#will add transcript and commentary in rb

[syoddeye]

HELLO HELLO first of all i love your work-

i recently got into the cod fandom and have been writing. but i am unable to play the game, which means i often feel insecure abt the way I write the characters. i was wondering what suggestions you might have for resources? for character behaviors n such. play throughs? wiki? other fanfics?

im a tad lost so sorry 🧍‍♀️

hi friend! welcome. happy to help.

first things first, you're not alone. plenty of writers do not play the games for a variety of reasons. i'm gonna throw a bunch of stuff at you. (truth be told, you already guessed my recommendations.)

to get a feel for character's voices, youtube is your best friend. search for cutscene compilations (example) and playthroughs (example). i recommend that you do not skip the playthroughs, because a lot of character dialogue is woven into the gameplay of the campaign (example, recon by fire, my favorite). when searching for playthroughs, add 'no commentary' to the search bar.

to find information about characters and the campaign, the COD fanwiki is, i think, the source. is it 100% accurate? probably not. but it's what we have! bonus: you can also find mission transcripts in the wiki. the activision blog has a few entries on select characters, too. (i believe much of this has been pulled into the wiki.)

read fanfic on the characters you want to write about. want to write about gaz? look for gaz fic. want to write ghoap? look for ghoap fic. so on and so forth. read stories that interest you. (my hot take: i find AUs particularly enlightening for scouting characterization. what are traits that other writers emphasize? what are the through lines?)

remember this is call of duty. one of the best and worst things about this game is how little confirmed canon we have for the main characters. it's frustrating, because we're working with crumbs. but at the same time, we only have crumbs! we don't know if gaz has two moms or if soap has a big family, but through the freedom of gaps in canon, we can give them as many moms and siblings as we want.

i'm kind of running out of gas here, but i hope this helps. if i think of anything else, i'll rb and add more.

[aikatxt]

nostoi: a homecoming

[asuka--langley--soryu]

along the same lines as the last anon, do you know any good sources for meta/symbolism/essays about revolutionary girl utena? i just finished it and fell in love - i want to understand it as much as evangelion.

im certainly not as well versed in utena meta as eva but I have some sources. happy to hear you liked it! its one of my fav shows ever and I think its genuinely such a fucking masterpiece. 

first off I will say one of the best ways to improve your understanding of utena is to rewatch it lol. rewatching after knowing about the world and anthy and the lore is incredibly rewarding and really helps add another layer and perspective to the show--its kind of like watching it with entirely new eyes tbh. last week i finished my third rewatch and was still making new observations/connections. at the very least rewatch at leaaaast once at some point its so worth it I promise <33

if you havent already i would say take a look at the dvd commentary from ikuhara for each episode. It doesnt always clarify anything but sometimes theyre insightful or give a bit of background and sometimes theyre just kind of fun. hes like a big weirdo but yknow it is interesting to read his thoughts

as far as I know ohtori.nu is like the best resource for most utena related things? they have tons of essays on there as well as a good archive of official images/interviews/transcripts. probably this is the best place to start regarding meta and analysis. some caveats: a) the site is pretty old and can be a little janky/hard to navigate b) the essays are fan written and idk what the curation process was or if there even was any, so explore w a grain of salt. 

this blog (allegory-allegorier-allegoriest) rbs/archives a lot of meta posts so might be worth scrolling through. And I would def recommend checking out kurapikawithagun ‘s  rgu posts bc they are so so smart and insightful and really fucking get utena. they’re doing analysis posts for each episode, the first of which i’ll link here!

Lastly, I have three essays on Utena saved in my anime essay drive and i’ve separated them into their own folder. They’re mostly about rgu/magical girls and gender so ymmv there. if you do check them out and have any issues with access pls pls lmk and ill try to fix it!

hope this helps!! 

[foryouthegays]

i am new to tumblr and sorta wondering what's with tag etiquette? like are there typical tags people use for triggers? when do you reblog with commentary in the post vs in the tags? thank u!!

of course!! trigger tags in mcyt are usually ‘___ arc’ or just the character name, but if its critical of the character/person you do ____ critical (so they dont show up in the character tag). i think the universal tags are ‘caps tw’ for all caps, and thats pretty much the only tag i use, unless someone asks me to tag something (for bugs i do ‘bugs’ and ‘bug’) so if you think it could be a trigger you could just say a basic name for it. theres also ways to filter words in the post itself, and i think a lot of people do that

commentary reblogging is if its a long thing/ if youre friends, like if someone does an analysis and you want to add on, or if you’re citing someones clip or doing a transcript (which is a pretty common thing i do lol), and tags are just “love this art!!” or small add ons. i dont think people mind when people add compliments or anythin to the post itself, but tags are quieter and less,,,,social? if that makes sense? 

also some people tag as “dont rb” for personal posts, which is a good thing to look for and respect!

[mocweepe]

Prev anon! Nvm i just read the tags on the post and i get it now! Ty!

im glad!!!! ill give some examples of opinions in accessibility resources for anyone else who might need a few more neway! dese include:

examples in transcripts might be writing out "[insert a joke someone in the video says (LOL)]" like u shouldnt add "(LOL)". if its unclear whether smtn is a joke or sarcasm in a video you can write "name, jokingly/sarcastically: dialogue here"

and IDs dat say [ID: a beautiful person with insert rest of description here. end ID] or [ID: a horrible drawing of X. end ID]

both negative and positive opinions are bad!! bc yes, dat person iz beautiful, but dat iz still a subjective word. u can add dat 2 da tags of ur post or u can srb ur ID 2 say it outright.

which brings me 2 another ting: all commentary, tagging friens, etc, should be on a separate rb as ur ID, transcript, etc.