OniLink

The Other Girl with the Gall

I'm Violet/OniLink. Trans and autistic and just kinda doing my best.

Views do not reflect my employer.

I do informative Let's Plays on YouTube.

You can find me on FFXIV on Leviathan as Satora Lahnsi.

I run @WoLQotD here on Cohost!

I also have an IC blog at @satora-lhansi!

<3 @Gleam-Oria @catgirl-real @ann-arcana

Script Kitty :3 θΔ

avatar and header image from In Stars and Time by @insertdisc5



A very consistent trend I've noticed is people will look at the events of a piece of media and criticize illogical actions characters take as "plot holes" or "rushed writing" or even "bad writing". But in so many of these cases, it is not a plot hole or rushed writing or bad writing or anything like that.

People simply fail to consider the psychological states of the characters in the story. Characters, being people themselves, are not perfect. They have emotions, biases, flaws, desires. A character might keep making the same mistake over and over, getting endlessly frustrated with themselves or even pushing the blame on others. Real people do that too. A character might not consider a logical option because it conflicts with some ideal they hold or it simply never crossed their mind. Real people do that too. These are not poor writing. These are things real people do all the time.

I think it's wonderful when media has flawed, even frustrating characters who are doing their best for what they believe in, because in them we see ourselves, our own struggles. I can't tell you how many mistakes I've made where then turned around and asked "why the hell did I do that?". How many mistakes I didn't realize until years later. How many I'm still not aware I made.

Do not hold media to some perfect logical standard, because no real person could ever live up to that, and so it would never make sense for characters in a story to live up to it either. There would be so much less meaning we could drive from it if we could not relate to it.


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