do you hear Billy Joel play in your head when you do Hughie tags?

metaljean: Sometimes yes! That's why all my log prompts have been lyrics to Billy Joel songs lol. Usually I prefer to have instrumental music while I'm writing but if I need to put myself in Hughie's brain I have a playlist of Billy Joel and other artists Hughie has worn shirts of that I think he'd probably like

lol, I hadn't even noticed the Billy Joel log lyrics. that's beautiful

He says his favorites are Billy Joel, Simon & Garfunkel, and James Taylor so I use those as a barometer since I also figure the band tees are just not extremely expensive so I can picture Hughie grabbing ones he recognizes bc they're 5 for $20 at Target

Of ones that have not appeared on shirts I also think Hughie would fw The Cranberries, Carole King and CCR so they made it on said playlist too

i'm still stuck on walter - what are some touchstones you kept in mind for his characterization?

metaljean: I'm seeing how long I can keep up the Billy Joel bit before I have to use a second artist. I was worried in the rodeo event for a bit but then I found "The Ballad of Billy the Kid" and was like THANK GOD

mippins: OKAY there's a few things and bc Walter is so contradictory sometimes it takes some thought but a few things in no particular order until I run out:
1) Walter's biggest sin is his pride. The majority of shit he finds himself in stems from his inability to swallow his pride or admit that he's in the wrong at all

So connected to this
2) Walt always needs to convince himself that he is the smartest guy in the room and is in control. While he is capable of having some respect for other people and can consider someone an equal, he absolutely cannot take being not smart. He's insanely jealous of more traditionally masculine guys like Hank but he takes solace in that he

what would you say are key aspects that you keep in mind when writing Ruby?

--is smarter than they are. That's probably why being outsmarted or outperformed does get under his skin. He has to come out on top even if it's in genuine danger. When the Gus thing is over, he doesn't tell Skyler "we're safe", he tells her "I won."

3) Depending on context, Walter is either a great liar & manipulator, or he is absolutely terrible at it. The difference comes down to how much Walter can convince himself of the lie. Vince pretty much says it with "he's a great liar, especially to himself" bc what it comes down to is how much Walter can convince other people of his own deluded view

4) Even Walter's selfless actions are a bit self-serving. If he wants to help somebody it's important that HE'S the one in control the whole time
5) His patience is comically bad. Like the only type of people I think he is capable of being patient around are girls that make him think about what his daughter will grow up to be

Tl;dr on Walter White: Fly is actually the best episode of Breaking Bad because it is all of Walter's flaws in a microcosm. The impatience, the ego, the searching for an excuse to rage, the monologue of when the best time to die would have been, the unattainable control because there is always another fly in the room

god you have such a good take on his character akjhsdf

i hadn't really thought about the lying thing or like, him having patience with girls re: his daughter but man you're totally right

mippins: It mainly hit me in mdv where there were sweet young girls like Colette and Amy that like. As much as Walter tries to be the big man about dying and sees it as being let off the hook. It's gotta weigh on him a little that he'll never see Holly grow up

OddEyes: Oh Ruby is so interesting and honestly a lot of how I approach writing her ties into how she might connect to other people since one of the tragedies of Ruby Hoshino is how deeply lonely she is

Ruby craves connection but hasn't had it much in her life before so she goes all in with both the best and worst aspects of that. She'll be overbearingly friendly and try to make people feel welcome but she's also got no filter and it's a roll of the dice how much she'll get social skills. If Ai is neurodivergent I think Ruby may have inherited that bit

I also debate Ruby's intelligence sometimes because she is capable of being extremely crafty. When she plays up the dumb girl act while she's got Dark Hoshigan going on it feels like she's weaponizing her own ditz tendencies by playing them up. She's aware of how she's perceived and always has been so she'll sometimes exaggerate herself

Her feelings about lies are also extremely interesting because she takes being lied to extremely personally and wants to live honestly but also admits that she's been acting her entire life. There's a grain of truth in every performance though, isn't there?

Also I've been reading the official yenpress translation of ONK to get a better sense of Ruby's speech patterns and Claire's right, she's a goober. I love her

ruby hoshino, precious goober...