The Al Ghuls And Their Robins

hey guys! let’s talk about something called narrative distance. 

you’ve probably heard of it before! narrative distance is the degree of separation between the reader and the narrator or character in the story. first person vs. third person is a good way to show narrative distance: consider how “I stomped inside, the pavement burning the soles of my feet, my wet hair sticking to the back of my sweaty neck, so hot my skin felt like it was melting” feels compared to the more impersonal “Jack stormed in, his face flushed with heat”. 

now let’s be incredibly pretentious and translate narrative distance to minecraft roleplay. in this sense, a regular ranboo semi-lore stream where we watch c!ranboo spill all his deepest fears while recounting his thought process would be the equivalent of first person. there is very little distance between c!ranboo and the viewer. we get to see and hear and know everything c!ranboo sees and hears and knows, and if he doesn’t know something, we don’t know it either. 

a tftsmp stream would be the equivalent of third person: we see c!karl in brief segments where he doesn’t reveal any inner thoughts or conflict, and the more edited and produced format means we’re separated from the character himself and the normally first-person minecraft experience. we aren’t seeing the world through his eyes, we’re watching his life from a bird’s eye view. 

narrative distance can affect how we view characters and how sympathetic we are towards them. for example, during the exile arc, the viewers are firmly in c!tommy’s shoes, seeing everything that happens to him, hearing all his thoughts, living his life in the first person perspective nonstop for two weeks. we’re so incredibly close to c!tommy that c!dream’s arrival feels like a jumpscare. for contrast, when c!quackity’s torture of c!dream is mentioned or shown, it’s sanitized by production value, editing, montages, discretion cuts, and music overlaid on top. when the viewers get to see the characters interacting, they cut in after the gruesome bits are over, and it’s at most a ten minute snippet that’s not from the perspective of the victim. 

although c!dream is the victim in this situation, it’s harder to see him as such and feel sympathetic, because it’s so very impersonal. the torture is more a word-of-god concept than an actual scene, because we never see it. we get very little idea of its effects, and on top of that, c!dream doesn’t even have a perspective to watch. compare to c!tommy, whose abuse was laid out in gritty detail, and whose cc has painstakingly acted out the lingering trauma in every stream since– which happen to be mainly in an unedited slice-of-life style. and we can connect that to the difficulty in viewing c!dream sympathetically as well: we as viewers were very close to a storyline where c!dream was a villain, and very separate from the storyline where he’s a victim. which impression of the character do you think would be stronger?

narrative distance contributes to how we view villains. c!schlatt is gleefully hated, a static but well-rounded character that we don’t feel any sympathy for. the viewers are distanced from him because he doesn’t have a perspective and only shows up for plot-related events on others’ streams or for comedy bits. nobody tries to look into his motivations and nobody’s sad when he dies. we’re not close to him, we don’t understand him, and we don’t need to.  

then there’s c!quackity, who we watch go from a regular funnyman to an idealistic politician to a ruthless but caring advisor to a manipulative asshole focused on power. we walk in his shoes for every step of the way, we see his motivations and fears and inner thoughts, and we feel sympathy. and then he starts to distance himself, starts to edit and produce his streams and only show certain scenes without any emotional vulnerability, and starts acting as a villain. it’s kind of genius because he’s adding narrative distance while his character becomes harder to sympathize for. but we can still understand the character and feel pity for him, because we as viewers have lived his life and we know who he is and what he ultimately wants and needs. 

narrative distance. it’s pretty cool. 

I explained the outlast lore to my friend and drew her some pictures to help understand

My favorite drawings honestly

I'm gonna keep repeating what Ranboo has been saying about the song, be respectful guys!

Sketches I think I forgot to post here, I need to get on my drhdr grind again.

babies first lyric fanart n__n faith made me go only a little crazy (song is This House by Hazen)

that choso scene but he's shirtless

Miles up shore without a paddle...

Yippee, 2nd spooky, scary week done!!!! I dunno if I'll be able to finish this week's actual drawing since I'll be a littol busy again but we'll see..........

Those who may not be aware, for the OTW election in progress there is one candidate who is practically out to end it all:

Tiffany G.

They are wanting to censor and make AO3 a place of control. They want to take our freedom to write and form it to what they think is the correct guideline to, "Make it more friendly."

AO3 already has a ton of filters and tags in place to aid in helping each person tailor their own AO3 experience. Something triggers them? They can filter that tag out. Wanna read G only? Can filter out the rest. Want to read E only?

Filter out the rest.

What this person is wanting to do, it'll take away the beautiful community we have. It is a platform of freedom, of writing what you desire and posting it to find others just like you. To try and put a semblance of authoritive control.. it's repulsing.

Please, please please for those who can vote, DO NOT VOTE FOR TIFFANY G. IF YOU DO AO3 WILL END AS WE KNOW IT.

Can't vote? Pay 10 dollars a year to become a member so you can vote in the future. I just did and regret not doing so earlier.

If you can't vote like me? SPREAD THE WORD. LET THERE BE AWARENESS. DON'T LET THIS PERSON TAKE AWAY THE AO3 WE LOVE. STAND UP, YELL IT OUT:

DO NOT VOTE FOR TIFFANY G.

#dreamsmp #ranboo #ran

“You can’t control what’s inside you”

Ranboo and Ran

The Bunk Bed Cast 💤

[reblogs appreciated] (｀∇ ´)