All Monsters are Human

Rarely has there ever been a human villain that has been successful in their goals. And by successful, I mean getting away with almost anything. I think Hannibal Lecter from the film and novel of the same name Silence of the Lambs emulates this trope perfectly.

We only first hear about Lecter through police files, and he’s already established to be a major threat by Frederick Chilton. When we finally see him in person, in the last cell, he stands at the end facing main protagonist Clarice Starling, as if he was expecting her to come. Instead of being rude upon their meeting, he’s very polite and courteous. He’s fascinated by her and gives her cryptic clues to Buffalo Bill's identity in return for painful memories of her childhood. She is eventually able to use these clues to track Bill down and kills him, but not before Lecter stages a dramatic and bloody escape, disappearing without a trace. He leaves two letters: one for Clarice, wishing her well, and the other for Chilton, promising gruesome revenge for the years of mistreatment he suffered at Chilton's hands. Chilton disappears soon afterward.

Hannibal’s first appearance

Image provided by Listverse.com

What makes Hannibal so terrifying is that he’s not like the typical ghosts and ghouls you see in horror films. He’s just a regular human.

In the prequel, Hannibal Rising, we get a glimpse into Hannibal’s childhood and progression into the famous killer we all know and love. In 1941, eight-year-old Hannibal Lecter lived in Lecter Castle in Lithuania. Hannibal, his younger sister Mischa, and their parents travel to the family's hunting lodge in the woods to elude the advancing German troops. Three years later, the Nazis are finally driven out of the countries soon to be re-occupied by the Soviet Union. However, during their retreat, they destroy a Soviet tank that had stopped at the Lecter family's lodge looking for water. The explosion kills the mother and father, leaving Hannibal and Mischa orphans. They survive in the cottage until five former Lithuanian militiamen, led by a Nazi collaborator named Vladis Grutas, storm and loot it. Finding no other food in the bitterly cold Baltic winter, the men look menacingly at Lecter and Mischa, implying cannibalism which we guess may have a starting point for his cannibalistic habit.

Young Hannibal

Image provided by Villains wiki

Eight years later, his father’s home has been remodeled into an orphanage, where he is abused by other children and by the dean. Lecter runs away, forms a quasi-romantic attachment to Murasaki after his uncle's death and commits his first murder when he decapitates a racist fishmonger who had insulted her which would lead to his killing style of anyone he finds vulgar and rude in his later years. While she is close to Lecter, she cannot turn him from his obsession with avenging his sister who was tortured and eaten by Grutas’ gang. To this end, he hunts down, tortures and kills every man who took part in her death, especially Grutas, when he mentions that Hannibal took part in eating Mischa (a memory that was suppressed), forsaking his relationship with Murasaki in the process. The last we see of Hannibal is when he drives away to commit more murders leading to the events of Silence Of the Lambs.

Unlike most villains, who lose their shit when things go wrong, Hannibal manages to maintain a calm and levelled front even when he’s angry. I think American Horror Story sums up the entirety of human villains like Hannibal Lecter with the quote, “All monsters are human.”

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Jhadiva Elliott

Hi, my name is Jhadiva. I’m a college student studying Professional Writing and the technical editor of this group. My hobbies are writing, watching movies and karate. My favorite genres to write about and watch are horror, action, thriller, mystery and fantasy. I enjoy being creative and I find the flawed characters of stories to be the most interesting.

The Light Side of Character Tropes

Tropes: can’t live with them but can’t live without them

A “trope” is anything that commonly recurs in a piece of fiction – be it themes, literary devices or characters. Since it is anything with a common recurrence, the word has come to be viewed as a negative.

It’s not.

I can fully understand the desire for originality, but let’s be real: at this point, after centuries of written works of fiction, it would be impossible to come up with a story that is 100% original.

So, what are we talking about today? As you may have guessed: character tropes. But, I’m going to try and frame this in a different way. Picture a traffic light. You’ve got the red light (stop), the yellow light (get ready to stop) and the green light (go). Now we’re going to use these lights in terms of character tropes.

Green Light

In this case, green is going to mean “use it more.” So, the trope I am deeming underused is…drumroll please…the male supporter. What do I mean by this? I’m referring to a male side character who provides emotional support for the main character/s. Because – newsflash – men can also provide emotional support. They don’t just punch people and yell at you to rub some dirt in it.

I think this trope needs to be used more for a couple of reasons. First: it shows that characters don’t only need physical support. They can (and should) have a mentor who ensures their mental well-being as opposed to solely teaching them to fight evil. Second: this emotional support being provided by a male shows other young males that men should talk about feelings instead of relying on violence.

image courtesy of warner bros.

A prime example of a male supporter would be Rubeus Hagrid from Harry Potter. His role throughout the novels is to watch over Harry and his friends. The thing I love about Hagrid is he’s portrayed as such a sensitive man. He’s the classic “Gentle Giant” (well, half-giant). He’s always there offering moral support and genuinely expects nothing in return (cough Dumbledore cough). Hagrid is Harry’s most loyal supporter and advocates for him on every step of his journey.

Side Note: Does anyone else view it as utterly ridiculous that the man who treated Harry terribly for six years until he was “redeemed” got a Potter namesake while the man who was there for Harry with no ulterior motive didn’t? Rubeus Hagrid deserved better!

Yellow Light

I’m using yellow to indicate tropes that are used often but should either be used differently or not used for a while. Essentially, yellow is a “proceed with caution” light. This on-the-fence trope is…again, drumroll…the chosen one (arguably the most well-known character trope).

I debated making this my red light trope. But, honestly, I think it’s one that’s here to stay, which isn’t surprising given the popularity of it. With that said, yellow light seems fitting, considering the trope’s popularity but the need for writers to slow down with it.

image courtesy of new line cinema

I can understand why this trope is so common. It creates a special feeling, this idea that you yourself could be that one hero needed to save the day.

I get it.

However, is it realistic?

No, it’s not.

Even if you are the only one who can save the world, there’s no way you can do it alone. This has been proven in every story that features a “chosen one.” Frodo Baggins wasn’t doing all the work himself, you know? I could go on and on listing the various “chosen ones” there have been. There are a lot of them and none succeed in their journey without any help.

With that said, try to slow down with adding a chosen one to your work. However, that’s easier said than done. So, if you can’t avoid it, why not try subverting it?

Red Light

Finally, we’ve reached the red light – our full stop. As in, just stop using this one. A grossly overused trope is…you know the drill…the damsel in distress. I cannot stress enough how much I dislike this trope.

image courtesy of pinterest

Look, I try to be open and see the appeal to most tropes. But I can’t do that with this one. It perpetuates this idea that women need saving. Furthermore, it pushes a fantasy that, if a man saves a woman from something evil, he is entitled to having her. It feels like some dumb schoolyard “finders, keepers” mentality.

It’s not right.

It’s a ridiculous notion that you should be rewarded, for doing good, with a loving and beautiful woman. Is doing good simply because it’s the right thing to do not good enough? Apparently not.

As with any trope, I guess a good subversion would change my opinion. Give me a story where the strong handsome dude saves a woman. After some butt-kicking, instead of receiving a declaration of love and a big old smooch, the dude gets a thank you and a good night. Fin. That’s a story I would enjoy.

Of course, there are dozens of other character tropes. Some have seen the light of day too many times, while others hide at the bottom of the pile. Here’s a list of 99 common archetypes. Use them wisely.

What would your red, yellow and green lights of character tropes be?

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image courtesy of allstar/disney

Lillian

Lillian is a second year Professional Writing student who has devoted much of her life to immersing herself in different worlds through the eyes of a variety of characters. Some characters she’s loved, some she’s hated, some she’s loved to hate and some she’s hated to love. It’s all in the name of research.

The Victims of Poor Development - Part 2: Winter Schnee

If you haven’t seen the last blog on this topic, I suggest you read it first here. It’s not mandatory, but I set the scene for this rant disguised as an essay better in the first blog than this one.

V7: The First Steps Towards Darkness Part 2

rooster teeth - rwby v7

The Winter Maiden

The problems didn’t stop with General Ironwood, and only got compounded with one more critical error. In my opinion, this misstep was the most frustrating but could have been saved… and then wasn't. This problem started during the Penny-Winter vs. Cinder fight and the moment I realized that I was about to be pissed off to a degree none before seen by humanity.

Winter Schnee was given the most amount of screen time she’d ever had and she has always been a fan-favourite side character and stood among Glinda in the series two most badass women in positions of power. 

The show developed her along with Penny, the revived sentient Android who was another fan favourite that was lost back in Volume 3. Now, in general, I stand firmly against any form of “revival” of a character, android or otherwise. All it ever really does is prove to the audience that you’re unwilling to kill anyone important and that this character was written to die dramatically. Penny may as well have gone to summer camp for three seasons for all the difference it made to the plot by that point. That said, I could have overlooked it… if not for the final mistake.

Penny becoming the Winter Maiden was the absolute worst way to end that season possible. Single-handedly became the reason that, for the first time since Volume 1, I didn’t rewatch RWBY once in the hiatus between seasons. 

ROOSTER TEETH — RWBY V7

See, writing is subjective, but Penny was already on thin ice before the worst happened. The previous Winter Maiden, Fria, was given an understandably small amount of screen time. There was a lot to do in Volume 7, like set Winter up to be the Winter Maiden and have Team RWBY come into conflict with Ironwood, to name a few. However, what we did know of Fria was that Winter had been visiting her every day for months and became her only source of company outside the presumed small visits from Ironwood.

We weren’t shown were these “memory problems” that lead to Fria not remembering Winter in time to pass the Maiden powers onto her… yet in the same breath, still, remember General Ironwood enough to want to send a message to him? I am against the idea that all elderly people have memory problems because it’s simply not true. More than that, however, is that I’m against the idea that Fria could somehow remember General Ironwood alone and not remember the young woman who had tea with her every day for months?

Okay, Rooster Teeth.

This was transparent to me as a cheap way to give the Winter Maiden powers to Penny instead of the woman who trained, fought, and almost died for it. Arguably, this could all be discredited as “life isn’t fair” and “they didn’t say she DIDN’T have memory problems,” where I’d disagree on both fronts, but we’d come to an impasse.

ROOSTER TEETH — RWBY V7

Instead, I have a stronger foundation to stand on. The Winter Maiden powers are meant to go to women exclusively. Penny is a female, Android or not; she does identify as a woman which does make her a woman. This isn’t the problem; the problem is that Penny’s aura isn’t her own, it’s Pietro’s aura. Synthetic people cannot produce their own aura. We’ve been shown time and time again that aura and semblances are inherently connected and maybe I was wrong to assume that the Winter Maiden powers would be included, but the moment of her using those powers seemed to prove me right. Penny is a program given thought through the aura of a male scientist. 

Maybe I’m wrong, but the fact that I’ve brought this argument up and never been shown something to discredit it says enough to me about that moment. 

This isn’t even getting into the fact that Penny now feels a little too much like a wish-fulfillment self insert. Not only was she the only character to come back from the dead, but she is also the only hero given the maiden power. I don’t have the word count capabilities to keep going into every way it was wrong, but trust me that I could make an entire blog about all the little reasons that moment still sends me into a rage a year later.

This moment has become, to me, the moment that Winter Schnee was robbed, and we as an audience were robbed of the beautiful, tense conflict we could’ve been given if Winter had been given the Maiden Powers instead. Unfortunately, this blog isn’t a “what if”; it is a “what happened” blog.

rooster teeth — rwby v7

Volume 8: Wishing I Wasn't Right

Someone Show Penny the Door

rooster teeth — rwby v7

There wasn't much when it came to the Winter Maiden being Penny in the first episode… yet they still managed to piss me off enough to pause the whole episode and scream into my lap for 2 minutes before resuming. 

All I have to say on the matter is as such: why give Penny the Maiden Powers if she was just going to turn around and plan to march into Salem’s hand willingly. At that point, why not just give it to Cinder on the rooftop before? The reason Penny is the worst option for the Winter Maiden is precisely this: she would make this decision and doom all of Remnant. Winter wouldn’t have.

There isn’t much to say on that yet; as of writing this, there is only one episode of Volume 8 out, but I couldn’t keep these feelings in anymore. 

Conclusion

I am confident that out of loyalty alone, I will be dragged to the finish line of RWBY one way or another. I would have preferred for it to be through the same joy, excitement and suspense-filled thrill that the show brought me through most of V7 and the Volumes before it. The last thing I ever wanted to be was another one of those people on the internet who hates RWBY. 

I don’t hate RWBY. If I hated RWBY, I wouldn’t feel so let down and disappointed. Yet, one episode into Volume 8 and I’m considering cancelling my Prime Membership and waiting until all the episodes are out to save my mental health the disappointment and frustration of slogging through whatever is to come. 

If you liked this episode, this isn’t an attack on you or your judgment. I sincerely wish I did.

[UPDATE - we are 4 episodes into Volume 8, and I have officially decided to unsubscribe from Rooster Teeth FIRST. I won’t be keeping up with the Volume and have elected to binge it when it finishes in the new year.]

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Image source — DreamWorks Studios [Catra]

Caitlyn C

Hi! My name is Caitlyn, a 22 year old dreamer whose main interests include: crying over fiction at 1 in the morning (mainly She Ra and Claymore), babysitting kittens, reading, and ignoring the doctor recommended 8 hours of sleep rule. I’ve been writing as a hobby for as long as I can remember but had my first interaction with finishing my first (garbage) novel in 2014. Now, I am a Professional Writing student who works hard every day to make less garbage novels through practice, reading, and calling my obsessions “studying”.

DreamWorks Queerbaiting of Voltron: Legendary Defender

provided by tumblr.com

DreamWorks, Netflix series, Voltron: Legendary Defender is the epitome of queer-baiting in a television series, and here’s why.

[Spoiler Warning for the whole series]

There is much to praise about the VLD series. However, the last two seasons are absolute garbage, as almost everyone knows. While I love the series and have personally dealt with the poor and unplanned writing of seasons seven and eight, I would never suggest that the whole series was good because that’s just a blatant lie. 

VLD starts diving halfway through the series; the writing was sloppy and clearly wasn’t thought out properly. However, seasons five and six were still tolerable and enjoyable at times. But from as early as VLD season two, the DreamWorks television show had started pushing a gay agenda. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying ‘gay agenda’ in a bad way. I was 100% supportive of them marketing towards the LGBTQ+ community and supplying representation for them, but that’s just the problem; they didn’t represent anything.

The Queer-baiting of Adashi

The show’s marketing team and executive producers released thumbnails for the show’s gay ships multiple times. One being between Lance, the Voltron sharpshooter and Keith, the lone wolf of the group. I’ll touch more on that whole atrocity in a moment. 

provided by tumblr.com

Another instance, the main one, was Shiro, the Voltron team leader, being marketed as gay while announcing season seven of VLD. While this was great, it didn’t live up to all of the hype. They’d even released a trailer that showed Adam, Shiro’s fiance, back on earth.

However, the LGBTQ+ community was sorely let down when the only scene supplied in VLD was one minute (which could be platonic, that’s how bad it was), followed by a 15-second clip of Shiro mourning at Adam’s plaque on the wall in dedication to his sacrifice. Yes, you read correctly, sacrifice; they killed him off after not even supplying an adequate scene between the two.

I’m not saying that VLD should have let Adam live, especially if his death was essential to building Shiro as a character. However, when so blatantly marketed as a central plot point in the show, it had no substance and could be brushed off as inconsequential.

There is no doubt in my mind that their marketing tactic was at least leaning towards queerbaiting, because yes, they did give us a scene between the two. But it also wasn’t adequate to be considered ‘representation’ in the eyes of the LGBTQ+ community.

Despite this, I’m not blaming the show’s creators. Joaquim Dos Santos, one of VLD’s creators, made a public apology on the show’s behalf. From the very beginning, the creator had intended to make VLD as inclusive as possible. Still, because of DreamWorks boundaries they’d set for shows, it had made it nearly impossible for the creators to continue on the path they’d started. 

By the end of season eight, the whole LGBTQ+ fanbase of the show wasn’t expecting much for representation anymore, myself included. Which, honestly, was probably for the best since it was atrocious. Not only did the series push two characters together that had no build-up (yes, I’m talking about Allura and Lance, I’ll get into that too), but they tried to make one last feeble attempt at LGBTQ+ representation. 

A Wedding or An Atrocity?

While the whole last season was an utter shitshow, I did enjoy the snapshots that ended off VLD. They showed all our favourite characters, a bit further in the future and how they had adapted after the war. It was heartwarming to see them happy after everything that had ensued, but of course, all good things must come to an end.

provided by pinterest.com

They showed Shiro’s snapshot into the future, during his wedding, as he got married to a man, which was nice, but it wasn’t anything special. Mostly because, once again, there was no build up in their relationship and us fans knew nothing about this random man one of our favourite characters was marrying.

While it was great to see the whole cast happy and thriving, that scene was just another punch in the gut, honestly.

Along with this poor excuse of representation in the series finale, I want to back up a bit and talk about my main bone to pick with VLD.

Misleading Klance Thumbnails and Poorly Written Allurance

So, if we look back at season two, when the show was still thriving and supplying the fans with a fantastic plot, we can see the signs of VLD’s creator’s leaning towards a relationship between Lance and Keith. There are many moments that fans have picked out as more than platonic banter. Along with that, the marketing team, once again, posted thumbnails that led everyone to believe that we would be getting the popular ship, Klance, confirmed in the coming season. 

provided by kidzsearch.com

Paired with the thumbnails, Klance shippers were being interacted with and misled by official Netflix Twitter accounts. If you were to search ‘Klance’ on Netflix (I checked this myself), VLD shows up. That’s just how widespread the ship was.

Despite all the hype, Klance wasn’t canon by the end of the season and as the fans know now, it never was. That is one of the most blatant examples of queer-baiting I’ve ever seen, and it is enraging.

Not only was Klance never confirmed, but the show went in a completely different direction, ship wise, during season eight. Allura, the Voltron team’s princess (she’s literally a space princess that isn’t a snipe towards her) and Lance end up together at the beginning of the season.

However, even that doesn’t last long. There is no build-up to their relationship unless you count Allura snubbing Lance’s flirtation attempts for the seven seasons prior.

I certainly don’t. 

They also end it horribly, having Allura unnecessarily sacrifice herself (sound familiar?) to end the war, which completely ruins Lance emotionally and destroys any confidence he’d been working towards for the past seven seasons. It set back both characters’ development that the series had built on for years, making almost all of the fans enraged. It wouldn’t have been so controversial in the fandom had the show not marketed towards Klance from as early as season two, only to go in a different direction. Which also started and ended poorly.

provided by fandom.com

There was even a final scene during season eight between Lance and Keith that have a hint of queerbaiting in it, where Keith is comforting Lance regarding the sharpshooter’s worries on not being enough for Allura. 

Even as a Klance shipper myself, I would’ve been supportive of Allurance had it been done adequately, but at that point in VLD, no one could expect anything adequate in the series. Had there been no queer-baiting, misrepresentation and poor writing, I may have ended the series satisfied.

Some fans don’t agree and say that people shouldn’t ridicule VLD because a popular ship wasn’t canon and that the show itself isn’t about the romance between characters, but rather their journeys. However, that argument can only be applicable if other romances between characters weren’t brought to light or marketed. But it isn’t, because not only did they have Allurance appear in VLD, but they also had a momentary relationship between Allura and Lotor, the son of the main antagonist Zarkon. 

In the end, the whole show had its ups and downs, including throwing away the development of its main characters and any plot they had worked towards, but the queer-baiting is inexcusable. If you want to hear how else VLD failed, I recommend watching this video.

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Dez

Bienvenidos! My name is Desirea, aka Dez. I am a 20-year-old Professional Writing student who has the heart and likes of a 10-year-old. As a Disney and Pixar fanatic, along with any kids movie that's not mediocre, my childish heart often fixates on animated characters. I frequently latch onto relationships that have not and never will be confirmed canon due to homophobic production studios and TERF writers. But alas, I let myself suffer anyways; this is precisely why I will be dragging said production studios and TERF writers in my articles.

How A Villain May Fall

Villains usually get the short end of the stick. Sometimes you laugh at them; other times, you feel sorry for them. Case in point, I think Azula from Avatar: the Last Airbender makes others feel a bit of both.

(Spoilers warning)

We first hear Azula mentioned through Zuko in Book One referring to her as his sister. He says his father stated that she was born lucky and that he was lucky to be born. Ouch. We know about what led to his burn scar and banishment, but being forsaken in favor of your YOUNGER sibling who seems to be better than you in every way. Zuko can’t seem to catch a break.

When we finally see Azula in person, she is tasked to be the one to bring down the Avatar by Fire Lord Ozai. We get a feeling she’ll be a formidable foe in the future. And we’re right.

During Book Two, she manages to topple the Earth Kingdom by conquering Ba Sing Se, with the help of the Dai Li and Azula’s ‘friends.’ And manipulate Zuko into coming back to his home nation, betraying Iroh in the process and killing Aang (he survives) while in his Avatar state. No joke. All while managing to be manipulative, level-headed and calm.

Azula on the Earth Kingdom throne

Image provided by fanpop.com

However, we surprisingly see some depth to Azula in the third and final book. Where it becomes clear that she can’t function in a normal-setting with other people her age (this is shown in the episode: The Beach), and even though she is Ozai’s favorite child, she believes her mother, Ursa thinks of her as a monster, even stating that she’s right, but it still hurts her feelings. But it isn’t until the Boiling Rock episode that we see precisely when Azula begins her descent, in which she confronts Mai over her helping Zuko. Mai roasts Azula, saying she doesn’t know people as well as she thinks and that she loves him more than she fears Azula, setting over the edge replying that Mai should’ve feared her more.

It appears there’s going to be a fight, but Ty Lee stops the emerging fight by Chi Blocking Azula. They try to escape, but guards catch them. When one of them asks what they should do with Mai and Ty Lee, Azula answers in a way we’ve never heard before, ordering that they put them somewhere where she’ll never see their face again and to let them rot. When the time comes for the Fire Nation to launch their forces to attack the Earth Kingdom and the Earth benders with Sozin’s Comet. Azula hopes that she and Ozai would attack and conquer together, but becomes genuinely shocked when he tells her to stay in the Fire Nation kingdom.

She protests stating that it was her idea to burn down the whole Earth Kingdom, but Ozai tells her to shut up quite harshly to his supposed ‘favorite’ child. He then gives her the position of Fire Lord, ruler of the Fire Nation, an empty title since he gives himself the position of The Phoenix King, supreme ruler of the world. Think about it, you do all the groundwork for your father, for whom you work so hard to honor, and all you get is a now worthless role. How sad is that?

The sting of Mai and Ty Lee’s betrayal and Ozai excluding her has changed her and not for the better by the series finale. Such as when she banishes her servants, the Dai Li agents and the imperial fire benders for even the most minor of indiscretions like banishing a servant for ‘leaving’ a pit in her cherry before demanding her feet be thoroughly scrubbed. Okay, her strive for perfection hasn’t changed, but it shows how much she’s slipping, especially in one scene where Azula is trying to style her hair herself but messes it up badly. So in a fit of rage, she cuts her hair and we get this exchange of dialogue with a surprise visitor;

You think that I'm a MONSTER Main Channel: http://youtube.com/korraspirit

This shows Azula's inner turmoil, her battle with herself. Ursa isn't there, so all of this is Azula telling HERSELF that she used fear to control her friends, she’s telling HERSELF that her mother truly did love her. But her negative qualities overpowered whatever good qualities she might’ve had.

Before Azula gets crowned Fire Lord, Zuko interrupts and declares that he’ll become Fire Lord. In response, she challenges him to an Agni Kai and he accepts, much to Katara’s shock. But he replies that he notices something off about his sister like she’s slipping. The thing is, he’s not wrong. Before the Agni Kai starts, she says “I’m sorry it has to end this way, brother.” with a creepy grin. Zuko replies, “No, you’re not.”

As the Agni Kai proceeds, we see that both have changed in character by fighting. Zuko manages to stay in one spot while blocking Azula’s attacks using styles from other benders, and Azula is constantly moving erratically like he used to. When Zuko mocks her about not using her lightning and being afraid he’ll redirect it, she loses it, but Zuko manages to keep his cool and Azula sees that, she plays dirty and directs her lightning… at Katara. Zuko gets in the way, saving Katara but becomes unable to continue. Katara takes over for him, though she finds herself powerless against the now completely insane Azula. That is until she sees a sewage system with a pile of chains and hatches a plan. When Azula finds her, she doesn’t hesitate to attack headfirst without noticing the sewer and Katara uses this to her advantage by freezing herself and Azula solid. Katara swims within the ice and chains Azula down, unfreezing them and tightening the chains before healing Zuko. At this point, Azula has a total meltdown, breathing heavily, screeching and squirming like a wild animal and breathing blue fire out of her mouth, before breaking down into sobs still chained down.

Remember when Zuko mentioned what Ozai told him about Azula being born lucky and him being lucky to be born? In reality, it was quite the opposite. Zuko went through many struggles but was successful in the end. He gained friends, became the Fire Lord, helped end a destructive conflict and reunite the nations. Meanwhile, Azula had everything, then lost everything and ended up insane. She lost her friends, her family and lost herself. The only luck she truly had was being born. And that sometimes is all too true for many villains.

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Jhadiva Elliott

Hi, my name is Jhadiva. I’m a college student studying Professional Writing and the technical editor of this group.

My hobbies are writing, watching movies and karate. My favorite genres to write about and watch are horror, action, thriller, mystery and fantasy. I enjoy being creative and I find the flawed characters of stories to be the most interesting.

Shrek: Reluctant Hero or Antihero?

Queue up the Smash Mouth, it’s analyzing time!

image courtesy of imgur

I feel like we all know about Shrek, but just in case anyone has been living under a nice boulder, Shrek is a DreamWorks animated film released in 2001. The story revolves around Shrek, an ogre who basically just wants to live his life of solitude in his beloved swamp. Okay, with the background information sorted, let’s get on with this analysis.

When I mentioned to a friend my idea for this post of writing about why Shrek is an antihero, he argued that Shrek is better described as a reluctant hero. This led to a heated debate. So, with that in mind, I figured I could spin that debate into a post.

What is a Reluctant Hero?

Straight from what we can all agree is the greatest source of information – Wikipedia:

photo courtesy of den of geek

“A reluctant hero is a tarnished or ordinary man with several faults or a troubled past, and he is pulled reluctantly into the story, or into heroic acts. During the story, he rises to the occasion, sometimes even vanquishing a mighty foe, sometimes avenging a wrong. But he questions whether he’s cut out for the hero business. His doubts, misgivings and mistakes add a satisfying layer of tension to a story.”

An example of a reluctant hero (overlooking the word “man” in the above definition) would be Hiccup (How to Train Your Dragon).

What is an Antihero?

Again, from Wikipedia:

image courtesy of medium

“An antihero is a main character in a story who lacks conventional heroic qualities and attributes such as idealism, courage and morality. Although antiheroes may sometimes perform actions that are morally correct, it is not always for the right reasons, often acting primarily out of self-interest or in ways that defy conventional ethical codes.”

A widely agreed upon example of an antihero would be Marvel’s Deadpool.

So, Which One is Shrek?

I’m sticking to my guns here and maintaining that Shrek is an antihero. Why? I’m glad you asked.

image courtesy of empire

Let’s look at what a hero is (this definition I’ll make up): a hero is someone who acts courageously in the face of adversity. They possess a strong moral code and aim to right any wrongs by acting selflessly for the interest of others. We’re talking about someone like Captain America.

Since “anti” means the opposite, I’m looking for the opposite of a hero. This person may have courage, but not necessarily for the right reasons. They are typically acting “heroically” purely out of self-interest. And ding, ding, ding! There it is – my major argument about why Shrek is an antihero.

Shrek isn’t saving the princess for her own good to get her out of that tower and away from the fire-breathing dragon. He’s saving Princess Fiona because it’s his ticket to evicting his new neighbours and getting his swamp back. Rescuing the princess from the highest room in the tallest tower is simply a means to an end. Shrek does it begrudgingly. Additionally, he is not about conventionalism, much to Fiona’s chagrin. He doesn’t care about doing things as tradition dictates he should. Instead of slaying the dragon, he’s quite literally dropped into the tower and just runs with his stroke of luck. He’s not the classic hero of this story.

Aside from the selfishness/selflessness debate, Shrek doesn’t have those classic good looks (the button nose or the flowing golden locks). He’s not a looker, and he knows it. In fact, he usually embraces it. He’s happy to be the big scary beast, even getting his kicks from it.

image courtesy of pinterest

Now, yes, the reluctant hero is – as the name suggests – one who becomes the hero hesitantly. I’m cautious about putting Shrek into this category simply because he doesn’t spend any time doubting his heroics. He doesn’t even realize he’s acting heroically. For all his faults, Shrek is admirably self-confident. He doesn’t doubt himself regarding his actions.

All in all, I’m confident in saying Shrek is an antihero. He saves Fiona from a life of misery with the arrogant tyrant who is hellbent on becoming a King by any means necessary. Shrek doesn’t set out to be a hero. Like I said, he just wants to get back to his mostly peaceful life all by himself in his swamp.

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image courtesy of allstar/disney

Lillian

Lillian is a second year Professional Writing student who has devoted much of her life to immersing herself in different worlds through the eyes of a variety of characters. Some characters she’s loved, some she’s hated, some she’s loved to hate and some she’s hated to love. It’s all in the name of research.

The Victims of Poor Development - Part 1: Ironwood

During a previous blog, I’ve said that I strongly oppose the idea of bashing a show you hate. There is so much less to say when you hate something, and what you have to say is seen through a lens of hatred.

This is all to say that I love Rooster Teeth’s RWBY and have since seen the Red Trailer back in 2012. I love it so much; I talked myself out of writing this blog twice now. However, recent events have changed my mind (i.e. the absolute rage-inducing disappointment of the first episode of Volume 8.) I’m disappointed and angry, and this blog will try to go over a summary of the events and frustrations I had leading up to the moment I ripped my AirPod out of my ear and threw it down at the coffee table before finishing the episode. 

V7: The First Steps Towards Darkness

The General Ironwood Mistake

rOOSTER TEETH — RWBY V7

The first moment that caused me to hesitate and pause was when Ironwood and Oscar/Ozpin were left alone. Though brief, their conflict was telling of the direction the writers were planning on taking and it immediately set off a dozen red flags in my head as it all fell into place. 

The heart of Volume 7’s conflict with Team RWBY and the Atlas Military was a moral disagreement. They both have the same goal; save Amity and protect as many people in Atlas and Mantle as possible. At least, that was how it started. See, the first half of the conflict was simple;

• Buy time to save all of remnant by raising Atlas out of Salem’s reach, but leave some of Mantle’s citizens behind in the process -- as we know there was no feasible way to stop Salem.

• Or stay and try to save Mantle and Atlas against impossible odds, and risk Salem dropping the raised city of Atlas onto Mantle -- killing everyone.

I was super invested in the conflict because at first, it all made sense. Team RWBY and Co. are a group of teenagers, so they believe that they need to stay to save everyone despite almost guaranteeing everyone’s death in the process. The General, a man with more experience in the military than the students have years of age, is of the belief that the best course of action is to get as many people from Mantle onto Atlas before raising the city.

By securing the safety of Atlas, they can confirm the continued safety of all of Remnant. By keeping Atlas over Mantle and within Salem’s reach, they risk handing one of the last of humanity's strongholds over to the enemy.

This was the crux of Volume 7’s conflict, and it started out incredible. I was floored and blown away by the maturity of the conflict and the writers allowing the viewers to choose who they agreed with along the way. Unfortunately, it didn’t stay that way. Though not explicitly stated in the Volume’s final episode, it was strongly implied and shown that the writers were planning to make General Ironwood into the bad guy. Someone who couldn’t be agreed with because his belief in “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few” was going too far, and he was going to turn into the Light Yagami of RWBY.

I was worried — because I was on his side morally. We will get to Volume 8 in a moment, but by this point, I was concerned.

rooster teeth - rwby 7

Volume 8: The Pain of Being Proven Right

The Culmination of a Dozen Small Mistakes

One episode into Volume 8, and I feared that all of my concerns from the final episode of Volume 7 came true. The moment in which I couldn’t stomach to sit through, and was entirely unable to finish, was the second that General Ironwood pulled out his gun and shot one of the council members. If I’m honest, I ripped my headphone out so fast that I didn’t hear the whole gunshot over my own scream in rage.

This wasn't the first moment in the episode that made me stop, but it was the last moment of the episode I watched before entirely closing out of the app and considering cancelling my Prime Membership.

rooster teeth — rwby v4

The man we have been shown to have commissioned an arm for Yang after the Fall of Beacon, the man who gave Winter a life she couldn’t have dreamed of before meeting him, the man who did everything in his power to save as many people as possible before Salem came and was attempting to reconnect all of Remnant to communication after Beacon Tower fell. This same man shot an innocent council member for asking questions for the sake of “at all costs.”

He did this with no reason to believe that they have been anything but on the same side as him in protecting Atlas.

Nope.

rooster teeth — rwby 8

He would not. He would never even dream to. He arrested Jacques Schnee not long before, without killing him, when the man single-handedly allowed Salem's forces to get back end access into critical military information and put all remnants at risk. The only crime of either council member was that of asking what was going on when the top Specialist was in the hospital seriously injured and the leader of the Ace Ops was dead. 

There is no world in which I would buy General Ironwood doing this. 

The only way I can believe it is if it was to make team RWBY look “in the right” on their decisions towards the end of their time working with General Ironwood. However, the problem is that the first thing we see of team RWBY and team JNR in this episode is them repeating the same fight they had against Ironwood… internally.

Now, Ruby is basically saying the same thing Ironwood was when the whole reason they left him mere HOURS AGO was for that disagreement. 

Stay Tuned For My Next Blog

In my next blog, I’ll go into the issues that arose with the Winter Maiden arc, and particularly, the systematic shafting of Winter Schnee’s development throughout the final episode.

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Image source — DreamWorks Studios [Catra]

Caitlyn C

Hi! My name is Caitlyn, a 22 year old dreamer whose main interests include: crying over fiction at 1 in the morning (mainly She Ra and Claymore), babysitting kittens, reading, and ignoring the doctor recommended 8 hours of sleep rule. I’ve been writing as a hobby for as long as I can remember but had my first interaction with finishing my first (garbage) novel in 2014. Now, I am a Professional Writing student who works hard every day to make less garbage novels through practice, reading, and calling my obsessions “studying”.

The Haunting and Subsequent Growth of Klaus Hargreeves

A dead father, addiction and the power to speak to the ghost of your dead brother. What could go wrong?

[Spoiler Warning for both seasons]

In The Umbrella Academy (so far only two seasons, season three has been announced), we are brought into the Hargreeve children’s lives. Forty-three children were born in 1989 on the same day to mothers who had not been pregnant before their births. There is a lot to say about this phenomenon, especially that all of these children had unimaginable powers. Reginald Hargreeves adopts seven of these children and forms a team of super-powered children. While I’d love to go into all of these characters and their unique powers, I will be focusing on one in particular that I believe had the most character growth within both seasons of The Umbrella Academy.

Provided by thespotern.com

We meet Klaus Hargreeves, played by Robert Sheehan, in episode one; We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals. After 30 days of sobriety, Klaus is released from rehab. Of course, the eccentric and troubled man immediately purchases drugs once he is on the streets. Upon overdosing on the pre-purchased drugs and then being revived in an ambulance, Klaus found out that his father had died. The funeral brings all of the siblings back together after years of being apart and reflects how much of a black sheep Klaus is in a family full of other black sheep.

The same episode tells us one of the seven children Reginald had adopted had died years before, and Klaus’ superpower, or curse in his mind, is also revealed. He can communicate with the dead, and Ben, the sibling that had died, can speak with Klaus. Their relationship can be seen as comedic relief throughout the show.

Klaus has been struggling with his powers for many years, along with the trauma that came with Reginald’s poor parenting skills, such as locking young Klaus in a mausoleum for days as a punishment since he was at least eight. During these times, at 13, Klaus realized that drugs could repress his powers so that ghosts would no longer haunt his days and nights. 

provided by pinterest.com

Throughout the first season, out of all of the siblings, Klaus had the most development. He reconnects with his siblings while battling with the throes of addiction. Klaus starts to accept his powers rather than repress them with drugs, especially after it got him kidnapped by Hazel and Cha-Cha, two time-travelling assassins, after a comedic towel dancing scene. He’d escaped the two and stole their time-travelling briefcase, jumping back in time and joining the Vietnam War. Klaus meets Dave, a fellow soldier, who he fell in love with. Dave was shot on the battlefield, and Klaus held him in his arms as he died, only returning to the present after Dave’s death, having spent 10 months in the war.  

Near the end of season one, we see an emotional scene just after he momentarily dies during a rave, where he is seated in a barber chair, and Reginald is shaving his face. It was theorized before season two was released on Netflix that the act of shaving was a metaphor for Klaus getting clean and overcoming his addiction to both alcohol and opiates.     

provided by polygon.com

Come the second season the Hargreeve children are time-jumped to different times in the 1960s. Klaus arrived on February 11, 1960, having started a thriving cult, or in his words “an alternative spiritual community,” by 1963. He called his followers, ironically, destiny’s children—most of his mantra lyrics of songs that don’t exist yet.

Ben and Klaus’s discussion reveals that Klaus had been three years sober, from alcohol and opiates, before the third episode, Swedish Job. The episode goes over how Klaus returned to Dallas and tracked down Dave, his partner in season one, to try and prevent him from signing up for the war at all. However, it doesn’t go as planned, and a confused younger Dave punches Klaus—this causes Klaus to seek out alcohol as a coping mechanism, setting him back substantially. 

While his addiction is once again relevant, and it seems like the show threw out all of his character growth from the past season, it does shine a light on how easily an addict can slip, no matter how far they’ve come. 

Despite this slip-up, more of Klaus’ powers are revealed throughout the season, such as having a ghost, Ben, talk and move as him. Along with this, he can also conjure up a corporeal army of spirits. The end of the season shows this off very well as all the siblings come together to fight against outside forces and stop the world from ending. Again.

In the end, Klaus, despite his forthcomings, is a stronger character by the end of season two. He has come a long way from his traumatized past, and his powers have grown more than even he could understand—which is why I will stand by my claim that Klaus Hargreeves has grown the most out of all of The Umbrella Academy’s characters.

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Dez

Bienvenidos! My name is Desirea, aka Dez. I am a 20-year-old Professional Writing student who has the heart and likes of a 10-year-old. As a Disney and Pixar fanatic, along with any kids movie that's not mediocre, my childish heart often fixates on animated characters. I frequently latch onto relationships that have not and never will be confirmed canon due to homophobic production studios and TERF writers. But alas, I let myself suffer anyways; this is precisely why I will be dragging said production studios and TERF writers in my articles.

The Journey of Vengeance

Everyone has been wronged at some point in their life. Which brings up the question; How far are you willing to go to get revenge? Which brings me to my main topic: The bride AKA Black Mamba: the main protagonist of Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol 1 and 2.

(Spoilers warning)

When we first see The Bride in Volume 1, she’s already on her vengeance spree targeting her former comrades. She’s in Pasadena and goes to Vernita Green AKA Copperhead’s house. We see that Vernita is now living under the name Jeannie Bell, now married and has a daughter named Nikki. They both plan to have a final battle out at a baseball diamond, but Vernita plays dirty and attempts to shoot her with a gun in a cereal box. However, the bride is quick to respond and kills Vernita with a knife in front of Nikki. Though she does apologize and say that she’ll be waiting if Nikki decides to get revenge when she grows up, implying that she knows deep down the repercussions of her mission, but going through it anyway.

Prior to this, we see a black and white shot of The Bride lying on the ground bruised, bloody and heavily breathing with an unseen man standing over her (Bill) before getting shot in the head and the opening credits being shown soon after.

The bride before getting shot

IMage provided by filmstudies2270.wordpress.com

Next, we see the first target on her list and the main antagonist of Volume 1, O-Ren Ishii, AKA Cottonmouth (please keep in mind that not everything in these films is chronological). We get an anime segment detailing O-Ren’s backstory.

O-Ren was born to a Chinese American father and Japanese mother on an American military base in Tokyo. As the Bride tells us, O-Ren made her first acquaintance with death at the age of nine. At that age, she witnessed her parents’ death at the hands of a yakuza boss, Boss Matsumoto. When the carnage is over, her house is set on fire, but she escapes and swears revenge. And she gets it a couple of years later when she brutally murders Boss Matsumoto in his bedroom. By 20, O-Ren is one of the top female assassins in the world globally, shown in a pretty funny scene where O-Ren assassinates a politician with two women present and after the deed is done, the women look at the body for a couple of seconds before letting out a scream. At 25, she was there with the other vipers during the El Paso wedding massacre that would put the bride into a four-year coma and kill her unborn daughter (the bride was pregnant, and it’s implied she had a miscarriage because of the beating she received).

The bride goes to Tokyo and eventually kills O-Ren by scalping her in a sword fight. Before the movie ends, we hear this wise quote from Hattori Hanzo: “Revenge is never a straight line. It's a forest. And like a forest, it's easy to lose your way. To get lost. To forget where you came in.”

By the time we get to Volume 2, her priority hasn’t changed, though this time she’s bringing closer to her main target: Bill. We find out more about the Bride and her relationship with Bill before the massacre put her on the warpath, to begin with. First, she tries to kill Budd, AKA Sidewinder, but the plan fails, and she gets trapped underground in a coffin.

During this time, we get a flashback seeing how the bride was taught how to fight. Back when she and Bill were still lovers, he dropped her off at the temple of Pai Mei, Bill’s former master, to receive more formal training. Before Bill leaves, he gives her warnings about Pai Mei and his… less than pleasant personality. “He hates Caucasians. Despises Americans and has nothing but contempt for women.” Despite hearing this, she proceeds onward, and when she meets Pai Mei, he’s everything Bill said he was. Worst of all, much to the bride’s and the audience’s surprise, he kicks her ass easily in a fight but then again, he was the one who trained her, so it was also expected. We then see a montage of the bride’s training, and boy is it brutal. But we do see that over time, Pai Mei sees how hard she’s working without any complaint, gradually making a lot of progress and respecting her more in turn, even though she represents everything he hates.

When the bride does eventually get out of the coffin using the one-inch punch taught to her by Pai Mei in the flashback, Elle Driver, AKA California King Snake, comes to Budd’s trailer and kills him using a real black mamba. We finally get the Bride’s real name: Beatrix Kiddo. Elle and Beatrix have a battle during which Elle says she killed Pai Mei by poisoning his fish heads after snatching out her eye, though to be fair, Elle called him a miserable old fool. Beatrix avenges him by plucking out Elle’s remaining eye and squishing it, leaving her blind with the black mamba. Beatrix had a shred of remorse for killing O-Ren and Vernita, but she felt no remorse for Elle.

Beatrix’s final fight with bill

Image provided by The Code Is Zeek

By the time she finally finds Bill, she gets caught by surprise when she sees… her daughter, who is still alive with him (Hey, I did warn you about spoilers). And when they put BB to bed, Bill and Beatrix have a discussion before their final battle ending with her saying “You and I have unfinished business.” Bill replies “Baby, you ain’t kidding.” and Beatrix kills him with the five-palm exploding heart technique (another move taught to her by Pai Mei). Although you couldn’t tell, Beatrix still loved Bill despite everything, even sharing a heartfelt goodbye with her crying in a mix of relief and sorrow.

But in the end, Beatrix has things work out for her and her daughter. But keep in mind, revenge is the solution to some things; it’s not the solution to everything.

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Jhadiva Elliott

Hi, my name is Jhadiva. I’m a college student studying Professional Writing and the technical editor of this group.

My hobbies are writing, watching movies and karate. My favorite genres to write about and watch are horror, action, thriller, mystery and fantasy. I enjoy being creative and I find the flawed characters of stories to be the most interesting.

Kids: More Than Just Cute Faces

The Endless Struggle with Realistically Written Child Characters

In writing, young characters are often cast aside in favour of the more interesting, more complex or more knowledgeable grown-up characters. This neglect of adolescents is a real shame because I would argue children could be the more complex characters. As is often the comparison made, children are sponges. They are constantly absorbing what’s happening around them. They’re effectively still learning about the world.

Often, when a story includes a child somewhere, they’re given some vague characteristics and cast aside. Usually, that child falls into one of three categories I may-or-may-not have just made up: the bratty youngster, the wise-beyond-their-years counsellor or the baby-faced-and-voiced kid solely there for the “aww, so cute” factor.

Children are multi-faceted beings. If you think back to your own childhood, you’ll realize this. Sure, maybe you were that bratty youngster, but surely there was a reason for that. You weren’t just a brat for the sake of being a brat (if you were, sorry for this generalization, and also, I hope you’ve evolved from that).

Here is a great post that discusses different age groups and how they think, speak and behave. It provides a lot of useful information and tips for effectively writing children.

A few pieces of writing (books, TV shows, movies) come to mind when I think of child characters. Some of these young characters are good, and some are bad.

Quick Disclaimer

I’m opting to ignore child characters in media created specifically for young audiences. Those characters are usually portrayed very unrealistically, but for a good reason. With children’s media typically meant to be educational, it makes sense for the characters to be well-rounded and well-behaved. I’m also choosing to ignore the glaring exception to this, Caillou, as I’d prefer to keep pretending that particular character doesn’t exist.

image courtesy of pinterest

The Bad

When I think of a frustratingly written child, I think of Jamie Scott from One Tree Hill (I recently showed the…interesting 2000s teen drama to my roommate, so it’s fresh in my mind).

Jamie doesn’t show up until halfway through the series. The show’s fifth season is set four years after the finale of the fourth season. The baby born at the end of season four is now a fully-fledged person. But I digress.

Jamie Scott perfectly embodies the second category I named above: the wise-beyond-their-years counsellor. He’s four years old, yet somehow, he’s the one with the best nuggets of wisdom. I’m pretty sure every single thing he says is meant to be seen as so very smart. I’ve worked with kids of all ages, and let me tell you, four-year-olds are not all that wise. Sure, they might occasionally say something inadvertently smart and profound. For the most part, though, they’re laughing about butts and pretending they don’t know who drew on the wall.

image courtesy of indy week

The Good

Now, the good – or better, at least. Emma Donoghue did a terrific job of writing from the perspective of a five-year-old boy, Jack, in her novel (and its 2015 film adaptation) Room. The story is about Jack and his mother and their lives confined to a small room.

Jack encapsulates the curious child. He asks questions, but he also knows a lot. He often explains what he understands about his tiny world. It quickly becomes clear to the audience that Jack is in a bad situation. This is not clear to Jack. He’s just the innocent kid. He spends his days with only his mother, playing games as they pass the time any way they can in their limited space. He’s having fun and enjoying being a kid.

Jack also has his less pleasant moments. He has tantrums. He screams. He cries. He doesn’t listen. This is real. He’s acting like a real kid. Jack’s not just one thing: happy-go-lucky, obnoxious, scared, sad, angry or pretty much any emotion under the sun. He is all of them. Just like you. Just like me.

In Conclusion…

I could go on and on about badly written and well-written children. There are so many child characters out there waiting to be analyzed, after all. For the sake of time, I will just say: don’t write children off. They bring a lot to a story besides just being props.

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image courtesy of allstar/disney

Lillian

Lillian is a second year Professional Writing student who has devoted much of her life to immersing herself in different worlds through the eyes of a variety of characters. Some characters she’s loved, some she’s hated, some she’s loved to hate and some she’s hated to love. It’s all in the name of research.

The Importance of Time to Character Development

Unlike my last blog, this one will not be about a single series. Instead, it will be about how a single concept (in this case, time) affected the series I will be discussing.

There will be two categories to look at “good use” and “confused use.” I don’t believe there is a point in bashing a series I don’t like; instead, I think there is a lot more to say about a series I like despite their flaws.

Good Use: Claymore

Source - Claymore norihiro yagi official art

As stated in my last blog, Shonen series are known for having these unrealistic character arcs that allow for the scrawny main character (usually a male) to train for three months and come out able to slay gods. 

Claymore doesn’t have this problem. It handles both the “power grind” of its main character, Clare, and her emotional character development in perfect order with enough time to be believable and satisfying.

I will be looking at this series through two “timelines.” The first is the “compressed timeline” that consists of the events that happened after the Ghosts returned to Rabona in chapter 128 until the last chapter of the manga. The second is what I will call the “elongated timeline,” which starts at chapter one, ignores the flashbacks, and ends with the Ghosts leaving the North after the Seven Year Time Skip.

Why did these timelines work so well? Simply, it’s the difference between “story” and “plot.” Though not as egregious as Lord of the Rings, Claymore’s story and plot end separately. The story of Claymore is one of the found family and learning to put value in your life again. The plot of Claymore is revenge. 

The “elongated timeline” for Claymore is developing, flesh out, and creating the story for Clare. Organically, we see her meet her friends, push them away and yet still be willing to sacrifice herself for them. We see more of Clare’s relationships during this period than we do of Clare’s revenge. We meet the four Half Awakened characters (Jean, Miria, Helen and Deneve) and we see Clare kill one of them and set her back at square one emotionally. What we don’t see is Clare coming into conflict with or even coming close to Priscilla.

The “compressed timeline” gives us the resolution to the plot in a quick, satisfying and not drawn-out manner.

The climax of the story happens when Miria confronts Clare about her belief that her life is worth nothing outside of her revenge, and it “ends” with Clare admitting that she wants to live with her found family. Then, we have the Priscilla conflict in 3 stages; Riful, Cassandra and Priscilla herself. The ending of this conflict would be the end of the “plot.”

If the plot had taken up every chapter of Claymore through just constantly meeting and failing to defeat Priscilla, it would have been more annoying than satisfying. If the “elongated timeline” had been compressed, it would have been overshadowed by the plot and left unsatisfying and mute. The ending of the anime does both of these things.

Confused Use: Vampire Knight

Source: Vampire knight published by viz media and hakusensha

By contrast, Vampire Knight does time wrong in every way. I want to clarify that I have a lot of love and nostalgia for Vampire Knight despite its flaws. This conversation is exclusive to the Anime and the comments made about Shonen Manga apply to Shojo Manga, at least as far as Vampire Knight goes. 

The main issues that Vampire Knight has appeared in the second season. Vampire Knight’s plot and story are not equal in the eyes of the anime, as the love triangle between Yuki, Kaname and Zero is given more time than the conflict with Rido Kuron.

The most obvious misstep made is seen through Yuki’s awakening as the Vampire Princess. The time between Yuki turning into a Vampire, gaining her memories and her attempts to confront Rido Kuron is a few hours. Worse, the time between her remembering her childhood and her awakening is… minutes?

This means that by the time Yuki is expected to defeat Rido Kuron, she is the same person she was at the beginning of the season. As such, there is no payoff, as Yuki has to be saved by Zero despite the insinuation that she would be stronger as a Vampire. Instead, she has one shining moment of protecting the Night Class students (admittedly, it was incredibly heartwarming and the highlight of the final episodes) but is then relegated to the sidelines while the boys both save her again.

What should have been a season of Yuki learning her past and honing her skills as a vampire was relegated to a couple of episodes. This left the ending unsatisfying and caused Yuki to be the “damsel in distress” again. The story was left unfinished (for the hope of a 3rd season that never happened) and the plot solved by someone who had no relationship to the Kuron family and their deaths. 

If Yuki had been given the chance to slowly remember her mother and father after she was turned into a vampire, we could have seen her desire for revenge drive her to train. Then, with the help of the Night Class, we could see Yuki become a critical part of the fight against Rido, killing the man who killed her parents.

Conclusion

These observations can be applied to all types of fiction. I’d be more than willing to talk about how time is used, well or poorly, in novels like the Lunar Chronicles, Ninth House, Again, but Better, and the Ash Princess trilogy if there is any interest in going into another deep dive about the use of time in novels.

I encourage you to look at your own stories and ask yourself if your timeline suits the story and plot you are telling.

Image source — DreamWorks Studios [Catra]

Caitlyn C

Hi! My name is Caitlyn, a 22 year old dreamer whose main interests include: crying over fiction at 1 in the morning (mainly She Ra and Claymore), babysitting kittens, reading, and ignoring the doctor recommended 8 hours of sleep rule. I’ve been writing as a hobby for as long as I can remember but had my first interaction with finishing my first (garbage) novel in 2014. Now, I am a Professional Writing student who works hard every day to make less garbage novels through practice, reading, and calling my obsessions “studying”.

A Plea in The Case of Draco Malfoy

To Redeem or Not To Redeem

If the choice came down to a willing and participating Death Eater or a tormented teenager who was forced to take the Dark Mark, who would you choose for a redemption arc?

While the decision seems obvious, J.K. Rowling believed that Severus Snape, an adult who made Harry’s life a living hell solely because of something that happened decades ago, was more deserving of being redeemed than Draco Malfoy, a teenager who was forced to: live with the Wizarding world’s equivalent of Hitler, take the Dark Mark and betray his school and friends to protect his family. 

Draco Malfoy was pushed into so many corners throughout the Harry Potter series you would think he was trapped in a small box.

Provided by etcanada.com

The Harry Potter fandom often blames Draco’s parents for not having the courage to separate themselves from the Death Eaters, but what were they supposed to do? Voldemort had returned, and they had no means of protection unless they displayed loyalty to their Lord. They were scared like many people would be when faced with that kind of situation. 

Not only were the Malfoys scared for themselves, they were terrified for their only son. Fenrir Greyback, a werewolf whose loyalties lie with Voldemort, had a bad habit of attacking and turning children into werewolves. So had the Malfoys betrayed the Dark Lord, they could guess what Greyback could do to their son. As I stated in my last article, lycanthropy, confirmed by Rowling herself, is a metaphor for AIDS. By being a threat to Draco’s parents by possibly turning their son into a werewolf, Greyback could be insinuating something sinister. 

So while they are cowardly and lack self-sacrifice throughout the series, it’s within their right. While it might not be beneficial to Draco having a normal childhood, which of the Hogwarts students in Harry Potter can honestly say they had a normal childhood? 

However, it is my humble opinion that Draco is by far the most tormented side-character. It was stated in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that Draco could not produce a Patronus. This high-level spell can only be cast by thinking of your happiest memory. He is, however, well-versed in Occlumency, the ability to protect your mind and thoughts against external magic penetration. Draco, not having a happy enough memory to summon a Patronus but being scared and defensive enough to learn Occlumency, the magical art of mind protection, says a lot.

Not only is he personally tortured by Voldemort for something he didn’t even do, he was forced to torture others. This, in itself, can be a factor in Draco’s apparent depression. 

With Draco’s depression brought to light, the one time he attempts to express his emotions, he is almost killed. Throughout his sixth-year, Draco was assigned to repair the Vanishing Cabinet so that Death Eaters could infiltrate Hogwarts. Had he not agreed to do this, he or his parents could have died, so while Draco felt guilty, he pushed through. 

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His sketchy and elusive actions caused Harry to be suspicious of him. When he finally breaks down in the sixth-floor boys’ bathroom, where Harry should have no access, he is cursed with Sectumsempra, a fatal spell. Harry had no idea what the effects were. The only information provided for this new spell was ‘for enemies,’ and Draco nearly died because of Harry’s rash decisions. Once again, suppressing Draco from venting out his perfectly normal emotions. 

Despite Harry doing this, Draco risks his own life and well-being by not confirming Harry’s identity. 

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After the Golden Trio were captured by the Snatchers and Greyback in Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, they were brought back to Malfoy Manor, Voldemort’s headquarters. Before they were caught, Hermione used the Stinging Jinx on Harry’s face to conceal his identity. Knowing if the Death Eaters could instantly confirm it was Harry, he would be killed on sight. 

They needed to verify his identity before presenting him to their Lord. So with Draco going to school with Harry, he was the only one that could correctly identify him. Of course, he knew it was, in fact, Harry. Still, he denied the other boys’ identity in hopes of Voldemort’s defeat. So that the wizarding world had a chance. 

This was a big step for Draco, especially growing up with parents that didn’t have the courage to be self-sacrificing for their own child, while he was for a boy who wouldn’t even be his friend. Simply because he knew that Harry was the Wizarding world’s only chance. 

He was self-sacrificing even when he was in his most scared state, which really speaks to his character. If Draco was given a choice to have a secure and safe role on Harry’s side of the battle, I, without a doubt, think he would’ve taken it. 

With all this said, I believe that Draco Malfoy was worthy of a redemption arc. Because not only did he have a shite childhood, but by the end of the series, he showed more courage than most of the adults in Harry Potter ever did.

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Dez

Bienvenidos! My name is Desirea, aka Dez. I am a 20-year-old Professional Writing student who has the heart and likes of a 10-year-old. As a Disney and Pixar fanatic, along with any kids movie that's not mediocre, my childish heart often fixates on animated characters. I frequently latch onto relationships that have not and never will be confirmed canon due to homophobic production studios and TERF writers. But alas, I let myself suffer anyways; this is precisely why I will be dragging said production studios and TERF writers in my articles.

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How Sunset Shimmer went from Villain to Hero

We’ve all asked ourselves this question at some point in our lives: is redemption possible, and if so, how do we get it? I will be breaking down and analyzing what goes through a redemption arc: Sunset Shimmer, the main antagonist of My Little Pony: Equestria Girls movie. (Spoiler warning)

Image provided by IMDB

The movie starts when Twilight, the main protagonist, has been adjusting to her royal title as the princess of friendship. While she and her friends are asleep, we see a mysterious figure (Sunset) has infiltrated the castle and attempts to steal Twilight’s crown (also her element of harmony), switching it with a fake replica. Still, luckily, Spike trips her causing Twilight to wake up and see her crown was being stolen, and a chase begins, which ends with Twilight tackling, but the crown falls out the bag ends up passing through a mirror, which turns out to be a portal to another world.

The thief escapes and goes through the portal, and only soon after does Celestia reveal who Sunset Shimmer is. She was a former student who began her studies not long before Twilight, but when Sunset did not get what she wanted as quickly as she liked, she turned cruel and dishonest. No matter how much Celestia tried to help, Sunset decided to abandon her studies and pursue her own path. So far, we have established our villain; now, it’s up to Twilight to follow Sunset into the other world and get her crown back.

When Twilight gets to the other world (the human high school world) and manages to find Sunset, Twilight, and we see it’s clear that she’s as cruel as Celestia said and a definite bully. She’s at the top of the food chain, winning every school competition and is widespread. When Twilight wins the crown and tries to return home, Sunset holds Spike hostage and threatens to destroy the portal if Twilight doesn’t give her what she wants. When Twilight refuses, a fight ensues and ends with Sunset wearing the crown, turning into a demon and mind-controlling the other students into taking over Equestria.

Twilight and her friends manage to defeat her and save the day; Sunset comes out of the crater as a tear-streaked, remorseful mess. Despite everything, Twilight is willing to give Sunset a chance to learn about friendship and leaves in the care of her new friends, helping to clean up the messes she made. However, we don’t see this concept develop any further until the sequel.

By the time we see Sunset again, she has become an outcast due to the previous film’s events, with only the rest of the Mane Six (except Twilight) willing to be her friend. Though Sunset appears to be okay, at this point, she is unsure of herself and where she stands, which later becomes a problem when the group begins to fall apart and doesn’t say anything because she doesn’t feel like she has a say in the group. It isn’t until the climax when the group gets into a massive argument, that Sunset finally speaks up and says what she had been feeling his whole time and is the one who gives the lesson rather than Twilight.

In the finale, Sunset rises against the villains and helps the Mane Six defeat them. Does she finally feel like she’s part of the team? Yes, she does. I admire Sunset’s development because she genuinely learned from her mistakes and didn’t fall back into old habits throughout the film. Even trying not to fall in the rabbit hole of harsh but true remarks that the current villains say about her.

Sunset finally becoming part of the group

Image provided by TVTROPES.com

The way I see it, redemption is possible (for most people) and the way to get it is by first expressing remorse for any evil deed, then asking and wondering, “what can I do to make things right?” and actually doing those things so you can make up for your past mistakes and show that you can and will be redeemed.

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Jhadiva Elliott

Hi, my name is Jhadiva. I’m a college student studying Professional Writing and the technical editor of this group. My hobbies are writing, watching movies and karate. My favorite genres to write about and watch are horror, action, thriller, mystery and fantasy. I enjoy being creative and I find the flawed characters of stories to be the most interesting.

Carl Jung and Friends

Even though revered psychoanalyst Carl Jung passed away a good 30-something years before the hit sitcom Friends aired in 1994, I’ve decided that – surely – he would want me to analyze the show’s six main characters through the lens of his 12 Archetypes of Personality theory. After studying various cultures, Jung developed these personality types, each defined by specific behaviour patterns. So, without further ado, let’s dive right in!

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Chandler

This one felt almost too easy. The Jester, of course! Chandler is always good for a laugh and doesn’t take himself seriously. I’m a big fan of anyone that will make a joke, even if they’re the only ones laughing at it (me). He’s had a rough life, and he knows it, but he doesn’t let it define him. “Mrs. Chanandler Bong” certainly subscribes to the belief that laughter is the best medicine.

image courtesy of charactour

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image courtesy of radio times

Monica

After some careful thought, I’m calling Monica the Caregiver. I mean, pretty much everyone is always at her apartment, where she’s oftentimes cooking or baking. She’s the most maternal of the group, usually being the sounding board for problems and offering advice. I may be slightly biased in seeing her as maternal, solely basing it off the fact that Monica has a smaller vacuum to clean her vacuum and I once caught my mother vacuuming her vacuum.

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Joey

image courtesy of business insider

The Lover. I’m not just saying this because Joey is the token womanizer of the show. Yeah, he goes through a lot of relationships. But really, the dude just loves love. He also loves food (but does not share it), and you could argue that food=love. Joey is basically a teddy bear; you can’t help but love the guy.

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image courtesy of lion’s roar

Phoebe

Phoebe is the Innocent. However, I found it interesting that Phoebe also technically could be considered the Orphan. I mean, she is almost literally an orphan. Yet, she doesn’t encompass what the Orphan is all about. Therefore, the Innocent she is. She’s ever the optimist. Phoebe sees the best in everyone (for the most part). And really, she just wants happiness. It’s certainly admirable to see that she doesn’t carry her feelings of betrayal and abandonment with her everywhere.

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Ross

image courtesy of charactour

Mr. Know-It-All is, for sure, the Sage. He’s a paleontologist first and everything else second (like a father to Ben, who just disappeared?). Ross loves to use and show off his intelligence. It’s the major facet of his personality, and he knows it.

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image courtesy of digital spy

Rachel

I struggled with Rachel. Looking back, I think she had the most growth of any of the six main characters by far. I had her as the Explorer, but that didn’t feel right. Then she was the Rebel, but that didn’t feel right either. I even typed up a whole spiel about her being the Orphan, but that was only true for her initially. I realized after a while that I had already acknowledged what her perfect fit was. If Rachel had the most growth, of course that would make her the Magician. She’s constantly changing throughout the series and eventually becomes the best possible version of herself. Of course, her mood is contagious as well, for better or worse.

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image courtesy of human givens institute

So, there we have it. Friends, psychoanalyzed. Thank you to my mom for loving the show and watching reruns constantly, meaning I watched reruns constantly as a child and had the many sexual innuendos going over my head. And thank you, Carl Jung, for both this theory and for not making people feel weird about their relationship with their parents (looking at you, Freud).

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image courtesy of allstar/disney

Lillian

Lillian is a second year Professional Writing student who has devoted much of her life to immersing herself in different worlds through the eyes of a variety of characters. Some characters she’s loved, some she’s hated, some she’s loved to hate and some she’s hated to love. It’s all in the name of research.

How Claymore Nailed its Handling of Trauma

Claymore is a unique manga written by Norihiro Yagi and published for the west by VIZ Media that concluded in 2014. Thanks to its age and relative lack of traction in the western audience, I find that there are far too few people who've given the manga a chance. This is a shame, because it is also one of the best examples of how to do trauma right.

This article assumes that the reader has already completed the entire manga to explain and dissect the handling of trauma in Claymore properly. It will contain a discussion of arcs that were not covered by the anime and spoilers for this incredible story's conclusion. On its surface, Claymore looks like a simple story of revenge, but calling Clare's story "simple" is an insulting underestimation of a story that I have -- up until now -- not found a match for in terms of the quality of the plot, character development and relationships developments that take place over the 155 chapter run.

Claymore Chapter 30

Though not immediately obvious, Clare is a deeply traumatized character. The first character to point this out is Galatea, who mentions that "something happened in her past that caused her to shut down emotionally." There is no better line in the series that identifies Clare's relationship with emotion.

Clare's character development's first strength is her obvious blindness to the friendships around her and her suicidal march towards Priscilla, never being depicted as "brave" or "heroic." At worst, it is painted as childish and at best, it is painted as unhealthy and worrisome. Miria, Helen, Deneve and the other Ghosts are constantly saving her from herself, even while she runs wild without regard to their worry.

Clare's behaviour stems from a few key moments. Being the "toy" of a Yoma who used her to hide from Claymores is the first. It's implied that she remembers her family, but throughout the series, Clare thinks of them so rarely it can be inferred that her memories are not particularly strong ones. What this means for Clare is that her earliest memories and her most vivid memories of childhood are those in which she was "tormented in any way it liked" by the Yoma. Clare came out of this part of her life non-verbal, or "selectively mute" because of her trauma. 

This was only compounded when the bandits attacked Clare upon being left in a village by Teresa and again when she witnessed Teresa be beheaded right in front of her. Clare is left alone to process and deal with these traumatic events repeatedly, but all she knows how to do is repress it and keep moving forward, which is how she wound up with a suicidal devotion to killing Priscilla, where other comrades didn't. 

Claymore Chapter 24

Norihiro Yagi begins to dismantle Clare's relationship with her trauma in two key moments: the first encounter with Priscilla after the Destroyer's awakening and the conversation before the final battle of the Ghosts versus Priscilla.

After almost getting her friends killed, Clare cannot awaken to kill Priscilla, which she believes is her sole reason for living. Instead, what Deneve calls "Jean's Big Wedge" pulls Clare back over to humanity, saving her from awakening and giving Deneve and Helen just enough time to save Clare and escape. This is the first time that we begin to see that Clare has put value in life outside of her revenge, as it is Jean’s friendship and sacrifice that ultimately saves her. Moreover, Helen and Deneve prove in this moment that there are people alive who want to protect Clare and see her live on.

The second time is when Clare is just freed of the "blob" that had absorbed her. For the first time, Clare finally tells the Seven Ghosts what Teresa meant to her and that she believes her sole reason for living is to kill Priscilla. Miria, someone Clare looks up to as a "big sister" and has been saved by countless times, calmly asks if none of them matter to her. Her words to Clare, about what she means to them and her revenge have been replaced by their collective fight with Priscilla both surprises and frustrates Clare. Miria and the other Ghosts have decided to fight the strongest being alive together for themselves and for what she took from Clare.

Claymore chapter 130

 Clare is shown that her solo revenge is gone when she fails to awaken to kill Priscilla because of her friendship with Jean, and then it is shown that she has friends who love her and will fight to give Clare peace. Clare accepts their help and is granted life after Priscilla's death thanks to her friends. This is an outcome she had never expected for herself, but when her friends praise her and celebrate the battle they won, Clare is not upset to be alive.

She will have more to work through after the series is over; Norihiro Yagi never says that killing Priscilla cure's Clare's PTSD and Childishness, but she is not doing it alone. Claymore, at the end of the day, handles trauma in the best way possible. You do not have to fight your battles alone and pushing those who love you away will only cause both of you pain.

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Image source — DreamWorks Studios [Catra]

Caitlyn C

Hi! My name is Caitlyn, a 22 year old dreamer whose main interests include: crying over fiction at 1 in the morning (mainly She Ra and Claymore), babysitting kittens, reading, and ignoring the doctor recommended 8 hours of sleep rule. I’ve been writing as a hobby for as long as I can remember but had my first interaction with finishing my first (garbage) novel in 2014. Now, I am a Professional Writing student who works hard every day to make less garbage novels through practice, reading, and calling my obsessions “studying”.

Why The Destruction of ‘Wolfstar’ Diminished J.K. Rowling’s Character Development Skills

J.K. Rowling single-handedly eradicated one of her best character relationship developments in the Harry Potter series, and here’s how she did it.

By now, the Harry Potter fandom knows not to expect much from the author. But throughout the making of her world-renowned book series, she threw more bludgers at the fans than even Victor Krum could dodge. With this said, it’s no surprise that she did it with one of her readers’ most anticipated ships, Wolfstar.

Provided by popsugar.com

Remus Lupin, a professor at Hogwarts during Harry’s third year, suffers from lycanthropy, which Rowling herself reveals is an allegory for AIDS. Based on the story timeline, Remus and the Marauders (Peter Pettigrew, James Potter and Sirius Black) were in their early twenties when there was an AIDS outbreak in the gay men community. With this kind of correlation, it’s hard to think that Rowling was implying that Remus was completely straight. Bisexuality, while not commonly accepted in the LGBT+ community, suits Remus the best, especially considering that by the end of the series, he was married and had a child with Nymphadora Tonks. However, their relationship had no structure. There was no build-up or connection until their marriage was announced in the seventh book, the entire series’s final book.

Rushed relationships are the bane of my entire existence, especially when Remus had a perfect potential partner since the third book of the series. Sirius Black, a pure-blood wizard, was disowned after defying his once-notable family’s beliefs and acting differently from the rest of his bigotted family. With that said, claiming that he’s gay solely because of this is a bit of a reach; however, that isn’t all there is to back up this claim. There is implied attraction in the third book when they reunite after Sirius is wrongly imprisoned for twelve years and finally escapes. Up until the fifth book, both Remus and Sirius are practically dancing around each other like two teenagers who can’t sort out their feelings. Many fans have theorized that the fourth book is when their relationship from their high school and young adult lives is rekindled. This is when Dumbledore orders Sirius to lay low at Remus’. Rowling wrote their interactions in a way that expressly implied that they were two socially inept men that had no idea how to express their feelings. So they simply stared at each other, constantly.

Provided by wizardingworld.com

Even without the awkward staring, their relationship with one another is one of the most bonded and in sync I’ve ever seen. Of course, that can be explained, downplayed, as a pair of best friends. Still, anyone can see that their relationship can’t merely be platonic for how Rowling initially wrote them. Especially with Sirius devoting a whole year to becoming an Animagus to support Remus during the full moon transformations he goes through due to his lycanthropy.

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But all good things must come to an end. So when the most painful death in the whole book series happens, Rowling entirely destroys the series’ strongest character relationship developments she’s been working on for three books. By killing off Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, not only does she take away one of the last connections Harry has to his parents, but she takes away Remus’ true love. I know for a fact that Sirius’ death is the only reason Remus ends up with Tonks at the end of the series. Which other fans of the series can also agree with. She doesn’t stop there either. Even when Remus gets this ‘happy’ ending with Tonks and their child, in the final Battle of Hogwarts, Rowling kills both of them, leaving their child an orphan like Harry. So not only did Remus not end up with who he was supposed to, but he suffered the same fate as the Potters, which he never wanted to do.

She obliterated both Sirius and Remus from building as characters both separately and together, practically throwing away any development she had been working towards. Sirius’ final scene was both heartbreaking and soul-crushing, while Remus’ was utterly abysmal. They didn’t get what they deserved, both of their deaths felt like a scapegoat Rowling used to avoid conclusions she no longer wanted for the series. It was an ill-conceived solution to something that didn’t need to be solved. This is why I believe J.K. Rowling eradicated one of her best character relationship developments in the Harry Potter series. 

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Dez

Bienvenidos! My name is Desirea, aka Dez. I am a 20-year-old Professional Writing student who has the heart and likes of a 10-year-old. As a Disney and Pixar fanatic, along with any kids movie that's not mediocre, my childish heart often fixates on animated characters. I frequently latch onto relationships that have not and never will be confirmed canon due to homophobic production studios and TERF writers. But alas, I let myself suffer anyways; this is precisely why I will be dragging said production studios and TERF writers in my articles.