so if there’s one single trope i’m always down to fight it’s the animal bride (folklore motif 402??) which a lot of you are probably familiar with as the selkie – the fisherman either falls in love, steals her skin to trap her on land/gain power over her, or they fall in love and THEN he steals her skin to keep her from leaving, and either way she spends a lot of time gazing sadly out to sea and then she or her child finds the skin and never returns again. and that’s awful on a whole lot of levels – it’s not love, it’s control.
BUT. but the thing is. you how selkies/seal women was a pretty common variation of this? another really popular one was swans.
i just want you to think about that for a moment. swans. like…I get it, they’re pretty, graceful birds, certainly it’s easy to imagine them magically becoming pretty graceful ladies? but have you ever fought a swan. swans are awful. swans are the devil’s geese. imagine seeing a pretty magic lady and being absolutely enchanted by her, and stealing her magic feather cloak, and then you go up and say ‘hey i’m in love with you, let me make you my queen, it will be great, we’ll be so happy’ and she just looks at you for a moment and…
you know i was going to say maybe she just shouts for her sisters and suddenly you’rerealizing you’ve made a terrible terrible mistake bc you’re surrounded by big fucking birds who are all hissing. but honestly if this swan lady is as aggressively down to brawl as any other generally unhappy swan, then she’d straight up fuck you up on her own. she’d just deck you roundhouse, honestly. you don’t fuck with swans. why does this trope exist
okay but consider this: a woman walks to the park every day and feeds the swans and watches them paddle gracefully around the lake, sighing to see how beautifully they swim.
finally one day, a swan comes up to her and says ‘why don’t you come and swim with us? you always sigh so wistfully to see us on the water, and you would be most welcome to join our company, for you have always been a true friend to our kind’
and the woman says, ‘i can’t swim’
and the swan says, ‘we’ll teach you’
and the woman says, ‘literally i can’t swim, my husband stole my sealskin and should i venture into deep water i would surely drown’
and the swan says ‘your husband fucking WHAT’
the next morning the woman’s front yard looks like this.
and neither the woman nor her husband are ever heard from again, though for very different reasons.
It may also interest someone to know that swans can projectile poop.
SO THE GIRLS ARE ALL DEAD.
SO THE GIRLS ARE ALL MONSTERS.
OK. FINE. IF THE GIRL WHO LIKES KISSING
GIRLS MUST DIE, THEN FINE. I’LL SHOW YOU
A DEAD GIRL: SHE WILL BE DEAD
AND MERCILESS. GO AHEAD. BURY HER.
THIS TIME SHE WILL RISE. SHE WILL CLAW
HER WAY UP. GRAVE-DIRT UNDER
HER FINGERNAILS. DRIPPING AND DARK-HAIRED
FROM THE WATER. YOU WANTED A DEAD GIRL
AND YOU’RE GOING TO GET A DEAD GIRL.
YOU WANTED A MONSTER
AND YOU’RE GOING TO GET A MONSTER.
IF THERE MUST BE BLOOD
THEN THERE WILL BE BLOODSHED,
DO YOU HEAR ME?
IF SHE IS A MONSTER FOR LOVING GIRLS
THEN SHE IS A MONSTER, THIS TIME.
SHE WILL HAUNT THIS HOUSE YOU BUILT.
SHE WILL SHAKE THOSE BONES.
DON’T YOU KNOW YOU LEFT HER HUNGRY?
LISTEN TO ME. IF YOU WANT A HORROR SHOW
THEN I WILL GIVE YOU A HORROR SHOW.
DON’T KILL ANYTHING
YOU AREN’T PREPARED
TO MAKE A GHOST OF.
plot twist: the introverted character who doesn’t like big social gatherings or speaking in front of people is still an introvert by the end of the story because introversion is not a character flaw and it doesn’t need to be overcome
Look, I’ll go on your stupid adventure, but you better leave me the fuck alone when we get back.
Bilbo Baggins.
NOT A GOOD EXAMPLE HE WAS SO INTROVERTED HE USED A CURSED OBJECT TO GET AWAY FROM PEOPLE
are u kidding excellent example 100% relatable big mood
action movie protagonist to his daughter: Honey…Daddy’s gotta go away for awhile. Pop’s gotta go. I got some bad men after me, some really nasty guys. Some big meanies are trying to catch me, and well dad’s gotta go. I’m sorry sweetie, but dad’s gotta blast. Some really rude men are after me. You gotta go stay with mom because I’m putting not just myself in danger, but my family too. For some reason I think mom’s place is safer than my off the grid apartment/house/cabin
One of my favorite tropes is “Villain Decay”. It’s not a redemption or reformation – the character themself doesn’t necessarily change morally or behaviorally, but the as the stakes become higher and more serious antagonists are introduced, the original villain seems harmless and friendly in comparison.
one of my favorite tropes is when a character who is sort of morally mediocre and Only In It For Themself is dragged kicking and screaming into caring about other people and doing good things
There’s a difference between writing a strong character and writing a morally strong character. There’s a difference between writing a good character and writing a character that sometimes does the wrong thing. It’s very rare that you will go through your life without upsetting people or choosing to do the wrong thing, so why should we expect our characters to? When we put restrictions on characters and what they should and shouldn’t be teaching readers, we end up with poorly developed and unrealistic characters.
Here are few things to remember when building your characters:
Your protagonist won’t always do the right thing.
Great character development is when your character grows in some way throughout the novel. It’s very important to remember that great character development for your protagonist DOES NOT mean that they will turn out perfect and wonderful in the end. Maybe they will learn to be more selfish. Maybe they will learn that doing the right thing all the time has only brought them misery. Maybe they will become hardened in some way. The protagonist does not only represent good things about human nature. They do not have to have perfect morals to be the protagonist. They also do not have to be a hero or role model. The protagonist is simply the main character of your story, the one we are told to focus on. They have the potential to represent all aspects of human nature, not just a “good” and “moral” perspective.
Characters that do “bad things” are not always brought to justice in the end.
The antagonist will not always pay for their actions at the end of the novel. This isn’t an injustice or something the writer screwed up. Not everyone who does awful things in this world will have to pay for it. It’s important that you tell your story how you want to tell it because it’s not your job to preach to your readers about good vs. evil. Sure, readers will hate it if there are no consequences for your characters’ actions, but not every character needs to be systematically punished for bad deeds. Maybe the antagonist learns something in the end, maybe they’re captured, maybe they get away, or maybe they work with the protagonist. This is really all up to you and the story you want to tell.
We do not have to preach to our readers through our characters.
Writing a novel never has to be about teaching your readers a lesson. If you’re writing a novel about good vs. evil, good doesn’t always have to triumph in the end. If a writer decides to end their novel in a negative way, that doesn’t mean they believe the antagonist was right, that’s just how they felt the story should go. On the other hand, if you want to teach a lesson or talk about an issue—do it. It does not have to be your main focus, however.
Our characters really don’t owe our readers anything, except to be themselves.
Characters aren’t supposed to act a certain way or learn certain lessons to satisfy readers. IT’S IMPORTANT THAT YOUR CHARACTER’S ACTIONS MAKE SENSE TO YOUR CHARACTER AND THE WORLD THEY’RE LIVING IN, but they don’t need to be something in particular to be a good character. For example, I personally believe Daenerys from Game of Thrones is a great character. She doesn’t always do the right thing. She doesn’t always know what she’s doing. She might not be a good person. But she’s a skillfully developed, interesting character that I like seeing progress. Daenerys doesn’t owe it to us to be anything but herself, flaws and all. She’s not good and she’s not evil. She doesn’t have perfect morals, but as we learned from Game of Thrones, that doesn’t really matter. The books don’t really make a statement on who’s right and who’s wrong—the author leaves that up to us.
This isn’t to say that the choices you make as a writer don’t have any consequences. You still need to do your research and be responsible for the choices you make. The choices of your characters might still reflect on your choices as a writer. You can’t get away with saying offensive things or excluding diverse characters by explaining that “this is just how my character is!” I’m just saying that your characters don’t need to fall into a certain category to be a good character.
i love in fantasy when its like “king galamir the mighty golden eagle and his most trusted advisor who would never betray him, gruelworm bloodeye the treacherous”
When my sister and I were kids we had this one action figure, who was actually a brutalized batman doll without his cape (the dog chewed half his head, too), who we dubbed ‘Evil Chancellor Traytor’. The idea was that in the fictional society of our toys, ‘chancellor’ just came with the word ‘evil’ in front of it, as a matter of ancient tradition. Like ‘grand’ or ‘high’ or something along those lines.
Anyway, the running gag was that the king (an old Power Rangers knock-off doll) had absolute and unwavering faith in Evil Chancellor Traytor, who basically comported himself like a mix between Grima Wormtongue and Jafar from the Aladdin movies. Everyone was always sure that Evil Chancellor Traytor had something to do with the nefarious scheme of the day. The dude even carried around a poisoned knife called ‘the kingslayer’.
The additional twist on the joke, though, was that he never was behind anything. The king was actually right. Evil Chancellor Traytor was the most devoted civil servant in the entire Action Figure Dystopia. He spent his nights working on writing up new legislature to ensure that broken toys had access to mobility devices, was always on the lookout to acquire new shoeboxes for expanding city infrastructure, and drafted a proposal that once got half the ‘settlement’ in my sister and I’s closet moved to the upper shelf so that vulnerable toys were less likely to be snatched up by the dog.
The knife, as it turned out, was as symbolic as the ‘evil’ in his name. See, Action Figure Dystopia had a long history of corrupted monarchs getting too big for their thrones and exploiting the underclasses. The job of the Evil Chancellor was to always remain vigilant, and loyally serve a good ruler – or, if the regent should became a despot, to slay them on behalf of the people.
But since killing the king would be a terrible crime, the Evil Chancellor had to be the kind of person who would willingly die to spare the people from the plight of a wicked leader; because the murder would be pinned on them, in order to keep the ‘machinery of politics’ working as smoothly as ever.
Anyway, Evil Chancellor Traytor had a diary, in which my sister I would take turns writing out the most over-the-top good shit he’d done behind the scenes. Usually after everyone else had finished talking shit about him. I don’t know why but we got the biggest kick out of being like:
Barbie With the Unfortunate Haircut: Oh that Evil Chancellor Traytor! Why can’t the king see how wicked he is?!
Charmander From the Vending Machine: Char!
Jurassic Park Toy of Jeff Goldblum With Disturbingly Realistic Face: At least if someone puts a knife in the king’s back, we’ll know where to look!
Evil Chancellor Traytor’s Diary: Today I was feeding ducks at the park when I noticed another legless action figure sitting by the benches. I put a hundred dollars into his bag while he wasn’t looking. I really need to increase budgeting to the medical treatment centers. If only we had enough glue, I think we would see far fewer toys trying to get by without limbs… *insert iconic evil laugh*
Anyway, Evil Chancellor Traytor eventually fell victim to one of my mom’s cleaning sprees, and she decided he was too busted up to keep and tossed him out. My littler brother, who tended to follow my sister and I’s games like he was watching a daily soap opera, cried so hard that we had to do a special ‘episode’ where one of the toys found the Evil Chancellor’s diary, and so he got a big huge memorial and the king threw himself into the empty grave and then ordered the toys driving the toy bulldozer to bury him so that ‘Traytor’s grave would have a body’ (this seemed very important for some reason).
And then we had the Quest For a New King. Somehow or another that ended up being a giant rubber snake called ‘Tyrant King Cobra’.
::closes tab, shuts off computer, and proceeds to have the best day ever just by knowing this exists::
i will always reblog Evil Chancellor Traytor
tbh that’s some A-grade worldbuilding and use of tropes, these kids should be hired to direct movies instead of crusty idiots like Michael Bay
Cheloneuniverse 