance to me, and rather than the red being sprinkled on it like in the header, it’s all in one very aggressively red spot. I don’t think it’s necessary for both of the graphics to have the roleplay name on them, and I think it makes more sense for the header to have it. I also don’t like the font used for the roleplay name. I think something a little bit neater would look better. Similarly, I definitely think the navigation graphic having the roleplay name is overkill, but I like the graphic itself. It also has the red peppered throughout and each part of it looks pretty. As for the skeleton graphics, they all look really nice on their own, with their little pops of color. Together, they seem a little bit disjointed, but it’s not bad since they’re all so different. I would reconsider the graphic for Mal, as the green text doesn’t match anything in the picture. The character pages look nice, some nicer than others based on how well the colors work together. I actually like that each character has their own color scheme. The graphics for the dorm rooms are nice too, but the text isn’t properly justified. The text should all either be centered or all the way to the left or right. The app count graphic is one of my favorites, simple but very pretty and interesting.

DESCRIPTION: I like that the description includes basic information about the type of RP and age requirements so that potential applicants can know right away if this is the right kind of RP for them. I would personally put the info that you have in the first chunk of your description at the end, and have your ‘actual’ description come first. The description seems to succinctly explain what the premise of the RP is and what makes your RP different than other Descendants RPs.

NAVIGATION: I like the navigation. I like that the partial navigation fits perfectly into your theme. It includes the most important links, and it seems like someone could apply without having to go to the full navigation at all. The full navigation includes a lot of good extra information, though. I will say that in the ‘after acceptance’ section the blockquote is broken and the line shows up in pieces instead of just being one smooth line. I don’t really know how to better describe it but you should be able to see what I mean. All of the links work and lead to the proper page!

PLOT IDEA: I’ll preface this by saying I’ve never seen Descendants, I don’t know what it’s about or anything about the characters. But this seems like an idea that probably hasn’t been done. I think RPs that are based around something Internet-related like this can be really interesting. The plot also gives writers the opportunity to delve into the character in a completely new way.

PLOT WRITING: First off, I feel like each word in “bringing it down” should be capitalized. The sentence about King Ben doesn’t make sense to me. It says he’s caught up with “this learning”, but I don’t know what “this learning” is. You also have the word ‘villain’ capitalized only some of the time–consistency is key and makes the page look neater. Otherwise, I think the writing is good. The second paragraph is sort of lost on me since I haven’t seen it and am not really into Disney, but it seems to explain the situation well. The summary brings up something about the king taking courses, which isn’t mentioned in the actual plot and doesn’t make sense to me, probably because I haven’t seen it. Beyond that it provides important information. The only other change I’d make is putting a period at the end of the very last sentence (the link).

GUIDELINES: First of all, these rules are very long. I would try to shorten them. People are likely to just skim them, and since the password is right at the bottom, they don’t have to read carefully to get it. On multiple occasions, you mention that muns under the age of 18 should not participate in NSFW plots or interactions. However, you also state that muns must be 18+, so that rule is irrelevant. I would take it out to shorten up the rules a little bit. I think it’s a little weird that you’ll allow face claim changes for certain characters but possibly not for others because a certain admin chose them. I don’t think players should be limited only to icons, as many people prefer small GIFs instead and can find more/better resources that way. I know you have a resource blog, but there are still many more options if you allow regular GIFs as well. You link to xkit in the rules with no explanation. Maybe say something like “Please cut your posts! If you don’t know how, download xkit and come to the main with any questions you may have!” I’m not sure your reasoning for not allowing sideblogs, but I would reconsider that rule, personally. It makes it much more difficult to remain active on multiple characters. Your shipping section is very long and could probably be shortened into just a few sentences. All you need to say is that no canon ships are canon in the RP, no canon ships are required to happen in the RP, and forcing ships is against the rules. The NSFW and triggers sections could probably be combined into one, as self-harm and depression are triggers. There are also two misspellings–”before hand” should be “beforehand”, and “insure” should be “ensure”.

APPLICATION: First of all, I love that you guys have a site you can use to apply??? I think that’s so cool. But it’s also cool that you allow people to just apply through Tumblr if they prefer that. I like that you let applicants put whatever they want as a writing sample, whether it be a bio or a para or whatnot. It doesn’t make sense to me to say “No reason why they’re (positive traits). It would make more sense to me to say “No reason why they’re (negative traits). It’s unusual to not allow a muse to be any older than their faceclaim. Most RPs implement a 5-year difference rule, which allows more flexibility for muns. The app goes from asking the mun questions (“what is your muse’s biggest fear?”) to asking the muse questions (”what high school did you graduate from?”) without any warning or separation of the sections. It doesn’t change anything, but makes it seem kind of inconsistent. When you ask for the major, the wording is kind of confusing. I would maybe say “What is your major? If you’ll be double majoring, please place both of your majors here.” Asking immediately about double majors makes it seem like you’re only asking about double majors. I think it’s kind of strange to have muns write out connections to characters they haven’t plotted with yet–it’s almost like godmodding? What happens if the person who takes up one of those characters doesn’t want that connection? There’s also one small typo where you said “ship” instead of “skip”.

CHARACTERS: I like the character pages a lot. They’re really cute and the different color schemes give each character a bit of, well, character. The connections section is helpful and the social media section gives a little personality. The theme of the character page itself is very basic, which is great because that means it doesn’t look way different from your main theme and clash. It also makes everything very neat. I just checked and it’s actually pretty mobile accessible, you just have to zoom in.

OTHER PAGES:

FAMILIES: The first thing I noticed was that both ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’ are spelled wrong on this page. I’m not sure why the page lists so many people that aren’t available characters, but I may just be missing why that’s important because I’ve never seen it.

APP COUNT: I normally wouldn’t even bother bringing up the app count page, however I think yours is really cute! I would avoid labelling the characters by gender here, though, since someone could apply for a character and change their gender to non-binary.

CLASSES: It doesn’t make sense to me that Algebra is available only to juniors and seniors, when a lot of people come into college as a freshman already starting at a higher level of math than that. There’s also a couple of classes under ‘general’ that should probably be under ‘magic’.

MAJORS AND MINORS: I think there should be a wider selection, or at least a note stating that muns can choose a major or minor that isn’t listed. There are two typos–no space between “Voodoo Magic” and “Or an emphasis” (this could also be made into one sentence if you wanted), and “there focus” instead of “their focus”.

BLOGROLL: You have two ways to follow everyone in your navigation, and both of them are inconvenient. You should use your /followed/by/ link instead so that muns can just go down the line and follow everyone instead of opening up each blog. I know you link to that in your checklist, but it should be in the navigation, too.

DORMS: This includes the most important basic information about what the rooms are like. I think it’s pretty unrealistic for a college dorm room to have two separate bathrooms, but who said a RP has to be realistic?

OVERALL: A couple little things that didn’t fit into any of the other sections–only some of your pages have titles, others don’t. It makes the pages look inconsistent. I personally think the pages look a lot better with titles than without, so I would add titles to all of the pages. I also see you’ve been tagging your posts with ‘appless RP’--this isn’t an appless RP and shouldn’t be in that tag. Anyway, moving on! I don’t know much about Descendants RPs, but this seems like an original idea, and a fun one to write about. The graphics overall look nice and consistent. I think the pages you have up include a lot of information about the RP and are easy to follow. I love that you have both resource and inspo blogs to help applicants and muns, and again, I adore the application site! The admins seem very active, which is key to a thriving RP. There are a few tweaks that could be made, but I think this is a pretty strong RP!

#descendants rp #supernatural rp #college rp #town rp #lsrpg #opinion #auradonurp

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jccamus · 5 years

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How Color Impacts UX

Let’s start with a common example: You’ve just finished a website design for someone. It looks and functions exactly like the wireframe. Everyone on the design team has praised the project. The client hates it, but they can’t explain why.

The culprit might be color. Different colors can evoke such strong emotions that people have sharp reactions to them. It’s part personal preference, part psychological, and even part social norms. Understanding these tendencies and user preferences can greatly impact user experience.

Here’s what you need to know.

User Expectations and Preferences

User experience starts with the type of user your website or app is designed for. Basic demographics such as gender or region where a user lives can impact their perception of your design based on color. (You can read more about color and cultural considerations here.)

One of the most interesting impacts from color on UX is linked to gender. Studies have shown that men and women tend to like and dislike certain types of color.

Men tend to interact more with websites that have darker design schemes and more saturated colors, such as the design for VLNC Studio, above.

Women tend to prefer to interact with websites that have lighter design schemes and more muted color palettes, such as Tally, below.

Some men have a sharp reaction to websites using distinctly feminine colors such as pastel pinks, purples, and yellows.

More women tend to be put off by websites with harsh color schemes such as dark background with fully saturated red accents.

Mid-tone palettes are the most generally appealing to everyone.

Color Associations and Meanings

While it’s not an exact science, colors have fairly distinct emotional associations. Note that some colors can fall into categories of extremes. These associations tend to work with other design elements to create an overall vibe.

When a user sees a certain color or combination of colors, it creates an immediate response in the brain.

Red: Power, danger, love/passion, hunger

Yellow: Energy, happiness, light, warmth

Orange: Creativity, determination, stimulation, encouragement

Green: Nature, growth, harmony, freshness

Blue: Confidence, trust, serenity, calmness

Purple: Magic, royalty, ambition, independence

Establishing Brand Recognition

You expect design elements for Coca-Cola to be red. The color is so synonymous with the brand that it’s referred to as “Coke red.” Change the color and the brand is confusing. You don’t recognize it right away. The user is jarred and doesn’t quite react in the expected fashion. The drink might even seem to taste different.

All of those feelings come from changing the color. You might have felt yourself say “what?” when you saw the first image with green Coca-Cola branding.

It impacted the user experience you would have with the brand moving forward.

Color is an important element in branding because it creates that distinct connected between a user and a design. Color tells users what the brand is about. It tells users about the thing they are about to engage with.

Change that color, or use something off brand, and the user experience suffers because website visitors are suddenly confused or uncertain about the brand they thought they knew.

User Patterns Connect to Color

Have you noticed how many websites use red or orange buttons?

There’s a reason for that.

Bright colored buttons that contrast with the background of a website – red and orange often stand out from either light or dark backgrounds. Can help users find, understand, and want to engage with click- or tappable elements because they visually, and immediately, know what their expectation of that element is.

A key part of user experience is providing easy opportunities for users to interact that they enjoy and understand.

Cruise uses a ghost-style button with red text and a red hover state. It’s a different spin on traditional solid-color buttons, but there’s little question as to how to interact with it. Color draws users to the button.

Net Bluez uses a bright orange button for the most important element in the navigation menu. Notice how that element tends to jump off the screen begging to be clicked.

Increasing Conversion Rates

Challenge yourself in the design process to A/B Test button color. You’ll likely find that one color has a distinctly higher conversion rate than the other. (And it might not be the color you expect.)

Conversion rates tend to increase when the color of buttons or links is in stark contrast to the rest of the design. So, while you want to use a brand palette, picking a contrast color is key to generating conversions that contribute to overall user experience.

Look at the website below for a minute. Which color button is most likely to make you click? (The original color is blue.)

Providing Accessibility to All Users

Finally, color impacts UX in a way that’s not emotional or rooted in psychology. It’s much more practical than that.

Color impacts user experience because it can make a design accessible or not.

In order for everyone to understand a design fully, and engage with content, they must be able to see and read it with ease. Using color palettes and contrast ratios that fall in line with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) can ensure that every user can understand your color choices.

Use a color-blind filter, such as those in the comparisons below, to help simulate what other users might see when they look at your website. How could that impact usability?

Conclusion

Think of color as a tool to help users better interact and experience the content on your website. It impacts user experience on an emotional and usability level.

The key to figuring out if color is impacting UX in the right way is through user testing. A/B color tests can be a valuable tool.

Source Publicado en Webdesigner Depot https://ift.tt/2JXPZAh vía IFTTT

#IFTTT #Feedly

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otapleonehalf · 7 years

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Pripara, Self Image and Feminism

Intro:

Pripara is a kids’ idol anime based off an arcade game of the same name. The anime exists purely to advertise the game and sell related merchandise.

The premise of the anime is that, at some point, every little girl will find her first Priticket, a magical ticket that will allow her admittance to Prism Stone, a shop in the the fashionable district of Parajuku where you can transform into your own personalized idol persona. (You can change your hair color, height, basically anything.) Idols can then inhabit the virtual world of Prism Paradise (PriPara for short) to practice dancing, go to each others’ concerts, eat at cute cafes and, of course, pick out new outfits to wear on stage.

The following is a feminist analysis of the Love Tochiotome subplot from Episode 10 of the Pripara anime.

Summary and Analysis:

The premise of this episode is that our protagonists, Lala and Mirei, need to figure out what to wear for a competitive concert where the winners will become the models for the new fall line of lipsticks from a big cosmetic brand. The two need to win in order to convince their manager that they are worthy of teaming up with a more prestigious idol.

This episode, at its most basic, is about the ever pressing question of: What to wear? Pripara emphasizes the real life association between women and fashion by making a choice of clothing the catalyst for the episode’s resulting subplot and by extension, the series promotes stereotype that women are materialistic and shallow. The characters’ only preparation for this competitive concert is choosing their outfits which illustrates the idea that what a woman wears is the most important criteria of how others should judge her. This whole episode is about the importance of appearances.

During the two girls’ search for the perfect autumn themed outfit they meet Love Tochiotome.

Love Tochiotome is presumed to be of middle school age. She’s a revered tennis player and is about 6′3″. She has cropped hair and is much taller than her peers in addition to being notably more muscular, tanner and having a more masculine face.

Comparison between Love and her fellow tennis player, Eiko

Love has never been to PriPara, to the shock of her fellow female students. She has a Priticket but just hasn’t gone.

At this point it’s apparent that Love has a complex about her height and thinks she isn’t cute enough to become an idol (which in this universe is basically a right of passage for little girls).

Her friend Eiko asks Lala and Mirei to help convince Love to go to PriPara. With both verbal and physical persuasion, they succeed.

Social pressure clearly plays a large role in Love’s actions. Love wants to go to Pripara but has just never worked up the courage to go on her own. However, Lala and Mirei are not approaching the situation as friends to Love who want to see her have fun. They are instead acting as ambassadors from Pripara that can’t believe Love hasn’t been yet and now must correct this wrong. Lala and Mirei are also serving to further contrast Love from “normal” girls where Love is very unusual relative to other characters, not just in her character design but also in her nervousness towards becoming an idol.

Love is a part of a minority in not having an idol persona yet like everyone else. “Everyone else” being other young girls. Specifically, female social pressure is at play here, and just like in real life, females are key in policing the gender norms of other females to the point of being more effective at it than males. Love’s reluctance to approach Prism Stone makes it unclear if she really wants to become an idol or if she is just giving in to peer pressure.

Upon entering PriPara Love transforms into her idol persona and has trouble recognizing herself.

Her hair is lengthened, her skin becomes paler and her face becomes more feminine. Unlike her normal self, Love’s idol persona adheres much closer to modern Japanese beauty standards. Love is actually brought to tears over this transformation.

Love thought that due to her height she could not be considered cute, confirming that the image of “cute” within this series is a narrow one that excludes body diversity, specifically bodies that have stereotypical masculine/non-feminine traits. It’s also important to note that while Love and the other characters are focused on being “cute”, cute could easily be swapped out for the concepts of beautiful or attractive. Being cute in the context of this episode refers solely to how well one’s outward appearance adhere to the beauty standards of their society.

Love at no point says that she likes long hair or frilly dresses or being an idol. She only expresses an implied desire to be cute. But if the image of cuteness is to be petite and feminine like Lala, Mirei and Eiko then Love’s desire to be cute actually represents a desire to be similar to her peers. Love does not seek the acceptance of herself as she is. Instead she seeks the merit of being seen as the same as one of her cute peers. She wants to join the status quo rather than challenge it. Once in the idol world she blends in much better with the other girls than outside of Pripara where her height made her stand out to the point of comedy.

Lala assures her that Love’s surprise at her new appearance is unfounded because “Every girl can be cute!” Lala’s declaration implies two things. Firstly, that the concept of cuteness can be broadened to accommodate cases like Love. And second that cuteness is a change that Love had to actively choose and that this choice is theoretically available to everyone.

Lala has nothing to back up her statement of “Every girl can be cute!” If societal standards for cuteness are as flexible as Lala claims then there would be no reason for Love to have developed a complex over her appearance in the first place. Lala’s other insinuation that a desired appearance can be attained by will of choice is indeed true in the real world, but at a price. Clothes, hair extensions, make up, and other types of cosmetic treatments cost money, making them more accessible to those with more disposable income, and virtually non-accessible to those without, no matter that person’s will to choose beauty.

After transforming into her idol persona, Love confirms that she feels confident after seeing how cute she has become. The link between physical appearance and confidence both in Love’s case and in many real world cases comes from a sense of comfort in how you perceive yourself. It’s a safe assumption that Love’s confidence is from being able to see herself as living up to a beauty standard. While Love’s new found confidence is positive for her own self image and self worth it actually devalues her other talents as a tennis ace in favor of emphasizing physical beauty as more important. Love’s success in sports only serves as a pun for her name, where it is this moment of Love finding herself beautiful that is supposed to define her character.

Meganee-san, one of Pripara’s omnipresent clerks, says Love is “like a super model” in reference the combination of her tall height and new makeover.

The transformations into idol personas are based off how players of the Pripara arcade game can customize the look of their idol avatar but in the Pripara anime its not clear if they are based on the desires of the characters or the calculations of Meganee-san. However, if a character voices their desires then that character can determine any feature of their persona. It’s established that Mirei carefully constructed her persona to look and act nothing like her actual self.

So Love could have changed her height in the idol world and essentially erased the cause of her complex. But due to nervousness or just ignorance over how Pripara works she left the creation of her persona to Meganee-san.

Of course, Love’s idol persona was designed by the show’s creators and simply making Love’s persona shorter would have defeated the “moral” of the story. That moral being that Love’s height was a hidden strength all along, as confirmed by all the super model comparisons thrown her way. Love viewed her tall height as a masculine feature but thanks to standards within the real life fashion world where models must be tall in order to emphasize their thinness, Love’s height can now do the same for her. So this loop hole in the beauty standards Love is trying to meet, ended up working in her favor, that is, after her hair, skin and facial structure were changed to move Love closer within the image of cute rather than expand what cute can be to encompass Love.

As the group moves through PriPara Love is met with more attention and compliments from other idols and continues to be compared to a model. Lala and Mirei’s manager, Kuma, a pink flying teddy bear, comes to ask Lala and Mirei if they’ve decided on outfits for the upcoming concert yet but when Love catches his eye he ignores the others in favor of hitting on Love.

Kuma is a big-talking good-for-nothing manager who thinks of himself as a ladies man and spends most of his time in kid friendly version of a hostess bar in later seasons. Lala and company know this, and are not impressed by the pick up lines used on Love. Love, on the other hand, knows nothing about Kuma’s sleazy reputation and is so overwhelmed by the event of a tiny talking bear hitting on her that she serves Kuma what was coming to him.

Unfortunately, it’s established that this was out of a fit of excitement and not a retaliation to Kuma’s actions. It was not a defense of her personal space or safety but just an overreaction intended for comedic purposes. She apologizes to Kuma shortly after thus asserting that Kuma was not in the wrong for hitting on her and she was in the wrong for not taking his “compliment” in a manner that accommodated him.

Kuma is Love’s only interaction with a male entity in this episode. Kuma solely interacts with Love due to her appearance, reinforcing that Love was right to worry about how she looked. Love’s flattered response to Kuma’s pick up line also affirms the idea that attention is a reward received for being attractive and that this reward should be cherished. This is a dangerous mentality that contributes to the real life issue of street harassment.

Kuma also carries out the real life and problematic practice of perceiving women as inherently sexual objects even when there’s nothing signifying to do so. Most of the idol outfits in Pripara are based on the silhouettes of lolita fashion and as a result are fairly conservative and non-sexualizing. Love’s outfit certainly falls into this category, meaning that nothing about Love’s appearance sexually enticed Kuma into hitting on her, beyond Love simply being a girl meeting beauty standards. Kuma is operating under the assumption that he is socially expected to sexualize women even in non-sexual scenarios, and the resulting behavior is perfectly acceptable, when in fact its rather despicable. The point of this scene’s punchline is that Kuma is suppose to seem like a sleazeball so that the audience won’t sympathize with him when he gets Lovely Smashed into the ground but no one ever corrects his actions or tells him why that behavior was unacceptable. Kuma isn’t expected to not be sleazy, because of his character is that of a masculine caricature and so his character is illustrative of the real life issue of how men can be frequently held less responsible for their actions than women are.

This small scene between Love and Kuma is suppose to be funny but actually reinforces the types of dynamics between men and women that feminists are trying to combat.

Lala and Mirei show no concern for Kuma’s shocked condition and instead use his injury as inspiration for their concert outfits.

And this is where Love’s story ends. Lala and Mirei thank Love for the inspiration and go on to preform their concert. They win and go on to model the lipstick line.

Love never has a concert of her own and from here on out is a comic relief character. The characters that better embody cuteness are used to advertise the lipstick. This reflects real life where women considered average looking are rarely used to advertise makeup, fashion or other similar products to other women, because such advertisements carry a message that women should aspire to look like the idealized women featured in the commercial rather than be satisfied with or confident in how they actually look.

Other deviants from Pripara’s image of cute like Love are also slotted into comic relief side roles. One of the more notable being Chanko, a heavyset member of an idol fan club who’s whole character is sumo themed. As comic relief charcters, we are meant to laugh at characters like Love and Chanko, not identify with them.

Even though Love managed to enter Pripara and become cute despite her height, she is ultimately dismissed by the show.

Love’s conflict might seem compelling or relatable at first since she wants to change and be more confident, but her anxiety over appearances shouldn’t be solved with a makeover. This episode of the Pripara anime misses the big picture when it comes to dealing with beauty standards. The solution to Love’s anxiety is not figuring out how to “fix” Love’s looks but instead to stop emphasizing the importance of beauty standards entirely.

Love has good reason to be concerned about how other’s judge her based on appearance. Real life studies have found that woman perceived as less attractive are also perceived as less professional and less trustworthy. Leaving women who don’t wear make-up or use other products to adhere to beauty standards at a disadvantage in the workplace which can lead to a financial disadvantage in life.

The answer is not to have makeovers become more accessible to every woman but instead dismantle society’s emphasis on beauty being an inherent part of femininity and the ultimate goal for a woman’s existence. Women should be valued for their ideas, talents, and accomplishments, not their appearances. When Love’s appearance is what other characters notice about her, it makes the audience think that must be what is important about her.

I wish this episode celebrated Love’s differences. Instead of “Any girl can change.” I wish they told Love: You don’t have to change. You can have confidence even if your tall AND have tan skin AND have broad shoulders. Love’s hidden strength could have been that her athleticism from playing tennis gave her stamina for preforming on stage or that her height gave her a commanding presence over an audience but instead Love’s achievement was that she looked like a model, a walking manikin that serves only to advertise an outfit, and in Love’s case, a virtual outfit that you can unlock in the arcade game.

#pripara #anime #feminism

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