Weekends is ~*MEME TIME*~

[makeste]

From mikenno (who has the best fucking memes lately):

Pick a character I write, and I will give you the top five ideas or concepts or factoids I keep in mind while writing that character that I believe are essential to depicting him or her accurately. This includes original characters and characters about whom I write fanfic.

I WANT TO DO THIIIIIS

And also there is one from rikasaurus!

the "what icon do you associate with me?" meme!
• do not look at the comments.
• take a look at my userpics.
• post a comment with the icon of mine you associate with me. leave commentary if desired.
• repost with your default icon.

This one I'm just curious about, idk. And I didn't use my default icon for this post, but I used one of my newer ones that hasn't gotten around as much so I figure it's all right.

Comments

[morgrix.livejournal.com]

Gokudera (because I know you love him)

The icon:



I don't really know why but I think it's because Reborn is so clever and this pose makes him even cooler. And I love how you write, it's intelligent, funny and ironic. Just like Reborn.

[makeste.livejournal.com]

YAY GOKUDERA. ♥

1. Even though he is a shounen dumbass like all the rest, he's also an incredibly smart dumbass. I always try to keep in mind that Gokudera is a genius when I write him; he's very analytical, and he is always, always overthinking things. Regardless of whether something can or should be logic-ed out, he will try to do it. (And then very often fail to act on his logical conclusions since his emotions always get the better of him anyway.)

2. HE'S ALWAYS FUCKING SWEARING. This is kind of a tricky spot since the Japanese language doesn't really have swears so much as varying levels of politeness, and depending on who translates the manga or anime he doesn't really swear much at all in canon, but I just feel like he's the kind of person who if he was speaking English in an uncensored world would just be saying shit and fuck every third sentence. And since I myself am like that, it just sort of spills out naturally whenever I write him. XD

3. He often will say and even think one thing while his actions and behavior demonstrate something else entirely. This is especially true when he's interacting with someone he claims to hate, like Yamamoto, but actually doesn't hate at all. So he'll be insulting him and calling him an idiot and rolling his eyes at his dumbassery, but at the same time he basically interacts with him as an equal, making plans and discussing the Tenth's safety and rising to the bait every time Yamamoto teases him (instead of just ignoring him), and worrying about him if something is wrong, etc. And this also happens when he's trying to act like a tough guy but secretly is being a giant woobie on the inside. So I try to keep that contradiction in mind when I write him.

[makeste.livejournal.com]

4. Gokudera hates showing vulnerability for any reason. He grew up under constant reinforcement of the idea that if you open yourself up to someone for any reason you're going to get hurt, and even now, with as far as he's come since then, he still struggles with this. His default level of openness is still "Fuck off I'm fine leave me alone," and even though there are certain people he's gradually becoming more comfortable with, he still never drops his guard completely. He has sort of varying levels; with Tsuna, he has a habit of deflecting any personal inquiries with smiles and some form of "it's fine, don't worry about me, more importantly..."; with Yamamoto, he deflects in mostly the same way except that he also adds an insult or two for good measure, and so forth. Even with the people he trusts, he never openly admits his fears or worries unless they don't directly involve himself, or unless the circumstances are extraordinary.

Fortunately, if the other characters want to know what he's thinking, they can fall back on the very reliable alternative of simply guessing since it's usually written all over his face anyway. XD So if I'm writing interaction between him and another character (especially if it involves angst), I always keep this in mind and remember that even if things are really bad he's still never going to go blurting out love confessions or (GOD FORBID!!) asking for help or confessing dark secrets from his past unless some sort of apocalypse has happened (...or unless the Tenth is asking really, really insistently XD).

5. This last one is very specific and is something that I've noticed I take a different approach to than a lot of other writers (including some of my favorites), but when it comes to serious mafia brutality and violence (torture, killing, etc.), I don't think he's as hardcore as he makes himself out to be. I know he's definitely had a hard life and if the Reborn mafia were anything even remotely like the mafia in real life, it would be a different story, but since it generally isn't, I tend to take the view that Gokudera, for all his thug history and street smarts and angsty backstory and trigger-happy nature, is actually a lot fluffier than he lets on. He's certainly capable of getting murderous on someone, and I don't think the grim, battle-hardened, kills-this-guy-without-a-second-thought TYL!Gokuderas that are so common in fandom are OOC at all; it's just not how I personally view the character, because it's hard for me to reconcile that view of him with the almost ridiculously sunshiney and optimistic mafia of the KHR verse. For me, if I'm going to read or write about him like that, I always have to mentally check it off as an AU first. To this day, I'm not 100% sure why, especially since I have no similar qualms with certain other characters (but then again those characters were canonically referred to as natural-born assassins), but there it is. ;;


And that icon is one of my favorites. Thank you so much for the kind words, even though I don't think I'm anywhere even approaching the level of Reborn coolness (I mean, just look at that pose, gosh Reborn COULD YOU BE ANY MORE AWESOME?), heh.

[morgrix.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way about Gokudera!!! He is such a complex character, makes you want to know more and more about him! I love his passion about things he likes, as Tsuna and UMAs! XD When he likes something he really dedicates himself to it. And I love people like that. \o/

I think that he is actually really shy about relationships! That's one of the reasons he is saying something and acting in a different way.

I don't think he's as hardcore as he makes himself out to be.

Totally agree with it. I think that if he had to do something horrible to protect someone he loves, he would do it, but it would very painful for him.