Arataki "He Might Lose But He'll Never Admit Defeatto", The Stormlight Archive(as Always), And How I

Community>>>

It's fucking me up that no one knows Kaladin still lives. Everyone thinks he's dead. Bridge Four can't hold out hope that he lives because Szeth and Masha buried his corpse. Lirin and Hesina lost their eldest son again. And none of them know that Kaladin is a Herald, because all Szeth knew was that he was killed by a Shardblade and Ishar is gone. The only people who know are the Wind and maybe Wit, and I doubt that either of them are going to spill that secret. Crying over Kaladin again.

don't ever look up what your childhood friends are up to now!!!!!!!!!! like girl you're a nuclear safety engineer. i put on matching socks today. we played tag a thousand years ago.

can you imagine howl coming back to the castle fully ready to Gloat to Everyone (mostly Sophie) that he had defeated the witch!! Love Me Sophie, I’m Clearly The Most Awesome How Could You Possibly Resist (in all honesty, he probably realised that witch was a decoy and returned to the castle to Complain and Moan and Demand Attention)

but when he gets back, michael slams the door open with a frantic ‘hOWL WE LOST SOPHIE SHES NOT HERE THE WITCH SAID SHE HAD MS ANGORIAN THE SEVEN-LEAGUE BOOTS ARE GONE’ and howl looks over at calcifer who has gone greenish-blue and sulky with something a little like guilt

damn it, calcifer, he thinks, only somewhat angrily. calcifer would never give up one of his own. besides, howl’s more terrified by what he’s going to do next than anything else.

‘i can’t stay,’ he says gallantly to the collection of ladies in the room, and percival. ‘i’ve got to rescue that fool sophie.’

one of the letties - honestly, howl could be bothered to figure out which one, but his mind is otherwise occupied - juts out her chin stubbornly. it must be a hatter thing, because sophie did it a lot too. ‘you’d better’, she says, and howl swallows a gulp. michael’s fearful talk of aunts suddenly seemed to make sense.

‘of course’, he tells her, his mega-watt smile snapping on for an instant. ‘won’t be long. ladies.’ he shut the door to the castle and turned around, orienting himself. he’d have to raise a wind.

I can't believe they saved the world through the power of therapy, being a Really Good Dude, severe childhood trauma, and homosexuality

general techniques to avoid gross shipping of your characters

have most characters be non-minors, around the same age range. this is mostly to minimize underage nonsense.

while family relationships are important, save them as background elements, explored every now and then. focus mainly on the bonds of non-related characters and how their different backgrounds play off each other.

limit the overly edgy tone, where pain and suffering are near-romanticized. try to emphasize wholesomeness, health, and the various ways characters can have good relationships despite their differences. a lot of nintendo franchises are good examples.

avoid creating significant characters who are utterly irredeemable with harmful ethics. (for me personally, i limit elements such as abuse and discrimination for background conflicts while presenting more interesting, morally gray arguments, where either side is right/flawed) if you’re going to have a villain, either make them team rocket goofy or classic disney fun.

just. try not to have characters + relationships rely on racial tropes. if you overly rely on a tough dark-skinned / dainty light-skinned formula, you’re going to see some racist shipping. mix it up. round ‘em out.

same goes for gendered tropes. if a dude is downright violent and irresponsible and a level-headed girl has to put up with his flaws without him facing consequence, that’s a downright unbalanced relationship. and do keep in mind that if two boys utterly despise each other, people will absolutely take that a certain way. again, with #3, try to play off disdain as comedic or with exception rather than constant seething hatred.

obviously these aren’t hard and fast rules, and what/how you create will vary. but it’s how i generally approach my work

do you think it'll all be okay?

I don't know. I hope so.

funniest line in the book, doubled by the fact it was halfway through an extremely important battle