Picture Survey

Thinking about doing a survey. Here is how it would go. The first few questions would be based on franchises and fandoms. E.g. First question would be:

Out of these characters from the television series Gossip Girl, who would you choose and why?
a) Dan Humphries, (Penn Badgely)
Why_________________________
*insert image of the character*

b) Nate Archibald, (Chace Crawford)
Why_________________________
*insert image of the character*

c) Chuck Bass, (Ed Westwick)
Why_________________________
*insert image of the character*

Then later on the questions would go, "Which image do you like better and why?" Following would be images of a random male model but each image his face is displaying different emotions: Happy/cheerful, angry/brooding/sad/pensive, cocky/confident/relaxed.

e.g (post below)

The Men of Brooding

The Men on Brooding
Tumblr

A whole tumblr devoted to images and videos of brooding men, including a picture of Robert Pattinson (plays Edward Cullen), multiple images of Austen men and a Raining men montage. Along with pictures of  good looking actors who, no matter how happy their persona are, are staring deeply and troubledly into the camera.

Love ittt.

What Makes Damaged Heroes Hot?

Love Romance Passion

What Makes Damaged Heroes Hot?

by Keira

On the outside a damaged hero is a tough-as-nails-and-probably-eats-them-too masculine figure. Inside though is a whole different story. I think that’s one of the biggest reasons why damaged heroes appeal to female readers. We want to care for, nurture, and heal him. It makes the heroine (and through her us) feel needed. A damaged hero’s heroine is crucial to his fundamental wellbeing.

There are many types of damaged heroes. He usually gets classified as one of them when readers and reviewers talk about him. These classifications are:

• Scarred
• Wounded
• Tragic
• Tortured
• Burdened

Scarred –

A scarred hero is an exteriorly damaged hero. His body has suffered a lot and is usually covered in scars. Most authors either scar his body or his face, rarely both at the same time. The lost of his looks is a real blow for this type of hero.

Wounded –

A wounded hero can also have scars, but he also is facing physical damage. He has disabling headaches or limited mobility and even potential loss of limbs. He could also have lost one or more of his senses.

Tragic –

A tragic hero in romance is an emotionally damaged hero. He’s lost family, friends, careers, purpose, and drive. He is almost always a recluse and a shut-in. He doesn’t want to love again. Getting hurt again just might kill him.

Tortured –

A tortured hero is a damaged hero at the end of his rope. He is already at his lowest point and feels like he can’t get any lower. He may have been emotionally or mentally abused. He could have been neglected or badly treated by someone in his past resulting in wild crazy theories on how worthless he is.

Burdened –

A burdened hero is a damaged hero who acts alone. Over the years he’s learned to rely on himself and not to trust others. This means he doesn’t connect very well to the heroine at first because he’s so set in his thinking. A burdened hero may have been living with a dark secret for a long time. He could be seeking vengeance, revenge, or absolution.

What type of damaged hero is your favourite and why?

This was exactly what I was thinking of and as I asked my friends to list their favourite Tall, Dark, Handsome and Brooding (TDHB?) characters, I was forced to explain the type of character I was looking for. I mentioned tortured sensitive souls, heavy burdens, guilty pasts and general whining. Judging by descriptions, to my mind, the Tortured and Burdened man is the most attractive and is what we see most of in pop culture today. Take the poll on the site!


Amazingly though, as I voted for burdened, the poll results from 111 votes gave me this:

Burdened was right at the bottom. People prefer the pitiful, sensitive tortured soul and the physical scarred heroes over the burdened one. Interesting. 

Is Edward Cullen the new Mr. Darcy?

Courtesy of SAC Teacher
Love Romance Passion

Is Edward Cullen the new Mr. Darcy?

by Keira 

In the fashion that orange is the new pink, is Edward Cullen to be touted as the ideal man for future generations in the same manner Mr. Darcy has been glorified? I’m not saying that Edward Cullen is a Darcy Double or Darcy Reincarnated or even a Darcy Sequel. Edward Cullen is as far from Darcy as a literary romantic hero can be – he’s the undead after all.

Women of all ages and ethnicities have fallen at the feet of the passionate and feral Edward Cullen. He is as impossible a character as Mr. Darcy with his moodiness, aloofness, and let’s face it overbearing behavior. Elizabeth Bennet would not have stood for it, but Bella is enchanted by it. What Edward Cullen can get away with on paper no man in his right mind would try in real life. It is one thing to love Edward’s protective stalker tendencies and quite another to experience it first hand. I’ll be the first to admit I love every aspect of Edward Cullen’s character, so by pointing out the obvious I’m not dismissing his infinite appeal.

Edward Cullen watches over Bella Swan in a similar manner that Angel watched over Buffy in season one. Of course when Angel loses his soul in season two and hovers over Buffy while she sleeps it’s seen as creepy and more than slightly unnerving. Naturally, there is a dramatic difference between being watched over by a protective presence than a sinister one. I’m quite sure Buffy would not have minded Angel watching her; it was Angelus that was the demonic and unwanted presence. Edward does not behave like Angelus and of course Bella wants him around. She thrives off his very presence and noticeably misses his absence awake or asleep. It also helps that as the reader we are enlightened to Edward’s true motivations and can be sure of him. Edward is seen as a guardian angel… and who would tell a guardian angel to go away? That would indeed be madness.

Speaking of madness, this brings me to the next point; to be desired as Bella or Elizabeth is every woman’s secret fantasy. Darcy loved Elizabeth ardently; Edward loved Bella fiercely. It is a heady thing to be wanted so much that to be parted from you is sheer agony of spirit and body. Darcy would do anything for Elizabeth, including reunite her sister with the man she loved or patch up one seriously incriminating scandal; Edward would kill for Bella… he would even leave her if he thought it best… and he did. Both. Edward even tolerated the presence of his competition, Jacob, because to do otherwise caused Bella great distress.

Darcy and Edward share many characteristics, being men born to a similar time. They are strong-willed, powerful, imposing and dependable. Despite their good qualities, both literary heroes exhibit some very negative qualities that at the whim of one stroke of a pen or tap of the keyboard could easily have alienated them permanently from their loves. Including a severe lack of the society grace for small talking, Darcy showed the character flaws of pride and prejudice. Also suffering under a lack of social graces, Edward’s more serious flaws are arrogance and a stubborn certainty that he is always right. He is so determined to protect Bella from himself he fails to admit her feelings or opinions have merit. This grossly unacceptable behavior throws the star-crossed lovers into intensely charged conversations and months of grief stricken paralysis, where both are unable to function because of their emotional wounds.

Luckily for both men they get out of their own way and win against all odds love, happiness, and peace. Nothing could be sweeter to readers or more potent. As I’ve demonstrated, Edward while similar to Darcy is distinctly set apart and it’s not just because he’s immortal. His very presence has rocked the foundations of the great romantic literary heroes and they have shifted aside to give him space. It’s yet to be seen if Edward will match Darcy’s fame in the generations to come or perhaps to even eclipse the brooding figure all together.

For those who have read both love stories what are your thoughts on the subject? If you haven't you need to read them right away!

So I was absolutely delighted when I received this in an email from my teacher. It was exactly what I needed to get started and I love the fact that it refers to the three male characters I was thinking about. It points out the aspects of each character (both similar and different) that are positive and appeal to the female audience: the fierce love, devotion, tolerance, protectiveness, powerful. And also the flaws of the characters: danger, arrogance, pride, prejudice (hah), overbearing. I also tried to find out more about the author of this article to check reliability, her other works and such. Here's what I found:

And on the very very top of her list of Turn Ons is:

"Blind, wounded, emotionally embittered, scarred and damaged heroes. Need I go on?"

If you click on that link, it'll lead me to my next post

People's Choice

Asking my Society and Culture Class and group of friends who their favourite brooder was:

McDreamy (Greys Anatomy)
Stefan and Damon Salvator (The Vampire Diaries)
Bill Compton and Eric Northman (True Blood)
Ned Stark (Game of Thrones)
Leonardo DiCaprio characters
Kevin Costner (Bodyguard)
Edward Cullen and Jacob Black (Twilight)
Peeta (Hunger Games)
Caleb (Pretty Little Liars)
Donnie (Donnie Darko)
Batman movies
Ryan Gosling characters
John Green
Every Nicholas Sparks Novel
Ryan Atwood (The OC)
Robert Downey Junior characters
Dean and Sam Wincester (Supernatural)
Fallen series
Mr Darcy (Pride&Prejudice)
Angel (Buffy)

Vampires in general are very broody. I'm guessing immortality makes people mull over their good looks and appetite being the demise of an innocent or something. Or maybe they just have to live with the regrets of something that happened in their human life. Or they might just hate their very own existence as a vampire. This is what I've gathered from all the vampire shows I've been watching (Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer)