Latest Posts by dreamingofsomethingdifferent - Page 3

Fena got a Japanese tsundere swordsman as her leading man lol

Fena: Pirate Princess ED

Hello to my new ship!!

Fena: Pirate Princess OP

"Umi to Shinjuu" by JUNNA

the take that “enemies to lovers doesn’t have to involve violence!!!” is so boring. knives to the throat or don’t bother

When Twist Villains go Bad(ly written)

Sometimes I think a lot about “twist” villains. Villains that are first cast in the role of love interest and then revealed in a TWIST to be bad and afterward their entire personality changes. Ya know. Hans. The Darkling. Maven (I only ever read book one of the Red Queen, so I dunno if he became a less cartoony villain later on). Show Daenerys. 

What bugs me about these twist villains is that they are essentially two characters. The before character and the after character. The character that the author was writing back when they were trying to conceal the twist. And the character the author is writing now as an ‘AH HA!! GOTCHA!!”

The implication is that the character after the twist is their “TRUE SELF” and the character before the twist is a fiction. A performance. But the author is afraid that we’ll get their twist too early so they don’t actually build those villainous elements into the character and foreshadow it. Then they’d risk not being able to SURPRISE the reader. And they want to feel all superior about tricking us and laugh about how “sometimes you can’t trust a pretty face”.

But the result of this desperate “GOTCHA” is some cheating in the writing and a lot of retconning.

For instance, once in Frozen, Hans is shown smiling softly at Anna when no one is looking at him. It’s just him on screen. Why did he do that?? What was the reason if not just to lull the audience into a false sense of security?

And the Darkling is clearly driven by a desire to help the Grisha but post twist I guess he’s just okay with allying with Grisha-enemy #1 Fjerda (and they’re okay with allying with him somehow too???)

Everything about their demeanor changes. Everything about their dialogue. It doesn’t feel like a gradual transformation. It feels like a good/evil switch.

And some might say “its a warning because sometimes you can’t TELL who’s going to be evil because they’re liars :)”

But a character pre twist and post twist should still be recognizable as the same person and have a consistent character.

Take Petyr Baelish for instance. The moment we meet this man, we think he’s sketchy. Ned thinks he’s sketchy. This man is a liar and a politician. But…..lots of people in King’s Landing are liars and politicians and Baelish seems to be helping Ned. He even gives a reasonable motivation! It’s because he’s friends with Cat that he’s helping Ned. But he also flat out says: “you shouldn’t trust me”.

So when HIS twist comes, it IS surprising at first. We kinda thought we had his motives figured out. But it makes sense AND he’s still the same person afterward. Same vibe entirely. Nothing about him transforms when he stops lying.

And then there’s the twist villain that descends unexpectedly into villainy. Annakin was a good example of this (perhaps because we all knew it was coming). He was always brilliant but also impulsive and hot headed. He’s driven by his fear of losing those he loves, especially after the loss of his mother, and it’s those good intentions that lead him over the edge. But he’s still the same person after the switch. He’s just deeply changed. Certainly his arc was handled ten times better than that of Daenerys

On another level, I hate that usually the “twist villains” are there SPECIFICALLY to shame female characters for being stupid or gullible or naive. Like “oh you silly girl. Trusting this bad man who looks pretty but lies. You’re just like our young readers. They’re also stupid and need a LESSON to know DON’T TRUST ANYONE, especially someone who makes you FEEL LUST.”

But so rarely do these fictional twist villains act like real life abusers or men that they actually need to watch out for. Because the author is hiding the red flags because they want their twist. It’s just…it’s bad foreshadowing. It’s bad character writing. It’s annoying over all. No thank you.

 You rise with the moon, I rise with the sun.

ZUTARA + PARALLELS:

They circle each other in an eternal dance; they balance each other. Push and pull. Life and death. Good and evil. Yin and yang…

“That’s something we have in common.” 

Sometimes you ship villains because you like their dynamic. Other times, you ship villains because you like the "power couple" trope, or because their aesthetics complement each other, or maybe because even the nastiest scumbags of this world deserve to be loved.

But sometimes, sometimes you ship villains for the sweet, sadistic joy of taking a horrible bastard without a single redeeming quality in sight, ripping his chest open with your bare hands, grabbing his shrivelled up husk of a heart, and forcing it to feel.

shadow and bone

Im not going to keep watching it even though i enjoyed the first season, because I heard through the grapevine the obviously interesting and charismatic and compelling couple isnt going to be canon and the author stirs up drama in the fandom all the time.

Idk im just tired lol. I dont have the energy to defend a ship again.

Here is my honest question to all the people who agressively harass people who like villains. Why doesnt anyone ever write the powerful, attractive, fascinating love interest as being a good person then? Like. From what I see of Darklina, Alina doesnt realize he is the darkling for a while. What if the author had never changed that. like. they could have written is so the hot sun summoner and hot, fascinating shadow summoners bang, and go kill a different evil, kinda ugly, shadow summoner together. its not OUR fault that the most interesting attractive characters are always written to be villains and then we are told we are bad for shipping what THEY set up.

it honestly feels like a punishment for women at this point. these writers always set up a different, bland and boring as oatmeal character up to be the “approved” love interest. like its evil for the woman to have feelings for someone interesting and at her same level of power and capability. “haha you THOUGHT she would get to make love to an attractive man with the same powers and experiences as her, one who clearly thinks shes amazing. NOPE!!! HES EVIL YOURE A WHORE FOR EVEN LOOKING AT IT.” they need to deny their feelings and go back to good old boring oatmeal man that they DONT EVEN LOVE who always seems to have a nice guy complex and guilt trips the woman constantly into coming back to the kitchen or whatever. for that matter, why didnt the holy authors bother to ever write these characters as interesting? they hold the pen! they can make the other love interest JUST as cool and interesting. it feels like an ACTUAL intentional punishment.

fuck me for not going back to shipping oatmeal man like a good moral woman. i dont really give a shit.

im just not a fan of media in general right now. captain swan at least got to be canon, even though it felt like they slowly turned killian boring too in the later seasons. like it was only acceptable for the show writers once his personality was eroded entirely and he stopped wearing the eyeliner. and if swan queen had been made canon and killian never existed, they would have done the exact same thing to regina and probably killed her off too, to really send the message home. and reylo got fucked so hard i dont even want to go there. and im not even a star wars fan in general so it didnt even affect me much. just im sorry.

Wolf Children scenery

Bakemono no Ko (2015)

“I’m sure it happens to everyone. That’s why you’ll be fine.”

Bakemono no Ko (2015) dir. Mamoru Hosoda

The Boy and the Beast scenery

pride & prejudice (2005) + scenery

Pride & Prejudice (2005) dir. Joe Wright

♡⌣♡

If you didn't want me to fall for the villain you shouldn't have made them sexy and sad

So I have read several people complaining that they can’t be expected to know the “unwritten rules” of fandom. So here’s what I wish people knew:

Fanfiction is fiction.

Fictional people are not real.

Fictional people do not have rights.

Fictional people cannot be abused.

Reading or writing about something does not mean the desire to do or support it in the real world.

If I find art upsetting/triggering/disgusting/outraging/unpleasant/squicky/distressing/offensive, it is on me not to read it, not the creators and hosts to remove it.

Curate your own experience. The back buttons exist for a reason.

If you don’t trust yourself to do that, get someone you trust to do it for you.

Fandom is an adult space. Adults create and own and host fandom spaces. If minors want to participate, then the onus is on them and their parents/guardians/trusted adults to ensure they participate appropriately, not on strange adults to stop being adults.

You often don’t know the assault status or mental health status or neurotype or race or nationality or religion or gender or sexuality or age of a creator or consumer, and they do not have to disclose to you to justify their fantasy.

AO3 is not a safe space. It is not intended to be a safe space. Proceed accordingly.

Just because you don’t like something or find it offensive doesn’t mean it is a “problem” that “has to be dealt with”.

Most characters in anime are not white.

There is no onus on you to reblog or share anything.

Everyone makes mistakes in fandom and is less than their best self sometimes.

Persistent pseudonyms encourage long term relationships.

Ship wars are stupid.

Someone else enjoying things does not impact on your own enjoyment of other things.

Tagging and warning is a courtesy, not a requirement. Assume any fic might contain untagged content.

Rating is an imprecise art, not a science.

Don’t hassle IP creators.

Most people who are in fandom are hoping to make connections based on a shared passion.

Trying to profit from transformative fanworks puts us all at risk.

No one is obligated to share your head canon or fanon.

Being kind rarely fails to pay off.

It is okay to block and remove people who make your experience unpleasant. You don’t have to placate them. (Learn from my mistakes).

Britpicking is a good thing.

You don’t have to justify why you like a canon/pairing/trope/kink. Sometimes navel gazing is fun, but you don’t have an obligation to explain yourself, especially to strangers. I share the overwhelming desire to refute an unfair accusation, but the people accusing you are rarely doing so in good faith, so you’re batting a losing wicket.

I’m not your Mum. (Well, okay, a very few of you can call me Mum or Mom, but if you are one of them you already know who you are ❤️)

If you aren’t mature enough to take responsibility for your online experiences, you aren’t mature enough to be in fandom spaces.

“don’t reduce this female character down to a love interest” does not translate into “this female character shouldn’t have a love interest.”

preventing female characters with strong, compelling narratives from experiencing love, intimacy, and affection is just as regressive as reducing them down to sexual accessories for male characters. it assumes that women must choose between a romantic interest and depth of character and ignores a far more productive message: that women are capable of possessing both.