Thunder

every hatchetfield project has a background character named rollerskate guy with 2 lines of spoken dialogue and 3 total minutes of screentime comprised solely of him rollerskating across stage and flipping off the main characters, and then theyll announce a spin off called rollerama where rollerskate guy is eaten alive by an eldritch god as consequence for his hubristic desire to be the best skater in hatchetfield (his father left after he lost his first skating competition and he's been chasing his approval ever since). rollerskate guy is played by joey richter.

Shoutout to Disney’s Descendants for having the most vibes based worldbuilding I’ve ever seen in my life. Legitimately thinking about any of it for more than two seconds makes everything crumble apart logistically and I think there’s an art in that.

Your character doesn't need to be likeable. They need to be legible. The reader needs to understand every decision they make even when it's wrong, even when it's ugly, even when they want to shake them. Likeable is easy and forgettable. Legible is what makes someone stay with you for years. Make the logic of every bad choice visible. The reader doesn't have to agree with it. They just have to follow it.

Something neuroscience-y that helps with prose: attention is selective. A character will not notice everything in a room. They will notice what matters to their goal, fear, desire, training, wound, or obsession. A jealous character notices hands. a hungry character notices food. A soldier notices exits. A lonely character notices pairs. Description becomes character when attention has a bias.

Ryland Grace and his popularity as a character feels like such an important step in repairing the cultural tsunami left by the long running trope of every genius character needing to be an insufferable asshole to everyone in a ten mile radios about it.

Conversely, Eva Stratt is doing wonders for repairing and inspiring a appreciation for commanding women with dubious moral convictions who are fully willing to bend laws for the greater good without hesitation.

And together they are doing brilliant things by not kissing or hooking up even once.