Theatricality Personified

Welcome to the Worst Fictional Father Showdown!

Here we’ll decide who the worst of the worst really is! There will be 64 contestants going head to head in a bracket style showdown, each decided by you, the blogger!

Rules:

1. The character does not have to be a biological parent to qualify. If they take the role of guardian and are terrible doing it, they count.

2. Characters submitted must be fictional!! Please do not submit real people.

3. You can submit as many people as you want, but please only do one character per submission.

4. Propaganda is not only allowed, but encouraged (as long as it is good natured, of course).

5. Please be civil! This is meant to be fairly lighthearted.

Submit your favorite terrible dad here! Submissions end on November 16TH, 12pm EST

Heartwarming story: Little girl doesn’t have to do anything to fund her dad’s surgery because his expenses are covered by his country’s universal healthcare.

Human determination: Man bikes 18 miles to work every morning because he wants to and not because he can’t afford a car and would be fired if he’s late.

Spirit of Brotherhood: Neighbors host housewarming party for elderly resident who doesn’t need help in paying rent because his pension is more than enough.

also I never really thought about this but Jaime’s weirwood dream literally takes place against a stump. like. Jaime himself has recently acquired a stump and feels he’s no longer good for anything, and likewise the weirwood stump first stirs the same sorts of feelings in the reader because we know how significant and mysterious and powerful they are for the Starks yet here’s only the remains of one, all the magic gone from it (we think). BUT it still has power after all, reaching Jaime through dreams, and through that dream Jaime realises that he too still has power in him to do something, maybe even something great. agh

there’s something so special to me about the casual intimacy (both physical and emotional) of the stark family. robb carrying bran to his horse. bran holding robb’s hand to comfort him. jon ruffling arya’s hair and pushing her around and her laughing and pushing him right back. ned hugging sansa and arya in front of the entire king’s court. they’re always thinking about each other and missing each other. the kids cry and fight and play and are kids, and ned and catelyn are kind to one another, and it’s beautiful. it’s so warm, so human, in contrast with the coldness of other familial relationships in the book.

Please do not ask what I’ve been up to on Twitter

The curse had been going on so long that we'd pretty solidly determined it went into effect before a certain age (21)

I came out as nonbinary and ace at 18 and a couple of my cousins made a joke that i was now immune and we all had a good laugh and forgot about it. its hard to explain the kind of like.... hopeless-but-amused misery that comes with having a curse this bad in the family for so long. everyone tries to beat it, and everyone knows its not going to work. even the people who dont believe theres a curse (or indeed magic at all) as kids have generally conceded by like 24

like, there was the typical 'you'll find someone someday' that you get as an ace, but it wasnt (completely) an assumption based in aphobia. no one believed it was even possible for me to not be married and a mom and miserable by 21. it would have been like arguing the sky was green.

but i got to 20 and wasn't even dating anyone and started getting side eye, and when i finally got to 21 everyone was so happy for me, it was crazy. my grandma cried.

but everyone assumed i'd just broken it for me (and honestly, it went a long way in unraveling a lot of transphobia in my maternal family - if my gender was enough to break the curse, it must at the minimum be real, right?), and then the next oldest cousin (my sister) almost got got, got all the way to living with and being engaged to a dude who was a fucking nightmare, and then just. woke up one day packed her stuff and walked out. no one could believe it, they thought she go back any day, but she never did.

next was the oldest male cousin, D, and as he approached 21 that was where (i, at least) start to suspect the curse was gone. we were really poor and so our families shared a house for most of my childhood, he's like my brother. I knew him well, and I was certain there was no way he was going to become an abusive husband or father.

and then he didnt! he did get a wife and kid before he turned 21 but he's a huge simp and so so good with his daughter, even with her being autistic which so many parents might have taken as a flaw.

at that point me and all the cousins were chatting about it one day and D pointed out that the only thing that changed between the previous person to get got (my uncle /neg) and everyone who didnt was me. We had something of a back and forth where we tried to figure out if my sister's ex-fiance counted, but we eventually came to the consensus it was curse death throes lmao. and no ones got got since.

(of course if you do want to take a hard line against magic or argue it's confirmation bias, you can, it's not gonna bother me - it's arguably possible that the belief that the curse could be or was broken was what gave my sister and subsequent younger relatives the confidence to leave/break the cycle)

I am not taking a risk

Not risking it pals

U know what I want potato of luck

Damn right I’m reblogging. See previous post re wrath of whatever from high atop the thing.

Tomorrow is election day. I'm reblogging

I don’t normally like these superstition posts, but considering what day it is, I’ll take anything I can get.

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

I love the lawyer metaphor, because whenever I see “John knew that...” in prose writing I immediately think “how?  How does he know it?”  Interrogate your witnesses.  Cross-examine them.  Make them explain their reasoning.  It pays dividends.

All of this, but also feels/felt. My editor has forbidden me from using those and it’s forced me to stretch my skills.

This is your "show not tell" advice explained!

Editor here.

First, let me preface this with something very important: you can treat all of this advice as SECOND-DRAFT ADVICE. It is so much easier to rewrite this kind of stuff once you have words on the page. Telling yourself the first draft is totally appropriate and acceptable.

What we’re talking about here are FILTER WORDS (and to some degree verbs of being). Yes, “thought” words are included. But so are “heard, saw, looked, tasted, smelled” etc.—most words having to do with the senses.

This isn’t black and white advice; sometimes you’ll use these words and that’s okay. They’re not WRONG. They’re just weaker. And they’re weaker because they create distance between the reader and the experience of the character.*

If you want your reader to feel like they’re experiencing the story right alongside the character, you want to cut down on filter words.

*This is particularly important with first person and close third POVs. The reader always knows whose eyes they’re seeing through and thoughts they’re privy to. So you don’t need to tell them “I saw X.” Or “I heard X.” Or “I thought Y.” You can just jump into the action/observation as it’s happening.

This is also where you want to pay attention to verbs of being.

“It was rainy.” Versus: “The rain pounded against the roof.” Or “The rain howled like an injured animal.” Or “The rain tapped against the window like an anxious lover.” All of these are inviting the reader deeper into the experience of the story by using stronger verbs and similes. And, at the same time, they stir feelings (instead of TELLING feelings). And feelings keep your reader engaged. Engaged readers keep turning pages; engaged readers become FANS.

This is also where

you want to pay attention

to verbs of being.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

Don’t let anyone silence your voice or steal your power, which is your vote.

Your vote is private. Your vote is your own.

Vote accordingly.

How many "Trump votes" are abusive MAGA husbands or boyfriends who essentially got two votes, while their wife or girlfriend got none?

To be clear: abusive men may think their wife or girlfriend belongs to them, including their vote. But legally, this is voter fraud.

Report these criminals.

Legally, this is voter intimidation.

IF YOU WITNESS OR ARE A VICTIM OF VOTER INTIMIDATION (like what Tom Cox is confessing to in the OP) or other violations of voting rights laws in the US:

Your vote is your own. You don't have to tell anyone who you voted for. You can lie about who you voted for. Keep yourself safe out there.

You can also call or text the Election Protection Hotline

And if you are in a situation where a spouse or partner is the one doing the voter intimidation to you, like Tom up there is, there are intimate partner violence orgs in your state and many towns who are there to help you. Because what Tom is doing is not okay, and you don't have to live like that.

IMAGE IDs:

First image: Screenshot of a reply chain showing part of one and two other messages. The earliest poster Darrel Owens @/IDoTheThinking said "Bro I phonebank for Harris and this shit happens all the time. God awful husbands swearing up and down no Democrat lives there when the wife is a Democrat. Women who whisper "I agree with you" and hang up the phone because they dont want their MAGA luna..". The first reply is from Tom Cox @/OBC15u, "That's why I make my wife do a mail in ballot so I can make sure she votes for Trump, she's not gona vote behind my back". Second reply from edgykristinahart, "Can someone check on Tom's wife or..."

Second image: Screenshot of a post with a photo attached. The post says "If your husband has forced you to vote you CAN INVALIDATE YOUR VOTE. Contact your local election officials. Your vote is your own." The image in post reads: "Text contains those laws in effect on October 30th, 2024 / From Title 52-VOTING AND ELECTIONS / Subtitle I-Voting Rights / CHAPTER 103-ENFORCEMENT OF VOTING RIGHTS / Jump To: "§10307. Prohibited acts / (a) Failure or refusal to permit casting or tabulation of vote / No person acting under color of law shall fail or refuse to permit any person to vote who is entitled to vote under any provision of chapters 103 to 107 of this title or is otherwise qualified to vote, or willfully fail or refuse to tabulate, count, and report such person's vote. "(b) Intimidation, threats, or coercion / No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for voting or attempting to vote, or intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for urging or aiding any person to vote or attempt to vote, or intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for exercising any powers or-"

Fuck dude you really can’t

This is the first ad I’ve seen on here that actually fits tumblr’s demographic

god the loss of the westeros dolldivine dress up game in the flash game massacre feels losing the most precious scroll in the library of alexandria

vanity fair said happy halloween have some cannibals

jaime thinking he is objectified by cersei as a walking dildo and gets so horny his balls almost explode but then he figures out that he was just objectified as a sword and burns the letter

it happened i was there. i was his imagined dildosona

i love how ugly grrm gets. he isn’t afraid to have ugly characters that wouldn’t be physically desirable. so many books describe the main character as this other worldly beauty that is perfect in every way. it has always pissed me off and made it feel so unauthentic. but in asoiaf we have these objectively ugly people or these people who are objectively beautiful that become deformed or maimed in some way AND THEY DONT LOSE ANY OF THEIR WORTH BECAUSE OF IT.

like jaime for example his one purpose in life is to fight and when he loses his hand he loses his purpose but it sends him on a different path of self discovery. his fighting was a big part of him but there is so much more to him that was overlooked because of his fighting.

brienne is ugly and so what she is quite literally hands down one of the greatest people in the entire story. she is strong and honorable and will do what she has to do no matter how hard but she is still kind. despite all the shit that has been thrown at her that would make anyone bitter and cruel she still has an unrelenting compassion for everyone she meets. and that’s not a weakness of hers it’s one of her greatest strengths.

jeyne and theon who feel less than human who have been humiliated and defiled still get a redemption arc because they are worthy of one no matter what. they are physically and mentally destroyed but they’re gonna make it through.

their “ugliness” is what makes them such amazing authentic characters.

i saw a post about this that i can no longer find but it was something along the lines of how jon went to save arya at winterfell no matter how much she had changed. he knew she had been through hell and was definitely not the same little girl he knew but he doesn’t care because no matter how “ruined” society would brand her she was still his little sister arya.

edit:

this goes perfectly with what i said above