#you're more than welcome to write your own analysis about it

[hazbin-but-good]

another hazbin hotel rewrite/redesign?

yup! and i'm so serious about it that i made a whole blog for it. i'm a white queer ex-cath tran doing this as an art and writing exercise, so feedback from other creatives + jewish and/or racialized folks is especially welcome.

i'm putting this post and only this post in the main tags for visibility. also, not gonna link my main, but i do make my own original stuff, and i encourage fans and haters alike to do the same.

anyway, here's a mostly good-faith 1.7k-word essay on the original. i think it's pretty funny and brings up some less talked-about points. correct me on the facts, disagree with my opinions, and ask clarifying questions, but don't come at me with any piss-poor reading comprehension.

the hellaverse is garbage, and here's why

cw: strong language, stronger opinions, intersectional feminist critical discourse analysis

1. vivienne medrano, the person

medrano was born as a well-off white-passing latina (salvadoran-american) in bougieass frederick, maryland. while attending new york's top art school, she got popular on deviantart-tumblr-twitter by being a prolific multifandom fujoshi furry who's more into ornamental character design than storytelling. upon graduation, she leveraged her fanbase and industry connections to make the hazbin and helluva boss pilots, get helluva made for youtube, and get hazbin made for amazon prime.

like every woman online, she gets harassed for no good reason, and as a certified autist, i will defend her right to be dumb, weird, annoying, and bad with words. however, there are legit reasons to criticize her:

racism, misogyny, homophobia, fatphobia, some antisemitism, past transphobia, past ableism

shitty boss, bad friend

cowardly, vindictive, manipulative, thoughtless behavior

skeevy friends

sucks at taking criticism

in short, i think she desperately needs a PR person and someone to clean up her digital footprint.

2. medrano's art

incurious

inauthentic

noncommittal

creatively stagnant

overindulgent, and the indulgence isn't even fun

shallow and childish framed as complex and mature

bland and boring framed as shocking and subversive

to be clear, i'm at peace with the existence of suckass art like this; i just think the money, attention, and praise it gets are unearned and should go to more interesting works, of which there are infinite.

medrano's had the time, money, and social cache to grow as an artist, learn from the best, and take creative risks, but she hasn't. if she truly has nothing more to offer, she should let her collaborators take the wheel, but she doesn't do that either. instead, she keeps getting more and more resources to make the same baby bullshit, and that pisses me off. she could be the nicest person ever, and this fundamental arrogance would still make her art blow.

stop with the pointless guilt: liking medrano's work does not make you stupid or evil. however, if you stay in the kiddie pool of culture, if you refuse to engage with a diversity of art, if the hellaverse is your point of reference for anything media-related, you can't expect to have your opinions on art, media, or culture taken seriously. you have not earned a seat at the table. you gotta hit the books first.

i cannot emphasize enough how much incredible stuff is out there if you're willing to look further than what social media and streaming services put right in front of you. if you come away from this blog having learned about just one new artist or piece of art, i'll be a happy camper.

3. the hellaverse

a. empty and confused

hazbin and helluva's content and marketing has no clear target audience. the subjects are inappropiate for teens, but the execution is too childish for adults, and lemme tell you what i don't mean by that, first.

not inherently inappropriate for teens:

sex and sexuality

violence, including when it intersects with the above

politics and religion

not inherently childish:

animation (any style)

comedy

episodic writing and/or loose continuity

young characters

fun, happiness, optimism, the power of friendship, cuteness, tenderness, sincerity, etc.

what i mean is that these shows are literally about adult characters who fuck, smoke, drink, do drugs, go clubbing, work full-time, manage their own finances, and deal with stuff like bureaucracy, sexual violence, domestic abuse, marriage, divorce, late adoption, and family estrangement.

however, none of these "adult" things are given enough specificity to create drama or comedy. it's all too stock, vague, flat, weirdly sanitized, and thus utterly banal—pure aesthetics on top of bad saturday morning cartoons. it's exactly what i'd expect from a sheltered disney kid who needs to log off and get into their local gay scene ASAP so their only contact with things like poverty, policing, addiction, and sex work stops being facile movies and TV.

if the shows were aware of this and played with it, that could be amazing, but they're not. they give you the mickey mouse version of the world with a straight face and then play looney tunes sound effects to try to make you laugh and sad_violin.mp3 to try to make you cry. now that's funny.

b. old and tired

let's make like americans and pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist. even within the confines of the USA, home of the hays code, the red scare, and reaganite propaganda, this neopuritan fascist state ruled by 1000 megachurches in a trenchcoat, the indie/underground animation scene has been doing crazier shit for decades. anti-war films in the 60's, bakshi movies in the 70's, the simpsons shorts and r-rated movies in the 80's, adult swim and MTV in the 90's, flash/newgrounds/youtube in the 00's, streaming in the 2010's—so what are we doing in the 2020's with this wet white rice drowned in expired ketchup? i feel crazy making this point because it's obvious if you've watched these things, but if you haven't, you're gonna be like "well, there's gotta be something new here". no! there isn't! in the words of jimmy "the scot" jordan, nothing, nothing, NOTHING!

c. ideological purgatory

actually, there is one thing in these shows i've never seen before: the presbysterianism. shout out some interesting or at least intentional presbysterian art in the comments, because the way these ideas are presented here is not compelling. it just makes the rainbow neoliberalism even more confusing and contradictory.

i guess the big presbysterian things are protestanism, calvinism, and, uh, big church government? presbysterians, get your shit together. get your brand down. catholics have BDSM and vampires, evangelicals have TV and corporatism; what do you have? celtic crosses? no wonder medrano has such uninspired ideas on divinity.

d. queer deficiency

when i look at a piece of art, i ask myself: "what does this give me that i can't get from the hunchback of notre dame (1996)?" if the answer is as limp as "uhh, gay people, i guess", i can probably look for my gay shit elsewhere and rewatch the hunchback of notre dame (1996) in the meantime.

but let's say that you have no standards. you've been waiting for ages for a show about gays by the gays for the gays, and by god you're gonna get it. this is it! here we go! time for some

generic twink obliteration

male sexuality as aggression and dominance displays

WLW (sex and chemistry not included)

a couple straight femdoms

and the stalest sex jokes known to man

...yeah, it's not very queer. and by "queer", i mean "questioning or subverting gender norms (including sexual roles) within a given cultural context regardless of creator identity and intent". i'm not a queer studies scholar so LMK if there's a more specific term for this, but whatever you call it, it's not in the hellaverse much.

there's not even any transness, literal or metaphorical, just ancient drag jokes. i guess the writers thought we would've been too controversial. so much for an indie animation studio that prides itself in the diversity of its staff both above and below the line, bakshi-style. i wonder how medrano, a bisexual woman, would've felt if told that a lesbian main couple in hazbin would be "too controversial".

4. spindlehorse and the vivziepop brand

spindlehorse toons underpays its overworked staff and keeps outsourcing more and more labor to even more overworked freelancers overseas to cut costs. a rainbow sweatshop is still a sweatshop, and just because these practices may be "industry standard" doesn't make them any more ethical.

the studio has also been repeatedly accused by current and former employees and contractors of creating a hostile and abusive workplace. AFAIK, it still has no dedicated HR person, and victims are too afraid of retaliation like blacklisting and online harassment to speak out.

this is exactly the stuff that unions exist to prevent. as i'm writing this, the IATSE (the parent union of TAG, which is the parent union of all US animation unions) is negotiating with entertainment industry executives for better working conditions, and if the execs fuck around like last year, it's strike time again. so watch this space, voice your support, and don't cross any picket lines.

i hope spindlehorse unionizes, but until then and for these reasons, i don't think you should give money to the company.

first of all, all content on amazon-owned platforms is ok to pirate, and all youtube ads are ok to block. everyone involved in making the episodes has (or should have) been paid upfront, so you're not taking the bread out of anyone's mouth.

next, let's look at the succulent offerings of the official vivziepop merch shop:

$10 pins and keychains

$15 sticker packs

$20 mugs and acrylic cutouts

$25 shirts

$30 metal cards (not even tarot)

$40 lounge pants

$50 mini backpacks

random $80 skateboard deck

forgive my latin americanness, but this is all stuff you can get made by a local metalsmith, print/sublimation shop, or just crafty people in your life. it's cheaper, customizable, and better for the environment to skip all the shipping and packaging. also, not painting your own skateboard is poser shit.

the hazbin website also has $15 pins, one $20 keychain, and $6 trading card packs. people are weird about trading cards, so if for some reason you wanna gamble for a mass-produced bit of cardboard, plastic, and tinfoil, at least bulk-order for all the vivziepoppers in your area so it's less of a huge waste. better yet, trace the designs and make infinite bootlegs.

at the end of the day, buying merch is not activism. your bulk order of trading cards will not save any wage slaves from getting evicted from their overpriced studio apartments. however, the shop links you to all the credited artists/designers, and more of your bucks will actually reach them if you buy their designs directly, then turn them into body pillows or life-sized bronze statues or whatever the fuck.

go through the credits of any episode of helluva or hazbin, and you'll find even more creatives you might wanna support. get jinkx monsoon's albums on CD. subscribe to actually good artist, animator, and composer gooseworx. lots of voice actors now have patreon, cameo, or self-hosted pages where you can write better lines for their characters and have them read it. these things may not look as shiny as Official Merch™, but we all need less plastic shit and more culture anyway.

[ronearoundblindly]

Hello darling! No pressure (I fukin tried to write this anon and YOU WOULD HAVE KNOWN), but I keep thinking about a workaholic reader who needs cared for! It’s the beginning of a new year but she’s already worn out from last year.

You write such a real Steve, can he be stern about it? Tough, rewarding love? And you can request (that I stfu) anything from me, I wish you the whole world 💚💚💚💚

Drag me kicking and screaming :P

Dear bestie,

You bish. Fine. I see what you did there. Be warned, I'mma tap you back for this. Oh, it'll happen...

Not Today

Warnings for...Steve is a bit of a hypocrite? and that might be it? Oh, and Steve uses completely canonical profanity. It's literally the exact same line. You're welcome. WC 3.1k

The tech support department is a team. There are about a dozen people who are tasked with directly answering any Avenger's call at any time, day or night or holiday. You know your own team but not socially since you all rotate and shift hours. It's a fairly lonely job, and that's fine.

The world's superheroes don't know your names, can't distinguish your voices, and don't really care which of you picks up as long as they get the information they need. Steve Rogers is guilty of this, too. It's not on purpose, but he still struggles to remember more than just a 2-D connection can come from technology. Old habits are hard to break.

Then came Thanksgiving, and Steve took several for the team by coordinating casual progress on a few upcoming missions while the rest of the Avengers scattered to celebrate with family. He still saw people; he still enjoyed the festivities. He just also worked.

That's when Steve noticed.

He called your department at 1900h after the big dinner because a document scan was cut off oddly and he needed to see the original. You answered. 

He called again after the house was quiet and everyone slept. At 2300h, you answered. 

With barely-bridled irritation, Steve called instead of a morning run because he needed clarification on a recon analysis. You answered at the ripe 0500h, but he was too distracted to notice it was the same voice until that afternoon.

When it occurred to him that the same person answered four calls in a row, Steve asks for your name, but you politely remind him you aren’t supposed to say it over the line.

“Plus, it’s not important, Captain Rogers. Answering your questions is.”

He doesn’t like that one bit.

After the holiday though, it’s you picking up less often. The others are back in rotation more, and perhaps it was just a fluke, he thinks. If you can’t say your name, you certainly can’t tell him that you filled in for coworkers hoping to spend just a few extra hours with their families.

Your team works out of one central computer lab which Steve knows, but since it’s all by phone and online, remote shifts are common. Steve wouldn’t have time to stalk around the facility anyway.

He lets it go.

On his way out to the landing pad one night, Sam Wilson joins him in the elevator, suited up, ready, and on the phone.

“Thanks, Genie, I’ll call if there’s anything else,” Sam says before hanging up and nodding at Steve. “Ready?”

“Always,” he grunts back. “Who’s Jeannie?”

“One of the techs.”

“She told you her name?” Steve looks stunned. One of your coworkers doesn’t seem to follow the rules.

“Didn’t. She’s just particularly magical…and effectively trapped in a bottle since she’s always on the phone, I guess.”

Oh—Steve gets it now—Genie is like a nickname. That doesn’t explain why it is still you (because he just knows it’s you) answering calls so frequently.

“Are they short-staffed or something? People out on leave?”

Sam shrugs. “I don’t know, Cap. She just tells me what I need to know.”

They head off on their mission.

Steve Rogers doesn’t have much of a social life. Ok, fine, he doesn’t have any social life, but he’s a curious sort of man. It bugs him to not understand what’s going on around him, and in theory, this isn’t a huge mystery. He pulls up the time logs for the on-call analysis team and glances over it.

Whether he expected a simple coincidence or a mostly-female staff now that could sound similar, Steve’s not sure, but what he finds infuriates him by proxy. He stops himself from looking up the personnel file for your employee number though. He’s not so mad as to break that protocol.

For another week or so, he fights the urge to hang up on you and call again since he knows there are likely at least three other people available. It probably wouldn’t make his point clear because Steve doesn’t know what his point is yet. Instead, he grits his teeth and does his work, oblivious to his annoyance growing.

Until Christmas Eve when he walks by the lobby coffee bar just as he’s dialing your team’s hotline.

He doesn’t notice at first but the woman next in a long line to order scurries out to hold the phone to her ear, pinning it to her shoulder and opening her laptop right there as she stands. He hears your response echo in both his ears and looks up.

“You gotta be shitting me,” he huffs, stomping over.

It’s only when he snatches your phone away that you realize he’s there. “Oh, gosh, sir—I mean, hello, Captain.”

“What are you doing?!”

He’s downright terrifying when angry, and his fury coupled with your alarm makes you shrink in your own skin.

“I—I just—“

“What is this? Day nine? In a row?!” His voice cracks slightly as he barks out questions he already knows the answer to. He sees people staring around you, so he points down the far hall. “Conference room, now.”

He keeps your phone in hand and ignores it ringing three times before you even make it to the giant table. You look tired. He complains it’s unhealthy but when you try to say something he cuts you off and asks when you last ate. That’s simple, right? You have to feed yourself.

“I was in line, sir. That’s what I was doing.”

“Then you shouldn’t have answered the phone. Sit there, no, right there.” He points and presses one finger against the wood for emphasis. “You don’t move. You don’t leave this room. I’m taking this—“ he pockets your phone “—and you sit there.”

As he’s about to let the door close behind him, he turns. “And if you so much as touch that laptop…”

It’s explicitly clear that you are still terrified, but you nod.

He comes back with food from their private lounge, a variety since he doesn’t know if you have restrictions or allergies. There’s water and coffee already in the room. He sits and eats something with you, staring until you munch on a few things.

When he’s satisfied, he stands and hands back your silenced phone. “I don’t want to catch you overworking like this again, you hear?”

Your very wide eyes blink twice.

He takes that as yes, wraps his knuckles on the table, and goes back to his own work.

Steve gets exactly what he wants. You log long—but no extra—shifts all the way through to New Year. He never hears your voice when he’s not supposed to.

Except…he celebrated the clock striking midnight with Wilson, Torres, and some other employees on the roof, and after the crowd dissipated, Steve couldn’t get to sleep. He walks (wanders) the halls when this happens. The building is empty.

Of course, the building is not empty, so Steve smacks the glass door open in frustration.

“Nobody works in this lab for third shift.”

You’re startled, ripping your headset off and half-rising from a rolling chair. “This is my shift, and…I’m not nobody.”

“Agreed,” he spits before realizing how that sounds. “Gah—“ he runs his hand through his hair, pulling harder than necessary “—this is insufferable.”

“Agreed,” you mumble, sitting back down with a questioning gaze.

Thinking of nothing else to say, Steve then bursts, “have you at least eaten?”

“Uh…it’s two in the morning. It’s not a meal time.” You flinch at his powerful huff. “Have you? Do you need to eat, Captain Rogers?”

You point him toward a tiny table.

Of course, the phone rings, but he stares you down. “Are there other people working remotely?”

“Yeah but—“

“But what,” he says in a very specific way to indicate there is no correct response except—

“Nothing. I am actually supposed to work though.”

“Seventy-plus hours this week and you still think it’s required?” Steve kicks himself internally. He just showed his hand.

“No…?”

“Just stop—“ He doesn’t get to finish.

His phone rings, and he suddenly can’t say squat. Steve simply answers it, wearing the most sternly disappointed face he can muster, and leaves.

He gets bold. Something about the anger boiling up inside him at the whole situation makes him far more aggressive at trying to change your habits, more so now that he’s seen your face. You’re not a 2-D sound anymore. You’re real, and you really work too much.

He keeps a closer track of the time logs and sees you’ve, in fact, reduced your hours. Then he hears Torres say something about ‘you rock, Genie’ on the phone…nine hours after he spoke to you that morning. So he checks and you’re not on-call. That’s when he realizes you’ve been working after and before clocking in so it looks like you have no overtime.

That’s nonsensical to Steve. He’s livid.

He picks out one of the burner phones constantly available to his Team and does something he’s not super proud of but feels justified in: he looks up your address in your file. It ends up not being a huge deal because you live in an apartment complex almost entirely rented out by compound employees. Still. Steve folds in his own self-condemnation with his fury at your deceit.

And you lied. You lied to him.

He drives over and stands by the door, flips open the phone, and calls the hotline.

“Ready,” a female voice chirps. It’s customary. No chit-chat just immediately prepared to listen to and research the caller’s question, but he can’t be sure it’s you from one word. Then Steve realizes he can’t say anything because he’ll give away that he also knows you have screened his calls from his normal number during times you are supposed to be off.

“Unclear. Weak audio connection. Boosting in three, two—“

Steve pounds on your door because goddamnit, stop working, woman. There’s a very sharp squeak from the phone (and through the entry) before the line cuts out. His heart rate and breathing spike in anger when he hears a muffled, “what do you want?”

It’s sad, not quizzical or alarmed. You’ve looked through the peephole at him.

“Open the door,” Steve says in his Captain voice, and you do, right away, unable to not comply. He wiggles the phone. “I know for a fact three other people are on-call. Explain yourself.”

You’ve also straightened in anger, but the posture is defensive and fragile. “It’s not like my work suffers, and I can keep going—“

“Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should,” he barks back, stepping over the threshold and blocking the entire doorway. “And you suffer even if the work doesn’t.”

You have no rebuttal for a long moment, frowning at his intrusion until you try again.

“Well, you…you’ve been up since at least five—“

“I have a physical advantage to handle more than you on less sleep.”

Your face sours further. “And that makes you better than me?!”

He’s defeated by that, having first scared the daylights out of you by yelling in the atrium, then interrupting you at the lab, and now showing up at your home to yell some more. Steve isn’t at all sure what’s gotten into him.

His shoulders sink. He finally takes a second to look around.

“You’re done. You are off work for the night. Do not pick up that phone.” He snatches it away again. “Just do something else.”

Without moving your feet, your whole body swivels to look around your apartment. You fill the silence with a short sniffle before confessing, “I…I don’t have anything else to do.”

Neither does he. Steve has not a single clue what he’d do if he were told the exact same thing.

“It won’t fit,” you gasp in frustration.

Steve sighs. “You’re making this harder than it needs to be.” He continues to watch you struggle, leaning forward just enough so his breath fans over your face. “Go on. You can do it. It’s meant to be.”

“Shut up,” you whimper before dropping the slippery piece in defeat.

“You know in real life—“ he clucks his tongue “—they make cars big enough for your brood there.”

“Steve, this is the game of LIFE. I don’t know that anyone is supposed to end up with five children and a spouse. I’ll just have to strap him to the top of the van.”

As you delicately lay the little man to the side, Steve frowns.

“That’s no way to treat your beloved second son!”

“Who said it was my son I kicked outta the car?”

He barely stifles a laugh and goes to spin for his turn, but not Steve’s turn.

In order to make the game last longer, and because you both have somewhat alter egos, you are playing with Steve, Captain America, Genie, and yourself.

Genie has apparently been super busy having five children. It’s ridiculous.

So Captain America scores one for his perfect little life: a mansion.

“Look at you, Mister Two-Kids-and-A-White-Picket-Fence,” you chide.

One boy and one girl, of course. It’s now the running joke of the game that everyone’s life is terrible compared to Cap’s, even Steve’s.

Steve has three sons, and he keeps grumbling that he wants a daughter. You have offered him one of yours. He feigned offense. He openly hopes to avoid ending up like Genie though.

“I guess I’m just very dedicated to servicing my customers,” you joke in your best phone voice.

Steve sputters and blushes, putting down his to-go container in favor of sipping more water.

He withheld your phone to order, too, and insisted on paying for the obscene amount of food (because he eats like a horse, it seems). In addition, you are required to have half a glass of water every time your phone goes off. Self-care, he says. Hydration is good.

His phone has vibrated a few times as well, and because he’s him, Steve always answers to make absolutely sure it’s not urgent. He talks in his Captain voice, which gave you the idea to make him play the board game like that. He’s actually quite funny trying to get it together and ‘act the part’ while he spins a tiny rainbow dial that he’s already broken twice.

The air of irritation he arrived with has dissipated, and he smiles more. It makes you smile to see him relax. He’s more animated than you would have guessed. He holds himself very straight and still as Cap; Steve is a lot more approachable and a lot easier to make fun of.

He almost left in a completely flabbergasted huff when his original suggestion was for you to have a hot bath or something. Your quick “what are you gonna do? Watch me?” made Steve nearly crawl out of his skin in apology, but you decided to put him out of his misery and suggested eating instead.

“Right. Food,” he muttered under his breath, “that’s a good, basic life requirement…”

And that’s when you also had the idea for this game.

Best decision ever.

He’s never played, so you only made it through a few turns before the delivery arrived. Steve is practically a natural…a natural loser, that is, and it somehow makes him even more perfect. As Cap, he fights for justice, but he doesn’t fight over game rules or what’s fair about random cards and moving in an arbitrary pattern on the board. He doesn’t care if he wins, and oddly, you feel like the gleam in his eyes says “I’m winning by just being here.”

You feel the same. This is the most fun you’ve had in a long time, and it’s just a stupid foldout piece of cardboard. He’s just that magical.

So you both hide away in your own little bottle all night.

More jabs, more setbacks, more triumphant returns from behind later, and you barely care who wins. You chat absently between every spin. You have too much fun going wild with your alter ego’s stories. Then it’s past the three-hour mark of no-calls and quite late.

The food isn’t all gone, so you hop up to make Steve a doggy bag to take home. He shifts from relaxed to wildly awkward in the space of your walk back over.

“So,” he drawls, staring at your two phones on the coffee table, side by side and silent.

“So,” you mimic with a smirk, “I promise to not work until tomorrow, logged in or not. You have my word. Scouts’ honor.”

“I’d say I trust you—“ he bobs his head around, thinking “—but I don’t, so I might have to check up on you.”

“Oh dear,” you gasp. “A home visit? Expected or unexpected?”

He clearly feels bad about how he ended up here for the night, but Steve steps forward to take the wrapped offering of leftovers.

“Maybe expected. Next week? Same time?”

“Sure. I can survive on eating once a week.” It’s cheeky and a little forward of you, implying you might only eat with him and so he should see you that much more, but Steve beams.

He squints a little. “Or maybe sooner?”

“I’d like that. This…this was fun.” You step closer to gently kiss his cheek. “Thank you, Captai—Steve. Thanks.”

“Next time, I want a daughter,” he laughs, tilting to kiss your cheek, too, and then he jumps back and slaps his forehead. “No. Not like. I’m so sorry. That came out all wrong.”

You cackle while he still tries to correct himself.

“We can play the game. And in the game, it would be nice if—would you stop? I didn’t mean it like that.”

A few big breaths has you settling but just barely.

“I know, but hey, maybe next time you’ll be the one tied up?”

Steve swallows hard with huge eyes.

“To the top of the van, that is, because you would give up your seat for the children, right?”

Yeah, he would, he agrees and sees himself out, adding one more good night as he plucks his phone back, pushing it into his pocket next to the burner.

On his ride home, he already has the urge to check.

“Hey,” you answer immediately. “What’s up?”

“You aren’t supposed to pick up. You promised,” he snorts, smiling.

“But I knew it was you.”

He’ll be mad at that eventually. He should be mad at that. He could give another Captain speech about overworking and caring for yourself and yadda yadda, but not today.

No. Not today.

Today, you cared for each other, even though you didn’t know how, even though you didn’t want to, even though it was hard. Tomorrow, you can both care even more.

Immediately started bawling. Whoops.

Reminder to self: it isn't even the big things that make you feel cared for. Sometimes it's just a very simple joy.

[Main Masterlist]

[imminent-danger-came]

I love reading your tags- especially when theres just even MORE info dumping there.

The least favorite character ask made me giggle a bit, "This character that appeared for a single episode is actually pretty cool. And this character is really awesome in this particular context. But ALSO I really like this character with very little actual screentime."

You‘re absolutely right though! Characters whose only purpose is to fill a particular role are chosen really well too! Like the Host Girl; sure, she doesn’t really have a personality or anything, but she doesn’t NEED to have one. As you said, she‘s collateral damage. She gives us more insight to Wukong, she shows us just how ruthless he can be. He‘s willing to kill the epitome of innocence: A child. A defenseless little girl with a cutesy voice, who was just in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

(It‘s also worth a mention that, contrary to Wukong, she revealed a softer side of Macaque. Not to the extent the fandom built it up, but in an arguably more meaningful way. He‘s worried/feels bad for a total stranger. Even if it was only a concerned look, she once again gave us a deeper insight to a member of the main cast.)

And the characters with less focus either have really genuine interactions (Yellow Tusk with Azure) that just endear you to them, or they drop a banger line (like the Jade Emperor) before their purpose is fulfilled.

Nothing wrong with being a plot device if it‘s done well!

This wasn‘t really much of an ask rather than me rambling. Sorry.

I welcome rambles in my ask box! Half of you that show up in my ask box could just write your own analysis posts.

And you're also totally right! There isn't anything wrong with characters that are there just to function as plot devices. Sometimes a child is there just to be a child, and that's all they need to be. I think I feel this way about Megapolis (a name for the city that hasn't even been mentioned in show). Like it's a city filled with innocent people, it's MK & the Gang's home, and that's all it kinda needs to be tbh. LMK has to be extremely tight with what it chooses to focus on because of time constraints, and it does that well. When it comes down to it, focusing on the characters/plot is more important than focusing on the setting (which I think debatably wouldn't contribute much anyways—like we don't need more of a reason to care about the city, you know?).

I have this same opinion when it comes to the Demon Bull Family, which may be an unpopular take, but the truth is that a lot of their development happened off-screen. After ROTSQ and until we see them again in 3x06, it's clear that there have been positive changes between Red Son and his parents. I think I've seen some folk want Red Son to cut off his parents entirely, but that kinda goes against the core of his character. Part of Red Son's appeal for me is his complete devotion to his family despite their flaws (saving them in ROTSQ and EYD, attempting to save them in 4x09). Red Son and Princess Iron Fan only ever wanted world domination because that's what DBK wanted, and after that failed—they gave up. They hit the bricks. Red Son then started a food business with his dad (jealous of MK and Pigsy's noodle shop mayhaps?), and I think it's telling that DBK would even agree to do that to begin with. DBK and PIF's disregard of Red Son may not be acknowledged in the way people want, and I get that, but it's not that it didn't happen. I'd say there's another jump in their development between the end of 3x14 and the beginning of 4x09, where the fact that DBK calls out for Red Son as he gets taken away shows a closeness between them that we hadn't seen before. It's also clear that DBK has grown past the person who only wanted to create the world in his own image, chastising Azure Lion:

Demon Bull King: "How many times must you be struck down chasing this same foolish dream?"

(4x09 Roast of the Monkie Kids)

-

(Plus "This pursuit of yours has warped your mind brother—it is the only reason I could imagine that you would have the nerve to assault my home and harm my family!" echoing PIF in 1x10 "Come to your senses, this power has poisoned your mind!"; Azure unreasonably considers DBK a traitor like DBK had unreasonably considered Red Son a traitor, etc.)

DBK, unlike plenty of other antagonists in LMK (Spider Queen, LBD, and Azure specifically), learned to stop and accept the world as it was. He failed as a conqueror, but he still had his family, and he could try and not fail as a father for his "half-baked son"—or that's how I interpret DBK anyhow.

((I also want to bring up the fact that DBK didn't dare use the Samadhi Fire ring he had to power himself up with Red Son's furnace in AHIB. Like, even the Mr. Bull King has some restraint—there are prices too great to pay for the world, hence why he gave up on world domination after 1x10, when he almost killed his wife and son.))

To me it makes the Demon Bull Family feel like characters that exist outside of MK & the Gang, and can grow/change even when they're not on screen with our main characters, and I think that's cool. We also legitimately didn't have time for anything else.

[crisiscutie]

could we get more about the relationship between ac sephy and his darling please? he has to be my favourite sephiroth you write, I loved the yandere musings you did for him recently!

(also would it be okay for me to start signing off my asks as 🐺 anon? im too anxious to come off anon but I love your work)

Sure thing, anon! You're always welcomed here!

So regarding AC Sephy and his respective darling, I have little new to say, but I can offer some analysis on him. I think what interests me the most about AC Sephy is that he is a being formed from corrupted Lifestream energy. And since he is so angry yet still ever calculating, I like to think of him as a fusion of a Revenant and an Onryō. Not my love of Phasmophobia coming out here. I think his death and deep dive into the Lifestream once more have completely transformed him. He's more malevolent and unhinged than ever.

And I think if we were to discuss AC Sephy respectively, it's usually necessary to bring up his remnants, as they are extensions of him. It's really heartbreaking to see him treating the manifestations of his inner child as mere objects, to be discarded once they fulfill his needs. It goes to show he is so single-minded in pursuit of his desires and goals, he overlooks his own identity. Post-Nibelheim Sephiroth has always had that bad habit of objectifying everyone and everything, but I believe AC Sephy amplifies it to an unprecedented degree. And his darling wouldn't be much different; she's as precious to him as a cherished toy. A mere doll, devoid of her own desires and dreams, ready to be molded according to his will. Other than that, I do have some random headcanons below!

It has only been two years since his defeat and his current time spent in the Lifestream once again, but yet for Sephiroth, it felt like an eternity.

The more memories he acquired of the planet, the more he had to endure seeing his darling live her life without him, interacting with others, and sometimes even appearing to be on the verge of starting a new relationship, which drove him to madness to whole another level.

So before his remnants even manifested, his cells in his darling kept him seared into her memory. Every time she's with another man, or maybe even look at another one, she's definitely going to be thinking of Sephiroth.

So when they manifested, his remnants hunted his darling down and sheltered her, under the misguided belief that they were looking after her well-being. Definitely did not kidnap her or anything.

Sephiroth would manipulate both the Geostigma and his Remnants, using them as instruments to maintain a tight grip on his darling. Surely she would have no reason to leave them if they can make her condition bareable.

He may even develop a twisted fairytale belief, imagining that if one of the remnants were to kiss the darling, it would bring him back to the world, if only for a moment. However, it seems the remnants are usually too timid to carry out such an act with her, which frustrates him to no end.

Simultaneously, he becomes consumed with jealousy as he watches the darling one showering the remnants with jealously otherwise. Especially if the darling takes on a semi-motherly role for them.

That's what I have on him for now, but I'm always happy to delve into his psychology or explore the other Yandere Sephys in more detail. I'm curious, what is it that draws you to him and makes you love him? I'm also curious to know what specific aspects of other Sephiroths you guys love, too. Please enlighten me, I'm eager to know!

[sideprince]

A movie question I wanted to throw your way: what do you think about the decision to use a decent amount of physical acting on Rickman’s part for comic effect? I’m thinking his snatch of thin air in Philosopher's Stone, his creeping along the table towards Ron and Harry in Chamber, his dramatic point in that same scene, his walk up to the stage for Dueling Club, his whacking students in Goblet and Order, etc.

On one hand, I feel like this does match the tone of the books; he canonically lurks and prowls and points and snatches at the air, and his menace is often undercut by a physical description that’s meant to be some level of comedic. On the other hand, we don't see Snape nearly as much in the movies as we do in the books, so this aspect of his character seems somewhat overinflated by the movies?

TLDR I don’t think these decisions in the movie were completely out of left field, but it also feels off for some reason. Idk I don’t know how exactly to verbalize my feelings on the matter and wanted to hear your thoughts!

It will probably come as no surprise that I feel like any answer to this question is inseparable from the absolute hatchet jobs that are Steve Kloves' screenplays for the HP franchise. This reply is going to end up inevitably long (you ask me about my favorite subject, you suffer the consequences), but all of it is ultimately framed by the problem of having to make the best of a badly written script. (**edit: This post is way too long. Run away. Don't look back.)

The writing doesn't support the story

The first thing that jumps out to me is that there's a separation between where and how these comedic moments are used, up until the end of GoF and after. They're more a part of the story only until Harry's story arc reaches the point of Cedric's death, when he first witnesses death in the way that allows him to see thestrals after. GoF is when the story takes its first dark turn, and up until then the tone and story is much more in line with children's literature, so it makes more sense that Snape is portrayed in a bit of a playful way. After GoF - even though the films reveal it as an aside and much later than the original story does - Snape resumes his role as spy and becomes more integral to the story as a key character and is thus no longer just a foil in a children's story. I think what doesn't work about it is the inconsistency. The books have comedic moments with Snape too, which are cartoonish, up until the end of DH - I feel those are also out of place, but at least their existence gives a basis to what's done in the films.

Nevertheless, one of the biggest problems with the films is that they're badly edited. I'll leave that analysis for another post (you're welcome), but essentially these comedic moments feel inconsistent in part because there's often a disconnect between the performance a director has asked of his actors and the tone that's established in the editing room once pacing and a soundtrack are added. Any vision a director had for these films was muddled by the involvement of big studio producers and limitations. This is made more jarring by the way that Kloves has interjected light, funny moments in awkward ways throughout the scripts. He struggles overall to convey the world that Rowling has created, and if it weren't for the brilliant production design of Stuart Craig, Kloves' failures would be much more obvious (again, worthy of its own roast post).

Take the scene where Snape whacks Harry and Ron on the head in Gof: why are the students all studying in the Great Hall? Why are various years sitting together? Why is Snape overseeing them? It's a scene almost verbatim out of the book (Fred asks Angelina to the ball casually, he and George tell Ron and Harry to get dates "before all the good ones are gone," we find out Hermione already has a date), but like pretty much every scene that originally takes place in the Gryffindor common room, this one is moved to another location for no discernible reason. The main difference in the change is how restrictive it is: in the common room the children are free to be themselves, but in the Great Hall, under a strict teacher's nose, they have to be quiet and restrained. Another subject that would need its own post is the myriad of ways Kloves goes out of his way to rewrite settings and characters to avoid allowing them to express themselves or grow as characters, and how hard he works to stifle and limit them in ways that are convoluted and work against the story, as if he himself couldn't deal with any kind of emotional vulnerability (in a way, his scripts are a desperate cry for help). This directly contributes to why so many of Snape's comedic moments feel off.

The changes in the scene in GoF don't even make sense from a production perspective, as they required more actors, more lighting, and more setups. Instead of using the cozy setting of the common room to establish camaraderie between the students, Kloves replaced that energy and lightheartedness with Snape in a way that's uncharacteristic. The scene, as he wrote it, is already light and has humor, but Kloves doesn't trust it - he feels the need to exaggerate it and the casualties, as always, are the characters and their portrayal. It's as though he's following a formula and saying, "this page number/scene number must provide relief from the tension of the story" and then doesn't consider how following that directive fits into the rhythm of the narrative. It's closer to being an isolated scene akin to a comedy sketch than to a scene that's part of an act that's part of a film. It's worth noting that, in GoF, Kloves interjects this scene as if he's forcing this moment of comic relief into a story that didn't require it and then relies on playing off of Snape's usual seriousness as its crux. In OOtP, when there's a callback to it as Snape smacks Ron with a book again, it's no longer the point of the scene, but an aside in a comical montage focused on Umbridge (OOtP was also the only film not written by Kloves, so this moment is more likely the result of Michael Goldenberg trying to maintain a consistency with Kloves' work). Overall, I think that feeling of something being off is, again, more rooted in the writing than the performance.

Rickman as an actor playing Snape

There's a lot of criticism in the Snapedom of how Alan Rickman portrays Snape, but not enough acknowledgment that none of the characters are portrayed well, and most of it comes down to Kloves' writing of them. Book!McGonagall insists that all students under 17 are evacuated before the Battle of Hogwarts, where Movie!McGonagall only cares that the Slytherin students are locked in the dungeon, everyone else can stay, what does she care if first years die? Book!Hermione is intelligent and empathetic while Movie!Hermione is a two dimensional maternalistic harpy whose main job is to be a mouthpiece for plot exposition. Book!Ron is funny and brave and fiercely loyal, while Movie!Ron throws Hermione under the bus, is cowardly, and is reduced to a flatly written sidekick. Book!Harry is complex and while I could list a million examples, I'll stick to this one: in PoA when he finds out Sirius betrayed his parents, he's enraged but has no reply when asked if he'd want to kill Sirius. Movie!Harry says with conviction, and without prompting, that he wants to find Sirius with the explicit purpose of killing him. Every single character takes a hit because of how Steve Kloves writes them, and Snape is, sadly, no exception.

While some film shoots allow for improvisation, a big budget production on a tight schedule with scenes that require a lot of prep work can't afford to make many changes. So, for example, while Ralph Fiennes was asked to improvise his scene as Voldemort at the end of DH2 when he re-enters Hogwarts victorious (and that's why the dialogue is redundant and that weird hug with Draco continues to plague us), it could be done because the wardrobe and set and cast were already in place and the time required had already been scheduled in. It wouldn't be possible, though, to add an additional scene - like Snape going feral in the hospital wing at the end of PoA - unless it was written into the script. Additional actors would be required, which would mean coordinating with their schedules and adding them to the budget, not to mention scheduling in additional days with the crew who may already have other work lined up. It would require either pushing every other shooting day back - which is near impossible - in order to use the hospital wing set while it's still up, or tacking on production days to the end of the shooting schedule and rebuilding the set on those days. This can be done for necessary pickups that round out existing scenes, but you can't really say, "hey I decided we need a scene here that didn't exist before" without causing huge problems. Because of how contracts work, any significant scene changes would have to be sent back to Kloves who would have to write alternate scenes and/or dialogue, and even then if you wanted to fix a specific character's arc - like Snape's - you would have to add in so much that it just wouldn't be feasible. Screenplay lengths have to fall within a certain number of pages, because each page is approximately a minute of screen time, so adding a few more to a finished script mid-production is very difficult. The actors have to make the best of what's on the page. Which brings us to Alan Rickman, his choices as an actor, and what informed both him and the character of Snape.

Alan Rickman was a RADA trained actor, so his approach to a character involved a lot of physical work as well as character analysis. As far as I know, he was the only actor to contact JK Rowling directly to ask about his character, because he wanted to make an informed decision about how to play him since Snape was so nuanced and gray. Unlike some of the other actors (like Michael "DIDYAPUTYANAMEINDAGOBLETOFFIYAH" Gambon) Rickman read the books - those that were available when he took on the role, and each as they came out afterwards - and used them to inform his understanding of his character beyond what Kloves wrote (presumably in crayon with all the e's backwards). In interviews and Q&A's it's clear Rickman was fond of the HP books and story, and had a thoughtful process taking on Snape's character. He did not see him as a villain, because, as he's said, he didn't approach characters with that kind of judgment. And while I'm sure the egregious amounts of cash Warner Brothers threw at the actors was inevitably a factor for all of them, several of the ones playing teachers or other adults have said that they took on their role because a child in their life insisted on it, despite them being unfamiliar with the books, whereas Rickman's process was to read Rowling's books in order to decide whether to take the role. Again, he was a RADA trained actor, and thus had a meticulous approach to his work that followed a thoughtful, considered process and a decision based on whether he felt he could embody a character in a way that did them justice/if they were interesting enough to him. By the time he started shooting PS, he also had experience directing a film and was working as a director in theatre as well as still acting, so he understood the process from the perspective of not just an actor, but also as someone behind the camera, someone working with actors both as a peer and director, and someone sitting in an editing room.

We know from his diaries that he became increasingly frustrated with how his own process and expectations clashed with that of the producers on Harry Potter. He wasn't interested in renewing his contract after the first few films (goodness knows how much money they offered him in the end - his wife has said that he never let anyone else pick up a tab in a restaurant and if they argued, he would just say "Harry Potter."). He writes about seeing the films at premieres and being frustrated with how little story and development there is (especially for Snape), which makes me think there are deleted scenes somewhere that haven't been released. At one point he writes about a premiere party where he had internally lost patience with the three Davids (Yates, Heyman, and Barron). It's obvious that there's a discord between the work he wanted to do with Snape's character and what choices the production made:

He describes how, during the filming of the Yule Ball scene in GoF, there was an attempt to get him to dance but he refused because he didn't think Snape would dance:

It was a rare moment of potential for improvisation because, again, the set and cast and timing were already accounted for, and in this case there wasn't even dialogue. The scene where he smacks the boys with the notebook - as far as I know - was scripted. So there's a difference there in how much freedom he had, as an actor, to say no to what he was asked to do. Even in the above diary entry it's clear that, given his way, he felt the character wouldn't even be present in that scene, but he had no choice. This tells me that when he had more freedom to make choices, he did so based on his understanding of Snape as a character and, given that he was an actor who was both very respected (and got away with more than most) and also someone who could get argumentative about his character choices, I think this is the most apt lens to examine his physical work with Snape through.

Knowing that he wasn't interested in continuing the role of Snape after the first couple of films and that he was often frustrated with the lack of characterization and story arc, his physicality in his first scene in CoS (when he reprimands Harry and Ron for flying the car) says a lot. (Caveat that one of the reasons he didn't want to renew his contract was that the shooting schedule restricted his schedule and he wanted work on other projects, but I can't help but wonder if that had been the case had HP provided a more satisfying process.) It's almost certain that he had read all the available books by the time the scene in CoS was filmed, including PoA where Snape becomes apoplectic with rage in a way that, to a child reader, is comical (and intended to be) and to someone analyzing Snape is clearly rooted in triggered trauma.

Alan Rickman knew from the outset that Snape's motivation was his love for Lily, so he would have understood the dynamic between his character and Sirius re: who Snape thought sold Lily out to Voldemort. He would also have understood that Snape's reaction in PoA was more about distress and anxiety, and that this was connected to the promise Snape had made to protect Harry for Lily's sake. This would have therefore informed his portrayal of Snape's anger at Harry in CoS, and it's reasonable to assume that Rickman was trying to walk the line between the way Rowling portrayed Snape in full unhinged rage in PoA, what this tells him about this character when angered, and the connection between the moments in PoA and CoS when it comes to Snape's anxiety over Harry's safety. Unlike the author of a book however, who has full control of how they tell a story, Rickman was an actor in a film - an inevitably collaborative medium which therefore made his portrayal reliant on the decisions of others as well.

Chris Columbus, the HP movies, and feral Snape

PS and CoS were directed by Chris Columbus, the guy who directed both Home Alone and Home Alone II and Mrs. Doubtfire. He was a successful director from the 90s tradition of children's movies whose sensibility was informed by the era's attitude towards children's media: kids wanting to see themselves in narratives, in ways that felt empowering and allowed them to process the confusion of a world run by adults in playful, quasi-cartoonish ways within a 3 act structure where the villains - mean adults - get their comeuppance because it feels fair. One thing that set Harry Potter apart was that the villain was not the mean adult; Snape, the mean adult, is a character kids can hate and project their own experiences onto, but Voldemort is a true villain who represents evil and is vanquished by the hero. Chris Columbus established a tone for the first two films that was no longer apt by PoA, not only because it didn't work for the story, but because that 90s era of children's movies had ended and the culture moved on to more complex narratives (and Columbus has focused more on producing than directing since, because his style doesn't work for audiences anymore).

What's ironic about the way Snape's scene at the start of CoS comes off is that, in the book, there's a great comedic moment that's left out:

This is cut from the film, and instead it's Filch waiting at the top of the marble stairs who catches Ron and Harry being late and delivers them to Snape (I don't know why, the scene in the book is much more dynamic and would have taken up about as much time on screen). Rickman, meanwhile, is using the information he's gotten on who Snape is from the books, and imbuing some of that feral Snape energy into his portrayal of a Snape who is genuinely angry:

(Thank you for making these gifs @smilingformoney , they are truly the gift that keeps on giving.)

The thing is, no matter how much of feral Snape Rickman brought to this, no matter how menacing his performance is, this moment still lives within the dynamics of a Chris Columbus children's film. It gets cut off by Dumbledore's entrance - meant to be a comeuppance for Snape, since Dumbledore (being the voice of wisdom and fairness in this world) prevents him from punishing Harry and Ron (you know what, at least in the books they got detention, but ok). Despite Rickman's performance, Columbus as a director has framed this scene in the same context as the one Kloves cut. The tension is brief, and the focus is on Snape being foiled, because it's what children want to see - a mean adult experiencing consequences. It's down to the editing and soundtrack, choices Columbus made in the editing room. In addition, we don't know how many different ways an actor tries a scene, only what ends up in the final cut of a film. The process of the work done on a set is often much richer and more diverse than what an audience sees in the finished film.

Tbh I think this is also why Snape's feral moments were cut from PoA: it's a darker film, but had to straddle the line between being for both children and tweens and not getting too playful, nor too intense. As much as I want to see feral Snape on screen, it's extremely difficult to make work in a narrative that is about Harry and his friends. It either skews too intense, making the audience uncomfortable because seeing an adult becoming unhinged and in pain is difficult and frightening for most young people, even adults, and would therefore take away from Harry's goals and narrative as well as his changing relationship to Sirius (all of which is already barely supported by Kloves' writing). Alternately, it could also skew too comical and over the top, which takes the audience out of the tension of the film's climactic moments.

If Snape's story had gotten more focus and screen time, an unhinged moment would be better justified because the audience would have been more invested in the character and their arc. PoA sidesteps pretty much all of the most compelling parts of the book, which is the realization that Harry is not only connected to Sirius personally, but that his dad, Sirius, Lupin, and Pettigrew created the Marauders Map, that they were animagi, that Harry's patronus takes the form of his father's stag, and that Snape was initimately connected to all of them as well. For me, reading the end of PoA was what cemented Snape as someone who would be crucial to the narrative and whose role would increase as the series went on. As a result of Kloves skimming over these essential plot twists, Snape is a minor character in the film, showing up mostly as a foil who tries to expose Lupin and then catches him and Black in the Shrieking Shack (this also sets his character up to be minimized in every film down the line, which has a worsening impact as Snape becomes increasingly integral to the plot).

One thing I find interesting is that Snape's comical physicality changes over the films. In PS and CoS he's menacing, a looming, larger than life figure the children fear and easily assume to be a full-fledged villain. By GoF there's a relationship embedded in how he interacts with Harry and his friends. He's no longer terrifying, just intimidating, more of an adult Harry challenges than someone he must defeat. The comedic effect now comes from a rapport within an established dynamic between characters. By HBP, the only comical moment is at Slughorn's party, and it's no longer Rickman who uses physicality - the action happens around him, and the comedic effect is in his lack of reaction to any of it. In other words, he's no longer the comic one, he's become the straight man in a (badly written) comedy sketch (with abysmal timing, what even).

Ultimately, as with most of the characters in the HP films, Snape is undermined by the writing. Rickman was stuck working within the confines he was given. No matter how well he may have understood the character, the limited screen time and character development were always going to stifle how Snape was portrayed on screen. I'm very much pro Let Snape Be Feral but I also don't fault Rickman in how little we saw of that.

How Feral is Snape?

If I'm honest, I feel like the Snapedom has taken the Let Snape Be Feral thing and has started forgetting that he wasn't all-feral-all-the-time. The point of Feral Snape is that it's a heightened state of tension in a character whose trauma is being triggered. Apoplectic Snape wouldn't have an impact at the end of PoA if that was his usual way of being. And, as you so brilliantly showed @said-snape-softly Snape's speech patterns are primarily quiet and controlled, his speech gets softer the more dangerous his mood, and it's only after he reassumes his role as a spy that the description of his speech becomes increasingly volatile (but is still controlled). Feral Snape's definitive aspect is the lack of control shown by a character who usually is so exceptionally capable of self restraint and compartmentalization. So again, while I would have loved to see Feral Snape on screen, I think it's also important to acknowledge that this is not the defining feature of his character and is more about what those moments mean to his arc. Their absence is primarily due to poor writing that didn't create space for them (including what leads up to them), and the direction that didn't carve out any kind of niche for them, not Rickman's choices as an actor.

In fact, Snape as a character is defined by descriptors of his voice more than any other character by far. I have my own theory about why this is, and it has to do with Alan Rickman being inextricably connected with how Snape is written. Chris Columbus said that Alan Rickman was always Snape as far as he was concerned, because when JK Rowling showed him a sketch of Snape she had made, it looked exactly like Rickman. I don't think this is accidental.

Alan Rickman was always intended to be Snape

First, what's important to remember is that before Harry Potter, Alan Rickman was best known in the 90s for playing both villains and sad romantic leads. His signature defining feature was his voice. I think it was Ang Lee who described the casting choice of Greg Wise and Alan Rickman in Sense and Sensibility as wanting Willoughby (Wise) to be dashing and Brandon (Rickman) to be sexy (if this was Emma Thompson and not Ang Lee, my apologies, I can't remember where I read this and can't find the source). This is how Rickman was perceived by audiences up until Harry Potter. And I know a lot of the Snapedom considers him to be sexy as Snape too, but the general audiences of the films don't, so please don't @ me, I'm just setting up a point here.

This is relevant because, as we find out in the end of the books, Rowling wrote Snape's motivations to be rooted in romantic love (I'm very nobly putting aside, for the sake of focusing on Rowling's intentions, my personal interpretation that Snape's feelings for Lily were platonic, please acknowledge how brave I am for this). She pulls a lot from gothic tropes into how he's written, and as much as she's talked about the character having been inspired by a chemistry teacher she disliked, and as much as she's talked about Snape being both morally grey and someone she personally dislikes, she also romanticized him. Between this and what Chris Columbus said about her sketch of him, it's hard for me to ignore that this character, conceived of in the 90s, wasn't written with Alan Rickman in mind from the beginning, especially since Rowling herself has said that she envisioned him in the role. Whether or not he lived up to Rowling's imagination is, frankly, his choice and Rowling's problem.

The story of how Harry Potter was written according to JK Rowling is that it started with the idea coming to her on a train ride in 1990. She completed the PS manuscript in 1995. While everything I'm about to say is absolute conjecture, I can't help but wonder at the connection between these films and the way Snape was written (spoilers ahead, no regrets, these films have been out for over a quarter of a century - forgive my reviews, I can't help myself):

1988: Die Hard comes out. Alan Rickman plays Hans Gruber, a villain who is a genius, composed, controlled, and soft-spoken. (Great film, a classic, the only valid Christmas movie.)

1990: Truly, Madly, Deeply. Rickman plays a man whose wife can't get over his tragic death, nor can his own ghost, who comes back to spend more time with her. No one else can see him, and they can't really share a life anymore. She eventually lets him go as she realizes that his spirit doesn't belong in the mortal world and her own life can't move on as long as she clings to it. (Beautiful film, will break your heart and put it through a shredder.)

1991: Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. Rickman is the Sheriff of Nottingham, an unhinged, feral villain who wears all black complete with billowing cape. (Terrible film, disaster of a period piece, Rickman's performance is the only redeeming thing about it. Halfway through its press tour talk shows started booking Rickman instead of the lead, Kevin Costner, because Rickman stole every scene.)

1995: An Awfully Big Adventure. Rickman is an actor who comes back to his hometown to revive his role as Captain Hook in a local theatre production of Peter Pan. In the process he has an affair with a young ginger stagehand who reminds him of his lost love, a vivacious woman named Stella with bright red hair who, as far as he knows, birthed his child - a son - before she died. It turns out the girl he has an affair with is his daughter, which he realizes when he visits her home where she lives in the care of her aunt and uncle - whose name is Vernon - and connects the dots of who this girl's mother was. (He then rides his motorcycle out to the pier, screams "Stella" at the heavens like he's in a revival production of Streetcar Named Desire, trips and hits his head on the edge of the pier and falls into the water, drowning. I can't make this up. Mike Newell directed this. The same guy who directed GoF. As if following in the vein of the 90s movie obsession with incest as the controversial-trope-du-jour wasn't enough. I don't even need to review this, just sum it up.)

1995: Sense and Sensibility. Rickman plays Colonel Brandon, a forlorn, grieving man who lost his first love at a young age and spends most of the film pining for the only other woman he's ever had a romantic interest in. Wears all black, rides a black horse.

Given what a well-known actor Rickman was in the 90s - especially in England - and how connected his characters all seem to be to various aspects of Snape, it's hard not to see a connection. The entire premise of Truly, Madly, Deeply sounds like the inspiration for the Resurrection Stone in Deathly Hallows. The redheaded lost love whose child is left in the care of an Uncle Vernon in An Awfully Big Adventure is difficult to look past. All of these characters either exude menacingly soft-spoken Snape energy, feral Snape energy, or forlorn because of his lost love Snape energy. As a result, I feel like it's almost inevitable that Rickman inspired Snape, especially when you consider how known he was for his voice and how frequently Snape's voice is used to describe him. When Rowling said that she envisioned him in the role, it makes me wonder if she meant during the casting process for the first film, or well before it. I think his previous roles were a contributing factor in how the character was written in the books. After Tim Roth - who was originally cast in the role - had to back out due to scheduling conflicts, she got her way. Authors don't often get to choose who plays their characters, but in this case it worked out as the production thought Rickman was a good fit as well.

I'm done, I promise

So where does this leave things at the end of this horrendously long post? Rickman's choices of how he physicalized Snape - comedic or not - are only part of a larger whole. He was playing a character who was written based on his other roles, and limited by the shortcomings of how Steve Kloves translated that character from Rowling's books into his own screenplays. Whatever Rickman did on set was limited by that writing, by the directors he worked with, and by the choices made in the editing room.

I'm fascinated by the idea that Rickman was playing a character written with him in mind - but not really him, the him who embodied other characters whose echoes show up in Snape. It's difficult enough to contend with an actor playing a character in a screenplay you wrote with them in mind when you're directing your own script, because they'll never be what you imagined in your head. But for that process to get filtered through several directors, a team of producers, another writer who changes your work, and an editor, let alone throughout a decade of films - that's downright wild. The original intention gets lost and reinterpreted like a game of telephone, and I think that a lot of the consistencies between Movie!Snape and Book!Snape are down to Alan Rickman's nuanced and generous nature as an actor. If I'm honest, I'm not convinced that every Snape moment that comes off comical was meant to be so by Rickman. But again, film is such a collaborative medium that his intentions aren't the only ones that matter, ultimately, at least they aren't the only thing that ends up in the final cut.

My take, personally, is that I'm more interested in critical analysis than personal criticism. I respect that everyone has their own vision of a character and fandom is absolutely here for, among other things, having a place to share those thoughts and feelings. But a character is rarely going to appear on screen the same way you see them in your head, and that's not always going to be a fault, even if it's a disappointment to you. It's interesting to hear different people's perceptions, but there isn't that much to discuss there - you can't refute how someone feels, and you can't argue that their truth is what it is, to them. Whereas with critical analysis there's a lot more to talk about and examine, so it's where my own interest is much more invested.

[yolowritter]

My return to ACOLL posting!

Hello there everyone, and welcome back to...well, it says so on the tin! For those unaware, I've been off Tumblr for a little while now, mostly to focus on writing and updating my biggest Miraculous fic to date! A Case of Ladybug Luck! Now, now, I know what you're gonna say. "I have no idea what you're talking about", so allow me to enlighten you! Have you ever wanted a fake death AU inspired by Nine Lives and Cut My Life to Pieces? Welp you've got it here! And yes I am shamelessly self-promoting instead of ranting, but I genuinely love how this AU is turning out and want to share with everybody! So...do you guys like angst? Becuse I do! And I like character drama too! So please, follow me to the fic where Marinette f*cking dies (allegedly), Adrien is a bigger furry than half of canon, Chloe gets a more realistic character arc, Lila is a psychopath, and everybody needs a therapist!

It is...uh, worth mentioning that this AU is...over 283,000 words long and...we're only half done. And yes, the reason I'm posting is because I want to rant about it! Expect snippets, discussions (anon asks are open btw) and also ranting about characters! Seriously the amount of psychoanalisis Gabriel has been through in this fic is downright criminal. For me. Because I have research to do! Listen the point is that I have twenty seven pages of character analysis notes in my drafts and those have to go *somewhere!*

In conclusion, I plan to rant about this AU. A lot. So if you could do me a favor and check it out at least to see if it's your cup of tea, I'd be really happy! Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go and frantically look for my most recent notes on Eminath! For- unrelated reasons! I'll see you all soon, but until then, Stay Miraculous!

[hamliet]

Here’s a few issues with your description IMO,

For one, RWBY had no problem portraying heroes breaking the law or using violence for the greater good when it’s not in regards to Faunus oppression, they fight cordovin, the ace ops, etc,

But somehow things like sienna attacking the SDC are supposed to be wrong? Or at least inferior to ghira’s more nonviolent methods?

Heck, the bees rightfully kill Adam in self defense but Adam killing a human that was about to shoot ghira is the start of his downfall

Also keep in mind ghira stepped down because the white fang didn’t want him in charge, they wanted sienna, he didn’t like the turn it was taking? Too bad, evidently the majority of Faunus did, at least before Adam took over.

And I’d like to point out that, no, Blake has not integrated the parts of herself that are like Adam, as far as we’ve been shown she’s continuing to follow in ghira’s footsteps while ghira has changed he’d nothing about his approach She is t leading raids on SDC trains or even just fighting racists, we haven’t seen her do anything except fight Adam’s faction

Anon, ngl, I'm having an absolutely shit week, and your condescending rudeness is not helping. You're welcome to disagree with me, but did you have to be so rude?

You're ignoring major aspects of the story and sticking to a surface-level analysis that argues complexity is contradiction and your opinion is law, when you can in fact be misreading.

For a major factor left out: Ilia, who is the aspect of Blake's shadow /Adam that she did integrate with. Granted I didn't mention her either, but @aspoonofsugar reminded me about this aspect after I posted the answer yesterday. Blake's arc is also about more than just the faunus, and it's not over yet. Stories use things like subplots as thematic commentary and symbols for the main theme.

The faunus were always a subplot. The law was not actually a major part of this subplot; that was more a focus in Atlas. The main narrative is always living is good and people deserve to live. Hurting people is bad. It happens, and sometimes it can't be avoided (see, tragedy, which RWBY does exceptionally well), but it isn't something to be happily justified. Name me one time when RWBY happily allowed collateral damage to civilians. It's kinda been a recurring thing that they don't allow this.

Like your statement--RWBY had no problem portraying heroes breaking the law or using violence for the greater good when it’s not in regards to Faunus oppression, they fight cordovin, the ace ops, etc-- is just factually wrong. Mantle? And they explored other options first and begged the AceOps not to fight and didn't kill them?

Sienna's methods weren't totally explored as much, that's true, but I think you'd being willfully obtuse if you think they're framed as entirely wrong. And you continue to have a very shallow interpretation of Adam's downfall, which was not because he killed the human. It was because Adam was always out for Adam. He wanted justice to a degree, but he wanted it for personal satisfaction and justification of his right to exist, and damn the reality of the fact that Adam is not the protagonist of the universe. Which is something that people who want simple answers to complex problems neglect to consider: every single person deserves to exist. Adam's downfall is because he prioritizes hurting people over saving his own people who are hurting. I've criticized Adam's writing but that's not an aspect I think is a major problem.

Your arguments remind me a lot of Hbomberguy, who can be great at unveiling plagiarists and still a D- in literary interpretation.

[severepink]

Hello. You know, it's hard for me to watch hazbin hotel because of its raunchiness, that's why i don't think a lot about it (i don't even watch full episodes, only reactions and clips).

But i really enjoy reading analysis/watching theories about it. They open my eyes to smth i didn't notice and make me remember why I'm still following hh fandom. I think i like these works more than hh itself (bc i can actually read/watch them, and know that there won't be any horny jokes and profanity and so on).

So my question is: will you write another analysis by any chance? (If you're not sure just know that your work is welcomed).

I'm not sure! I'm rarely active on the account, but I do love making theories and doing some research into the material! I will warn you, however, that my content could potentially lean into NSFW material that may make you uncomfortable, so I would recommend observing or following such at your own risk.

[04tenno]

HI HELLO that clip is really something! First off I really appreciate all the translation stuff you're doing and the character analysis posts they give me life AH. I don't want to be that guy tm but do you mind breaking down the part you put down as "Well [we're thinking] that he lived...that's no joke" ? To me, it sounds like there's a lot of incomplete thoughts/sentences, but at the same time I'm a little hard of hearing so might not be getting all of it.

This isn't trying to call you on anything, I'm interested in improving my own Japanese as well and I really would love seeing the breakdown !

First of all, thank you so much for writing in! While I'm pleased with the reception, it's quite rare to get comments on the translations themselves (perhaps understandably so, the work of a translator should be and often is "invisible"), so I'm thrilled to have your support! I'm also always happy to see others enjoy my Unmitigated Braindumping to Snap recently.

And you're more than welcome to be That Guy™ because I was hoping for a chance to talk about this! As I mention in the disclaimer at the start, it's really difficult to make out what's being said in some parts. The commentary and gameplay is almost at equal volume and there's crosstalk both with the commentators and with the in-game dialogue.

That's sort of why I had to have the clip professionally transcribed (although my initial point of interest wasn't what was in the clip I shared; I actually glossed over Yokoyama's comment entirely at first and only noticed it in the transcript). Even then I had to fill in some of the blanks myself, which I only managed because I have some much-needed context on the series and commentators.

There's also the matter of stylization. In this case, I was going for natural human speech rather than a literal translation, but I also had the constraint of having to make everything fit to one line (or about thirty characters). I'll go into those aspects as they come up.

Anyway, without further ado, let's break it down!

The clip in question for context. To stay on-topic, I'm only covering what Yokoyama said from 00:18 to 00:36. I'm starting a bit earlier than the point you mentioned, but the context is important to establish in terms of how I chose to translate what was said.

[00:18–00:25] Yokoyama: [知]ってんだよ・・・　勝ってんだけどさ・・・　こんなに簡単にさ・・・　まぁ、ちょっと。

Interestingly enough, the transcriptionist and I had significantly different ideas on what was being said here because he's sort of slurring his words at the start of those first two lines. As a cohesive whole, though, I believe my interpretation here is accurate.

「知ってんだよ・・・」 -> Literal: "I know..." (emphatic, explanatory) -> Final: "I know..." Easy enough to pin down and translate, as he's already repeated this phrase multiple times at this point.

「勝ってんだけどさ・・・」 -> Literal: "[Someone/Something] won, you see..." (emphatic, explanatory, with the slight nuance of introducing an idea) -> Final: "He won me over..." The trickiest line, because it's very difficult to make out the 「か」 sound at the start. This is where I had to rely on context, because while most verbs starting with a sound in the 「あ」 column simply didn't make sense with the surrounding lines, that in and of itself doesn't narrow it down to one possibility. So I had to consider what Yokoyama might be wanting to express here that could be considered a newly-introduced idea within the context of the conversation, and I recalled that at the time the tweet at the end of the video was posted, Yokoyama had "denied allegations" that he liked Mine. His views in the past would come as a surprise to anyone talking to him now, particularly when he always speaks highly of Mine, so the nuance works. Then the association formed of him being "won over" by Mine, so that's what I ended up going with. He technically doesn't say who or what "won," or in what sense, but I think it's fairly clear.

「こんなに簡単にさ・・・」 -> Literal: "This easily..." (emphatic, explanatory) -> Final: "Just like that..." Pretty straightforward. It connects directly with the previous line, so the verb had to be something that can be (and was) done easily. Although he "denied allegations" at the time, a decade ago now, he's warmed up to Mine (and Hijikata) considerably. So as mentioned before, these three lines form a cohesive whole, which you get the sense of from their similar structure.

「まぁ、ちょっと・・・」 -> Literal: "Well, [sort of/a little/a little while]..." -> Final: "Oh, well..." I'll explain this one further below, because it's not an independent phrase, but the start of the next thing he says. It should be noted that the fact he takes so long to finish this thought shows that he's taking his time to consider his words carefully. But for now, all I felt I needed to do here was make the "bridge" clear by ending this line and starting the next one with the same word.

I did say I'd only cover what Yokoyama said, but as an aside, Santo(?)'s line drives me insane. I hate, hate, hate leaving anything as [unintelligible], but even the transcript was of next to no help here.

[00:29–00:32] Yokoyama: ちょっと生きてましたでさ、やっぱ獅童さん呼ぶのも辛いじゃん。

Now we're getting to the meat of it. And by a stroke of pure luck, there are no ambiguities here at all on what's being said, so I won't keep you waiting!

「ちょっと生きてましたでさ、」 -> Literal: "And [he's] been alive for a bit," (emphatic, explanatory) -> Final: "Well, [we're thinking] he lived," The nuance of 「ちょっと」 here is arguably the trickiest part. Of course, in my translation, I opted to emphasize the bridge between the two thoughts instead of fully interrogating the "meaning" of 「ちょっと」, but it is really worth taking a closer look at. Because in one sense it's sort of a filler word, a buffer. But in another sense, weighing the potential meanings of 「ちょっと」 against each other here is crucial in understanding who he's talking about and what he means. In this context, it can only be describing either time or certainty, and the emphatic, explanatory nature of 「で」 and 「さ」 cancels out the idea of it being a matter of certainty. That's why I've been hammering that in so much. So if instead it's about time, saying this about Nakamura, saying "he's still alive and therefore can participate in RGG," would be incredibly weird, disrespectful, and out-of-character for Yokoyama. So it can only be about Mine. It can only about how long it's been since they came to the conclusion he's alive, and, in a sense, how much thought they've put into it. This is sort of where the issue with character count came up; I wanted to say "we've been thinking" to convey these ideas, but I just didn't have the space. But that's an addition by me based on an inference, because I didn't want anyone to, as I mentioned in my original tags, expect too much. The most important takeaway is that Yokoyama says in no uncertain terms that Mine is alive. And I didn't include this because it goes by incredibly fast and I wanted to keep the spotlight on what Yokoyama was saying, but Santo(?) agrees. It's not Yokoyama's personal opinion (which he typically qualifies extensively even if it's for something that doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things, like Kiryu being a virgin in his view). It's a fact that's known to RGG Studio. Mine is alive. It's just a matter of whether we'll see him again and when.

「やっぱ獅童さん呼ぶのも辛いじゃん。」 -> Literal: "Still, inviting Shido-san back would also be tricky, right?" (assertive, inviting agreement) -> Final: "But getting Shido-san back, that's no joke." Very straightforward. He does slur his pronunciation of 「辛い」 as 「つれぇ」, but that's undoubtedly what he's saying. (Side note, a number of his characters also talk like that; some at RGG Studio say the "Yokoyama-ism" comes through at times.) What I'd like to point out here is the usage of 「も」, or "also." The implicit meaning is that getting Nakamura back is tough, but it's tough in addition to something else. Because of what he says next, I believe that "something else" is figuring out how to write Mine back in and do him justice. This wasn't particularly important to me to convey in the translation, because I thought it was fairly clear, but maybe I should've? It really frustrates me that so many people automatically jumped to the conclusion that this would be an arbitrary, poorly-thought-out decision despite Yokoyama acknowledging that it wouldn't be. I guess a number of people didn't watch that far into the video, though.

[00:33–00:36] Yokoyama: だから、その、やっぱ・・・　やるならガチなんだよね。

Final stretch, let's go!

「だから、その、やっぱ・・・」 -> Literal: "So, [if we do] that, of course..." (emphatic) -> Final: "That being the case..." Again, very straightforward. Elevating the level of assurance conveyed in the sentiment as a whole.

「やるならガチなんだよね。」 -> Literal: "If we do it, we'll have to do it in earnest, won't we?" (emphatic, inviting agreement) -> Final: "If we do it, we'll do it right." This is one of the most important things in the entire video. Of course there's the openness to actually going for it, that's important in and of itself, but the emphasis on doing it right? That's something people always miss. Because if they want to get Nakamura back, if they want to write Mine back into the series, they DO have to do it right. And they want to! It's just ridiculous to me to see people gloss over this completely. Like, I was the one who "broke the news" about Lau, one of the people who broke the news about Kashiwagi, but none of these were decisions made lightly. Yokoyama is the first person to shut down "fanservice" for its own sake, and I know that because I've seen him do it time and time again with my own two eyes, even if it would be relatively benign like having Mack show the player how to use Photo Mode in Ishin or having Akiyama show up in Kiwami. When he makes these decisions it's because they've been weighing on him for over a decade. He was literally talking about how he wrote RGG Mobile as an "apology" to Kashiwagi for killing him off in 2013. It took him ten years to get to the point where he was willing to bring Kashiwagi back, but people act like he just flipped a switch, and it's simply insanely out of touch with how things are actually done at the studio. And perhaps I'm in the minority here, but Kashiwagi's death WAS a waste and bringing him back couldn't have been handled any better, in my opinion. I can see their commitment to "doing it right" because they have.

Sorry to get so heated at the end (honestly, I'll probably never be "done" talking about this), but I hope at the end of it all, I've answered your question adequately! For such a short clip, there really is a lot going on, so there was a lot of ground to cover. Feel free to send follow-up questions if you have any, I'd be happy to expand on anything I may have missed (although, with any luck, I haven't missed much).

[sophieinwonderland]

We keep seeing this trend of showing off some system rep in media well it’s a good thing I already went in depth and typed in a discord server!

I’m here to talk about some surprising system rep in Phantasy Star Online 2 (PSO2). So meet Lisa/Risa my favorite character and CAST from PSO2 (name difference depends on if you have played the global or JP version for the sake of simplicity we are going to refer her as Lisa) Now most of this discussion is going to be spoilers because her whole thing is a very big reveal in the last episode in PSO2.

So to kick things off, I will have to address the elephant in the room. Lisa, loves to shoot things with her rifle. Every time she meets somebody new she will ask if she can shoot you. This is mostly because she is the first being to go through the CASTfication process which is a whole thing. The short explanation is that it’s a very traumatic medical procedure that can result in memory loss and it’s only done as a last ditch effort to save a life. All CAST are born out of this process. If you see a CAST they had been organic the only exception is the Hi-CAST operators and they cannot be in battle because they can’t use photons. Honestly when I meet her I absolutely loved her even when she was asking to shoot me. She basically an anarchist. The only reason the ARKs “control” her is that she gets to shoot at the darkers which she hates more than the ARKs military complex. So there’s this moment at like Episode 3 she she kinda breaks character and asks if your ok. This will normally fly under your radar because it’s a very slight difference that you can just dismiss as her being worried about you. It won’t be until like the last episodes when you get set to another layer of reality that is the medieval times (it’s a long story) one of the main characters is named Harriet. Who is an Newman. Once you discover that this is not a new world but an layer of reality that is connected to your own and you accidentally release something so you go back to your own layer. When Harriet will mention that she will be there. Once you do you find out that she was sharing a soul with Lisa this entire time. It happened during her CASTfication process and Lisa soul was unstable and Harriet managed to merge with Lisa and make her stable. In fact after your whole ass shenanigans in the other layer Harriet gained a better anchor to Lisa and now there “switchs” are more visible. In episode 3 it’s was Harriet talking to you at that moment even though you couldn’t tell at the time! Honestly PSO2 shows the BEST representation of switching ever.

She is my favorite character in PSO2 and we met her waayyyy before syscovery. Guess now we know why I adored her.

That sounds like an awesome story!

Thank you for the fantastic write-up.💖

As an aside, I feel a little bad about getting these detailed analysis sent to me and then reaping all the like and notes for them.

Just letting everyone know that if they want to make posts about the plurality of fictional characters with detailed explanations like these, you're welcome to send me a link to your own posts so I can reblog them instead and give you some free promotion!

[bonebirds]

This got long but I'm fucking pissed. Content warnings for abuse mentions, trafficking mentions, discourse about discourse to prevent future discourse, "proshipper" nonsense, grooming, etc.

This is gonna be the one time I open my mouth about this because haha, hey, years of internalized fear and shame. I'm trying to lay down a boundary and that comes with so much anticipated backlash.

I do, for the record, have a background in Yelling about the crossroads of media/culture/literature/academia/games studies/trauma/capitalism. Which is a wide range and we can thank my comp exams in the PhD for that.

Since this is tumblr I also gotta just do the fuckin' disclaimer before anyone else feels like doing the "if you don't publicly condemn xyz then I'm gonna make your day worse" thing:

I don't participate in fandom and I don't ship things. I'm not about to defend specific instances or pairings because everything exists in subjective contexts, and texts especially so. But also, I have graduate degrees in English and text analysis and lived experience with CSA and trafficking that went on for a long fucking time. And I am very, very tired of being called the worst things you can call a trauma survivor because I don't care about shipping.

I'm not anti-ship, or whatever. I am not down for imposing my own trauma, feelings about it, and opinions on others in order to censor their art. Call me a proshipper if you want -- ignoring the part where I don't write fanfic or participate in fandom -- because I agree with them. I condemn CSA/CSEM, abusers, predators, the entire evil side of humanity but people who write fic aren't that. Neither are people who read it, even the most problematic of the problematic.

People can write, as fiction, as fantasy, whatever they want. There are no real people being harmed. I can distinguish between those things and, again, am a survivor of some very intense abuse. You're welcome to disagree. I'm fine with that if you're fine with me. I don't believe in absolutes when it comes to topics this complicated (and it is). I spent years on the opposite side, actually, because just the MENTION of things like incest or age gaps triggered me. And then I would do the same and get mad at the people writing it.

This is not healthy and it is not healing on either side of the argument.

But also in treating everything like such a monolithic moral purity test, where you're either good or deserve to suffer -- a test that I fail, because there is no room for things like Complexity -- you just spent a lot of time telling me I'm as bad as the people who trafficked me. Because of fiction. Because of fake things happening to fake people, based on an idea in someone else's head, people's real harm and real trauma means we're as bad as their abusers. That is so heavily the implication in so much of this talk. If I don't disregard my degrees, my training, my own experiences, my own principles and take a stand against people shipping things on the internet, I must basically be a predator!

That is violent and fucked up.

I don't want you around here, so block me and get it over with.

I (like a lot of people with trauma histories) use fiction and writing to process and heal. I don't even post them. A lot of that writing, and being able to seek it out, was helpful. It was a connection to someone else out in the world who maybe understood a little bit of the pain and fear and confusion.

There's a difference between fiction and real abuse. And the "but predators use it to groom vulnerable children" angle barely holds water -- predators use anything. Mainstream TV shows. Vending machine snacks. Gumballs. Access to a remote control to change a channel. A lot of things are more accessible and friendly to kids than making them read. Advocating for censorship, especially in today's political hellhouse, is not actually helpful. It just feels really righteous.

Which doesn't mean there aren't those trying to leverage fic to "normalize" abuse and grooming, I absolutely believe they have and do, but that does not justify externalizing your pain and trauma onto others, or policing them, or trying to take control back by claiming an imaginary moral high ground and pinning other people to it. It also doesn't mean that censoring the internet of all things icky to you saves the world, the kids, anything. It just means they'll find easier avenues, of which there are already so many. It also means you're all just attacking people from a place of presumed hurt rather than compassion, curiosity, anything like that.

So.

Anyone whose stance on this entire thing boils down to "you agree with me or you're a secret pedo enabler," you need to leave.

I'm happy to talk about it if you want! I don't think people trying to draw those lines are right but I think they're well-intentioned, until they start calling me shit that triggers entire mental collapses. You know. In the name of saving the children. Which hasn't been a red flag for conservatism and oppression for hundreds of years or anything, either. How many kids do you think are protected by shutting down places they can actually go and talk about the darkest shit in their heads? How many of us just suffer unbearable pain and isolation because the culture around us is shame-based and if you think about things like that, you're Just Like Them?

This ain't about protecting kids, basically. This discourse never has been. It's about being righteous and never examining why that is. It's about lashing out and displacement. I think the concern for victims is real, like I said, but that concern can translate to actual, real help elsewhere. People are DOING the work to make the internet safer. This? Is not that work.

You are responsible for how you manage your trauma and pain, and that has to include not taking it out on others. Full stop. Even when you disagree. Even when everything in your brain is going DANGER ALARMS DANGER ALARMS DANGER ALARMS WE MUST STOP THIS because someone ships something you think is wrong or uncomfortable. It sucks, and it sucks we have to do that, and it sucks we have to learn how. None of us asked to. None of us wanted to end up here. It's not victim blaming to say you're accountable for your own recovery.

But while you are here, maybe consider that the name/shame/blame model hasn't been working either. For hundreds of fucking years. We know shame doesn't motivate people to care, or learn.

But especially when you're weaponizing shame against trauma survivors for recognizing their own experiences in literature, art, stories. We all struggle with toxic shame. Using it against people until they agree with you?

Holy shit just look in the mirror one day, I guess. But block me first.

[gildinbainas]

There's quite a few things I could nitpick about the series, one being the fact that they combine episodes in a manner that doesn't make sense. But that aside, as a roleplayer and someone who considers herself a relatively decent writer, nothing IRKS me more than seeing a character butchered. Now, granted I'm ASSUMING this series is merely BASED off the animated version with no real intent to mimic the cartoon. That's all well and good but some tweaks to characters completely changes them as a person and ho boy am I not happy about it.

I could nitpick Azula who... man... let's not get into it. I've seen so many heated arguments from people pointing out that it's 'nice to see them shine light on her' --- yeah no. We're talking the very same Azula who was smirking during her brother's Agni Kai. You can love a character and still recognize them for the little shits they are but I digress.

No. For me, the most AGREGIOUS slap in the face comes in the form of Prince Zuko. The thing that makes it so glaringly annoying for me is how he's always reminded me of another love of mine: Mr. Seto Kaiba. The rough around the edges part of their personality is so ingrained into me that when it's not there, it's off-putting and jarring. I GET that they're trying to show us that Zuko is also 'just a young, lost boy who's desperate for daddy's approval' but to see him PLEADING with his crew as if the Zuko we know wouldn't have thrown all of them over the boat including the admiral is just unheard of. And THEN, I realize Zuko has always loved his uncle, but that's part of the reveal WAY down the line in the series. They're muddling up things that were detrimental to his character arc from the original series. It's a bit confusing as to where they're going with this. He's SUPPOSED to be an angry guy driven by desperation, pride and a need to 'win'. His bending comes from HATRED so if not there then what's the point of his 'metamorphosis' later if there's nothing to change???? I'm just....

I do not RP Zuko. Never have but I understand his character enough to write him if I wanted to. And that's probably why I'm so SIDE EYE at Ne/tflix right now. Because while they made everything look so pretty at times, pretty doesn't change the fact that there are facets of characters being butchered. If I could see where this was going, maybe. But even then, this kind of makes his redemption arc fall flat later if he's already being a good boy? I JUST DONT LIKE THIS.

AND DON'T AT ME. I'm not asking for opinions or people's analysis. This is just what I SEE. You're welcome to disagree on your own blog. But for me, I'm SALTY AF. But I had to see for myself to form my own opinion. The show is watchable, but you'll enjoy it a lot more if you can detach yourself from the original.

[captainschaos]

Welcome to my chaos! Expect the unexpected, roll the dice, and believe in the heart of the cards <3 I say too many words at all times, and a pinned post is no exception WHO [about me] ♤ names; lots, captain, chip, or lonely ---< I have a hoard of other names you might see around, but these are fine for here > ♤ pronouns; she/he/mirror/any/none ---< mirror pronouns mean use your own pronouns for me! > ♤ aroace + agender/genderqueer ♤ adult ♤ pfp; the any pronouns creeper, a little girlguything I own <3 WHAT [things I do] ♤ reblog and chatter away in tags primarily ♤ write ---< both fics and a bit of analysis/theory stuff > ♤ draw ♤ game design, though not particularly here, I'll just mention it sometimes. might get the blog for the rpgthing I created up and running again though! ♤ pretty much any art More specifics about how this blog works (fandoms/tagging/following disclaimers/etc) below the cut

WHERE [fandoms/interests] [Chaos disclaimer, this is nowhere near a comprehensive list and subject to change, but hits the major things I'll rb/post about. More current/main interests bolded.] ♤ mcyt in general ---&lt; traffic smps (secret life), hermitcraft (decked out), qsmp > ♤ slimecicle in general ---< the slimecicle cinematic universe > ♤ the sorry boys ♤ generation loss ♤ jrwi ♤ the magnus archives ♤ in space with markiplier/markiplier in general ♤ ethan nestor ♤ fnaf ♤ tmnt ♤ sonic ♤ kollok ♤ lackadaisy ♤ ethoslab <3 WHEN [posting schedule, or lack thereof] ♤ you will probably notice I often reblog things in bunches. That's because I tend to save rbs to drafts, then come back and tag, comment, and post in big sweeps. If you don't want that clogging up your dash, don't follow! ♤ my activity's real random, no queue, if I'm online I'm online, if I'm not I'm not. That's the chaos way WHY [general practice disclaimers] ♤ I tag primarily for archival purposes, including duos/groups I like. Because of that, I will use one name across all contexts, romantic/platonic/etc, so you might see me tag platonic art with a romantic ship name or vice versa! ♤ I try to tag trafficshipping, hermitshipping, etc, but I mainly ship queerplatonically which I've yet to find a consensus on tagging-wise? Because of that I don't really tag it much, just be warned. (This also contributes to the above point) ♤ I don't really have any cw/tws I tag consistently, but I'm more than willing to if I get asked to tag something! ♤ I am an adult, and though I'm still pretty young I discuss adult topics sometimes- probably best not to follow if you're not about 16+ ♤ askbox is always open for chatter or requests of any sort! HOW [to navigate- tags] > #secret life smp; the tag to block for spoilers! > #captain's chatter; me talking > #captain's words; my writing > #captain's scribbles; my drawings > #captain's mailbox; asks > #friend's stuff; my friends' art/writing/etc > #friend stuff; me goofin with friends lol > #epic art/writing/etc; stuff I've reblogged that is epic but not mine

[toschestationserver]

FAQ

This FAQ is designed to answer some burning questions about the upcoming fic exchange.

What is the Tosche Station server?

It's a discord server created by the admin @mythicluke. It was created because he wanted to bring his friends together to have fun Star Wars conversations. Originally, it was made to champion Luke Skywalker analysis in a casual and fun environment, but it has since expanded to become a fully-fledged community in its own right.

Can I join the server?

The server works on an invite-only basis, and the admin only tends to invite those whom he knows well. However, this could change in the future, so keep your eyes peeled!

What is the Fic Exchange?

It's sort of like a Secret Santa. It's a way for Star Wars writers and artists to challenge themselves and allow for a casual but fun way to improve their craft.

How does it work?

On August 1st at 10:30am BST, prompting will begin and people can submit prompts in a Google Form and up to 2 prompts can be submitted.

On August 21st, claiming will open, where prospective writers and artists can claim a prompt. There will be one slot for writers and one for artists.

Writers and Artists will have 5 months to complete their work and regular check-ins will be carried out by the fic exchange team to make sure that people are on track for the deadline.

What is the theme?

The theme is New Beginnings.

Why have a theme?

Having a theme means that we can create a uniform collection of work all around a similar topic, and although the theme can be widely interpreted, it will allow the project to feel more coherent.

Where do I post my work?

Work should be posted on the New Beginnings Collection on AO3 after the Admin has given you a date to post them. Please don’t post them until you’ve been given a date to do so. There will be a 'big reveal' at a later point. Please do not self-promote until it is time to reveal your story. All works will be anonymous to start with. Thank you!

What happens if I'm not able to meet the deadline?

Please email toschestationexchange@gmail.com with your AO3 username, any other usernames we can use to get in touch with you, and the prompt you are working on. We will be able to work something out on a case-by-case basis.

Does it have to be my best work?

It doesn't! See the fic exchange as a way to grow and develop your skills, rather than a way to prove yourself to the community. You're more than welcome to submit your best work, but you're also welcome to push yourself or submit a first draft so long as the story is completed and doesn't already exist, or is not part of a work in progress (WIP).

All work should be a minimum of 3,000 words unless you are a pinch-hitter (this is where you pick up a prompt that was claimed by someone who dropped out). Pinch-hitter work should be at least 1,500 words. There is no maximum. Pinch-hitters can also claim the prompts that were left unclaimed after we have given them time to claim prompts.

How many prompts can I have?

You can submit a maximum of 2 prompts per person.

Can I do multiple prompts?

You must have finished your first piece of art or story. You can claim another prompt if you have done so.

What if I change my mind about my prompt?

You have until August 9th to submit a prompt. Please try not to have cold feet about the prompts you have chosen.

Do I need an AO3 account?

You do need an AO3 account to both post and receive work.

I'm currently on the waiting list for an AO3 account. What do I do?

Please fill out the below form and send it to toschestationexchange@gmail.com:

Username + associated social media platform(s):

Prompt you have submitted or claimed:

Estimated date for your AO3 invite:

Username (if not known, please email us as soon as you have your username):

Link to your AO3 profile (once created):

Does it have to be about Star Wars?

It does have to be about Star Wars. However, crossovers and AUs are perfectly fine.

What if I write or draw NSFW work?

You are welcome to participate! But please note that no person under the age of 18 can either request NSFW work or create NSFW work for this fic exchange. All NSFW work must be appropriately categorised and tagged on AO3.

All people on the fic exchange team are over the age of 18.

How long will we have to write?

You will have from August 2023 to the start of January 2024 to write. All work should be completed and posted anonymously on AO3 by January 3rd 2024. Please wait for your date before revealing your work. We aim to spotlight one work per day.

What are the general guidelines for someone who hasn’t done a fic exchange before?

Guidelines and rules will be available in the Google form that will be circulated for prompting on August 1st at 10:30am BST. They will also be laid out on a separate Tumblr post.

What if I decide I don't want to participate anymore?

Please email toschestationexchange@gmail.com or get in touch with the team member that is doing check-ins for you. You do not have to give a reason, just let us know that you no longer want to join in.

We will try and get someone to complete the prompt in your place, but we are not liable for those who decided to abandon their work.

Do you have any tips on coming up with prompts?

Try to think of a story you would love to read about the theme.

Could it be the first few weeks of marriage for your favourite ship? Or your favourite character becoming a parent for the first time. What about the first few days after Din Djarin became Grogu's father figure or Han Solo's first few days at the rebellion?

Don't worry about covering any of those prompts or interpreting the theme in a different way. I just made them up now so they're all up for grabs. The idea is that someone writes a story for you so try and pick something you're interested in and would love to read.

Try and keep the prompt small and around similar ideas rather than something huge, elaborate, and specific. You can have a look at how prompts have worked on Tumblr for fic writers over the years. Have a think about ideas you like, enjoy, or want to see put together.

In the prompting form, what are 'deal-breakers' and what do you mean by 'things I particularly enjoy'?

'Deal-breakers' are things that you cannot stand in fanfiction. For instance, if you can't stand angst, if you hate it when people characterise a character in a certain way, or if there are tropes that automatically turn you off fan art or fanfiction. For instance, first-person work, or Y/N stories.

'Things I particularly enjoy' is the opposite of a 'deal-breaker' and things that you would really like the writer or artist to work into their piece if possible.

Please note that there is already a designated question to understand if you are comfortable with NSFW themes.

I want to include something but I'm not sure if the prompter will like it. What do I do?

Please get in touch with the toschestationexchange@gmail.com and we can message the prompter on your behalf.

Do I need to submit a prompt to participate?

You don't have to submit a prompt. You can simply select another person's prompt and create art or a story for that prompt. You can also choose to only submit a prompt.

How do I claim a prompt?

Email toschestationexchange@gmail.com or message the admin @mythicluke. You can also reach the Admin on Twitter at @toscheserver or their personal Twitter account @farmboyluke.

Please note you must be a mutual follower to message the admin on their personal Twitter. Feel free to follow the admin, @ and say you'd like to request a prompt and they will follow you back and sort it out for you.

Prompts are claimed on a first-come, first-serve basis and there will be a tumblr post laying out the prompts available with a note as to whether or not they have been claimed.

There is one artist slot and one writer slot per prompt. The tumblr post will be updated to reflect this.

How can I get in touch?

Tumblr | Twitter | Email: toschestationexchange@gmail.com

[sk8theinfinitysims4-leavan]

We're Lea (@lea-heartscxiv) and Van (@van-yangyin) and this is our sideblog where we publish everything related to our SK8 the Infinity Sims 4 🛹♾

Until the current story is reached, the main story will usually be published three times a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays). However, if it's divided into more than one part, all parts will be published on the same day. Also will be posting at present time from Tadashi's Birthday, together with past main story.

Here you can see all about our SK8 the Infinity Sims Project (Non-official, only from fans for fans), like: [You can click on the tag to go directly to the wanted one]

Single screenshots [tagged as #SK8 SS]

3D renders made from Blender [tagged as #SK8 renders]

WIPs (Work in Progress) of what will appear in our main story/ AUs [tagged as #SK8 WIPs]

Family trees (canon and OCs characters) diagrams [tagged as #SK8 FamilyTrees and when it's about SK8 OCs with #OCs and #Original Characters]

Short or a little long AUs stories using official as base. It's a kind of visual fanfic. [tagged as #SK8 OAUs and tagged with name of story that can be viewed in story post if it has more than one part]

Short or a little long AUs stories non-official compilant. It's a kind of visual fanfic. [tagged as #SK8 nonOAUs and tagged with name of story that can be viewed in story post if it has more than one part]

Our main sims story in an organized way and from the beginning (when we start it in 2021 on Twitter) although here it will be only in English (We also write it in Spanish, you can go to our blogger if you want to read it in that language to know what is written here in case you have problems with English and you're interested), so whoever wants can read it. It won't have the same amount of images that Blogger has per publication (since we can't publish more than 30 here) but it will have all the story and separated by the parts that are necessary. It's a kind of visual fanfic. [tagged as #SK8 MainStory]

Fanarts about our SK8 content [tagged as #SK8 FanArt, #reblog and #username, mainly from us with our art accounts when we draw something inspired by or related to the content we do here, since for the moment we can't know if or how many people will be interested enough in our content to inspire them to draw about it. But if our content inspires you enough to make art go for it, we will be very happy to see it and reblog it. THO HAVE IN MIND THAT ANY "FANART" THAT IS GENERATE WITH AI WE DON'T REBLOG NOR SUPPORT THEM AND WILL BE BLOCKED ON SIGHT, we're artists and don't support content generate with AI. All we made is always with our own hands (either draw and write because have our passion and our artistic vision in them)]

Some other personal tags: SOLE CILIEGIO (Matchablossom/JoeCherry), TRUE EDEN (TadaAi), TULIP WRENCH (Shadoka) and SNOW SKATE (Renga)

We're also planning to organize events, raffles of screenshots/renders made by us by request (you choose theme/ship), also that you can be part of our story/stories by choosing between several options at certain points of stories and much more...

All our content about Sims 4 is tagged as #SK8_TS4LeaVan

As this is a sideblog, we can't give likes or follow anyone, so the likes would be given from our accounts and if you want us to be mutuals will have to be from our main accounts. Or if your interest is only in SK8 fandom, our art/theory/analysis account.

Lea's SNS | Van's SNS | Blogger (to see there our content in Spanish, search for #SK8ESP_TS4LeaVan)

All custom content related to SK8 the Inifinty, both recolors and meshes, is 100% made by us. Meshes and recolors based on official content by @van-yangyin and recolors of non-official content with artistic freedoms by @lea-heartscxiv. Such content is for family use only, thank you for your understanding, if that's all you're looking for then please be on your way. If you're interested in the stories we tell or content we upload (such as screenshots or renders), you're more than welcome. Also we use custom content from other creators when are "similar" but not identical (when we're in the process of creating it from scratch), we're wcif friendly so feel free to ask us. 🛹

[sitzfleischh]

So I just finished watching Gomens s1 + 2 for the first time ever yesterday lol I read the book years ago and loved it but never got around to the show. I just saw your post about the structure of s2 feeling weird, and is that the general consensus from fans? I've just dipped my toes into Fandom today, so I have no idea the popular thoughts and metas, so from my pov s2 worked super well, and I actually liked it waaaaay more than s1 but maybe that's bc I didn't have years of s1 to sit on and it's ALL fresh and new? Iunno I just found that really interesting lol

Good question! I certainly can't speak for the whole fandom but from what I've seen on here I think there was a mix of reactions ranging from the folks sending hate to Neil Gaiman because they couldn't deal emotionally with there being a sad cliffhanger, to folks who totally loved the season as-is, to some who thought that the writing was bad but actually it was bad on purpose as a long-con magic act plan that will all be revealed later, to some who enjoyed it overall but were either thrown off by how different it was from season one, or thought it had some issues in terms of pacing and quality of dialogue/etc.

I fall somewhere on the more positive end of that last camp, so my post about the structure feeling weird was partly a response to some of the more negative responses I had come across-- like there were posts I was seeing where folks were trying to insinuate that S2 was uniquely worse or different writing from season 1 and I was kind of like... No I think whatever writing/tonal issues good omens has have always existed and have more to do with the way that the silliness and satire of the novel translates differently on screen (but that's a whole 'nother post I should write sometime haha).

But also tbh I think it was mostly just me thinking through my own reaction to the series, which was somewhere along the lines of: I loved it and had a great time but it felt weird to me in a way that made me go "time to put on the ol' analysis goggles and figure out what's going on here."

I totally think that having the long wait between season 1 and 2 contributed to that feeling though, so you're right on the money there. I wasn't really part of the GO fandom in the years between season 1 and 2 but I imagine if I had been all of this would have been even more heightened because you're stewing for so long in fanon works and meta and expectations about how the story will go from here, so inevitably there's going to be some culture shock in returning to canon after so long. Also just the fact that for a long time after season one we didn't even know there was going to be any more! Which I think was the main factor influencing my experience of season 2, as someone who first read the book 11 years ago so I've spent over a decade thinking the character arcs and story beats of Good Omens had been completed, so while season 2 was very welcome and appreciated, I went into it kind of expecting it would also be a mostly complete self-contained story arc like season 1 was.

Anyway I kind of went off the rails a bit here LOL, analysing and critiquing shows is the way I express my love for them, and I love Good Omens so much and have for over a decade, which means all I wanna do all day is take it apart and look at the pieces to figure out how it works

Sorry for the very long and rambly response but thank you so much for the message, I hope I answered your question!! ♥️♥️