Latest Posts by stubbornlacat - Page 3

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Quick Tips for Writing Interesting Villains

Give them relationships with other characters. Being a villain doesn’t mean they’re isolated

Give them their own set of morals

Give them something to care about

Consider the reasons why they want to hurt the protagonist

Remember that they are human

Don’t make them evil for the sake of being evil

Keep in mind that a villain doesn’t have to do every horrible thing imaginable

Not every villain was abused. Someone who was spoiled is just as, if not more, likely to lack empathy than someone who was abused

Consider how they rationalize their behavior (blame their victims, make excuses, believe that what they’re doing is right)

Give them a life outside of being a villain. Maybe your protagonist is going shopping and they run into their villain and the villain isn’t interested or up for a fight that day. This really depends on the story, though

Give them a past, present, or future relationship with the protagonist. Again, this depends on the story

Consider making your villain likable

Give the reader a reason to sympathize with them

Here’s the thing about the air nomads.

I introduced a friend to ATLA a few nights ago, and they had only known two things about the entire show: the cabbage meme, and that Aang apparently wants to ride every large and dangerous animal he can possibly find. We got through the first five or so episodes, and my friend noted that Aang is exactly what a 12-year-old would be like if given godlike powers, and that this is literally just what he could do with airbending. He can’t even wield any of the other elements, and he’s one of the most powerful people on the planet, because he’s an airbender.

And that got me thinking.

This snippet from Bitter Work is one of the few pieces of concrete information we get about the airbenders, at least in ATLA. Iroh is explaining to Zuko how all four of the elements connect to the world and to each other.

Fire is the element of power, of desire and will, of ambition and the ability to see it through. Power is crucial to the world; without it, there’s no drive, no momentum, no push. But fire can easily grow out of control and become dangerous; it can become unpredictable, unless it is nurtured and watched and structured.

Earth is the element of substance, persistence, and enduring. Earth is strong, consistent, and blunt. It can construct things with a sense of permanence; a house, a town, a walled city. But earth is also stubborn; it’s liable to get stuck, dig in, and stay put even when it’s best to move on.

Water is the element of change, of adaptation, of movement. Water is incredibly powerful both as a liquid and a solid; it will flow and redirect. But it also will change, even when you don’t want it to; ice will melt, liquid will evaporate. A life dedicated to change necessarily involves constant movement, never putting down roots, never letting yourself become too comfortable.

We see only a few flashbacks to Aang’s life in the temples, and we get a sense of who he was and what kind of upbringing he had.

This is a preteen with the power to fucking fly. He’s got no fear of falling, and a much reduced fear of death. There’s a reason why the sages avoid telling the new avatar their status until they turn sixteen; could you imagine a firebender, at twelve years old, learning that they were going to be the most powerful person in the whole world? Depending on that child, that could go so badly.

But the thing about Aang, and the thing about the Air Nomads, is that they were part of the world too. They contributed to the balance, and then they were all but wiped out by Sozin. What was lost, there? Was it freedom? Yes, but I think there’s something else too, and it’s just yet another piece of the utter brilliance of the worldbuilding of ATLA.

To recap: we have power to push us forward; we have stability to keep us strong; we have change to keep us moving.

And then we have this guy.

The air nomads brought fun to the world. They brought a very literal sense of lightheartedness.

Sozin saw this as a weakness. I think a lot of the world did, in ATLA. Why do the Air Nomads bother, right? They’re just up there in their temples, playing games, baking pies in order to throw them as a gag. As Iroh said above, they had pretty great senses of humour, and they didn’t take themselves too seriously.

But that’s a huge part of having a world of balance and peace.

It’s not just about power, or might, or the ability to adapt. You can have all of those, but you also need fun. You need the ability to be vulnerable, to have no ambitions beyond just having a good day. You need to be able to embrace silliness, to nurture play, to have that space where a very specific kind of emotional growth can occur. Fun makes a hard life a little easier. Fun makes your own mortality a little less frightening to grasp. Fun is the spaces in between, that can’t be measured by money or military might. Fun is what nurtures imagination, allows you to see a situation in a whole new light, to find new solutions to problems previously considered impossible.

Fun is what makes a stranger into a friend, rather than an enemy.

Fun helps you see past your differences.

Fun is what fuels curiosity and openmindedness.

Fun is the first thing to die in a war.

Inktober2018 day 27: thunder

Inktober2018 day 26: stretch

Inktober2018 day 25: prickly

Inktober2018 day 24: chop

source

Inktober2018 day 23: muddy (Muddy Waters)

Inktober2018 day 22: expensive

i havent actually been able to find a way to watch it...but sherlock from miss sherlock is making my lesbian self SWEAT

oh boy… you are not prepared for the majesty that is yuko takeuchi in motion… her heels…. her shirts….. her turtlenecks……..

and as i always want to provide for thirsty lesbians and help them thrive, here are the episode links!:

Episode 1 The First Case

Episode 2 Sachiko’s Mustache

Episode 3 Lily of the Valley

Episode 4 The Wakasugi Family Curse

Episode 5 The Missing Bride

Episode 6 Stella Maris

Episode 7 Stolen Virus

Episode 8 The Dock

Inktober2018 day 22: drain

Inktober2018 day 20: breakable

Inktober2018 day 19: scorched

Akali The Queen Of Rap

NOTE: I DID NOT COME UP WITH THIS IDEA, BUT I CANT FIND THE POST OF WHERE I READ IT TO SEE WHO DID. IF IT WAS YOU LET ME KNOW SO I CAN CREDIT!

—

Of course it’s Nate who finds it stashed in a drawer of Rip’s in his old office at the Time Bureau headquarters. It’s a desk that Ava won’t touch, still having unresolved emotions over what she now knows Rip used her and all of her clones before her for. It isn’t surprising that Rip would bring something like it from the future back to the present to stash in that desk long before his death.

Nate is wordless as he hands it to Sara, which should surprise her enough in itself.

“What is it?” Sara asks as she takes the paper. It’s been balled up and smoothed out so many times that Sara is surprised it isn’t ripped.

“It’s a list of,” Nate pauses, “I’m sorry I read it Sara. I didn’t know what it was, but I thought you’d like to see it.”

Sara eyes him skeptically. “They told us Ava was the perfect woman. She was made using a combination of so many women from the past. This is a list of those women,” Nate finishes, eyes downcast.

Sara looks at the paper wondering if she should open it. Wonders what she’ll find. She’s not sure at all what she expects as she opens the paper, but it’s simple. Just a typed list of names with no further information. No title as to what it could be, but Sara knows it’s true. She walks into her room to sit down on her bed as her eyes finally focus on the list. She’s acutely aware of Nate watching her. There are nineteen names, and Sara has no idea what this will bring her when she reads it.

1. Joan of Arc. It doesn’t surprise Sara that the list starts with a woman who lead an army in a revolt. A woman who has been revered for the mystique associated with her martyrdom.

2. Sacajawea - the fearless Lemhi Shoshone woman said to have guided Lewis and Clark with a baby on her back.

3. Marie Curie whose inclusions speaks for itself. The first woman to receive the Nobel Prize for research into radioactivity. The first woman to win the Nobel Prize in two separate categories, physics and chemistry. The reason we have x- ray machines now.

4. Eleanor Roosevelt who worked with the Red Cross, the Women’s Trade Union League, helped form the National Youth Administration, transformed the role of First Lady, and so many more important things. As head of the UN human rights commission she helped to draft the 1948 UN declaration of human rights.

5. Aretha Franklin whose voice and activism shook the world with hits like Respect and A Natural Woman.

6. Sojourner Truth the African-American abolitionist and women’s rights campaigner who changed the course of women’s rights.

7. Indira Gandhi the first female prime minister of India who introduced more left-wing economic policies and sought to promote agricultural productivity. Her end was controversial after declaring a state of emergency, considered authoritarian, and was subsequent assasinated.

8. Princess Diana who showed a natural sympathy for the pool and disenfranchised. Her humanitarian work made her loved by many. The world cried at her early dead.

9. Jane Austen who wrote Pride and Prejudice and Emma and Northanger Abbey. A woman who paved the way for female authors.

10. Susan B. Anthony who fought against slavery, for workers rights, and for women’s rights. She was a crucial voice in the movement to gain women the right to vote.

11. Wangari Maathai the Kenyan-born environmentalist, pro-democracy activist and women’s rights campaigner. Another Nobel Peace Prize winner on the list for her efforts to prevent conflict through protection of scarce resources.

12. Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on the bus, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, and indirectly leading to some of the most significant civil rights legislation changes in history.

13. Billie Holiday who was called the First Lady of the blues and is wildly considered to be the greatest jazz musician of all time. She redefined the jazz era and changed music forever.

14. Anne Frank who still believed that people were good at heart while her family hid from people who only meant them harm and hatred.

15. Billie Jean King who battled for equal pay for women while kicking ass on the tennis court.

16. Oprah Winfrey who was the first woman to own her own talk show and used her voice to make real change.

17. Shirin Ebadi who won a Nobel Peace Prize. She was an Iranian lawyer who fought for human rights and democracy.

18. Malala Yousafzai a Pakistani girl who defied threats of the Taliban to campaign for the right to education. She survived being shot in the head by the Taliban and became a global advocate for women’s rights, especially the right to education.

19. Emily Gonzalez who used horrible situation of a school shooting to bring about change and provide a passionate face against gun violence in America.

Ava’s intensity in her fight for others, the Aretha and Billie records that played often on her record player, her uncontrollable tears when they’d visited the Holocaust Museum all made so much more sense. It’d turned Ava into a fearless warrior, a devoted lover of people; someone who would fight at nothing to change the world and make it better.

“It’s something isn’t it?” Nate says, breaking the silence. “Turn it over.”

Sara does and sees another name she isn’t quite sure how she missed. Her eyes widen as she reads it.

20. Alexandra Danvers

“Alex?” Sara questions, eyes wide.

“I looked into it,” Nate says. “In 2025 Alex uses alien biology, chemistry, and Lena Luther’s nanotechnology to cure everything from cancer to arthritis. She develops a device that decontaminates the water to rid it of trash and pathogens. She develops one injection that cures all contractible disease. By 2035 the only things that kills people are old age, violence, and accidents.”

Sara’s eyes are wide, her heart hammering hard in her chest. Because she still remembers that intensity in Alex’s eyes, her fear, her uncertainty, and her burning desire to save people. Because of course Alex would change the world.

“She also had two biological children that were both hers and her wife’s,” Nate finishes.

Sara smiles even more as her eyes drift down to the engagement ring that’s only been on her finger for a few months. Because of course it’d take that touch of Alex to make someone as intense and wonderful and loving as Ava.

It shouldn’t surprise Sara one bit.

Inktober2018 day 18: bottle

Inktober2018 day 17: swollen

the suffering never ends

Inktober2018 day 16: angular

Inktober2018 day 15: weak(ness)

Cause of Death: Cara Delevingne wearing tails and chewing a toothpick at the Royal Wedding. 

Inktober2018 day 14: clock

Inktober2018 day 13: guarded

“i’m sad and idk how to feel better”

“i don’t know what to draw”

“i always mess up”

“BUT I SUCK”

Inktober2018 day 12: whale

Inktober2018 day 11: cruel

Inktober day 10: flowing

Inktober day 9: precious

Inktober2018 day 8: star