#character musing

[burdockeverdeen]

THE BUCCANEERS (2023).

[the-path-to-redemption]

Being a Maruki enjoyer is simultaneously studying him under a microscope and cracking his skull open with a hammer 💗.

[devilsprophet]

Also worth noting that Astor had zero experience in managing finances outside of managing his own expenses prior to his Evil Internship Turned Career.

It’s a skill he gained out of necessity when he found out that the cult he had sacrificed literally everything to be part of was basically full of trust fund babies who were spending more than they were making and going into debt so damn fast 🫠

When he usurped leadership, lavish spending went on such a lock down. Man really said, “Ya’ll are BROKE. No one buy SHIT.” 🤣

Honestly explains why he’s fairly frugal even to this day lmao

[redratt]

Fond memories of a character running into a Malkavian Sabbat girlie and me getting to actually sing the altered version of Pop goes the weasel that I wrote for her

Her thing is that every day a different song gets stuck in her head and she is constantly whispering it, singing it etc, a few times every hour or when she's sitting still

"A penny for a soldering gun, the tip will be a needle, that's the way the money flows, pop goes the weasel"

The player thought it was cool. I should make that npc a character.

[fragmentedlegends]

Would the muse say “fuck”?

Hylia: Not on Her own, but possibly in quotation or repeating words back.

Demise: Surprisingly, not really. He’s less likely to curse than roar His anger, unless you count “damn” as He uses that frequently in “Domain of the Damned,” “The Damned are Mine to take,” etc.

Rhoam: Yes. Less often now that he’s king, but when he was a solider, the word “fuck” was used pretty often.

Link: Yes. Not often—and usually in his head to be honest—but he has definitely had some, “fuck you” thoughts.

Ganondorf: Similar to Demise (appropriately) You can expect more wordless roars of anger than actual cursing.

Revali: Yes. He would openly say, “Fuck you,” and has definitely gritted a few “fuck’s” while perfecting his Gale.

Astor: Yes, in frustration or mocking.

Sonia: Yes. Mainly because it shocks people and that gives her a little giggle. :)

[asks-n-trolls]

"Ari and I finished our chores a lot faster now it gives us so much free time...Maybe I should learn a new language... It.. Might. be fun..."

[regnantlight]

Would the muse say “fuck”?

She would not hahaha Zelda is really not one for cursing. At most, she may let slip a “damn” but even then it’s more in its literal sense— “Then we are damned.”

I think the only situation in which she might say “fuck” is if she were quoting someone or spitting their words back at them, which she would have to be pretty angry to do.

[echodrops]

A key problem I’ve seen bandied about over and over is that Y’sthola doesn’t have a “character arc” and that she is a very static character--she has no growth because she essentially came in without any flaws that could be fixed over time in the narrative.

Characters don’t need flaws to be good characters. But in the absence of flaws, what they do need is organic motivation. Y’sthola ostensibly has a motivation: she loves knowledge and wants to learn more to sate her own desire for information about the world. She’s literally a ham-fisted “curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back” metaphor.

The problem with this motivation is that no reason has ever been given for it. Why is she so driven to pursue knowledge? What made her choose this path? What events in her life led her to this specific course, when we meet her sister who behaves in a totally different (read as: much less self-sacrificial) way? What made her leave her family to study with Matoya and then leave Matoya to join the scions?

At her core, Y’shtola is characterized by her lack of prevailing connections. She has essentially no backstory other than “has a sister and studied with Matoya.”She has a family but never spends time with them. She loves Matoya, clearly, but still made the choice to leave her to join with Louisoix. Why? Although she’s friendly to all the scions, she still isn’t given any of the truly personal relationships that mark the other scions’ stories--she doesn’t have a Papalymo, a Minfillia, or a Moenbryda to truly “humanize” her; Matoya is the closest, and Matoya is a side character at most.

To be honest, I don’t care about learning a ton more about Y’sthola’s search for knowledge. It’s a typical and, in her case, criminally under-developed motivation. What I do care about is why, surrounded by so many opportunities to connect, she remains quintessentially a stray cat.

It seems to me that Y’shtola’s story would be much more interesting if it was not about this or that arcane magic she can learn to advance the plot, but instead about the deep and personal struggle between individual desire--endless pursuit of knowledge to sate one’s own curiosity--and the abiding desire to belong to others, to forge meaningful connections even if that sometimes means giving up on some of your personal, lone pursuits.

If you are never satisfied, can you ever settle?

Y’sthola’s "character arc” shouldn’t be about intelligence. It should be about wisdom: the discovery that the road to enlightenment might actually be the road that leads you home.