profbutters | Weivtansaelp meta

This is VERY spoilery for 17.2. You don't want to look at this before you read the new update. I'll be posting some regular outtakes as well.

Let's start with some Weivtnasealp meta, shall we?

Angus: I'm not a rat. I'm just written that way!

I felt just a tiny bit bad about what I had to do to Angus. In game, he's an unbelievably passive Sim. He's usually playing SSX3 or Catch when he isn't stalking Lionel to beat him up or vice versa. He had to be pushed into having a relationship with Elaine, and he had to be pushed into cheating on her, too. They were Best Friends, for crying out loud, and they'd dated as teenagers, and even with that AND Elaine being a Romance Sim, he still couldn't get action if it was handed to him on a plate.

He really shouldn't even have been a date drop for Elaine, but when I wiped some corrupt memories, it did something to his relationship with Dusty. They ought to have been going steady, but they weren't. He had no memories of dating her. So Elaine got him as a first date and the stage was set.

Elaine was always going to get her soft little heart stomped on, but I wasn't sure who would do the stomping. I considered Worthing, because Angus seemed too "nice." Then I remembered one of my personal mottos: doormats bite to the bone. If you want some serious trouble, get involved with a "nice" passive-aggressive guy. Plus, I thought it was interesting that he wasn't Romance or a classic skank.

Elaine: Step on the GAS, Angus. For heaven's sake.

I didn't even realize what Angus's deal was until I was writing up one of the many, many exchanges in which he and Lionel were fighting. I have the dustcloud pictures to prove it. And suddenly something went *click.* You can't read or write Pleasantview very long without realizing what a mess most of the characters are, and the Pleasants are probably the worst. ( I think it's kind of funny that both boys rolled the want to major in Drama. I let them.) And somehow, a lot of things change when you switch the genders.

The way I figure it, Marty-Stu and Danielle probably had a happy marriage at first. Maybe she cheated on him before they were married, and they got married anyway, and a silent deal was struck: we never talk about this, it didn't happen, nothing is wrong at all. The more she cheats, the more he withdraws and flings himself into his work. The more he withdraws into work, the more desperate she is for love and attention and the more she goes looking for it anywhere she can find it. If a guy is in bed with her, he's probably paying attention to her at the time, she thinks, only it doesn't really make her feel better afterwards. It makes her feel worse, and maybe she develops a "juice" problem. She lies to herself. She doesn't cheat at all. In the middle of all this Marty-Stu and Danielle have twins. Those poor kids.

Nothing is ever right, and everyone pretends really hard to be happy. There are the family Christmas cards, the whole bit. And then one afternoon when the twins are in first grade, Danielle's timing is off. Perhaps she hit the juice too hard this time, and when the twins come home from school, something very weird is going on. Mommy's in her undies and she looks sleepy, and Mommy's "friend" puts on his pants and mutters something and goes home.

The twins are shocked and freaked out. They're only seven and they don't understand what just happened, but it seems all wrong. Lionel goes to his room and has a tantrum and tears their room apart. Angus, who is the quieter one, is still frozen. And Mommy starts to explain to him that everything is all right and Mommy just had a bad headache and not to mention anything to Daddy, and this will be their secret and he's Mommy's good little boy. This happens over and over again. Lionel never forgets when Mom cheats. He can smell foreign aftershave from a block away. Angus never remembers. By the time they're in high school, Lionel is violently angry and alienated. There's nothing in it for him to pretend that everything is ok. Since the family is heavily invested in nothing being wrong, he is the bad boy. Angus is his parents' favorite, especially Mom's. He gets As in school and he probably does go out for track. He is the good boy. He is the nice one. EVERYBODY knows this.

When all the teens go to college, practically everybody wants to put high school and home behind them, except for Angus. High school was going WELL for him. He's not special anymore. Lionel is relieved to be out of there. He was lucky to get into college in the first place, and Dionne keeps encouraging him that he's actually smart, he can do this. Angus, by now, is badly messed up. He's got a head full of Mommy's excuses: but it wasn't my fault, but someone pushed me into it, but I didn't mean it, but it doesn't count. He's also got Daddy's Golden Rule: That Never Happened.

He's an accident waiting to happen to somebody, and somebody happens to be Elaine. It's too bad. If you notice their dialogue, Angus tells Elaine exactly what she wanted to hear, EXCEPT that he keeps using the word "swell." That's a tiny throw-in to Randolph Scott's characters in Fred and Ginger's *Follow the Fleet* and *Roberta.* He plays the secondary romantic lead, and he says "gee, you're swell" about ninety million times. And he acts like a total toad. The fact that he gets the girl is a huge disappointment to me every time.

Also note:

Scribal Goddess on Boolprop asked me if I did something to Angus or if he and Elaine weren't really engaged. They were and I didn't do anything. It was a glitch. A very telling glitch. Angus, like his Mom, compartmentalizes like whoa. Admittedly, on the date scene, he did have his ring on and I shot around it.

All of Elaine and Angus's dates were shot on the Sim State campus: the Campus Lounge, the Student Union, Chestnut Park. There was a very good reason for this. I didn't want to have Ian strolling in. It's bad enough that he has Nine Outgoing points and he breezes into people's homes as though he owned them (his uncle Brody does the same thing and now that he's a werewolf, it's even worse.) Regular Sims don't seem to show up on the University community lots, though, so if I always sent them to campus sites, I knew it would be fine.

This was right after Elaine caught Angus cheating.

And so was this.

AND this. My gosh, if I hadn't got the Gospel According to Jenn (

ndainye ), I would be so freaking mad. For one thing, there is the coding for smootchy-poo between Sims with a Romantic interest and high enough chemistry. I used to have the Squinge hack Less Romantic Greet and Goodbye in just to deal with this. (It also bothers me that the Sim does not register this as a kiss. It's strange.) For another, Sims want to be at 100/100 with everyone they know (according to Jenn.) So Angus, as a Sim, was deeply uncomfortable that Elaine's relationship with him was so low and was going to do everything he could to raise it back up again.

The fact that this made him look even worse was a bonus.

Elaine blames Dusty. I don't. I hope I made it clear in the story that Dusty had no idea that Angus was seeing anyone else, let alone engaged. As far as she knew, it was just her old high school boyfriend inviting her to dinner, and she wouldn't be the first girl to get a bit sentimental about that. I think she would have regretted it the next day even if Elaine *hadn't* walked in on them.

Angus, meanwhile, is cheesed off that Lenore threw a drink at him. She didn't know him and she's not closely related enough for her to register that someone is cheating on her relative. She's just a meanie and the option was in her pie menu. Could you have resisted? I couldn't. Meanwhile, I tried to stage an Argue with her and Zane and she couldn't. Nowhere was that an option. Oh, Lenore.

Oh, cry MOAR, Angus. I'm sorry for you, but I'm not THAT sorry for you. You'll notice that he took a mammoth Aspiration loss, too. Last time I looked at his Want Panel, it included Apologize to Elaine and Buy Love Potion. Sorry, ain't gonna happen.

Alexandra Goth is another Sim who would prefer not to make the mistakes her father and brother did. She fell in love with her best friend, a fairly functional guy (is that strange in a Roman?) but even if she hadn't, she would know the value of Not Kidding Yourself.

Then there is this guy.

Linus Burb is the most closeted gay character I've ever written. Marcus had no problems with it (and neither did his parents, ahem); DG never hid his sexuality exactly, but he didn't want his best friend to freak out, especially since he was afraid his best friend would leap to the dumb assumption that he was in love with him, especially since he WAS. He just never said anything about it. But Linus is lying to himself because that's what people in Pleasantview do. He is Not Gay. If Linus were a real person, one blunt conversation with a friend would not do it, and in fact it would probably have been kinder for Alex to keep letting him know that she was his friend no matter what, and that he was ok, and let HIM do the talking. You encourage a friend to open the closet door. You do not rip it down. But I didn't have the time for that, alas.

I left the slow dance scene out because I didn't want to feed into Hurtful Stereotypes.

Linus and Ethan: But we're enjoying them!

I couldn't even bring myself to take a full-body shot here. I'm not squeamish. I was just having a split personality moment:

Good Prof: That is a hurtful stereotype. We do not make jokes about gay guys and gyms.

Bad Prof: But it's so funny.

Good Prof: No, we will not, even if they are AT the gym doing Lower Hands with every indication of enjoyment; it is a Hurtful Stereotype.

Bad Prof: But it's sooo funnny.

In the end, I tried to be very careful about the way I wrote that. I tried really hard to indicate that Linus and Ethan were more about Linus liking Ethan's geeky preppish charm (and Ethan is very sweet in game) and Ethan admiring Linus's athletic energy, but let us be realistic. Ethan was totally checking Linus out. Linus has a lot worth looking at. (I also did not show Linus in his shirtless PJs.)

What was REALLY in my head was this scene from *Gentlemen Prefer Blondes*. I saw it in a documentary called *The Celluloid Closet,* which is a fantastic film. During most of Hollywood's history, you could not show any gay anything whatever. Poor Ramon Novarro, one of my favorite silent film actors, went practically nuts mostly because he had to pretend he was straight. The Hayes Code wouldn't even let you show a straight couple having a long kiss, for heaven's sake, which is why Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant have a zillion *short* kisses as he helps her down the stairs in *Notorious* while she keeps saying his name: "Dev, Dev, Dev." (Hitchcock was a freaking genius. It's much sexier that way. in your eye, Hayes Code!)

Despite this, there were lots of "coded" scenes that indicate gay and lesbian sexuality and culture of the time. It's supposed to go right over the heads of anyone who would be bugged by it, but it's there anyway. This went over MY head the first time I saw it, and when I saw it again in the Celluloid Closet, I said to myself, "Oh, DUH." Warning: what is seen cannot be unseen!

Sorry, Zane! We NEED the Batbox and all those posing hacks! Aren't you glad I fixed your face?

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the meta! Plain old picspam later. I should get back to commenting on portfolios. I am WAY behind, plus I owe a nice comment on the BRRL. Jamie's new episode is great.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This was awesome! I loved your rationale on using Angus. Flipping the genders does really seem to make a difference in how that household works, and I feel bad for both him and Lionel (though not bad enough that I'm not SINCERELY ANNOYED at what he did to poor Elaine).

The coding stuff IS annoying, but at least it gave you some good shots to work with for the update, right? I thought you used them very effectively.

Loved the debate between Good Prof and Bad Prof, hahahaha. Linus is such a sweetie.

IAN TIME NAO PLZ.

It really does make a difference, somehow. I feel bad for the kids, too, but as the saying goes, that's an explanation, not an excuse. Angus may be messed up, but he shouldn't be forgiven for the stuff he did and said to Elaine, some of which was TRULY unforgivable. (To me the worst is saying "it wasn't my idea to get engaged in the first place." DIE.)

I like Linus.

We will take your suggestion under advisement. :)

I really liked your take on Weivtnasaelp and it seems so...realistic in a way. How sexist are we that Danielle is portrayed as a bad mother, but her male counter-part is only a cad; a scamp that you tousle his hair and tell him to go play? At least, that's how I always viewed it.

It's strange that Elaine was mad at Dusty and was throwing flaming thought bubble about her instead of Angus. Come to think of it though, the girls of Zane's BC were pissed at Zane, but all hate thoughts were about Tina. *shrug* Weird EA Coding is weird.

I totally understand your Good Prof/Bad Prof conversation; I'm having the same dilemma myself with Malcolm and Frances. Malcolm is far more comfortable with his sexuality than Frances is, and Malcolm like to tease Frances a little bit. I only say this as a warning now so I don't get bombarded with rotten tomatoes when I finish the next chapter.

And, LOL, at Lenore. She is quite awesome. Though it's strange that you couldn't get her to argue with Zane. In Real!Pleasantview, she'll autonomously seek him out to argue...then they end up making out. And yes, Zane is quite thrilled to have his face back. Thank you :)

It's funny, but when I reversed the genders, I moved from "oh, poor Mary Sue, she has a cheating husband," to "I bet it was something he DID."

The really strange thing is that Elaine never slapped Angus. She threw a lot more AngryFace than I showed, but she never slapped him, and she had plenty of opportunities.

You could always run some of that by somebody, but probably it will be fine. Your Frances has been through hell and back. I don't see what's wrong with mentioning it. Back when Toast was writing, she didn't have any hesitation about writing Hurtful Stereotypes. She actually called them that and she explicitly kidded around about it, and it never offended me, anyway. And good gosh, what she did with Mr. Big. I self-edit a lot probably because I am a professor and I have to be careful about what I say.

I don't know what happened with Lenore: Cassius does the same thing. The only thing I can think of is that I summoned them both to a community lot and made them selectable for that scene, so maybe some options weren't available.

Yeah, luckily for Marcus he has basically the most open-minded parents on the planet, not to mention ones that really want him to be happy. I've never really thought of making sexual orientation an issue at all in my legacy just because it's nice to write a reality where people can just love who they love, and gender doesn't matter and never has. But with some Weivtansaelp characters you really can't do it that way. I'm glad Linus is letting himself be happy with Ethan though. <3

The Angus and Elaine storyline was really well done, too. I admit I did feel bad for Angus but that's because, Pleasantview fangirl that I am, it's more on Angela's behalf than Angus's. She and Dustin are one of my Pleasantview OTPs and all, and while I don't think she's precisely the nicest character around (I remember she'd always be more likely to autonomously start shit with Lilith than vice versa) she's just not that bad to me. Then again, I like pretty much all of the Pleasantview residents so I am probably the wrong person to ask. :P I do like how you wrote Angus though, and reading your thoughts about the matter, too.

His grandparents are no slouches, either. Flavius is clueless--he wondered why a girl would have a name like Greg--but his immediate reaction was "will you invite me to your parties?--well, ok then," and he was responsible for the court ruling that made it possible for Brutus and DG to get married. I know what you mean about gender orientation equality. I don't like writing most unhappiness myself. I figure there is plenty of it in the real world, which is why when some people on MATY say things like "I want my Sims to get hideous diseases and die; it's more realistic," I think, "are you out of your mind?"

What bugs me about Pleasantview is that it is a zero-sum game. If some Sims are happy, other Sims WILL be unhappy, that is all there is to it. Your preferences for Nina and Brandi actually influenced where the story went, in fact. Dustin and Angela have a half-decent shot at being happy. Angus is actually friends with Belle because Dusty brought him home and he played with her. I'm sure I was supposed to do something with them at that point, and I was considering letting them get together, and changed my mind.

Augh, I feel guilty again now. Oh, well, Belle is majoring in Psych. Maybe he can be one of her patients and log about 30,000 hours of couch time and work his problems out before he's actually middle-aged.

Neat meta. It's interesting how swapping genders changed the dynamics between the characters. And it's cool how you tied that into what you were doing with Elaine.

The bit with Linus was cute too. He and Ethan are so sweet together.

I was lucky that it worked out so well.

Linus is beyond cute. Also, he really needed a boyfriend. Hopefully this will make up for not giving him Five Top Businesses.

Hi there. I don't really comment much, but I just had to say that this was one of my favorite chapters by far. The whole situation with Angus was very, very real. Everything just fit together well. :)

And it's very interesting to see what you have to say about the gender reversing. Funny how we judge a situation completely different when it's the wife cheating then when it's the husband is cheating.

Also, I'm proud of Good Prof. for winning that argument, haha. I think anyone who wanted to see the irony found it, but it could be easily ignored if the person so desired.

Thank you very much! I appreciate the comment. Yes, what happens when the genders are reversed really made me think.

I did decide to steer away from Hurtful Stereotypes because they're Hurtful. It's probably enough to know that Linus is very happy with Ethan and is yet another second generation Pleasantviewer who is avoiding the drama and misery.

This was really interesting to read, and I especially liked your thoughts on the Pleasants. You're right, change the genders of those involved, and the story changes a lot.

I really did like how you wrote the whole Elaine/Angus storyline. I had a feeling that there would be heartache somewhere along the line for Elaine, and thought the whole thing was very well done.

I'm glad that Linus is getting to be happy too.

Also, Lenore is just awesome. :)

Edited 2010-02-02 19:05 (UTC)

Thank you! I read your comment to Ang in your thread (liked the latest chapter and owe you a comment) that if Lenore gets with Zane in SC he'll already have a father-in-law in the neighborhood. The brain explodes, doesn't it? I think Lenore has inherited her stroppiness from both parents :)

I also thought it would be fun to write a cad who wasn't a classic cad, or even a Romance Sim. All I can say is that Angus is lucky he didn't pull something like that on Lenore. Stanley would have plastered him all over the walls.

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