So I Made This Into A Whole Analysis That Also Gets Into The Paralell With Hawks, Thanks For The Inspiration!

So I made this into a whole analysis that also gets into the paralell with Hawks, thanks for the inspiration! And while it doesn’t go so much into quirk discrimination, it’s a bit more detailed about Tokoyami’s name and inspiration. Link is tagged if that’s something that interests you =)

I wanted to answer to your addition to my post, but for some reason, it's not working (tumblr is acting up again and a ton of things aren't working, not just with different blogs, it's a mess, so I don't know if it's because of your privacy settings [that would be fine]or because of tumblr [that would not be fine]). So here's a bit about Tokoyami: From what I know crows and ravens have a very positive background in japanese mythology. The so called Yatagarasu (eight-span-crow) s a very positive mythological creature and crows are quiet positivly regarded because they kill rodents. They are seen as cleaners after death, a sign of rebirth and heavenly.

Which is in stark contrast to a lot of western versions where crows are seen rather as a sign of death itself and not what comes after.

Considering bnha plays in Japan Tokoyami would be regarded more positivly in contrast to a western view.

And if you look at general background of the name Tokoyami, the similiarity between Marvel/DC comic characters that HK loves to draw inspiration from, you can see DarkShaddow in a non-satanic light. Venom and Raven are heroic characters with similar problems to Tokoyami and if you look into japanese Folklore and the Enerna and Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, it seem more like a general "night Crow" interpretation.

All in all Tokoyami seems a lot more threatening by a western view than a japanese view.

I still think that Tokoyami suffered from some quirk discrimination while growing up, but because crows have a positive meaning in Japan it would be a lot less than Shoji, Gang Orca or Spinner.

@sethmacenzie Thanks a lot for your reply, that's really interesting to know. Japanese culture is really interesting and complex, it's good to know corvids in general are so positively viewed there (I like these birds a lot too). I do admit that, as a westerner, that's also how I was judging his character, where corvids are popular, but have more negative connotations. It's also true, that it looks like Horikoshi took inspiration from both Raven's and Venom's characters to create Tokoyami (we're not entirely sure of that, but it's a possibility), because their powers are kinda similar (Idk much about Raven, but some people keep comparing Tokoyami, or rather, his quirk Dark Shadow, to her powers, so I guess it must be true). As you said, it's more than probable, that Horikoshi didn't have any real villainous or negative ideas in mind for Tokoyami's character, during his conception, he just wanted a cool, edgy and powerful character, with a bird head, and that's what he did (and again, Tokos head isn't even a corvid, in one of the light novels it's described as a mynah bird). But something I'm still sure of, and it's a headcanon that no one can change my mind about, is that Tokoyami did definitely face some discrimination as a child. Not as much as Shouji and Gang Orca (because it's been canonically confirmed that these 2 were and probably still are, bullied), but Tokoyami must have gone through it too. He looks different his quirk is highly unstable, and reliant on his emotions, which just makes it even more dangerous. I realize, I made a mistake by describing it as "Satanic", because that's definitely not what Hori had in mind while creating him. Thanks for all the cool info anyways, that was really nice to know!

I follow a lot of asoiaf blogs and I was completly agreeing with you on everything about your analysis of Jon Snow and then came “ he should have eaten more brains“ and I had a small existential crisis asking myself when I overread that.

Being emotionally attached to Jon as a character is weird. On one hand, his character only works if he's flawed. How you as a listener assess the morality of his choices is a key part of the story, and trying to smooth over everything questionable would ruin a lot of what makes him so good as a protagonist.

But then there's moments where you look at how some characters in the story (and a certain percentage of the fandom) talk about him and part of you is like "actually Jon Archivist Sims has never done anything wrong in his life, I say he should have eaten more brains.'

Tips for Writing a Difficult Scene

Every writer inevitably gets to that scene that just doesn't want to work. It doesn't flow, no matter how hard you try. Well, here are some things to try to get out of that rut:

1. Change the weather

I know this doesn't sound like it'll make much of a difference, but trust me when I say it does.

Every single time I've tried this, it worked and the scene flowed magically.

2. Change the POV

If your book has multiple POV characters, it might be a good idea to switch the scene to another character's perspective.

9/10 times, this will make the scene flow better.

3. Start the scene earlier/later

Oftentimes, a scene just doesn't work because you're not starting in the right place.

Perhaps you're starting too late and giving too little context. Perhaps some description or character introspection is needed before you dive in.

Alternatively, you may be taking too long to get to the actual point of the scene. Would it help to dive straight into the action without much ado?

4. Write only the dialogue

If your scene involves dialogue, it can help immensely to write only the spoken words the first time round.

It's even better if you highlight different characters' speech in different colors.

Then, later on, you can go back and fill in the dialogue tags, description etc.

5. Fuck it and use a placeholder

If nothing works, it's time to move on.

Rather than perpetually getting stuck on that one scene, use a placeholder. Something like: [they escape somehow] or [big emotional talk].

And then continue with the draft.

This'll help you keep momentum and, maybe, make the scene easier to write later on once you have a better grasp on the plot and characters.

Trust me, I do this all the time.

It can take some practice to get past your Type A brain screaming at you, but it's worth it.

So, those are some things to try when a scene is being difficult. I hope that these tips help :)

Reblog if you found this post useful. Comment with your own tips. Follow me for similar content.

The more I think about it, the lamer it would be if AFO was just a “bad guy” ™, it doesn’t really fit the dlow of the story either. Sure there are people who’s motives aren’t shows to the reader or understood by Izuku, but if we’re really finally going to a point of: marking people as villains is a bad thing and society needs to change, that should include AFO.

So I propose a solution for the ending of AFOs ark that sets Tenko free of him, but doesn’t make him “just” the worst villain of them all.

AFO is clearly connected to his brother, this is the one thing we know about him on a personal rather than a professional (I want to be the evil overlord) level. There is a clear possessiveness about it and Yoichi is obviously a victim of his brother, but what if Izuku and Tenko worked together to deal with the relationship betwen them and the connection between AFO and OFA. At some point Shigaraki Tomura will have to split from Shigaraki [AFO] again, freeing him from AFO, but that doesn’t solve the issue of AFOs presence. While I absolutly believe Tomura would kill him, I think that Tenko would still want to be a real hero who’s first notion isn’t killing.

Izuku states he became the greatest hero and huge parts of heroism are sacrifice, so what if Izuku just gives up OFA, gives it to Tenko, because Izuku is at the point where he understands, that he wants to save everyone, but he personally can’t save everyone, that there are things he can’t do. So someone else will have to step in. That someone being Tenko.

Now depending on whether or not AFO is currently still in Tenkos body would give different versions of the outcome, but I’d say for practicality they are completly split. And Tenko goes and gives OFA back to AFO, uniting the quirks and the brothers again.

An image of Tenko getting backed up by the pervious users of OFA, especially Yoichi and Nana to hand the quirk over to AFO, knowing that Tomura will kill AFO afterwards.

AFO gets reunited with OFA, the brothers get reunited AFO gets one final moment of what he wanted to give him somewhat peace, but Yoichi doesn’t have to stay with his abusive brother, the other users of OFA don’t have to stay with their killer because Tomura ends it, killing AFO his father figure just like he killed his father. 

This was entirely inspired by this discussion by @haleigh-sloth​ and @mettywiththenotes. Also I want god like Tenko, just complelty overpowered, more than ever with AFO and OFA in one person, even if it’s just for a moment. And it would be fitting if Izuku starts and ends the manga quirkless, because you don’t need a qurik to be a hero.

hey folks, I’m gonna introduce you to two very important fandom terms and they are watsonian and doylist 

they come (obviously) from the sherlock holmes fandom, and they are two different ways of explaining something in a story. say I’m a fan and I notice that, in the original books, watson’s war wound is sometimes in his leg and sometimes in his shoulder. the watsonian explanation is how watson (that is, a person within the story) might explain it; the doylist explanation is how sir arthur conan doyle (a person in real life) would have explained it. 

sherlock explains the migrating war wound by making the shoulder wound real and the limp psychosomatic. the guy ritchie films explain it by having the leg wound sustained in battle before the events of the film and the shoulder wound happen onscreen. the doylist explanation, of course, is that acd forgot where the wound was.

this is very important when we’re discussing stuff like headcanons and word-of-god. I see this when people offer watsonian explanations for something, and then a doylist will say something like “it’s just because the author wrote it that way,” and I see it when a person is criticizing bad writing/storytelling (for example, the fact that quiet in metal gear solid v is running around the whole game in a bikini and ripped tights) and someone comes back with “but there’s an in-story reason why that happens!” (that reason being she breathes through her skin).

there’s nothing wrong with either explanation, and really I think you need both to understand and analyze a text. a person coming up with a watsonian explanation has likely not forgotten that the author had real-life reasons for writing something that way, and a person with a doylist interpretation is likely not ignoring the in-universe justification for that thing. 

but it’s very difficult (and imo often useless, though there are exceptions) to try to argue one kind of explanation with the other kind. wetblanketing someone’s headcanon with “or it could just be bad writing” is obnoxious; dismissing someone’s criticism with “but have you considered this in-universe explanation” is ignoring the point of the criticism. understanding where someone is coming from is important when making an argument; acting like your argument is better because you’re being doylist when they’re being watsonian or vice versa is not.

I can’t give insight from a poc perspective, but from a writing perspective the following tips could be useful:

-it’s fine, especially in kids books that things like racism don’t exist in completly fantasy settings. Imagine being a kid again, escaping into those magical worlds. Usually it’s better if they don’t confront you with what you have to deal with in real life, any kid deserves to get sucked into a wonderful magical world where this doesn’t exist.

But if for whatever reason you think racism should be a thing, here’s some things:

-If it’s important for your story in some way may it be character related or a worldbuiling thing (it’s just being our world with magic in it, that explains itself) then there should be a good reason for it. Going from out world: Eurasia has a history of: the lighter the skin, the less you are in the sun to work, therefore you must be rich and higher set. Recently parts of Europe have changed to tan skin being prefered, because it means you have time to spend sunbathing, going the opposite way. In huge parts of Africa white people are hated because of colonisation. If you have racism in a completly fictinal setting you need an explanation for it, be creative or take inspiration from our world.

-look up reddit threads or any forum that deal with racism, they usually have perfect first hand knowledge for you, youtube comments under tiktok compliations about race have a lot of shared stories too

-specfically see if you can find anything from that age, because at the age of 12 there is a wide gap in active knowledge on everything. young people and kids are hard to write, especially if they are at the age of hitting puberty, if you have any in your family see what they know about the world, go from there. But also general development is all over the place at that age and so your character might be more or less aware of racism, depening on the type of racism (see point below)

-racism in this world is very different from country to country, the US are very known for it, but for example Europe has a more silent racism where people aren’t as open as most americans about it, but they still say very racist things behind people’s backs, choose a form you can work with

-if it’s a going from out world into a magical world story the difference could be that skin color isn’t important in the magical world. Something your character could be drawn towards, overseeing other issues in this magical world at first

-if you can find teacher forums in that age group you might find useful information, but I have to give a trigger warning because some teachers go into the job because they can abuse power there

-there is probably something you faced in your life that others attacked you for in some way that was in no way something you have control over (looks, sexuality, gender, etc.) get that feeling, it’s not the same, but it’s the closest you can get. -if you already have something planned, write a scene where racism is features, give it to a poc, or even better multiple that have experienced racism to read. If they tell you it’s not even close, scrap it. Even research can’t get you to completly understand something so big and if you can’t even grasp it it’s going to be very offensive to read for people who actually experienced it.

WRITING POC IN CHILDREN'S FANTASY

I've been wondering about this for a while, and I would really love to hear from any people of colour who would be kind enough to help: if you're writing a fantasy book for kids (roughly 12 years of age) with protagonists of colour, how much do you think racism should play a role? I know it's generally seen as a cop out in adult fiction to create a fantasy world where there's "no such thing as racism", but how would you advise someone trying to write inclusively for all kids?

I'd be really grateful for any advice, or reblogs if you think some of your followers might be able to help me.