#[ but tbh these two are almost the same person born in different eras ] | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs | Tumgik (2025)

7 and 37 for the tmg ask?? :)))

7. Favorite lofi album?

The Coroner's Gambit is my favorite as an album, Full Force Galesburg has the most favorite songs! but honestly as far as lofi era goes, I think I tend to have favorite specific songs more than favorite albums (which may be in part because of the compilation albums, tbh - they feel different than actual albums which makes it hard for me to get into them as albums rather than just as a collection of songs. and yes there is a difference. to me).

37. A song that is really, really personal for you?

...okay I'm going to give you two answers here, because there are a few that immediately spring to mind for different reasons. this is probably going to be a good bit longer and a lot more personal than you bargained for!

• From TG&Y - I heard this song for the first time at my first goats concert, which, incidentally, was also the very first concert I ever went to (here's the recording from that concert). because of that it's very deeply tied up in a lot of emotions and life experiences for me. I had moved out on my own less than six months before that and was living on my own for the first time. what happens when you're just barely out, still disbelieving the fact that you even made it, and you go to the first concert in your life, for a band that did a lot of emotional heavy lifting to get you through high school, and you hear jd share an anecdote about a scrapped sunset tree song about almost jumping off a three story building at age 17, and then follows that with "this song takes place about three years later, but it's the same guy - he's better now!" and then play from tg&y. well. you kind of emotionally imprint on that song, if you're me. in the months after that, I listened to the recording of it from my show more times than I could count. and then, at the dallas show a couple of weeks ago, I got to hear that song again. I frankly did not expect to ever get to hear it live again in my life, but I did, and this time I knew every word, and I cried as I sang along.

• The Best Ever Death Metal Band In Denton - I feel like I have to really really justify this being my answer because of how popular this song is, but hear me out, yeah? something about this song that I don't know if a lot of people know, and that I kind of passively trawled through a lot of recordings in order to actually confirm my suspicion of, is that the irl person whose lived experience inspired this song was Mormon. I'm sure that doesn't mean an awful lot to most people, but, uh, I was born and raised Mormon, and it is a very unique kind of hellish childhood to have. because of that this is a song that is very genuinely literally about my own personal lived experience, in a way you only get if it's also about you in the same way. it speaks to the exact goddamn life I lived. when you grow up in a high-demand religion, there are a lot of things that you carry in your heart, things that wind up being casualties while you're too busy just fucking surviving it. you have hopes and dreams and emotions and beliefs that are punished for the simple crime of daring to keep you alive another day. you make it out someday, though not without bearing some scars, and you have to learn to replant those things. and that's what that song is to me: my lived experience, right down, even, to the same religion.

so um. yeah! there are definitely more and other songs that are also extremely deeply personal for me (off the top of my head, woke up new and up the wolves make this list, too), but those two are probably the biggest ones. sorry for how long this ended up being, I just have a lot of feelings all of the time always lol.

thank you for the ask :D

5 notes · View notes

tips for choosing a Chinese name for your OC when you don’t know Chinese

This is a meta for gifset trade with @purple-fury! Maybe you would like to trade something with me? You can PM me if so!

Choosing a Chinese name, if you don’t know a Chinese language, is difficult, but here’s a secret for you: choosing a Chinese name, when you doknow a Chinese language, is also difficult. So, my tip #1 is: Relax.Did you know that Actual Chinese People choose shitty names all the dang time?It’s true!!! Just as you, doubtless, have come across people in your daily life in your native language that you think“God, your parents must have been on SOME SHIT when they named you”, the same is true about Chinese people, now and throughout history. If you choose a shitty name, it’s not the end of the world! Your character’s parents now canonically suck at choosing a name. There, we fixed it!

However. Just because you should not drive yourself to the brink of the grave fretting over choosing a Chinese name for a character, neither does that mean you shouldn’t care at all. Especially, tip #2, Never just pick some syllables that vaguely sound Chinese and call it a day.That shit is awful and tbh it’s as inaccurate and racist as saying“ching chong” to mimic the Chinese language. Examples: Cho Chang from Harry Potter, Tenten from Naruto, and most notorious of all, Fu Manchu and his daughter Fah lo Suee (how the F/UCK did he come up with that one).

So where do you begin then? Well, first you need to pick your character’s surname. This is actually not too difficult, because Chinese actually doesn’t have that many surnames in common use. One hundred surnames cover over eighty percent of China’s population, and in local areas especially, certain surnames within that one hundred are absurdlycommon, like one out of every ten people you meet is surnamed Wang, for example. Also, if you’re making an OC for an established media franchise, you may already have the surname based on who you want your character related to. Finally, if you’re writing an ethnically Chinese character who was born and raised outside of China, you might only want their surname to be Chinese, and give them a given name from the language/culture of their native country; that’s very very common.

If you don’thave a surname in mind, check out the Wikipedia page for the list of common Chinese surnames, roughly the top one hundred. If you’re notgoing to pick one of the top one hundred surnames, you should have a good reason why. Now you need to choose a romanization system. You’ll note that the Wikipedia list contains variant spellings. If your character is a Chinese-American (or other non-Chinese country) whose ancestors emigrated before the 1950s (or whose ancestors did not come from mainland China), their name will not be spelled according to pinyin.It might be spelled according to Wade-Giles romanization, or according to the name’s pronunciation in other Chinese languages, or according to what the name sounds like in the language of the country they immigrated to. (The latter is where you get spellings like Lee, Young, Woo, and Law.) A huge proportion of emigration especially came from southern China, where people spoke Cantonese, Min, Hakka, and other non-Mandarin languages.

So, for example, if you want to make a Chinese-Canadian character whose paternal source of their surname immigrated to Canada in the 20s, don’tgive them the surname Xie, spelled that way, because #1 that spelling didn’t existwhen their first generation ancestor left China and #2 their first generation ancestor was unlikely to have come from a part of China where Mandarin was spoken anyway (although still could have! that’s up to you). Instead, name them Tse, Tze, Sia, Chia, or Hsieh.

If you’re working with a character who lives in, or who left or is descended from people who left mainland China in the 1960s or later; or if you’re working with a historical or mythological setting, then you are going to want to use the pinyin romanization. The reason I say that you should use pinyin for historical or mythological settings is because pinyin is now the official or de facto romanization system for international standards in academia, the United Nations, etc. So if you’re writing a story with characters from ancient China, or medieval China, use pinyin, even though not only pinyin, but the Mandarin pronunciations themselves didn’t exist back then. Just... just accept this. This is one of those quirks of having a non-alphabetic language.

(Here’s an“exceptions” paragraph: there are various well known Chinese names that are typically, even now, transliterated in a non-standard way: Confucius, Mencius, the Yangtze River, Sun Yat-sen, etc. Go ahead and use these if you want. And if you really consciously want to make a Cantonese or Hakka or whatever setting, more power to you, but in that case you better be far beyond needing this tutorial and I don’t know why you’re here. Get. Scoot!)

One last point about names that use the ü with the umlaut over it. The umlaut ü is actually pretty critical for the meaning because wherever the ü appears, the consonant preceding it also can be used with u: lu/lü, nu/nü, etc. However, de facto, lots of individual people, media franchises, etc, simply drop the umlaut and write u instead when writing a name in English, such as“Lu Bu” in the Dynasty Warriors franchise in English (it should be written Lü Bu). And to be fair, since tones are also typically dropped in Latin script and are just as critical to the meaning and pronunciation of the original, dropping the umlaut probably doesn’t make much difference. This is kind of a choice you have to make for yourself. Maybe you even want to play with it! Maybe everybody thinks your character’s surname is pronounced“loo as in loo roll” but SURPRISE MOFO it’s actually lü! You could Do Something with that. Also, in contexts where people want to distinguish between u and ü when typing but don’t have easy access to a keyboard method of making the ü, the typical shorthand is the letter v.

Alright! So you have your surname and you know how you want it spelled using the Latin alphabet. Great! What next?

Alright, so, now we get to the hard part: choosing the given name. No, don’t cry, I know baby I know. We can do this. I believe in you.

Here are some premises we’re going to be operating on, and I’m not entirely sure why I made this a numbered list:

Chinese people, generally, love their kids. (Obviously, like in every culture, there are some awful exceptions, and I’ll give one specific example of this later on.)

As part of loving their kids, they want to give them a Good name.

So what makes a name a Good name??? Well, in Chinese culture, the cultural values (which have changed over time) have tended to prioritize things like: education; clan and family; health and beauty; religious devotions of various religions (Buddhism, Taoism, folk religions, Christianity, other); philosophical beliefs (Buddhism, Confucianism, etc) (see also education); refinement and culture (see also education); moral rectitude; and of course many other things as the individual personally finds important. You’ll notice that educationis a big one. If you can’t decide on where to start, something related to education, intelligence, wisdom, knowledge, etc, is a bet that can’t go wrong.

Unlike in English speaking cultures (and I’m going to limit myself to English because we’re writing English and good God look at how long this post is already), there is no canon of “names” in Chinese like there has traditionally been in English. No John, Mary, Susan, Jacob, Maxine, William, and other words that are names and only names and which, historically at least, almost everyone was named. Instead, in Chinese culture, you can basically choose any character you want. You can choose one character, or two characters. (More than two characters? No one can live at that speed. Seriously, do not give your character a given name with more than two characters. If you needthis tutorial, you don’t know enough to try it.)Congratulations, it is now a name!!

But what this means is that Chinese names aggressively Mean Something in a way that most English names don’t. You know nature names like Rose and Pearl, and Puritan names like Wrestling, Makepeace, Prudence, Silence, Zeal, and Unity? I mean, yeah, you can technically look up that the name Mary comes from a etymological root meaning bitter, but Mary doesn’t mean bitter in the way that Silence means, well, silence. Chinese names are much much more like the latter, because even though there are some characters that are more common as names than as words, the meaning of the name is still far more upfront than English names.

So the meaning of the name is generally a much more direct expression of those Good Values mentioned before. But it gets more complicated!

Being too direct has, across many eras of Chinese history, been considered crude; the very opposite of the education you’re valuing in the first place. Therefore, rather than the Puritan slap you in the face approach where you just name your kid VIRTUE!, Chinese have typically favoured instead more indirect, related words aboutthese virtues and values, or poetic allusions to same. What might seem like a very blunt, concrete name, such as Guan Yu’s“yu” (which means feather), is actually a poetic, referential name to all the things that feathers evoke: flight, freedom, intellectual broadmindness, protection...

So when you’re choosing a name, you start from the value you want to express, then see where looking up related words in a dictionary gets you until you find something that sounds“like a name”; you can also try researching Chinese art symbolism to get more concrete names. Then, here’s my favourite trick, try combining your fake name with several of the most common surnames: 王，李，陈. And Google that shit. If you find Actual Human Beings with that name: congratulations, at least if you did f/uck up, somebody else out there f/ucked up first and stuck a Human Being with it, so you’re still doing better than they are. High five!

You’re going to stick with the same romanization system (or lack thereof) as you’ve used for the surname. In the interests of time, I’m going to focus on pinyin only.

First let’s take a look at some real and actual Chinese names and talk about what they mean, why they might have been chosen, and also some fictional OC names that I’ve come up with that riff off of these actual Chinese names. And then we’ll go over some resources and also some pitfalls.Hopefully you can learn by example! Fun!!!

Let’s start with two great historical strategists: Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu, and the names I picked for some (fictional) sons of theirs. Then I will be talking about Sun Shangxiang and Guan Yinping, two historical-legendary women of the same era, and what I named their fictional daughters. And finally I’ll be talking about historical Chinese pirate Gan Ning and what I named his fictional wife and fictional daughter. Uh, this could be considered spoilers for my novel Clouds and Rainand associated one-shots in that universe, so you probably want to go and read that work... and its prequels... and leave lots of comments and kudos first and then come back. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

(I’m just kidding you don’t need to know a thing about my work to find this useful.)

ZHUGE Liang is written 諸葛亮 in traditional Chinese characters and 诸葛亮 in simplified Chinese characters. It is a two-character surname. Two character surnames used to be more common than they are now. When I read Chinese history, I notice that two character surname clans seem to have a bad habit of flying real high and then getting the Icarus treatment if Icarus when his wings melted also got beheaded and had the Nine Familial Exterminations performed on his clan. Yikes. Sooner or later that'll cost ya.

But anyway. Zhuge means“lots of kudzu”, which if you have been to the American south you know is that only way that kudzu comes. Liang means“light, shining” in the sense of daylight, moonlight, etc; and from this literal meaning also such figurative meanings as reveal or clear. (I’m going to talk about words have a primary and secondary meaning in this way because I think it’s important for understanding. It’s just like how in English,‘run’ has many meanings, but almost of all them are derived from a primary meaning of‘to move fast via one’s human legs’, if I can be weird for a moment. “Run” as in“home run” comes from that,“run” as in“run in your stocking” comes from that,“run” as in“that’ll run you at least $200″ comes from that. You have to get it straight which is the primary meaning, which is the one that people think of first and they way they get to the secondary meaning.)

“Light” has a similar“enlightenment” concept in Chinese as in English, so the person who chose Zhuge Liang’s name—most likely his father or grandfather—clearly valued learning.

I named my fictional son for Zhuge Liang Zhuge Jing 京. The value or direction I was coming from is that Zhuge Liang has come to the decision that he has to nurture the next generation for the benefit of the land, that he has to remain in the world in a way that he very much did not want to do when he himself was a young man. In this alternate universe, Liu Bei has formed a new Han dynasty and recaptured Luoyang, so when Zhuge Liang’s son is then born he chooses this name Jing which means literally“capital”. This concrete name is meant as an allusion to a devotion to public service and to remaining “central”.After I chose this name, I discovered that Zhuge Liang actually has a recorded grandson named Zhuge Jing with this same character.

above, me, realizing I picked a good name

ZHOU Yu is written 周瑜 in both simplified and traditional Chinese characters.

The surname Zhou was and remains a very common Chinese surname whose original meaning was like... a really nice field. Like just the greatest f/ucking field you’ve ever seen.“Dang, that is a sweet field” said an ancient Chinese farmer,“I’m gonna make a new Chinese character to record just how great it is.” And then it came to mean things along the line of complete and thorough.

Yu means the excellence of a gemstone--its brilliance, lustre, etc, as opposed to its flaws. It is not a common word but does appear in some expressions such as瑕不掩瑜 "a flaw does not conceal the rest of the gemstone's beauty; a defect does not mean the whole thing is bad".

Zhou Yu has gone down in history for being not only smart but also artistic and handsome. A real triple threat. And this name speaks to a family that valued art and beauty. It really does suit him.

Zhou Yu had two recorded sons but in my alternate history I gave him four. I borrowed the first one’s name from history: Xun 循, follow. Based on this name, I chose other names that I thought gave a similar sense of his values: Shou 守, guard; Wen 聞, listen.The youngest one I had born when he already knew he was dying, and things had not been going well generally; therefore I had him give him the name Shen慎, which means“careful, cautious”.

SUN Shangxiang 孫尚香 is one of several names that history and legend give for a sister of w//arlord-king Sun Quan who was married to a rival w//arlord named Liu Bei in a marriage which, historically, uh, didn’t... didn’t go all that well. In my alternate history it goes well! You can’t stop me, I’ve already done it!

The surname Sun means “grandson” and the given name components are Shang mean“values, esteems” and Xiang“scent” which we can combine into meaning something like“precious perfume”. A lot of the recorded names for women in this era (a huge number didn’t have any names recorded, a problem in itself)seem to me to be more concrete, to contain more objects, to be more focused on affection, less focused on hopes and dreams. This makes sense for the era: you love your daughters (I HOPE) but then they get married and leave you. You don’t have long term plans for them because their long term belongs to another clan.

I gave her daughter by Liu Bei the name Liu Yitao 劉義桃. Yi 義 meaning righteousness, rectitude and 桃 meaning... peach. Okay, okay, I know "righteous peach" sounds damn funny in English, but the legendary oath in the peach garden, the "oath of brotherhood" is called in Chinese 結義 "tying righteousness" and the peach garden is, uh, a peach garden. I also give her the cutesy nickname Taotao 桃桃 which you could compare to“Peaches” or“Peachy”. Reduplication of a character in a two-character name is a classic nickname strategy in Chinese.

GUAN Yinping 關銀屏/关银屏 is a“made up” (scare quotes because old legends have their own kind of validity, fight me) name for a historical daughter of Guan Yu. Guan means“to close (a door)”. Yin means“silver” and ping means“a screen, to hide” and according to the legend, her father’s oath brother Zhang Fei named her after a silver treasure. So here again we see a name for a woman that completely lacks the kind of aspirations we see in male names. Who would have an aspiration for a daughter?

My fictional characters, that’s who. I named her daughter Lu Ruofeng 陸若鳳/陆若凤,Ruo (like the) Feng (phoenix), based on a quote from a Confucian text about what one should try to be during both times of chaos and times of good government. I portray her father as a devoted Confucian scholar, so that was another factor for why I looked to Confucian texts for a source of a name.

Modern parents also now have big dreams for their daughters :’) and so modern girls receive names that are far more similar to how boys are named.

GAN Ning 甘寧/甘宁 is a great example of a person whose name does notsuit him. Gan 甘 depicts a tongue and means“sweet”, and Ning寧 which shows a bowl and table and heart beneath a roof means“peaceful”. Which, it would be hard to come up with a name for this guy, a ruthless pirate turned extremely effective general:

that is lesssuitable than essentially being named“Sweet Peace”.

And when he was an adult, his style name—a name that Chinese men used to be given when they turned 20 (ie became adults) by East Asian reckoning—indeed reflects that. Choosing your own style name was widely considered to be crass. I absolutely think that Gan Ning chose his own style name; he was that kind of a guy. And the name he chose! Xingba 興霸/兴霸! I’ve never seen another style name like it. It means, basically,“thriving dominator”! Brand new official adult Gan Ning treats his style name like he’s picking his Xbox gamer tag and he picks BadassBoss69_420, that’s what this style name is like to me. Except, you know, he had almost certainly killed many hundreds of people by the time he was nineteen, so, uh, it wouldn’t be a wise idea to make fun of his name to his face.

In my fictional version of his life, he married a woman whose father was the exception to the“parents love their children” rule and who named his daughter Pandi 盼第“expecting a younger brother”, which is a classic“daughters ain’t shit, I want a son” name. Real and actual Chinese women have been given this shitty name and ones like it.

Because Gan Ning had an ironically placid name, I also gave his daughter the placid single character name Wan 婉, which means“gentle, restrained”, as a foil to her wild personality.

So there are a bunch of examples of some historical characters and some OCs and how I chose their names.“But wait, all that was really cool, but how can I do that? You can read Chinese, I can’t!”

I originally had a bunch of links here to dictionaries and resources but Tumblr :) wouldn’t let the post show up in tag search with all the links :) :) :) so you need to check the reblogs of this post to see my own reblog; that reblog has all the links. I’M SORRY ABOUT THIS. Here are a list of the sites without the links if you want to Google them yourself.

MDBG - an open source dictionary - start here

Wiktionary - don’t knock it til you try it

iCIBA (they recently changed their user interface and it’s much less English-speaker friendly now but it’s still a great dictionary)

Pleco (an iOS app, maybe also Android???) contains same open source dictionary as MDBG and also its own proprietary dictionary

Chinese Etymology at hanziyuan dot net

You search some English keywords from the value you want, and then you see what kind of characters you get. You should take the character and then reverse search, making sure that it doesn’t have negative words/meanings, and similar. Look into the etymology and see if it has any thematic elements that appeal to what you’re doing with the character--eg a fire radical for a character with fire powers.

And then, like I mention before, when you have got a couple characters and you think“I think this could be a good name”, you go to Google, you take a very common surname, you append your chosen name—don’t forget to use quotation marks—and you see what happens. Did you get some results? Even better, did you get lotsof results? Then you’re probably safe! No results does not necessarily mean your name won’t work, but you should probably run it by an Actual Chinese Native Speaker at that point to check. Also, remember, as I said at the beginning, sometimes people have weird names. If you consciously decide“you know what, I think this character’s parents would choose a weird name”, then own that.

THINGS YOU SHOULD PROBABLY IGNORE!

Starting in relatively recent history (not really a big thing until Song dynasty) and continuing, moreso outside of mainland China, to the modern day, there is something called a generation name component to a name. This means that of a name’s two characters, one of the characters is shared with every other paternal line relative of that person’s generation; historically, usually only boys get a generation name and girls don’t. (Chinese history, banging on pots and pans: DAUGHTERS AIN’T SHIT AND DON’T FORGET IT!)“Generation” here means everyone who is equidistant descendant from some past ancestor, not necessarily that they are exactly the same age. For example, all of ancestor’s X’s sons share the character 一 in their names, his grandsons all have the character 二，great-grandsons 三, great-great-grandsons 四 (I just used numbers because I’m lazy). By the time you get to great-great-grandson, you might have some that are forty years old and some that are babies (because of how old their fathers were when they were conceived), but they are still the same generation.

In some clans, this tradition goes so far as to have something called a name poem, where the generations cycle, character by character, through a poem that was specifically written for this purpose and which is generally about how their clan is super rad.

If you want to riff off of this idea and have siblings or paternal cousins share a character in their names, ok, but it genuinely isn’t necessary. Anyone with a single character name obviously doesn’t have one of these generation names, and by no means does every person with a two character name (especially female) have a generation name. If you’re doing an OC for an ancient Chinese setting (certainly anything before the year about 500), you shouldn’t use these generation names because it wasn’t a thing.Also, in a modern setting, even if such a generation name or name poem exists, it’s not like there is any legal requirement to use it (though there may be family pressure to do so).

As a further complication, some parents do the shared character thing among their children without it actually being a generation name per se because it isn’t shared by any cousins. Or, they have all their children (or all their children of the same gender) share a radical, which is a meaning component in a Chinese character.

If someone does have one of these shared character names, then their nickname will never come from that shared character; either they will be called by the full name or by some name riffing off of the character that is not shared. For example, I knew a pair of sisters called Yuru and Yufei with the same first character; the first sister went by her English name in daily life (even when speaking Chinese) while the second sister was called Feifei.

tl;dr If you don’t already know Chinese, consider generation names an extra complication for masochists only. Definitely not required for modern characters.

Fortune telling is another thing that I think you should either ignore or wildly make up. Do you know what ordinary Chinese people who want to choose a lucky name for their child do? They hire someone to work it out.This is not some DIY shit even if you are deeply immured in the culture. There are considerations of the number of strokes, the radicals, the birth date, the birth hour.You’re the god of your fictional universe, so go ahead and unilaterally declare that your desired names are lucky or unlucky as suits the story if you want to.

MILK NAMES

In modern times, babies get named right away, if for no other reason that the government requires it everywhere in the world for record keeping purposes.

However, in traditional times, Chinese people did not give babies a permanent name right away, instead waiting until a certain period of time had passed (3 months/100 days is a classic).

What do you call the baby in the meantime? A milk name 乳名, which your (close, older than you) family may or may not keep on using for you until such time as you die, just so that you remember that you used to be a funny looking little raisin that peed on people.

This kind of name is almost always very humble, sometimes to the point of being outright insulting. This is because to use any name on your baby that implies you might actually like the little thing is tempting Bad News. Possible exception: sometimes a baby would receive a milk name that dedicated it to some deity. In this case, I guess you’re hoping that deity will be flattered enough to take on the job of shooing away all the other spirits and things that might be otherwise attracted to this Delicious Fresh Baby.

Because milk names were only used by one’s (older) family and very close family friends of one’s parents/grandparents, most people’s milk names are not recorded or known, with some notable exceptions. Liu Shan, the son of Liu Bei, who as a baby was rescued by Zhao Yun during the Shu forces retreat from Changban. Perhaps because his big debut in history/legend was as a baby, he is well-known for his milk name A-Dou 阿斗, which means, essentially, Dipper.

If you’re writing a story, you really only need to worry about a milk name for your character if it’s a historical (or pseudohistorical) setting, and even then only if the character either makes an appearance as a small infant or you consciously decide to have them interact with characters who knew them well as a small child and choose to continue using the milk name. Not all parents, etc who could use the milk name with a youth or an adult actually did so.

Here are some milk names I’ve come up with in my fiction:Little Mouse/Xiaoshu 小鼠 for a girl, Tadpole/Kedou 蝌蚪 for a boy, and Shouty/A-Yao 阿吆 for a boy. In the first two cases the babies were both smol and quiet (as babies go). The last one neither small nor quiet, ahahaha.蔷蔷 Qiangqiang, which is a pretty enough name meaning “wild rose” (duplication to make it lighter), except the baby is a boy, so this is the typical idea that making a boy feminine makes him worth less, which, yikes, but also, historically accurate. Also Xiaohei 小黑 “Blackie” for a work that I will probably never publish because I don’t ever see myself finishing it. I might recycle it to use on another story.

Here are some more milk names I came up with off the cuff for a friend that wanted an insulting milk name. They ended up not using any of these, so feel free to use, no credit necessary. Rongzi 冗子 “Unwanted Child”; Xiaochou 小丑 “Little Ugly”; A-Xu 阿虛 “Empty”; Pangzhu 胖豬 “Fat Pig”; Shasha 傻傻 “Dummy”.

PITFALLS!

Chinese has a lot of homophones. Like, so many, you cannot even believe. That means the potential for puns, double meanings, etc, is off the charts. And this can be bad, real real bad, when it comes to names. It is way too easy to pick a name and think to yourself“wow, this name is great” and then realize later that the name sounds exactly the same as“cat shit” or something even worse.

Some Chinese families live the name choosing life on hard mode because their surname is itself a homonym that can make almost any name sound bad. I’m speaking of course of the poor Wus and Bus of the world. You see Wu may have innocuous and pleasant surnames associated with it, but it also means“without, un-”. (Bu is similar, sounds like“no, not”.) Suddenly, any pleasant name you give your kid, your kid is NOT that thing.

This means picking a name that is pleasant in itself yet also somehow also pleasant when combined with Wu. So you might pick a character with a sound like Ting, Xian, Hui, or Liang - unstopping, unlimited, no regrets, immeasurable. A positive negative name, a kind of paradox. Like I said, this is naming on hard mode.

If you are naming an ancient character, I am going to say in my opinion you should ignore all considerations of sound, because reconstruction of ancient Chinese pronunciations is on some other, other level of pedantic and you just don’t need to do that to yourself.

For modern characters, however, an attractive name, in general, should be a mix of tones and a mix of sounds. As a non-Chinese speaker, basically this means especially if you go for a two character given name, having all three characters start with the same sound, or end with the same sound, can sound kind of tongue twistery and thus silly/stupid. That doesn’t mean that such names never exist, and can in some cases even sound good (or at least memorable), but how likely is it that you’ve found the exception? Not very. (Two out of three having repetition isn’t bad. It’s three out of three you have to be careful of. Something like Wang Fang or Zhou Pengpeng is probably fine; it’s something over the top like Guan Guangguo or Li Lili you want to avoid.)

Just like the West (sigh), in the modern Sinosphere it is widely acceptable for girls to have masculine names but totally unacceptable for boys to have feminine names. If you see the radical 女 which means woman, don’t choose that character for a boy, at least if you’re trying to be realistic.Now Chinese ideas of masculinity doesn’t have the same boundaries as Western ideas, but if you want to play around in those boundaries, you gotta do that research on your own; you’ve left what I can teach you in this already entirely too long tutorial.

Don’t name a character after someone else in story, or after a famous person.In some/many Western cultures, and actually in some Eastern cultures too (Japan is basically fine with this, for example), naming a baby the same name as someone else (a relative, a saint, a famous person, etc), is a respected and popular way to honour that person.

But not in Chinese culture, not now, not a thousand years ago, not two thousand years ago. (Disclaimer: I bet there is some weird rare exception that, eventually, somebody will “gotcha” me with. I am prepared to be amazed and delighted when this occurs.)

Part of this is because of a fundamentally different idea in Chinese culture vs many other cultures about what is valuing vs disrespecting with regard to personal names. The highest respect paid in Chinese history to a category of personal names is to the emperor, and what would happen there is that it would be under name taboo, a very serious and onerous custom where you not only have to not say the emperor’s name, but you can’t say anything that sounds the same as the emperor’s name.

Did I mention that this is in the language of CRAZY GO NUTS numbers of homonyms? The day-to-day troubles caused by observing name taboo were so potentially intense that there are even instances where, before ascending to the imperial throne, the emperor-to-be would change his name to something that was easier to observe taboo about!

So you see this is an attitude that says: if you want to honour and show respect to somebody, you don’t speak their name.

As the highest person in the land, only the emperor gets this extreme level of avoidance, but it trickles down all through society. You can’t use the personal names of people superior to you. Naming a baby after someone inherently throws the hierarchy out of whack. Now you have a young baby with the same name as a grown adult, or even a dead person, who is due honour from their rank in life. People who would not be permitted to use the inspiration’s name may now use that name because they are superior to the baby who received the name! This would mean that hierarchy was not being preserved, and oh my heaven, is there anything worse than hierarchy not being preserved? All of Chinese History: Noooooo!

Now. As an author—and I hope to God no one is using my Chinese name guide as a resource to name an actual human baby because I can’t take that kind of pressure—you can use the names of characters to inspire the names of other characters, in the following way.

Remember that I said that the key, the starting point, to naming someone in Chinese is to start from a value. Okay. So what you do, if as the author you want to draw a thematic connection between two fictional characters, is take the Inspiration character’s name, think about what the value is that caused that name to be chosen, and then go from that value to choose the New Character’s name.

If you’ll recall what I said about Gan Ning and his baby Wan, this is exactly the approach I took. Gan Ning had a placid single character name that belied his violent and outrageous personality; I chose a placid single character name for his similarly wild daughter to make them thematically similar. As an author, I named his baby after him. But within the context of the story, she was not named after him. Does the distinction make sense?

Values also run in families for obvious reasons. It’s very common to look at a family tree and see lots of names that follow a kind of theme and give you a sense that, eg, this family is rather low class and uneducated; this family is very erudite but a bit too fussy about it; this family is really big on Confucianism. So yes, as an author, looking to other characters for inspiration is not a bad idea.

Remember, a lot of times, as an author, you can and even should kick realism to the curb sometimes. If you want to make some Ominous Foreshadowing that Character A’s name is something to do with fire but! They name their child something to do with water and therefore they are destined to clash with their own offspring, gasp, you can do that kind of thing because you are the god of your universe. Relish your power.

Do you have any more questions? Feel free to send a PM or an ask. I hope this was helpful! Go forth and name your Chinese OCs with slightly more confidence!

Edit 22 April 2019: I added some more sections (fortune telling, Milk Names, and taboo on naming after people). I also need to overhaul the entirety of the previous to emphasize that even thought I thoughtlessly used“Chinese” as if it was synonymous with“Han”, there are non-Han Chinese and they can have very different naming customs. Mea culpa.

40K notes · View notes

hey there! golden trio era, please! my name is miliane, but i go by millie or liane. i’m a ravenclaw, 5”4, i have long dark brown hair, and light morena skin. i have brown eyes. i’m an asian, filipino but i’m fluent in english more than my mother tongue, seeing as i was raised with people who only talks to me in english, but im just as good in filipino, like any other person born here. i’m a weasley simp, no surprise there seeing as they’re all charming and good looking. i’m a sarcastic and witty person, a bit cocky when with friends, but i’m really a softie tbh, i care deeply about the people i love. i’m an INFP-T, so kinda explains. i love eating, although it would seem as i may never become fat, bc of my body complexion. i love to read! like i have tons of novels perked up in my study table, 20 and counting. i love anything connected to arts; music, movies, paintings, drawing. my sense of style is appreciated, like i rlly love styling my clothes, and even if we’re going somewhere unimportant and simple, it would never not give me a reason to be extra ;) but i shift to different styles every now and then, looking for the right one as i’m indecisive sometimes. i tend to be rlly shy when i’m around new people, and i usually have to spend a good amount of time with them for me to be myself around them. i love spreading awareness about societal issues, it’s a big part of my life and i’ve been spreading about them ever since i was 12, i keep on learning each day about it and discuss it on socmed. i have trust issues, due to some past problems, and once i get past that with someone, it would shift to abandonment issues (friend, or relationship wise). i would love a guy who’s gonna be willing to put up with my impulsive bs sometimes lol, like sneaking out in the middle of the night to eat at the kitchens, watch movies together and dance like we’re the only ones left. he wouldn’t force anything out of me til he and i know that i’m ready. and i would rlly love if he would give me one or two of his hoodies, and he would spray them with his cologne bc he knows that i love the way he smells, and maybe sneak in a small note for me to read in the pockets. i love forehead and nose kisses, i’m a goner for those. pet names are one of my weaknesses, (love, lovely, darling, babe, baby)— and i’m yours. i’m not much of an affectionate person as i didn’t have much of it during my childhood, so simple handholding and hugs would make me a bit flustered and awkward but very much appreciated.

thank you, i hope you have a great day, i rlly appreciate u for doing this, ily and all ur works <33333

Thank you for the details, they make these so much easier to write lol.

i ship you with...

Fred Weasley.

how you meet

“Miliane, you’ll be partnering up with Fred for our next assignment, please take a seat next to him.” Professor McGonagall smiles as you pick up your book bag and make your way next to the red head she must have been referring too.

Fred was busy tinkering away at something under his desk when you sat next to him. He lifted his head expecting his twin, but instead came eye to eye with a girl. Dreamy brown eyes and a blue tie on your neck, Fred loses his train of thought as concern adorns your face.

“Oh my apologies, I’m fred. What’s your name darling?” He smiles as your face tints a faint pink and your lips pull up into a gentle grin.

“Miliane, but please, call me Millie. We’re partners for the project.” You nod towards the blackboard at the front of the classroom.

“Well then Millie, we better get to work then.” Fred grins, pulling his wand from his pocket as you pull out a textbook.

For the rest of the period you and Fred do your best at the project, practicing your incantations and wand movement as McGonagall writes on the board.

You find it hard to concentrate at the task at hand with Fred constantly trying to make you laugh. Transfiguring flowers from the tip of his wand, throwing paper balls at his brother’s back and just joking with you quietly. You weren’t complaining though, it was nice to get a break from the work load you got from each of your classes.

After that transfiguration class, the two of you meet up often in the library, though it turns into more of a hangout than a study session. You roam the shelves and you show Fred your favourite books and poems as he tries to balance as many books as he can on his head. Often times you’ll relax at one of the library tables in between the shelves to drink pumpkin juice and eat sweets over conversations about anything and everything and in a heartbeat, Fred realizes he’s falling in love.

He fell for your sarcastic jokes and your soft personality. He loves your passion for reading and the arts, he could listen to your reading voice for hours.

Fred adores your sense of style and has awkwardly asked you to style him before

Even before you’re dating he gives you his sweaters when ever you’re cold

it becomes a habit to spray them in extra cologne because he knows how much you like it

When he notices you getting a little distant from him, he hugs you close and reassures you he isn’t going anywhere. You eventually tell him about your past and how it hurt you

It got him in quite a few fights, but he was willing to go any lengths to show the assholes who made you cry who they were dealing with.

Fred took his time to prove himself as a friend before a lover, he knew you fell and got hurt quickly in your past relationships and he wouldn’t let that be the case with him.

He joins you in your midnight snack runs whenever you ask of him. He even enchants his alarm to wake him if you were ever on your way to the kitchens at night

The two of you feast on desserts and left over dinner from the day as the house elf’s just kind of giggle at the two of you.

He loves calling you petnames and he knows you love them. Your face goes the most beautiful red and he can’t help but drop it into every sentence

“How are you love?”

“Darling you’ve got something on your face.”

“You look stunning love.”

“my darling have you seen my tie?”

He does his best to make lasting memories with you even on the most ordinary of days

“c’mon millie!” Fred laughs as he pulls you through the halls of the school to the empty courtyard before gathering you into his arms and waltzing you around the yard like it was the Yule. “Freddie, we’re going to get caught!” You laugh, rolling your eyes, but allowing yourself to be twirled around the square. “See if I care darling. For all I know, we’re the only ones here.” He chuckles, speeding up your dance until your dizzy from spins and laughing with joy.

Leaving little notes for you in his hoodie pockets and in the pages of your books became a fun little activity he came up for you. They ranged from ‘I miss you.’ to ‘remember to give it back so i can spray more cologne on it.’ You kept every note

Sometimes he’ll have you help him with his tie in the morning just so he can see your cheeks light up and your eyes darting back and forth trying not to make direct eye contact as he stares lovingly at you

Hugs. He’s a sucker for hugs and he loves it when you kind of just muzzle closer to him. He likes to pepper little kisses across your temple

One night he takes you stargazing and simply holds your hand as the two of you stare up at the stars

A shooting star passes and he sees your eyes close to make a wish

He dies the same and when you open them again you turn to Fred

“What did you wish for darling?”

“I-I wished for happiness what about you Freddie?”

“I wished for you darling.” He smirk, bringing his face closer to yours.

“I’m right here silly.”

“Not like that Millie. I wished for you to be my girl. My lover.” Fred sighs, inching closer

“Can I kiss you?” He smiles, gazing into your brown eyes.

“Yes Freddie, you may.”

Fred connects your lips together in a slow kiss, smiling as you respond quickly and cup his face in your hand.

You pull back to smile and cuddle closer to Fred’s chest as his arms wrap around you and he kisses your hairline.

“you’re mine darling.” Fred teases lightly almost in disbelief

“I’m yours Freddie.” you giggle, pressing kisses up Fred’s jawline.

Hope you like this!!🤍🤍

8 notes · View notes

What if Qui-Gon Jinn lived and trained Anakin?

Much like my what if Mace trained Anakin post, I will be doing it for if Qui-Gon trained Anakin.

First of all, let’s say Qui-Gon did not allow Maul to bump him with the hilt of his lightsaber. Qui-Gon successfully manages to cut Maul in two much like Obi-Wan did on Rebels.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan rejoice as the Sith Lord has been vanquished. Qui-Gon knows this isn’t over as the master is still out there.

Obi-Wan will be knighted and Qui-Gon will be allowed to train Anakin despite the Council’s warning.(fuck Yoda tbh)

It's obviously speculation, but I'm going to say that Qui-Gon would have managed to keep Anakin from falling to the Dark Side.

Anakin's core problem was that he wasn't a good fit for the Jedi Code. Anakin was a very passionate person, and he wasn't able to suppress his emotions and remain detached. Despite the teachings of Orthodox Jedi doctrine, it's not true that all emotion leads to the Dark Side - positive emotions such as love and joy belong to the Light. If Anakin could have been taught to sublimate his emotions rather than suppress them, he would have been able to handle his anger and anxieties issue much better. Moreover, if he hadn't felt like he needed to hide his marriage to Padme, he would have been able to go to the other Jedi with his concerns, rather than to Palpatine.

Unfortunately, the prequel-era Jedi Order had become rigid, dogmatic, and arrogant. They were absolutely certain that their way to the Light was the only way, and they kept try to force Anakin to follow a path that he just wasn't suited for. It took twenty years and two civil wars before Anakin was finally able to follow his passions to the Light.

Qui-Gon was known as a maverick Jedi, and I always got the impression that if anyone in the Order could have taught Anakin how to handle his emotions, it was him. Qui-Gon was very much a pragmatic, in-the-moment sort of person, who wouldn't let detachment blind him to the realities in front of him, and the reality was that Anakin simply couldn't do it the Jedi way.

Regarding Anakin’s training. I believe Qui-Gon is the only one who could have saved Anakin from the dark side.

Qui-Gon Jinn was notoriously known as a maverick Jedi. His own master, Count Dooku, was also known to buck commonplace trends of the Jedi Order. Jinn frequently challenged the status quo of the Jedi High Council and was a consummate student of the Living Force.

He did not subscribe to all of the notions within the Jedi Code and sought to find his own answers instead of merely accepting what he was given by his High Council masters.

It was his challenging mindset that ultimately precluded Qui-Gon from becoming a member of the High Council and considering how things eventually developed for the Jedi, being totally decimated by one of their very own, perhaps Qui-Gon Jinn’s ”outside-of-the-box” way of thinking could have prevented that devastation.

In the comic Star Wars: Age of Republic:Qui-Gon Jinn, it showed that Qui-Gon placed his faith in the force over that in the council.The Jedi Master's doubts and true intentions are finally explained. Qui-Gon didn't fail to notice the Dark Side boiling up inside of Anakin Skywalker: he believed that darkness was exactly what was needed to bring balance to The Force. Showing once and for all that Anakin could have brought peace to the galaxy... if Qui-Gon Jinn had trained him.But for all their talk of "balance" the Jedi Order of the Star Wars movies had grown rigid in their prejudice. And in the pages of Star Wars: Age of Republic: Qui-Gon Jinn, the Jedi's crisis of faith long before The Phantom Menace is finally shown. Not to overstate it, but Qui-Gon seems to realize what no other member of the Jedi Council is noticing: that they have lost their vision. And to get his back, he leaps blindly into hyperspace with only The Force to guide him, and accepts the lesson it has to teach him.On an alien world teaming with both life and deadly, "dark" growth, Qui-Gon communes with The Force. Sensing both the life-giving Force and the darkness to balance it, he awakens from his vision to see that the darkness has been driven back. Light triumphed over it, returning true "balance, but through a means beyond conflict." The lesson sticks, and Qui-Gon returns to the Order keeping this knowledge to himself. The Jedi believe the Dark Side to be resisted by any means necessary... but only in the face of darkness can light restore the balance. A principle that clearly occupies Qui-Gon's mind when discovering a small slave boy on a planet called Tatooine.The lesson taught by The Force was clear, so when he, of all possible Jedi, happened across a boy conceivably born of The Force itself, Qui-Gon knew it was no accident. As he tells the Jedi Council in Episode 1, "It was the will of The Force, if that I have no doubt."

Qui-Gon and The Council believe in two different things when it came to “Bring balance to the force”.For the Council, it means The Force has produced a champion to vanquish the darkness, leaving only the light. While Qui-Gon's encounter with The Force has shown "balance" to be the acceptance of darkness, so that light might overcome it. The Council senses the potential for the Dark Side in Anakin, and views it as a threat. Qui-Gon would have sensed the same, but understand Anakin's potential for darkness was the entire point of The Force's lesson (and by extension, the prophecy).

Qui-Gon saw the problem with the Jedi. They stopped serving the force and only served the will of The Republic.Qui-Gon expresses that very concern to Master Yoda (who, despite his wisdom, fails to consider it). After a rescued dignitary wonders why Qui-Gon didn't let his blade do the talking, he realizes just how far the Jedi Order has strayed from their intended mission.Qui-Gon argues that "our actions are a reflection of our purpose." That years spent enforcing have made the Jedi think like enforcers, until even Yoda can not see the danger Qui-Gon does before them: that "violence sows the seeds of the Dark Side. Unchecked, the Jedi could become that which we fight against."Stay blind to this reality too long and it would be possible for the Jedi to, say, march into the office of the democratically appointed head of the Republic to kill him in the name of defeating darkness - giving even a good man reason to think that from his point of view, "it is the Jedi who are lost."

The comic makes it clear that Qui-Gon kept his newfound understanding of The Force and the Dark Side to himself, raising the fact that the Jedi must remain more flexible and open to changing beliefs than their ancient enemies, the Sith. But after meeting resistance from his own Jedi Master, concluding the chat by conceding to Yoda's (Sith-like) absolutes concerning the Dark Side. Just in case anyone needed a bit more proof that Qui-Gon Jinn was the only Jedi who could possibly have understood how to train and educate Anakin in the truth of his power. And, let's not forget, fulfill his destiny as the One to restore balance to the galaxy "through a means beyond conflict."At least, that's assuming The Force really did create him, imbue him with both light and darkness, and drop him into the lap of the one Jedi Master who could help him truly restore balance, knowing his darkness was to be understood, not branded as bad, wrong, flawed, and to be ignored until it consumed him. Now the only question to consider is how much Darth Sidious may have sensed the will of The Force himself, sending his apprentice Darth Maul to kill Qui-Gon before he could serve his purpose.The death of Qui-Gon Jinn was always heartbreaking for fans, but will be doubly tragic, now that Star Wars fans know The Forces hopes for Anakin Skywalker died along with him.

If Qui-Gon had lived to train Anakin himself, that lesson would almost certainly have proven true. Because by that point, even Qui-Gon had come to realize what Anakin eventually would: that the Jedi had lost their way.

Let’s talk about the Legend of Qui-Gon Jinn. I’ll hit some key points, but you should read his Wookiepedia page sometime. He’s one of the characters that’s filled out more in the Legends material than the movie itself, so there’s quite a few points you might not be aware of:

Apprentice of Dooku, great swordsman, and holdout believer in the philosophy of the Living Force

One of those unfortunate Jedi Masters, along with Mace Windu, who has trained a Padawan that lost it and went Dark

Recognized and reputed for his abilities to teach and train

Trained two Jedi, including one that was arguably too old to be a Padawan anymore (Obi-Wan Kenobi)

Loved another Jedi—A blind Noorian by the name of Tahl who was Head Archivist—but they agreed to decline acting on it despite mutual feelings

Suffered from visions of Tahl’s potential death, just before she goes on a mission and disappears for 3 weeks…

Eventually gets sent after her, finds her captive, and witnesses her death…narrowly too late to save her.

Slips into depression, then almost loses it in rage and desire for revenge…

Sensing a pattern yet? Qui-Gon is just about the only Jedi in the universe that could hear EVERYTHING Anakin went through and honestly say “I understand, and I know how you feel”

Whereas most of the Jedi just tell Anakin his life will be better if he lets go, Qui-Gon would have concrete advice for him and could sympathetically say he’s been through the same situations. They would have bonded over Anakin’s worst emotional moments. They could have had honest conversations about how nebulous those feelings were. Qui-Gon could help the younger boy sort those feelings out and get to the core values behind them. And he’d have been able to help Anakin make the right choices while he was calm, rather than having the wrong choices leak out of him under stress.

He might have also warned Anakin about the possibility of dreams being self-fulfilling prophecies… but also Qui-Gon would’ve given Anakin the idea that doing something about it (other than letting go) is a valid option. When Ahsoka was troubled by the possibility to losing someone close to hear, Yoda tells her meditate on it. with Anakin, it’s all about the dark side. Qui-Gon would’ve heard him out and who knows, Qui-Gon and Anakin would’ve saved Shmi together if Anakin had Qui-Gon to confide in.

Beyond that, I think learning the Living Force would have been important for Anakin, because his natural personality fit its tenants better than the Unifying Force view of the other Jedi:

All living things are connected, and we should be mindful of how we impact one another

“Mom, you said that the biggest problem in the universe is no one helps each other.” — Anakin, in The Phantom Menace

“Why do I have the sense that we’ve picked up another pathetic life form?” — Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace, clearly not thinking like his Master or Anakin does

Qui-Gon is noted in the Legends as constantly annoying people — including his Master Dooku as a Padawan—with his convictions about saving other living creatures from bad situations. So Obi-Wan’s comment wasn’t just referencing Jar-Jar…

Live in the moment, rather than focusing on the future. Be mindful of the future and consequences, but remain focused on the present.

Anakin often worried about the future too much, particularly with his dreams. Even having someone there that could urge him to think about what he could do now, might have helped him calm down.

Rely on your instincts

Skywalker was always instinctive, and it shows in how he pilots. He can learn the controls to almost anything in 5 minutes tops, and he can intuit what’s wrong or off about a machine and adjust for it. Likewise, he’s the same in physical combat — an instinctive natural with a blade. Anytime he stops thinking and just goes, he’s good…

Obi-Wan often tried to get Anakin to avoid acting on his instincts and follow a plan. He called on Anakin to think coherently, and to focus on strategy…Anakin never really took to it very well, and frequently charged in, falling back on instinct when he was stressed.

Qui-Gon would instead have tried to get Anakin to hone his instincts. Double down on your ability to use your senses and listen to them…learn to assess the situation in front of you fully, so that you don’t miss details. Then, be the best YOU can be, and stop worrying about everything else.

Qui-Gon was a Jedi experienced with a Padawan going astray, so he would no doubt have been sober and measured in his approach to training Anakin. But, he lived his life with compassion as a major tenet, so he would have done everything in his power to hear the boy out and not have him feel alone. He also is unafraid to disagree with the Council, so he’d stand up for the boy when he thought the approach they wanted to take was not a good one. Qui-Gon would have been a great influence on Anakin, leading him to believe that you can both disagree with the Council AND still have respect for them.

That, and Anakin’s trust in him, lead me to think he might have confided in QG about some things that he instead took to Palpatine. Can you imagine how differently things go if Anakin talks to Qui-Gon about Padme? In my mind, I see a big scene after Attack of the Clones, where Qui-Gon helps Anakin sort through his needs and wants, and perhaps urges him to leave the Jedi Order and go have his family.

What exactly does Anakin need to be a Jedi for at that point? Go be Lost Jedi #21, and live a happy life. Or, if you still want to fight, take a moment and decide what’s the best path forward for your family. One honest conversation here might have helped Anakin come to some convictions, rather than spinning in a confusing downward spiral later on. He would have felt much less cornered and confused in most of his situations, had he had a father figure in his corner that understood the way he thought and felt about things.

Also, having a few more Living Force thinkers might have helped them realize that the only person who really had anything to gain from both the Naboo Invasion and the Clone Wars WAS Palpatine…he could have garnered much more suspicion early on. Qui-Gon might have noticed how much the Jedi Order was shifting in the midst of the war, and would have actively fought to bring that to people’s attention and urge the Council to do something about it in a productive way.

Look at how much Qui-Gon’s existence messed up Palpatine’s plans in The Phantom Menace. I am firmly convinced that Qui-Gon’s continued existence would have been a major threat to the rest of Palpatine’s plans. He knew how the other Jedi thought. He apparently didn’t have the same read on the sort of tactics Qui-Gon used. Chances are, Palpatine would have to orchestrate a situation to specifically take him out of the picture, or watch large swaths of his plan get foiled.

Now since we take this all into account, let’s go into what would change in canon

Qui-Gon would train Anakin in the Lightsaber Form IV Ataru and Anakin would master it beautifully

Anakin and Obi-Wan would become friends throughout Anakin’s training.

Qui-Gon and Anakin would’ve saved Shmi from the Tusken Raiders as Qui-Gon would’ve wanted to enact on Anakin’s visions, The Council be damned

Qui-Gon would have complete faith in Anakin protecting Padme, while Qui-Gon would seek the aid of Obi-Wan in investigating Kamino

Qui-Gon would confront his old master, Dooku

As they reach Geonosis, I do believe Qui-Gon would send Obi-Wan back to contact Anakin and The Council about his and Qui-Gon’s findings

Qui-Gon would be captured in Obi-Wan’s place

Qui-Gon would be confronted of his old master, Dooku. He is in disbelief that his master turned to the dark side and tried to have Padme assassinated. He rejects his offer of joining him and the Separatists.

Because of Qui-Gon’s training, Anakin is more calm and less headstrong. Together they would take Dooku. Dooku knows the fight will turn in the Jedi’s favor, so he attacks Anakin’s weak points and uses that against Qui-Gon. So then we have Dooku and Yoda’s fight which remains the same.

As The Clone Wars rages on, Ahsoka would become Obi-Wan’s apprentice

Anakin and Ahsoka would be close friends

Qui-Gon would be trying to stop the war, he would be much like the Padme of the Jedi Order

Qui-Gon would be spending the majority of The Clone Wars to getting to the bottom of the source of The Clone Wars, while helping Anakin

Qui-Gon and Padme are pretty much Palpatine’s biggest thorns in his side, they are fucking his plans up left and right.

With Qui-Gon by his side, Anakin would not lose his cool against Clovis

Both Qui-Gon and Anakin would believe Ahsoka, when Obi-Wan and the Council have abandoned her

What happened to Ahsoka and Barris betrayal showed Qui-Gon that this war has gone too far and the Jedi have betrayed themselves. He goes to Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme. With the truth. Palpatine is Darth SIdious, the very man behind everything. He tells them all we must expose him in front of the Senate and“Execute Order 65″ while on Kamino, Qui-Gon learned all there is to know of the contingency orders. And knows this is the only way to bring the Sith down."In the event of either (i) a majority in the Senate declaring the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) to be unfit to issue orders, or (ii) the Security Council declaring him or her to be unfit to issue orders, and an authenticated order being received by the GAR, commanders shall be authorized to detain the Supreme Commander, with lethal force if necessary, and command of the GAR shall fall to the acting Chancellor until a successor is appointed or alternative authority identified as outlined in Section 6 (iv)."

By ROTS, Anakin and Qui-Gon would faced with Dooku, while Obi-Wan goes to find Grievous. As Anakin cuts his hands off, Qui-Gon wakes up and thanks to his teachings, Anakin would not execute Dooku. Anakin does not see the value of executing the leader of the Separatists and the information he could tell. Qui-Gon would tell how proud he is of his padawan.

Obi-Wan would’ve killed Grievous on the Invisible Hand.

At this point Palpatine is shaking in his boots. Qui-Gon Jinn is still alive and dangerously close to exposing the truth. General Grievous is dead. Dooku is held captive.

This is the plan of Qui-Gon Jinn. Expose Palpatine to the public. He knows the Jedi confronting him directly would be turned against them, the Jedi would be on high alert and be watching for any type of assassin or bounty hunter. Dooku tells the truth to all. Dooku declares“my lord, you have lost”“no, no no YOU HAVE LOST” Palpatine states before executing Dooku with force lightning. Anakin, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Yoda and Mace rush to face Palpatine. As they face the Sith Lord, Padme broadcasts this to every Clone.“Execute Order 65.” Every Clone Trooper would be ordered to arrest or kill Palpatine. Any clone who dares to approach Palpatine is disintegrated by Palpatine’s Force Lightning. In the end it is Anakin and Rex who kill the Sith Lord. The war is over. Balance has been brought to the force and the Empire is over before it can begin

The Council is reformed. They finally see their ways have blinded them and embrace Qui-Gon and Anakin’s way of thinking. They see the value of attachments and admit they were wrong about Anakin

Qui-Gon is at peace knowing he helped train the chosen one and brought balance to the force. Anakin is allowed to have a family and be granted the rank of master. He lives in bliss knowing his visions never came to pass. Luke and Leia are born. The Clone army have disbanded and are allowed a life beyond duty. Padme has become Chancellor of the Republic and will usher in an era of peace and freedom for the Galaxy.

71 notes · View notes

BOOBOO STEWART? No, that’s actually LORCAN SCAMANDER from the NEXT GENERATION ERA. You know, the child of ROLF SCAMANDER and LUNA LOVEGOOD-SCAMANDER? Only 21 years old, this GRYFFINDOR alumni works as a MAGIZZOLOGIST and is sided with THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. HE identifies as CIS MALE and is a MUGGLEBORN who is known to be HOT-HEADED, WORKAHOLIC, and RECKLESS but also, COURAGEOUS, OPEN-MINDED, and EMPATHETIC. — &&. ( TORI, EST, SHE/HER/HERS, 24. )

Aes: reading on rainy days, tall grass blowing in a sea breeze, the smell of old books that haven’t been opened in years, colored ink, detailed lists and notes, baring your teeth to protect others, your friends holding you back from a fight, humming to yourself as you browse through the stacks at the library, sunny sunday breakfasts while your parents tease each other.

TW: Body horror, abandonment and fear of, bullying, and bigotry.

Headcanons

01.Lorcan is older than Lysander by four minutes and holds this over his sibling's head constantly. While being practically the same age, Lorcan still feels like the need to play into the whole “protective older brother” role. This protectiveness carried over into their time at Hogwarts and if anyone said a bad word about Lysander or their family, Lorcan’s wand would be at the ready. He was easy to anger in that regard, didn’t want anyone feeling like they could get away with being a bully (this carried over with his friends as well). He would stick up for anyone, regardless of house or blood status or any other factors. He’s not entirely sure where he got this trait from, certainly not his mother, but Lorcan likes to think that hearing stories about her time at Hogwarts rubbed off on him. He’s never cared about the enemies he might make or the people who would hate him just because he didn’t like anyone being looked down on.

02.He’s very much like his mother in the sense that he’s very open-minded. Not just when it comes to people, but when it comes to learning. Lorcan loved school and loved learning about different potions and spells and creatures. He loved spending time in the library figuring out why certain ingredients had a certain effect. However, Lorcan also enjoyed the study of magical creatures, just like his parents. He would follow his parents into the study of Magizoologist, including traveling to different parts of the world to study creatures. [INJURY//BODY HORROR TW] This, unfortunately, has caused Lorcan to lose his left thumb and pointer finger, along with his right middle finger. [END TW] He’s been told to be more careful, but his best work (in his opinion) has come from taking risks.

03.Following along his great-grandfather, Lorcan is working on a book about magical creatures. It’s still in the very early stages, he’s still gathering research and working alongside his parents. So far, it’s a lot more work than Lorcan was expecting it to be. But he’s been pulling late nights working on research and analyzing data. This has led his social life to being tossed to the side. He’s trying to get better about not locking himself away, but...his work and research is very important to him.

Character Inspo

Steve Rogers (Marvel) + Alison Argent (Teen Wolf) + Jim Kirk (Star Trek) + Finn (Star Wars) + Cosima Niehaus (Orphan Black) + Ninth Doctor (Doctor Who) + The Winchester bros (Supernatural)

[Warnings for: abandonment, bigotry, body horror]

Pre-Hogwarts

Lorcan and his sibling were born on August 29, 2008 to muggles Sophia and Umar Baker.

What he does know, is that they were just teenagers when they had him and Lysander.

And the two teenagers tried to take care of these twins.

Lorcan remembers the house being chaotic at times. And at five years old, he overheard his parents arguing over whether they could continue to take care of them.

And even now, he still has that small fear of people abandoning him.

So, in 2013, at five years old Lysander and himself were dropped off at an orphanage, despite both of his parents being very much alive.

Lorcan soon found his voice, standing up for Lysander and himself when the other children would make comments about their appearances or how they acted.

(Most of this included Lorcan using the names small children call each other, but dammit Lysander was all he had.)

And then, just two years later, a couple came in and soon enough, Lorcan and Lysander took on the last name Scamander.

The house was filled...with so much more joy and happiness and love than Lorcan had seen in his entire life.

His new parents read to them and sang them songs and told him about grand adventures that Lorcan wasn’t sure if real or made-up at the time.

He was kissed and hugged and told “Good job!” when he was able to control his magic or created an artwork with his small hands.

They taught him about Hogwarts and the school they would be attending soon.

(And Lorcan did his best not to cry, to put on a strong face for Lysander.)

They told him to be brave, to be kind, to work hard. And Lorcan was ready to do all of those things.

Hogwarts

The hat took a minute to decide where exactly the elder twin would go before finally declaring “GRYFFINDOR!” and was only slightly disappointed to not be in his mother’s house.

(whether Lysander also ended up in Ravenclaw is up to that player, for now im going to write this as if they are in the same house. This can be edited!)

Having his sibling beside him, gave him some comfort in this very different world.

Bullying/Bigotry TW

He learned, through other students and some teachers, and even some from Luna herself, the stories of his mother and her friends during her time here.

He learned about the bullying she and so many other students faced.

And soon, Lorcan learned about the bullying first hand.

For being muggleborn, for how they looked, for who his parents were.

This would be enough to drive Lorcan to be...a bit of a wild card. To stand up for the Scamanders. For the other students who got laughed at or called names.

And to stand up for himself, of course.

He hated the names they gave him and glances in the hallways between classes.

END TW

This would land him in trouble, getting points docked off his house more than once, but Lorcan wasn’t about to just sit back and do nothing.

For the most part, Lorcan was a fantastic student. He loved learning about this world that he wasn’t born into, all the history and the spells and potions and, of course, the magical creatures.

He worked very hard on his OWLs to get into multiple NEWT-level classes (Potions, Charms, Herbology, DADA and Care of Magical Creatures).

He wasn’t a very social student, but had a few close friends (Connection wanted) that he would regularly spend time with.

In his 5th year, 2024, he became a Prefect.

While he enjoyed being at Hogwarts and everything that came along with it, he truly loved nothing more than being around his parents. He loved listening to them talk about magical creatures and showing him what they’ve discovered and written about.

Post-Hogwarts/Pre-Clash

After Hogwarts, Lorcan wasn’t entirely sure what he wanted to do.

He did like the idea of the “traditional” jobs that his classmates were going into.

So, he followed his parents around for a bit in their travels and joined them in studying different creatures

And he realized he loved being around magical creatures and studying them.

Has so many notebooks dedicated to notes on them

They’re organized of course.

With his parents discovering new creatures, Lorcan decided to try to write a book about them.

He’s still doing a lot of research (a lot) and still sometimes travels to the places where the creatures are native.

Big lover of languages too!!

Really is throwing himself into his research and working on the book.

(I’m sure his parents would tell him to take a break, but then he ends up going to sleep at like two in the morning)

When going to other places to do research about the creatures, Lorcan doesn’t really like following the safety guidelines.

He just does his own thing, because he thinks that’s how he gets the best information.

[INJURY/BODY HORROR TW]

Because of this, Lorcan has lost a few fingers to magical creatures. He’s missing his thumb and pointer finger on his left hand and his middle finger on his right.

This makes things like writing and typing a bit more difficult.

He gets very frustrated at himself for not moving fast enough, which is why he spends so many hours dedicated to the research/writing.

[END TW]

Still very protective of his family and loved ones.

Hearing about the 2nd Wizarding War makes him so angry and despises those who look down on others.

The Clash

The Clash was terrifying.

Suddenly his parents were just gone.

Leaving him and Lysander behind.

It honestly stressed him out a lot (he’s still pretty stressed about it tbh)

When he found out that other people came back from the past...he immediately went to find his mother and father.

Only, they weren’t his mother and father. They were so young.

Younger than him.

He’s trying to focus back on his work, his research and his book.

But now he finds himself reading books on time traveling to see if there’s a fix

And the death eaters are back. Which is worrying.

Personality

Can be quick to anger when someone insults his family or people he cares about

Or even if he just sees someone bullying someone else, Lorcan has to step in.

His dedication to his work and things he cares about can cause him to be reckless

Sometimes doesn’t always think before he acts when he gets worked up or passionate about something

Even when it comes to the magical creatures, he can make bad decisions, but Lorcan has always thrown himself into whatever he’s doing or passionate about

Is very empathetic, almost too empathetic.

He cares so much about other people that when he sees that they’re hurting, he hurts too

Is very good at making people feel valid and comforted.

Just like his parents, he’s quite open-minded

Especially when it comes to different theories and people’s experiences

Understands he doesn’t know everything and welcomes other people talking about what they know/believe/experienced

Not so much when it comes to death eaters/blood purists/etc

6 notes · View notes

2018 Albums of the Year

Here’s my albums of the year. 2018 has been a brilliant year for music, and so I thought I’d lay out my favourite albums, and the reasons why they’re my favourites.

10: Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Sex and Food

Kicking the list off at ten, we have the fourth full-length project from the New Zealand lo-fi psychedelic group Unknown Mortal Orchestra. An album that calls to mind at various points dusty late 70s grooves, 80s synth work and yet very modern production sensibilities, Sex and Foodbounces between deeply introspective balladry, and funky danceable beats. A sure step forward for a band that only looks to become more experimental as time goes on.

9: Ben Howard – Noonday Dream

The Devon based singer-songwriter gives a compelling vision of the future of indie-folk with this transient and supremely accomplished set of songs. Taking a further stride away from the straightforward acoustic sound of 2011’s Every Kingdom, Noonday Dream shows an artist unafraid to utilise aspects of electronic and ambient music into his soundscapes, resulting in a transcendent, elegant, and above all beautiful set of tracks. The opening duo of Nica Libres At Duskand Towing The Lineare a particular high point.

8: Thom Yorke – Suspiria (Music for the Luca Guadagnino Film)

Surprisingly his first ever venture into soundtrack work, Thom Yorke’s masterful score for the Luca Guadagnino film of the same name could be in this list simply on the strength of its lead track; Suspiriumis an otherworldly waltz, a spartan piano line presided over by Thom’s instantly recognisable vocals. But it is the deeper cuts for which this album earns its place; Open Againbegins with a fingerpicked guitar progression that grows into a monolithic walk to the gallows and then fades out once more. A master at the height of his powers.

7: Sports Team – Winter Nets

Undoubtedly the least well-known name on this list, the debut EP from the London-based indie-pop outfit Sports Team has been one of my most played records yet this year. A cerebral mix of Jarvis Cocker-style lyricism preoccupied with the minutiae of suburban life, and pitch perfect indie rock arrangements teetering on the edge of chaos, this shows talent beyond their years; the only EP on this list, these five tracks managed to catch my attention early on, and have stayed with me through the year. Ones to watch.

6: MGMT – Little Dark Age

A name I would not have expected to see on this list at the start of the year, the comeback from the early 2000s electro-pop group is unexpectedly brilliant. Far from the runaway chart success of singles such as Electric Feel, Little Dark Ageis full of tracks that could have been pulled from the dusty archives of pretty much any 80s synth bands, but combined with so many left-field production choices, and lyrics that belie a dark sensibility beneath the bright instrumentation, this album becomes a very mature release indeed. The single, Little Dark Age, is just magic. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

5: Car Seat Headrest – Twin Fantasy

Bringing us into the second half of this list is Will Toledo’s project Car Seat Headrest, with a rerecorded, remastered version of his 2011 breakout album Twin Fantasy. Toledo’s DIY ethos calls to mind contemporary Kevin Parker, of Tame Impala, although the two go about their self-imposed individualism rather differently. Toledo’s recordings retain the lo-fi teen emotion of the original Twin Fantasy, while adding the production sensibilities of Toledo’s later Car Seat Headrest ventures, resulting in such a dizzying barrage of pitch perfect indie ballads that display mature, incisive and insightful lyricism. The peaks of the album slip off the rails in the most glorious way, and culminate in simple, honest, and resounding emotional resolutions. Few albums so perfectly capture the teenage experience... a brilliant achievement.

4: Father John Misty – God’s Favorite Customer

It will come to no surprise to those of you who know me that Josh Tillman has made his way into this list; I have been following Father John Misty since last year’s existential crisis of an album, Pure Comedy. But God’s Favorite Customeris an entirely different beast- aside from the single, Mr Tillman, the typical luscious arrangements of a usual Father John Misty album are conspicuously missing here. Gone are the chamber pop orchestras and parlour ballads; here is FJM with an acoustic guitar, a month’s stay in a hotel room, and some utterly shattering songwriting. Tillman has abandoned his lofty perch overseeing the human condition in favour of personal, painful lyrics that dissect a failing relationship in real time. Many of these songs are addressed to, or from the perspective of, Josh’s wife, Emma, and the narratives are as autobiographical as ever. But the key here is that Tillman has ceased to be just an observer of the phenomena he comments on; in God’s Favorite Customerhe has no choice but to experience them from the inside, and it makes for devastating listening in places. However, Misty has not abandoned all hope; closer We're Only People (And There's Not Much Anyone Can Do About That)ends the album with a remarkably beautiful and optimistic look at humanity, and leaves you ready to emerge from the hotel room, blinking against the sunlight, into the outside world.

3: Blood Orange – Negro Swan

London born producer, multi-instrumentalist, and general prodigy Devont Hynes, has outdone himself on his fourth project under the moniker Blood Orange; Negro Swanrepresents exactly the kind of progressive song writing Hynes is so sought after in the pop world for, and brings together a beautiful collage of sounds and textures to produce an album that is so of the moment, it feels like a time capsule of today. Swan embraces diversity, revelling in a celebration of sexuality and identity that feels almost carnival-like in its embrace of so many aspects of modern R&B and Hip-Hop. On what other album can you find Puff Daddy monologuing about his own fear of being loved? This whole project is filled with moments such as this, with trans black activist Janet Mock providing a loose narrative thread tying the album together. But for me, the true highlight of this album is Hynes himself; a young black artist showcasing a striking talent that simply refuses to obey the laws of genre or society. The musical prowess on show is undeniable; in particular, Hynes’ guitar work is so accomplished, tracks such as Charcoal Babyare sheer joy to listen to because of it. The vocals on this record are equally impressive; comparisons will undoubtedly be drawn to Prince, although personally I see Hynes as akin to Frank Ocean, both showcasing a new vision for R&B in the 21stcentury, and Swanfeels in many ways a sibling to Ocean’s 2016 album Blonde, in its transient nature and almost soundscape-like mixture of sounds and feelings. Negro Swanis a glorious celebration in which all expression is embraced, and no identity is off-limits. This is what all modern R&B should aspire to.

2: Arctic Monkeys – Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino

Those monkeys, eh? Four years after their last studio effort, with each member having done something entirely different (and accomplished, see Alex Turner with The Last Shadow Puppets, and Matt Helders on the latest Iggy Pop record) with their sabbatical, no one quite knew what shape their return would take. Recorded in London, Paris and Los Angeles, the sixth album from the band synonymous with early 00s indie could have taken quite a number of directions; furthering the slick arena rock of AM, delving deeper into the baroque pop offering the Last Shadow Puppets pursue, or perhaps even a return to their raucous indie rock roots. Naturally, they did none of the above. The first sign of their step in a different direction was a video they posted in mid-April, announcing a return with an eerie synth line and a fuzzy guitar lick; in hindsight it was the perfect segue into the TBH&Cera, both a nod to the leather-clad rock of AM, and yet the space-age synths and fictional space resorts of Tranquility Base. And when the album did come? Oh boy. I’m not sure a release in 2018 divided fans quite like the Monkeys’ did. I’ve heard it variously described as “sheer genius”, “derivative retro nothing” and “f*cking lift music”. It really was that polarising. I’m sure that from its spot on this list you can guess which camp I fall into. From the go, the surreal lyricism of Alex Turner is front and centre, and the record is all the better for it. From surreal references to Kubrick film techniques, and obsession with sci-fi jargon, to ridiculous pastiches of Hollywood clichés, critics weren’t short of liner notes to unpick. But the key for me was the way that the album, as all great sci-fi does, comments on modern life through the lens of futurism, while also keeping you scratching your head the whole time. Furthermore, the actual songwriting is as good as ever, with Turner making a tune about a less than perfect review for a taquiera on the moon into the rhythmic centrepiece of the album. I do have to confess, I am slightly biased; I’m a lifelong AM fan, and I did see this performed live, which only deepened my admiration of it but truthfully- listen to this album. Then listen some more. And then some more again. Because when it clicks, you won’t experience anything else even remotely like it all year.

Bonus Round

These are albums that I discovered in 2018, but weren’t released this year… they deserved recognition along with the rest of these projects.

5: Frank Ocean – Endless

Frank Ocean is one of, if not the, best and most innovative artists working in modern R&B. That much is undisputed. But until 2018, despite being a huge Frank Ocean fan, I had neglected his 2016 visual album, Endless. Perhaps this was due to laziness, not having Apple Music, or perhaps it was because for me it was vastly overshadowed by the release of the seminal Blonde a few days later. Or maybe I simply thought a visual album wasn’t worth my time. Whatever the reason, I was a fool to overlook it. Endless is an ethereal journey through Ocean’s psyche, with a vast soundscape of beautiful, flowing synths and guitars. Furthermore, Endless features some of Ocean’s best rap work since Channel Orange. A truly beautiful project, and Higgs is, for me, Ocean’s most devastatingly sad track… further evidence that Frank doesn’t put a foot wrong.

4: Leonard Cohen: Songs Of Leonard Cohen

In 2016, the music world lost one of its most treasured talents, in the form of Leonard Cohen. However, although I have always been aware of Cohen’s work (Hallelujah, his inspiration of Nick Cave, The Last Shadow Puppets’ Is This What You Wanted cover), I had never taken the time to sit down and immerse myself in his work. Well, I was very much missing out. His cinematic, confessional storytelling, and his instantly recognisable voice and manner, mean that his songs are almost exactly the type of ballads I love, and Songs is his finest work. From start to end, you see the world through Cohen’s eyes. A poet.

3: King Krule: The OOZ

King Krule (real name: Archy Marshall) is a divisive artist; many see him as a visionary, however he is also, to many (including my dad) just “the one with the awful voice”. To me, Krule is a fantastic lyricist and producer, with an instantly recognisable sound. From the moment you enter The OOZ, you are in Marshall’s world, a London of grimy concrete and eerie loneliness. However, there are moments of beauty among the sluggish, smog-filled music; Slush Puppy, despite descending into madness near the end, is a really quite endearingly desperate performance. Cadet Limbo also shows off Krule’s more jazzy influences, and is all the better for it. A view into the future of singer-songwriting.

2: Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear

Josh Tillman has already featured on this list once, and it’s no secret I think he’s one of the best artists working today. However, until this year, I had never given his 2015 romantic opus, Honeybear, a proper listen. I was turned on to Misty by his 2017 work Pure Comedy, and after an existentialist view on all of Humanity, a romance album seemed like a step back, so I didn’t give it the time it deserved. How wrong I was. Honeybear is a beautiful, tender, and being an FJM record, deeply satirical and funny, look at love, relationships, and society. It features lush, beautiful arrangements, and gorgeous melodies, all delivered with Misty’s characteristic tongue-in-cheek smirk. Not one track on the album is dead space, and there are several high points, right from the start. Favourite for me is I Went To The Store One Day, which is a simple, yet incredibly beautiful and moving ballad to close the album. Stunning stuff indeed.

1: Everything Everything – A Fever Dream

I’ve known of Everything Everything for quite a while now, but in early 2017 I was gifted tickets to see them on their A Fever Dreamtour, and it absolutely blew my mind. EE have crafted brilliant electronic indie music in the past, with catchy melodies and odd, skittering rhythms. However, A Fever Dreambuilds on this in the best possible way, building on their electronic sound and adding an even more fiercely of-the-moment view on songwriting. One of the highlights for me was Jonathan Higgs’ vocals, which electrified the music with a fierce intellect, and sparkling melodies. An ecstatic blend of so many musical styles, which results in a fantastic album. A masterpiece for today.

Okay, finally the main event. My album of the year 2018 is…

1: IDLES – Joy as an Act of Resistance.

Here we are then. Number one spot. And again, if you know me, you know there could never really have been any other album here. I first discovered IDLES earlier in the year, riding off the success of their breakout debut album Brutalism, an unstoppable punk locomotive of an album, with guitar and bass lines that are so, well, brutal, that they break down the door and hold you at gunpoint until you sit up and pay attention. This band is the perfect voice for austerity Britain, more mature than Slaves, more relevant than Sleaford Mods, and yet they walk an incredibly fine line. It’s almost impossible to define until you hear a band that possess it, but they simply make. So. Much. Sense. Joe Talbot talks with such a fiery intensity that it’s impossible not to listen, and an eloquence that is so often missing from punk. He’s so likeable, and oddly enough for punk, easy to listen to. However, don’t mistake that for the album lacking brutal riffs. Because it has those in spades. From the opening bass rumble of Colossus, JAAAORpicks you up by the scruff off your neck, and doesn’t put you down until the last manic notes of Rottweilerfade away. This is a rock record that defies rock, a punk record that doesn’t define itself as punk, and a political statement that bases its politics on the phrase “Love yourself.” This provides an infectious alternative to the toxic masculinity of so much mainstream rock, and a uniquely vulnerable take on an incredible variety of issues. Beginning with an immediate left-footing with Colossus, the album the catches its witty and caustic stride with Never Fight A Man With A Perm, going from strength to strength the whole time. I’ve never quite identified with a track lyrically as much as I’m Scum, a rallying call for liberals everywhere: “I'll sing at fascists 'til my head comes off, I am Dennis Skinner's Molotov / I'm lefty, I'm soft, I'm minimum wage job”and erupting into the chant of “this snowflake’s an avalanche”. It goes on to postulate about not caring about the next James Bond, as “we don’t need another murderous toff”. The next track is the joyous Danny Nedelko, an ode to Talbot’s friend, and frontman of Heavy Lungs, Danny Nedelko. It’s a quite magnificent celebration of immigration and diversity, and embodies the sentiment of the album as a whole quite simply with a roar of “Unity!”. Potent stuff. The next highlight (or rather lowlight) for me is the one-two punch of Juneand Samaritans. Juneis a singularly moving ode to Talbot’s stillborn daughter, building all the time to a non-existent crescendo, and repeating the six-word mantra “Baby shoes, for sale. Never worn.” Incredibly painful, raw and poignant; you feel as if you’re witnessing a moment that you really shouldn’t be, a would-be father grieving at the bedside. It then transitions into Samaritans, an anti-toxic masculinity manifesto, furious in its denial of male stereotypes: “Man up, sit down, chin up, pipe down”, and building relentlessly to sheer ecstasy of the decree: “I kissed a boy and I liked it”. Powerful, powerful stuff. Track eight, Television, is pinned down by a juddering riff complimented by the incredibly able drumming of Jon Beavis (a very much unsung hero of the group), and a wonderful self-love mantra. Moving on, Greatis an anti-Brexit track than manages to reveal the hypocrisy of nationalism without ever moving into preachy politicism, which is Talbot’s greatest strength; he can make any point sound like the simplest and most honest declaration ever. Gram Rockand Cry To Meare witty, and the least overtly political tracks of the album; but even these apparent low points aren’t by any means stale, quite the opposite. Every moment of this record fizzes with energy. Finally, Joy rounds off with the magnificentRottweiler, a searing discrediting of the UK media, ending in the wheels coming off as the tension built throughout the 42 minutes comes to a chaotic end, with Joe yelping “Unity!”over and over. I have one final thing to say about Joy; it’s production is pristine throughout, with clarity in even its most chaotic moments. This is my record of the year, because I feel no other record held my attention so completely, and was so representative of the sentiment of this year. Pure joy.

Well then, thanks for sticking with me. 2018’s been a belter of a year for music, and I can’t wait to see what 2019 brings.

2 notes · View notes

ok. so. The Princess Bride. i read it yesterday.

and right up front, before even a review, i’m gonna go ahead and list everything objectionable in the bookthat i can recall. please don’t take the length of the bullet pointed items to follow as an indication that the book was wildly problematic and offended me at every turn; it wasn’t and it didn’t. but there were some things that made me go: 😑 or 😒, and here it all is, presented with context, before anything else, because to be honest, i didn’t expect any of it. the film is relatively spotless, which is pretty rare for that era, and if any of you are thinking of reading it, you could do with being more prepared for this than i was.

first off, racism. two passing remarks. one isn’t even in the story proper; it’s in the first whole long intro bit from the author/narrator. that takes some explanation, i suppose: like in the film, the story is presented as a book having been written by“S. Morganstern,” except instead of a grandfather reading to his sick grandson, the narrator is interjecting with notes on the original text that he has abridged. the beginning is a whole long shpiel that, in my opinion, could have been significantly pared down with absolutely zero loss to the story (which! hey! the film did perfectly! go figure!). anyway, the first racist remark is an absolutely tasteless line in which the narrator pisses and moans about his fat son, making a crack about“painting him yellow” and making him a sumo wrestler. y i k e. the other passing remark is from Miracle Max (really, truly, the film version of this scene is miles better than the book version, but contains an important plot detail, so you should prob still read it, but i’ll give you the lowdown if you wanna skip). he refers to Iñigo as a sp*ck (rather bafflingly, i might add, bc Iñigo is a Spanish man... from Spain... not a Hispanic or Latino man from Latin America. so. i mean i’m certainly not an expert on slurs but... i have never in my life heard that term in reference to a person from Spain, and am virtually certain it was invented to refer to ppl from the americas) and in the same breath uses an objectionable term for a Polish person. sooo... again: y i k e. what gets me is that... these could’ve just been edited out? why weren’t they? i mean i know why but

fat shaming! see above. though to be honest, any true negativity about fatness is restricted to the author/narrator’s interjections; there are a few minor fat characters in the story and those depictions, without being too long-winded or spoilery, didn’t offend me (fyi: i’m fat). if you want the details, please feel free to message me about it.

if we can go back to the whole long beginning shpiel from the author/narrator, it’s just... eh. he comes off as kind of a jackass, tbh. not even halfway through it i found myself more than a little impatient for the story to begin, and that could be at least partly because the film spoiled me with a lovely, not annoying, not problematic scene of Granddad Columbo reading to Baby Fred Savage where no one made any racist remarks or ragged on fat kids. the basic gist, if you want to skip it, is that the author, as a kid, had this book read to HIM by his father, who was a Florinese immigrant, and nearly illiterate in English, but still labored over reading the English translation to his American-born son, who adored the book and requested it read to him dozens and dozens of times over the years, refusing to read it himself (though he read plenty of other books). as an adult, he buys his son the book, and is crushed when the son doesn’t like it. he then reads it for the first time, and realizes his father skipped over huge, boring blocks of text. he read his son only The Good Parts. so he decides to edit that shit out himself and release the abridged version he loves so much. add into that some complaining about his wife and some extra blah blah, and that’s pretty much it.

you remember the scene in the movie where The Man In Black/Westley almost slaps Buttercup for what he believes is lying? in the book he actually slaps her. not that his actions seem supported or endorsed by the text, but still, there you are. Buttercup does push him off a cliff soon after, though, so. i wouldn’t call that‘even’ exactly but, shrug

Vizzini, in the book, has a fucky leg and his back isn’t quite straight, and he’s referred to repeatedly as a“humpback” or“hunchback” which needless to say is Not Kosher

that, as i recall, is it. i hope i’m not forgetting anything. now onto content/trigger warnings:

alcoholism. this shouldn’t be a surprise if you’ve seen the movie: Iñigo has some, shall we say, issues

Fezzik’s parents were... terrible. CPS would be all over them. spoiler: basically they emotionally blackmailed their son into fighting professionally, which they knew he hated, by telling him they’d abandon him if he didn’t

Buttercup has some kinda messed up (read: unsettling but in no way graphic) nightmares after leaving Westley when they’re found by Prince Humperdinck at the Fire Swamp, mostly involving bearing children to the Prince who she once again is set to marry

the slurs and whatnot i mentioned above

violence, obviously. nothing worse than the film as i recall.

that’s it i think.

okay. all that said. did i enjoy the book? yes i did. a lot.

now, you might be thinking: jesus, Kathleen, after all the shit you just listed? and to this i reply: listen. there is no Unproblematic Media, so you either enjoy some things that are flawed, or you enjoy nothing at all. there is plenty of objectionable shit in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit! fucking plenty!and i love those books! and so do plenty of other people! in my own humble opinion, the good story is worth the shitty bits, because the shitty bits aren’t like, fundamental to the plotline. the story isn’t built on offensive humor or nasty, bigoted attitudes. and they’re also not the most egregious examples of Objectionable Content i’ve come across- not by a longshot. there are levels to offense. there are tiers of bullshit. this is on a far lower tier than a whole host of other things i could mention. but if any of this stuff i’ve listed crosses a line for you, i totally understand and respect that. that’s why i’ve bothered to list it at all. imo, how you respond to objectionable content is important: you don’t ignore it or excuse it, you acknowledge and criticize it. and if you still enjoy whatever the thing is, you allow yourself to enjoy it, without getting hissy or defensive with people for whom the objectionable content ruined the book/movie/whatever.

there you go, there’s my disclaimer for having enjoyed the book. your mileage may vary.

okay. so. review time.

Buttercup is a far more interesting character in the book than the movie, for which the movie can’t be faulted all that much, because you can’t easily translate a character’s inner monologue/unspoken thoughts to the screen, especially not with the time limit that comes with the medium of film. but watching her struggle with her feelings and life choices (and... lack thereof, since her choice is between marrying the prince and being put to death, which isn’t much of a choice, even if she tries to reason it out later by telling herself she COULD have said no... and initially did) creates far more of a bond between her and the reader in the book than, personally, i felt watching the movie. also she has a great line after Westley calls her beautiful at their reunion- she says something like,‘everyone’s always calling me beautiful, i have a mind too, why don’t you talk about that’

Both Westley and Buttercup are immature, naive, and foolish in the beginning, and if Westley strikes you as Extra Dickish, a) rewatch the film! he did act like a bit of a dick, there, didn’t he? b) remember that in the story he’s a young man between the ages of eighteen and twenty five, which in my considerable experience is the age at which young men are generally at their peak of Asshole. sorry dudes

and not that Buttercup herself is a complete peach! she deals very poorly with her emotions in general and acts kinda shitty herself once or twice. i won’t say too much lest i spoil everything that’s different between the film and the book.

Prince Humperdinck is also a more three dimensional character; still a rat bastard tho.

onto Fezzik and Iñigo.

as i have said in other blog posts, these boys are... pretty much the whole reason i sought out the book. and... jesus.

you get all the way into the tragic backstories that were only hinted at in the film. okay, Iñigo’s backstory was more than hinted- but of course you go so much deeper in the book- and Fezzik’s was less than hinted, reduced mostly to a peek at the insecurity that Vizzini exploits and preys upon to keep him in line. not that you’d have to expend a great effort to him to keep him in line; his personality is docile and non-confrontational. truly not the slightest bit aggressive by nature. he’s also kinda clingy and needy, which is a thousand percent understandable given his childhood, and tbqh doesn’t need to be browbeaten for Vizzini to keep him on his short, cruel leash. which makes it all the more painful! hurrah! 😭

also you actually get to meet Iñigo’s father, Domingo Montoya, in a flashback, aaaand... i kinda love him. probably predictable if you know me.

anyway. tragic backstories. which further illuminate the emotional and psychological issues that make them so dependent on Vizzini, and turn them to lives of crime in his employ. poor boys! oy gevalt. sympathy abounds; i honestly don’t know how you could go through the book and not fall at least a little bit in love with this duo, whose friendship is precious and adorable and a balm to the soul that is aching from their painful life stories and unhealthy coping mechanisms. they’re each, very plainly, the only friend the other has in the world, and are constantly helping and bolstering one another. it’s heartbreakingly sweet. i think those boys will be alright as long as they stick together.

and now, the repeated theme of the book, that is presented with far less intensity in the film: life isn’t fair. which, one supposes, is true. but while the narrator’s framing of that assertion may give you the same misgivings they gave me- bitching about his fat son and his less than ideal relationship with his wife- you can also step back and appreciate it as a wee pearl of wisdom. life is often unfair, but that doesn’t mean it’s altogether bad or that you can’t enjoy it. idk, that’s my attitude, man.

i could talk about the ending here, but i won’t. at least not too much. not to spoiler-ish-ly. if you don’t want to know anything about the book’s ending at all, feel free to not read the last bit here, except for the very last lines which are bolded.

ready? yes? no?

...

the ending to the book is different than the movie. there is a more philosophical, open ended conclusion than you could really get away with in a movie. at least this movie.

just throwing it out there: i believe in happy endings. ones in real life. but i kind of disagree with the author a little bit, in that i don’t think happy endings necessarily have to be perfect and unblemished to qualify as happy endings. that may be the way“happily ever after” is generally presented, but to me,“happily ever after” means, maybe some shit happened, but none of it was completely devastating, and in the final analysis, life was satisfying. that’s the kind of real life happy ending i’m aiming (and hoping) for. this might sound vague but i hope it’ll make sense if you read the book.

if you wanna do that, btw, i read it for free online at allnovel dot net.

1 note · View note

The Unknown History of Emojis

An emoji is a part of this millennial messaging fad going on globally by several individuals who are acquired in using smartphones. In the current era, people love to express their emotions through emojis (emoticons), and they use them while they chat online with a person. Emojis are used in almost every informal conversation based online between two or more individuals or within-group texts.

There are several social media sites which include, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, etc., where emojis are used by people to enhance the emotional intellect to an otherwise flat text. These tiny emotive characters are the first language born into this digital world.

History

Firstly, emojis were used in Japanese smartphones in the late ’90s, and since then, it has become a hallmark for the way people talk to each other. Emojis are given great importance as the words used in a conversation. Emojis are not just for people who use slang like (lol, lmao, tbh, etc.). They have been created for everyone.

In the beginning, people used to express their sarcasm, happiness, and sorrow through emoticons which were made by the user, for example – ;-), :), :-(, these initials were used by people in ways when they were not digitally created. The first emoji was created by a Japanese, Shigetaka Kurita, in 1999. Kurita wanted to create an attractive interface to convey messages more efficiently.

The popular sim company DOCOMO’s valued wish was to create an enhanced way of communication. If there was the weather (cloudy, rainy, summers, etc.), there was no way to express these texts. Hence, emojis were a huge help to add an emotional subtext to a message. A message offered with a heart emoji added a flow of sympathy and love to the text and automatically gave a visual to the text.

In Japan, Emojis gained a lot of popularity, and rival mobile companies wanted to copy and create similar visual messaging ways of DOCOMO. In 2007, a popular software internationalization team at Google worked with Unicode Consortium, a non-profit group that worked similar to the United Nations, to maintain text standards across several computers.

Since childhood, we’ve learned that computers work with numbers. Whatever you type into the computer is encoded or showcased with a numerical code. Through many years, in 2010, Unicode accepted the request and decided to introduce a new language of emojis for the world to use.

Timeline –

1999

Emojis were born. The initiating set included icons depicting the weather, traffic, technology, and time.

2010

The Unicode adopted several other forms of icons depicting anger, happiness, and sorrow using cat faces.

2015

Emojis served a diverse update utilizing different skin tones and similar gender couples.

2016

According to the global evolution, updates were done like weight lifting women, pride flag for the LGBTQ community, and single mothers and fathers.

2017

Characters of the emojis were used as a language and culture, like a mosquito’s emoji was used to depict illnesses like malaria and other diseases.

Emojis were made available to people outside Japan through different applications. This led the users to copy and paste emojis into their emails and texts. After a while, Apple launched its emoji keyboard in their iOS software, and Android initiated the same concept two years later. This particular change helped people to utilize emojis in everyday texts and conversations. Instead of using full texts, people started their conversations with emojis and talked them through every time.

As the emoji standards became popular, they also became abundant for the users. Every year, the Unicode Consortium added a new emoji to their lists. These ideas were gathered by people all over the world. Emojis like the bride, different types of food, dozens of plants and anima, and an establishment of all kinds of feelings and stuff used in conversations.

Design-

Designing an emoji is not that easy as it looks on the keyboards. Firstly, a new emoji is suggested within a formal proposal for the Unicode Consortium. Then these detailed proposals involve explanations of why the emoji should be added and how it might look for the user.

This aspect is very complex, and it takes up a lot of time to think about the type of emoji. For example, if the emoji is of a dish representing noodles, then should it be on a plate or a bowl, whether to add chopsticks or a fork, etc. all of this is examined by the Unicode Consortium’s sub-committee, which gathers around twice a week to decide on all the related matters.

And lastly, when the committee makes a decision, a new emoji takes place on the keyboard.

I am Jack Wright, a blog writer based in NY City, USA. My interest lies in writing about technology and smart machines. I am a web security enthusiast also. I guide my readers about the installation and activation of antivirus software like Bitdefender ( central.bitdefender.com ). In my leisure, you can find me watching movies and playing games while eating my burgers.

Source: The Unknown History of Emojis

0 notes

Hello everyone it is I, Val(22, EST, she/her)! Here to present you everyone’s favorite snitch Marietta Edgecombe! So warning, I’ve barely ever done Golden Trio era(I’m more of a marauders one tbh) but this plot was too good to skip, plus Marietta seems like a very interesting character to play and I’m really excited about it!

Marietta Edgecombe, or Marie, to some extent if she really likes you maybe Etta, is the youngest of three, and only girl. She was born on December14(currently 18 years old) to two halfblood parents.

With two older brothers, she had a lot of masculine influence over her childhood, not that it seemed to affect her. All she could see were the pretty dresses her mother would wear, leading her to become a very girly girl. Of course, her mother loved that, and she was thrilled her daughter was so into fashion and girly stuff, so she’d take her shopping and to the hairdresser often. They had a very strong bond, although it wasn’t quite the same with her dad.

Both of her brothers didn’t put much effort in school, classes or anything, so even before she started, he would force her to read books about different subjects. Nothing too deep, of course, but he wanted to force her to love studying. Not so plot twist, it failed, and just put a strain in their relationship. But if it did bring anything, is it made her discover worlds she read about in the books, and so instead of only being into clothes and other stuff related to that, she got an interest, even a curiosity, in all those different worlds she could read in the books.

So when her time came to start Hogwarts, it wasn’t surprising to see her placed in the Ravenclaw house(unlike her brothers, who were both Gryffindors). But it wasn’t necessarily for her smarts, although that definitely, but for her curiosity and imagination.

But Hogwarts, although a completely different experience from what she was used to, was hard for her at first. She’d get lost often in the many halls, and even within her house, she didn’t know how to approach people and make friends.

And that’s when Cho comes into play. She was her first friend, the first one Marietta made in Hogwarts. Through the years, they could only grow closer, until that fatal mistake she made.

So Marietta was aware of the brewing war, she knew what was coming, and even though she really hoped the Dark Lord would lose, she wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to actually fight. Cho was the one to get her to join Dumbledore’s Army. Although she did learn, she felt kind of... out of the group.

And it only got worse when Umbridge started chasing after them. Marietta started to get scared if it were to be discovered she was part of the DA, then her mother would lose her job at the Ministry. It weight on her, a lot, but after some time, she just gave in. She went to Umbridge, and told her about the DA. Not that she could tell much more than where to find them, since an obliviate charm was placed on her to forget who was part of it.

But that was not the worst of it. Due to breaking the secret of the DA, a jinx was placed, spelling“sneak” on her face with boils, leaving scars. Although she was glad it would mean her mother would keep her job, it also caused to start hiding.

Every single day, Marietta would cover her face, since no one could seem able to find a counter-jinx. Later on, she learned, with the help of her mother, to cover her scars with makeup. Although it wasn’t perfect, it meant she didn’t have to cover her face under a balaclava anymore.

This event caused her to close off from most people. She wasn’t going to take any more risks, not any that could cause such consequences. Not only did she got disfigured, she lost most of the people she cared about in Hogwarts.

Lucky for her, her brothers cared for her, particularly the youngest one. They’d write her almost every day, just to make sure she was fine. But both came to the conclusion quite soon she was not, and she needed to change her mind from what had happened to her. Both knowing how much she loved discovering new worlds in books, they started sending her all the discoveries they found regarding to books. And it helped, as it did take her attention away from her mistake. Or at least, while she was reading.

For a moment, it was almost as if the war threat wasn’t around, and she was able to escape all of it. Until it came all back to her when the final battle happened. Of course, she didn’t take any part in it, staying locked away from any form of battle. But her brothers didn’t, and the youngest one, Finn, perished that night. Of course, without being close to any of them anymore, Marietta mourned all the other students who died that night, but it was nothing compared to losing her brother.

For weeks after, she stayed locked up, writing down any thoughts and ideas that was crossing her mind. And accidentally sent one of those parchments to her brother. Who then replied with“Why don’t you write your own book?” That was something she never gave much thought about, but now that he mentioned it, Marietta could see herself doing it. Her mind was constantly buzzing with new ideas, she certainly had enough to write something. And that was how she decided to start writing, and try to pursue a career as an author.

Personality:

curious

imaginative

reticent

cowardly

Random facts:

Prefers living in an imaginary world than the one she is in.

Still hasn’t fully mourned her brother.

She loves flowers.

She doesn’t sleep much; stays up late to write, but up early to do her makeup and hide the scars.

Her patronus is a blackbird. She was only able to produce a corporeal one after betraying the DA.

Her boggart is Dolores umbridge, because she is scared of what she did under her threat, and what would happen if she had to meet her again.

5 notes · View notes

I'm intrigued by Wonwoo's relationship with the members, and where exactly he fits in. He doesn't have any other idol friends, and tbh that kind of worries me, the poor awkward bean.

Wonwoo is an interesting bean. In my experience writing with him, he’s always been a fun one to try and pin down. Since he’s more introverted, his role in the group is a much more subtle one. However, that ends up playing to his advantage more often than not. If I had to pin down a role musically for Wonwoo, it would be the impact hitter. When you want a bridge that sends chills down your spine, you get Wonwoo. When you want a rap verse that completely changes up the song, you get Wonwoo. His interesting, deep voice is a contrast to all the other members in the group, and I think his role in the group dynamic is similar. He’s a very good foil, he provides a very good contrast to members such as Hoshi and Mingyu. You can see this demonstrated in his individual relationships, how he interacts with each member and who he’s closest with. So I’ve decided to lay this post out like I did for the“Woozi’s relationships” post,going through each of his individual dynamics. So hopefully you enjoy this quick look through Wonwoo and his place in the group and his mindsets with his friendships!

Wonwoo+S.Coups

For two people in the same unit, there’s not even that many interactions between the two members to analyze. I think the two of them have a pretty chill dynamic, where Coups pretty much gives Wonwoo the space to do his own thing without bothering him too much, and when Wonwoo is feeling playful he’ll open up to Coups because he doesn’t feel like Coups is too excitable or overbearing and easy to handle. It’s a very amicable, sweet dynamic, really. Coups respects Wonwoo’s boundaries and Wonwoo sometimes feels safe and happy enough to open up to playing around with Coups.

Wonwoo+Jeonghan

I discussed a few of Wonwoo’s relationships with members in this post about members who are awkward with one another, but the main one I want to bring up is Wonwoo and Jeonghan. In summary, if you’re not interested in reading that post, Wonwoo and Jeonghan very often point each other out as the member they’re most awkward with and this is likely because they both express affection through receiving and giving attention, however Wonwoo prefers the attention to be individual and to and from those who he really cares about and Jeonghan is very open about giving it and will sometimes try hard to get it from others, making Wonwoo seem too closed off to Jeonghan and Jeonghan too clingy and overbearing to Wonwoo. Despite this disconnect, when they make an effort to see things through one another’s eyes, they understand one another better than they think they do. It’s just a matter of being able to listen to what the other is saying, and it’s really a cute relationship that you can really cheer for them to become closer.

Wonwoo+Joshua

Similarly to Coups, there’s not a whole lot of content on Joshua and Wonwoo interactions, however it’s my belief that Joshua’s quiet but humorous nature causes Wonwoo to be a little more comfortable and drawn out of his shell. Generally, their interactions would be in the background whispering to each other, glancing at each other, making small jokes, or if Wonwoo’s feeling particularly comfortable, Wonwoo poking at Joshua’s arm or pretending to bite him. Again, it’s not a very strong dynamic, but it is a very friendly and relaxed dynamic that makes Wonwoo comfortable.

Wonwoo+Jun

Wonhui is actually an established ship with a dynamic that is noticeable, so there’s quite a bit more content to elaborate on here. Wonwoo and Jun’s friendship stems from their similarities, but also their slight differences that balance each other out in their similarities. They’re both generally quiet people who become excitable when they’re around people they feel comfortable with, however Jun enjoys making his friends laugh and Wonwoo enjoys surrounding himself with people who can make him laugh. I’ve said this before, but a lot of Wonhui moments are very mundane, things like Jun asking Wonwoo’s opinion on ramen or Wonwoo attempting Chinese and Jun telling him that he’s working hard and getting better, but I think there’s a real charm and real feeling to those interactions. Their friendship becomes clearer when they’re not just close when entertainment value is high, they’re close in boring every day aspects as well. As well as this, there’s also a recurring theme in a lot of Wonwoo’s friendships that his friends are people who you generally think wouldn’t be his friends, people who seem hyper and excitable and too loud for him. Wonwoo’s friend circle is very balanced with people who play foil to him; who contrast him in a way that brings out the best parts of him, and I think Jun is no exception.

Wonwoo+Hoshi

I think Soonwoo is a ship that not a whole lot of people saw coming. It flew under the radar pretty well up until about Boom Boom era, and it just grew and grew until culminating in the events of One Fine Day Japan when they had a cute playful rivalry running for almost the entirety of the show with the catchphrase“enemies who have good chemistry like friends”. And they do have good chemistry. Hoshi has a very iconic personality that Wonwoo enjoys being able to make fun of him for and Hoshi enjoys being able to make fun of Wonwoo too, usually to the swift punishment from him. In general, their relationship is like this. They’re very close, but they’re close on a level where they understand when they’re each only teasing and not trying to be mean, which opens up a whole new level of jokes and a fun dynamic of constantly poking fun at the other. Here’s some examples of Soonwoo chemistry. Also, another subject I haven’t touched on yet is the fact that two prominent friendships of Wonwoo’s are in the same age line as him, born the same year. I tend to emphasize this sort of thing when I notice it, because Korean culture really puts a lot of emphasis on formality in age difference. It’s a very natural thing to be closer to those who are a similar age to you due to the cultural importance placed on proper speech and actions around older people, and while it’s not everything, it does factor into potential friendships, especially for someone like Wonwoo who might have a hard time approaching others to begin with.

Wonwoo+Woozi

This is another ship without a lot of content, and since it involves two members who both aren’t known for being the first to approach other members to break the ice. It’s not a bad thing, though, they don’t seem to dislike each other. Maybe in the future, there’ll be some more interactions with them!

Wonwoo+DK

Right off the bat, this pair has my most favorite gif in the history of ever

From what I can tell, they have a dynamic similar to Joshua’s. DK is sweet and outgoing enough to make Wonwoo come out of his shell a little, but most of their interactions are lowkey and in the background. Although the difference I would note is that they take more selfies together. Possibly, they hang out together much more on a casual basis, or possibly they just match each other well aesthetically. I think the takeaway is this: Wonwoo prefers not to draw too much attention to his relationships, and isn’t as outright about it as some others might be. This’ll be brought back up in talking about Meanie, but if it helps make you less worried about him, he seems to have a lot of members who he’s at least comfortable being around, he just prefers to be quiet and not as out front about it. So maybe he has some idol friends that he prefers to keep in touch with quietly, without drawing attention to them.

Wonwoo+Mingyu

Oh. I guess this is the next one up... That last part feels a bit anticlimatic since we’re getting right into it. I don’t think there’s very many Seventeen fans who don’t know the Meanie ship, especially early era/debut era fans. It was a very popular ship, rivaled in size by Jihan and Soonseok, however recently from Mansae era forward it’s begun to fall out of the light a bit. Why? Well, as I mentioned before, it seems that Wonwoo likes to keep a lot of his relationships away from the spotlight, and I’m thinking Meanie got a little too much attention and it started to scare him away a little. I think friendships don’t come naturally to Wonwoo, as he’s a bit more introverted, and while he does try hard, he’s also a little scared of messing up, and the pressure of thousands of people constantly watching you hanging out with your best friend might sap the ease out of letting loose and having a good time. However, as he acclimates and adjusts to the environment, he seems to be getting a little more comfortable and he starts to be able to enjoy himself again. Wonwoo and Mingyu are like peanut butter and jelly, cliched as the comparison may be. They’re almost polar opposites, and they work so well together that their friendship comes off as very comfortable and natural. Mingyu makes him laugh and naturally accepts Wonwoo’s quiet attention without pushing him into bigger things. Wonwoo encourages Mingyu to slow down and Mingyu encourages Wonwoo to work hard and come out of his shell. All considered, Meanie is the most infamous of the Wonwoo friendships, and they work well together, and hopefully they continue moving past the awkwardness.

Wonwoo+The8

It’s seemed to me that Wonwoo and The8 are kindred spirits in the group. Their circle of friends are almost exactly the same, their personalities bear some resemblance at a base level as well. On a broad sense of their dynamic, I would say it’s a slight reverse dynamic because I think The8 would find Wonwoo a little cute and charming. Since he’s used to hanging out with loud people such as Jun and Mingyu, someone like Wonwoo who is quiet but also likes to laugh would be a nice change of pace for him, and the same would go for Wonwoo. While it would be a bit awkward at first, their paths do overlap due to their similar friend circles and I think they ended up naturally becoming pretty good, casual friends.

Wonwoo+Vernon

I actually really love the dynamic of Wonwoo and Vernon. They start off a lot like S. Coups and Wonwoo, they’re in the same unit but there’s nothing to really compel them to hang out, but there’s one key difference: Vernon is younger than Wonwoo. S.coups and Vernon get most of the attention in Hip hop unit, and S.coups is older so he can’t really do much about it, but it would be really easy for Wonwoo for harbor animosity towards Vernon. Wonwoo has a really unique rapping tone and some really great lyrics, but he seems to be outshone by Vernon in a lot of cases and he could’ve been bitter over it. However, their dynamic ended up a lot more friendly like a big brother who cares for his younger brother. He hypes him up during his solo parts, he bounces around onstage and dances with him, and will even throw an arm around him. His attitude towards Vernon seems to be a lot more encouraging and lighthearted instead of bitter, and that’s really sweet and awesome and great to see. It’s one of the things that makes Hip hop unit such a pleasure to watch, the support they have for one another even when it could’ve been the opposite.

Wonwoo+Seungkwan

More than anything else, I think Wonwoo’s relationship to Seungkwan is one of admiration. While it seems he’s not always a fan of the spotlight, I think he can appreciate when he notices how Seungkwan keeps control of situations and is able to make everything sound so exciting and fun. Wonwoo isn’t the first person who comes to mind when I think of“overflowing love for his dongsaengs”, but when it comes to Seungkwan he really seems to just melt for him. Lots of laughing and smiling, lots of relaxing out of his shell, and even more skinship than usual for Wonwoo. It’s really sweet to see how much Wonwoo takes care of Seungkwan and watches out for him, and their dynamic is unlike any of Wonwoo’s other relationships.

Wonwoo+Dino

Although, that being said, Wonwoo and Dino are also close in a similar fashion. However, as opposed to Wonwoo thinking Seungkwan is cool, I think Wonwoo wants Dino to look up to him. Dino looks up to a lot of members, like Hoshi and Vernon and even Woozi, and I think Wonwoo tries his hardest around Dino to be someone he can look up to as well. Dino has a lot of potential, and I think Wonwoo sees that and (here’s where there’s a bit of similarity between him and Jeonghan appears) he wants to be someone who helps Dino reach his potential in the future. They aren’t terribly awkward around each other, I think Dino realizes Wonwoo’s intent and pays attention to him, and this leads to a nice cute friendship between the two of them. I hope in the future Dino starts to take his lyrics to Wonwoo and Wonwoo’s able to help him and they get even closer

So, in conclusion, Wonwoo really is hard to pin down in his relationships and he’s very interesting to explore. A lot of his relationships, we just don’t know much about because he’s a more background kind of person, and some it seems it’s hard for him to become closer with because he’s not a proactive initiator type of person. However, as he gets more comfortable being in the spotlight, both in his personal relationships and in his relationships with the fans, we’ve seen him break out and grow and hopefully soon we can see him start to make friends with other idols and really find where he belongs in the industry, as well as pursuing some of his other passions such as OST singing and such~

280 notes · View notes

REASONS WHY THE WAY DRUMFRED WAS HANDLED WAS BULLSHIT (AND EVERYTHING SURROUNDING IT)

Disclaimer: I will forever love Alfred and Drummond. They did not get the respect they deserve. I say all of this only out of love and respect for them, individually and together.

Also, this may be a bit incoherent and slightly messy (i’m a mess after the finale), warning you now.

This is why I think the way Drumfred ended was stupid. I could go on for days but here’s a small list with some explanation for each. Enjoy.

1.SURFACE LEVEL

I don’t understand. Why would you build up chemistry and sexual/romantic tension between two characters, only to have them kiss the episode before one of them dies? I don’t see any logic or reasoning to that. Please, if you have a differing opinion to this, feel free to try to convince me that this isn’t garbage, lgbtqia+ ship or not.

2. THE‘BURY YOUR GAYS’ TROPE

Drummond’s death is basically textbook for the ‘bury your gays’ trope.

First off, for those of you who don’t know what the ‘bury your gays’ trope is, here’s a definition:

This trope applies when an LGBT character is killed off, and is especially harmful when it happens shortly after or alongside a positive development with regards to their orientation, further linking the character’s orientation to the death of the character. (x)

If you would like more information and more of an in-depth analysis on this trope, I recommend this video.

I don’t think I need to go into how this trope fits Drummond’s death. It’s quite clear.

3.QUEERBAITING

I personally feel that this is a new level of queerbaiting (which I would not be surprised if it had been done somewhere else). This type of queerbaiting goes hand-in-hand with the ‘bury your gays’ trope.

Whilst the traditional definition of queerbaiting is this:

Whenpeoplein the media (usually television/movies) add homoerotic tension between two characters to attract moreliberalandqueerviewers with the indication of them not ever getting together for real in the show/book/movie.

I believe the definition of this unique type of queerbaiting is like this:

When people in the media add homoerotic/homosexual/lgbtqia+ ships to a show, build up the tension between the two, only to have either one or both characters get killed off very soon after.

I think from what I’ve heard, this happened to Clarke/Lexa (Clexa) in ‘The 100’ but I could be wrong as I’ve never seen the show. Please forgive me if that’s incorrect.

This definition of queerbaiting is even more clear when I explain the next point.

4.DRUMMOND WAS GOING TO DIE EARLIER BUT THEY EXTENDED HIS STORYLINE BECAUSE OF THE CHEMISTRY WITH ALFRED

“But that kiss may have never even happened, as Suter has just revealed that Drummond's death was initially set to come much earlier on in the ITV series, and that showrunners only ended up extending his storyline with Lord Alfred's Waller because of how beautifully it was playing out.

When I got the part I was told I was going to die earlier in the series – in episode five or six but they extended it out," the actor toldDigital Spy.

They [the writers, producers] realised there was something very nice and very touching between Drummond and Lord Alfred. When we were filming it we got the sense that there was something big going on. So that got inflated, which was a bonus for me.” (x)

This means that they [the writers/producers] knew that Drummond was going to die but added in a VERY short-lived romance just because of his chemistry with Alfred. I don’t.

5. A LOT OF HISTORICAL INACCURACIES FOR ONE MOMENT OF ACCURACY

Many aspects of this show are inaccurate. Such as the depiction if Victoria a pro-feminist icon, which she most likely wasn’t. I do not doubt that she has a strong will or mind but I don’t think she would have been as perfect as the show’s making her out to be. She has had some flawed moments, but for the most part, she’s pretty clean cut. Honestly, there are so many other things in this show that are not historically accurate, including Drumfred.

Daisy Goodwin, the creator of this show describes Alfred and Drummond’s relationship as a ‘creative moment’. Well, if you can make up an entire relationship, I don’t see how you can’t change when/how/if a character dies. Even the death wasn’t completely accurate, apparently, Drummond was still alive for 5 days after he got shot. So, they could’ve at least given Alfred (and Drummond tbh) a bit more closure.

6.REALISTICALLY PEOPLE BACK THEN WOULD NOT BE AS ACCEPTING AS THEY WERE SHOWN TO BE

I don’t understand how at least two people (besides Alfred and Drummond) are okay with gay people. In the Victorian Era, being gay was illegal and widely frowned upon. Even Victoria herself didn’t believe in lesbians.

Few people were accepting of it. Sure, some people were, but mainly, people did not agree with it or like it.

I don’t like homophobia as much as the next person, but the fact that the Duchess who is an elderly woman, born and raised with the Catholic values of time, would more than likely think that homosexuality is a sin and wrong. So, I think it’s slightly inaccurate to the views of the time that both Wilhelmina and the Duchess are okay with Alfred and Drummond’s relationship.

(also, don’t get me wrong I loved the Duchess when she was keeping Alfred calm as he was reading the letter, that scene made me sob more. seeing his hands shaking I just)

7.IT’S ALL HEART WRENCHING

Honestly, this last episode hurt a lot. For most of the episode, there was angst between two of them. It’s almost as if they had happier moments when they weren’t together.

I think one the most garbage things about this is that Alfred will never get closure. He’ll never know if Drummond was going to meet him at the restaurant or not. That’s something that will haunt him for a while, I think.

Alfred’s life will always be tragic from here on out, no matter what the writers/producers decide to do. It’ll always feel like there’s a cloud hanging over him (for me at least) and no one’s going to make him feel the same way that Drummond did. It’ll never be the same.

SUMMARY

It’s all heart wrenching and destroying. My life will never be the same. I’ll never forget them. They deserved everything and they got nothing.

86 notes · View notes

thank you for your explanation, i agree that the crowd sourced nature of Ls character is very interesting. making a big post of them is actually a pretty cool idea. anyway, i would love to hear aforementioned self indulgent characterizations lmao

hi anon!! sorry that it’s taken my 6 decades to answer this ask. i’ve been extremely busy because i have that personality type where if i’m not booked up at least 6 days a week i start having existential crises. (also my sister was visiting

i was hoping to give you a response as extensive as the last one but i’m not running on too much steam so bear with me. bullet pointed list bc my brain runs on those

self indulgent l lawliet headcanon characterizations

spooky orphanage childhood. i like to peel back the top layer of death note’s technological-era crime thriller genre to reveal the victorian gothic just below the surface. L’s detective status is near-mythic (he’s a glorified sherlock holmes with a flip phone) and what’s hinted about his backstory (bells, stained glass, orphanage, etc.) invites us (or me, anyway) to assign him a creepy, dickensian upbringing. my headcanon wammy’s house is a spooky old manor house in the english countryside, complete with empty wings, attics, secret passageways, extensive grounds, and extensive haunting lore. a prime spot to breed some mysteries. throw in some mid-ninteis technology and a stifling ego and you’ve got my ideal l lawliet aesthetic

obligatory beyond birthday bullet point. this would need its own post tbh, but anybody who knows me can tell you that lxb is the foundation for my L characterization. there’s no canon for their relationship/acquaintance to one another, although all hints point away from the direction that i skew dramatically in. basically, for me, L & B grew up together (with A) at roughly the same time/age (i hc L as two years older than B, one year older than A) at wammy’s house when it was still just quillsh & roger’s experiment for a better world. my B has his own extensive vibe, genre, & motivations, but for the purpose of brevity i’ll shorten it down to say that B, being half-shinigami, was just born feeling strange and misaligned with reality & human understanding and expectation, went to wammy’s house as a young child, was given L as the prime example of how he was supposed to be and what he was supposed to strive for, and basically created/collapsed his identity around that. L never treated him or A well, was just competitive and dismissive and self-absorbed, and in his adult life sort of carries the dejected weight of having fucked up something really crucial when he was too young to know the difference. i think he views B as both a mystery he couldn’t solve and a victim he couldn’t save. and a bit of a dirty secret that he’s not sure how to ever make peace with.

who the wammy in wammy’s house!? it’s ya boy quillsh. i have a very specific impression of L’s relationship with watari that doesn’t align with either the benevolent grandfather characterization or the abusive child-exploiter that the fandom seems to be limited to. i think that their relationship is somewhat exploitative, but knowingly. all L’s power comes from watari’s money and the fact that he took him in and gave him a home/direction, but all watari’s power comes from L’s genius. without the other, neither of them would have gotten far with the world’s greatest detective thing. i think their relationship is probably tinged with equal levels of respect and resentment, a father/son thing mixed in with a boss/employee. except the father is the employee….. maybe (?) don’t @ me.

lxlight!!! i think that L probably views light as this sheltered kid who totally misses the point. doesn’t view him as an equal at all and just sort of constructs this narrative around their supposed friendship to entrap light in a situation where he has to be amenable. i mean, that’s practically canon. what i’m trying to say is that i think the fic trope that has L and light thinking of each other as ~each other’s only equal~ is boring. i think that light feels that way about L, but L just coyly pretends while subtly jabbing at light from every angle, which only makes light more eager to win/prove his superiority. to me, L views light as this plucky and sort of terrifying kid who should in no way be capable of the things he’s capable of, and keeps being caught out by the magnitude of light’s power/mania/competence, to the point where it. you know. gets him pretty hot

my favorite L characterization, as anybody whose ever read any of my fic would know, is post-series “L lives and doesn’t know what the fuck to do with himself.” i really like exploring the emptiness of cycling constantly through locations and people and triumphs. i do think the only people L really forms relationships with are criminals that he obsesses over for a period of time and then abandons. there’s so much in B dying quietly in the background while L hasn’t even caught up with light yet that just hurts. i like to imagine L visiting B in prison, making peace with both of their mistakes. i like to imagine L finding a way for light to live in the world even after he’s gutted it, not because light deserves forgiveness but because L doesn’t want to be alone. i like seeing him as this kind of unjust authority of justice who collects criminals because they’re the only people who he can connect with, arbitrarily bestowing mercy and then taking it away. L is presented as such a machine (powered by donuts…..?!?) and i really like exploring the breakdown of the machinery and the revelation of tender human loneliness and terror beneath

oh! i almost forgot. let me talk at you about power bottom L! to each their own, i really don’t care about top/bottom dynamics in general bc? switching rules? but i feel really strongly about bottom!L. i think as a character with such absolute power over the circumstance of other characters, seeing him wield that power over literally anyone i ship him with (light, B, misa, mello, aiber, wedy. yes. i ship him w/ everyone) in a sexual context is just a little uncomfortable for me and a lot boring. a favorite fic premise of mine, i’m sure ya’ll have realized, is situations where L is basically light or B’s sugar daddy/boss/the only thing keeping them out of prison or execution but also he bottoms. light or B fulfilling the role that watari took for L? like driving him around and doing his laundry and meeting with his clients and shooting his enemies with sniper rifles? my #1 kink forever.

sorry this is so scatter-brained and also not as deep as i want to get. i just have so! many! L feelings! if you want me to expand on any of this, hmu.

thanks for the questions, anon. and for your patience.

46 notes · View notes

Look, another character? Another character. It’s Jinx again with Alice Fortescue.

LILY JAMES? No, that’s actually ALICE FORTESCUE from the MARAUDERS ERA. You know, the child of GERVAIS and LUCILLE FORTESCUE? About to begin SEVENTH YEAR, this SLYTHERIN student is sided with THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX. SHE identifies as a FEMME/NB and is a PUREBLOOD who is known to be ESCAPIST, HYPERCRITICAL, and COMPARTMENTALIZES but also RESOURCEFUL, AMBITIOUS, and OPEN-MINDED.

TW: miscarriage, stillborn birth, drugs, death

aspiring auror. daughter. sister. droobles blowing gum champion. strawberry bubblegum ice cream queen. martial artist. lover of herbology, divination, and popcorn. dueling & herbology club as well as frog choir. collector of sunglasses, records, jewelry, happy memories & silly beliefs.

Childhood started off as a dream for Alice. Being close with both of her parents, and spending most of her time learning trades from them, she felt like she floating on cloud nine. Having a little sister like Pandora made Alice even happier than she could ever imagine. Growing up in Galway with all the life around them, the world was theirs. The girl was so effervescent, that people were drawn to her light, to her kindness, to her free-spirited nature. Alice had always been particularly close with her dad who brought back souvenirs from his missions as an Auror, and the world around her, the unknown was something she wanted to discover. When her was dad away on missions, her mom would instill these ideals in her on how to be a kid, lifeskills, just fun things about magic, playing in the garden, things for the soul. When her dad came back her mom stepped back while he taught Alice how to do martial arts, how to hold a wand properly, how to wand formations, about history, everything she could know. What her father did though, Alice started asking question after question until she was absolutely convinced that being an Auror was now her calling as well – all at the age of five. Alice was a naturally kind child, and the reason she was so drawn to the profession of being an Auror is because it was driving some sort of darkness away. It wasn’t just her who wanted that goal either because other people wanted to be Aurors as well – she was part of something bigger than herself.

Alice wasn’t alone in thinking her dreams were wonderful and that’s what made her parent’s relationship beautiful, how they balanced each other out, wanted the same things even if they were different. Alice is still pureblood and from a wealthy family, she still had privilege, even if she is a known blood traitor but she valued this concept greatly. Everyone in her family did. Together they were this perfect, balanced family unit up until the age of nine until everything fell apart. At age eight, when her mother announced she was pregnant, Alice was over the moon, until something went wrong. When her little brother was born, he was a stillborn, and it devastated both of her parents. While her father was able to move on from the loss, her mother withdrew from her daughters & husband, staying in her room, and separating herself from them. Alice tried everything she did to help, to get through to her mother, but there was nothing she could do. Alice knew they had to move forward, that she couldn’t be like her mother, and had to be there for her younger sister to continue on.

After her mom’s stillborn child is when Alice really had to learn to have the emotional & mental capacity to learn to take care of herself, to deal with her emotions, and soon she felt obliged to take care of her mom. Alice & Pandora were their surviving children, who were spoiled rotten, and never had to go through anything relatively traumatic until there was this one gigantic thing where it was either – they soothed themselves or they fell apart. Alice would not fall apart, so she internalized it all and felt like she had to shoulder all of the burden of balancing out the household when her dad decided to go on more missions while her mom withdrew for those two years ( and for many years after ) before she went to Hogwarts. It still was never perfect but it was the best a 10 year old could do, and really, it wasn’t what a ten year old should’ve been doing at all. For both her and her sister, Florean’s became an escape and a safe haven. When her dad was there, it was like walking on eggshells, which is why there was so much time spent outside the house, but Alice got a break. A well deserved break where she was allowed to focus on herself, where she forced herself to, almost as if she was recharging her battery. When it was just Alice, Pandora and they mom, she paid almost all the attention she could feeling the pressure pile on top of her, while still furthering her own goals as an escape. Soon, Alice became an escapist, literally in some senses, to survive living there – something that has lasted well throughout her teen years. Before, when Alice’s goals and dreams were often talked about in passing as just a common topic, were now taboo. She had to force her dreams inward, she had to keep going and motivate herself when it was just her, Pandora and her mother. Her sister was her guiding light, a reason she stayed so anchored & so balanced. A reason she kept moving forward. Her ambition, her wanting to become an Auror anchors her, and while she doesn’t know if she can always depend on herself – Alice always knows she can depend on being an Auror. Just as Doctors can depend on the fact that there will always be sick people, Alice can depend on the fact that people die, people change, there’s always a Dark Wizard lurking around every corner & that the war is tearing apart people’s lives every day – it’s the ugly truth.

When she got to Hogwarts, there was a part of her that was surprised that she was put into Slytherin. Even if Alice did fit into the house like a glove, knew that her ambition to be an Auror was probably the reason she was placed in it the first place, the other houses like Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw appealed to her. The first year away from her sister, Alice wrote her almost ever day and cried weekly when she was away from her sister worried that she’d feel the same burden of living with their mom that she did. Worried that Pandora would need more help than she could get ( though, Pandora was PERFECTLY functional & on top of things, it was all anxiety that consumed Alice ). She found herself spending more and more time with Ravenclaws & Hufflepuffs, which cultivated more of an open-mind, and while she did well in school, Alice often daydreamed quite a lot. On occasion even used recreational drugs like pot ( & LSD ), because she just had to experience everything – the world was so big, so vast, and although there were some parts – mainly the blood prejudice she witnessed – that were ugly, the rest was so fantastic.

RANDOM BULLET POINTS:

Is a dog person over a cat person, literally loves dogs so much and has been trying to get Hogwarts to let her dog in.

love pandora with all her heart tbh if you want to make her angry mention her sister rudely and you’ll be WRECKEDT

Is very short and tiny but can kick your ass EASILY. trained in martial arts and has a very strict exercise regime that she follows everyday!!

has a cute irish accent but speaks french w/o it, the only time you’d really think she’s french

can sing but isn’t AMAZING but loves singing and dancing, her and pandora TURN UP IN GALWAY

speaking of singing this is a very alice song that she would singalso how i could see her voice

doesn’t talk about her problems, if you can get her to talk about her problems you’re doing more than I even can. She’s very much due to fall apart any minute now or just have a good cry but she’s compartmentalized so much so GOOD LUCK.

Sees the good in people because she believes that a lot of people can be better than they actually are being, especially in her house. Will often challenge people gently around her.

Also likes to fuck w/ people who are blood prejudice by being extremely calm w/ them. Unless you threaten her friends/call them slurs. More often then not Alice will just calmly fight the bigoted logic and has to really REALLY try hard not to punch them in the face

( has probably punched one of them in the face )

Is very into physical platonic affection!!!!

Dyes her hair different colors and is ETERNALLY unhappy with her hair. She’s always fussing around with it, always changing it and doesn’t know what to do with it.Alice’s natural hair color is a really dusty blonde, I’d even say a dirty blonde. She really loves to experiment with it though, so she’ll cut it and dye it all sorts of colors - from neon green to brown. From a pixie cut down below her waist. Anything and everything. Sometimes, in an attempt to just get out of her own head and escape for a bit, cutting & coloring her hair is fun and gives her some of a respite. She knows it’s just hair and it’ll easily grow back with a hair potion and just does it as a way to cope with not feeling completely comfortable in her appearance. She also does ridiculous makeup, sometimes adorning very shimmery glitter all across her eyelids and wearing funky socks that don’t always match her uniform. Sometimes she prefers to wear pants instead of a skirt, and puts pins of all sorts up and down her tie. Alice also owns an extensive sunglasses collection that she tries to wear on weekends or just times when she’s outside & the sun is out. In more modern times or times where she’d have access to more knowledge about the LGBT/queer community, she’d identify as non-binary but at the moment she’s very in the dark and just believes it to be her being very self conscious. I could see if she was introduced to this knowledge and educated, she’d be able to self identify as she’s already aware that she’s not straight at all, but until then she’s sort of in the dark. It would be a lovely thing to see though as the RP progresses if someone could educate her or point her in the right direction!

Is very underestimated I imagine?? And definitely lets her own skill speak for itself ( unless you piss her off she’ll occasionally talk a big game lmfao ), but until the second half of this year was much more free spirited and now is very much stressed and just much more serious.

That’s all I can think of rn but YEAH thanks for reading ur the real MVP

7 notes · View notes

Can you introduce me to sf9? I don't know much about them tbh.

sure thing! i hope this helps :)

!! long post warning!!

sf9 stands for “sensational feeling 9,” they’re an idol group under fnc entertainment that debuted on october 6, 2016. before debut they were in a program called neoz school as the neoz dance team, along with 4 other trainees that made up the neoz band team (now honeyst, check them out they’re great!) the two groups then entered the survival show dance or band (d.o.b) to get a chance at debut. the dance team won by a very close vote so they got to debut first. in korea, sf9 has released one single album, called feeling sensation, and two extended plays, called burning sensation and breaking sensation. in japan, they’ve recently released two singles, fanfare and easy love. they are currently holding fanmeetings around asia and will be at kcon la next month!

sf9′s fanbase name is fantasy!

sf9 has 9 VeRY GOodLOOkING members: inseong, youngbin, jaeyoon, dawon, zuho, rowoon, taeyang, hwiyoung, and chani, from oldest to youngest. here is a ppt i found with some pretty good info: ppt

some more info about the members:

inseong

born on july 12, 1993 (his birthday was a few days ago!)

main vocalist, oldest member, 1/3 of extra line

from cheongdamdong, seoul

aspiring rapper

“fennec fox” (he thinks he looks like one), wink fairy

currently studying at kyunghee university as a journalism/communications major

in charge of english, his mom is an english teacher so she taught him and he also studied abroad for a year in london!

loves to eat

has THICK ASS THIGHS from playing sports wow those thighs wow

his favorite color is pink, he thinks it makes him look “young and fresh”

former sm trainee

has the stupidest laugh i don’t know how to describe it but it will make you smile every single time

likes to wear different lip tints but isn’t very good at wearing them, he’ll eat after his makeup is done and it smears everywhere

supposedly the mom of sf9 but only in that the maknaes listen to him (most of the time)

youngbin

born nov. 23, 1993

leader, lead rapper, lead dancer

v responsible guy who takes care of his 8 kids

usually very soft-spoken but sometimes he is so loud…so loud

looks a little like chani bc they both have the same haircut

stylists like to put him in shorts and sleeveless shirts bc he got the nice legs and arms

likes to wear caps

cannot do aegyo to save his life but he tries

v cute with his big round eyes and bunny teeth and eyesmile and dumb laugh but he’s a very wild dancer

is actually a pretty decent vocalist

one of the only buns who has piercings in this group, he has two helix piercings in his right ear and one lobe piercing in each ear

always posting on twitter, usually selcas but sometimes just pictures of his fingers or hands

LOVES giving skinship. he used to be very lonely so now he’s very affectionate with the other guys, especially with chani

but doesn’t like receiving skinship, can usually be found screaming when jaeyoon kisses him

jaeyoon

born aug. 9, 1994

lead vocalist, 2/3 of extra line

from busan but is not a manly busan man…we all know he’s afraid of everything sorry honey secret’s out

beautiful smile (those canines!!)

beautiful voice, i wish he had more parts

he has these soulful puppy eyes that make you want to wrap him up and hold him forever

sang the ost for my only love song

inseong’s best friend

resident girl group dance expert, do not challenge him diva jaeyoon will destroy you

very greasy, loves to kiss the camera and act cute

also incredibly sassy?

lowkey disses the other members while he’s trying to secure screentime

but very very sweet and loves to give kisses

dawon

born july 25, 1995

lead vocalist, 3/3 of extra line

real name lee sanghyuk

loud. very loud. you think you know loud? if you haven’t met dawon then haha this guy has two modes, fuckin loud and even louder

is probably screaming or making bad puns

sf9′s moodmaker

hobby: stealing hearts

self-proclaimed aegyo master. it’s bc he does not feel any of the shame that accompanies aegyo

seriously shameless. in their first show champion behind, he stuck his finger up youngbin’s nostril then wiped the same finger on youngbin’s lip

very talkative and very witty. lots of variety sense so he’s had a lot of solo activities, been on the radio and weekly idol segments

loves to kiss chani. if youngbin isn’t kissing chani then dawon is.

actually very soft on the inside and afraid of many things

zuho

born july 4, 1996

main rapper, lyricist/composer

real name baek juho

deep ass voice, sounds like a monster when he raps sometimes

gaze and jawline so sharp they can cut a bitch but um actually he’s a soft baby

likes hugs and kisses and handholding, precious baby who gets upset when the other members aren’t paying him enough attention

perhaps the most 4d, can be found pulling faces and making soft little noises to himself in the bg of many videos

has two very distinct laughs: the first mode is obnoxiously loud “HAHA”s and gasping for air, the second mode is soft but high-pitched giggling

seems like he’s always coughing or sniffling :(

resident bts fanboy

trained the longest (6 years) at fnc

good dancer, proud of his sexy dance ability

proud of his sharp nose “shiny nose juho” “my nose is my swag”

likes to walk around the dorm half-naked, snores like a chainsaw

rowoon

born aug. 7, 1996

main vocalist, visual

if you don’t think he’s hot…well i haven’t met anyone yet who doesn’t think he isn’t at least remotely attractive so

tall dark and handsome: he’s 189cm tall (6′2), always flipping his black (now it’s brown) hair, has these beautiful pink lips and good body proportions

cooks and cleans, nags the other members to do their laundry properly

mom-friend wannabe

seriously beautiful inside and out

loves chani so much…but chani doesn’t love him back :( just kidding chani and rowoon are close

has a very high-pitched, giggly little girl laugh

has done some solo activities, such as lipstick prince and modeling during seoul fashion week…he out there networkin

currently a model for innisfree

recently casted as a lead in the drama school 2017

taeyang

born feb. 28, 1997

main dancer, vocalist (i know there’s some debate about whether or not taeyang is a main vocal or not bc he gets almost as many lines as inseong/rowoon bc he’s usually p stable live)

from mokdong, seoul

powerful, wild dancer with many many body rolls what are you doin yoo taeyang

lots of charisma but is a quiet and shy bun offstage

wants to be a florist if he isn’t a singer

very very passionate in everything he does and it shows

loves the fans. has been seen on various occasions staring down lovingly at them from the window of the broadcasting station and praising the lovely law-abiding (??) fans

says a lot of greasy/cheesy things with a cute smile and sweet voice

the other guy who also has piercings, has two lobe piercings in his left ear and one in his right

apparently does not know how to dress himself and has no idea that chicken bones are not considered recyclable waste

considers everyone his baby

hwiyoung

born may 11,1999

rapper, sub-vocalist

supposedly a hidden visual but i don’t really see what they mean bc those visuals are very obviously real

not too great at dancing compared to the other members but he has improved a lot!

“cold city man” of sf9

ironic bc he’s also from busan, and also a wimp

has a pretty deep voice but is in charge of dolphin screams

has a love-hate relationship with chani. they’re close and soft and hold hands but they’re so competitive and always trying to outdo the other

he is inseong’s baby i swear there are so many pictures of him sitting on inseong’s lap

very smiley but is always covering his smile why are you doing that honey

chani

born jan. 17, 2000. an actual child

main dancer, rapper, sub-vocalist

from daejeon

maknae on top. is sweet with the fans, gives us cute smiles and noona aegyo and lots of winks but cuts down his hyungs…they still baby him anyway

is just generally a boob, does the opposite of what everyone tells him to do and laughs while he does it

the object of everyone’s affections especially youngbin

does not appreciate kisses but usually tolerates other forms of skinship

cannot eat spicy food but loveslovesloves chicken

has the deepest voice in the group, other than zuho, and does some pretty bomb imitations of zuho

currently attending sopa! he did a vlive in the cute yellow uniform

acted in a bunch of dramas, earlier this year he was in the movie goodbye single

here are some of their songs:

fanfare: their debut song! mv // live // practice // cute ver.

k.o: a little different than the d.o.b but still very good live // practice 1 2

roar: mv // live // practice // valentine’s day ver.

still my lady: practice // special mv // touch ver.

easy love: probably my favorite bc i started following them during this era! mv // live // practice // self-cam // japanese version

watch out: live // practice // uniform ver.

and some of my personal favorites:

together // tell me what it is // jungle game // shut up ‘n lemme go // around farewell

some videos of the stuff they’ve done:

predebut

heart attack dance cover

i need u cover

i hope cover

i’m a loner cover

lunch time // english lessons // ootd

5 members dance performance: one take // directed by hwi

d.o.b (you can find all episodes here)

click your heart

special food 9

spectacle fantasy 9

so beautiful

battle for vroomie 1 2 3 4 5

otw: busan fansign // gwangju fansign

roar behind

mask pack singer

93 line’s vlive

kcon japan easy love // special stage

kcon ny easy love // special stage

kcon la fanfare // special stage

side note: not sure if you’re interested in ships but some of the more popular ships are inseong/jaeyoon (jaeseong), taeyang/hwiyoung (hwitae), and rowoon/chani (rochan). a few other ships: youngbin/inseong (youngseong), zuho/inseong (juseong), rowoon/zuho (juwoon), and hwiyoung/chani (chanhwi or hwichan) sorry my bias is showing but inseong’s a lil hoe

65 notes · View notes

50 Questions! Yaayyy~

Rules: fill this out and tag at least one person you’d like to know more about! Or just fill it out! Or don’t! Answer only some of them! Make up your own questions! “What kind of requirement is that”, you ask? A reasonable one! Who am I to tell you what to do? Anything goes!

Tagged by @theempresskaizer and since I can’t sleep (and I really love tagging games), here I am. Thank you, Ythmir! :) I feel you about your favourite pens btw. The only store that sells my favourite pen closed down recently here and the other store that sells it is in Manila. ;^;

1. What kind of food can’t you stand?AMPALAYA (bitter gourd). It was a traumatic experience. D:

2. If you could choose one minor inconvenience to never have to deal with again, what would you pick?if my laptop would just stop malfunctioning every 2 weeks, it would be nice.

3. Have you got any useless talents?i play three different instruments, and it’s not useful now... i think. i really wanted to be either an astronaut or a musician when i was a kid. dad refused to let me enroll at a music school in favour of a“more prestigious” university (parents’ words) so i feel it’s kinda useless now.

4. If you could be really really good at one thing, what would it be?ha! i’m an awesome procrastinator. is there even a word? lol. but srsly, i could be a good musician. if i just put effort into it. XD

5. Name a few people you think are extremely good-looking- well, the concept of beauty is relative. my preferences are kuroba mario, cosplayers hikarin and syo seunghyo, kimura tatsunari, matt bomer

6. What was your favorite way to pass the time as a kid?my sister and i used to sneak into our parents’ room and play with our mom’s beauty kit, like we would mix the lotions, alcohols, colognes, powders and stuff while pretending to be scientists and whatnots. we even tried to eat our concoction, to see what it tastes like. xD good thing someone saw us. lol.

7. What is something you’re proud of? i can learn anything if i just put my mind into it. i’m good at studying (my dad made sure of it lol).

8. What’s one character flaw in people that you just can’t tolerate?nosy. i don’t like nosy people. i’m more of a keep-to-myself person so i really loathe these kind of people.

9. Do you consider yourself to be more of a leader or a follower?both. tho i really don’t like to lead that much since it’s too much work. the laziest person i know is me btw. but i can be a leader when i absolutely have to.

10. What kind of student are/were you?high school, both the teacher’s pet and the kind they hate since i tend to speak my mind. college, i am the ordinary student who doesn’t have any clubs since it’s too troublesome.

11. Butterfly effect question! Has there ever been a seemingly minor decision you’ve made (at the time) that ended up having a profound influence on your life? yepppp!

12. Name your most irrational fear/aversionclowns. i don’t like clowns. i hate mcdonald’s mascot.

13. Are there any fictional characters you find especially relatable?yes. kei tsukishima of haikyuu!! especially. :P

14. If you drink, what kind of drunk are you? Alternatively, what sort of person are you at parties?i don’t like parties. i never go to parties if i don’t have to. i hate large celebrations (birthdays, family and school reunions). i prefer the company of my closest friends and immediate family over parties. i only have 4 friends irl that i still keep in touch with tbh. on the other hand, drinking. i have yet to get drunk. lol. but when i have enough alcohol in me, i tend to become the philosopher. like, why do we even exist? are our existence significant or are we just a mere speck in this vast universe? yeah, that kind. oh, my friends and i usually go to karaoke when we get buzzed.

15. Do you fall in love easily? Or does it usually take a long time for you to trust someone?i’m not even sure i have fallen in love yet. i get long-time crushes tho. in fact, i still like this certain guy since i was in 1st year college. XD

16. Would you rather have one close friend or 100 casual friends?the former. please refer to question 14 for the explanation lol

17. Do you consider yourself to be more of a slob or a neat-freak? my dad tells me i have a landfill for a room. lol. i don’t mind. it’s organised chaos. XD

18. Describe a place (imaginary or real) that you would find incredibly cozymy room, on a rainy day with no one else at home and i have unlimited internet connection and books and coffee. and did i just mention i’m alone?

19. Do you have kids? If not, do you want them someday?i don’t have one. not seeing myself getting married or having a child. i’m having another baby sister/brother soon tho so i think it’s enough. :D

20. What was your favorite book as a child?the two-can first encyclopedia series. i love the one that features the solar system.

21. Name one thing you just don’t get what all the hype is aboutWHAT IN THE WORLD DOES A FIDGET SPINNER DO

22. Name one thing that you think is tragically underrated fanfiction writers. i have nothing against fanarts but i would appreciate it if the same attention is given to fanfiction writers.

23. If you had to be glued to a person for a month, real or fictional (who you have never met), who would you choose?kimura tatsunari hehehe

24. What’s something you’d like the chance to do someday?have the time, and the money, to visit japan and prague. and then go to russia. oh, travel the world. alone. XD

25. Do you typically speak your mind when you have a controversial opinion? Or do generally prefer to not rock the boat?depends on my mood. sometimes i just want to see the world burn.

26. What’s the dumbest fad you’ve been caught up in?what’s a fad?

27. What’s something you thought was cool as a kid/adolescent, but now cringe at yourself for?telenovelas. i wanna live like the heroine back then and now i try to forget all about it. XDD

28. What’s a trait you consider to be very admirable?kindness is something i admire and at the same time so foreign to me. sure, i can be nice but i’m never kind. i will never be kind. i know this person who’s so kind to everyone and i wonder what it’s like to be like that.

29. Is there a particular kind of item people always tend to give you as gifts? (For instance, people always get you things with ducks on them because you like ducks, etc.) i’m a hoarder of cute/pretty notebooks and pens so every year, during my birthday, my family and friends always have a new notebook/pen for me. i even got a fountain pen for my birthday last year which i haven’t used until now. XD

30. Do you speak multiple languages? Which ones?yep. filipino/tagalog, english. this native dialect called cebuano and a little bit of ilonggo. i’m currently studying japanese (self-study cos paying for lessons is expensive). i’m shit at kanji tho.

31. Would you rather live in the big city or the countryside?in the city tho not at the center of it.

32. Has there ever been something you were certain you’d hate, but ended up loving?HAIKYUU!! my online bff has been convincing me to watch haikyuu!! for 4 years now and i was adamant at refusing cos i’m sure i’d hate it. i don’t even like volleyball. but when i watched it last year, i got hooked. now my main fandom is haikyuu!! //facepalm

33. Do you mind being the center of attention, or do you prefer the spotlight to be on someone else?noooo. i don’t like being put on spotlight. lemme work quietly in the background.

34. Favorite holiday?CHRISTMAS! i love seeing the decorations and the lights. i even go to malls just to stare at the decors and listen to christmas songs. i even have my own christmas tree in my room. it’s a small one tho. with christmas lights and all. hihihi. and also my birthday. i can do whatever i want on my birthday. nyahahaha

35. Are you a more go-with-the-flow type of person, or do you need to have things planned meticulously?i only have a plan when i’m writing. i don’t even know what i’m going to do with my life. orz.

36. Is there something you loved so much you wish you could forget it and experience it all over again? (A tv show, book, series–anything.)yes, there is, but i’d rather not forget it and experience it all over again. i’m content with the fuzzy feeling i get whenever i remember it. ^^

37. What hobbies do you have?playing games, going to cons, sleeping a lot, reading, and writing. my only extreme hobby is going mountain climbing. we even went once without any gears. it was fun but i’d rather not do something that unsafe again. o3o

38. If you could have a superpower, but it was only mildly useful, what ability would you want to have?the ability to learn different languages easily. wait, how can this be mildly useful? or maybe change my hairstyle at will? lol

39. Something people are always surprised to learn about youthat i’m 26. srsly, when i go to transact with government offices in behalf of the company i’m working for, they always think i’m an intern. wth.

40. Something that took you way too long to figure outthis sounds silly, but putting back the chiller part of the fridge. i dislodged it once and i spent almost half an hour trying to put it back. XD

41. Worst injury you’ve had?i never had one. not a broken bone or anything. i only got hospitalized 2 times - when i was 2 and 9, respectively. and both because of dengue.

42. Any morbid fascinations?i like skulls and blowing zombies heads off. my most favourite game of all time is left 4 dead.

43. Describe your sense of humor corny and dry. sarcastic even.

44. If you had to be born in another era/place, which would you choose?in the gundam universe, like Cosmic Era, where people can live on another planet. i would relocate to saturn in a heartbeat.

45. Something you are irredeemably bad atbeing patient. patience is not my virtue.

46. Something that sucked but you’re glad you went throughan hour of jogging for a whole month to prepare myself (and increase the stamina) for a mountain climbing activity 2 years ago

47. Would you rather have a really godawful ugly tattoo in a place that is only slightly inconvenient to conceal with clothing (upper arm, thigh, etc.), or the coolest, most beautiful tattoo ever in the middle of your face? (Neither tattoo can be removed or concealed with makeup, and the ugly tattoo will deeply offend anyone who sees it.)the ugly one. i don’t really like markings on my face.

48. Are you more of an optimist or a pessimist?for a pessimist, i’m pretty optimistic. (wait, is that a song? lol)

49. What would be the most flattering compliment someone could give you?tbh, compliments about writing and work are the ones i’m usually flattered with. tho i suck at accepting compliments.

50. Something you feel people often misunderstand about youthis is a fact. i have a resting bitch face so people often feel i’m always irritated/annoyed by them.

you don’t have to do it if you don’t want tbh, but i’m tagging @lustfullyleocrawford @kakihoden @passengersaraht @emigotchi @leorysxi @oh-my-otome @spyroeden @acrispyapple @devanofficial @astridapples

18 notes · View notes

C, H, N, P, U! (I hope you're done working for the day cause I don't think this is what "yelling at you if I see you post" looks like tbh.)

C: Which character do you identify with most?

So here’s a thing that may come as a surprise to readers of this blog: it’s not John Laurens, although I love him very much. I am far more pragmatic and less angry than he is, and I self-flagellate much less. I am also not as stupidly reckless– in fact, I think of myself as very cautious. But I admire his idealism and his bravery a lot, even as I can see where the extremes of those traits lead him to tragedy. That sense of such great potential, along with all the details we have on him due to @john-laurens​‘ fantastic and tireless research, is what draws me in.

Okay so I explained it’s not John. I definitely projected a lot of my mannerisms/ quirks, especially anxiety-related ones (memorizing data, making lists, talking to myself, getting really insistent and precise with words) onto Macaroniverse Alex. That said, musical!Alex doesn’t really have those traits. But in terms of his ambition to Be Somebody in his field and his willingness to work really hard to do it, sometimes to the detriment of… uh… everything else in life? The way he likes to plan? The enjoyment he gets from discussing ideas and constructing arguments? Those things definitely speak to me.

H: How would you describe your style?

Versatile! I try to adjust my style to what I’m writing, and I’m pretty proud of my ability to switch because it’s something I’ve worked on a lot. Even between third person Alex and third person John in Macaroniverse, the voices are different; Alex gets longer sentences and more looping/ leaping, while John is very concrete and linear and pretty bad at noticing his own emotions. For example, John:

The plastic bag inside the box slides out and he spills Cheerios all over the floor. Then he can’t work broom and dustpan at the same time, so he ends up picking up all the spilled Cheerios and throwing them in the trash one by one. Then he can’t get the milk carton open. He almost gives up, because Cheerios without milk are just not fucking worth it, but something in him refuses.

Hemingway might approve, if not of the content, then at least the sentence length and structure. (Actually I kind of like the Hemingway comparison because his is the Stoical Manpain voice and John def has a little Stoical Manpain going on in this story, the silly dear).

Versus Alex:

And even though he trusts Herc to be careful with his pins, and not to judge him for the enormous quantity of free dental dams and condoms he steals from the table outside his door, and to help him discriminate between normal-sick and dangerous-sick… he doesn’t trust him with this yet. He should—he really should.

One, Herc owes him for agreeing to serve as his mannequin after his poor sweet Thimbleina was stolen by a bunch of giggling tri-Delts on a scavenger hunt. (Not that Alex minds getting to model Herc’s edgy, sculptural creations every once in awhile. They make him feel badass. Particularly the poison-green women’s blazer currently taking shape on his shoulders.)

Two, Herc’s also first-gen, he was born in Nigeria, he knows what it’s like to stick out like a sore thumb. Alex frowns. Does that metaphor make sense? Why do sore thumbs stick out? Are they swollen or something? What happened to Herc’s poor sore thumb? In this case, was it sore from the hammer-blow of class, racial, and native-born privilege?

See how he likes to make lists? And starts running with sentences and just kinda… keeps going with them? And how he gets distracted and goes off on mental tangents and has to loop back to the topic? He’s not disorganized to himself, he just has a different system. With his stories sometimes I struggle to get in-voice and sometimes I have the opposite problem of keeping everything from exploding into the confetti shower that is Alex’s inner monologue.

For canon-era stuff I try to use a totally different voice, which isn’t authentically 18th-century but has absorbed approximately that flavor from all the Patrick O’Brian I’ve read. From the rivers/ guns sequel I’m working on:

On the mudded-out track through the endless woods and rolling hills of central Pennsylvania there walks a woman—young, clad in widow’s black, the heavy fabric falling round the gentle swell of her belly. Her black hood is cast down to shield her face from the wind; her head is bowed but her back straight. Before her the sky is clear and blue in all the glory of early fall; behind her it is ink-black and uncanny, and uncanniness clings to her skin like the smell of death clings to men off the battlefield. No band of brigands dares accost her; no friendly washerwoman inquires if she is well, if she needs a bite to eat, what business a woman in her state has on the road. The uncanniness holds them back—well, that, and the creature that scuttles along at her heels: low-slung, many-limbed, panting and coughing and drooling ink from its gibbering mouths.

I count three semicolons, one colon, two em-dashes, and 22 adjectives. Hemingway no longer approves. He’s coming for me with a big knife. If you never hear from me again, you know whose ghost to blame.

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

Yes, but thank god @herowndeliverance​ is writing it already.

P: Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an “architect” or a “gardener”? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

Here’s what happens, most of the time. I get an idea for a passage of dialogue or a premise or an ending to a fic. I’m nowhere convenient to write (usually walking somewhere or at work) so I write it down in the notes to my phone and then think on it obsessively for the rest of the day, trying to turn it into something story-shaped. I get home and try to capture what I thought of. Inevitably something isn’t working and I have to talk/ appeal to someone to get the idea loose. Mostly I do this by shouting at my friends in messages and then going back and copy-pasting the whole conversation into the document.

So, I think I end up planning quite a lot, even for shorter stories. Even if I don’t deliberately outline, I’ve at least gone through the story several times in my head before I start typing.

For longer stories, like the rivers/ guns sequel excerpted above, I outline before I get started, but inevitably things will change and evolve as I’m going. Sometimes when I garden too much my inner architect has to tear out the gardens I made because they’re in the wrong places or they don’t match the house, which is always a sad process. In fact, as I’m writing I’ll actually tell myself when something isn’t working, like Philip thinking, this is so dumb, why am I acting like this? when I was trying to take a plot shortcut that unfortunately led to Bad Characterization. That’s a sign more planning needs to happen.

U: A pairing you might like to write for, but haven’t tried yet.

I’m not naturally inclined to do much in the way of shipping, and my Lams obsession is actually very out of character for me. But I’d love to do more of Laurens and Lafayette interacting, because whenever you think about their characters, there’s some very clear compare-and-contrast you could do. @your3fundamentaltruths has also convinced me that there’s a lot of potential with stories featuring John and Angelica, although I can’t ship them because I headcanon John as Kinsey 6 100% Gay.

I also haven’t written any Mariliza, even though I think there could be potential there. Obviously not in the canon timeline, because Eliza would probably rather slap canon!Maria than just about anything else, but in an AU where Maria and Eliza meet before Maria and Alex do? You could see Eliza being the Concerned Mom Friend when James Reynolds is being terrible to Maria, and being moved by how hard Maria tries to protect her little girl (maybe Little Eliza and Susan are friends in preschool and Eliza and Maria start talking when they set up a playdate?), and wanting to help her. Actually, you know what, I don’t really ship this but if somebody wants that premise it’s up for grabs :D

8 notes · View notes