tbh learning that he has since become a relatively normal young adult would not shock me in the least
I'm the last person to be talking about embarrassing TVTropes antics.
tbph i'm still kind of amused that you and CC Reisz are dating considering said embarrassing tvt antics
said antics provided much to bond over.
Most of the people directly affected by said antics are also still our friends. With a few exceptions, unfortunately, but that's what happens when you do dumb things like I did.
You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
I seem to have accidentally made the "X new" notifications yellow. :\
Done. That was frustrating. We basically agreed on most points, but for different reasons.
He agrees with me that mass media is overly biased to white cis male-ism, and that representing realistic situations is sensible. But he believes strongly in the 'write what you know' principle, AKA you shouldn't have to write minority characters if you're not familiar with any. Or if it wouldn't be realistic for the location.
I think the underlying issue is that he and I have different standards for what is 'realistic'. He, for example, believes that adding more than one trans character to a story wouldn't be realistic, even if the trans character in question is a (admittedly well-written) villain and a Thai prostitute. Whereas I would either add another trans character, just to see how they interact with each other due to their shared trans experience, or make her less stereotypical. Like a villainous Thai gangleader or something. Switch it up a bit.
He sees a call for representation and sees a bunch of minority characters being poorly shoved into stories, whereas I see it as a test to see what a writer can do when borrowing tools from someone else's toolbox.
If I were making a story I would probably not have anything that could be identified as "Thai" due to using a fantasy setting.
Also, said villain would probably be primarily concerned about their team's social influence or resource control or whatever, and probably wouldn't be interacting with anyone regarding their sexuality anyway.
Maybe said villain would be seen occasionally with their significant other. Said significant other could, from a meta perspective, be of either gender -- and I wouldn't particularly care either way. This would probably be just left mostly undescribed since I have no idea how to write romance at all anyway.
Well I would probably not have anything that could be identified as "Thai" due to the fact that I know almost nothing about actual Thai history and culture.
That said I'd probably be more inclined to mix and match bits and pieces of different real-life cultures.
Since it's fantasy I don't have to worry that much about ecological realism so I could just have, say, an ethnic group that lives in a cold temperate climate with lots of pine trees but enjoys rice, beans, and plantains as staple foods.
A fun thing that one could do with a fantasy setting is to talk about foods that are "foreign" as if they're just normal everyday domestic familiar things.
Like, if I set a story in real-life Richmond, Virginia, then it'd be odd if a character frequently runs into plantains.
But if I set a story in a fantasy steampunk city that vaguely resembles Richmond, Virginia, then I can always say that plantains are a typically-eaten food there.
In general, I believe that you should try not to have a single minority character when you can avoid it. It allows you to use stereotypes without being called racist (and I believe it's important to occasionally use stereotypes; they're bad because people think everyone adheres to them, but that doesn't make them wholly unrealistic). It allows a different level of interaction between your characters. And it gives a less uniform depiction of the minority
If you have 3 black characters in a crime story, for example, you can have a police informer who listens to rap and eats fried chicken and smokes weed, and it's okay because you have a black white-collar criminal who smokes cigars and programs in his spare time, and a black cop who's vegan and drinks a bit to forget about his recently uncloseted son. And when the cop meets the informer and fights against the criminal, he'll think about whether the criminal's better than the informer because he bucks stereotypes, and the informer can internally call them traitors for not being traditionally black. Dimensions.
But if I set a story in a fantasy steampunk city that vaguely resembles Richmond, Virginia, then I can always say that plantains are a typically-eaten food there.
And best of all, I wouldn't have to actually justify this.
This could just happen.
If a (real-life) someone were to ask me afterwards I could always say, well, they normally have that food there. But I have no need to justify it in-universe.
Nor even make a big deal of it. It's a design decision, but one that is most properly left behind the curtain, because if it's not something the characters would make a big deal of in-universe.
Comments
mostly cuz Trash TV is a thing that I want
I'm terrible ;_;
I feel like it should be boring, but it isn't.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
NOT WHAT OTHERS SAY
*bangs folding chair against concrete pillar labeled "France"
it makes it hellish to try to optimize things
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
Also, said villain would probably be primarily concerned about their team's social influence or resource control or whatever, and probably wouldn't be interacting with anyone regarding their sexuality anyway.
Maybe said villain would be seen occasionally with their significant other. Said significant other could, from a meta perspective, be of either gender -- and I wouldn't particularly care either way. This would probably be just left mostly undescribed since I have no idea how to write romance at all anyway.
That said I'd probably be more inclined to mix and match bits and pieces of different real-life cultures.
Since it's fantasy I don't have to worry that much about ecological realism so I could just have, say, an ethnic group that lives in a cold temperate climate with lots of pine trees but enjoys rice, beans, and plantains as staple foods.
Like, if I set a story in real-life Richmond, Virginia, then it'd be odd if a character frequently runs into plantains.
But if I set a story in a fantasy steampunk city that vaguely resembles Richmond, Virginia, then I can always say that plantains are a typically-eaten food there.
Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
and take their weapons leaving them dead
This could just happen.
If a (real-life) someone were to ask me afterwards I could always say, well, they normally have that food there. But I have no need to justify it in-universe.
Nor even make a big deal of it. It's a design decision, but one that is most properly left behind the curtain, because if it's not something the characters would make a big deal of in-universe.
JJBA
Fate/ series
Attack on Titan