#with my commentary on what needs to be improved without explicitly pointing out which answers are wrong

[theflyingfeeling]

oh for fuck's saaaaaaake 😐

[robin-josephette-biden]

A Statement Through Horror: BDG and YouTube

In his video announcing his departure from Polygon Bryan David Gilbert [BDG] stated, “I want to make things that one day people will make a show like unraveled about.” [Paraphrasing here]. Since that announcement he has made some of the most interesting and engaging comedy videos on the platform. On Bryan’s channel, there is a section called “bdg’s scaries” that contains three videos. The first how to make jorts was released April 27, 2019 and will not be part of this analysis, as we are focused on the other two videos. These two videos are Earn $20K EVERY MONTH by being your own boss which was released on October 25, 2020 (two months before his final Unraveled video and departure from Polygon) and Teaching Jake about the Camcorder, Jan '97 which was posted March 3, 2021. If you have not seen these videos yet you should stop reading immediately and go watch them both (honestly everything on his channel is amazing, especially the surprisingly compelling and personal Dances Moving! series) before continuing to read this as I will be spoiling both of them. The position of YouTube celebrity has been the source of a good bit of commentary as short form online media has become more and more central in our culture. Bryan has created two videos that I feel do an excellent job of exploring the relationship between youtuber and audience. I should also point out that this is merely my interpretation of these videos and is in no way BDG’s intended message. I’ll start by going over the first video. Earn $20K EVERY MONTH by being your own boss opens with BDG outside an apartment building, standing in front of a black car. BDG points up at one of the windows and says, “Three years ago I was living in that apartment right there. Third floor, leaky windows, cockroaches, the worst.” I do not know if the real life BDG actually lived in that building, but the 3 years timeframe does line up neatly with his beginning to work at Polygon. BDG continues to bad mouth his old apartment and mentions how he has turned it all around stating, “But just last week I paid off my very first Subaru Impreza. And I own my own house in Nebraska.” This radical change in life-style he credits to, “. . . [working] from home, [making] my own hours, and [being] my own boss. And you can do it too.” I think that it is interesting that BDG’s career up to that point mirrors that of his character, going from newly graduated content creator making small videos in his apartment to one of the most popular creators on Polygon. And all that being accomplished through work that many (rightly or wrongly) would not see as fitting into the mold of the traditional 9 to 5. The idea of making millions working from home, at your own pace, and with no boss is intrinsically tied to the mystique of the YouTube celebrity. Moving into BDG’s office he explains that he makes $20k a month working on spreadsheets. A massive spreadsheet appears behind him that is dated, 01.12.88 (nothing of note happened on January 12, 1988 and the only thing that happened on December 1, 1988 is a large cyclone that struck Bangladesh, January 12, 1888 is the day of the Schoolhouse Blizzard which struck the midwestern US and killed 235 people (remember this for later)) and is filled, seemingly randomly, with garbled nonsense symbols. Many of the cells are the same as other cells and there are empty cells scattered haphazardly throughout the spreadsheet. BDG explains that he got this strategy from Dorian Smiles. In exchange for working on these spreadsheets BDG receives $10k - $20k a month (an amount that lines up pretty damn well with the amount he should be getting through his Patreon page currently, I don’t know if this was true when the video was made though) from Dorian. Wanting to know where the money is coming from BDG asks his bank and they explain that he is wiring the money to himself from another account he has. He grows confused as to the nature of this work and the disproportionately large amount of money it brings in, explicitly mentioning his confusion as to how the money is coming from someone with, “. . . my name and my voice.” and sets about to find and confront Dorian Smiles. BDG sets off for Center Nebraska, which is close to where Dorian lives (a small town in the northeast corner of Nebraska). He states that Dorian’s address hasn’t existed since 1888 (that’s a familiar year isn’t it?) when it was supposedly condemned during an enormous blizzard and is, “. . . just woods now.” The video then transitions to BDG walking through dark woods while his narration talking up the Dorian Smiles program continues becoming increasingly broken. He comes across a figure sitting in the woods that is convulsing strangely, when he calls out to it the figure turns and is him (heretofore named Dorian). Dorian slowly puts his hands over his nose and mouth while staring at BDG at which point the narration cuts out. BDG copies Dorian and when Dorian removes his hands in a flourish, BDG does the same to reveal that he no longer has a mouth. The video quickly cuts back to BDG in his office talking about the program, he asks the viewer, “Why don’t you join me?” and then sits back and smiles while that line repeats without him moving his mouth. The most pressing mystery is who Dorian Smiles is. I think the most likely answer (and one I know I am not the progenitor of) is that Dorian is a reference to The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde, the story of a young man that has a portrait that ages and takes on the ravages of the debauched life its subject lives while Dorian himself does not. BDG would therefore be the unwitting recipient of that blessing, reaping massive rewards while his double, Dorian, lives in poverty and solitude. I like this explanation for Dorian, but I find it to be far more mechanical than thematic. On a metatextual level you could read that Dorian represents the character of BDG. The person that is in all of BDG’s videos, and the one with whom so much of the audience forms a parasocial relationship. In this lens the parallels with BDG’s own life make more sense. By this point in BDG’s career it is not difficult to imagine him feeling stifled creatively at work (I feel comfortable saying this given how soon after this video came out that he departed Polygon). His character had grown too large, potentially becoming alien to him, no longer reflecting the art he wanted to make and so he made a video about a distorted version of himself stealing his voice. In this way the video becomes a statement on his artistic integrity and his desire to test new boundaries and go in different directions. In hindsight, with the knowledge of his departure and then success after leaving Polygon, the video becomes almost heartwarming (if it weren’t terrifying) in the same way that a before and after picture of someone improving themselves can be. We will return to the Dorian Smiles system, but now we must move to the second video, Teaching Jake about the Camcorder, Jan '97. I’ll save you the blow by blow breakdown and aim for a quick summary instead. This video is a simple stationary shot of an old CRT tv. A VHS tape is inserted and a video of a man teaching his, evidently young, son how to use a camcorder plays. It is relatively wholesome and corny in that way that all home movies are and when it ends the tape rewinds and the segment plays again, this time with a few deviations. Over replays the father becomes aware of what is happening and begins trying to reason with Jake through the camcorder begging him to stop watching the tape and move on. The father is menaced by a large shadowy figure that does not speak or move when confronted. Eventually the father resorts to simply taking the camera and recording his own screams of pain. On the final rewind the father simply says, “Attaboy.” before calmly walking out the room and into the dark hallway, a doorway opens at the other end, filled with orange light, and the father walks through and down stairs. The final shot of the video is of the television, showing the hallway, as orange light begins to flicker in the background of the left side of the TV. The sound of the father descending the stairs transitions from the TV to diegetic and a shadow appears briefly in the light. On one level the video is clearly a statement about loss and about trauma. Jake is losing himself by watching these videos on repeat, trying in vain to relive a happier time. In that desperate desire to regain what was lost he is distorting it, making it into something it isn’t, hurting it. At the beginning the father says, “Never ever press the rewind button, otherwise you might record over a precious memory. We always keep the recording going forward . . .“ I think there is an additional, and more personal for BDG, reading however. The father is the modern character of BDG, and we, the audience, are Jake. He is pleading with us to leave the past behind and move on. This was only his 3rd video that he posted after leaving Polygon. It is a plea from him to leave the old character behind and stop trying to make one into the other. To stop obsessively comparing the new videos to the old. To let the future be the future and let the past be the past. He is telling us that his new work will not be like the old, that he has progressed past that and that now his viewers need to as well. The detachment and confusion of Earn $20K EVERY MONTH by being your own boss has transformed into a desire to move forward. But he needed to ensure that his audience was ready to come with him, and so he made a video about loss and the dangers of sinking too far into it. I know that there are some of you that feel I am reading too much of what I assume to be BDG’s thoughts and emotions into these interpretations, and I am the first to admit that I might be. In no way am I trying to say these are the only interpretations of these videos or even that they are correct. I think there is so much more of an artist that they put into their work than they realise. I do not know the mind of BDG, only he does, but these videos made me feel that I had a glimpse into the feelings of a man whose work I admire. These videos are either longer or a drastically different tone to the material he has put on his own channel and as such they stood out to me. They felt different, and they seemed to ask for a different level of scrutiny. On some level maybe BDGs videos can not be divorced from the story of BDG as a content creator, the same as any modern internet semi-celebrity, or indeed any artist. I guess there was also a part of me that wanted to answer the call to action I heard when BDG left Polygon, to unravel his work. I hope in some small way I’ve been able to do that.

[incarnateirony]

Alchemical Overview, Cont’d

Okay so -- tumblr went weird and glitched out on a conversation I was holding with @drsilverfish and some others (x) So reposting the commentary and adding some bits, re silverfish’s “The Alchemy of God-Wounds and Marks in S15“ post. Just continued thought share and some notes for audience that might feel like they’ve missed something in what has realistically been a conversation with Dabberens about the nature of existence and personal agency for at least two years.

Okay so phew! Before I responded to this I wanted to make sure I had read all of your referenced meta since I've been so in and out lately, even if I hadn't replied to it all. I have some thoughts I'll include here relevant to your "Jung's Answer to Job" post, (x) and the general operative understanding of your "Raising Hell map and script" (with some additions I had attached x), but pulled together in this more direct and current post of yours. And frankly a lot of old stuff, just so people trying to pick up aren’t lost referencing some conversations as far back as two years ago re: union (x)

Because first of all wow what a RIDE. Now that I’ve had time to sit down, let me mostly heavily nod at everything you have to say; it might be redundant to talk about the feminine principle, from the old concept of general union on this old like S13 post (x) (Look at that it’s us talking about it. Some Things Never Change Dot Gif) or more recent pieces like my Citrinitas/Reno video (x) balancing the elements you’re raising while trying to help visualize the process not just in color but a torch passing of the proverbial light involved as the moontells her secret -- the light is not her own and is reflected from the soul one builds into with the yellowing in awareness. I find, for those reading meta as much to learn as anything, some suddenly understand the balance of this in process.

A great deal of that was the torch of Mary, which Dean had unwittingly even passed the light to Amara, after long ago sharing it with Cas -- before he lost that light and fell into his father’s shadows, before his father had his marriage renewed and gave away the stone to send John back in golden light. Cas now stands, confused, hearing Dean throw away everything he said the day Castiel chose to fall for him, in every sense of the term, but still tried to stay before, while being thrown recklessly at another dark door, in the wake of the death of his son, Castiel walks away after his own time in the red.

While Dean was steeping in the dark, Castiel carried on the torch saving people with Sam and calming the commoners, not just running death missions, and he’s keeping on with it after walking out; he won’t be thrown into the maw, but that alone spawns its whole character based web of what all processes Dean struggles with in his head over what Castiel even is to him, Chuck’s rank and position minded, even after the absence of Mary, is this something he’s even been toyed with, is that real - Castiel tried to affirm it but now that he walks out Dean packed it up and rolled on.

This is a great deal of backdrop, but now far enough back that it’s worth tapping in review in entering these conversations. The colors were also screamingly loud in several overtly named alchemical episodes, another of which was a Yockey-Speight episode: Optimism, and the opposed Nihilism; Ouroboros and Absence followed, -- “not evil, but the absence of good.”  (Lmao just read x)

I would call what’s going on more than mildly reliable in regards to the amount of purpose to the general process is actively being given with as much direct reference to the rest as there is, and in general review before doing the full meta dive; I have to say, well DONE gents.

That brief general spurge aside, I can not emphasize *enough* how important to the idea of the Sacred Marriage or the Holy Eucharist is the fact that it quite literally can be depicted as you know, copulation, so the fact that it was vocalized Chuck tried to send Lilith to seduce Dean in the ways of old, and it simply didn’t work on Dean so plan B whatever -- with all of this other *stuff* going on, the loudness of that is wild in that “cancelled” yellow/red transition. Which just as much has pitched a flash of awareness on Dean bound to deepen in 15.06. (In fact here’s some more Sacred Marriage stuff from earlier this season in no particular order [x] [x] [x] and a bunch of posts of those tarot cards about the Art-Lovers transition after Death that I’ve been spamming repeatedly and y’all are probably tired of)

I can’t say how ecstatic I was to have a conversation with Fitz about the use of color, boldest with Dick Speight, but also passed to others like Tapping -- and how equally excited she was about it too. But as for how loud it bounces, just click (x). In fact it loudly surged in Yockey eps. Hard to say what level of that is coincidence really.

In fact, Ashley’s room captured it very loudly. The yellow was hard to miss, but Dean sat in dark clothes, them both on lead blackish blankets and stark white sheets; Dean’s yellowing is upon him at both the start and end of the episode as Sam and Dean stagger through Chuck’s own manufactured story, Lilith and all. This was focal on Dean and seems so; Sam is running another path entirely as you’ve pointed out.

Each character has been facing their own reddenings as you show, a level of dangerous awareness coming with it at many things that are actually surfacing as their own textual burdens to face -- his literal tie to Chuck, rather than Dean facing reflections of the father; Sam’s duty is to subvert the author itself, even if a great deal of that comes from Castiel as Chuck’s roving blind spot. Other metas of course explore that, so not getting deep into it here; Sam has stayed on point despite some violent awakenings for now and what a weird reversal of yellow eyes this all is in the way of the Sins of the Father (can’t find my old post on that but I’m sure @drsilverfish has one similar; if there’s one thing you’ll notice it’s us lobbing back and forth about this for a few years in the referenced posts).

Castiel’s reddening comes from a mix of facing some fairly raw patches with Dean in their relationship as has been covered amply, and general issues of belonging or believing, as well as just general wellness and self care -- his own agency, which is actually a huge step to be leading on ahead of the humans and yet again asserts him as an agent of free will, and sings true of the gorgon blindness to his antics as far back as season 4 (x).

Now round this conversation back up to how I opened and have reminder of even Bobo himself cropping up when I posted Walk Through The Fire to like it; released after 15.03, sung true two episodes later, “He was never going to stop”, but this is, per Lilith, exactly what Chuck has wanted them to see. Just as much as he’s questioned Cas in his life even most of the battle with or for his brother, it’s all just *A LOT*.

Dean’s reddening is mixed with the result that Sam’s shadows stare into, and a great deal of that leaves the question of the blank space.

The hermetic process literally does not work without the 3 prime substances in harmony (x).The intentional Absence of Castiel is a heavy topic many others have meta’ed to death but the danger right now is that a torch has been taken out of their lives. Dean’s most explicitly, but it’s not like it doesn’t effect Sam, but that’s an entire other conversation. But Castiel’s absence quite literally drained and part of Dean’s own coming upon him will be what the absence of Cas does to both him and them -- him and Sam. (x) And just about all reddenings come in the awareness of the importance of this triad in subverting the author, facing the father, brandishing free will and making Man god of his own fate once the existential crisis blows through.

I think what I’m mostly pointing out is a long running set of harmonics of these colors specifically floating Dabb-Berens-Yockey, and Yockey repeated on his way out the door. It’s worth shuffling through and seeing what Cain parallels really do swing us full circle to exploring that arc from a different angle; a Cas, without his powers, walking out in agency before Colette falls to Cain’s drive, or Rowena’s, or-- Dean’s. Or for now the heavyhanded werewolf brothers -- literally what Chuck wanted them to see. “I can’t stop Samuel.” “Tell me that you can stop.” “I will never stop.” - Cain; “He was never going to stop!” cried the young wolf.

Just as much as the queer narrative itself, general agency is upon the Winchesters right now, if perhaps some parts self improving alone and others in parts; but the color scheming bouncing through all of this modernly is absolutely fantastic. Nothing like Castiel’s reddening charging down the phallic demon of marriage blowing a horn and reflecting Dean’s soldier issues, their dead child, and Dean’s insistance to barge into the dark that Castiel had no interest in opening the door for, but by Dean and Belphegor was shoved towards. He still refused, and left as Amara did, and you’re right, the masculine absolutely does need the feminine, but Sam had his half of the sacred marriage display, and now we’re waiting on another. This should be a fun ride.

And seems to echo back to the Lat project Reflection sequence of crucifying the ego (x); but also finding the anima, the goddess, that has been removed from the animus (PLEASE read the post on SPN’s use of Anima, Animus, the Self and the Shadow) -- Dean literally has to stake up that snake of his daddy issues that climbs him, and Castiel his autonomy issues, and they their general connection; and Sam becoming the living concept of the God Man, Chuck and he having part of each other, reflecting the Yellow Eyed Demon who tainted him, and by which he was to become a demon; and now that, with God. How fascinating both Azazel’s wound and Amara’s bond to Dean were so similarly placed all that time ago, really.

** General disclaimer please do not take as some sort of indicator for a particular XYZ level of thing that tends to vary on people’s wants for textual or physical canon I just mean in the general breadth of it, we’re dancing such a loudly and beautifully painted line.

This post doesn’t even begin to grace on Jack’s mercurial or orphic role in this all (x), but that’s almost an aside that needs its own address.

Wonderful post, silverfish, and just wonderful work from the crew.

Oh and in final regards to the reddening, y’all are probably tired of hearing about my lateralus project that I build midseason last year to spec but “The Patient” -- and what parts turned out in season 15 so far -- may be worth entering into discussion with even some nice retroactive flare from Dabb before he really took over from Carver. So, obnoxious but kinda mandatory plug

Of course, and another old video I may recommend for those parting it together, especially with Chuck starting to twist the world around in front of our eyes, is my “the Shadow” video that resonates with a lot of this, because I remind you of many things alongside it – like heaven had its own physics where Dumah knew Jack was long gone because his burger was cold, and now, Dean recites Chuck making them live their “greatest hits.” So beyond just the idea of “face thyself” in the below video, think also on matrixes of control.

[thecreaminhiscoffee]

-slides in my own URL-

[ ♛ ] send me a url (selectively accepting) and i’ll tell you the following;

my opinion on;

character in general: Well - River writes twenty-two different muses.  I’m not going to go through all of them in this meme because, to be quite honest, that’s going to take far longer than I think is fair to the other people waiting on theirs.  Also, for the purpose of con/crit, it is going to be easier to focus on the characters that have been around the longest (depending on your definition of longest) and then compare that with some of the newer ones and what looks like is happening and how best to expand on all of the above.  Varying stages of muses on a spectrum.

I’m picking five - Bedelia is the origin of the blog (and the longest running) and so therefore has the most character development over time (and in multiple partnerships), Scully is the character I personally have had the most experience with (consecutively speaking), Rey was a long runner during the Bedelia hiatus (and also has significant character development over time with a partner with who has that with another character so that leads to good comparison), Freddie is a frequent character (but not always a long-lasting one pre-multi and not one with a lot of consecutive threads so as to follow character development across them), and Hermione (who has less threads overall but still gives some idea of development).…my general opinion on Bedelia as a character is full of probably too much salt and not worth reiterating here.  I think the idea of her was solid, and I think Gillian did a phenomenal job portraying her.  She is also the only reason I made it past the first three episodes of the series - because I was watching it for her, and she didn’t show up until episode six.  End comment.

Dana Scully deserves the world and got hell instead.

I’m still undecided on Rey.  I think she has potential as a character and enjoyed her in Ep. VII (she’s not Finn, but she’s cool), but I reserve the right to make a decision as to my full opinion on her character until the end of this trilogy.

Freddie is the only character where I think Fuller considerably improved on canon material.  In the first two seasons.  We didn’t see her enough in s3 for me to make that claim.  But overall?  Yeah.

I remember identifying with Hermione very strongly when I read the series the first time through (at least initially, although I think I may have grown out of that by the time the last…two? came out - definitely by the last one).  I don’t think she was ever my favorite (I may be wrong on that), but I typically had positive feelings towards her.

how they play them: As a general rule, the answer to this question is well.  River is a fairly strong writer and has been for as long as I’ve known her.  This carries over to any character she writes, regardless of how long she may have been writing them.  Therefore, since the general answer to this question is a positive one, further consideration must be taken into individual characters, writing development, and general commentary.

Thus, a con/crit section.I do have a set criteria for what I’m looking into as a whole.  I’ll talk about the character and writing development aspects last.  First, I want to talk general writing commentary - headcanon, length of posts, grammar/spelling, etc. - because that’s the foundation for the more detailed aspects of writing seen in voice, theme, consistency, character as a whole.So, let’s get started. River has few issues with grammar.  In fact, the only one I want to point out (because it was a consistent bother to me), is this: when you start a new paragraph and the character is still speaking, it is not necessary to close out the previous paragraph with quotation marks.  Leave it open; the character is still speaking.  Only close when the character is done, or when you are going to have them do something else before continuing.  Outside of that, you’re golden.

(As an aside, you are not the only person I have seen do this, and it actually appears to be something you’ve picked up later, because you weren’t doing it in your earlier threads.  This may be a stylistic choice, but it is not a good one.)

River has no issues with spelling.  Occasionally there is a misstep in wording, but that can be solved with a brief read-through before posting.  Pretty much everyone has a tendency to do this - I do, anyway - so it’s not a big deal.  However, I’ve found it is more apparent when you’re in a hurry.  But, again, it isn’t necessary to fix, because this is RP.  Just a comment.River is good with any length of post (one-liner, para, multi-para), but she hits her stride particularly with paras or longer.  A vast majority of her characters are introverted or put a lot of thought into their actions, their manners of speaking, so although you do one-liners well (which is a praise in itself, considering the internal dialogue just mentioned), your strength is in longer stuff.  You know this.  From a reading perspective, all of your writing captures the character well, you just have more room to breathe there, which works best for your muses.  Again, you know this.You are also extremely versatile when it comes to thread genres (fluff, angst, tragedy, violence, romance, slice of life, and crack).  Most of your threads tend to focus on either romance (with a potential mix of angst, depending) or slice of life (albeit, plotted, but you know what I mean), and these are only your strong suits due to their more frequent use.  You do them all well, even violence, so I have no comment here.  Kudos.  (Although I will say, I personally have a strong preference for your fluff threads because they typically also include character development as well - but that’s just me.)Headcanon, however, I have a little more commentary on.  When you post them, your headcanon is more than on point and does a good job of elucidating your character.  However, a lot of them are found in threads, which runs the risk of not having adequate enough information on a character to lead to good plotting.  For instance, below, when it talks about shipping, half of these I only know would be cool ships because I’ve read your threads and understand your character better.  I can tailor fit a thread to your interpretation.  Without headcanon posted separately from threads, this becomes significantly harder, and most people (I would guess) are not going to read threads to get that information.  Also, it is hard to find your headcanon separate from your characters’ threads, so that they have a tendency to get lost within everything else.  There’s no easy route of access.  I’d suggest at least having a catchall headcanon tag, so that someone who is looking at your characters, who is thinking about potential plots, has a way of getting to them.As a general rule, you are extremely good at capturing a character’s voice, whether in dialogue or in narrative.  You know this.  It is particularly apparent in your Amelia blog (there was a link in one of your Freddie blogs, and I’m a completionist in most things writing-related where these are concerned) and in Freddie.  Amelia shows that this has always been one of your strengths, but I think Freddie is where you show your growth as a writer best - because you can physically read how your writing grows just from looking at her voice in your first blog for her (where it wasn’t bad) to where it is now (where you channel Freddie like nobody’s business) - and that’s with months or longer between actually actively writing her, so that means it’s just you getting better.  And that’s cool to watch.All of that said, we can begin to look into more specifics as far as individual characters.  I’m going to do this within aspect, so - consistency and themes first, then finish with potential for future development.Within threads with partners, all of your characters are consistent, and in that same way, they are consistent across different threads with multiple partners.  However, of these five, four deal with the theme of surviving vs. thriving (this is explicitly mentioned in the text for three of the four (Scully [x], Rey [x], and Bedelia [x]) and is a basis for Freddie, even if not explicitly mentioned), and all five deal not so much with strength as not appearing vulnerable or weak, albeit in different ways.  Scully deals with this through closing herself off, through appearing like her male peers; Bedelia does this by controlling everything and being intimidating (because surely someone like her has no apparent vulnerabilities - she is ice and cold and impenetrable because she is so high above the lesser mortals); Rey’s is more a need based on not being taken advantage of within the context of the other street rats (she would like to be but cannot be); Freddie’s is simply due to the nature of her job (”She wasn’t supposed to be this weak./She was a journalist.” [x]), and Hermione’s actually is a basis in strength, which is a welcome development.  It actually becomes an interesting dialogue among the characters (particularly across some of Bedelia’s threads - you have Alana specifically stating that she “never found vulnerability to be a weakness” and Bedelia’s remark against it [x] and in further development with Stella, you have Bedelia specifically noting that “Vulnerability need not always be a weakness” [x] - it has even shown up as commentary in the Scully/Jess threads, “she felt less of a need to/wear a mask, less of a desire to feign the/strength she lacked.  She wasn’t expected/to be invincible.  It was freeing, but she/could only embrace that so far” [x] and in the meme where you attempted to write Alana, “If she can weap-/onize her own pain, perhaps it will no longer be a weakness” [x]) - which gives you a consistency across characters, which is admirable.You have mentioned that you like survivors.  You write them well.  You also expand and expound and dive into what surviving looks like across various muses (in fact, a majority of your other muses could also be labeled as survivors) as well as the battle that the feminine must have with the ideas of vulnerability, weakness, and how that interacts with gender (of the five, this is most explicitly brought up with in Scully’s threads, as far as gender is concerned, but that battle of vulnerability/weakness is constantly present).  And, despite doing this so frequently, it never seems old, it never seems tired, it never seems out of character because it is so much in character for the muses you are writing.  And that is to be commended.

Now, as far as future development, I want to broach this in two different ways: personal development as a writer (which is really about character types worth exploring in the future) vs. character development (which is more tied into places to explore with your existing characters, ways of individually developing them further, which still leads to writing development, but on a much more minor scale).  I’ll start with the latter and work my way to the former, just because that seems easiest to me.With Scully, I would like to see her within the context of some sort of relationship (friendship works well for this, actually, because peer pressure and support is a thing) reach a point where she is comfortable embracing her more feminine aspects and vulnerability.  In one of your OOC posts, you said that what you wanted was for Scully to wear a dress.  That’s…pretty much what I mean.  Because so much commentary within Scully’s threads is focused on not being vulnerable and on needing to appear more masculine so as not to be judged wanting by her male counterparts in the Bureau, the best development for her is to reach a place where she does not have to be preoccupied by either of those things, even if it is never in her work sphere, even if this is something she is only comfortable with around certain people.  And, whereas with other characters their greatest development is in a low point, we see enough Scully abuse in the show.  Her best growth arc is in the opposite.

With Bedelia, I want two things: one, I want to see her somewhere where she embraces her darkness, instead of trying to force it out, and two, I want to see her somewhere with a complete lack of control, not by her own choice.  I’m more concerned about the former than the latter (as the latter will be hard to pull off well without an adequate partner, to pull off without further debasement of her character, and that’s not what I mean by this.  Only that in every situation where she has lost control, it is by choice and she still retains some aspect of control.  It has not been a full out loss.  It’s worth exploring, but harder to do well - not that I think you can’t, as I have great admiration of your writing and have no doubt you can, but that finding a partner up to the challenge without it turning into torture porn will be complicated).  Of course, Bedelia can embrace that darkness in a multitude of ways - violence is the easiest route, but I hesitate to say I want to see Bedelia violent, as that is certainly not the case.  It simply seems to me that in the most developed ship you have for her, Bedelia is embracing the aspects of her that are more light - you have done phenomenally in this, so I would like to see the opposite explored.I have little commentary on Rey in this regard.  I like how she is developing and would like to see more of that in the future.  Any Luke/Jedi development seems like it would fall under similar development as the Stella/Rey development (only less intriguing), and I’m of the sort that likes waiting for canon before developing in that regard anyway.  I do want to see Rey within the context of a romantic ship - that would be a good next step because it builds on what you are currently doing - but I would also like to see Rey with a compatriot, a peer, within the context of her lack of identity.  Rey isn’t homeless, but I’d like to see her struggling with someone to make ends meet, someone equally at or even financially beneath her level.  (I’m not particularly interested in seeing Rey embracing the dark because that is not her struggle.  People is her struggle.  Relationships are priority.)With Freddie, I do want to see her in a low point.  From what I can intuit of your Freddie, her financial priorities are less on where she lives and more on fueling back into her job - fixing her camera, having a camera, gas money, etc. are all of much higher priority than her location, which waits until she gets big enough to afford somewhere better.  So, I want to see Freddie lose her apartment.  I want to see her choices in this regard in a financially bad situation lead her to not having a place to live because she cannot afford it.  There is not much point in Freddie succeeding - there’s no growth there because she’ll keep doing what she’s doing.  There’s no change.  This puts her in a situation where she has to make decisions and go from there.  Also, this leads to interesting interactions within the context of relationships and threads you’re already building within the Hannibal RP community.  I mean, putting Freddie in a place where she lives with one of those characters (not because she went to them, because that’s not her style (Alana, maybe), but because they notice and forcibly don’t leave her because of their priorities (Alana, Zeller, Will (mine, because show!Will doesn’t care), heck Frances would be great for this) can lead to the interesting conflict of, well, job is priority and this actually puts her in a closer proximity to people she can feed off of - take advantage of their kindness.  Or not.  Depending on how characterization goes.I do not have any particular direction for Hermione’s character development at this point.  Most of suggestions above deal with explorations separate from what you’ve already done or that can be founded entirely in the character’s set personality and systems.  As of right now, there is not enough information in your threads or significant enough relationships for me to get a good idea of what you will naturally explore with her, and so I have no specifics.  Any and every direction seems good at this point.  In the future, I may be able to be more specific.  My apologies.Now, as far as your general growth as a writer, I think there are two potential next steps.  As we’ve discussed, I do think having a comedic muse would be a good expansion simply because comedy is something you could stand to work on (in that same breath, you do have at last one comic muse, so this is of less importance).  What I would really prefer to see you doing next, in order to further your growth, is to pick up a villain, someone dark, dangerous, irredeemable.  Bedelia is the closest you have to this at the moment, and a dark elaboration on her would be closer, but even then, it still isn’t the same.  She is very much greyscale.  I would like to see you write someone who is evil, who enjoys being evil, who desires and acts upon an intent to harm simply because they want to do so.  Even with a villain, you can play into the themes that you tend towards because those are easily good motivations for a villain, so although it would be a step outside of your comfort zone, you needn’t go too far outside of it.  I just see this as an area you haven’t touched on and would like to see that potential growth.the mun: River is one of the most amazing people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting - not just on this site, but as a general rule.  It is even more to her credit that we met on here, given the tumultuous landscape of tumblr in general.  We’ve known each other for almost three years now (!!), and although we disagree on some things (and I’ve caused drama), River’s consistently been someone who works to find a solution rather than being bogged down or drawn into the overemotional side of things - and that’s true not just from the standpoint of our relationship, but also from the standpoint of problems within fandom as a whole (or things she picks up on from her blog).  River is always very careful about what she posts and what she says - diplomatic is perhaps the best way to put that - and it’s a skill that I find very admirable, given the overwhelming amount of salt that is seen pretty much daily on the site (not that salt is bad, but there’s a way to be salty without alienating people, which is what I mean here).  Which is not to say she has no faults, because everyone does, but I have no intention of going into any of those.  River is worth far more than any of that, and I think it does her a disservice to suggest otherwise.

do i;

follow them: Yes.  Fairly consistently, I think.  Except for a few months on Rey, but that was only because I hadn’t seen the movie yet.  As soon as I did, I was.  …oh, and Jack.  I didn’t follow her Jack blog.rp with them: Yes.  Not as consistently as we used to?  But I think that has more to do with me jumping around from muse to muse than anything on her end.  (Then again, we’ve got…eleven?? twelve active threads, so.  There’s that.)want to rp with them: Always.ship their character with mine:  …depends on the character(s).   I like our styles together; they have a tendency to compliment each other more often than not.  Outside of that, I feel like it’s really up to how the characters’ relationship(s) develop?  So, yes, basically.

But if you want to know for each of the characters mentioned above in relation to Rabbit!Jess (and other muses in parenthesis because I spent far too much time thinking about this and some of these seem like they would be easier for potential shipping than others):

1) Jess/Scully comes first because to this day it is probably my favorite ship to have written (am  I allowed to say that?), and that is partly because Jess does not shut up about it.  And if I’m honest, with purely chemistry in mind, it’s proven itself to work.  Jess will never stop loving Scully, and even when I was writing timeline canon as a thing, she constantly referred to her in other threads because she never stopped loving her.  I said it two years ago, and I’ll say it again, this is the healthiest ship Jessica Rabbit has ever been in.  So.  The short answer is yes.  The long answer is best summed up as: the greatest regret Jessica has is that she met Dana while Roger was still around and she desperately wishes that they had met in other circumstances. (As far as other muses, there are a handful with potential, but I think they all work best as friends. Reyes will probably be the best other muse option here whenever it is I add her. But can’t be sure until get to that point.)2) Jess/Bedelia is next.  I think a ship with River’s Bedelia only works if there is something about the other character that catches Bedelia’s interest on an intellectual level - a human puzzle for her to figure out.  Even if it doesn’t stay in that realm, it has to start there.  I do not believe that Jessica would be the puzzle she would need to be for Bedelia to have an invested interest, unless we go into Toons as an idea, but since that would so clearly be conceived of as a delusion, I doubt she would find that interesting.However, if we go with Jessica’s earliest time period and the idea that violence against a Toon still counts as violence but doesn’t ruin a reputation and if Toon abuse was considered as a viable alternative to Bedelia’s other attempts to not be violent, then that, I think, is a possible scenario where enough interactions could lead to potential shipping.  Just from the continued use to take care of that need. Although there could be the added complication of Jess as a loose string where Bedelia would want control over any possible discussion of the act, at which point you can add in ownership discussions (honestly, outright buying her would be the best solution in this situation), and then there might be further extended contact outside of the potential violence, which works even better. The question then becomes whether Bedelia would consider it a loss of control at all. Or, since Jess would then be considered as property, whether that perspective could be shifted (doubtful). Which is all to say tentatively yes but the scenarios aren’t likely. (Amy, on my multi, would probably be the best option for a Bedelia ship.)

3) Jess/Freddie is third and, uh, yeah.  Definitely.  Because with all of the Toon upheaval throughout Jessica’s entire life and the fact that Freddie is a tabloid journalist, there are a ton of different ways to throw them together and since Freddie has used sex as a way of getting information (looking at you, Zeller) and Jessica, if she knew that, would definitely see that as the best use of her time as far as giving information, then yeah.  Not that sex = relationship, because it doesn’t, but like.  Extrapolate from there. It’d be great. (Then again, this scenario might work better for OC!Jess because band or model!Bedelia because model - although my Bedeals is ace, so some slight differences in that aspect of the potential plot. Also, honestly, baby!Bedelia and foster!Freddie. Because reasons. Or Camille/Freddie because rivalry because journalists being journalists. Heck, I could even rock a Will/Freddie but only because my Will doesn’t suck. I OBVIOUSLY HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS HERE.)

4) Jess/Rey is fourth and no.  No, I don’t.  Even if Rey is old enough for it to be a thing, she feels young in relation to Jess and she would feel too young to Jess and so it wouldn’t happen on her end.  So very firm no here. (OC!Jess is the better option here. Or Finn, if I brought him back.)

5) Jess/Hermione is possible, but I think the easiest point of interaction for them would be if Toons were considered magical non-humans and we play into the whole Toon Rights idea (because Hermione is very active for the rights of non-humans - and, honestly, we can make a comparison between house elves and Toons, really we can).  If Jess were still within the young period of life where she would actively care and think things could be changed, then I can see a partnership forming and a potential ship from there based on the interactions and how the two characters play off of each other.  Outside of that, Jess…probably wouldn’t get involved and would be super reluctant as a whole.  Or involved with Roger.  Or after his death and not wanting to deal with a witch because she would think Hermione could have fixed it, and please let’s not go that route. (Bedelia is far and away the better option here, because her Hogwarts verse is much more useful for this (please let them bond over house elves, please). Heck, even her Coven verse is better for this - it’s set up well enough that you don’t need to have seen the series, it’s got magic worth researching, and you get conflict with some of the morals. Probably good for mutual character development, depending on age.)

what is my;

overall opinion: To sum up, River is far and away one of the best writers I have had the fortune of seeing on this site, and that’s a position based on her dedication to her characters and the insight she has into them, combined with an impeccable writing ability which only grows stronger.  Outside of that, as an individual, River is in most cases a good example of someone to look up to within the community - because, regardless of any differences of opinion, she is extremely diplomatic and speaks (and writes) in a way so as not to alienate the other person involved and never sees that as a reason to rant or rave or hate anyone.  Above all else, River is kind, and that shines through in all of her interactions both in and out of character.

In short, I love her (and her writing).  What else is there to say?

**Note: Mun’s answer are all to be completely honest. Don’t send url if you don’t want brutal honesty.