grey-haired character seeking tragic backstory

On a more serious note, I'm writing about some of the language differences between the Tagalog and English dubs which make the Tagalog dub better for me.

Yes, the komiks were published in English, but it's set in the Philippines. Why wouldn't you want to watch the show with the Tagalog dub? Have you never seen a dubbed cartoon, anime, or film before? Dubbing makes foreign media such as movies and anime more accessible to Filipinos!

Apparently some people are saying that for the English dub, the Filipino accents sounded more Latinx? Or that the Filipino accent was unnecessary? Come on over to the Tagalog dub! But seriously, this is unfair for the Tagalog/Filipino speakers working on the show, particularly the English VAs. They expressed that it was great, not having to hide their accent or being Filipino.

The Tagalog VAs deserve more love, and by love I mean appreciation from viewers and more opportunities and compensation in the industry. Voice acting isn't sisiw next to live (?) acting, but voice actors are so underrated in the Philippines.

The Kambal say "hoy" instead of "hey" and I love to hear it.

The cursing is A+ (and A++ in Tagalog). Curse words/phrases in your first language are always sharper than in English (it's okay, native English speakers).

Friendly reminder that Tagalog-Maynila isn't the only dialect of Tagalog! There are regional and generational variations in languages. These variations (how formal or how deep a character's Tagalog is) give nuance to the characters, particularly their age, species (human or supernatural), and place of origin (in or outside Manila).

For example, Alexandra's more formal Tagalog makes sense because (1) she grew up in the province of Laguna, so there's a regional difference and (2) she deals with high-ranking and/or ancient supernatural characters who also speak more formally.

Meanwhile, Hannah, Ammie, Basilio, and Crispin are wonderfully conyo in the Tagalog dub! Nothing beats "Kapit ka na sa bangs mo" and "Pa'no ba 'to mag-work?" [God bless Simon dela Cruz.]

More under the cut + minor spoilers:

They get tired. I’ve honestly never seen so much sleeping in an action movie.

And they can be restrained with zip ties and buckles and held down by normal-ass dudes and get the shit beat out of them because of course they can.

You know what else I strangely enjoyed? No six pack abs.  No bulging biceps. 

The Old Guard made me think a lot about how often I’d seen fast healing paired with super strength or other kinds of physical invulnerability, and how interesting things get when it isn’t. They can still get hurt in a fight, and a serious wound won’t kill them like it would a regular human but it can temporarily stop them in their tracks. They heal fast but not instantaneously. Booker can’t just instantly jump up after getting hit with a grenade; he has to wait, in a high-stakes situation, for his guts to heal up enough that he can start moving around. They can get captured. They can get overwhelmed. It makes their fight scenes feel extremely real and physical in a way most standard superhero action sequences don’t.

Zuko’s like no, yeah, I totally get it, and just makes her one of his advisors. At first it’s just so she has a good excuse to stay but after the first meeting Toph storms out shouting about how EVERYONE was lying why would you even need to lie about what kind of tea you want??

Zuko: I mean they’re politicians…..but also who, and when, and in what way

They make a subtle Morse code system so Toph can warn him when someone is lying to him without tipping anyone off that she can sense lies.

First, I have to apologize for taking so long to respond; it’s been hard to get back in the swing of things after surgery. Second, thank you so much for the lovely compliment, and I’m so glad you liked Don’t Wait Up for Me, because that’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done.

To your question: I sometimes feel like I could write a book, just based on the sheer volume of crap I read for my job and the way all these things pile up for me, but there are hundreds of writing advice books out there, and some of them are even actually good so no one needs another one. :-D But I think there are some specifics to writing action, and in particular action within fanfiction, that are fairly unique and not always addressed in tutorials.

When I’m copyediting fiction especially, I often find my attention wanders or my eyes glaze over because of flabby or weak writing, and that’s just death for a scene where people are supposed to be doing stuff and hooking the reader. The same mistakes kind of pile up and up, and this is pro published stuff. Fan readers are pretty forgiving mostly, but a lot of these issues have an unconscious effect on us, we forget fics that could be memorable because we skimmed over stuff that should engage us.

Years ago at Slate, I copyedited a book review that made me laugh, because it was a lot of these problems in a nutshell:

His writing is riddled with clichés that are daily struck down by conscientious high-school teachers. The characters always think “for a moment,” as if a sustained thought is impossible in the Wagnerian world. “Silence” plagues the pages, and it often “follows” speech. The thunder claps “Whrromp!” Every glance is recorded, for no discernable reason—everyone is “looking” or “focusing” all the time. The faces repeatedly “light up.” People don’t smile—they “start to smile"—and they do things “a little,” even if much happens “all of a sudden.” Here is a typical passage: “Liz started to smile, then started to say something, then thought better of it. Her smile faded for a moment, while she seemed to concentrate on a thought.”

That’s the kind of writing that can just utterly kill action scenes. So what would I tell you to avoid that kind of stuff? :