@fandomawesomeness OH MAH GOD OH MY LORDY LORD I LOVE IT I LOVE LOVE HEARTS SO VERY COOL

you're laughing. charles dickens had a son named plorn and you're laughing

Reblogging this to say back to mah bestie (cough cough you know who you are)

Do you have any tips on how to write a character who’s being manipulated?

Your blog has been very helpful to me! :) thanks a lot

Quick Tips for Writing Manipulative Characters

To convincingly write a character who is being manipulated, you must first understand how to write a believable manipulator. Often hidden in plain sight, manipulators pull the strings, guiding the actions of those who are often unaware that they're dancing to someone else's tune.

Let’s look at manipulators as puppet masters, exploring how they function and how their actions echo throughout your story. By understanding the manipulator, you'll better equip yourself to create realistic characters who are unwittingly under their sway.

How do they behave?

Play the victim to garner sympathy

Charming and persuasive

Twist and distort the truth to suit their agenda

Play mind games

Are silver-tongued

Passive-aggressive when confronted

Use guilt to control others

Don’t hesitate to lie or deceive

Demonstrate a sense of entitlement.

Project their feelings onto others

How do they interact?

Play different roles with different people

Prefer indirect communication to direct confrontation

Gaslight others, making them doubt their own perceptions

Shift the blame onto others

Exploit others' vulnerabilities

Use people’s secrets against them

Make others feel obligated or in debt to them

Use flattery to get their way

Create conflict between other characters

Deliberately create confusion and chaos

Describe their body language

Maintain intense eye contact

Use touch to seem friendly and intimate

Facial expressions often don't match their words

Use large, expressive gestures to dramatise

Have a confident and exaggerated posture

Soften expression to look more trustworthy

Smile artificially or excessively

Lean in close, invading personal space

Mirror others’ behaviours to seem more likeable

Mimic emotions they may not feel

Describe their attitudes

Believe they are always right

Feel entitled and superior

Lack empathy

Highly competitive

Often impatient and intolerant

Controlling and like to be in charge

Rarely apologize sincerely

Often play the martyr, acting self-sacrificing

Can be sceptical of others’ intentions

Kindness is often an act

Positive narrative effects

Paradoxically, manipulative characters can have a positive narrative effect on those they manipulate. These characters can act as a catalyst for change, pushing others to unlock hidden potential and indirectly teaching them to be more cautious. In the face of manipulation, characters can mature and grow resilience.

Manipulative characters can also reveal people’s true natures by tricking them into revelations or by fostering unity as others band together against them. Furthermore, their actions can create dramatic plot twists, make people question their own perceptions and realities, and add intrigue.

Negative narrative effects

Manipulators can cause emotional and psychological distress, breed distrust and insecurity, and disrupt relationships and friendships. These characters often lead others to make damaging decisions, creating a toxic environment.

By exploiting and exposing others' vulnerabilities, manipulators make individuals question their self-worth. The extent of their manipulation can even cause physical harm and lead to the downfall of other characters. Their lasting legacy? Emotional scars that define their victims long after the manipulator has exited the narrative.

fellowship crimes

pippin: steals. canonically, and without a doubt in my mind, does not give a shit. all the time. mostly shoplifting, extends to any building. restaurants, houses, etc. fuck it.

merry: steals when around pippin. mostly provides diversions. pippin steals more but merry steals bigger, more expensive items. only from large corporations.

legolas: trespassing. private property?? what’s that?? you WILL find him on government property, he WILL be 30 feet up in a tree.

gimli: steals rocks from national parks. “if it’s on the ground, it’s fair game.”

gandalf: accused of kidnapping the hobbits. pippin played into it, getting him detained. also arrested on “disturbing the peace” at the shire.

boromir: vigilante justice and assault. wrestled back his wallet from a pickpocket and punched him in the face.

aragorn: weapons with out permit, bringing weapons into public places without proper licenses. (“sir, you can’t bring your sword into this walmart.”)

frodo: unpaid library dues. forgot to return a book, felt bad so he avoided the library, and the fines exponentially increased. it has been 8 years. he drives to the next town over now for his books.

sam: propagation. not crimes, but sometimes he will take a leaf or two off of a pretty plant and always feels bad about it :(

Apparition Apparaissante by Selrahc

@fandomawesomeness

Yall, today we learned this is the color. And that’s its real name.

Good plants.

what baffles me is that crowley is actually good for aziraphale. not in the sense that the good actions he does are done for aziraphale, but in the sense that crowley teaches aziraphale to be good to himself

in s2ep4 when aziraphale is looking for a magic trick to do, he first says that he can't go to the magic shop because he's not a professional conjuror. crowley disagrees, convincing him that he's a professional as he is "about to perform on the West End Stage"

afterwards when the shopkeeper calls aziraphale a "talented amateur", it's aziraphale himself who makes a point in proving that he's no such thing as he's "booked to appear in the West End"

and then when they're backstage talking to furfur aziraphale clearly calls himself a "working professional magician". over a few hours, crowley makes aziraphale confident in his own identity

not only does crowley love aziraphale (in whatever way he expresses it) but he literally makes him better. crowley, who believes he is incapable of doing good, manages to make an actual angel, better

Expecting some heavy showers today, so I’m feeling this cozy rain aesthetic 🌧️🍂

Noctua, acrylic painting by nickbleb